As much as I appreciate EvanMCGaming for all the content he’s made and the contributions he’s made to the community, I really grate against how he approaches telling stories, particularly his recaps and histories.
One of the first things you’re taught in literary and media analysis is that you cannot assume what a creator intended or thought as truth. Yes, even when it seems painfully obvious. You can, of course, make your own conclusions based upon various evidence, context, and experience, but that will only ever be your interpretation of someone else’s creation. You are you. You are not the creator.
EvanMCGaming assumes a lot as truth, and he takes it a step further by relying heavily on recreating scenes and overlaying it with his own commentary, rather than using clips or other primary sources, and letting them speak for themselves.
This is particularly obvious to me in his latest video about Wilbur, which included a lot of fabricated behind-the-scenes personal moments or thoughts that have no actual basis in fact.
I’m not saying this to put down or discredit him. This is a technique that people have been using for years, and it clearly works. He’s an incredibly popular and trusted source of information. However I think it is very important to keep in mind that he is a secondary rather than a primary source.
EvanMCGaming is an incredibly biased and unreliable narrator (literally, he literally relays and narrates stories for other people to consume which are biased and unreliable. This is not me fictionalising a real life creator) and it is important to keep that in mind when consuming any of his content.
For anyone who is confused by what I mean, examples for when he does this include saying things like “but this time he knew things would be different,” “it was clear that Wilbur wanted to go out with a bang,” “he decided to ride this wave,” “[Wilbur asked to join SMPLive] mainly because Schlatt was on the server, and he saw it as a great chance for content on his still new YouTube channel,” “Wilbur didn’t really look forward to streaming,” “he put his worries aside and started creating content on Twitch,” “it didn’t take long for him to decide he wanted to do pranks,” “right after the video was released, Wilbur could tell it was different” “Wilbur knew that this was the start of something big, but even he had no idea just how big” “following the two fairly average performances [in Minecraft Monday] Wilbur decided to take a few weeks away from the event. Two weeks later he decided he would give it another go.” “Wilbur took one last look at [the SMPEarth server] before it would open” “at heart, Wilbur was a YouTuber, and he knew if he really wanted to make it big as a content creator, he had to think big, make videos that were different, make videos that reflected him, and make videos that would go viral” “Wilbur knew as well as anyone that one viral hit wasn’t enough,” “Wilbur knew it would be a hit,” and “scenes began to dance their way through Wilbur’s head.”
These examples range from fairly safe assumptions to what could only be described as speculations and hypotheticals at best.
He has no way to confirm Wilbur’s thought processes or what he was thinking at the time (outside of anecdotal stories or interviews - and to my knowledge, none of the above examples have?) He is not Wilbur. He is EvanMCGaming. Only Wilbur would be able to confirm his own motivations and thought processes.
EvanMCGaming’s use of this technique is rampant throughout all his content, and particularly his DSMP recaps, which are, in my opinion, incredibly biased and one-sided.
Obviously this is incredibly low stakes. It’s a guy recapping Minecraft content. In the grand scheme of things, this matters very little. I just think it’s a good example to use and point out in a low stakes environment, for how we consume stories - and particularly news media - in the real world. This is an incredibly common and pervasive technique that is designed to make you connect with the story on a personal level and to trust the person telling it to you.
The world is complicated and messy and the vast majority of resources you will have access to in order to understand it will be secondary rather than primary. You are consuming someone else’s interpretation of someone else’s experience, not an objective truth. Even when you read primary sources, you will be interpreting someone else’s own highly personal and subjective experience. There is, really, no such thing as objective truth. We can only do our best to try and be as unbiased and informed as possible.
Please consider and be critical of your sources.
In a way, it’s fitting that the video is titled, “The Legend of Wilbur Soot”. It is a legend. A story where narrative and audience engagement is prioritised over strict truth.
If you are looking for a recapper who I think does deserve a lot more attention and praise than they are currently getting, I highly recommend BlueberryTV. Blueberry is doing a stunning job editing together both Dream SMP and Origin SMP streams in narratively cohesive episodes for easy access and consumption.
These episodes contain no commentary (except to occasionally and briefly summarise events that happen off stream). They range in length, from twenty minutes to as long as an hour and a half for bigger events like the initial L’Manberg war, and are an excellent entry point for new fans, as well as being fun to watch for folks who have been here a little longer.
She has also included a playlist of all the original streams she uses, so that you can watch them completely uncut or edited and curate your own experience.
BlueberryTV goes out of her way to include as many perspectives as possible and her channel is an absolute goldmine of a resource, much more akin to a textbook of curated primary sources with an extensive bibliography and Further Reading section, as apposed to EvanMcGaming’s narrative histories, emphasis on narrative.
If you’re looking to get a comprehensive overview of everything that’s happened on the Dream SMP, I highly recommend starting there.
Happy Travels and Glowing Regards,
Your local media analyst
