Gamer Girls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB9JsD7r0WI 

It was just last month that I noted the steep decline of Talk About Games.  I briefly talked about it here:

https://gamergrrlsofficial.blogspot.com/2022/07/tmnt-shredders-revenge-and-taiko-no.html

They had recently done an episode where they changed formats.  They talked about what is and what is not a “Metroidvania”.  And they discussed that possibility of doing similar videos, as opposed to the usual format where they each talk about a game.

That never happened.

Then Mike wasn’t even in a recent episode.  Fucking Tony from Hack the Movies was there.  And I was thinking, “This is peculiar.”  It was this episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW8uyxEXNms

I only made it eight minutes into that one.  

But I don’t even know if it’s a Tony thing.  Because I’m looking at all of the recent episodes.  Youtube lets you start the video from where you left off now.  And in most of these, I quit after like ten minutes.  I used to watch them in their entirety but I just can’t do it any more.  

Maybe the problem is that they’re not interested in this shit any more and it shows in the videos.  They lack any passion for what they’re doing.  Mike didn’t even fucking show up for one of them.  It’s like when James stopped showing up for The Cinemassacre Podcast.  He’d come up with ridiculous excuses like his family all got covid and then the next thing you know, the podcast is gone.

So let’s check out the video.  It’s only eight minutes so I should be able to get through it.

0:15 – Okay, let’s get this out of the way.  Ryan is wearing a necklace and a blouse.

When I first saw this, which was on TheCinemassacreTruth, I assumed that it was a Photoshop that those gay men did.  They enjoy making Ryan and sometimes Mike look like women.  It’s a fetish that they have.  

No.  These were just screenshots.  Unaltered.  What the fuck is this?  

I don’t think that Ryan is transgender, as those gay men like to wish.  I just…I don’t know.  Maybe he didn’t know that this is a woman’s top?  Maybe he likes necklaces?  Who knows?

As for Mike, he’s wearing a white t-shirt.  This is noteworthy only in so far as he almost always wears a black shirt.  It’s the old “black is slimming” idea.

0:30 – Mike says, “We wanted more views and it’s not getting it so we’re done.”

Well, that’s the video then.  No need to waste another seven minutes on this.  This was just Mike and Ryan trying to make money.  How about getting a job, boys?  Have you considered that?

How is Screenwave even making money?  They’re taking a cut from a bunch of Youtube channels but…why are these channels signing up for this?  What is Screenwave actually doing for these channels?  I think it’s nothing.  They’re just parasites taking a cut of the money and doing nothing in return.

Ryan talks about his mansion and all of his arcade cabinets and shit.  So he’s making money from this but…how?  And how much longer can this last?  I can’t believe it’s even successful now.  Eventually, these “Youtubers” are bound to figure out that Screenwave is doing nothing for them.  

Mike also talks about his many cars and his building that contains only Halloween decorations.  Shit like this.  So he has money as well.  I assume that he made it from the sale of Cinemassacre to Screenwave.  

According to the Twitch pay out leak from a year ago, Mike made about $40,000 from Twitch in 2020.  That’s a reasonable amount of money, especially for playing video games, but it’s not making him independently wealthy.

Mike also regularly says that he just streams for fun.  He’s not doing it for money.  So…how is the podcast any different?  

I suspect that it’s Ryan who doesn’t want to do this any more.  Ryan is constantly trying to make money, typically in a parasitic fashion.  He doesn’t like doing actual work.  So he doesn’t want to talk about video games twice a month any more.  Too much work for Ryan.  He could be spending this time better trying to bilk Youtubers out of their paltry incomes.

0:45 – Then Ryan starts listing all of the stuff that he’s doing that are more profitable than the podcast.  He’s producing four video games.  Whatever that means.  He’s “overseeing” the people who are doing the actual work, I guess.  He’s also “building a production facility”.  Again, he just hired people to do the actual work.  And he’s “running three companies”.  Again, he’s doing nothing.  Other people are doing the work, he’s just getting the money.  Profiting from other people’s labour.  This is what Ryan does.  He does NOTHING himself.

1:00 – “Some of these games, I was playing 8, 10, 12 hours.”

Oh poor baby.  Ryan was playing video games for up to 12 hours.  What a hard life he has.

1:30 – So the idea is that Ryan might sometimes appear on Mike’s streams.  That’s it.

I don’t even fucking want Ryan in Mike’s streams.  What is this shit?  This is a terrible idea.  

And this is their idea of “hanging out”.  Ryan said that he wants to “hang out” with Mike and what he meant by that was, “On stream, for money.”

Everything has to be for money with these people.  Can you do ANYTHING that isn’t for money?  

1:45 – Mike says, “I don’t think we were going to do the show forever so at some point we were going to stop doing it anyway.”

Well, no shit.  Nobody expected to see 80 year old Mike and Ryan doing the podcast.  What kind of argument is that?  You can apply this to anything. 

Quit a job after a week.  “Well, I wasn’t going to stay at this job forever anyway.”

Quit a relationship after one date.  “Well, I wasn’t going to be this woman forever anyway.”

3:00 – Mike says that Ryan doesn’t have the time to do the show.  Even if it was getting big numbers, Ryan doesn’t have the time.  This seems to be a common problem over there.

3:15 – “Also, we have to pay editors to do it and whatnot.”

Heaven forfend you pay somebody to do work.  So now those editors are out on the street.  Fuck them.  Ryan doesn’t have time to play video games any more.  He’s living in his mansion, scamming however many hundreds or thousands of “Youtubers” out of their money.  That editor doesn’t need a job.  

3:30 – Then Ryan says that it’s a “natural stopping point” because there are 52 episodes.

What?  Why is 52 the “natural stopping point”?  This is some autistic James Rolfe bullshit.  

He also mentions Patreon.  That’s another thing.  They were always aggressively promoting their Patreon.  Even as recently as last week.  So what’s going to happen to those people?  Maybe they’ll just shut the Patreon down and the payments will automatically cancel.  Maybe.

3:45 – Ryan says that 52 Youtube episodes plus the 52 episodes on Patreon is “a good run for any show.”

This isn’t fucking Bonanza.  These are Youtube videos.  Youtube videos where two losers who never worked a day in their lives talk about video games.  

It’s like James Rolfe comparing James and Mike Mondays to a tv show.  “All good tv shows take a break”.  Same exact thing.  

These are not television shows, gentlemen.  This is many, many, many, MANY steps below television.  

Mike: Do you think that there are more episodes of Talk About Games than there are Stranger Things.

Ryan: There are — definitely.

It’s absurd.  Mike was kind of joking when he asked that but Ryan was not.  Ryan legitimately is comparing this fucking podcast with a television show that has writers, actors, directors, producers, cameramen, lighting guys, makeup people, a catering crew, and so on.  

4:30 – Mike then plugs his Twitch stream.  Ryan repeats that he’ll sometimes stream with Mike.  

But we don’t care.  I mean, honestly.  Who is clamouring to see any of this?  

How many people give a shit about the podcast?  It’s something to put on as background noise.  Nobody cares.  This is throwaway content.  It’s not art.  It’s not a tv show.  

Do the podcast or don’t.  We don’t fucking care.  

4:45 – Ryan says, “I want to say thank you to all of our guests: Tony from Hack the Movies.”

Then there’s an awkward pause.  He was the only fucking “guest”.  And I don’t even know why he was there.  Where was Mike on that day?  Was there some kind of contract dispute?  Mike refused to show up?  Like when Suzanne Somers had a contract dispute with the producers of Three’s Company so refused to appear on the show any more except for brief scenes where she’s on the phone calling in to Janet and Jack?  Then they just didn’t renew her contract?  

It was a rough few years for Suzanne.  She posed for Playboy.  It wasn’t until the 1990s that she became the spokeswoman for Thighmaster.  But that’s hardly impressive.  Then there was She’s the Sheriff.  I don’t even remember that show.  I only know it as a joke.  But I’ve seen an episode or two on Youtube.  It’s unwatchable.

But all was redeemed when she landed the role  of what’s her name, the mother on Step by Step.  

Anyway, Mike Matei is no Suzanne Somers.  So he went crawling back to Ryan for his Talk About Games job.  Probably at a reduction in salary.  And then the show is cancelled a month later anyway.

5:15 – Then they talk about “Xander” the guy who makes the title cards.  That’s another guy who’s now on the breadline because Ryan just “doesn’t have the time” to play video games for 12 hours a week any more.  

6:00 – Ryan says, “Another thing that was nice about Talk About Games is that we played the games that we wanted to play.  It wasn’t an algorithm thing.”

So…on the one hand, they’re doing whatever they want to do because they just like video games and don’t care about views.

But on the other hand, they’re quitting the podcast because it’s not making enough money.

Which is it?  Are you passionate about doing the show and playing games or are you passionate about making money?

That’s the video.  Anyway, I don’t give a shit if they do the podcast or not.  This is entirely for their benefit.  I didn’t enjoy it.  It was…whatever.  I watched it.  Sometimes.  As background noise.  It wasn’t interesting.  There are probably a thousand more engaging podcasts out there.

But if they’re all about money, which they are, maybe a year isn’t long enough to build an audience.  Maybe they have to actually put some time and effort into this shit.

This is what Screenwave seems to do.  The Cinemassacre Podcast was over in about 25 episodes.  So was Mouthfools.  Now Talk About Games.  

What happened to that new desk that they were going to get?  The only podcast still using this set is Pegwarmers.  Are you going to get a new desk for that Pegwarmers?  That show that gets like 4,000 views an episode?  If I was that Kevin guy from Pegwarmers, I’d be dusting off my resume . Ryan is not going to keep that expensive studio just for him.  He’s going to use that space for something more profitable.  

Screenwave has all of these ideas and then they don’t put any time or effort into them.  Yeah, maybe all of Screenwave’s ideas are terrible.  Maybe none of these podcasts would ever take off no matter how much time, effort, and money you put into them.  But…what does this mean?  That Screenwave is just a giant failure of a company?  I suppose that that’s the answer.

—–

Edit: Okay, so I wrote all of that and then I found out that Ryan made some kind of statement in the chat during the “premiere”.  So I have to re-watch this now.  He says: