Shillfluencers of Change - A response to

Warhammer is on life support. The /r/totalwar fanbase is rioting. The shills are panicking. "Shadows of Change" is getting trash player numbers. At least we can always #jointhepack
The shillfluencer's manifesto that I'm responding to:
• Why I Haven't Covered ...
My video that laid out the shilling operation in detail in 2021:
• The Great Total War Sh...
The reddit thread naming and shaming the shills:
www.reddit.com...
Melkor's statement on how Rome:Reheated went:
/ @volound
Melkor's adieu:
/ @melkorgg
The poll on how youtubers mislead people with pre-order advocacy:
/ @volound
The poll asking if anyone could name youtubers that reviewed Warhammer 3 properly:
/ @volound
The statement from PrinceofMacedon:
/ if_only_they_put_as_mu...
The statement from Total War Cat:
/ @volound
The statement from Pilps:
/ @pilps
#shillfluencers #justshillthings #tossashillingtoyourgrifter
0:00 boop
4:30 Shilling then
7:15 Shilling now
11:20 Pre-order links
24:30 Learning from previous busted flushes
34:30 "It's my job to be a used car salesmen and huckster"
39:25 Mr. Gotcha
46:30 Advocating pre-orders is unethical and plenty of people have never done it.
49:00 TINECUC
57:00 "It's my job to huck off games I don't care about with pre-order links"
1:01:40 A stick without a carrot
1:03:20 Dropping the ball completely.
1:09:00 "I've been too negative before"
1:14:25 "CA are professionals and expect professionalism"
1:23:40 Example of a real authentic reaction of a TW KZbinr living through 2023
Best way to support me and what I do:
/ volound
❤️ Thanks to all supporters ❤️
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @volound
My complete gaming setup:
www.amazon.co....
Join my Discord server and elevate those sons of bitches:
/ discord
My FB Page for ranty longposts:
/ volound
My Twitter shitterings:
/ volound
My Twitch:
/ volound

[@Volound]

dont ask ethical questions. just preorder DLC and get excited for next DLC. you might as well consider this a follow-up, a sequel, to "The Great Total War Shilling Operation", as that video went up at the peak of the warhammer 3 marketing stage. we are now in the bombed out remains of warhammer 3 - one of the all time lows in the history of total war: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kIO7hKRsfNynh5o

[@SwordEncarmine]

just watched daimyos video on "rome 2 IS it doesit worth it 9999" and now this Perfection

[@pempotfoy6206]

TheM&C argument about capitalism is the stupidest thing ive heard this year. Imagine saying quimical warfare is acceptable because science can be used for war. But what else would you expect, these persons don't even know what capitalism means. If they google the definition they obviously won't understand it, so they will resort to slogans everybody regurgitates to blame capitalism for everything, just embarrassing.

[@sercravenmohead3631]

Yeah but stop looking at WH3 like a traditional TW, warhammer fans buy and play this game and they’re used to paying ridiculous amounts of money for dumb shit like painting miniatures just to half ass the painting and lose to a guy who 3D prints models. CA has done nothing but make the best business moves because they know they can milk this cow dry and get away with it and move on to the next franchise say something like Lord of the Rings, keep in mind fantasy TW games was always something TW fans wanted. The top mods for medieval was LOTR, Warhammer, and Elder Scrolls… people think CA owes them historical titles. Initially yeah but they got to feed the shareholders plus they have a responsibility to pay their employees. CA will go for business moves and make money first, they’re playing around with Pharoah and Troy only to go full tilt into my next guess being LOTR, that’s gonna sell like crack in the 80’s.

[@RebelAstronaut55]

Volound. You have 100K subscribers and maybe among them there are some talented AI programmers, Graphic Designers, etc. Maybe you have some big youtuber friends like you (100K subs). Why not try to use your influence to create a game that will be far superior to Total War. I know that is a huge opportunity. Most of the TW old players like me are craving for somethig done with passion and player orientated. I see Manor Lords guy who did some minor changes to the battles and that was already far better that TW will do ever. I am willing to try do the game by myself, unfortunatly I have ZERO experience in any programming or design. I don't even know what programs should I start to learn in order to create this kind of game. UE5 and C++? But you have something more than ZERO.

[@Volound]

just not got the time really. preoccupied with staying alive and making sure me and the people i care about are doing alright. if i was a trust fund baby i wouldve done it already though. @@RebelAstronaut55

[@kilianconn5091]

The argument that $25 isn't a lot of money because it's not as much as eating at a fancy restaurant is absolutely insane. "Let them eat cake!"

[@Volound]

yeah i didnt even get to deal with this, but this is another completely ridiculous aspect. there are people in the UK/US that buy a weeks food with that (i can do that). thats enough to buy a AAA game thats been out for a year.

[@vikingcathq]

I think he said he could spend twice that amount drinking one thing and eating a starter at a restaurant that's 'not even fancy'. Idk if he's making that up or totally out of touch with reality but there's no way you're spending 50$ on two drinks and a starter at a place that isn't at least a bit fancy lmao.

[@CsStoker]

As a third worlder I can eat properly at least 2 weeks with that, and Warhammer 3 is $60 here

[@iopohable]

man even if you are spending 100 dollars on a good time with your friends and food. you get to eat your food and get drunk. this game is so objectively trash that comparing it to anything thats isn't directly scamming you is absolute nonsense. the dlc could be fking free and it wouldnt be worth wasting ssd space on this garbage game.

[@HO1ySh33t]

To be fair, "Let them eat cake" angered people because the alternative is starving to death from the basic food shortage. The alternative to spending $25 on a video game is spending less on another video game, or not playing video games, without dying.

[@Pilps]

Meanwhile me laughing my ass off playing decade, nearly two decade old games in the series and not feeling like a shill because I actually enjoy playing the games that just so happen to be made by competent developers at the time, that actually gave a damm about them.

[@PixelatedApollo1]

LFG

[@Pilps]

I need that little dark age video man. I NEED IT @@PixelatedApollo1

[@defectiveindustries]

I enjoy your vids immensely They make laugh so I dont despair about my own awful gameplay

[@bednoises6391]

I enjoy your video pulp

[@PixelatedApollo1]

@@Pilpssomeone reported it. They took it down :(

[@ginnotheseer7624]

Powercreep is why I stopped playing For Honor, they kept dropping Hero DLC and the new characters were always broken in some way and then toned down a patch later. Then they released a new pirate faction, pirates have guns... They put guns in my medieval fighting game, I can't be bothered to deal with that.

[@Korvinian4601]

Where’s the new pirate faction? I don’t ever recall being a pirate faction

[@giorgiannicartamancini3917]

Same, that game was fun as hell but I don't have the time to follow the meta. It becomes a fucking job and I already have one of those

[@g00gleisgayerthanaids56]

Is that why? It wasnt the terrible gameplay/game design?

[@grant5580]

I remember following milkandcookies on the lead-up to TWWH2 and he defended the decision to leave out naval battles AFTER having just made a speculative video about what naval combat might look like for all the different factions. The idea of Dwarven Ironclads, human galleons/men'o'war and magical elven ships that could've combined previous features from Fall of the Samurai, Empire and Rome 2 naval battles sounded exciting. People kept thinking (me included) at the end of TWWH1's lifecycle that TWWH2 would include naval combat because TWWH1 was just a proof-of-concept and that things like reloading animations and other features from previous games would be added in. LOL. edit: I'm a big fan of Warhammer, I'm a big fan of Total War and I got into your channel during the Rome 2 launch fiasco. These Warhammer games are just so lazy and I don't understand how people can keep buying these DLCs just to do the same auto-resolve cheese and try to avoid the actual core gameplay loop as much as possible for 80 turns before starting a new campaign. It's time to put this franchise to bed.

[@pompeythegreat297]

Those that auto resolve every battle aren't playing the right game, idiots like that exist in CA that's why these new games are losing features 😂😆

[@fiendish9474]

​​@@RTB3550i honestly dont get auto resolve. I was playing shogun 2 FOTS with cheats to get a full stack of British warrior Ironclads. All of them fresh so no levels, against a single enemy wooden corvette Kaiten class with rank 7. Despite the ship's cannons outranging, despite having advanced armor piercing rounds, despite outnumbering it by 10 fucking ironclads, the spawn of hell Kaiten managed to lose the battle while sinking one of mine and managing to still survive and escape and reaching rank 8.

[@OpiatesAndTits]

TBF naval battles was a costly feature in empire and considering mess of a code base making a functional fantasy total war was probably a monumental undertaking on its own. A Warhammer naval game could be its own game. But frankly If they’d done this game right maybe they could have some naval expansion to the series towards the end of the cycle. I don’t know. It would be interesting in a different world where empire was built properly with new tools and their capabilities expanded maybe it would be a lot easier to add naval battles.

[@JordanCorkins]

@@fiendish9474 FOTS naval autoresolves were the worst. Always had to play out even trival fights or your ironclad might lose half its health to a gun boat.

[@g00gleisgayerthanaids56]

You dont understand why twwh sells? You say youre a fan of warhammer? CA dipped into a gigantic consumer base that keeps buying overpriced plastic figures to not even play the tabletop game with... warhammer fans are so desperate for a decent warhanner video game theyll buy anything that even remotely looks like a decent warhammer game. Wh space marine was a low budget gears of war clone missing all the good features of gow and yet its like the best wh game ever made... critically acclaimed by fans... the best wh videogames are cheap ripoffs of other games, gw just hires dev teams to try and shoehorn their ip into any popular video game genre.

[@prepaidgame]

I'm actually dreading Medieval 3 being announced.

[@Volound]

seems like everyone is at this point. everyone with a brain at least.

[@pompeythegreat297]

How did Rome 2 work out?????? Lol only having walls for certain settlements 😂😆 So you had all these towns just exposed 😂😆 totally unimmersive 😂😆

[@ivanthehighman177]

Their to scared to piss off the medieval 2 community.

[@gabrielepopa6870]

​@@pompeythegreat297agree with u but you could defend pretty well by retreating in the streets

[@pompeythegreat297]

@@gabrielepopa6870 Yea walls were for immersion, but yea the narrow streets worked lol

[@richard4888]

Daily Reminder: Fall of the Samurai is 29.99. It has infinitely more gameplay, entertainment, and enjoyment than any Warhammer DLC. Buy that instead.

[@geoffwitt4227]

Nearly no one cares about the time period. I have bought nearly every CA title and DLC ex Warhammer but I can't come up with a reason to spend even $1 on this DLC. Can someone build a Napoleon off of it?

[@TheMentalistGR]

yeah but muh dragonz and magickkk

[@theluckynumberis7]

​@geoffwitt4227 it's not about the time period he's talking about. It's the deepness and complexity of the gameplay compared to its cost. It's a whole new game for about as much as a lord pack for TWWH3.

[@maximusd26]

bro I bought it for 15€ like 7 years ago lmao, it's quality but already a scam

[@Fitzgerald934]

With Darthmod even the OP Armstrong guns are nerfed^^

[@kealydan]

You can almost admire the grift of the shill fleet CA has shepherded, looking forward to this video

[@sercravenmohead3631]

It’s the warhammer fanbase, hate on WHTW for not being a good total war but to them it’s the best warhammer fantasy game ever made. $25 really isn’t that bad compared to what they already waste money on for Gamesworkshop. Trust me it’s an entire fanbase with Stockholm syndrome.

[@harrienelle6471]

@@sercravenmohead3631 I used to play the table top version for a while in the late 90's untill I made up a balance on what I was spending... I immediately got the fuck out. Lately I checked what models go for these days. It even got more insane!

[@Hirohitorunguard]

CA can keep adding as many pointless mechanics and gimmicks as they want, but it wont change the fact that its got the strategical depth of a puddle and that the AI simply can't handle everything going on in the game.

[@Volound]

yeah i couldve mentioned this at the end but the AI cant even use all of the bullshit they pack into these games. the magic and single entity systems are entirely there for players to cheat against a braindead AI that doesnt know what to do.

[@certifiedsexhaver8400]

There is literally no point in buying dlc for a game that is fundamentally broken. It’s just smoke and mirrors to hide the crumbling foundations that CA refuses to invest the resources with which to solidify it. Such a dumpster fire of a game.

[@sercravenmohead3631]

That’s because from your point of view it’s an objectively bad total war game, to them it’s 10/10 Warhammer that simulates the tabletop. Warhammer fans spend an arm and leg for Gamesworkshop already, trust me $25 isn’t that bad in their eyes.

[@ardentfire3956]

​@@sercravenmohead3631 40k's Dawn of War did a better job of bringing the tabletop game to life than any of the Total War games. If a good developer tried to one up CA with a better Fantasy strategy game then CA would probably go bankrupt.

[@sercravenmohead3631]

@@ardentfire3956 But that’s not what happened, Dawn of War is good but it didn’t take any risks or expand anything outside generic baseline 40k. I’ll give CA credit here that they fleshed out minor factions like Vampire Coast, made Cathay from the ground up, some of the legendary lords weren’t expected either. I really enjoyed WH2 Vortex campaign, the end times in the first game, and while Realms of Chaos has it’s criticisms it’s still enjoyable and I like that I can customize my end game crisis in immortal empires so I can go with a theme in my games. I think CA did a good job on this project it’s just very pricey but I’ve been with it since the start so it’s not as bad.

[@narillio1928]

“there is no ethical consumption under capitalism” is basically at my eyes a more fancy way they found to say ''i know what i do is immoral/bad/not ethical, but everybody is doing it so it's fine''

[@UrbanArmada]

Its a true statement nontheless. First world countries extract almost everything from impoverished nations and rely on cheap, unsafe, unregulated labour. He's just hiding behind the statement to defend his position as CA premier community marketer.

[@certifiedsexhaver8400]

It’s an easy way to deflect any responsibility for one’s actions. Like V said in the vid it’s tiny cock behavior lmao. Like by simply existing you will inevitably cause some form of suffering but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your best to limit and mitigate the harm you cause. Total bullshit excuse and a cancerous fatalist philosophy.

[@HO1ySh33t]

At this point, even ethics is a product for sale in capitalism. Then again, ethics has always been a tool for leaderships to centralize power. Even ISIS genuinely believed what they're doing is ethical, that their terrorism was a necessary, ethical action to combat superior empires.

[@BMFOTP3]

Legit the moment he said that, I lost all respect for him.

[@pompeythegreat297]

It's all about money Fuck humanity, fuck everything, give me money.

[@nialltealeaf275]

19:23 ...that's how Paradox does their grand strategy games and some of their major releases, unfortunately. Barebones release, small dlc packs to fix core issues that either didn't exist or were created by the devs to force another transaction. Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV would make Volound die from the sheer cringe of the pricepoint-per-content dlc fuckery. Worst part, Paradox has shills that are arguably worse than Warhammer shills.

[@leventekingvevo72]

When CK3 came out and seeing the religion forming being remade was fun idea but other than that its been riddled with overpriced dlcs

[@nialltealeaf275]

@@leventekingvevo72 Only way to stop it is by total boycott and spreading word of mouth.

[@reavercity568]

The only improvements that CK3 has over ck2 is the religion and half of the culture rework. literally everything else is a sidegrade at best. the UI is worse the map systems are less informative, combat is dogshit etc etc etc. broke my mods for a religion update, extremely disapointing. in regards to the price, ck2 the dlc in general was worth it at 10-15$. It changed the game largely for the better. In general I am okay with DLCs as long as they are worth the cost and arent a cash in for cut content *cough cough* mass effect 3 *cough cough*. but that price point is up to you. I havent bought any stellaris dlc for the last couple of years because they are too much money and dont offer enough.

[@pompeythegreat297]

Paradox did this first, their shills are hardened..................... CA learned from paradox

[@reavercity568]

@@pompeythegreat297 you know what you are right, ck2 was perfect at launch they only needed a few bug patches and should have moved on. All the extra content was pointless and no one liked it. Waste of money.

[@Korvinian4601]

Finally, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. One of the biggest shills in the Warhammer scene

[@iopohable]

this dude manages to be a bigger shill than fking loredude of neckbeard.

[@Korvinian4601]

@@iopohabletalking about sotek?

[@TheRetifox]

Have you seen Loremaster of Sotek's review of this DLC? The guy makes a previous video about how DLC is not worth it, and even spent like 30 min in his review saying how much is missing from that DLC, the guy still gives it 9,5/10... Like bruh, I think I am more upset about how fucked up his scoring is than rather shilling for that DLC itself 💀💀

[@Volound]

not yet, ill have to watch that. sounds pathetic.

[@windowcreeper7039]

He doesn't do rates like that 9.5 you claim. He said you could buy it if you have the money and don't care about anything else but that the DLC is surely not worth the asking price. Also remember he is a Warhammer content creator not a Total War CC.

[@lecoutcritique8854]

"he'll turn it into an argument to prove his point"... yeah, that's what arguing is for... duh.

[@Volound]

lmao yes this was utterly bizarre to read.

[@enjoythestruggle]

Notice, every time he says something that might sound critical he says 'but'.

[@Volound]

lol ill have to listen to it again and actually look out for that.

[@enjoythestruggle]

@@Volound Another thing I noticed is that when he talks about people's outrage he sounds genuinely angry and uses swears and other negative terms such as 'making a stink' or 'being a raging dickhead', but when he talks about CA's fuck-ups he says it with barely any emotion. It's so obvious it becomes funny in a painful, cringe sort of way.

[@Volound]

yeah noticing that was what made me decide to make and upload this, lol. completely phony, lying rat.

[@michaelfielding6666]

CA's end goal is to release paid DLC's which just contain Bug Fixes.

[@cynfaelalek-walker7003]

20 dollars over here is 29 percent of my monthly wage, I refuse to pay that much for faulty entertainment that may not even do it's proper job of simply being a good game.

[@reality8741]

SNEEDFLUENCERS

[@nicholasgerry9620]

(Formerly Chuck)

[@dread_pirate_robberts2677]

Shadows of sneed

[@joepetto9488]

They do it for free.

[@MSF_Soldier_Alligator]

Just started another Barbarian Invasion campaign. Feels good to play games with actual expansions instead of faction dlcs.

[@Volound]

tell me about it. then theres the kingdoms expansion for medieval 2. FOUR different DLCs all in one.

[@De_Futura]

@@VoloundFour new campaigns and 10 new factions, plus a lot of fixes and balancing. This would be unthinkable today.

[@maximusd26]

@@De_Futura they'd charge us our kidneys and mom for that now lmao

[@TheSpearman-vt3nb]

i used to watch milkncookies a couple years back. his videos got me through some tough times. i remember many a day where i was sitting on a cold bus stop bench with only enough money for the bus, and a bottle of booze to drown my sorrows, and listening to his lore videos to keep me sane. so i was a fan. then i found volound. for the first time i was hearing someone else talk about my dissatisfaction with the way total war was handling itself, and its future in an intelligent and eloquent way, that i myself cannot properly convey. i no longer give my time to these shills. TW and otherwise. i grew up rough, i live rough, i will probably die in the gutter, and this gives me a certain perspective when it comes to these companies and their money making schemes. you dont want to release a full game? i guess this company wants to go out of business, and i refrain from giving them my money. they want to release a broken game? i suppose they want bankruptcy, so i keep my money. you want to overcharge and then lecture me on how im a bad person? youre not going to be a company for much longer. i truly believe if folks had a backbone today, and simply refused to throw money at people that dont respect the customer, the very people who made these fat cats rich in the first place, could shape the very foundation of how products are made, and how we are treated. we have to toughen up and just let these companies (and politicians) suffer by withdrawing our consent to usury. if we want good products we have to vote with our money. enough complaining, enough buying a game because it has an ip you enjoy, no more preorders or products with dlc. we demand excellence. they will provide it, or they will be poor and desolate like i am. make it happen. thank you volound. at least someone is brave enough to speak the truth.

[@Volound]

cheers. and im glad youre out there somewhere and trying, youre here leaving this great comment and i really appreciate that, just for a start. whatever else is going on with you or has happened to you, youre still doing well enough to manage that. never give up the fight. fight to the very end.

[@headlessfool7050]

Wise words . Whatever it is, you need to keep going . And remember, you are not alone . The Planet is packed full with people going through all kind of struggles . And amazingly, many if not most of them are more than willing to cooperate for mutual benefit . I hope you do find/meet some of these people . All the best . Live long, and propser !

[@maximusd26]

my man Volound is relentless, he won't stop until those who ruined one of the best franchises are outed, and so will I. #JoinThePack

[@pompeythegreat297]

They didn't ask us permission before they fucked us.

[@FaramirsRangers]

Milkandcookies lol the same guy who got big off the back of making a clout chasing video against prince of macedon. He exploited his popularity by picking on how POM handled trolls on his channel. POM made mistakes but they made him a bad guy to the public and grabbed audience exploiting it. How can anyone be surprised that MnC is now making content for his own benefit without care for his audience? He was always this guy!

[@Volound]

yeah i never wouldve dared to make a video like that back then. i made some posts about prince of macedon along the same lines as that video was, but a big part of that is that there was a circlejerk around shitting on him, and that video was a big helper for that. in hindsight, prince of macedon was the one that actually cared about good games. he is actually getting the last laugh with how the past decade has gone.

[@Volound]

and i never had that video in mind at all when i made this one (you just reminded me, so long ago), but i probably shouldve.

[@FaramirsRangers]

@@Voloundthing is to show how big of a person POM is he played in a tourney vs Many of these guys who made videos about him and he was total class. But yes MnC to me he has only ever been about clout and making a channel to make money. He has no clue about making content that reflects what he stands for because he is just always jumping to the next big thing

[@Volound]

yeah i actually said that directly to prince a few years ago. i played in a tournament with him a decade ago and he casted some of my games and he was really gracious and was one of the best things about the tournament. i remembered it for about 7 years and finally told him in 2021 or so that i distinctly remembered him making the tournament better by being part of it and just being there and being himself. whatever hatchet we had (and we really never had one), it was buried. wishing him all the best now of course. hoping that good new RTT games come along for him as well as myself.

[@DragonHeart1791]

@@Volound Was that the scan invitational tournament? Remember you getting to the final of that one against PrussianPrince.

[@GruwskiTheDogski]

There is simply no back-bone or honesty anymore throughout this customer-base of the Total "Warhammer" series. People rather sleep with the lesser of two evils nowadays than to safeguard their moral dignity. The sooner these mouth-pieces discover how much they are getting shafted as nothing more than "free marketing" and milk-cows, the better it'll turn out in the sense of a positive change in regards of changing the standards.

[@anon_moose]

It's just a video game... don't buy it. It really is that simple

[@BloodwyrmWildheart]

@@anon_moose If you don't care about video games, why are you watching a video about a video game?

[@Korvinian4601]

⁠@@anon_moosethat’s such a thought terminating statement right here. Just handwave and everything will be fine right?

[@phillidaadamus4349]

@@Korvinian4601 Tbh he has a point, you should vote with your wallet, but nowadays it has to be a organized, publicised, large scale boycott, I gave up on general audiences, and people in general when it comes to this, and youtube influencers very much have a part to play.

[@boxcutter8887]

It's not that,simple. It's the buyer that is at fault. People don't do their own research anymore. They just can't be asked. That's the whole deal. Example: everyone knows preordering a digital good is stupid yet it still works every damn time. Romans said something about a donkey hitting a stone.

[@akiramasashi9317]

People are catching on really late to the fact that C.A is a greedy as fuck company these days. Like, do they seriously not realize that C.A basically just sold them the same game 3 times in a row for full price? TWW2 and TWW3 are basically just expansions for the first TWW.

[@AdamNisenziSpisak]

Imagine a world where games are released with all features on day 1, a world where trailers show what is actualy content in the game that you can experience instead of pre-rendered/scripted videos, a world where random bugs are fixed mere days upon discovered, a world where patches after release add content instead of being essay long lists of fixes that are due months and features that were missing on launch. Imagine a world where CA isnt a complete alien like greedy gremlins

[@RomanHistoryFan476AD]

I use to watch MilkandcookiesTW to a limit degree back when I was still in Secondary school, then Rome 2 and forever changed my stance on Total War for good, I found Volounds videos on the game and he said what I was feeling was wrong with the game but could not give it words properly. And ever since Volound has been right each time about every future title and how CA and TW became utter crap. I don't hate CA or TW, No It's worse I don't just care anymore, I moved on to other games and just enjoying the classic Total War of of old (Shogun 1 - Shogun 2).

[@skinless333x2]

"But because it is my(their) job" equates to the statement "I was just following orders" and we all know when it was clarified that this is no excuse nor justification, in case anybody forgot it was the nürnberg trials. So just let that sink in, some people defend their unethical behaviour with a paraphrase of the defense that people used in order to excuse their crimes against humanity. By the way great video, not done yet but will watch it all.

[@Volound]

yeah this is exactly what i was getting at. "it was just the way things were done, i was just a part of a system". they got the rope.

[@aihatsuchannel4013]

Watching the current CA, Total War situation now is like watching Western Roman Empire keep falling apart over 50 years.....I love it. A study case on how not to survive.

[@Volound]

not the first time ive seen this WRE analogy being applied to this, but i love it, lol

[@sercravenmohead3631]

They’ll just make lord of the rings TW and everyone will cream their pants again.

[@headlessfool7050]

@@sercravenmohead3631 That has been done, in more than one ways (mods ) on more than one older TW titles, better than CA can ever hope to achieve .

[@sercravenmohead3631]

@@headlessfool7050 Really? CA recreated Vampire Coast and Chaos Dwarfs to be a fully fleshed out faction. Not to mention Cathay where they had to build it from scratch, which was only ever briefly mentioned in the lore content. What about the dedication to build Total War’s biggest map? They really went all out to bring Warhammer Fantasy to life which other wise would’ve died due to Games Workshop ruining it with their end times bullshit which led to Age of Sigmar, the biggest disappointment in all Warhammer. The mods were likely the inspiration for CA to pursue these fantasy franchises. There is really just endless potential for CA to make money off these franchises .

[@headlessfool7050]

@@sercravenmohead3631 Yes, really . Modders made the old engine do stuff CA never dreamt about being possible .

[@New_Age_Drifter]

Total War: Shillfluencer. That's a good idea for a video. Keep up the fight, Volound. CA has already gotten away with too much.

[@pompeythegreat297]

Next game should be total war shill warfare

[@CevherVolkan]

Milkandcookies aka frog-voiced shill.The video of his that volound covered is ridiculous. He basically admits in his restaurant analogy that he sees ca as his boss/employer and sees his audience as customer which he can laugh at their face for demanding something from him. This shows how little he cares about the community he frequently mentions in his videos. I thought this video of his just showed his shilling subconscious but volound pinpointed the intentions of his video which is laying the foundation of shilling in the future lol.

[@DragonHeart1791]

I literally thought kermit when he talked 😄

[@nameisbad]

Ah yes, the age of shill argument: "You are a small minority of the community" They can't prove that's true, but they know you can't prove it's not. It's such a venomous argument. The steam forums, the main forums, the reddit all up in arms, some people on youtube too where it's the shills strongest platform... and yet it's just "a minority" From what I see, it's roughly half the people that would've bought the dlc if good going by metrics, that's not a minority.

[@Korvinian4601]

Even if that’s true, all it takes is for a vocal minority to change things. I don’t know why the argument “hahaha there’s more people on my side of my argument so you are clearly wrong!!” exists. Just so pathetic

[@Volound]

something like 4% of a population being active and protesting is enough to get what they want passed. its been studied extensively. 4% to get any given thing done, good or bad.@@Korvinian4601

[@Korvinian4601]

@@Voloundthe Pareto principle I assume

[@WombNugget]

Missed a perfectly good opportunity to name this video a Shilling for change.

[@Volound]

i was 50/50 between that and this. this only won because it meant i could use muh shillfluencer term, which ive used everywhere else and tried to popularise to describe this exact shit. i still could use it if this subject needs adressing more

[@volfas5]

Around 42 mins the word you are looking for is gaslighting, Milkandcookies is basically gaslighting his audience into agreeing with him

[@Volound]

yeah that describes it pretty well. "im not punching you, youre punching me".

[@m_h8745]

DUDE I've been hoping for a response to milkandcookiesTW. Watching his last vid made my blood boil. (I'm commenting before I even watch Volunds response) I'm too amped up haha

[@cyllananassan9159]

milkandcookiesTW blocks people and deletes messages, he is the lowest of the shills

[@Horganizer]

I get a vibe that you’d do a great job at reviewing books in a video essay medium. If you were ever to cover some books you’ve been reading I’d tune in.

[@Volound]

not as much of a reader as i used to be but i appreciate the sentiment, maybe one day.

[@slobodanj91]

I would just like to add a +1 to this idea, it would be awesome!

[@MSF_Soldier_Alligator]

Blood DLC was the beginning of the end.

[@LordOfWar_sos]

I recently came back to Total War after some years and wasn't really keen on trying out the newer games so I reinstalled Med2 and looked around for some mods. Buddy of mine told me to check out Tsardoms:TW and I was blown away by what the mod offered. Lots of historically accurate factions, units, scripts, etc. I had that feeling I got from FotS all those years ago. And it was completely free. Then the DLC controversy popped off and I just couldn't stop laughing at how pathetic CA's current offering is next to the community. We don't need these clowns anymore. Let it all burn. And let the shills go down with the ship.

[@headlessfool7050]

If its your thing a bit, check out DaC (Divide and Conquer), a LotR mod for Mad2 . Its incredible .

[@vikingcathq]

1:07:08 - The early access e-mails clearly have the line 'You cannot make a 'review' or 'impressions' video.' under 'What can't you show?', so he's clearly lying. I still have those e-mails if anyone would contest this. In other words you could show gameplay but not say anything meaningful about it or tell people whether or not it's good. The very thing people would want to check out your videos for and a very odd thing for a company to be concerned about if they have faith in their product.

[@Volound]

yeah of course. its quite clearly a gagging order. a non-disparagement agreement. "give us guaranteed exposure and at the same time guarantee no real negative judgement". all the good and none of the bad. perfect for shills.

[@tannerhill9648]

I don't play Warhammer as I'm on console but man I had no idea how much drama this community had. Wish more youtubers would call out these paid shills that don't care about gaming and take advantage of their subs. Kudos for calling this shit out!

[@Volound]

cheers bro. and yeah it makes me feel like i shoulda been saying all this in 2013 and rallying what few people were around back then (including some friends on youtube that were covering total war prominently) into pushing back harder. at least i can do it now, anyway.

[@tannerhill9648]

​@@VoloundGenuinely thinking about starting a yt channel so I can throw my 2 cents in lol I'm sure you've heard of Assassin's Creed Mirage? Some early gameplay impressions just dropped from creators I genuinely like. Sponsored of course And they're telling people to pre order a game made by Ubisoft. 🤡🤡 Keep up the fight for good games man. Thank you for not selling out 🍻 🍻

[@JB-hp5ii]

There clearly is some major cognitive dissonance at play here given the repetition of "it's their job" while also being at pains to appear independent and not being paid by CA. Don't think it'll be as newsworthy, but this is another social media influencer crisis in the making, promoting products that consumers don't like puts these guys right in the firing line, and so CA seem to win again - they've farmed out marketing for free to KZbin, now they can farm out Customer Services and Investor Relations too. 🤦

[@Volound]

yep exactly. reminds me of this, too: "Currently, and probably even more in the future, the video game user's free and immaterial labor is being exploited on both an explicit and implicit level in multiple ways. Not only the use and exploitation of what is known as user-generated content in an increasing amount of video games, but also the literal exploitation of users free and immaterial labor to save money on the costly process of thoroughly testing games before their release. Both of these processes of free and immaterial labor are intrinsically related to the concept and implementation of the DLC model. As such, this video game industry trend rises at a time when the exploitation of the video game user reaches an all time high through the confluence of commodification and free labor. First, a definition of what constitutes free labor and immaterial labor in a political ecoDemocratic Communiqué 25, No. 1, Spring 2012 Commodification of the Video Game / Lizardi 41 9 Lizardi: DLC: Perpetual Commodification of the Video Game Published by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst, 2021 nomic sense will obviously be helpful for this analysis. Free labor is a relatively easy concept to explain, as it is simply labor for which no payment is given. This is, however, separate from the concept of surplus value, which refers to the time labored after which a worker has produced enough value for their employer to pay for their days' wage (Marx 1978, 357). Free labor on the other hand refers to production where no monetary compensation is rendered whatsoever. Free labor differs slightly as well from the classic definition of immaterial labor, which has been defined as labor that "produces the informational and cultural content of the commodity" (Lazzarato 1996, 133). Immaterial labor refers mainly to that which does not have a material basis, also described as information as a commodity. Categories include "audiovisual production, advertising, fashion, the production of software, photography, cultural activities, and so forth", and most significant this concept forces "us to question the classic definitions of work and workforce" (Lazzarato 1996, 136). Looking at these two definitions, does immaterial labor correspond directly to free labor? Certainly not as one is inherently free and the other only tends to be so, but the two are often found together, especially when it comes to the production of value that users generate for the video game industry. One example of this confluence of DLC, free labor, immaterial labor, and exploitation is in the increasing area of what is known as user-generated content. Simply put, this content was produced by the users themselves and not by the video game developers, but significantly most times created with tools provided by the developers. This content ranges from expansions on the content of the game itself, to new ways to utilize a game. One example is the generation of new music tracks for games like Guitar Hero: World Tour (2008) created through the proprietary "GHTunes" tool. These songs were labored over by consumers of this product and are then able to be uploaded to a server, with no compensation to the creator, for all users of this game to download. Other users are not charged a fee for downloading these songs, though future subscription fees have been discussed, but this is still exploitative of free labor because users have added "value" to this game and its attractiveness for consumers without any direct compensation. The exact same model is also being used in other games like the Little Big Planet series (2008 - present) for which users create new levels in which other owners of the games can download and play. Again, this download service is free, but this is still a DLC transaction and users are the ones adding value without extracting monetary compensation."

[@JB-hp5ii]

@@Volound Unfortunately the technology seems to have set us off on this downward spiral. Now that downloadable products, patching and DLC add-ons are possible the "derivatives" marketeers are in full swing. Can't say I know what a gaming "crash" looks like, but it probably resembles a cackle of rabid Hyenas fighting over a carcass.

[@boxcutter8887]

I have a new "non-argument" for this: "But mate, im just doin' muh job."

[@Loalrikowki]

Me: alarmed at seeing Volound is subscribed to Vaush 53:50 Oh, okay. never mind.

[@Gr_ywind]

M&C is being totally disingenuous while creating strawmen up the arse with that video, I remember seeing it and tuning out after 4 minutes. Using strawmen to get your point across is something that will come back to bite you, especially how we now know what a shite product he promoted all the while KNOWING the full state of it. Absolutely disgraceful.

[@gandalfthegreat713]

52 minutes in , expected a critique of the warhammer policy , ended up with economical philosophy insights , thank you volound !

[@Pers0n97]

Soymilk&cookies have always been the worst, the slimiest of chills for warhammer games in general (I haven't forgotten his awful shilling for the obvious pieces of shit that were going to be Hiredgun and Necromunda) and TWW in particular. He is literally the kind of guy that make a video to tell you he didn't do what is now the accepted paradigm (this DLC is awful, everyone need to boycott it) despite his channel clearly showing he did do it. He is the perfect example of what a shill looks like when the whole community shift agaisnt a product they are used to shill for totally unchallenged.

[@Daiciyomon_4594]

Nathan the great book of Grudges and Cody being double standard these days

[@Volound]

ill have to look into it

[@ginnotheseer7624]

The TW shill community's reaction to you reminds me of "100 Authors against Einstein", if Einstein were wrong it would only take one. If you were wrong...

[@Momomomsen]

The Mr Gotcha point is kind of stupid. What are we supposed to take away from this whole point? So because we are all indirectly participating in the exploitation, it is okay to buy an overpriced DLC because otherwise you are a hyprocrite? Does he even listen to himself?

[@Volound]

yeah exactly. all you have to do is restate it and it immediately becomes obvious how retarded it is.

[@NeilMartin98]

Lionheartx10 had a 19%ish discount code for the next DLC, pretending he's doing you a favor.

[@Volound]

yeah thats the worst part. they pretend theyre helping you out LOL.

[@NeilMartin98]

@@Volound I sleep happily knowing they hate playing these buggy shit games for some form of income.

[@MasonDixonAutistic]

Can't post link to Steam Charts without risking this comment going into pre-mod, but during the run of Warhammer 2, there was a massive spike in concurrent players every time a new DLC launched, as well as an expected but way smaller dip beginning when they were first announced or leaked. This happened so many times, giving WH2 so many second-chances, that the game hit it's record peak concurrent players almost three years after release. This is what CA managed to do with WH2 between 2017-2021, which it now seems could not have been achieved without ruthlessly culling support on Thrones of Britannia after it flopped harder than any other modern(2013-) TW game. The DLC button on the title menu wasn't even removed: it's just always greyed-out if you already have the Attila blood pack DLC. Almost no one that still thought CA was a good game developer would accept the obvious even after it had long gone past the "what a strange pattern of events I've noticed for some reason" sign-post. It was a zero-sum matter of company resources and what project they were being prioritised on. They sort of only clicked when Three Kingdoms had it's support(and an already-announced DLC) cancelled earlier than it was scheduled to: some part of Warhammer fans know their hobby/fandom isn't universal despite CA's marketing bullshit making them think it is. CA could cancel Warhammer, if it suited them to do so. There are significant signs that I've Nooticed(I have become a greater Nooticer than I ever thought possible) that they may have cancelled Warhammer 3 even before it launched, but the sales and marketing strategy relies on spending what is just a fraction of the marketing budget to present that as not the case. WH3 has had an appalling rate of updates when compared with titles that were just as successful only a few years ago. In the case of Attila, CA's biggest Nu TW flop prior to Thrones of Britannia; it was getting updates up until less than a few months before the first WH game launched. WH3 by contrast has had an average of 3 months of support, stretched out over it's entire first year. CA may be right that they intend to 'support' it for a long span of time, but the investment has been choked into a rounding-error on a balance sheet. DLC has only been profitable thus far because it has been very cheaply-produced and highly-overpriced. The ROI is extremely high, whiles sales volumes are terrible even for the bestest-selling Warhammer gameplay content DLC. That content being implemented is what most of the tiny budget is spent on. CA probably don't hire many Nooticers, because I Nooticed that Warhammer 3 has come close only once to surpassing it's launch-period concurrent player spike; the first time, after a long-delayed package of patch(enabling content mostly already in the game but requiring almost a complete re-download) and DLC. It almost halved after that, then narrowing down to remaining players that are newer and even didn't buy around launch at all. SteamDB estimates of the latest DLC rely on projecting the number of Steam reviews as representing between 22%-55% of those who own it on Steam, so it has a wider range for uncertainty. A huge number of reviews for the DLC are negative(23% positive), and as shills themselves like to argue: negative reviews are more motivated.

[@Volound]

if you post a link as a response to this, i can approve it. and yep the lack of updates is the dead giveaway that always made me suspect this is different. i just see the life being very rapidly choked out of warhammer. the most cynical interpretation is that they are just trying to let the whole endeavour dry up and die (and all the butthurt fans leave), so they can full steam ahead with non-warhammer total war projects with similarly small budget and expected high ROI for repeated slash and buirn. or maybe just hyenas.

[@DeadLikeMeJ]

@Volound Milk did had over the years some valid criticims towards CA, but he is also a big WH fan, so at least for most of the years of him covering WH I geniunely think he wasn't shilling and was happy with the quality of the content he was recieving. WH fans that popped into TW most for WH (I know people like those) care for things that are probably even going against the core of what I consider of TW, things like player-drive-story & sandbox compared to narrative & guided experience (I really dislike the immortality that was introduced in later TWs and became a core feature of WH). Milk criticized the sieges, the the lack of multiple people on multipalyer campaigns, the AI, and much more the problem is that like many he didn't do it enough. I think that video of his is a huge mistep that he might regret, not only for not standing with the community he saw much wants seeing thriving but for taking so much time to focus on things such as the two people who might have not asked nicely or ethical consumption... As for impact and responsibility of youtubers, its complicated, I am saying it as someone who voted on your poll with the majority. Part of the problem is not only the youtuber himself but the community, while you draw your audience who is more open to hear criticism, some of the youtubers intentionally or not created channels which drew audiences which don't wanna hear criticism - I unfortunately knew people like this as well - and then there is the question of serving the content not for yourself but for your audience, many of their viewers might abandon them if they focus on the negatives to much but will keep buying DLC and playing the game. I know this on my own flash as someone who was very critical of TW for ages and had recieved a lot of pushback... because criticism while being healthy can not be perceived to be untill people dive deep (the amount of people who don't understand the importance of campaign systems like population or diplomacy and how they directly translate to challenge, fun, and organic/sandbox experience did really frustrate me for along time). Even worse Power Creeps and flashy mechanics sell like candy but are unhealthy to the game as they demand double the work (creating them and then fixing them) and they are harming the entire experience while costing resources from developing proper improvements. I agree with the sentiment of let it die, unfortunately TW will not die any time soon the franchise is profitable, even at normal prices. Older games even Rome II which you criticized a lot are still being placed by thousands of people daily (probably thanks to mods such as DEI but still), Hack even Troy & ToB have 250-350 daily averages average. So I am pretty sure that WH with its WH fanbase, as the TW title with the longest support time (yes with all the downsides of that game and how far it is from being in a good state due to baked in bad designs, balance issues, and bugs the game still is has some of the best QoL, graphics, UI in the series) will have players playing it even in 5 years from now probably a few thousands daily. That being said the true tragedy of WH as is it with all other TW games, is the wasted potential, the game is suffering a decline of players already now - if CA had actually invested into this franchise their peaks could have been much higher. Hack they had proven to themsevles that proper support can draw back players and even increase player counts (as other games had proven) but lack of support kills those (cause part of the reason people come back to a game is the promise/hope of a better future for it). I expect CA to fuck up a bit less with the next DLC and with it being focused on the Empire & Dwarves (two of the most popular races) I am sure CA will draw a lot more players and the title will not die any time soon... but WH games used to have almost 35-40K daily, for a period of time, if CA had actually improved the core of the game they could have even larger numbers for lengther time. As for the Death of TW, I am not big fan of just calling doom, cause everything will come to ruin eventually, I am sure at 50BC someone told a prophacy about the end of the Romans... but it didn't happen then and it won't happen with Pharaoh and probably not the game after that as well because CA's strategy for a long time as you said it yourself wasn't building up their Game & their audience, but rather dump people who ask/expect for much and move on to new folk that can just get excited from the brand new title they discovered without being aware of the past. 40K will probably one day arrive (6~ years) and when it will come out, it will make a lot of money for CA (way more 40K fans than WH ones, and look how lucrative and numerable they were). As for other titles, Pharaoh is a SAGA/Follow-up game (annualized cheap product) in everything but name, and there is already enough people who seem to be happy to buy it and for 60$ per sale, they won't need to much to sale in order to make it profitable. The next major title will probably draw enough players as it will offer enough to lure people in (just like I was lured in for 3K's diplomacy, and I will be honest it was HUGE, but the problem as always that CA had stepped back in to many other areas, as you are well aware off). The only real thin that might kill TW then is competition and no indie game will be able to compete with AI on its first go. Beyond CA's graphics are leaps and bounds ahead of what anyone else could offer, having an engine that can handle so many entities on the battlefield isn't a simple task. Manor Lord who might caught attention of many of the TW players don't aim to compete with TW and even if the combat will be somewhat similar the scale will not be even close which means that at the best case only a sequal for Manor Lords could start working on catching up and even that is unlikely as I don't think Unreal Engine is equipped into pushing in that direction (I might be wrong). Which means are only hope is Paradox, which seems unlikey they care for that direction and to be honest they aren't much better than CA - the only good thing is that if they buttout on the audience the audience will be the only to earn from that but it is very unlikely to happen. Anyway good video you put out there, thanks for being a voice of reason over all (even if sometimes I have small disagreements with you), you are almost the only one left to be outspoken in not only criticising CA but also actively standing on them getting better. Cody Banks (had a great short review), Legend, and some others are saying their piece and moving on with their community - understand why but it still saddens me. P.s. One thing I have noticed as people start to realize that this is the end of the line of WH (many of them never thought this day will come so soon, calling WH the 'flagship' of CA which is funny as its clear they didn't learn from anything from the past) I started to notice they are waking up to the state of the game, AI videos which were really common during Rome II's starting to pop up as the WH crowd starts to understand the importance of AI (which many of them didn't when they were new to the franchise). But even now, a majority of players still don't realize that not only they needed to demand those fixes on release, but they still need to stand their ground and demand them now - yes even sieges! (which unfortunately not many do, they probably will wake up in 5 years crying).

[@CacneaMain]

Somehow Milkandcookies video didn't even include the most Shit take I've heard a TW KZbinr give on SoC. Loremaster of Sotek stated this near the end of his one hour review: "I am a tabletop Player. I'm used to getting scammed and bled dry by Games Workshop when buying miniatures and in comparison this DLC offers pretty good content." I don't think I've been more baffled by anything in a game "review" in my life. Edit: That´s not his literal statement just to clarify

[@maximusd26]

yoooo the argument of "yeah it's bad and unethical but not as bad as slavery or forced labour" is wild af, (40:05) like what the hell that's like 10x worse than a simple gotcha

[@Volound]

of course. its like dropping a nuke of pure nihilism.

[@enjoythestruggle]

Volound my man you are relentless.

[@crazycrazy-vr9hj]

That is the issues with most modern games. Developers don't see gamers as players, but more like sheeps willing to buy every overprice thing they throw out. And what happen to modern gamers? Now days people are buying games for their ghaphics over gamplay, instead of gameplay over ghapics. Everything is like Fortnite like now. Some games' quality of life is so atrocious that the game become a second job. Some game you can't even play without having the best computer. That is why indie games like Battle Bits and Zero Sievert is a nice change.

[@williamhenry8914]

POV: You're a French collaborator in 1944. CA Shills: 'relatable'.

[@beliserre]

I’m an old player of TW, started with Medieval 2 (Still my favorite at this day). Like many of people here i saw the decline of Creative Assembly who fell for greed and unethical marketing strategies, it’s just fucking sad bros, like i feel it’s end of an era.

[@RequiemDusk]

All of this could be avoided if CA focused more on developing quality tactical games and less on marketing schemes - people would want to buy and play those games naturally, no shills required. They can't do it though, it's at least 10 years too late and I doubt they even have a team capable of it.

[@Merohill]

Have you seen milkandcookiestw's old video called "ELTHARION THE GRIM MORTAL EMPIRES CAMPAIGN - The Warden and the Paunch DLC - Total War Warhammer 2"? skip to the 1:03:26 mark This is the most beautiful example of the level of play the shill is capable of.

[@Volound]

[@Voz1549]

Thank you for covering this. I'm not up to date with everything CA does, but the latest dlcs, made me look up what the community reaction was like... dissappointed in so many I used to watch

[@Platoonterror]

Well it's not the first time he did something like this. I remember when the embargo on WH3 ended he claimed legend of not enjoying the game due to playing all day and somewhat defended CA while all of us where really disappointed with RoC ( at that time I finished my first realm of Tzeench and I was mad had to use a mod to disable the mechanic) . Now when the game and the franchise are in a critical moment here he goes again

[@thespanishinquisitionn]

The milkandcookies video is very clearly him not wanting to burn bridges with CA, but clearly seeing that he is on a sinking ship.

[@gaz6704]

I watched that video before I even saw yours and I dipped out right after his rant about unethical things happening in the world. I was thinking, "what kind of tangent is he going on here? Bad-stuff-happens-so-my-bad-practices-are-ok?" I haven't made a channel or videos due to lack of time and shite internet, but if I ever do I'll try to keep the Voloundian Strategy in mind (i,e.: not bending over backwards as a useful idiot for content creator status).

[@arthor3]

I bought medieval 2 for 30 bucks and there is so much more to do than Warhammer 3 itself

[@Volound]

yeah it really is shocking. ive been playing medieval 1 (a game from 2002) and thinking the same thing.

[@arthor3]

Amazing video! I think the gaming community as a whole need to hear you it's insane how rampant these problem are

[@LordBurgerofFriesland]

Including playing Warhammer, lol. Go check out the Battle of the End Times mod, it's cool.

[@arthor3]

@@LordBurgerofFrieslandapparently the Warhammer mod is better than the game 🤣I'm definitely going to give it a shot thanks

[@dr.feelgoodmalusphillips2475]

I ironically got an ad from a Shillfluencer from clicking on this video.

[@damascene8777]

great video volound. this guys vid is just a prime example of how to defend a blatantly exploitative/malicious practice while trying to appear nuanced and balanced through deliberately mudding the waters with fallacious arguments to trick people into thinking their outrage is unjustified and should just shut up and accept the status quo. the midwits who do this and actually believe it are the most infuriating people out there

[@beetheimmortal]

I wonder, what motivates someone to do this? It's not like TW is that popular nowadays, I don't think there's *that* good money in it. So then what? Is their dignity really worth so little?

[@Volound]

yeah i really dont get it. there has to be more efficient and satisfying ways to sell out. surely. RTT/RTS games aint it.

[@TeamOneDay]

Some form of sunk cost fallacy perhaps? Or perhaps that the money made, no matter how much it is, is easy money. Just say a few good things and show that you're a good little soldier, then sit back and watch CA and your viewers pay you. Then again if Bethestards exist then CAtards will exist.

[@noahtremblay2676]

Almost like he likes their games. He not just feeding off hate content and being hyperbole. They are morons but your a massive hater.

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

attention is often times a stronger motivator than monetary gain (and in fact, the desire for monetary gain is usually just a means to get that attention) TW is such a dead franchise with a barren youtube scene that it's ripe for the taking if you're that kind

[@TeamOneDay]

@@dishonorable_daimyo1498 Lol 2 months later. Good input regardless.

[@jawsofwar]

Never Pre-order! Totally Agree. Pre-ordered Rome 2 and that taught me a valuable lesson. My friend pre-ordered Cyberpunk 2077 for me….

[@user-kz6jp9kl4l]

Friend preordered you a game? I thought I was the only one

[@TheMuncyWolverine]

Hey Volound, do you have a word for the type of function a person like milkandcookies serves? I personally was looking for a channel like yours for a long time but characters like milkandcookies were recommended to me instead. There has to be a word for this. Goalie? something?

[@Volound]

brown-noser, stooge, shill, accomplice, shillfluencer, con-artist, propagandist, fraudster, hustler, charlatan

[@aquapendulum]

Any redemption way after taking commission from Warhammer 3 preorder links is no redemption at all.

[@Hary_Half-Mast]

Its really hard to listen to this man, but he says things we all need to hear

[@Sultschiem]

The "Loud detractors" for instance would have been the people that couldn't stop pissing and moaning about Sigvald not being moved to Monogods or that the Marked Warriors and LL went to Warriors of Chaos instead of Monogods? Remember those weeks of nonstop hate-threads and that was just a handful of super angry people that did not reflect the player base at all? We also had people raging over Cylostra over Vangheist for a long time...Remember that?

[@Visitormassacre]

To be fair, in hindsight moving Sigbald to monogods wouldn't be out of the ordinary for CA. CA really loves to double dip in things you already paid for. Example A: They removed the Dark Elf mechanics and gave them to the Chaos Dwarfs. So you had to pay an additional 25 USD for something you already paid 60 USD for. Example B: They moved High Elf and Lizardman mechanics to Yuan Bo. So again, you have to pay 25 USD for something you already spent 60 USD for... God bless CA and its predatory practices.

[@Sultschiem]

@@Visitormassacre They could not do that with sigvald, he was an advertised character of a dlc. Pulling him out of that and into another makes them sueable in some countries.

[@Albukhshi]

@ 8:55 So basically, he managed after all this zift it-teen to say absolutely nothing of substance about the game itself. Strong used car salesman vibes out of this guy, as he encourages preorder. EDIT: wanted to add something, but YT added a fit. It was about this: @ 1:18:10 That...That's impressive!

[@sercravenmohead3631]

I don’t think CA will collapse, you guys gotta separate WHTW from classic TW. It was never supposed to cater to historical fans, this game was made to target Warhammer Fantasy Tabletop and simulate that. It actually does that really well and to them it’s a great warhammer game but to you it’s a shitty TW. Warhammer fans all have Stockholm syndrome from Games workshop, if you think CA is anywhere close to as greedy as them I got news for you. They can justify $25 no problem because that’s what they are USED to! That’s why WHTW pays the bills at CA, they picked a great franchise to milk dry and when it’s done they’ll probably do Lord of the Rings and chop that up with 20-30 lord packs. They know what they are doing and that’s to make as much money as possible. Warhammer fans would actually argue CA has done more for the franchise than GW.

[@Matt-ni8jh]

>why do you have to be a little rent boy Lmfao love you Volound mate, nobody dismantles this piece of shit franchise and the people that peddle it quite like you

[@benfrancis7745]

I don't know if anyone else feels like this this but from Warhammer onwards it almost feels like its less of a war game and more just a fighting simulator. To me it feels like CA used to respect that fact that yes, war is BAD but its a pretty fun game. This is purely an immersion thing for me but its more about how the battles feel, in Shogun 2, men have guttural screams as they die, as poor as Rome 2 and Attila are, at least they take the time to try and feel dramatic and impactful even if it doesn't work through the music and atmosphere. Medieval 2 and Napoleon are the masters of using their musical scores to add tension and make each individual soldier's deaths have significant weight to them. From Warhammer onwards, I cannot get immersed into my soldiers lives as they jump around like Master Yoda trying to hit a general who will inevitably kill them. That leads me onto another point that the old games used to be about your general and his soldiers, not just the general. I've had enough of watching Kholek smack around a whole army, I don't want that, I want my men to fight to the death under insurmountable odds because of numbers, terrain, tactics, training, equipment, technology. Not just, "yeah but that guy has a massive fuck off hammer". I just thought of this last night so it probably makes no sense, just felt like putting it out there to see if anyone else feels the same.

[@princeniccolo8299]

I couldn’t bring myself to finish that milk and cookies video cause I was bored a few minutes in. Was excited to see a Volund video on it. Hell, I had no idea how deluded and indignant he would get in it. No such thing as ethical capitalism broke me. Would of never even commented if it weren’t for that. The fact that you even have the ability to make ethical decisions AT ALL in what you purchase is in part thanks to capitalism.

[@Chames222]

if the escargot is spoiled the cook should be the first to cry out!

[@rebidiom2578]

I wouldn't be surprised if Shadows Of Change DLC was performing well in United States and then fall quite hard in other countries. Then again we are talking about warhammer fans that play Warhammer tw for just warhammer as I don't see other reasons for literally wasting your lifetime to git gud at it. Never treat these people seriously as they don't treat themselves seriously nor are aware they are a living joke. Holy Fuck MilkAndCookies you are doing a charity work at this point LMAO.

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

So wait, are you telling me, like, seriously, are you arguing or maybe just implying that shilling does not is worth in 2023??? This is PROFOUND and it CHANGES EVERYTHING. You said WHAT??? Also that unexpected cameo at around the 30 minute mark IT BROKE NEW GROUND

[@Volound]

😂😂😂 i wanted to spend even more time on that terminal-shillinator section but i was already pushing up to 2 hours. its going to be a fun next few months/years for us.

[@karosthephilosopher1512]

obviously total war is screwed. What now though? any recommendations for better strategy games?

[@Wllp61561]

protracted people's war against CA

[@Volound]

bide your time and pick your fights. draw them out into the open during moments of crisis. strike quick and hard and defeat in detail. topple them one at a time.

[@vikingcathq]

58:08 - 'Nexus has nothing to do with CA.' It was literally part of the content creator program to set up a Nexus account and be able to make money through those links. CA had to communicate with Nexus to tell them who their affiliated creators were in order for you to even be able to get such a link for your own channel. I know, because I was there and I set it up for myself. I probably still have those links somewhere even though they would no longer be functioning (I stopped covering Total War). How can he honestly claim this?

[@emrecanarduc4378]

I NEED TO CONSOOOM DLCs 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤

[@enlightenedvagabond3556]

IMMA COOOOOOM

[@Ironthis]

If I want to play a total war game I guess I'll just stick to the older ones pre-rome 2, play them vanilla or with mods.

[@lorenzofedrizzi8825]

Am I the only one who has almost always be let down by TW battle maps in general ? I mean in RTW you couldn't pretend much, in Medieval 2 there were sometimes some structures like churches and some ridicolously high mountains and that was ok, Empire and Napoleon had the most generic and flat battle maps possible with a road in the middle, Rome 2 and Attila same flat extremly generic battle maps, Three Kingdoms I can't comment because I haven't played it that much, strangely enough the battle maps of ToB I liked and Troy I have played it too little too comment, but in general you almost never find yourself in a little village or with a good hill when you are getting attacked I mean the maps are really bland most of the times.

[@Volound]

yes, this is one of my big issues. the earlier games were way more inspired. medieval 1 probably did this the best AGAIN. medieval 1 so often is just better than every other offering. its embarrassing.

[@talavb9301]

So, I appreciate where you're coming from. I'm a professional economic consultant, my day job is spent thinking about market design. Pricing a base game and then iterations of DLC in this fashion is just very basic, cost-effective price discrimination: deliver the base-game at a reasonable price a year or two after release in a sale, and nickel-and-dime the hell out of everyone else who's willing to pay. This is what I get paid to advise rational corporations on how to implement. Now, does this kill the original playerbase? Possibly, probably. Suck all the joy out of the games? Yeah. I still play Shogun 2 and mods for Medieval 2, I never bought 3K, or Attila, or that ToB nonsense, and I got disgusted with WHII about halfway through the DLC pipeline. I'm wealthy enough that I'm more annoyed that the games are shit than that they're overpriced. Bit it's all in all pretty shitty. And it seems that they're not doing so well financially out of it, which is pretty incompetent on their part. It's all quite sad, and I'm waiting for Skyblivion and Manor Lords. Actually still haven't yet bought Bannerlord, will probably do so next winter sale or something (never buy less than a year after release lol) That being said, I have a hard time buying into thinking of the corporation or the shills that support them as evil. This is a marketplace, there's always going to be a bit of zero-sum involved, and therefore a bit of us-vs-them: they want our money whilst delivering minimum effort, we want maximal quality at the cheapest price. Everyone's just looking out for themselves, is my view. Obviously, if we as interested consumers want to get the upper hand, we'd better do what we can to paint the corporation as evil, mobilize the less-interested masses to boycott, etc. etc. I don't have the means, you have a channel and you're generating positive externalities for the community by doing so. But I'm tired! I just go home and play Prophecy of Pendor, you can do the hard work hahaha

[@saelaird]

Play Shogun 2, everyone. It's awesome.

[@Siptom369]

CA is just going downhill these past few days

[@pompeythegreat297]

The shills panicking realizing they have to pay 300$ for DLC...... TO ENJOY A COMPLETE GAME LOL They deserve to rot in hell

[@mootedtols4865]

some of us stuck around with rome 2 for a while, trying to mod it into something worthwhile. I think we did ok, but when looking back at all that work. It wasn't worth it. Should have jumped ship. You made the right call.

[@napoleonbonaparte7692]

Didn't watch this video, but it's your most recent one so just wanted to say that I've become bigger and bigger of a fan of yours. Probably helped when I realized how great shogun 2 really is. Keep doing what your doing I appreciate your contribution to this community 👍

[@cynfaelalek-walker7003]

There's A Warhammer Mod for Medieval 2 & A LOTR Mod & Both are better than all of the Post Rome II games, & they're free.😐

[@facethemoosikrts6527]

It's very difficult for big companies to change direction so they are almost guaranteed to go too far. For a push-back to happen you just need to wait for the masses of morons to finally see the light once it literally pokes them in the eye.

[@aleksandersokal5279]

I do not really get the bit about Arch and Sargon could somebody elaborate it for me? Because I kind of blanked at that point, like reading and suddenly not understanding the book.

[@BokeenGaming]

i miss the good old days of melkor timelapses, now that was sum reel shit

[@Merohill]

You can just hear the ineptitude in his shill voice.

[@carbonjohnson6414]

Nice dissection. Shillandcookies is such a smarmy, self-righteous little critter.

[@Dolfy]

I think Indypride would've gotten away with it if he just didn't make this absurd video. Still no clue what went through his mind to justify even saying all these examples of restaurants and the guy at the kitchen having to boycott a REAL job or african child labourers mining cobalt like what the fuck this is a video game and besides - the guy could've made videos about literally anything in the meantime like what he did with showcasing BoTET mod when WH2 was about to launch.