You've probably recieved numerous negative confessions about the Party Crashers as of late, so don't pay this any mind if you don't want to. I am mainly rambling here. So before I do that, I wish to thank you (this account) for giving the fandom a space to get things off of their chest. I hope you are doing well today.
That aside, I don't know how to feel about them anymore. I haven't for the longest time now. I've never been big on Youtubers in the sense of catching up with every video they post or being there for livestreams and whatnot. Yet I did with them, and I found it quite fun. There was just something particularly genuine about 4 dudes trying their damndest to make a mediocre Mario Party game fun. I found myself insanely invested, and I suppose the core of it was that the group was fun even when the game wasn't.
This thought is technically parasocial if you want to get nittygritty with the definitions? But they gave off a "these people look fun to hang out with," vibe. They are the "friendslop," for ease of understanding. This isn't an uncommon feeling, there's a reason people (mainly on the younger side) go into their Q&A channels in the Discords and ask to play games with them. Other than the novelty of being in a video, the Crashers are FUN; They make people laugh, hence the feeling of wanting to be there personally. Not that I'm saying these thoughts should be indulged, obviously not, just that there's a reason why the Party Crasher fandom compared to each Crasher's individual fandom is so wide-spread and different. Keep all this in mind for what I'm about to say.
I don't know how else to say this, but I just don't think the Crashers like the fandom. More specifically, they hadn't for a while now and it feels like it's getting worse. There were the people in the fandom who took the games way too seriously, which feels like strike one, then the RPF incident (if you know you know, I'm not interested in going into the details here), strike two, Sophist not understanding that pushing a harmful agenda isn't just "having an opinion" (Charlie Kirk situation), strike three- and so on.
Mind you, this is coming from someone who barely engages with the fandom at all. If even I can feel the animosity... no wonder their views haven't been so great lately. Do you remember when they had whole videos about fan-created content? Just reacting to the songs fans had made? Or the FNF mods? Those were so nice. Half of the enjoyment was seeing the talent on display of course, but the other half was just witnessing the Crashers' genuine joy. It feels like you wouldn't see much of that nowadays. I suppose other than the "Fan-art Fridays" thing they've got going on.
It feels like the fandom is viewed as an amalgamation of everything "it" has done wrong. Or at least what the Crashers view as wrong. Honestly, this can already be confirmed with Brent and the way he behaves in that regard. I can't really think of another way to phrase this, but this shatters the idea of them being fun. It's hard to be invested in them and their content when you can tell they have 50 million complaints about the people they're trying to entertain.
To be clear, this is not me complaining about boundaries. Any content creator is allowed to enforce boundaries. To be frank, I don't fully (key word here) blame them if I happen to be right and they do dislike the fandom. If you are creepy, people are going to treat you how they would treat creeps. Full stop, no way around that one. It just gets to a point, though. How can I enjoy watching something when I can tell that "I'm" (in the Youtube viewer sense) a problem to them somehow?
This is more specific to me, but they're also difficult to watch when you've been disrespected by two of them. To put it simply, I've (civilly) criticised three Crashers actions directly in the past, and only one of them has treated me with kindness and understanding. I can't stress enough that obviously none of them owe me anything beyond the simple loop of them releasing videos and me being entertained by them, anything else is a pleasantry, but it really does impact their "fun" image for me. If nothing else, I felt a little embarassed that I even expected to be listened to. After all, I don't know them. Why did I expect any different? Then I realised I was simply expecting respect. Was that so wrong of me?
Something about their dynamic is unwatchable to me. Nowadays, their videos feel like I'm just snooping in someone's voice chat uninvited. Being a fan here isn't something they're grateful for anymore.
I'm definitely making this sound more extreme than it has any right to be. At the end of the day there are more Youtubers out there, they're just four guys playing video games for the shits and giggles. They're probably still enjoyable to numerous people. Still, I would be lying if I said they weren't a part of my life for the past two years, and it's been disappointing to see stuff unfold like this overtime. A (viewer-based) connection I used to have, that would make me excited when a new video drops, has been severed. Part of me kind of wants it back, but something about it simply isn't fun anymore.
I mainly just watch Vernias's videos now.
Sorry for the wall of text, lol.
I actually agree with alot said here
