Official State of the Game Podcast Thread - Page 514

On February 17 2011 09:02 Tyree wrote:
If anything TB ends up looking good at the end of the day here, he got dragged into all of this, defended himself and explained what happened and walked happily into the sunshine, without a care in the world.

On February 17 2011 09:58 Silan wrote:


If TB/Husky/HD would focus on their strengths and supplement themselves with good analysts they'd have far less people hating on them. They figured out in sports broadcasting a long, long time ago that you need multiple commentators with distinct roles to have a good cast. People that ignore decades of progress and development in a discipline are inevitably going to put out a substandard product and get called out for it.

On February 17 2011 11:30 stolensheep wrote:


He could've (and IMO should've) come in here, said "hey look guys, incontrol got the wrong end of the stick, this is what really happened and this is why it happened" accepted incontrol apology and moved on, the fact that he keeps replying to everyone makes me feel that he NEEDS to have the last word in this, which I feel is slightly immature, sure, incontrol didn't have the full story, but whatever, what is done is done and it should've ended along time ago.

On February 17 2011 11:58 Defacer wrote:
Just catching up with the thread.

If someone put words in my mouth and made snarky comments about my commitment to my career, on a popular and well-regarded podcast in my industry, I would definitely be defensive too.

Stolensheep, your suggestion that TB should readily accept an apology, or not have the right to be annoyed, is kind of ridiculous.

I mean, imagine if someone like Husky went around talking out of his ass about how IdrA was "quitting GSL" or "giving up on the game". IdrA would have a right to be pissed.

On February 17 2011 12:07 stolensheep wrote:


"Hey sorry I was being a douche, I'll stop that now"
"FUCK YOU BUDDY I DON'T ACCEPT YOUR APOLOGY"

How bad would that look? Of course he has a right to be pissed, reading back on what I wrote it looks horrible, but what I was trying to say (in a horrible horrible way) I don't think he needs to reply to everyone (including me) to defend himself, there is a lot of trolls and everyones comments should be taken with a pinch of salt!

On February 17 2011 11:42 TotalBiscuit wrote:


I know this is going to be pretty damn ironic to do this, but I stopped responding to people after the apology was brought to my attention. That's when the issue ended. Any further discussion as far as I can see has been pretty constructive.

On February 17 2011 12:49 tsuxiit wrote:
Frankly I personally have no problem with TotalBiscuit, but I can't help but prefer other casters (sans HD/Husky) over him for one simple reason. He has nothing to do with Starcraft or its community. He's just marketing a product that the weird evolution of the internet over the past two years has been made marketable through Google. I mean, he refers to YouTube as his employer. Which is understandable, but is a statement that belies not a love for or appreciation of Starcraft but a weird sort of corporate necessity for numbers and views and ads and cashmoney. So I think there's a disconnect in this case in how casters and viewers understand each other. We, as the teamliquid community, appreciate (and discriminate among) "content" based on what most represents our spirit as a community and a pure love for Starcraft 2. TotalBiscuit, however, wants us to respect that Starcraft is, as he sees it, his job, and that somehow his "content" (ah, how I've come to resent that word) should as such not be totally subject to the intense scrutiny of the community. Were I TotalBiscuit, I would step back and take to heart the opinions of even my most vehement haters and perhaps re-evaluate whether I want to produce content for the Starcraft community, and, If I still do, become more connected to the game and develop a more genuine appreciation for it.

On February 17 2011 12:21 thrawn2112 wrote:


I'm not sure you understand. People aren't mad at you because of anything you said, they're mad at you because it makes them look cool on the internet.

On February 17 2011 13:23 Liquid`Tyler wrote:

I think that's far off. I feel like TB just lost his "street cred" around here. Especially here on TL, where most good things have happened because of volunteer work that was completely lacking any expectation of reciprocity. TB requires reciprocity because of his business-like approach, which most level-headed people have nothing against, until he uses phrases that come off like propaganda, such as "disservice to my viewers". So it's just that he said it, rather than keeping it private, and the way he said it. The timing after the Assembly issue, while irrelevant (I trust TB on that), was very bad.

This is how it seems to me at this point: TB liked SC2 and had a passion for SC2 and so he integrated it into his job. At the start, it's reasonable to expect that only a small portion of his viewership will like the SC2 content. If they were already wanting SC2 content, they would've found it elsewhere. So for SC2 content to justify itself, he has to make SC2 fans out of his WoW/general gaming fans. Or he's gotta capture a ton of people new to SC2 and new to him. Or he's gotta be significantly better than most other casters, so he can take their fans and their gigs. But no matter how he does it, it's gonna start small and rise, then likely plateau.

Enough time has passed now for the plateau to become evident. Unfortunately, it's not high enough, not enough views. But diversifying content is good, and who knows how much SC2 will grow without him dedicating his life to it, or if some important person will particularly like his casting, and of course he does genuinely like doing it, so he's going to keep one foot in the water, ready to make the plunge if it's ever the right move. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, I applaud it. It's smart and I like having smart people on the scene. Sure I love people making sacrifices. But for things to be sustainable, folks with business acumen will have to find a way for SC2 to work for them.

The problem is the fact that he made the announcement and the way it was said. He didn't have to say that he's making a conscious effort to do less SC2 content. He didn't have to draw attention to the fact that he requires reciprocity. But he did. And in doing so, he highlights only half of the reciprocity: the content he provides that fans can watch for free. The other half, the fact that he needs views to have a secure income to support himself and his family, is not there. SC2 is an investment of his time and it's not paying off quite well enough at this time, so he's cutting back on that investment. Perfectly fine. There's a terrible stigma in the gaming community against people creating new jobs that support their passions and the passions of everyone in the community, which is of course utterly ridiculous, but we've got to deal with it so it'd probably be best to keep the business side of things as private as possible for now. To make it public and paint it in a different light gives everyone an uncomfortable feeling.

In short, those tweets were terrible, the decision is not, and the community is sensitive and a bit crazy.

On February 17 2011 11:42 TotalBiscuit wrote:


I know this is going to be pretty damn ironic to do this, but I stopped responding to people after the apology was brought to my attention. That's when the issue ended. Any further discussion as far as I can see has been pretty constructive.