The tastemaker
When I was ten years old my VideoGames magazine subscription was suddenly replaced with Electronic Gaming Monthly. It was, as I recall, sudden and unexplained — one month VideoGames simply didn’t come, and EGM took over as though nothing had happened.1 I distinctly remember it happening, too; the first issue I got was #89, and Street Fighter III was the cover story. Immediately I fell in love, and for years I read EGM religiously.
My favorite reviewer back then was was Dan “Shoe” Hsu. I’ve tried to keep up with his work over the years through 1UP, and have been happy to see that he’s been quite successful; he’s worked his way up from associate editor to editor-in-chief. I was therefore a bit shocked to see the Kotaku post last week about him stepping down.
On some level, it’s a personal thing — this is a guy who I’ve been reading for literally half of my life, and now he’s gone. (For now, anyway.) But it got me thinking about something.
With all the thousands of bloggers, reviewers, and journalists that cover video games, it’s hard to find a gaming personality with a truly far-reaching influence. Shoe was a popular and well-respected reviewer, but I wouldn’t call him famous, even in the gaming community. Who, I started to wonder, is our Roger Ebert — our universally known and widely respected critic whose very popularity demands that we dialogue with his opinions? Who is our tastemaker?
The first person that came to mind was Jerry “Tycho” Holkins, the writer behind the comic strip Penny Arcade. By the estimation of Holkins and his cohort Mike “Gabe” Krahulik, they have a readership of three million, so the “universally known” criterion is certainly met. But what about the critical role?
Every Penny Arcade strip is accompanied by a long screed from Holkins, which covers the gaming news du jour with his trademark wryness and prolixity. Over time, this has become just as much of a draw as the strip itself; it’s telling that the home page actually displays the latest news post and not the latest comic.
While Holkins’ posts are entertaining and insightful, one side effect of Penny Arcade’s popularity is that he’s become increasingly reflexive. We still get discussion about video games, to be sure, but it’s hidden among personal anecdotes, reports from conventions, and other stories from the lives of the PA crew. Add in announcements of new merchandise, updates on the annual expo they host in Seattle, and news about their charity, and Penny Arcade is as much about Penny Arcade as anything else. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that — I just think Holkins and Krahulik are best understood as gaming celebrities, not as critics.
After thinking about it some more, I’ve decided that the real tastemaker is Ben Croshaw.
Croshaw, who goes by the name “Yahtzee,” is the man behind the Zero Punctuation video reviews. “Review” is probably too kind a word, actually; they’re usually more like eviscerations. The quick-witted Croshaw uses his biting sarcasm to ridicule games — even ones that he likes — while speaking at top speed over subtle visual gags. It’s a lot like watching His Girl Friday — you have to force yourself not to laugh too hard if you don’t want to miss the next three jokes.
Like Penny Arcade, Zero Punctuation strikes that balance between erudition and vulgarity which seems to ignite the community. The Escapist first picked up the series in July of last year, and since then their traffic has quadrupled. The videos average over a million views apiece, get hundreds of comments, and are discussed across the blogosphere. The television network G4 is even getting in on the action. In short, Zero Punctuation’s popularity and influence have already hit critical mass, and they’re still growing.
Give him another year or two, and Yahtzee might be the most important critic in the industry.
Unless I’m missing something, I don’t think either Penny Arcade nor Zero Punctuation are really critics. I certainly haven’t detected any kind of theory from either about what might make a good or interesting game. And, for all their popularity, I don’t see them as tastemakers, either. Neither of their writings seem to affect sales that I can discern, nor have they shaped the way we think about games, nor have I seen either affect the general perception about if a work in question is major, important and seminal (which is what I see, maybe imagine, critics of other media doing). In my view, both are best understood as comedians– popular and funny comedians, but nothing close to real critics.
I don’t read Penny Arcade, so I can’t talk about that, but Zero Punctuation is definitely criticism and Yahtzee is definitely a critic. I’m surprised that you can’t see the theory in his game reviews. Sure, it’s wrapped up in a comedy package, but it’s there. And that’s not to mention his magazine work.
I’m going to try to see Yahtzee’s talk at the Game On exhibition in Melbourne in mid-May:
Matthew: I have to agree with Robert here — even though it’s ostensibly comedic, I see a lot of theoretical underpinnings to Zero Punctuation’s reviews (and Tycho’s posts at Penny Arcade). I’ll allow that it requires a broader definition of “critic” — one that would include, say, George Carlin as a social critic. But I don’t think ZP is so easily dismissed.
I can only speak definitively for myself, but Yahtzee has absolutely influenced both how I think about games and my perception of their importance (though you’re right that he probably has no effect on sales). If you read the comment threads for his videos at The Escapist, I think you’ll find that the same is true for other viewers. As a random example, his video lamenting the “safeness” of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune informed my thinking about Twilight Princess in relation to Ocarina of Time.
Another thing I’ve been thinking about is how people actually anticipate Yahtzee’s reviews — they email him, solicit his opinion on specific games, and look forward to each week’s review. Who else in the industry is like that? Most reviewers are interchangable; Metacritic collates their scores, and we assess their opinions in aggregate. Yahtzee bucks that trend. He’s one of the few voices in video games that people really pay attention to, and I think he has important things to say underneath his trademark vitriol. That’s why I think of him as a tastemaker.
Robert, I’d love to hear how that talk goes, if you end up attending. Thanks to both of you for your comments!
That Metacritic observation is a good one, Dan.
I’d say one of the reasons Yahtzee has been successful is that you can’t boil his reviews down to a 7.0 or an 8.5. There are plenty of interesting reviewers — people with real insight and who know how to put a sentence and a paragraph and an essay together — but as soon as they give a numeric score they allow people to avoid engaging with the content of the review.
Well, another thing about Zero Punctuation is that the “review” aspect takes a back seat to the comedy. Yahtzee freely admits that he’ll criticize a game he likes because it’s more entertaining that way. The issue of numeric scores is a whole other can of worms, but in the context of ZP, there’s really no way for them to be meaningful.
On the other hand, Yahtzee’s dismantling of pretty much every game he comes across makes it that much more noteworthy when he really enjoys something. While I would never avoid a game because he criticized it, I would definitely buy a game basd on his recommendation (I’m looking forward to trying No More Heroes, for example). That’s something else I can’t say about any other games “reviewer.”
Alas, I missed the “What Makes a Good Game” event — but I think I’m glad. Here’s Yahtzee’s wrap-up:
Yikes.