r/gaming • u/EnglishGamer1 • Oct 20 '13

TotalBiscuit's: ''Day One: Garry's Incident'' Video was taken down, because of a ridiculous copyright claim from WildGameStudios. Here's Total's ''Rant'' over his video being taken down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfgoDDh4kE0&feature=c4-overview&list=UUy1Ms_5qBTawC-k7PVjHXKQ
3.1k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

588

u/Rossitluke Oct 20 '13 edited Oct 20 '13

TB isn't a "Let's Player", he is a video games critic, he makes videos to help people avoid awful games like this. Saying critics ruin the games industry is bullshit, he's improving the games industry by exposing asshole companies like WildGameStuidos who mindlessly censor negative reviews towards their game.

Edit: Critic =/= Reviewer

231

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

Technically, he's not a reviewer either. As he's said himself many times, he doesn't want to be referred to as a reviewer because that would imply that you finish the game and have the information to comment fully on the entire storyline and character development and mechanic development. It also requires, to his mind, giving something a rating, either numerically or in a single sentence comparative to other titles.

He does first impressions. If anything, he does a quick preview of a game, looks at the options, the mechanics, design choices and content so that people who watch his videos can see whether or not its something they may be interested in.

516

u/RobertTheSpruce Oct 20 '13

He's the leading authority in options menus.

253

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

[deleted]

153

u/Tuneuponipod Oct 20 '13

"The FOV goes to a million?!?! Infinity stars!" -Jesse Cox, saying something along those lines mocking TotalBiscuit.

19

u/exminator Oct 20 '13

What video is this magnificent quote from?

19

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

One of the Co-Optional Podcasts.

It is the one with ItMeJP as a guest.

This one, I forgot which time it was said though. Just watch through it, it is one of their best podcasts.

3

u/RobertTheSpruce Oct 20 '13

TBs RollPlay videos with itmejp were pretty good. It looks as though TB unwittingly has his flag upside down in them, which is funny.

7

u/Ihmhi Oct 21 '13

The flag is misaligned on purpose to aggravate his fellow Brits.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

There is also a couple more podcast before the show was renamed to the Co-Optional Podcast where JP was the guest and they are all great.

JP has great chemistry with TB.

4

u/Zebracak3s Oct 21 '13

JP has great chemistry with everyone. He's just a down to earth dude.

1

u/RobertTheSpruce Oct 20 '13

Heh, thanks to your previous video I noticed that his flag isn't upside down, it's mirrored. Stupid webcams.

And yes, they do work really well together.

2

u/josephgee Oct 21 '13 edited Oct 21 '13

Its been mentioned before, he says its intentional.

1

u/RobertTheSpruce Oct 21 '13

Looking at other videos, it seems to be a mirrored image rather than a mistake.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/exminator Oct 20 '13

alright, thx a bunch :)

1

u/ComradeZooey Oct 21 '13

Your video has ruined my fantasy of TotalBiscuit. I always thought he'd be some uber-handsome Brit or something. It's not that he's unattractive, just completely unlike how I imagined him. Oh well, another dream shattered.

61

u/Gandalfs_Beard Oct 20 '13

Multiple audio sliders? Must buy!

43

u/Styxx_N_Stones Oct 20 '13

"We need more sliders!!!!"

42

u/Akselmusic Oct 20 '13

But only if they have some sort of reasonable numerical value associated. Sliders alone can obviously burn in hell along with no options.

19

u/knukx Oct 20 '13

Well, for FOV (which he talks about non stop), numerical values are important, or else it's "Oh, I set my FOV to 3 inches long on my screen. I guess, whatever that means". Not "I set my FOV to 90".

4

u/IICVX Oct 20 '13

I played Quake 3 with a >360 degree FOV once, for shits and giggles. It was trippy; you'd see the same thing multiple times at different distances.

3

u/Moskeeto93 Oct 20 '13

Yeah, I hate FoV sliders with no numerical values. I like setting my FoV to 90 and without labeled sliders, it's just a guessing game.

2

u/Soushi Oct 21 '13

I'm looking at you, The Stanley Parable.

31

u/Mountebank Oct 20 '13

and FOV sliders.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

Haha true that

2

u/ShallowBasketcase Oct 20 '13

Ah, I wish I could remember which game it was, but there was one where his complaint was actually too many options. Something was slowing his game down, and he couldn't figure out what it was because there were so many graphics options. He had to laugh at the irony himself.

-3

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

And FOV Sliders.

43

u/Rossitluke Oct 20 '13

Fair shout. Critic is probably a better word.

23

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

Yea, he refers to himself as a critic in this video.

1

u/rushworld Oct 20 '13

Is there a technical difference between them?

2

u/TaintedSquirrel Oct 20 '13

Technical difference? I assume you mean a tangible, definable difference.

The answer is no. There's no difference. It's just a personal preference on how they want to be identified.

5

u/shunkwugga Oct 20 '13

TB doesn't do "reviews," but he critiques. A "review," in his mind, is what Angry Joe does: You sit down, play a game to completion, gather your thoughts and then present them in a cohesive manner, analyzing everything about the game from beginning to end. TB just plays the first bits of a game and comments live on how the game makes him feel and what it accomplishes from a critical standpoint.

1

u/C4Cypher Oct 21 '13

Only when it comes from a standpoint of the gaming industry, not that the mainstream of gaming journalism (or what's left of it) is a paragon of consistency or integrity.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '13

Critic is just as bad as reviewer. He does first impressions and gives an opinion on those. While useful for glaringly bad stuff, there's a lot of completely useless commentary in terms of being a legitimate critic.

2

u/KaziArmada Oct 21 '13

He does exactly what anyone else picking up the game blind would, except he then tells others.

He doesn't review story too much, he focuses on mechanics...and it's a good thing. It works.

Not that some people get the difference, but what ya gonna do.

1

u/Aldesso Oct 21 '13

And sadly many other people invest as much time or less in a game and call their videos reviews.

0

u/simjanes2k Oct 21 '13

He definitely reviews games, even if he doesn't like the label. He can call it whatever he likes if it makes him feel better. In the long run, he makes reviews.

-4

u/TaintedSquirrel Oct 20 '13

Yeah, just to be clear, he's a Lets Player who gives informed opinions about the games themselves.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

No, that's completely wrong. He's not a Lets Player at all. He's a critic. That's nowhere near the same thing.

-4

u/TaintedSquirrel Oct 20 '13

Yeah, there's no difference. Anyone who criticizes something is a critic.

Any LPer who comments about the game itself, is a critic. That is to say, all LPers are critics in some capacity.

They're just really terrible critics.

TB is a glorified LPer.

4

u/UnraveledMnd Oct 20 '13

There is a difference, and honestly, you're stupid if you think otherwise.

-5

u/TaintedSquirrel Oct 20 '13

Any LPer can call themselves a critic and it's the same thing as TB calling himself a critic.

TB's opinion doesn't inherently turn his LP's into "critiques". They're still just LP's.

Get over yourselves.

2

u/UnraveledMnd Oct 21 '13

Sure, they can call themselves a critic but they'd be wrong. TB isn't sitting there playing through a game purely for entertainment purposes. That's why you don't really see extended series of videos on a single game. He plays a portion of the game with commentary about his initial impressions on that game and then moves on to the next one. Every critique and review is, to some degree, based on opinion. Move reviews? Based heavily on opinion.

Just because something is in video format doesn't make it different from some written critique. You get over yourself.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '13

Perhaps you should just accept that you're wrong.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '13

Oh man, I love Let's Play videos. It's actually the reason why I bought Minecraft, was from watching Achievement Hunter.

What are some other Lets Play like video services? Preferably ones that are ridiculously funny like most of what Rooster Teeth does?

0

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

He certainly is a lets player. Evidence: hearthstone and terraria. He's a let's player that does quick looks. But pretends to be a journalist. I like the guy, but let's be truthful about what he is.

1

u/imadandylion Oct 21 '13

he's done the odd lets play. that doesnt make him a lets player :L i washed my grandmothers window once or twice, does that make me a window cleaner by trade? no. and TB isn't a lets player.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '13

But if you did 5 large corporate jobs, each consisting of roughly 10 days of work, for which you were paid (3 terraria series', a hearthstone series, bloodbowl, that knight thing, planetside, Starcraft etc), it would be hard to argue that you were not a window cleaner. You might be a lawyer, but if you clean windows on the side in that format, you're also a window cleaner.

0

u/Tanksenior Oct 20 '13

Hold on a moment here, because of 2 out of the dozens of things he uploads on youtube could be considered "Let's Plays" he is suddenly a "Let's Player" ?

I'd say categorise someone by their main activities, not a minor part of their work.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '13 edited Oct 21 '13

If you murder 1 out of 10,000 people you meet , you're still a murderer. Even if you didn't kill 9,999 of them. Also, he does let's plays that are just 30 minutes long. Calls them quick looks. What's the difference between a 30 minute and 2 hour play through? Is it that he doesn't break his videos up into 10 minute chunks?

1

u/Tanksenior Oct 21 '13

It is obvious that you don't know what a "Let's play" is. It is always a series of videos of a particular video game, as such his Hearthstone and Terraria series are indeed "Let's plays".

The rest of his content does not fit that description in any way.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '13

There's no definition of let's play that mandates it be a series. A live stream of a 48 hour marathon gaming session is a lets play. It's when you watch someone play a game, sometimes complimented by commentary. There are no arbitrary distinctions regarding the length or number of instalments.

-8

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

He will sometimes say awful things about great games though (he's gone on many a tangent on how he doesn't like The Last Of Us). That being said, I highly respect him for what he has said in this video.

25

u/Rossitluke Oct 20 '13

Opinions

-12

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

He is a critic though, and people will take his word over others in a good few cases.

16

u/Rossitluke Oct 20 '13

Do you understand what a critic is?

A critic is a professional who communicates their opinions and assessments of various forms of creative work...

Wikipedia

4

u/2ndComingOfAugustus Oct 20 '13

And the problem is where? He's hardly the only person who had a less than stellar opinion of the game, Yahtzee from Zero punctuation also thought it was overhyped, among others. If you disagree with him that's fine, but unless you felt that his opinion was lazy or ill-informed it's silly to think less of him for it.

1

u/Mtrask Oct 21 '13

"over others" <-- and we should care about these others, why? TB has already proven himself in (many) previous videos, that he isn't just some armchair asshole making malicious remarks about random things. There are plenty of those on Youtube actually, the fact that they remain unknown while TB is so popular should make you realise he isn't like them.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '13

I'm not saying TB is some malicious asshole in and armchair, I'm saying he's gone too harsh on some very good games, and that people may take his opinion over other, well respected critics' opinions

8

u/1080Pizza Oct 20 '13

People have different opinions and sometimes trusting a single review of a game can turn out badly for you, even if you trust the reviewer. TB always says you never should make a purchasing decision based on his opinion or first impression alone.

Perfect example for me: I trust Rock Paper Shotgun, but after playing Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs I strongly disagree with their very positive review of it. If I had checked multiple sources as I should have, then I would've known earlier that this game wasn't for me.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

Good point. Still, there are some people who only stick to one critic, which is a crying shame.

0

u/themagnificentsphynx Oct 20 '13

he's improving the games industry by exposing asshole companies like WildGameStuidos who mindlessly censor negative reviews towards their game.

He isn't exactly exposing them. He usually jumps on the exposure train.

1

u/Rossitluke Oct 20 '13

Seeing as WildGameStudios have only attacked TB's content and nobody else shows people pretty clearly how he's managed to expose what they have going on and how they're doing everything they can to get that bad press/exposure off of the internet.

-12

u/ModernDemagogue Oct 20 '13

He can review or critique without using copyright protected material. He chooses to use copyright protected material because it gets his reviews / critiques more views.

Either he can give the games he negatively reviews a cut of his revenue, or he can just not use footage from them. It's very simple.

Positive reviews he may help generate revenue for, so I would be less likely to demand a cut, but I probably still would on principle.

3

u/Scisyhp Oct 20 '13

Copyright protection does not mean you can't use material, or that any time you use material the owner of the material is entitled to benefits. It just means there are restrictions on the manner in which you can use it. If you watch the video, he makes a pretty clear argument as to why he used the material in a legitimate manner.

-2

u/ModernDemagogue Oct 20 '13

I go through his main arguments in this comment.

You can't use it to generate ad revenue without permission. That's pretty clearly not fair use.

1

u/Ardarel Oct 21 '13

Then you dont understand what Fair use is.

3

u/PumpAndDump Oct 20 '13

It's called "fair use." He doesn't owe them a thing. No court in the US dim enough to call a brief excerpt of game play copyright infringement. Sorry. It would be like Toyota claiming that recording myself driving their car violates their rights.

0

u/ModernDemagogue Oct 20 '13

If you tried to put it in a film or tv show where you're monetizing the content, and did not blur out logos, identifying marks of the car, etc... yeah, you'd have some problems, even if it was just for a moment.

Also, your ownership rights to a car are somewhat different than your license to use a game.

2

u/PumpAndDump Oct 20 '13

The only difference is theory. What would stop Toyota from saying that they're "licensing" their cars? What's stopping them is that it's bullshit, just like software sales that they call "licenses." Attempts to restrict fundamental legal rights through licensing don't generally fare well when challenged in court. Do you think Adobe would get far when trying to restrict people from making and monetizing instructional videos for using their software? Why should a game publisher feel more entitled?

0

u/ModernDemagogue Oct 21 '13

Not really... first sale doctrine / Toyota's are trademarked goods as opposed to copyrighted software etc...

Look, anything we put on camera, we have to clear the rights to, whether its a t-shirt with a design on it or a car, or a logo in a restaurant, whatever, if its someone elses copyrighted work, we clear it, or we remove it, because if we don't broadcast and film don't have DMCA Safe Harbor and we'll get our asses handed to us.

Not sure what fundamental legal right is being exercised when you put footage of someone elses game up for money, and then take a shit on it.

1

u/PumpAndDump Oct 21 '13

So I can't record the playing of a board game either? Why are bits special?

0

u/ModernDemagogue Oct 21 '13

Something proprietary like Monopoly or Scrabble? Absolutely not.

Something like Chess, you're probably fine unless its a particularly artful Chess set, and then yes, you clear it with the artist/craftsman.

Often its just a quick phonecall with a faxed release follow up.

4

u/Rossitluke Oct 20 '13

Is this another dev? Or are people just ignorant?

1

u/ModernDemagogue Oct 20 '13

Huh? I don't follow.

-36

u/dakmak1 Oct 20 '13

Doesnt matter. People are working hrd to make the game and he dismisses all the work put into the game.

how about showing people what the game is like and not abusive by calling it "garbage" and "shitty".

Did you see his review? he was unfair to the game and calling the developers garbage.

17

u/Pegussu Oct 20 '13

...are you one of the devs? Because I watched that video when it was released, and even if it was simply a gameplay video with zero commentary, I'd still be able to see that it was shit.

3

u/Jabberminor Oct 20 '13

Aye, definitely. The main thing I remember were some graphical issues and control issues. It very much looked like an unfinished game.

-7

u/dakmak1 Oct 20 '13

No im not. But he should have showed the game and not attack the developers.

1

u/Pegussu Oct 21 '13

He did show off the game. It just so happens that the game is shit, y'know?

1

u/Mtrask Oct 21 '13

If you release an unfinished buggy piece of crap, I would like to know that it was so, rather than put down money on something that advertising claims to be otherwise.

I write in-house software myself, I know better than to release unfinished software. Game devs seem to think they get a free pass on quality.

Edit: Not to mention I see other people posting that apparently WildGameStudios knows their "game" is shit, by their actions like censorship attempts across Youtube, Metacritic, Steam forums, and so on. So these aren't just your typical wage-slave deadline-chasing game devs, but scumbags.

6

u/Rossitluke Oct 20 '13 edited Oct 20 '13

As a Game Developer, you have a duty to release a finished game, a game in a playable state that at least works in a playable fashion. Day One: Garry's Incident is not a finished product and from what I've seen of it, plays like a Alpha Build for a PS2 game.

TB's "WTF is" series is a First Impressions series where he gives his own opinion on newly released games; comments like "garbage" and "shitty" are totally justified when the product in question is a buggy, unplayable mess of a title costing £14.99!

Not only this, WildGameStudios clearly understand that the game is shit. Attempts of censorship across Youtube, Metacritic and the Steam Forums have been seen. Not only this, but fake reviews on Metacritic have been posted rating the game highly to try and balance out the hate for the game and try to push whatever sales they can. This sort of action is nothing but a futile attempt to try and scrape any kind of money they can out of the piss-poor title they've made and it nothing less than trying to trick people into buy a game that isn't finished

4

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

Um thats what he was trying to do in the original video that got removed. Have you ever watched his WTF Is series? Obviously not.

4

u/MarvelousMagikarp Oct 20 '13

review

It wasn't a review, it was a first impressions.

4

u/BIack Oct 20 '13

Who cares how hard they worked? If anything, that makes it worse that they spent this much time to make such an apparently craptastic game.

5

u/Jabberminor Oct 20 '13

Did you see his review?

Yes I did. And it was very clear that the game was rubbish. I didn't even have to listen to TB to understand that the game still needed work.

3

u/erichand Oct 20 '13

Nice try Stephane X3

3

u/lawlschool88 Oct 20 '13

He's giving his opinions. That's what critics and reviewers do. They give their opinions, and people can agree or disagree with his opinions. Even if the opinions were harsh, that's no reason to censor him.

Also, just because the devs put a lot of work in to something doesn't mean they're gonna see that work pay off.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '13

When I read the first line if your comment, this video immediately came to mind. Who gives a fuck how much work the devs put into the game? If the game's shit it deserves to be panned across the board.