Gaming personalities you love/hate?

[The DanMan]

There are a lot of personalities in gaming who've established themselves on the internet. Generally on youtube, there's a wide variety of them rocking hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of subscribers, putting out regular content. Which ones are your favorite? Least favorite? Why?

I'll stick my stuff in a spoiler due to relative length:

I'll start out with a favorite: ProJared. Not a whole lot to say; he generally does reviews and is able to find the right balance between objective criticism and making a fun video that people will watch. He's not THE BIGGEST, but he's pretty popular in his own right.

Another one is... okay, it's kind of a group: TheRunawayGuys. NintendoCapriSun, Chuggaaconroy, and Protonjon came together in early 2011 to play co-op games together (though there's been a couple exceptions: Sonic Adventure and the currently ongoing Super Metroid playthrough). They're fun and boisterous but also never feel too fake or over-the-top.

And speaking of fake and over-the-top, let's go down to gaming personalities I don't really like. Starting with the Gamegrumps. They're all exaggerated and continuously crass, with a trademark of skipping through text that explains gameplay mechanics only to get mad at the game for not explaining the gameplay mechanics. That, and Arin/Egoraptor purposefully puts on airs and tries to trigger the Sonic fanbase for all its worth.

Rounding things out is Jim Sterling. Good grief, Jim Sterling. He's the smarmy, know-it-all cynic who comes off as an egotistical contrarion (his Star Fox Zero review: "This is a garbage game for garbage people, it's an uninspired space shooter meets Kid Icarus Uprising, and don't even defend Kid Icarus Uprising because it's donkey shit too") that you never want to agree with even though he sometimes has points (recently put out a 15 minute video re-iterating how Nintendo takes add revenue from youtubers; the video was entitled "Why you should pirate all of Nintendo's games" and most of its run time plays out like he's trying to convince you to pirate their games, only for the last few minutes to go "Nah piracy is bad" and just regurgitate points). And then there's his fanbase... .

[Refa]

What do you mean by gaming personality?  Can I just list Youtubers who talk about games that I love/hate or is there something else to it?

[Nobody]

my favorite gaming personality is kaz hirai's fake twitter account

https://twitter.com/kazhiraiceo

[Taxon]

Hmm... I really like the idea of this thread but giving people the excuse to vent about popular internet personalities they don't like might cause a bit of a bloodbath when their fans show up. Hell, while I was reading your post I even got a little tempted to write up a defense of Jim Sterling. Let's hope everyone keeps it civil...

Anyway, I'm just gonna try and focus on the positive. My favorite gaming personality is a criminally underrated Let's Player called OverTheGun. He's not all that popular considering he has been around since 2007 and is one of the people who pioneered Let's Play back during the early days of youtube (the first upload on his channel was the original upload of Portal's "Still Alive" song, to give some perspective on just how old his channel is). His playthroughs take the form of a series called HTSF, or How To Successfully Fail. The name's a reference to how he usually plays games blind (as in, not knowing anything about them beforehand) and has a tendency to blunder in the most incredible, but always hilarious, ways. His content tends to have a lot more of a relaxed and slow-paced feel than a lot of modern gaming channels, so people with short attention spans probably won't be too into him... But he always comes across as sincere and doesn't play up his reactions. In other words, he's not nearly as fake as most Let's Players these days are. One major advantage of him having such a niche audience as well, is that he can actually interact with it. It helps his fanbase feel like an actual community, rather than a clusterfuck of thousands of individuals who happen to like the same guy. He's certainly not for everybody, but I've yet to find someone I enjoy more.

...Also yeah, Projared's amazing.

[Zera]

Jim Sterling: He's the hero Gotham Gaming deserves, but not the one it needs. He was the only reviewer brave enough to give Kirby's Return to Dreamland a 10/10. I legitimately respect his reviews of Mario Kart 7 and Kid Icarus Uprising. In more recent news, he gave Zelda: BotW a 7/10, proving that it is not The Best Game Ever™. He is a contrarian, but a brutally honest one that always brings good points to the table. Except in his Sonic Colors (Wii) review - that one sucked. Really badly.

I quite like Super Bunnyhop, The Completionist, Arlo, and cjszero01.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Zera

[Jedi]

I don't like ProJared or Jim Sterling, I find they are overly critical just for the sake of it, and have little to no logic except in some cases, just like most "game reviewers". Gaming Brit and Spoony just about get to this to this level as well, but balance themselves out with a number of actual good reviews. Of course this is just my opinion, so please don't get too upset with me.

I only really like SomecallmeJohnny and The Competitionist in terms of reviews. 

In terms of just gaming, The crew of Brainscratchcomms (for the most part), Hellfirecomms and The Runaway Guys are all pretty much likable and interesting people. Meanwhile on the opposite end of them, are Gamegrumps, the most unlikable and uninformed idiots I have ever seen play games for money.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Jedi

[Augestein]

I honestly prefer lower key players to watch. There's a certain humility from them that makes them a treat.

[Slumber]

Like: Vinesauce, the Soulbrandt dudes, Super Best Friends(Though I'm starting to get a bit tired of them), Giant Bomb for more involved/regular content. Dunkey's fun for his ridiculous montages. ProtonJon, when he actually decides to upload content/stream.

Dislike: FFSTV/Video Games Awesome. I used to enjoy them. Even gave 'em $50 for a Turbo Membership like, 5 years ago. But Fraser's just become so awful and obnoxious.

My dislike list is short, simply because I haven't watched enough of them to accumulate a "bad" list. So it really just includes the one group that I used to really enjoy, but can't stand anymore.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Slumber

[Jedi]

5 minutes ago, Slumber said:

 ProtonJon, when he actually decides to upload content/stream.

Thankfully he at least Streams often enough, compared to his actual channel updates haha.

[Slumber]

Just now, Jedi said:

Thankfully he at least Streams often enough, compared to his actual channel updates haha.

Yeah, but his schedule's super irregular.

[Jedi]

Yeah, he does alot of stuff though, so it is understandable, maybe next stream I'll say hi to you  

Its good to know fellow ProtonJon fans, I've been following him since like his Mario World hack days.

[Slumber]

Just now, Jedi said:

Its good to know fellow ProtonJon fans, I've been following him since like his Mario World hack days.

Yup. And god, that stuff is like, 9-10 years old. I've been watching his stuff for so much of my life.

[Jedi]

5 minutes ago, Slumber said:

Yup. And god, that stuff is like, 9-10 years old. I've been watching his stuff for so much of my life.

Geez it is, I feel old hahaha.

[Omegaprism]

I'll be honest, the Game Grumps and Jim Sterling are among my favorite gaming personalities. I understand they rub some people the wrong way, but if you look through their history and admittedly enormous backlog of videos, you'll find that they are actually quite humble, generous, and honest, and I'm saying this as a fan of several games (and in some cases whole series and genres) that have been dismissed offhand by them. It's okay if you like something that somebody else doesn't like. It's also okay to like something that isn't good. It's important to know the difference between things you like and things that are good. I won't try and convince anyone to like them, but I just wanted to get in one positive note before the hate train got rolling.

Also, not that they need the exposure or anything, but I also really like that Super Best Friends, and their often unmitigated excitement over most of everything. I was pretty sad to see Liam leave, because he's the biggest weeb of the group, and subsequently was the resident expert on Fire Emblem and stuff, but Woolie, Matt, and Pat are still quite the entertaining and goofy power trio.

Oh man! If we're also talking about industry types, let me toss some love at Yoko Taro, a weird Japanese man who I only recently learned about. He has written and directed some of the most trope-defying, heartbreaking stories in all of videogames, and has a frank, self-deprecating, and goofy sense of humor that makes me laugh every time he does an interview or promotion for his games. His latest effort, Nier: Automata, is fantastic, but you don't even have to play any of his games to see what a daffy goofball he is. Just look up Yoko Taro on youtube and you'll be entertained.

As for personalities I dislike...

...

...

...Hm, I'm drawing a blank here. Oh well, I guess it's not so bad not having a hate boner, right?

[Jedi]

3 minutes ago, Omegaprism said:

I'll be honest, the Game Grumps and Jim Sterling are among my favorite gaming personalities. I understand they rub some people the wrong way, but if you look through their history and admittedly enormous backlog of videos, you'll find that they are actually quite humble, generous, and honest, and I'm saying this as a fan of several games (and in some cases whole series and genres) that have been dismissed offhand by them. It's okay if you like something that somebody else doesn't like. It's also okay to like something that isn't good. It's important to know the difference between things you like and things that are good. I won't try and convince anyone to like them, but I just wanted to get in one positive note before the hate train got rolling.

...Hm, I'm drawing a blank here. Oh well, I guess it's not so bad not having a hate boner, right?

I may have come off a tad strongly in my personal dislike and I kind of feel bad for that. Sorry if that was a bit distressing.

[Slumber]

On the Yoko Taro note, I've been following his work(Indirectly) since Drakengard 2, and Drakengard 3 was where I started paying actual attention to him. Nier: Automata doing well and getting good reviews makes me happy, because the guy deserves to make all of the weird, sad, fucked up games he wants, and I was always amazed he managed to convince Square over and over to fund and publish his games, since they've never reviewed well and sold poorly. He's like the RPG version of Suda/Swery, but he never quite found his niche like those two did.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Slumber

[Omegaprism]

13 minutes ago, Jedi said:

I may have come off a tad strongly in my personal dislike and I kind of feel bad for that. Sorry if that was a bit distressing.

No worries. I don't even think you were that harsh. I just couldn't help but go to bat after the OP specifically dissed my pretend internet bff harem. It must be a side effect of being a waifu wars veteran. :^P

[Reality]

I'll edit stuff in when I have more time.

Youtube

The Mighty Jingles- The man with the most infectious laugh in the world. I only find WoT average, but he makes it interesting, and funny. Also he introduced me to a lot of historic content, which turned out to be even better than his game play videos.

Mr.Whitman - Point and click games. Point and clicks games everywhere.

Icebears4ever- For the tony hawk documentary. I don't like making him sound like a one note person. It's a dang good documentary though >< 

Kim Justice - His documentaries on the British Home Computer market have more effort put into them than almost any other content on Youtube. And he's good enough to adress his occasional fallacies/bad sources when people bring it up with him. I've discovered scores of good obscure games through him, although I will admit that I find his politics a bit grating and think his taste in more modern games is appalling cover based shooters are never GOTY material Kim!

Larry Bundy Jr. - His voice just reminds me of British comedian David Jason too much not to love. Like Kim, his best content has to do with British home computers. I think he's been getting a little click baity in the last year though. But I can't stay angry. 

Developers

Mike Hommel- I mostly go though the backlog of journals on his website though, as his twitter and you tube are dead/for business purposes respectively. I'm not in the mood to sing his phrases, but he is easily one of my heroes, and he has dictated my pop-culture tastes forever through his movie and television recomendations, not to mention his own comedy writing.

David Jaffe- His blog and youtube are entertaining, and the background material he released for twisted metal was fun.

Increpare- I like puzzle games so explanation isn't neccesary. As far as I'm concerned he's taken a philosophic stance on game design. Also before I even knew how big he was I played English Country Tune, thought it was neat, and he gave me a thank you message as one of the first people to beat it (or something). 

Competitive People

BayoenFR- watching people play puyo puyo competitively just hypnotizes me. Completly changed my relationship to puzzle games a few years ago. I was used to playing them only on normal difficulty and such but I never saw the artistic potential of what humans could do. It's just breathaking to see two stacks rise and the way that simply unleashing a giant chain is dangerous- giving the other player time to add to their ombo while it's resolving, and sometimes going back and forth multiple times. Compared to fighing games, and defintively compared to strategy games, you really understand the technical beuaty of the game- the occasional fluke win doesn't save people from what a puyo god can do. 

Mad KOF- Breaks my heart. I watch KOF as much for the crowd energy as for the game play. It's also really striking for me to remember that their are fighting game community's outside of CAL and JPN. 

Speed Runners

The Monaco Crew - Mopo, Mr. U, Vella, Frank, Tik, Metapad, Brainfeeder, Winter, and like 20 others. Naturally since it's the game I run. Sometimes we get together for other stuff, like movies nights or whatever. 

SpkeVegeta- Made me obsess over speedrunning for like 3 years straight and got me back into videogames in general. 

Collectors

Richie- He's been a really important part of my videogame tastes for like 6 years now. We disagree all the time (I think he likes rpgs and fighting games too much, puzzle games and space/flight sims not enough) but he is the most approachable collector I know, and I respect his opinions most of the time, both as someone, and because I like his taste. 

MetalJesusRocks - I first heard of him because of some article about sierra employees. I like him overall, although I think he's too positive at times, and I think a lot of his content could stand to be more in depth than just telling it's fun and his coverage of the obvious (console) classics isn't that impressive. But I think his content about early PC games is strong enough to make up for it, particularly Sierra franchises, but also stuff like Ultima. He also does a good job showcasing the other collectors in his geographical area which I appreciate, as I sorely missed the non-chain gaming stores that used to be in my neighborhood.... 

Pokemon 

Borat-  Led to my involvement with the Ruins of Alph Ladder tour. Got me excited to try out past gens other than my traditonal DPP and BW. Incredibly uncompromising personality. Changed my view of stall teams in ALL meta games and formats permanently. 

Scpinion- He had incredible enthusiasm for the Other Metas on Pokemon Showdown, and was a huge part of the campaign for monotype and others to receive ladder status, then a chunk of the smogdex analysis, seperate forums for each of the "permanent" OMs, more comprehensive webpage/resources for OM, etc. It's hard not to like the guy. He's kind of an average, overly conservative teambuilder though and telegraphs every move he makes.

Martin- hosted the pokelab.de server. This place had such a big place in my life.

Shuckle4ubers- One of the last mods of pokelab.de - Also an egotistic personality who loved sandbagging with joke pokemon, and forcing BS tournaments like "mono colour" and "/dice dex number draft" upon the population. Infected me with their idea of fun. 

Edited March 15, 2017 by Reality

[Refa]

No one else gives Super Mario Bros. 2 the respect that it rightfully deserves like videogamedunkey does.

[Jedi]

13 minutes ago, Reality said:

Mr.Whitman - Point and click games. Point and clicks games everywhere.

I found him while I was playing through the various Sierra classics among other adventure games, all the "Ways to die" videos haha.

This was even my signature for a bit 

Edited March 15, 2017 by Jedi

[Lord Raven]

10 minutes ago, Refa said:

No one else gives Super Mario Bros. 2 the respect that it rightfully deserves like videogamedunkey does.

nobody is more critical of ass(assin's) creed either

[NoirCore]

I'll start with some lesser-known YouTubers/streamers who I think deserve some more love.

MasaeAnela - A friend of TRG, Masae is an LPer that I find very entertaining to watch. She does LPs similarly to Chugga, but what really shines is her personality in her videos and editing. She's not afraid to act a little silly and poke fun at herself for her mess-ups to the point that she'll commonly throw text on screen with a silly sound effect to point out her follies in a humorous manner. Speaking of which, her editing is pretty good, too; she has some nice animated graphics in the form of her chibi avatar dressed up to represent her current LP.

Tom Fawkes - You may have heard of him from ProtonJon's streams, but Tom's another personality I consider great, streaming about 5 days a week. Represented by his badly-drawn face for an avatar, he is very charismatic; his reactions are loud yet hilarious, and he's got quite the vocal cords to change his voice pretty well when reading character dialogue and doing impersonations. That being said, he's usually smart and honest when discussing things; I think his Nintendo Switch stream reaction video is a good example of that. He's also buds with TRG and was a guest for their Rayman Legends LP, where I think he was quite a source of funny humor.

And of course, I like to watch Chugga, Jon, Tim (NintendoCapriSun), Somecallmejohnny, and Josh Jepson. :P

[The DanMan]

10 hours ago, Refa said:

What do you mean by gaming personality?  Can I just list Youtubers who talk about games that I love/hate or is there something else to it?

Major-ish youtubers, developers that really put themselves out there, people of that nature.

9 hours ago, Zera said:

Jim Sterling: He's the hero Gotham Gaming deserves, but not the one it needs. He was the only reviewer brave enough to give Kirby's Return to Dreamland a 10/10. I legitimately respect his reviews of Mario Kart 7 and Kid Icarus Uprising. In more recent news, he gave Zelda: BotW a 7/10, proving that it is not The Best Game Ever™. He is a contrarian, but a brutally honest one that always brings good points to the table. Except in his Sonic Colors (Wii) review - that one sucked. Really badly.

I quite like Super Bunnyhop, The Completionist, Arlo, and cjszero01.

It was never to begin with-- but every other reviewer thought it was great. And I found often enough he's contrarian for the sake of being one to piss off fans and shovel people who like pissing off fans towards his patreon (he's basically the god of Neogaf). Heck, I've seen the case made that his BotW review fails by his own criteria, with it reading like an 8/10 (he pretty well fleshes out what every number on his system means) but getting a 7/10 at the end-- likely for no other reason than clicks and fanboy outrage.

9 hours ago, Taxon said:

Hmm... I really like the idea of this thread but giving people the excuse to vent about popular internet personalities they don't like might cause a bit of a bloodbath when their fans show up. Hell, while I was reading your post I even got a little tempted to write up a defense of Jim Sterling. Let's hope everyone keeps it civil...

I can understand why people may like him-- I can generally respect, if not agree with, his opinions. It's the way he expresses them and his fandom that truly rub me the wrong way.

Edited March 15, 2017 by The DanMan

[Water Mage]

First of all NicoB. The guy is amazing, and he adds a lot of personality to his LPs. He's mostly know for playing Danganronpa, Ace Attorney, Persona and Kingdom Hearts. If you want good Blind LPs of these games with actual genuine reactions, watch this guy. I cannot recommend him enough. Seriously, he's really nice! His only real problem is that his videos tend to be more than a hour long. 

I also have great respect for the RunwayGuys. Their dedication is to be respected, especially Chugga. His dedication to his LPs is amazing. 

As for dislikes, Gamegrumps. I'm sorry, but I just can't respect Arin. The guy has the gall to say games have bad design, when he just to lazy to pay attention to the tutorial. And his Sequelitis video about Zelda is quite frankly disgusting. He's pretty much using the video to bash the games he doesn't like.

[PeaceRibbon]

Why am I waiting patiently for someone to mention a YouTube content creator who hangs out on this site? :P

Me personally, as long as any given channel has the decency to censor their foul language and not act like they are the end all authority on a given subject, I find them at least tolerable.