Zero Originality: The Gamestop Whistle Blower

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I think it's a joke that he's a rip-off.

Ripping off game reviewers as a joke and parodying them is a popular thing to do on Youtube.

Plus, the video is called "Zero Originality". Doesn't that say something about the seriousness of it all?

No.

It doesn't.

There's a difference between PARODY and THEFT.

There's a subtlety that's required that this tool has absolutely none of.

What's going on here is that he's hoping to catch the attention of the portion of the internet that has NO idea who Ben Croshaw is ... and then he can carefully "avoid" telling them that he's so blatantly biting off of his routine.

There are a MILLION examples I could think of as to why this sort of thing is wrong and pretty much SHITS all over whatever artistic integrity Ben C. owns in his "Zero Punctuation" reviews.

Here's a question - if YOU created something, and some asshole came along and stole it - stole the aesthetics of it, stole the way you drew it, wrote it, shot it, etc. and made it to look like THEY were the creative force behind it - would you be "okay" with it?

[Jorpho]

Reasonable effort, but sorry, the execution is way off. It would seem that this genre only works well within certain limitations that this fellow sorely neglects.

The "Some Punctuation" review from some months ago did a much better job of aping Yahtzee's style.

[evil_genius]

A question to the people who are all pissed about this guy stealing yahtzee's style.

I don't know if anyone watches Pure Pwnage episodes but if you do, then how do you feel about those guys parodying Yahtzee.

edit: I understand how different the two of them are. One is making episodes after episode in his style. The other is only a few minutes of many hours of video. But I think Jeremy from PP did a much better impersonation. If you haven't seen purepwnage, it's pretty funny and I think it's worth a watch.

Can be seen here
http://www.purepwnage.com/episodes/s2/5/

[Moon Jump]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxn2ezNDCwc

Watch the two minutes.

If you can't understand him (Which I agree he's hard to understand sometimes) he said he loves Yatzee's reviews and the reason why he wanted to do his video in that style is so he can remain anonymous.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I still haven't heard any answers to ANY of MY questions - but as an artist, I'll attempt to clarify the problem I have with this guy (beyond the fact that he's highly un-funny and sounds like he's talking with a mouthful of half chewed pop-corn).

Ben Choshaw isn't "apeing" anybody else out there. Nobody presented their game reviews in the same audio/visual style before him that I can recall.

Generally speaking, it's minimalist, repetitive, and doesn't require a heck of a lot of effort to produce (which he's openly admitted numerous times).

Whether you enjoy his work or not, he's an innovator, not an imitator.

Now, I've not seen a single thing that Pure Pwnage has done, ever, but if what they're doing is exactly the same thing that this ass is doing (presenting their "fast-talking" reviews with the same pacing/graphic elements stolen directly from Ben's videos) - it's not "loving", it's not "parody" it's not even re-appropriation - it's downright shameless, fucking, theft, and it's pathetic.

Now, back to parody. Parody is a very legitimate form of comedy, and if done right (see the early works of the Zucker Brothers) can be acceptable as its own creation. What's going on here, (as I eluded to earlier) is somebody who is looking to capitalize on the success of somebody else's work.

So ... why do a portion of those of you who watched these tolerate this? Is it just apathy, do you simply not give a crap about originality / integrity?

And if this guy really "loves" Z.P. (and thinks he can do this without facing criticism from the public) he needs to put DISCLAIMERS in the front of every one of his videos (and I can only assume, but I'd bet SAFE MONEY) that he stole not only the style of this work from B.C., but likely stole a hell of a ton of GRAPHIC ELEMENTS directly from his videos.

[dao2]

He's not being entirely fair with all those points. It's not an absurd policy for a store to pay out more store credit than cash for a trade in. Nor is it absurd for a store to make more profit off of used merchandise than they would on new.

And criticizing a game magazine for being late with news compared to the internet...well...the New York Times sucks ass too then.

It's not that he's criticizing the magazine for that, he's criticizing the game company for pushing it saying that it is when it most certainly is not

[dao2]

Keep watching, and you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Also, he doesn't get to the nitty gritty until the third episode. It's there that you hear some of the stuff you haven't heard before. Like the empty pocket procedure and how they pay employees.

And I can attest that it's all true. The cart is a maestro card and accepted nowhere outside of the UK :P Also the pocket check is for every time you leave the store, breaks and otherwise.

[Tupin]

The ultimate decider will be Mr. Croshaw when he comes across these videos. He'll either watch them and not care, or take the videos down because he stole things directly from his videos.

[evil_genius]

It's pretty gay but I'm not gonna get all worked up over it or anything. I love Yahtzee's reviews and this guy I don't really care for. I agree with the fact he should put disclaimers in those videos to give credit to Yahtzee.

[Coldguy]

It's pretty gay but I'm not gonna get all worked up over it or anything. I love Yahtzee's reviews and this guy I don't really care for. I agree with the fact he should put disclaimers in those videos to give credit to Yahtzee.

I watched them, and he did. So it is simply a fair use issue on his work.

Seriously we are talking about the ripoffness of these videos and not the content itself? Cmon guys I thought you all would be better then that...

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Okay.

I watched the first video, and I didn't see a single solitary frame that mentioned the words

Ben

"Yahtzee"

Croshaw

Zero (except in the title)

or Punctuation

In fact, the closest thing I could find in the first video (which is where he NEEDS to say these things ... not the second, and certainly not the SIXTH) that eluded to the fact that he stole graphic elements from B.C. was this frame ...



in addition to being a professional artist, I'm a licensed teacher, and I happen to understand what "fair use" means.

"Fair Use" is the legal allowance of copying portions of copyrighted work for SCHOLARLY USAGE not a fucking YouTube video.

So, again, I'll pose the question to those that feel that there's "nothing wrong" going on here :

Would you be okay with somebody taking something you've created, gutting it and presenting it as their own original idea?

[Poofta!]

No.

It doesn't.

There's a difference between PARODY and THEFT.

There's a subtlety that's required that this tool has absolutely none of.

What's going on here is that he's hoping to catch the attention of the portion of the internet that has NO idea who Ben Crawshaw is ... and then he can carefully "avoid" telling them that he's so blatantly biting off of his routine.

There are a MILLION examples I could think of as to why this sort of thing is wrong and pretty much SHITS all over whatever artistic integrity Ben C. owns in his "Zero Punctuation" reviews.

Here's a question - if YOU created something, and some asshole came along and stole it - stole the aesthetics of it, stole the way you drew it, wrote it, shot it, etc. and made it to look like THEY were the creative force behind it - would you be "okay" with it?

chill the hell out. he does like a 5 minutes segment on this and says how awesome ben is. if you gave him a chance youd know this. now take those panties out of yoru ass along with that stick. the segment as unoriginal and biased as it may be -- is still a fun and interesting watch which the author did some considerable work putting together. i enjoyed it, and although it isnt going to change my purchasing habits (i already abuse gamestop) it definitely was interesting listening to a man tell his story.

edit: originality and integrity are two EXTREMELY different things. i do not give a shit about originality, we are gamers after all and there are what -- like 15 original game ideas, ever? originality does not make something good or bad. its a style, and once you create a style, it is the world's to mimic, make fun of, abuse, change, alter, use etc. last i checked Ben was not making his living off of his vid style, nor is this guy. this guy blatantly says he stole the style and its just to make it easier for himself, i actually enjoyed him doing it. either way he is not trying to capitalize on it for any purpose other than to bring you entertainment.

[roushimsx]

Seriously we are talking about the ripoffness of these videos and not the content itself? Cmon guys I thought you all would be better then that...

You must have missed about 80% of the first page of the thread. I know, I know, expecting someone to read any more than the first and last posts of a thread is asking way too much.

Start reading from here and work your way down as everyone shits on his terrible inflection, poor script, and generic points.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Well.

I was going to wait for somebody to articulate an answer to MY question, but if the consensus is that that this kind of thing is completely acceptable, I'll just leave everybody alone to enjoy it.

[boatofcar]

Would you be okay with somebody taking something you've created, gutting it and presenting it as their own original idea?

Nobody is going to confuse this mess with a zero punctuation review. Ben Croshaw did not invent stick men animations and talking fast. And I don't know what being a "professional artist" and a "licensed teacher" has to do with knowing what fair use is, aside from making you look like a pompous ass.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Nobody is going to confuse this mess with a zero punctuation review. Ben Croshaw did not invent stick men animations and talking fast. And I don't know what being a "professional artist" and a "licensed teacher" has to do with knowing what fair use is, aside from making you look like a pompous ass.

Graphic/commercial artists need to be ever-cautious of copyright ownership. If copyrighted material winds up in work you get paid for / gets published without permission of the copyright holder, the artist may be legally liable.

(If I erased the word balloons from Penny Arcade and wrote my own jokes in, or erased the audio from an AVGN and dubbed in my own audio, that wouldn't be "fair use".)

Educators photocopy things from texts all the time. If you're a teacher, in most every case, you have a right to exercise "fair use" copyright to make lessons using portions of texts / publications that would otherwise be illegal to copy / distribute for personal use.

Sorry if the initial statement came accross as "holier-than-thou".

I'm a bit shocked at the overwhelming support over this ... and seriously, anybody who knows me knows that I'm anything BUT pompous, I'm just passionate about things like this.

Seriously, you guys can enjoy these all you like ... I'm personally offended by them, but it's not like I was personally attacking anybody over them, I was just trying to get some insight into why people think that it's acceptable.

If saying "I love Ben Croshaw" is enough to get a pass from the majority of the general public, then I guess I can't argue with that.

[G-Boobie]

[...]I'm a bit shocked at the overwhelming support over this ... and seriously, anybody who knows me knows that I'm anything BUT pompous, I'm just passionate about things like this.

Seriously, you guys can enjoy these all you like ... I'm personally offended by them, but it's not like I was personally attacking anybody over them, I was just trying to get some insight into why people think that it's acceptable.

If saying "I love Ben Croshaw" is enough to get a pass from the majority of the general public, then I guess I can't argue with that.

Frankie, to my eye, the overwhelming majority of posts in this thread are actually pretty negative. I'm not sure where you're getting that 'overwhelming support' vibe.

That being said, I resolve to stop posting in threads started by YouTube reviewers. It's never worth it.

[roushimsx]

(If I erased the word balloons from Penny Arcade and wrote my own jokes in, or erased the audio from an AVGN and dubbed in my own audio, that wouldn't be "fair use".)

The Penny Arcade parodies can be funny, but I've got a warm spot in my heart for the Dilbert rewrites.

[G-Boobie]

Well, that didn't last long.

The dude is on Kotaku now.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Frankie, to my eye, the overwhelming majority of posts in this thread are actually pretty negative. I'm not sure where you're getting that 'overwhelming support' vibe.

That being said, I resolve to stop posting in threads started by YouTube reviewers. It's never worth it.

Well ... any time totally civil DP members start throwing pointed jabs over my passionate ramblings (and by any time, I mean the FIRST TIME) I get a feeling of being "overwhelmed", I suppose that my estimation of the total level of "acceptance" might have been a bit off due to that.

In any case, I was mad at the "whistle blower" not ANYBODY here ... and I sincerely hope nobody took anything I said as some kind of personal attack.