Reviewing the Reviewers

This has become something of a bugbear of mine when watching internet reviewers.

Skits or more importantly skits involving plot arcs.

Now the fact that his more skit based stuff is actually given its own completely seperate sections on his website is one of the reasons why I like the Cinema Snob. He will have the occasional comedy skit thrown in but they're usually fairly short and punchy, just like they should be. So 80's Dan, Kung Tai Ted and the like are completely seperate and there if I fancy watching that stuff.

It's my main bugbear with Linkara, I enjoy his work but I don't care about the overarcing plotlines that he's begun to focus on, especially if they interupt the main review. He has become better at this recently, consigning them to short segments either after the credits have rolled or just before.

I honestly got sick of sitting through 5-6 minutes of plot exposition for him then to get to meat of the review proper. I don't really care about your overarching plots, they're not the reason I watch your show. It got the point where I was regularly skipping ahead just to get to the review.

I admit this is a very personal bugbear and many others probably enjoy his plot line stuff but to me, personally, I find it kind of dull.

So peoples, what would your personal bugbear be with internet reviewers?

I tend to agree. I don't mind when the reviewers have regularly recurring guest characters and bits but when they try to create an entire story arc it just doesn't work for me. Nostalgia Chick bored me half to death with her Dark Nella story thingy.

The title of this thread should really be "Seriously, TGWTG reviewers?" as that group are primarily responsible for the whole storyline-crossover stuff. I personally chalk it up to two things: overinflated sense of importance leading to ego-stroking via storyline, and the fact that when you become a TGWTG affiliate, you're required to produce a video at least once every two weeks or risk losing prime affiliate spots (which can lead to fewer views and thus less cash) and possibly even your place as an affiliate.

It's no coincidence that from that group, I've always preferred the reviewers who don't bog down their reviews with all that junk. The Snob, Lordkat (although he left TGWTG), older and more recent Spoony, Phelous (his skits and storylines are all tongue-in-cheek), etc. Even Nostalgia Critic when he doesn't rely on some of his more tired running gags. But then, I'm a no-frills kinda guy myself, so it kinda makes sense. Tell me something interesting and/or take the p*** out of something; I'm easy.

Regarding Linkara: I was a fan at first, but over time he's become so annoying to me that I don't even bother anymore.

Of course, James Rolfe remains a favorite. Then again, he is currently working on an AVGN movie. So he could still fall out of favor.

Yeah I'm not sure about the AVGN movie. His profanity has thankfully matured with him though so perhaps it won't be that bad.

I'd still like to see him make a cameo in one of Freddie's projects though.

moviebob/the game overthinker did one of these digressions. it was painful and wasted everyone's time.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Plot-related skits are what killed MST3K. Course in their case it was something forced on them by the network.

Jus saiyan.

I think it depends on the reviewer.

I've always found Spoony's stories to be fun, but I think that's because he fills them all with all these over the top characters and his general energy seems to bleed through, plus it's all done for laughs.

Linkara just... he seems to be taking his story lines seriously and really that doesn't work in any reviewer's favour as by making themselves the hero it just makes it an exercise in ego boosting.

Reviewers like Phelous, Spoony, AVGN and even the NC do all their skits and stories with the express purpose of being funny. Linkara doesn't.

I've noticed that the reviewers that tend to be big outside of TGWTG, Cinema Snob and Spoony especially, who have people who watch their stuff from their own website (and the TGWTG site is actually a week or so behind their main website updates) tend to be less inclined to do this stuff as do the smaller names on the website (since they know their audience goes there for what they do best, like Nash and MasakoX).

Infact Welshy (the editor of the TGWTG) recently put up his video to part 1 of Scream 3 retrospective, he had a 3 minute intro to it which had some plotline in it. One person (who was admittedly rather rude about it but still) mentioned they found the 3 minute segment at the start really boring.

Welshy responded saying that he agreed, infact that it was originally longer and that he had cut it down as best he could, however since the entire scream series retrospective is best watch in one sitting, it had to stay in there.

I wouldn't be surprised if Welshy wasn't begining to be an influence on other reviewers

See I really like programs like Game Overthinker or Extra Credit but then I also like stuff like Unskippable but as mentioned before, Unskippable is a program that's based purely around the comedy and not a review in anyway.

Spoony, if he has plot related stuff (which actually only really occured thanks to Linkara...huh...pattern sense tingling) or his skits are short, sharp and to the point, rarely lasting more than a couple of minutes at most. Plus the dude is just genuinely funny, go watch his Lets Play of SWAT 4, sure it has its down moments but there are still good funny moments in it.

My next bugbear is something which affects a LOT of more amateur reviewers and one big reviewer. Fake emotion.

The Nerd and the Critic can make you believe they honestly hate something so much thanks to the bile and venom they spew (remember people, seperate the character from the person, for an example of this go watch a Commentary by Doug and Rob on a Nostalgia critic episode), sure it's a bit over the top sometimes but you do get the feeling that there is some genuine hatred in there.

All too many amateur reviewers will try to copy this style and it comes across as 'grr I'm really angry...grrr' all the flailing, none of the emotion. The biggest reviewer to do this, who I'm honestly surprised doesn't get called out on it more, is Film Brain, his anger just seems so...false...

Now I know it's not just the fact he's British, while we Brits tend to do more seething, biting sarcasm than outblown rage, we can do rage, however we're probably bad at doing coherent rage, we're more likely to just go into a massive long list of swear words puncuated by whatever it is that's made us that angry.

In fairness, the over-the-top fake anger is what first got James Rolfe attention as the AVGN, which then kinda launched the initial wave of "internet reviewer characters". So it's the tried-and-true tactic, even though it's pretty much played out these days except in small doses.

When I was writing reviews (this is some years ago now), and I decided that I was going to do something funny with the review, I always tried to come up with an unique take on the review (this was typically done for negative reviews). Most people read a review because it's something they are interested in knowing about, and may not read everything that you write, so why would a reviewer knowingly bog his or her audience down with trying to keep track of running gags or some sort of "plot?" It just doesn't make sense to me.

That, and I feel like a lot of people (not just the reviewers in question) seem to think that cynicism = funny. It doesn't. Done RIGHT being overly cynical can be funny, but when it's done wrong it just makes you sound whiny, pessimistic, and well...boring. It's one of the reasons I stopped watching Yahtzee, it seemed like he started to rely less on jokes and more on lengthy author tracts about how terrible and awful the games industry is.

Now if you want to see an example of a reviewer who can be humorous AND optimistic, check out Vangelus. He's one of the few people out there who reviews toys in a semi-professional fashion, and is really funny about it too.

Check out his youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Vange1us

and he recently joined That Guy With the Glasses!

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/vid...lus/vanreviews

Another example would be the Happy Videogame Nerd. He openly admits to being Inspired by AVGN (so the cries of 'copy cat' are kind of null and void, he admits he's copying but with his own spin on it) and I really enjoy his enthusiasm that comes across in his reviews not to mention they're actually pretty well researched.

Go here to see what you've missed

It's never really bothered me.

I'll admit, I was sorta "meh" on some of Linkara's more serious plotlines since I mainly watch internet review shows for the humor; but it was never more than that.

Maybe I didn't see his stories as "ego-stroking" like others did. It seemed more like an homage to classic comic book storylines; something he often mentions missing in modern comics.

I AM glad he's started confining it to after-credits portions, but it's never turned me off his reviews. He may not be as naturally talented as the Critic or Spoony, but he's still good and I feel has improved as he's gone on. Plus I generally like his stance on comics; it's critical, but without the exaggerated bitterness you often encounter in some comic book fans/former fans.

That's it though, I love his reviews, I'm not even into comic books and I watch them because he's entertaining, it's just his plot arc stuff I don't particularly care for.

Nostaglia Chick actually did completely turn me off her shows with the whole Dark Nella thing, I stopped watching because I found it boring and trite. I noticed that even the Nostalgia critic took a potshot at her because of it through one of his reviews (where he makes a joke about 'Dark Rob').

I begun watching Vangelus stuff recently and I was honestly impressed, not only does he go into great detail about things that matter to figure collectors (poseability, the overall quality of the figure itself, general display options) but he'll provide some backstory to the figure as well.

As a former big figure collector (I have everything ranging from Resident evil figure (my favorite being the Alexia Ashford figure), Clive Barkers Twisted souls, a very large number of Godzilla figures including the small 25th anniversery set going down to complete Gashapon collections of Sonic and Mario..unfortunately it became a wee bit too expensive as my cash resources nolonger have that teenage freedom) I find him to be a great person to watch.

Vangelus is also one of the Cape radio DJ's.