Zero Punctuation: An Analysis of Corporate Failure

[@QosmicVoid]

I want to make a note here in case it wasn't clear in the video itself : *I do not condone any harassment of any of the current workers at the Escapist, or even Gamur's group.* Be as mean as you like about the executives and shareholders, but not the social media managers, article writers, or anyone else. At best it's harassing people who had nothing to do with this, at worst, it's deflecting blame away from the executives, which is exactly what they want. I cannot stress this enough - *Do not harass any of the workers* .

[@joshportal2808]

I have tons of stories of friends and family work for a company and the overhead broke down the entire company. I have a few stories where my friend saved the company and then the CEO bankrupted the company and sued my friend.

[@wakkaseta8351]

Riiiiiiiight, I get ya 😉😉

[@gamepapa1211]

I just emailed an escapist employee saying this, "Hey, hang in there. It's rough when your boss is a bunch of twats. Believe me, I know. And if you could, pass this message to your bosses: 'you're all a bunch of twats.' Thanks, love!"

[@elextrano7597]

I disagree on the money part, i love money but hate the assholess that abuse the game mechanics to screw up others. I wont destroy a game i love because of power gamer...but I will gladly help you burn theit shit down tho because they are asking for a beat down for raping capitalism. Cool video also

[@erascarecrow2541]

Hey there. Been tinkering with some effects that i personally think makes ZP (and thus ramblomatic) funnier; Though contacting Yahtzee may or may not have an effect (and may or may not be wanted). Figure if you're interested i got a 10minute 2015 sample that encapsulates it.

[@WhiplashSL]

*"Your father ruled this land for 70 years, and you've ground it to dust in a matter of days."*

[@orboakin8074]

Is that a line someone said during the Reconquista?

[@It-Will-All-Be-Okay-I-Promise]

@@orboakin8074 it’s from a Warcraft game apparently. Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos

[@orboakin8074]

@@It-Will-All-Be-Okay-I-Promise thanks

[@crimsondynamo615]

@@orboakin8074yeah Uther says that when Death Knight Arthas came to get the urn containing his father’s ashes, said father’s ashes being Arthas’ father that Arthas had killed.

[@Ht9ehtoom]

Crazy to see a wc reference in the wild

[@benwasserman8223]

Mad props for recreating Yahtzee's entire show format for the purpose of honoring his legacy. Hopefully he and the blokes at Second Wind give you a shoutout for this video.

[@Sonicfalcon16]

There's was like one other person who did that and made anime reviews. It's was fun

[@KaneLowwind]

It's been so long since I watched an actual Zero Punctuation video, and this guy's voice and accent sound similar enough to Yahtzee (or at least how I remember him sounding) that for the first couple of minutes I thought this was actually him sneakily throwing shade at The Escapist (and by extension Gamurs)

[@Felixman128]

I think he made a cameo in the video itself unless that was a reused voice line from a review

[@spenceduggs]

I'm laughing at the realization that "Fully Ramblomatic" even has the same sylable count as "Zero Punctuation."

[@QosmicVoid]

WAIT YOU'RE RIGHT THATS HYSTERICAL

[@wobblysauce]

I do miss the lighter yellow colour

[@arkhe1n107]

@@wobblysauce it's just a matter of getting used to the new design.

[@gabrote42]

That was true since before we even HAD ZP and it was just the first 2 FR episodes

[@EliseOfTheValley]

It’s also the name of his old website from back when he started ZP

[@denmark1226]

To correct you slightly, the recent firing of Nick and others and the subsequent mass resignation was not done by The Escapist. Nick was top dog at The Escapist, as well as a head figure for multiple other groups under Gamurs, the parent company. Gamurs executives were the one who fired Nick, for even more reasons than you know. The Escapist now consists only of a few article writers who post on the website, and they are entirely innocent in any of shenanigans here.

[@hafirenggayuda]

And Gamurs just recently acquire The Escapist (about a year). This is basically corporate takeover. Those who resign probably realize they also still in the layoff list

[@R3GARnator]

They fired Nick because growth was going up, just not up enough.

[@kiruppert]

Yeah, I kinda feel like painting the storied history of the Escapist as a pattern of abuse ignores that the magazine had a number of corporate overlords in its time, which tended to be bad in their own special and unique ways. The people who were shitty to Extra Credits were not the same people who were shitty to Nick Calandra.

[@haydentravis3348]

@@kiruppert Shitty people tend to all be the same type, though. They can't take no for an answer and if you dare say no to them, they'll take it personally. Beyond that, nothing else matters.

[@noahbossier1131]

Are they gonna shut it down. Also why did gamers fire him

[@cattysplat]

It's actually insane Yahtzee never just broke off and made his own channel, whilst letting the Escapist suffer it's own downfall. Dude must have been the last guy keeping a legacy 2000s website relevent.

[@NoFlu]

He seems to not want to be involved in running the show, just clock in, do his videos, hand the vid over to be uploaded, clock out, get the cheque at the end of the month.

[@lemmmakestunes8312]

Correct me if I'm wrong but a non-compete might be involved?

[@GhostrareStardust]

Pokemon serebii is still up but ya

[@amythistxue1]

to add it's not even an overstatement that Zero Punctuation was the only thing that kept Escapist alive for as long as it has been, starting in 2015 Defy media started cutting staff, and by 2017 all that was left of the site was basically Yahtzee and 1-2 people to make sure it stayed online and that the weekly ZP went up on time

[@OnyxAlchemyst]

And Yahtzee has said in interviews afterward that one of the reasons he *did* pull the plug this time was because he didnt want to be in that same "lone survivor" position again. He really liked what Nick had done, and the team he now worked with, and he "couldn't see himself continuing without them" or something along those lines

[@Kaefer1973]

I reminds me of a local TV station (as in this distopian story doesn't take place in the US) who's owners fired their last production crew of their only remaining original program not because of a lack of success, but because they didn't even want to pay for one team and the studio it required anymore. Now there's 2 workers handling multiple TV stations of the same mother company running almost fully automatic only playing adds and old content. edit: To be fair they didn't fire their last crew they just didn't renew their contracts for next year, while being completely transparent with their stingy, stingy reasoning I think.

[@Code7Unltd]

@@Kaefer1973 Mind me asking which market this company was in? That sounds to me like New York's "Regional News Network". That network's now nothing more than a paid ShopHQ relay broken up in the mornings with episodes of Richard French's news show, minus French since he retired back in May of 2021.

[@Kaefer1973]

@@Code7Unltd The station in question was is a German national TV station. But the new parent company bought and automated stations in other european countries as well.

[@CoralCopperHead]

@@Kaefer1973 "they didn't fire their last crew they just didn't renew their contracts for next year" ...So they fired them.

[@jotacatalan]

gotta be honest with you, I have seen many people trying to imitate or copy how yatzhee does his shows, but you clearly became the closest to not only do it respectfully, but also almost perfectly. I saw your previous 2 videos about Bullfrog and Big-D and this last one made me fully wants to follow your grow and your opinions in whatever you do in the future. Hope to see you in the 100K+ subscriber list sooner rather than later.

[@QosmicVoid]

I guess all those hours of watching ZP while editing have finally paid off. Thank ye kindly - I've been having a lot of fun with these last three videos and the response has been encouraging. Thank you again!

[@wobblysauce]

Yep, the art style with the quips... Nailed it

[@blindedjourneyman]

he did a vid on bullfrog? know what Im watching next thx for tellin me.

[@FakeSchrodingersCat]

Needs slightly more dick jokes. But it is a better attempt then almost any of the others.

[@saulgallagher5668]

I reckon the British accent helps too lol

[@oni-linkle4880]

This is an AMAZING tribute to Zero Punctuation and Yahtzee's entire body of work. Incredible video.

[@GretgorPooper]

Your script at the start of the episode was really very authentic to Yahtzee's style, even the part where Yahtzee comes in. This was entertaining to watch.

[@alchemispark7751]

came for a comment on yahtzee's situation, got a thinly veiled manifesto. im not mad or dissapointed i just dont know what i was expecting

[@QosmicVoid]

Technically you got both

[@nananamamana3591]

Thinly is generous. This was about as thin as Marx's beard.

[@alchemispark7751]

@@nananamamana3591 you mean it was inbcredibly dense and non-transparent?

[@s.sradon9782]

@@nananamamana3591 The effects of disco elysium, some ideas are so absurd only an "intellectual" could believe them. I give benefit of doubt and assume he meant that you should look for better jobs, corpo bootlicking gets you nowhere and you should know your own value, which would be a revelation ...for a 13y/o. Doesn't mean you should go red, unless you want to find yourself on the dumb side of your comrade's gun bc you ate the last potato skin.

[@augustuslunasol10thapostle]

@@alchemispark7751 brother the veil wasnt even installed on the stage lmao

[@HyenaDandy]

Note: "Fully Ramblomatic" was aslo the name of Yahtzee's original website, where he hosted text articles.

[@Kimihro]

I’m glad you had that last section about the video aging well because Frost’s videos contextualizing his departure from Second Wind shed a lot of light on the inner workings of the Escapist’s losses and the habits and behaviors that had always bothered him with these people that had been taken into Second Wind without thinking things needed to change. I think Second Wind will be alright but there’s clearly a crusade being led by one of their biggest creators against the head of the group, one with receipts and a great desire to see something through

[@ninjahedgehog5]

I just deleted my over wordy comment since it was made on the belief that Nick's accounting of what happened at the escapist to be true especially when he told his tale on sidescrollers. Now that Frost outed him for promising that growth that he could not deliver, It seems that he's also a part of the problem. To me those cracks started showing when he got involved with SmashJT trying to backup fellow poor excuse of an editor, Allysa Mercanti.

[@BugsyFoga]

It’s crazy to think without warning zero punctuation is just no more.

[@Code7Unltd]

Executive meddling is heavy-handed and never expected.

[@lasarousi]

Semantics. The copyrighted title "zero punctuation" is no more, the concept of it and the original creator are literally still going on, with a legally distinct name. They're playing by the rules and sticking it to the conglomerate which is better than attaching to a legal name and working for a big ass.

[@pretends2know]

In some sense, zero punctuation ending with zero warning is probably how it was supposed to go down eventually.

[@jakespacepiratee3740]

Who cares

[@BugsyFoga]

@@jakespacepiratee3740 clearly not you

[@subtlewhatssubtle]

I work in a very curious space where I get to hear a lot of 'ground opinions' from production level employees regarding their supervisors, managers, all the way up to the CEOs and owners. One recurring theme I hear is how many people, in isolation, fantasize of stopping for a day just to affect the corporate types and punish them for misdeeds. More than once (more than several times in fact) I had to remind these employees that this action was known as 'striking' and had previously been a common union tactic. However, as modern American business culture has demonized unionization, I actually got pushback from these same employees for mentioning the very thing they wanted to do!

[@electricfishfan]

To my perception that’s because it’s a tossup (in the USA) whether any given union will do anything for an individual other than take their money and schedule a rep meeting which goes nowhere.

[@gabrote42]

Hilarious.

[@ShuRugal]

@@electricfishfanhuh, it's almost like the unions were infiltrated and taken over by the same sorts of people who run corporations. I think the solution to that problem is called "form new unions" and "only allow workers to join/lead the union"

[@dougneon9550]

​@@ShuRugalThat would eventually fall back into Oligarchy which is the primary issue of these sorts of "come together" groups, eventually someone becomes leadership and yes running a union like a corporation while simultaneously encouraging workers to use violence and property damage to get what they want is rich and deeply ironic

[@ShuRugal]

@@dougneon9550 the oligarchy have a long and proud history of using violence to get where they are. There's nothing ironic about pointing out the fact that that game can be played both ways.

[@charleycrissman]

It is worth reflecting on the fact that this sort of worker revolt was only possible in this case due to the low capital costs involved with production and publication in the modern world. KZbin (and similar services) in particular have removed the publication barrier that previously would have locked workers like this into working for one of a handful of oligarchs.

[@douglaswolfen7820]

Ooooof. I really want to agree with you. But at the same time… In a sense, KZbin __is__ one of the big oligarchs. Yes, they don't dictate what hours you work or what you say in your videos. But they also don't help you to thrive either. They just leave you to sink or swim based entirely on your own work, and then they cream off a percentage of the profits you make for them anyway. That's even better than having employees. It's more like being a medieval landlord: taxing their serfs for the privilege of working on land that the lord "provided" for them And they're capricious landlords too. They can bury you or promote you in the algorithm, for no apparent reason, they can impose whatever arbitrary standards they wish, and they can just confiscate all the profits from a video for "copyright reasons", when when those reasons are absolute bs Leaving the Eacapist was a great step in the right direction. But the world (and Second Wind) is still very much fucked by capitalism ☹️

[@EksaStelmere]

Much of the problem with corporatism is that it fundamentally doesn't understand what consumer purchasing power is supposed to be. The idea is that a consumer will spend money to acquire personal property (material wealth) from a company. An industry, then, is supposed to make lots and lots of potential material wealth for the consumer in exchange for capital (currency). These corporations have fundamentally forgotten that they're supposed to be selling a product and are, in effect, renting out their material value while actively refusing to part with anything. I 100% believe that the endgame is a streaming-only game industry where you own absolutely nothing and merely subscribe to a probably ever-increasing price. Whether or not that endgame is possible largely depends if they can keep convincing the government to print more money (robbing the taxpayer in the process) for themselves.

[@invalidusername9999]

This is very true, but applies to a whole lot more than just games. It's already happening across all entertainment media, and my bet would be that it is coming to cars next. It's a new form of debt slavery, and it will be applied to everything that it can be. Just wait until you have to rent time on your washing machine.

[@s.sradon9782]

@@invalidusername9999 bro, it's called circuit laundry.

[@s.sradon9782]

Democracy: the god that failed. You voted for this and a thinly veiled oiligarchy, ever heard of lobbying? It's not an issue with say capitalism but more a failure of the government to regulate entities in your interest, instead the government and conglomerates have slowly merged into an all-powerful syndicate. The first world constantly decreases in it's free speech index, the gap between the ultra-rich and everyone else is bigger than ever, The cost of living and value of the dollar are greater & lesser than ever, There are more regulations than ever and more new crimes as more things get outlawed, such as speech laws being passed. They want to take your weapons away, what happened the last time this happened? By being right or left you are a useful idiot for a false dicotomy, trying to vote for the lesser evil when you know damn well it's the same corpse puppet strung up by those actually in charge, a face to take the blame, disconnect people from the real issues for made up ones.

[@SilortheBlade]

Goods and SERVICES my friend. I am not saying the current system is good, but the way you describe it is poorly done. A company that provides a cleaning service adds value just like a company making cleaning products.

[@MeadowGaze]

​@@SilortheBladeThe servicification of what should ethically be a good is definitely a concern.

[@huntercrindson3927]

What pisses me off about most of this issue is the complete lack of acknowledgment of the good things Nick did for the escapist during 2019-2023. I mean thanks to him Yahtzee was finally able to go to E3 in person giving one of his best videos, he managed to not only keep the Escapist afloat during the pandemic but also increase it's popularity, the amazing indie game documentaries, the GDC trip and Adventure is nigh. But just because a fuckface saw a 0.1 drop from last quarter, he decides to just can him and think another one could do better. Thank god people are realizing about the things you just said and as of now the Escapist have lost over 300k subscribers over 3 weeks.

[@GuybrushTThreepwood]

From what I have heard, it was actually worse than all that. Numbers didn't go down, they just didn't go up as fast as they'd like.

[@huntercrindson3927]

@@GuybrushTThreepwood yep that's worse Fuck Gamurs

[@Elix10]

Capitalism ho!

[@TAP7a]

Yahtzee may well have single-handedly kept the Escapist afloat, but Calandra isn’t given enough credit for bringing it back from the brink.

[@huntercrindson3927]

@@nickjcal242 you deserved better. Hope Second Wind goes amazing for you all.

[@lancecarlisle1749]

This is such a faithful (and funny) replication of Yahtzee's style that I'm putting this in my ZP playlist. And subscribing. Doesn't matter if this style is just a one-off gag: it's the best parody I've seen since that "Rhino loose in the city" one from Only Fools and Horses.

[@kveller555]

I really like how we're slowly seeing more and more independent creators making stuff without corporate overlords constantly breathing down their necks. As annoying as being on the Internet can be on occasion, it's the one thing that allows us to reach people interested in our work without having to rely on some comically evil middleman to pay for marketing or distribution.

[@CoralCopperHead]

...You don't think ISPs are comically evil middlemen? That's laughable.

[@Kamfrenchie]

In theory the suits and middlemen are supposed to help smoothe things and prevent the developpers from doing a star citizen/vaporware and never finishing their game due to feature creep. Hoever, the general decay of our system is obviously felt here, and instead of hiring people who are familiar with game development or making talent emerge, companies probably think it's easier to hire a manager from god knows where and assume he can run things perfectly.

[@jamesverner9132]

I applaud you for replicating ZERO PUNCTUATION in tribute to this tragic end in internet culture. No matter what you have my respect king. F the escapist and GAMUR

[@ExaltedArchvile]

Thank you so much. It feels so gratifying seeing more and more people waking up to the absolute corporate dystopia we all find ourselves in and speaking up about it. I felt like I was going crazy thinking I was the only one since nobody was talking about it at the time. And like you said, this whole situation with the Escapist and Second Wind is indicative of auch bigger problem that currently has it's filthy grip on society as a whole. But thankfully more and more people are talking about it now, and hopefully soon we all collectively learn that the people who bust their asses making suits their money are worth so much more than what they're being paid.

[@axios4702]

The "first" episode of Fully Ramblomatic got twice the views of the latest Zero Punctuation. SecondWind got over 300K subscribers during it's first week, performing a record setting channel transition on KZbin by only losing 2/3rds of the subscriber count from the original channel. Design Delve and Cold take got more views than ever before, I should know, I had never watched Design Delve until now. And they are already getting sponsors. The future as always remains uncertain... but it's safe to say, for now they are winning. And I'm so fucking happy they are. Great video, plus you know Bruva and are a hardcore anti-capitalist? You've earned a new loyal subscriber.

[@BlazeMakesGames]

for real, it feels like the escapist still rarely pushed much beyond ZP. Like I can't really even blame them that hard when ZP is practically the face of their company for over a decade, but even back when I used to go to their website it was always for ZP first and then maybe other stuff. And now with the rebrand and everything with a fresh start, I mean I'm not gonna lie I'm still gonna probably focus on FR, but at least now all these other creators are getting a lot more exposure and a lot more noticed

[@briansmith8898]

Fun fact: Extra credits has its origins in a pair of videos that the initial narrator, Daniel Floyd, made for his college classes. His main inspiration for the style of those videos was....Zero Punctuation.

[@calebmarmon1310]

Longtime ZP fans will notice many little references throughout the video. That was a nice touch.

[@connormcconnell7805]

Let's all laugh at an economic system that never learns anything teeheehee In all seriousness this was a really good breakdown of everything that happened. Also I like the idea of an assassin reviewing other videogames. You did a little bit of it in this review and I thought it was fun.

[@QosmicVoid]

That would have been wittier.

[@Mzaleyao]

I just wanna ask: the economic system they are running under now is the same as before, the difference is only who has the last say on decisions. Unrelated executives or not, the system is still capitalistic. Can you present an alternative to that system where they could still operate as they do now? No flame, no grit, no hate, just want to listen.

[@linkmaxwell]

I would argue that the economic system is working just fine. Business makes bad decision and is punished by the market (consumers) is a key principle in capitalism.

[@QosmicVoid]

@@Mzaleyao The main thing I'm concerned about more than anything else is freedom and a reduction of hierarchy. Since the employees in an Employee-owned workplace have shares in their own company, then they have more power and influence to exert. I don't necessarily have an issue with how it's structured now - Any reduction of hierarchy is good in my book. The crew at least get something of a say in things. I'm not married to any one particular concept to be honest. Once you start to do that, it becomes gospel, and you end up blind to alternatives. My main concern is the reduction of hierarchy and Workers rights. Whatever form that takes, we'll have to see. History doesn't work by inserting one idea, seeing if it works, then deciding from that. It can take a while, adjustments, experimentation, advocacy, and political climate.

[@Mzaleyao]

@@QosmicVoid I see what you're saying and mostly agree. I believe hierarchy is a requirement for a well functioning company organization. By definition, if everyone decides on everything you will amount to nothing. The amount of times you can make everyone happy or meet everyone half way is slim to none and as such nothing can be done without at least someone getting the short straw. A hierarchy have designated people to have the last say and if they act appropriately they will find the best ways for most and some will suffer, as is due in order to elevate/develop/terminate those that make out the weakest link. Having been a CEO for years I am biased, of course. No workers mean no products, but no products also means no workers. One of these are easier to manage than the other, hence why I am a big fan of unions, although not American unions (look up "the Swedish model" and you'll see what I mean by that). Fair is not a one-way-street, it must go both ways or one is always doomed to lose. EDIT: Forgot to mention that a good CEO makes sure to make those designated to make final decisions are also responsable for the outcome and will act as such. What is most often the issue in such situations is nepotism (or just raw distain to your fellow man) and those should not be in such positions, although they can be useful as well depending on what the company deals with. I'd rather have a psychopathic CEO running a nuclear plant and have nothing but law, order and perfection in mind, but maybe not in a coffee shop where an employee can do wrong and not risk catastrophy.

[@stupidsillylace]

Absolutely loved this vid. Basing the aesthetics of it (and general style of speaking throughout) on Yahtze's made it feel a slight bit nostalgic. Grand work.

[@polyesterchicken]

I think this worked because you didn't just copy his style, you got the same kind of dry sarcasm that that always made Zero Punctuation unique. Well done, you got yourself a subscriber. This was fantastic

[@conor-smith572]

You've done a very good job of recreating the style of zero punctuation. Love this video

[@arthurdurham]

Damn, I have expected Yahtzee to show up on this bc it's such a well done homage to ZP. You got his style down pat

[@mithiwithi]

3:27 I... think he did?

[@douglaswolfen7820]

​@@mithiwithiI think that was probably just a sample from a ZP video or an FR video? Not sure though

[@inkblooded1058]

Thank you, Qosmic. I hasn't known about Second Wind; I withdrew from the discussion about The Escapist and Zero Punctuation because my pessimism convinced me that it was all over - that there was no rewinding the clock. Not only did you tickle my nostalgia button with the ZP art style and humor, but you showed me that it isn't over. Thank you so much.

[@jacobs483]

Anything done with a human being passionately and with earnestly going for it makes people feel things, even if it’s someone trying to do something someone else has done, or in their style. Kudos, well done. I got the feels.

[@300IQPrower]

I cannot put into words how much I adore this video and how the first three minutes alone make it one of my favorites on the internet. As someone who has also been watching Yahtz since 2011, has had a huge chunk of my interest in video game history, critical analysis, and creative writing turbocharged by his work, and has binge watched the series so much I could tell you at a glance which episode any given joke is from (that is all to say a megafan), there is _so_ much I appreciate here. Obviously the artstyle/presentation and how faithful everything is, but also the the way the video is scripted, the way you even put blink-and-miss-it black text jokes, the references to INCREDIBLY specific lines and gags from the series ("Yahtzee Sebastian Godzilla Croshaw" is the four, btw), the appreciation for Nick's hand in the escpaist's survival (fun as the "ZP broken back from carrying things etc joke is, Nick's grassroots content creation really was the key factor and it's been incredible seeing the community he fostered in that time band together on both the audience and creator side of things), very crucially understanding how Yahtz is a wordsmith first a comedian second and a game critic third, rightly labeling the series as a potentially effective sleep aid, and like me having a clear adoration for his work and general taste in games despite also wanting to shove several specific reviews of his right back down his throat until he's retracted every spoken word be it because of inaccuracies or just being WRONG. -cough Bioshock 2 cough- I could go on, but like I said, I really can't put into words how happy this video made me. Thankfully I don't need to mourn Yahtz's career just yet, but if that were the case this video would be the best comfort I could ask for.

[@__8120]

I genuinely cannot remember watching a video game review by anyone except Yahtzee in at least the last 4 years

[@Maxaxle]

Spoiler alert: Second Wind did not, in fact, die within a month.

[@HylianWolfMage55]

Many have tried and failed to replicate what made Zero Punctuation great. You nailed it. I subscribed to you after your Big D and Bullfrog analysis videos and I don't plan on unsubbing anytime soon.

[@CT-Ros]

First time seeing your videos. Really enjoyed it and can't wait to see where you go from here! Thank you for your work.

[@marsfeathers]

THIS IS SO EXCELLENT ITS ACTUALLY MIND BLOWING. Im sick and about to fall asleep so i cant be eloquent in my comment yet but i just need to say you NAIL HIS STYLE!!! what a wonderful love letter to many years of love for his work

[@iainhansen1047]

Your imitation of his style in this videos was very accurate, got a good chuckle out of me.

[@silvialuzmia]

It's like emperor who constantly murdering the nobels who even slightly annoyed him. Then got confused when suddenly the economy crumble and the empire scattred

[@spartanx9293]

6:02 money is simply a bill of exchange made to facilitate trade Different forms Will continue to pop up and trying to get rid of it would be an eternal game of whack-a-mole

[@triple3slash5]

I've been following ZP for years and I gotta say HOLY HELL you recreated the style almost perfectly. Not just in scriptwriting and the general visual style, no, down to the kinds of gags and visual language Yahtz usually used in ZP (and now continues to use in FR) is recreated here beat for beat, from the way you indicate movement of floating limbs to the way characters on screen interact with your puppet to follow the narration, to the way characters interact with one another by jumping between key poses, to the pacing at which the actual visuals progress to support the narration, it's all done nearly 1:1. Lovely references to the various ZP bits as well, like LALAAITNLA,T-H-H and the earlier countdown and compilation transitions. And then you immediately transition into the slightly altered Fully Ramblomatic style for good measure. Fantastic work, 11/10

[@grantmillard8387]

Good demonstration of how what Yahtzee does isn't easy to duplicate.

[@rory8182]

but also a good demonstration as to how to replicate the style of Yahtzee

[@QosmicVoid]

How he's done this weekly for 16 years is a question that will haunt me to my deathbed

[@leonix9882]

holy shit you fucking nailed it with the "this video wont age well"

[@freddouglas6935]

What happened?

[@robertlinke2666]

@@freddouglas6935 a lot of drama between frost and nick callandra. frost essentially did an expose on how nick callandra uses his industry contacts without regards for the ethics, and left second wind. the rest of second wind has been pretty tight lipped about the whole deal, except for some statements saying they disagree with frosts take it's a mess, and as usual the truth lies somewhere in the middle

[@JonFawkes]

It's certainly a nice vision to imagine a world of worker owned corporations. The main problem comes when that corporation still needs leadership. As skilled as professionals are, I wouldn't trust a single developer or an artist to actually lead (speaking as an artist myself). The issue then becomes that current leadership (CEOs, Executives, etc) are just vastly VASTLY overpaid given their output. I think every corporate CEO just needs to be knocked down a peg, the CEO should only be making as much as their employees, if they want to make more money, they need to pay their employees more, they need to actually produce output rather than just produce profit

[@QosmicVoid]

The version I've had sold to me is one where if a group is of a large size, they just vote on a project manager. Kind of like a statewide general election. Workplace democracy - With all the benefits and risks inherent to it.

[@ExValeFor]

@@QosmicVoid with all respect, if all you're requesting magically comes to be, we'll just be a generation of two from reinventing all the issues we currently have. leaving it down to the will of the people so-called is just asking for trouble. they'll happily contribute to much worse versions of what we already have, while thinking they're making it better - as that's what the deranged weirdos seeking power will assure them of

[@JonFawkes]

@@QosmicVoidI like the idea of workplace democracy, it would be the ideal balance between giving the workers the power while also having some kind of leadership structure, I'm sold

[@ThKillinJo]

This was incredibly well made, and very authentic to Yahtzee's style. Very good job!!

[@jthejester2338]

*Hm, this guy seems to be doing a good analysis on what happened with the escapist.* "Which if you recall my analysis of Big-D..." *OH! It's this guy* **Subscribed**

[@step-parentalfigure2596]

Great Video! I didn't know any of this, found your video; while I was looking for new Zero Punctuation videos.

[@KenshiImmortalWolf]

Okay, i haven't finished, might edit more in as i go, but i had to stop because the use of the clip "what the fuck are you doing in my house viewer?" and responding to it fucking SENT me. It's fucking brilliant and it's honestly in line with Yatzee's style. This whole video is pretty good, the use of yatzee's styles, clips and even jokes are so well done. The way you speak is as close to yatzee as you can manage without sounding awful. You also are just, on the point. There's nothing i can find that is incorrect about the point.

[@Snapdragon0112]

The only take of his that made me a little angry was his opinion on the white phosphorus scene in Spec Ops: the Line. The essentials being that he didn’t see it as a condemnation of his actions because he only did what the game told him. And I wanted to reach through the screen to slap some sense and scream, “Yeah. You don’t feel bad because you were *just following orders* “

[@crimsoncrusader4829]

as much as I like Spec Ops the line as a critique of militaristic jingoism, the whole thing where it chastise you(the player) for following the railroaded plot line is still a negative for me.

[@brianvaira486]

@@crimsoncrusader4829 that kind of narrative fits for a military story though because people in the military frequently just do what they’re told, but their actions still have consequences, and it’s still can deeply affect them mentally, even if they were just following orders

[@ukyoize]

Well, if game doesn't want me to play it I will not in this case.

[@thatguythisguy4247]

The scene could have been set up better as it was kind of obvious and with no option around it, i know they had planned a harder fight originally but cut it. As it stands none of them comment how its a very strange formation for 50 soldiers to be clumped up. Also technically they made the choice, no one told them to use the weapon at that point, its more they were just so self assured they were the good guys but everything had told them this group was hostile

[@CoralCopperHead]

"Yeah, there was an option -- stop playing the game." Oh sure, I'll toss out this *_sixty dollar investment that I made in order to relax and have some fun._* Honestly, once the game started preaching at me, I started going over the top on purpose to _spite_ it. Got the "massacre the rescue team" ending and felt fully satisfied. ...Though, I admit, I didn't exactly make that investment. Yar-Har Fiddle-Dee-Dee and all that -- just an extra middle finger to the pretentious cunts who made it.

[@RorytheRomulan]

I'm of the persuasion that money is a necessary good actually, but please continue

[@Ragnarok540]

It is good in the sense is a medium to exchange goods and services, the alternative would be bartering and that's just annoying.

[@RorytheRomulan]

@@Ragnarok540 Well it's the same principle that evolved from bartering, which is just two people who each want or need something that the other has and making an exchange. Currency made it so much easier, because then you don't need to have something somebody else wants, you can just trade them the funny money and they can trade that for something else in turn. The term "Capitalism" is a label coined to damn the practices that occur when people succumb to greed, and doesn't accurately describe the practice of the accumulation of wealth in general: being good at what you do, and reaping rewards. Good farmers become rich farmers. Good herdsmen become rich herdsmen. But the term was co-opted and that is what it is used to describe today.

[@Gorgonops_SSF]

@@RorytheRomulan Capitalism (the ideal and then later term) dates to the late medieval period (NOT the invention of currency) and the necessary social reforms towards market societies that Europe needed following some socioeconomic crises. The result was a greater reliance on markets and economies of scale, and less on state control over goods and services (though regulations are still vital to maintain critical economics and reduce vulnerability to bad actors, it's not an all one way or the other dichotomy). Capitalism's connotations have changed much over the centuries. Though its worth emphasizing that in the modern the term's been proudly co-opted by those reinterpreting "capitalist" market societies as being run without regulation (eg. libertarians and the open perversion of business culture that kicked up from the 80's onward) which LEAD TO its use as a pejorative by those criticizing this revision. History didn't start with those complaining about capitalism and those who emphasize the role of capital in economic systems do not have claim over all possible manifestations of economic balance (even in the original idealized form of the term capitalism). Eg. if you want to talk about who's subverted whatever ideals you hold in capitalism, look to those setting easily referenced examples of exploitation while flying the flag rather than those calling that behavior out. It's also worth doing a minimum of reading on a subject (to make sure you're not being strung along by assholes looking to maintain a dysfunctional status quo for their own benefit. See again. conflating capitalism with economics and currency. This error creates a false imperative to maintain the current form of capitalism as an implied critical function and NOT a derived balance of oversight, culture, and capital control.)

[@Ultrox007]

17:11 "any attempt in this late-stage capitalist dystopia to break away from corporate structures-" Corporations as they stand are far more closely related to socialist or feudalist structures. In fact, the free and open market that capitalism facilitates is what's allowing them to create their own company away from all the BS TheEscapist pinned on them. Not to say Patreon is free of this either - what with its relative control over production, means, and exchange living off arbitrary 'social goods' that let it strike down any causes it disagrees with while The State in turn scratches their back by striking down any competitors that try to do the same thing.

[@SnibsnBibs]

That's what bothers me so much about these commies, they associate anything having to do with corporate corruption with the entirety of the concept of the system that has provided for them in truly profound ways all their life. They'll stamp their feet and demand everything change, and then they'll throw an utter shitfit when their pumpkin spice latte disappears because they've done away with the entire economic model that facilities that kind of goods production and service. "CORPORATIONS BAD, POWER TO THE PEOPLE!" **economy collapses and there's no more electricity for them to play Smash Bros. on their now useless Switch** "NOOOO NOT LIKE THAT!!!"

[@annnichols3091]

I was what was then known as a Department of the {USA} Army Civilian for over 25 years. For a long time, we were paid every other Wednesday. One year the Federal Civil Service payday was changed to alternate Thursdays just before the fiscal year ended so that Congress could claim they'd saved a lot of money. We workers were not amused.

[@axelprino]

First time I see someone replicating Yahtzee's style (visuals, writing, delivery, etc) so faithfully, and in an overview of his work no less. It's also really nice how you smoothly transitioned away of the homage and into your own writing style and tempo in time with the shift in subject. I remember seeing that comment where someone was asking Nick if they could use the music for a video, it's nice to now watch the video in question and find it to be significantly better than what I expected.

[@MyGamerforlife]

Speaking as a ruthless bloody-minded capitalist pig, it warms my heart to know some purposeless seat-fillers in a bloated corporatist bureaucracy got undone by a bit of hard work and consumer goodwill. I wish them all the luck and every dollar they can grab. And you as well! You’ve earned a new subscriber!

[@RakaTwo13]

That's going to be the antidote to the mess we're heading towards in the entertainment industry. Breakaway talent forming their own businesses, letting conglomerates take a bath in their worthless name purchases, and people getting used to the idea that no IP lasts forever. Art is alive and therefore must eventually die. The only thing I fear is government bailouts with the classic tagline "too big to fail".

[@SudrianTales]

​@@RakaTwo13 Funnily a good chunk of these companies were once breakaways themselves like Activision. I suspect the cycle will repeat with the breakaways becoming inflated messes that'll have breakaways

[@RakaTwo13]

@@SudrianTales Yup. Nothing lasts forever, as it should be

[@Hambo325]

That is the beauty of capitalism after all, the good will rise up

[@Amalvipls]

I'm baffled and I don't understand at all why people think that capitalism, the ideology that's all about "open market and everyone should be free to open their own business and do their own thing so that the market has as much competition and different products and options possible" somehow, FOR SOME REASON, has been slandered to hell so that capitalism is about megacorporations and monopolies that destroy free will and free markets what the fuck

[@LightGlyphRasengan]

Once again making the case for worker ownership and keeping bumbling CEOs out of work they have no understanding of, nor any entitlement to the work of the creators ❤

[@QosmicVoid]

I like to call it the "Keep Todd Howard in the basement" approach to economics

[@LightGlyphRasengan]

@@QosmicVoid lol

[@gamingforever9121]

@@QosmicVoidthe retarded thing is it doesn’t even make good sense business wise. All the escapist has done is generate bad PR for itself and piss everyone off.

[@lostalone9320]

"Ownership" is not the issue here. At Second Wind, Nick is effectively the CEO who is making the whole business tick, while everyone else is effectively the Board. Yes, they "own" the company and can hold Nick to account, but he is the guy making the day to day executive decisions, and is doing the same exact job that he previously did as EiC at the The Escapist. Worker ownership really doesn't come into it; good leaders don't need to be owners, they need to be good leaders.

[@lostalone9320]

@@QosmicVoid Bonus points for you, because it makes zero difference whether Todd Howard owns Bethesda or not. His creative leadership on Morrowind etc was great, and he didn't need to own Bethesda for that. His creative leadership over the past decade has been awful and it would be equally awful whether he was an owner, an employee or first citizen of the Bethesda commune. In fact it's a good thing that he doesn't own BSG, because they can fire him and give someone else a shot at making the next Scrolls or Fallout game.

[@sams3533]

Give Frost's recent allegations (backed up with evidence) of Nick's mismanagement of Second Wind I'd be curious what a sequel to this video looks like.

[@QosmicVoid]

I've yet to see any of this evidence. Unless he released something else in the last few days I've been away, all I've seen are personal grievances, Nick acting the idiot on social media, and leaked paylogs of which we have no context for, countered by nearly the entire Second Wind crew. Far as I can tell right now, we're barely beyond he said she said rhetoric. We get something far more substantial, I'll make a sequel. Hell, I'll do it in ZP style again just to flex again - but right now we are miles away from getting anywhere close to the mess that prompted me to make this video to begin with. They had one drama and everyone apparently decided to set fire to the ship for some strange reason I'm not sure I understand yet.

[@sams3533]

@@QosmicVoid I mean there was that video he released on his 2nd channel that goes into the weeds about it more that was released 5 days ago as of the posting of this comment. I'm not sure if you have had a chance to see that yet.

[@Leomann88]

@@sams3533 there are two videos on his channel. Both very well made with plenty of evidence about Nick's behavior.

[@xemgoa9512]

I know that when these things happen, it comes down to greed and the lack of checks and balances to keep someone from riding a business rough shod just for the sake of money; it would be nice that some content creator or someone in general can do an analysis on what keeps giving some corporate heads the idea that they think this is okay; and I sense - keep thinking this is something they HAVE to strive for. Like, what kind of mindset, or what's being taught in schools and colleges, or if this can come from some kind of corruption we 'might' not know about yet; is allowing this to be okay. You were all put through their tomfoolery and I am glad you all struck out on your own and seem to be doing quite well on your own, it seems. Many blessings and keep rambling, Ramblers!

[@WOLF36554]

This was a really good video in the hole Gamurs debacle. I do have one nitpick: you should have mentioned Gamergate. That played a key role in the first implosion of The Escapist back in 2014. Nevertheless good video and you nailed Yahtzees style.

[@jackdaone6469]

Well, specifically, it was Escapist hiring GG-aligned journalists that caused Sterling to leave in a huff and make a dishonest video criticizing the idea of ethical gaming journalism on his way out. And there were rampant and frothing calls from anti-GG advocates for Escapist to shutdown their forum discussions of the matter even though it had brought the site a lot of attention.

[@cattysplat]

Gamergate was the canary in the coalmine for games journalism. Anyone paying attention stopped going to mainstream games websites and went to creators directly on KZbin and Twitch for genuine opinion on genuine gameplay.

[@mason-greylong4792]

Are you going to cover the Nick Calandra drama, it sheds more light on the situation.

[@shawnhalls2431]

HOT. DOG. Can I say, the impression in the beginning was completely a delightful honor to the man's content. Then slowing to a more natural rate of speech he still gets the humor and style across while putting an absolute solid worker's rights and "get fucked golden-parachute-boy" perspective into corporate greed that obviously killed something we all loved. You deserve more than my humble subscription can provide. Thank you

[@nicktheninja3166]

I appreciate your works and efforts on the review of how a review channel blew itself up. It's a two way street baby! Power and control has to be given. Has to be given. (Usually through threats and intimidation, but that detracts from the point)

[@julienandrus4169]

Man, I was wondering if there was some square container I could use to carry all of my soap... fortunately this video exists.

[@nothingthenothing2938]

Man you replicated his style perfectly

[@cediviannareeda4305]

first video of yours I'm seeing, I also followed this whole mess closely, and I'm gonna be keeping an eye on the Escapist YT and website for a long while after this. I think you did a great job recounting the events, though some more citations would be nice, like Nick's tweet about the whole thing. being a bit late to the party hasn't diminished your video at all, and I think you've earned a sub

[@shadow-r3852]

Well, with Frost's new claims I am looking forward to seeing what is going to happen at second wind and how competent Mr. Nick is... Regarding the detachment: I think the solution to "today's problems" is not necessarily that the workers need to make all the decisions - the world is complicated and running a business isn't the same as making a game. What I thought would be nice (and it's just that, because I know it's a pipe dream) is if the people in charge were entrepreneurs rather than managers. Yes, the OG Walt Disney made a shit ton of money, but he created Disney World because he wanted to give families a place to go that was for them iirc. Walt Disney Corp. Today doesn't care about that, it's all just a value transaction and that's making the whole world sad, I reckon

[@Dw7freak]

What companies and shareholders can't seem to comprehend is that infinite growth just isn't possible and no amount of fraud can make it possible. There will be spikes up and down and you can't blind yourself to those downs and only care about the ups.

[@cursedseagullgames]

Something I've noticed is that the with all circular cycles, this is cyclical, regardless of the industry. Workers get tired of working for dickheads, so they quit and strike it out on their own> In the "they do well route" the company lasts long enough for them to become old guard and then slowly phase out for the new blood coming into the company> Eventually an accountant or someone else money smart gets put in a position of power over the creative teams, and their only job description is make the big numbers bigger> These accountants are so far removed from what it takes to create the content the fans love, they seemingly have no idea that removing talent and workers is shooting themselves in the foot, a la killing the golden fuckin' goose trying to get the eggs out of it, rather than just letting the damn bird just lay the eggs.> Workers get tired of working for dickheads, so they quit and strike it out on their own. Wash, rinse, and then repeat ad nauseam till the heat death of the universe, or we kill ourselves, whichever happens first. I'm willing to bet in another 10-15 years time we'll be hearing about Second Wind having a similar downfall, but hopefully that's just my inner cynic talking.

[@ZaiDrizzleDrop]

That goose analogy is GODLY. Also this is an interesting cycle. Are humans just stupid? Is money really the root of all evil and we can't stop this cycle?

[@humanbeans4498]

Funny how people blame money for this like this hasn't happened to kings and oligarchs in the past. This is just human greed and stupidity, and the phasing out of the old and growth of the new is good for us all

[@ChrisPatti]

I really loved the video and look forward to watching more from your channel! I couldn’t agree more. Also that we desperately need to rethink the way we run our society, especially around creative people doing work than riches all of our lives. There’s more value in that than our current society gives credit, and we need to fix it.

[@konstancemakjaveli]

Even if a worker co-op is more efficient than a current "traditional" corporation, they still need managers to direct the workers for a unified goal. Especially for a complicated project like video game, you cant just bloat the project to be a passion project of a dozen individuals, especially if their interests clash. There will always be a need for a manager that has a final say and power to enforce an ultimate goal, if not tasks in general. And if the co-op grows, that manager will need a manager to manage multiple groups. And if the co-op grows horizontally - a manager, for the manager, that manages managers. Completely flat hierarchy sounds cool, until you realize that we are all individuals with our own ambitions and plans, and a directionless world is a dead world.

[@QosmicVoid]

How about democratically voting for a manager?

[@konstancemakjaveli]

@@QosmicVoid thats just a popularity contest, irrespective of experience. Its a race to mediocrity, where the least controversial and most appealing canditate wins, and then theres a question of "term limits". The simple conclusion is - a company of any sort isnt a state, and its sole purpose is creating a product that consumers will want. The duties of the state are already filled by... the state. So the manager has to simply be extremely good at managing the company to get the most out of limited resources. If a mediocre leader is elected who only cares about their own image, the company will not succeed. The only answer, thus, remains meritocratic promotions - most experienced, talented or acknowledged get to run the company, rather than who ever is most charismatic but least capable. Problem - we have now created grounds for a technocratic system, which kick starts the same process which in the past created stuff like Military-Industrial complexes, patent abuses and central banking, as well as many other issues. The best option is simply making an experiment, see what works best - create 3 practically similiar companies, but each of them have different managerial systems. One has popular election, other has meritocratic electorate and the latter has seniority assignment. See which has more success, and draw conclusions from that.

[@redcrown5154]

how about not starving?@@QosmicVoid

[@DarthKotEI]

Yo these comments are boot thirsty holy shit

[@humanbeans4498]

​@DarthKotEI nice non-argument, got an actual point or just more empty insults?

[@jamesdulak3108]

This was a very impressive job at emulating Yahtzee's style, well done.

[@Arcanix]

Hmmmm... if only there was some kind of way that people of similar employment and industry could somehow get together and pool their labor as a negotiable commodity... If such a magical unicorn were to ex- IT'S A UNION OKAY JUST CALL FOR UNIONIZATION ALREADY YOU UTTER NOBS

[@johnathanbruce8227]

Put the playback speed on 1.25 and this becomes a Fully Ramblomatic-esque video.

[@bubbadumps3747]

Make a video about nick calandra

[@igor_kossov]

As a journalist who joined his colleagues in standing up to a corporate owner and being fired only to start a far more successful employee-owned and employee-run media company in 2021, I was so chuffed to see the former Escapist employees do the same thing. I'm glad that both resulting companies have been doing very well. I am hoping more journalists do this. The internet has allowed us to be funded directly by our audiences, and I'm hoping this becomes a greater trend in media.

[@ZombieDish]

even Yahtzee knows when to get to the point.

[@pagingdoctorsideburns]

It’s just so funny to me that Yahtz finally stopped propping up the Escapist. There were multiple distinct periods in the site’s history, from the Gamergate years and on, where his content was actually the only thing being posted for weeks at a time. And even before that, I remember there was a bunch of drama because Something Awful tried to poach him and he wouldn’t budge, despite their public estimation even way back then that he was the only reason anyone ever went to the Escapist. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors. I may not keep up with the show and haven’t for years, but it’s got a soft spot in my heart and it’s always reassuring knowing any given review is just a quick search away.

[@turtlearmyjess6147]

You did an incredible job of replicating ZP's art style and delivery, nice video

[@lordbuss]

6:00 If you abolish money you still have other resources/status/favors filling the same role, just in an even more chaotic way. When money can't buy food, the food still needs to come from somewhere. And that was true before money existed. Which is why the whole video is sort of misguided in it's conclusions, despite being made of valid arguments. 14:52 That misses the important question of 1) whether a specific worker is important, or can another worker do the same thing 2) whether the workers themselves can just do the same thing without the corporation. Which is sometimes true, and sometimes isn't. 15:30 1) It bothers a lot of people, including me 2) that was never not the case. Though it could probably stop being the case, if we have enough good indie developers and enough people buying their games. 15:47 They don't always know what things need to open. Being a good designer doesn't help being good at the logistics. Though I don't expect them to be significantly worse, either.

[@QosmicVoid]

6:00 - We do have examples of civilizations without money. The most prominent one being the Incan Empire, which had what I can only describe as a Labour Tax - You do some work for the government, (production, infrastructure, counting, transportation, etc) and all your needs are met. Not a statement on the Incan Empire mind you, they did plenty of messed up stuff as all Empires do, It's just an example that we are fully capable of building societies which aren't based around currency. 14:41 - That's the point of unionization and strikes - all of them stop. At once. that's how you project power against a corporation. 15:47 - To be frank corporate owners have proven they don't know either, so it's hard to look at that and think this could get much worse. At least if the workers were in charge, they would be invested to learn and ensure that it goes well, because if not, they're screwed, as opposed to an executive, who has already gotten a ton of money, golden parachute and plenty of connections.

[@SnibsnBibs]

@@QosmicVoid That's... That's an interesting way of glossing over the many problems of the Incan Empire... "See, we can build societies that aren't based on currency, all it takes is a little human child sacrifice, slavery and genocide." Also, a labor tax? How could you not find that to be the most disturbing concept a government could concoct? That's slavery with more polite language. And if our current American government is anything to even slightly go by, I'd imagine that labor tax quickly turning into a forced contribution of labor to something that _you really don't want to do._ Sounds an awful lot like that whole draft business that gets everyone's panties so ruffled (rightfully so), only this time in an empire that tears the beating hearts out of people's chests in a hellish ritual just to check and see if the Emperor's fishing trip will be ruined by rain tomorrow. Hell, look at serfs and "indentured servants" in medieval kingdoms. You could easily call that situation a "labor tax" and there's not much about being a peasant serf that chewing through the veins in your wrist in a desperate attempt to dig your way to merciful death isn't preferable to. There's more than enough wrong with corporate cronyism, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Currency is a very adequate way of dealing with your fellow man, in fact I daresay the most adequate way if we're talking systems that cut down on the number of times you attempt to viciously murder your fellow man because herding cats is easier than trying to keep that bipedal fucking ape honest about a single damn thing without a form of properly enticing incentive.

[@QosmicVoid]

@@SnibsnBibs I really don't know how much clearer I could have been when I said "This is not a statement on the Incan Empire, they did a lot of bad stuff". I said that explicitly. If you didn't read it, that's hardly my fault. My only point - The one point I was making - Was that it existed without a currency. That's it. Literally my only moral statement on it was "It was bad" - The sentiment YOU shared. We're literally agreeing and you're mad about it. That is not an endorsement of genocide, but we weren't talking about genocide at all in the first place, were we? I was under the clearly mistaken impression this was going to be good-faith. I really need to stop doing that. Also "All it took was a little Child sacrifice, slavery, and genocide." First of all, your very emotive language implies this is an either-or situation. That in order to have a society without currency, we must sacrifice children. You have not established that in ANY capacity. That is a completely unrelated topic. For the Incans that was a matter of religion - Another bad thing I dislike, in case you need that spelling out for you. That had nothing to do with their economic structure. You want to talk to me about 'not throwing the baby out with the bathwater', then I suggest you do the same. And yes Serfdom was bad. And forced labour is bad. I am *mystified* by how you even came to the conclusion I think otherwise. And your final statement is, frankly, horrific. Ignoring the racial implications of it (If you want to just make up stuff about me and my beliefs, screw it, let's exchange blows and see who wins, shall we?) this exact mentality is why we've gotten into this situation to begin with. You seem to imply that money means there is total honesty - The most naïve notion I have ever heard in my entire life. As if the entire history of currency hasn't been followed with lies, corruption, deceit, trickery, finding ways to trick people into losing more money, company towns, actual slavery on a scale the likes of which Humanity has never seen before with the advent of Capitalism (But I'm sure that was something else's fault, right?), psychology dedicated to finding ways to manipulate children into addictive behaviours, on and on and on - all of which in the name of just acquiring more and more money, and an economic system where for SOME reason, we saw all of this and then said "Yes, lets base our economic system around making sure these scumbags have the most power in the world, because Humans are apes and monsters, so we should have apes and monsters with more power to lie run the entire economy, and this will somehow help." Phenomenal logic. Very Big-Brain. How things have gotten as bad as they are is truly a mystery. As fun as this is, if we're done taking shots at one another and intentionally misreading each others statements, we can either talk or not. I chat with people in comments because I find the debate fun, but I have nothing but contempt for the self-aggrandizement of misanthropes who want to signal how much better they think they are than the rest of Humanity - Because that's all Misanthropy is.

[@SnibsnBibs]

@@QosmicVoid Uhhhgh God, I can hear your voice through text. "And your final statement is, frankly, horrific. Ignoring the racial implications of it" Bruh racial implication? L.O.L. "let's exchange blows and see who wins, shall we?" KZbin flame wars from 2006 called, they want their lack of awareness over the utter insignificance of what is transpiring right now back. Jesus, just post the navy seal copypasta and save yourself the trouble. "You seem to imply that money means there is total honesty - The most naïve notion I have ever heard in my entire life. As if the entire history of currency hasn't been followed with lies, corruption, deceit, trickery, finding ways to trick alkasddough pbtbtbtbtbtbtbtbt" No, I seem to imply that money means there's a statistically lesser chance of a member of this species finding a way to fuck you. Money isn't about honesty, it's about providing something that ends your dealings with other human beings rapidly and without excessive issue. It's a way of ensuring, in the very grand scheme, there's less chance of getting into some form of transaction where your wife and two cattle end up as part of the payment. No honesty beyond accepting an adequate form of compensation without participating in outright banditry before the end of the conversation required. "actual slavery on a scale the likes of which Humanity has never seen before with the advent of Capitalism (But I'm sure that was something else's fault, right?)" And the bulk of human slavery has been propagated by non-whites. The funny thing about humanity is, you really need to get the fuck over your own whiney inability to be thankful for a single thing in your life. Horrendous, unspeakable things and vile persecutions have happened over the course of our history. But right now, we're here, drinking pumpkin spice lattes in the most prosperous and free time in all of recorded history. This is still a shit time. There's still (ah sweet) man-made horrors beyond our comprehension. And yet it's a good time, despite our heinous nature. Why is that? Well, it would certainly be a lot worse in a socialist nation. It would be a heck of a lot worse in an anarchist one. So mostly it's because, for all its faults, capitalism is how a species without replicators can interact with the other profoundly off-putting members of their kind without beating each other's heads in with rocks and playing wife hot-potato with all the other bandit tribes. "Yes, lets base our economic system around making sure these scumbags have the most power in the world, because Humans are apes and monsters, so we should have apes and monsters with more power to lie run the entire economy, and this will somehow help." Yes, that's definitely precisely what we said. That's what we thought, and that's what we said out loud. You're certainly an entity lol. "DURR HURR, DAT'S ALL A COMPLEX ECONOMIC SYSTEM HEAVILY DEPENDENT ON HUMAN NATURE IS, WE JUST OUTRIGHT DEMANDED SCUMBAGS FROM THE GET-GO BECAUSE WE HATE SMARET THINGS THAT OUR SMARET GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT GRANDKIDS LIKE, DURR HURR." That's the problem with these outcasts that think they have a point. They think everyone who came before them was literally too stupid to live properly (ignoring the evidence that is the civilization they created for you where you will food into existence on your doorstep with a thought). Impressive specimens all around us, you need only stop and savor them **chef's kiss** "As fun as this is, if we're done taking shots at one another and intentionally misreading each others statements, we can either talk or not. I chat with people in comments because I find the debate fun, but I have nothing but contempt for the self-aggrandizement of misanthropes who want to signal how much better they think they are than the rest of Humanity - Because that's all Misanthropy is" Projecting, much? I hate humanity because a love humanity because I hate humanity. Being a misanthrope and simply knowing how we be sum times are different things. Knowing how we be and _knowing what that means for you_ is different even from that. You'll learn one day when you're older.

[@azoxystrobin]

Thanks, I was wondering where yahtzee went. Also "the workers control the means of production" that kind of rings a bell....and one more thing, being a worker owned company can be difficult but it can and does work.

[@schrodingersmoose]

What an engaging watch! Your wit is excellent

[@joeycarver9220]

as someone that watched his vids, before he was part of the escapest, you are over stating his reach, the average gamer has no idea who the fuck he is, but is more likely to have heard "pc master race" which he started it's one thing to say "well you'll be remembered for trying and that's good" it's another thing to go off and fail when you have a family to support and left a good pay cheque behind to do it, their new site gets a fraction of the views, and the vast majority of the revinew should be going to yajtzee since that's all anyone really goes there for, if they go there at all funny hearing anyone champion extra credits, this is the kind of shit they supported when they told gamers they were stupid for being against loot boxes because $60 games were too cheap and companies needed money

[@QosmicVoid]

Yahtzee is fine with the structure of Second Wind. He has stated as such. In one of their first livestreams, he said he spoke to his family about the situation. They supported his decision. You can disagree with his decision - it is still his to make. How stupid do you have to be to think Yahtzee didn’t consider any of this beforehand? As for Extra Credits - I don’t even recall "championing" them. I literally just recounted what happened to them. I prefer companies not trying to steal crowdfunding money - Which is something Extra Credits has never done at any point. You're downplaying what the Escapist did because you don’t like Extra Credits, and therefore I guess think screwing them over in this way is acceptable. Which is frankly disgusting. Them being wrong or having a bad take in one area doesn't mean them being screwed over in another, unrelated area, borderline illegally, is suddenly remotely acceptable. Spare me your fake moral outrage.

[@joeycarver9220]

@@QosmicVoid not going to watch your shit again for the quote (but yes talking positively of extra credits is championing them), but i was more commenting on your horrible take that "it was a good thing to do to take that risk" which is not true, risking a stable position is inherently a bad idea i wont reply don't bother commenting i refuse to add to your further engagement

[@sparkie1j]

The 3 in assassins creed 3 is referring to the number of hours the tutorial lasts

[@Keegan_Kael]

You could have made almost this exact episode about BuzzFeed or any large automotive channel from 5 years ago.

[@ZontarDow]

And also every breadtuber channel with 2 or more people.

[@octakhan4673]

It's great how you mimicked the style of ZP. Good video, I can't imagine how long it took to make!

[@bass779]

What are you replacing money with?

[@NoFlu]

Warm fuzzy deelings

[@I_like_big_bombs]

Heh I ignored the McCarthy urges to just enjoy the video. But it was my thought too. Lenin tried Communism and gave up on it almost immediately. Man gave up on anarchism too, knew it wouldnt work.

[@bt3743]

Well we now have the technology for mass production with minimal human labour, perhaps we could produce services and products for use rather than profit

[@bass779]

@@bt3743 you always end up needing a medium of exchange and markets to set valuation through supply and demand

[@williamnixon3994]

@@bt3743 Do we *actually* have that, or has the human labor part of the equation moved into making sure the machine doing the thing stays operational, and more of those machines can be built and improved upon?

[@gabestewart2278]

Damn man, 16 years. I remember watching the early episodes as they were releasing. I've been watching his videos on and off throughout my life since I was about 12.

[@sandwichboy1268]

Reminder that this all started with the US government telling Henry Ford that he could not reinvest profits to improve working conditions because his sole was obligation to his shareholders. Can't really blame corporations for acting in the manner legally required of them.

[@kittycatdreamz]

States and corportions are like some sort of weird symbiotic parasite. Corporations can't exist without them.

[@zbsfm]

yeah this is the clincher. the system of capitalism traps everyone. Workers are controlled by middle managers, who are controlled by social pressure and upper management, upper management is controlled by executives, who cater to shareholders, who are obligated , socially and career-wise, to make the line go up at all costs. Everyone loses and no one is in control

[@flyerton99]

"the US government telling Henry Ford that he could not reinvest profits to improve working conditions because his sole was obligation to his shareholders" No?? The case is literally "Dodge v. Ford Motor Co.", how the fuck did the "US Government" tell Henry Ford that? It was another private capitalist company that did it, or are you blaming the judge as the "US Government" despite the independence of the judiciary being a thing?

[@williamnixon3994]

Interestingly, I've been reminded that Ford wasn't just 'not investing into his shareholders' but rather deliberately stealing the money (through donating it to charity) he's contractually obligated to pay the Dodge Brothers so he could tank their business (who at the time was using the revenue from their shares to expand their business). As much as I hate shareholders and the parasitic issues they caused, Ford dug his own grave trying to cut costs on buying out the Dodge name, and it backfired on him. This also never grew beyond the Michigan Supreme Court, so this wasn't the *Federal* Gov't telling Ford that he couldn't do this either, it was a *state* government reminding him that theft is still a crime

[@V972]

Saw your comment under the theme video and was waiting for the vid with relative interest. You didn't disappoint if maybe with a tad too much AC jokes/references, but I can live with that. Will make sure to check your other stuff :D

[@QosmicVoid]

Admittedly other projects involving AC might have bled into this a little bit without me noticing, but I’m glad it was enjoyable outside my current hyper-fixation. Hopefully you enjoy the other stuff I’ve got!

[@AutumnRivers]

"Ah, shit, here we go again"

[@ArgzeroYT]

From a legal perspective the company owners have a fiscal responsibility to shareholders but you can make profit without sacrificing stakeholders. The courts/laws/congressional decisionmaking need to reflect this to fix the incentive systems reinforcing this. On average shareholders will always want to see their investments grow and grow quite quickly but instead of accepting the law of diminishing returns, our capitalist enterprises have turned to dissolving their diamond fields as you described them into bars to sell at cost of the very soul of the business they sought to grow. We need to resolve this broken incentive system so that executives do not feel encouraged to do this.

[@Altshoukyaku]

This has aged poorly with the facts about Nic Calandra, the shady practices he engaged in and everything coming out.

[@Moji55a]

True yikes...

[@alexandercandicedad1355]

Hey! I was wondering why i wasn't seeing new Yahtzee videos for a while! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

[@alexandercandicedad1355]

P.S. down with capitalism!!!!

[@randomaether]

From what frost showed, with receipts, Nock was both an asshole and an issue, they just did not know how much at the time. He both has a track record of past bad actions, most notably before he joined the escapist and even know, you can notice how second wind has become the escapist, again.

[@spikethelizard2770]

You've recreated the Zero Punctuation style really well, both in visuals and writing Well done!

[@waynecolangelo7837]

Yatzees taste in games is an age thing. I am in my late 30 and feel similar to yatzee. I would play monkey Island, myst or super mario over assassins creed or watch dogs any day.

[@Prototype-357]

Someone should send this video to the CGI artists and animators at Disney, I would so love to see what would happen.

[@toolittletoolate]

I just fond out about ZP and SB today, wondered why no one had covered it. Well i guess they haven't found your video on it yet to cover the situation. Amazing work man.

[@Saint_Wolf_]

I enjoyed it right about the time when it became communist propaganda where no business has to ever close at all if it's run by the workers. Like Second Wind wasn't build 16 years after Zero Punctuation by people who have built a name for themselves and now get to have name recognition and that somehow means that every new worker in Second Wind HQ should have a full say on how the company is ran even though that's giving it a power to steer the ship to someone who's investment isn't at stake, they are losing a job, you could have gambled your house in a mortgage, have other valuables as collaterals hoping the gamble pays off and still fail and lose your source of income and much more than just a salary.

[@QosmicVoid]

Sorry are we talking about Capitalism as a concept or worker ownership because literally the exact same thing happens in both scenarios so I'm confused as to what you're saying

[@ExValeFor]

@@QosmicVoid we're not talking about neo-nazism as a concept, we're talking about perpetuating hate crimes against groups we do not like or perpetuating far-right extermist beliefs! Yeah I don't think you have any ground to be confused, you're just very poorly preaching a branch of communism as it was envisioned and subsequently never implemented.

[@lasarousi]

You could get a job as assistant animator on fully ramblomatic, you emulated the style almost perfectly.