You ever heard of Mandaloregaming and Shammy? If not I'd recommend checking them out before answering this.
I think I’ve heard of Mandaloregaming but I’ve never paid him too much attention, and I’ve never heard of Shammy before.
Watching one video of theirs each, they seem fine, I guess. But this highlights a kind of the problem with the “reviewer” sub culture on Youtube, and that’s once you’ve found your 3-4 people, you don’t really need to subscribe to any more beyond that?
I’ve known other people who try to get in to that biz and growth for them is really slow. I know that whenever I do an actual video review these days, it can be hard to build momentum.
And I see these folks, and it’s like, they do good work… but I already subscribe to Easy Allies, and SomeCallMeJohnny, and Accursed Farms. I kind of don’t need more game reviewers in my life. Easy Allies is one of the last to still do the classic “professional video review” format (continuing their legacy from Gametrailers), Johnny drifts around to whatever nears his wheelhouse, and Accursed Farms (Ross’s Game Dungeon) focuses on the weird, obscure games and unique outlooks. I’m set, basically.
I also watched Shammy’s “People you should subscribe to instead of me” video, and I see he mentions he’s friends with Turbobutton, which is… a channel I subscribe to, but somewhat reluctantly. His breakdowns of character action games are pretty good, but every now and then he kind of slips dangerously close to “angry gamer” territory.
What turned me off was his Bayonetta video and his “How cover systems ruined shooters” video. With Bayonetta, it was his frustration that Bayonetta 2 simplified (or “dumbed down” as some would say) the combat system from the original Bayonetta, something I personally had not noticed, and considering I feel like I had more fun playing Bayonetta 2, I think it might have been a change for the better.
It made his complaints come off like “THEY RUINED IT, FOR THE PLEBS!!” instead of investigating why a change like that may have been made. Which was also the problem with his cover system video, because it was, again, him yelling about how shooters were being dumbed down. I think Turbobutton is a pretty smart guy sometimes, and I’m still subscribed to him, but I give his videos the side-eye sometimes. He’s so close to getting it, but sometimes his normally professional, intelligent appearance slips for a crass joke or an angry rant.
Hearing Shammy try to spin that as a good thing, and the “it’s okay, I’m allowed to be rude, I’m friends with people that shield me from criticism” tone his own videos sometimes take, ehhh… it’s fine if you’re in to that, I won’t judge or anything, but I don’t think that’s for me.
After watching Mandalore’s Paratopic review, I guess I’m thinking about maybe subscribing. I dunno.
