...FYI, everything after the jump is going to be the last time I get into production/background stuff of this nature outside of a commentary or major shakeup for a good long time; so folks are humbly asked to read it and file the answers therein away for future reference. TL;DR: I don't plan on continuing to answer the same questions over and over ;)
ALSO: THE VOTE on Episode 54 is till ongoing, so go ahead and cast. Now, then...
Now that three episodes have run covering the rough gamut of the new format of the series, I figured now is the time to answer some of the general questions that longtime fans, newcomers and viewers in general have had about where things are and where things are headed; arranged in the traditional "FAQ" form:
Is this a permanent change?
Yes and no. Yes in the sense that the "meat" of the show will continue to be bookended and occasionally "perked up" by narrative-driven humor, visual gags, etc; but no in the sense that said extra-elements will not all remain permanent and "fixed." The "constant" of the show is The OverThinker himself and commentary about games - everything else can (and will) change and rearrange.
Why change the show?
Multiple reasons. Mainly, because I needed it to change. Partially out of a simple desire to try new things, but also out of - I'll be honest - a desire to have the show itself stand out. The fact is, there are A LOT of game-related vlogs out there, many of them doing the same sort of material TGO did in the same basic "slideshow plus narration" way I had initially used. One can quibble back and forth about who got somewhere "first," but it doesn't change the fact that without some kind of changeup the show was very much becoming "just another" game-opinion slideshow... and, it must be said, a lot of the "newer" others offer a "value added" benefit that I frankly cannot match: Professional Experience.
For example: "Extra Credits" and "RevRants" - two of the shows EVERYONE should be watching - are made by people with years of serious gaming-industry experience; and as such can offer a perspective on various subjects that I, a mere FAN of the medium, really can't. That's not to say that I regard my own input as lacking merit, just that once those folks have had THEIR say on the "big issues" of the day I rarely have much to add save for when there's a substantial disagreement (re: "Other M") I won't cite specific examples, but YES - I've junked whole fully-written scripts because other shows have said everything I would've but better.
So, yeah... when you get down to it it's about being unique and "value-added" content. DOZENS of gaming shows can give you insightful opinions about the medium. SOME can also give you a learned/professional perspective. MINE can also give you funny asides with a bunny and the occasional slapstick as visual-accompaniment to the rant/lecture material.
So every episode will be like Episode 53?
Absolutely not. Some episodes will have a visual-humor bit that carries through the whole run, others will only have broad background references, and so on. I've tried to set the whole thing up to be as "liquid" as possible in terms of structure. At least ONE upcoming episode involves The OverThinker "ranting" while being wholly-immobilized almost the entire time, while another exists as "contemplative" voiceover narration.
Don't narrative and jokes undermine the seriousness of the message?
The potential for that exists, yes, and it weighs on my mind as I select new topics and build future scripts around them. Fortunately, as we are in the end talking about a hobby here, MOST of what's ultimately worth talking about is still "for fun" enough for it to not be out of place. However, instances when the subject IS super-serious stuff (the "Blackwater" episode, for example) you'll see a lot less (up to the point of "none") humor and/or "storyline" material; whereas a lighter topic like "old games in need of a reboot" would probably have a lot more jokes.
That being said, I understand that the reason some folks dislike the inclusion of narrative and gags is because they like to use videos like this in place of making their own points - i.e. "just watch this, this is what I mean" - and they feel this makes that difficult. Honestly, I'm very-much NOT looking to make a show designed to be used in that way. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate every retweet and embed and repost I get; but I'm MUCH more interested in making a show that you can watch, be entertained by and hopefully learn/hear a point that you can incorporate into your own outlook, not just repeat.
Will other characters be "taking over" the show again?
NO. We tried that with AntiThinker, and while I think the "arc" as a whole ended up pretty successful the BIG takeaway was that an "alternate-opinion" parody sketch of that nature is not really meant to be stretched over a whole or multiple episodes. There will be other characters "speaking their mind" and such, but not on that scale or in that style.
Will there be other "story only" episodes?
Possibly, but unlike "War of The Thinkers" in Episode 50 it likely won't be taking up the place of a "regular" episode. If/when I opt to do such an episode, it'll probably be in the form of a stand-alone "special."
I hope that clears at least some things up. I'll keep the VOTE on Episode 54 going at least another week, here's hoping folks enjoy however it shakes out.
32 comments:
The problem I had was not that you added story elements, but that the elements you added didn't gel well with the rest of the program. There was some funny stuff but I just couldn't reconcile meshing of a poorly-designed videogame fight with your diatribe which I've always found interesting in its own right. I pretty much skipped the Antithinker episodes because of this.
Nothing wrong with visual gags or other characters or whatever, but I just don't think that the stories have a place in this format. If you're doing it for you then that's fine, I respect that, but if it's to encourage more fans, well, here's one at least that it's not working on, sorry. I'm still gonna watch, but I'll probably just skip a couple of segments of video here and there from now on.
Your definitely a clever fellow Bob, and I know all too well what it feels like to watch an episode of Extra Credits and then suddenly have nothing poignant to say about the given topic (unless it's a disagreement). That said, I hope you continue developing your narrative skills, but I think the basic consensus from your fans is that the story from Ep 53 had very little relation to the topic at hand. Correct that issue, and I think the new format will work just fine. Also consider developing more about the Overthinker, I think some people may be confused as to whether he is supposed to be a fictional character, or simply another persona for MovieBob.
Anyway, keep fighting the good fight!
I think using the story stuff to bookend the episodes would be better. They way things were handled during the Anti-Thinker were fine, but 53 was just a mess. I don't even remember what the point of the episode was beside video game characters invading the real world.
For now, 53 was Transformers 2
Oh, and use a tripod for the bunny next time. ;)
you're saying that part of the reason you feel you can't compete with extra credits is that you occupy the same basic genre, but you can't deliver what they're able to deliver...and this way, if you talk about something, and they said it better, at least there will be commisioner bunnyrabbit to cheer me up.
Ok, but are you sure that's a supperior product to a show that's merely made happenstance superflous to any of your viewer groups?
I'm sure it's more rewarding for you to do it this way but it seems like _a lot_ of time goes into the new productions and I'm not sure it really accomplishes what you want it to. I think if you had a focus group, it might turn out they'd feel differently.
Look, if you need to do it, do it; but I didn't watch the game overthinker because I tried my very best to find an easy collection of links to old shows, that lead me to this blog, and I came upon episode 50.
happens that I gave it another chance a month or so later, but that's only because the extra credits guys mentioned you again and I gave it another shot, this time investing more time digging through youtube and screwattack haphazzardly to watch the old episodes.
If you have a list of links somewhere, I didn't find it, and it annoyed me greatly.
Anyway, be aware that you may be bleeding new viewers, because it happened with me.
Since I'm here because I want to get smarter, and because I want to attain more useless knowledge and the new direction doesn't fit with that...well, you've got something to work with, is all I'll say.
The latest episode was more amenable than the previous ones, tho. It agreed better with me, so to speak.
Rachel Maddow should add more footage of her punching video game characters robotically. That would set her apart from her competition. Jon Stewart needs more awkwardly choreographed fights to set him apart from all the other people who sit behind desks and make jokes. Bill O'Reilly needs footage of himself floating on a cloud!
Are you kidding me? There is room for more than one person in a given genre. Your old videos were insightful and people will watch them even if you have the same opinions as other people. Your new videos are distracting. I can barely remember what your last video was about even though I watched it yesterday. All I remember is that you flew on a cloud.
Your old format won you the My Vids Don't Suck competition. Your new format won't, because your new format sucks and your new videos suck.
I keep hoping that you'll stop this and go back to doing what you do best, but what this post tells me is that I should give up on you and watch ExtraCredits and RevRant.
I don't like the new format as much as the old one, but good luck, and I hope it works for you. Thanks for giving us these answers, as useless as it probably will be to stop people from complaining.
I like your show because I like hearing what you say and what you think, and for me the draw was the way you made your points, and the fact you're obviously smart and knowledgeable.
To me, it makes you unique already. Sure, I like Extra Credits too, but I wouldn't stop watching one for the other.
I can understand the importance of being different when there is a lot of competition though.
My guess is you'll attract some new fans, lose some old fans who hate the change, keep some old fans who like the change and keep fans who don't mind it enough to stop watching (put me in that category). Hopefully you'll end up with more followers.
I do think linkability is important though. I heard about the show by following a link to it. It might be harder to get into the whole thing if it feels like part of a big story than if it stands on its own.
Best of luck!
I actually do admire the idea of trying something new with the videos, and I don't think you should put it to a stop. After all, these sub-plots are the aspect that brought the AVGN to his glory. I'd say the only problem is that you need to work on your filmmaking skills. I'd take Miquel's suggestion and save all the plot crap for the end of an episode to make the transition smoother. Also work on your effects and cinematography, as those really downgrade the videos.
In short: Don't stop. Keep working at it and improve as you go.
All I can say is that if you actually thought your rant making skills weren't cutting it anymore, I can't imagine why you would have any sort of regard at all for your skit making skills.
Do you guys remember the Simpsons episode where they had homer reboot the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon with Poochy?
The "new" Game Overthinker is Poochy
I want to put it nicer than that, but it fits too well. PLEASE don't go overboard on selling this and work on it GRADUALLY, no more 75% new show that has no polish and 25% of what we love about your show.
If I have any one complaint about your current direction it's that you never seem to do "lighter stuff" these days. Forgive me if you actually have; my memory isn't that great.
Granted talking about things like the PSN outage or the Supreme Court case is much more relevant, important, and topical, but the theories of Luigi dating Princess Daisy had a charm about them that I really miss from your shows. I'm not saying we need a lot more fluff to balance things out, but a little here and there would be nice.
Would have to say I agree with "assman", your old videos were of a much higher quality than this and I don't know why you would change a format that has worked for you so drastically. Personally, I've gone from regularly checking this blog to only haphazardly, and i couldn;t even finish the last video because of the cheesy story stuff.
I've been following you since you started in YouTube with the premise of opening smart debate in the videogame discussions, and you succeeded in that. Now, all of us are proud overthinkers too.
But I don't think the new stories actually go along with this theme. To begin with, I didn't know "Game Overthinker" was a character, but just you, MovieBob (your internet persona), talking about games. Suddenly there's this whole epic arc and the Overthinker is an actual character in a narrative, and now he starts talking about a particular topic while he fights sprites in real world settings. The thing just doesn't go together.
Let me say I totally agree with evolution and adding nice stuff to the show. But narrative is not something that bodes well for a opinion show where you go straight for the analysis and discussion.
A correct evolution would be maintaining the core show but adding more fancy stuff. For example the "Llama" analogy you made in the last episode could be more hilarious and straight to the point if you actually used all the effects to make the analogy come true in a dramatic scene. The narrative that is there now just feels like fillers that bother when you just wanna hear your commentary which is the main content here, anything that doesn't relate to that it's just distracting.
I watch both EC and other smart shows about VG and I think that your opinion still matters. There's a lot to talk about videogames to be repeating topic, and if that's the case you can still give a gamer perspective to a certain topic, while let's say EC gives a more designer approach. There's room for everybody, and I assure you there's viewers demand for all of it, as we all now have hunger for smart videogames shows.
And the narrative itself is not bad, but it just doesn't belong there, I feel I'm not watching the same series that started on Youtube and won the Screw-attack contest. If you want to continue you should do a totally separate show for it, and since it's something that you really enjoy doing I know it will be even more awesome if you just focus on it in a different show.
One last thing, look at the most successful internet shows and learn from them. AVGN accomplished perfectly placed and non intrusive narrative to many episodes and actually made it better. EC and Zero punctuation never deviated from their original premise, they just refined it and they are still awesome to watch. Other non gaming related shows like Nostalgia Critic have also maintained a good audience by doing the same premise, and from time to time some narrative segments or different shakes up to some episodes to change things a bit, but just for one episode, and then the other ones come back to the classic format.
Hope that helps!
RevRants... Never heard of it. Mind posting a link in your blog sometime?
Bob i beg you listen to us. Do we look like we like the new episodes?
No. We hate them. Its not because we dont get it or dont unterstand. We get that you want to entertain but your not doing it. Face the facts if we want to be entertained we go watch a movie or play a video game or watch a internet review. WE get it spoony has his clone thing linkara fights insano but look those are just short brakes not a full focus of the episode. You wanna know who tryed that and failed? The nerd! The AVGNs crazy castle. Nobody at the age higher than 9 liked that video. Its sad but its true here are Karmen Riders and there are ranters. Imagine if lets say the nostalgia critic from now on made all his videos in the style of suburban knights. People would flip out. I dont see you introducing story segment to escape to the movies even thou there is a shit ton of other film reviewers out there with an knowlege of the film industy. You think that we give a rats ass about if your better or worse than extra credits? NO! And dont say that you dont have anything to say cu its bullshit. Last time i checked the extra credits guys adresed the industry as a whole and you talk about the curent state of it.If you wanna pull the square enix on us just say thats how i roll now and if you dont like it i dont give a damn but dont give me this fresh and hip new show format and tell me oh its just like the old days. ITS NOT TO LATE LISTEN TO US! ANSWER YOUR FANS! YOU CAN STIL SAVE YOUR SHOW!
i get it, and i can't really argue with your reasoning.
But remember what you do best. It's one thing to change things up, develop new skill sets, and diversify. But also recognize your strengths and weaknesses. I am a music composer, and I also write lyrics for certain types of music I write - recently it was suggested that I incorporate [my] poetry into a very big deal [for me] composition i was working on. To that, I said *FUCK NO* because I know what I excel at and I know what I am mediocre at, and the amateurness of my text would likely compromise the high quality of the music I've created.
Here's my two cents on the story content: they suck.
Sorry, I tried to put it gently, but the simple fact of the matter is that the discussion, dissection and general overthinking of videogame related topics is solid gold, entertaining and insightful, while the story bits are just fluff that are neither funny nor thought-provoking, meaning they don't really gel well with the actual overthinking.
It's like walking into a classroom and having a girl in a bikini give a lecture on quantum physics while stopping every once in a while to pose for a camera; she's giving a good lecture that's sprinkled with some jokes to keep it from being a drag and still able to give you something to think about, but then you keep getting distracted by the fact that she's in a bikini, and she keeps stopping to do random poses for the camera, which detracts from the lecture because, well, you're not at a beach, you're in a classroom.
And that's just getting into why the story stuff doesn't work with the overthinking stuff, really what it comes down to is that you're overthinking stuff is well written, while the story stuff is not.
I've seen internet shows do story stuff well, namely Atop the Fourth Wall, which does an excellent job of making an overarching story to accompany reviews of shitty comics, and if you watch this show you'd realize two key things that Linkara does to make the story stuff work:
1) He keeps the story stuff out of his reviews, usually bookending an episode, though he breaks this rule from time to time, usually when the story bits ADD to the reviews, like when he did that Silent Hill comic, he actually wove in his own Silent Hill style story into his review and it WORKED, because he wrote a story that related to what he was reviewing, and he did it BETTER than the comic did, which brings me to point the second:
2) He writes good stories; they're well scripted, well directed, well paced with good suspense and mystery when needed and good jokes and action when called for, basically Linkara uses story in the same way you're trying to, as a way to make his internet show stand out, but he's doing a better job of it because he's actually got some decent writing in to his story.
So, yeah, I'm not outright against the story stuff because I have seen it work, but Bob, I'm sorry, you're writing crap that isn't worth watching by itself let alone edited together with something we actually want to watch, and trying to convince us it's gold when it's not isn't the best way to approach this.
Writing a story worth watching takes more work than writing about video games, and while you've been putting in some effort to get your story working... you need to put in a lot more.
Don't give us shit for a show and we won't call your show shit.
Just... just go back to overthiking the relationship between Luigi and Daisy, I can honestly say nobody else is doing stuff like that, and it was a lot of fun to watch.
(that came out a little more... verbose than I was hoping, but I'm trying to get a point across here)
Firstly, someone please link to a list of all the RevRants if you have one. I have seen several of them, but have not found a good list, making it hard to see them all. This sucks.
I hope you really do read all your comments, Bob.
I don't want to yell at you to change the show back; it sounds like this was a well thought out decision, and it's your show after all. I would like to also show my dislike of the story elements.
I don't think it's a terrible idea, and "Angry Video Game Nerd" shows to an extent that this format works, but the execution is somewhat lacking at this point. I think you're improving; the acting is getting a bit better, the special effects are less jarring
It's not like the things I'm saying are all original, but I guess repeating it that the opinion is not just that of a minority.
The story element of episode 53 had nothing to do with your topic; when you flew on a cloud, I guess that was a reference, but tieing things together more would really help. I love the idea of a ninja running for a government position. I also liked your evil clone getting emotional about Zelda; it gave him some depth. I guess I've never met someone like that, so it's harder to relate.
Are tripods expensive? I'm personally not a filmmaker or photographer, so I don't know, but it's pretty clear that having one would be a significant improvement.
I've said a some positive things here, so I want to make it clear that I did absolutely hate a lot of the whole evil twin story arch. The commentary video you made for episode 50 was significantly more entertaining than the actual episode, though maybe if I watch it again now that I've had some time to adjust, and knowing what you said in the commentary, it will be more entertaining.
Sorry to critisize your hard work, but I hope it is the constructive type; the lightsaber effect you loved and painstakingly animated looked pretty bad to me. Rotoscoping that animation might've helped. It looked very fake, and at times the light sabre seemed detached from the remote. The actual glowing bar of light looked great, but matching it up with the video needed work.
I actually liked episode 50, but did not like most of the other Antithinker content. I just didn't like the Antithinker because he was too 1 dimensional. Antithinker did not represent a respectable argument (he was just another Strawman.)
I think the "specials" and about 5 to 10 minutes of plot per episode is perfect. 53 felt too much like a pilot, but I think more experience (and other actors) will stop that.
Rev Rant is on the DTOID youtube channel, easily found with the "Playlists" tab.
And yeah, dislike the new show. It could work if you got some other actors and made the special effects a little less cringe-inducing, but right now they add nothing and take up way too much of the time.
I'm going to give you my two cents on this and you can take it or leave it.
I think you should just can the game-rant segments entirely. You've already got two great shows featured on the escapist.
Then, incorporate those same video game topics into your narrative. You could have talked about the PS3 black out on the show by say... I don't know, the gameoverthinker running into the millions of Call of Duty fans that don't have the internet anyway, and making a story around that.
At the very least, the story should mesh with the rant, but in reality if the narrative was well written enough, there would be no need for a rant at all.
Think about how many opinions Troma covers and he never even needs to sit down and tell you what he thinks separately.
You ARE moviebob afterall! You gonna be like every other movie critique who can't make a movie yourself! Or are you gonna make some ART!
Well, maybe not ART but something that kicks some mother fucking ass anyway!
I was watching a bunch of old game overthinkers and admiring how much better they are and realized that part of the reason was because although they were the same length, without the intro and narrative nonsense there was so much more pure content and discussion and analysis and the stuff that makes you such an interesting z-list internet celebrity to follow.
even the whole quest of the overthinker stuff seemed like it had more real content than episode 53.
again, it's your show, I respect you and I respect the fact that you have every right to do what you want with your show.
but it is seeming increasingly likely that the story stuff will be seen by many as the series jumping the shark
someone suggested splitting the two (discussion and narrative). that way the story seems less like filler distracting people from what they really care about
Destructoid, huh? I didn't really visit that website often, but I'll check out these RevRant videos, to be sure.
I've started watching the "fun isn't enough" video, and that's something that's always been bugging me. I'd LIKE video games to be more thought-provoking and enlightening, that all sounds good on paper, but I'd also like to see more games like Mario, Kirby, The Legend of Zelda, etc., aka, the games that are more about FUN then anything else. This guy is talking about the super violent video games like God of War, and I can't help but notice that all these thought-provoking videos (Game Overthinker, Jimquisition, and now this) seem to focus on THAT then they do about Nintendo's franchises. As if assuming that it's just always going to be there so it's not worth worrying about. Of course the idea of this video is that they'll still be there, it's just that there will be more of the other type as well.
Actually, it's times like this that I hate having to think about these sorts of things, because I'm so indecisive and I don't know what to think!
I really don't want to read every comment that's come before already, sorry. If I'm being repetitious then hopefully I can hammer certain points home.
Essentially, I don't mind you branching out with continuity and narrative-related content. However I would say that you tend to pace that content very slowly, and you seem to depend fairly heavily on special effects you're far from mastering. Generally, you can get the point across with much less, in particular the occasional exposition dumps you drop in (like explaining why video games are in the real world) can get a little tedious, even when delivered by a rabbit, and I think the more you explain these things the less funny and the less intriguing they become. If you're telling a story, try to strip that story to it's fundamentals and make it tight.
You might benefit by either placing extra non-commentary content at the ends of the show, or else have it arise from the content a little more naturally (the cloud thing in the more recent episode wasn't a bad idea). Quick jokes are usually fine, but this extra narrative stuff can really bring the flow of your argument to a screeching halt.
Also, you could stand to work on your acting skills a bit, especially if you insist on playing/voicing nearly every character. You're a smart and funny guy, but you often tend to become a little awkward when you "play" yourself (you're a little better at the Anti-Thinker, but I always found him more irritating than ironically funny, sorry). Why not get some of your friends/family to help play other characters (either real world friends or colleagues from The Escapist / Screw-Attack or elsewhere) or make commentary related appearances? It will diversify your talent pool and maybe give you a little more perspective on each project?
It's also worth noting that a lot of other web-reviewers are having the same kind of growing pains (I think Nostalgia Critic and Spoony probably handle it best, though there's certainly room for improvement there too.)
You are incredibly strong at the Zero-Punctuation style rant, and I recommend you try to play to this strength whenever possible. This doesn't mean you shouldn't try new things, but try to keep one foot more firmly planted in your comfort zone and then allow the zone to grow over time. We're a patient audience.
Good luck with this.
Glad to see that you're paying enough attention to everything to not only know what works and what doesn't, but you also have ideas on how to fix what doesn't work so that, in future episodes, they can work.
While we're on the subject, I wouldn't mind seeing the AntiThinker being used here and there in place of "dumb frat boy voice over a slide" when imitating gamers who think colors are "gay" and other such notions.
Today's Big Picture inspired me to come back here and add another two cents to the pile.
1) You have three shows going on right now, two of which are done every week, plus a weekly 1000+ word column. (and that's lowballing it)
Meanwhile, Game Overthinker is a monthly show, so it's naturally longer for you to make and longer for us to watch, but that length, plus the time you need to devote to other paying projects, means that unless you have a time machine I can't imagine you writing a halfway decent story at all, not under those conditions.
It's simple math, my overthinking friend, and you should already know the answer when I say Escape to the Movies + Big Picture + Game Overthinker = no time to draft any kind of decent script for a story.
Other internet celebrities like AVGN, Red Letter Media, Linkara, Spoony, Angry Joe, basically everyone who's done a story at That Guy With The Glasses (so pretty much everybody at That Guy With The Glasses) can do that because they only have ONE show to worry about, so they can write, shoot, rewrite, reshoot, re-rewrite and so on until they're satisfied, because they know that they need to make something that's worth watching or people won't watch it.
You don't have that kinda leeway, and if you think you do then I'm here to remind you that you really don't, not with three shows and not if you want all three of them to be worth a damn.
2) Your material is at it's best when it's stuff you know inside out, and it's been clear since episode 43 that while you know some of the basics of how to make a story, you're still a beginner who's just starting out when it comes to writing, and while you aren't exactly bad at it you're still churning out some awful stuff that would take more skill (and time, as I have spent the last five paragraphs pointing out) than you currently have to polish into something enjoyable.
I say skip the damn story stuff, you're not particularly suited towards it right now and it would take a ton of time and effort to learn the ins and outs of making a compelling narrative.
So, yeah, after watching your other two shows shine I just had to come back and try one more time to get a message across that you need to cut way, way, WAY back on the unneeded, amateurish and frankly embarrassing to watch story segments that are, honestly, killing all the enjoyment your show had.
That and you need to add a blog post that has links to all the old episodes, they're kinda scattered around the web now and it'd be nice to have them all in one spot, please and thank you.
That's a good point... Plus now Bob's trying his hand in ANOTHER show.
Reminds me of Seth MacFarlane taking on a Flintstones reboot, even though he's already doing 3 shows.
It looks like the stories are here to stay. But could they atleast be storylines that underline the point in the voiceovers? something that suplements or parodies the subject matter?
Though what i would ultimately prefer is episodes like Blackwater. That was pretty well done, and the camera angles added a lot to the experience. I´m not that much a fan of the humoristik shenanigans as i don´t think it´s that funny so far. I think that´s the problem with a lot of internet reviewers, the only ones i really like at that point is Spoony and Redlettermedia. Where Redlettermedia is practically a comedy troupe and Spoony is pretty good at stand-up, it just isn´t that easy to compete with this.
Oh and one more thing. I think i should mention that Spoony chose to move all his narrative segments to the beginning and ending of his rants, because people weren´t that happy about it taking the spotlight. Now it works a lot better for him, the narrative isn´t as intrusive as before.
One of the reasons that he downtoned it was that people had a hard time following the continuity when they missed an episode. That´s worth considering :)
I'll save you the repeat of many valid arguments laid here about why your changing narrative format is cutting short the best parts of your shows and give you a unique thought on why the change is so hard to swallow-
The New GameOverthinker is trying to be funny. And I realized the old show never tried to be funny, and in fact, I never thought it was funny. Your other shows aren't funny either. But I don't think that's the point of them.
What I remember liking about your older videos and what maintains to be liked about some of your other shows, is the intelligent conversation of ludicrously specific content. Internet videos don't HAVE to be funny, and it doesn't seem to be one of your strong suits.
First, let me say that I've only watched one episode since episode 50, and I skipped out on that altogether. That's because, to address what you said here-
"That being said, I understand that the reason some folks dislike the inclusion of narrative and gags is because they like to use videos like this in place of making their own points - i.e. "just watch this, this is what I mean" - and they feel this makes that difficult. Honestly, I'm very-much NOT looking to make a show designed to be used in that way. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate every retweet and embed and repost I get; but I'm MUCH more interested in making a show that you can watch, be entertained by and hopefully learn/hear a point that you can incorporate into your own outlook, not just repeat."
I don't find it entertaining. At all. It's the same when Spoony, Linkara, the Nostalgia Critic, etc. force storylines into their reviews. I elicit a groan, close out of the window and do something else.
If you're going to stick with bookending the storyline stuff at the beginning and end of your videos then I'll probably start watching them again because I can skip the fluff. I understand and appreciate your desire for a change of pace, and you're right; you need to do something to stand out. Personally, I don't think low-budget storyline gimmicks are the way to do that, especially since it's so common that you actually stood out by being pure opinion, and more than that you produced a quality show.
That aspect of things hasn't changed as far as I can tell, but please-find some way to be different that compliments your strengths and the subject matter of the show without going in another direction altogether. I've stopped watching a lot of internet reviewers/commentators because of storyline bs and all it does is make it more tedious to get to the stuff I like from the ones I do still watch.
In closing, I want to say that this kind of thing comes off like the reviewer has no confidence in the strength of their material so they feel the need to dress it up and pad it out because ADD internet trolls won't pay attention otherwise. If the content creator is somehow communicating to me that their stuff isn't worth it, I'll be inclined to agree whether I've seen it or I haven't. I'm not saying that the opposite is anymore appealing, I just want to make my own judgement instead of hearing it from the creator, and I don't want to waste time with anything that can't stand without a gimmick.
You can do that, Bob. You did it for 40 episodes. You can surely find some way to do something more complimentary than extraneous. Remember that little storybook thing you did at the start of one of your movie reviews? That was funny. I wouldn't mind more things like that. It came out of nowhere, it only lasted about a minute, and it made a good point in an unconventional way without bad special effects or terrible acting. Please, more of that, less Anti-Thinker.
I suppose one and all should browse on it.
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