This isn’t fun any more (FNT scene cannibalizing’s each other)

@Flash for all the accusations of dick riding, you’re spinning real hard on Eric’s dick.

And FFS, who posts on this message board about being above drama? This entire scene is based on shit stirring, I just watched a video where Jeremy shat on the rock for a solid 40 fucking minutes straight. Every video Eric has ever made he’s talking shit about something. Drama is the lifeblood of the entire Geeks and Gamers sphere.

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills responding to you guys.

You don’t have to convince me EVS is an asshole, everyone knows he’s an asshole.

Rippa supporters are like those congregations who follow those mega church priests, and if you dare try to convince them that they’ve been used to help buy them a luxury jet and various mansions, they’ll come at you with a vengeance.

It blows my mind people’s ability to take in selective bits of truth and they way for some people they’ll assume positive intent.

I’ll be totally honest, I am actually a bit of an EVS fan lately. But it wasn’t always like that, I saw all the attacks and all the dog piling and I figured, “well if everyone hates this guy he’s gotta be an ass”. And he is kind of an ass, but after all the shit being thrown at EVS from all these grifters I kinda get it. He’s the Trump of comics, while everyone else  is playign bullshit games and trying to scratch each others’ backs, he’s the only one that gives any fucks about actually making anything great.

I’m repeating myself, but EVS actually fucking creates shit. He actually gives a shit about making comics. That RADICALLY changes the way he’s going to interact with all these people who ONLY make their money in the cult of personality. I’m pretty beat, I’d normally explain this shit in greater detail, but what’s the fucking point?

Good god you Rippa supporters are the most toxic fucking people i’ve ever fucking engaged with in my entire damned life. Like holy shit.

@DarthVengeant I know that feeling. I worked in Portland Oregon in the gaming space and it was a nightmare. I had coworkers literally screaming at the top of their lungs how much they hated orange man. I’m not even shitting you. And these are the people who proclaim to be the most tolerant. It’s a really crazy world we live in, hopefully things get better soon, because it’s hard to live like this.

Wasn’t defending the rock, more than anyone he symbolizes the fall of the west. He’s this presentation of peak masculinity but under it all is this network of corruption, greed and vile secrecy. He’s subverted.

I’ve tried to tell it like it is. We are living through a cultural crisis, and the only way we’re going to get the hell out of it is if we hold others and ourselves accountable for our actions.

We live in a society…

Societies live and breathe by meritocracy, by the quality of the work of those who live in this world. Rippa, Jeremy, Gary, EVS, Az are all top tier talents in the arena of personality, in the YouTube space.

But MASSIVE problems arise if we become a cult of personality, if we allow our “friendships” our personal connections to cloud our judgement in areas of life of paramount importance.

When pampered, likeable people, who are unaccustomed to hard work and sacrifice start getting their hands on the levers of society, everything goes to shit. People who live in bubbles, people who form whisper networks, people who see “their own truth”, people who are privildged to live in their own little reality away from the demands that build character and competency.

The heart the issue is these guys rose to prominence on the promise they would lead this fight, that they would fight for meritocracy, that they would champion hard work and quality entertainment. Rippa sucked the oxygen out of the room from those who would have worked hard to produce QUALITY entertainment. He furthered this decline of worshipping icons and brands over the actual quality of the work put behind it. When Rippaverse failed, it didn’t just cut into Rippa’s pockets, it burned the bridge to indie comics as a whole as it was so prominent.

Creating independent works has to be more than just sucking the money and placating an audience. It must be a celebration of craft, it must be a celebration of talent and hard work. You can’t charge 35 fucking dollars for some 3D assets and a fucking reach around.

This isn’t about “drama” this is about MERITOCRACY, this is about building the foundations of a quality culture again where we can be ourselves and not be surrounded by a cult who will cut you down and cancel you for speaking the truth. Where working hard has value, where having talent has value. Where there is more to this existence than talking heads blowing smoke up each others’ asses.

You guys want quality entertainment back? Do you want to live in a world where we can have nice shit and feel proud about what we have built? Where we can take pride in being a nerd for star wars, or video games? Where we can have a love of the amazing stuff other people have poured their heart and soul into? Then we have to grow the hell up and start facing uncomfortable truths and holding one another to standards.

I’ve tried to levy fair criticsm against everyone in this sphere because it’s important, it’s what we must do. Freedom and prosperity demands eternal vigilance. Here’s a long winded rant I went on against The Drinker: https://www.reddit.com/r/CriticalDrinker/comments/1b3lfbi/comment/l10igrn/

I don’t go after Mr. July because because I have some kind of vendetta against him, he’s just been an entitled diva lately. Critical Drinker however owned up to his indie venture and told the community that he is just as worthy of criticism as anyone, and he is willing to own up to his shortcomings, he is not a constant drain on this scene. Drinker doesn’t incessantly tell the world everyone else is wrong and wax poetic about how great everyone in his sphere is because they kiss his ass.

Here’s the problem: people don’t know how the sausage is made any more. People no longer have ANY perception of the long hours and dedication it requires to create things of value. We all sit around and we surf twitter or reddit, and we do our mundane jobs and we order takeout and we have our electornics and shoes sent to our house, we pop on the TV and game consoles and we watch whatever the fuck we want. People are so damned sheltered and removed from the things they consume that we have lost all ability to value things as consumers.

We have no concept of the wheels and machinations that create the products we consume, which is why Rippa is able to farm this army of Stans who will die on the hill defending his entitled ass.

There are a lot of likeable people here. They are good at what they do, and there’s a lot of heart in this scene with lots of value. But don’t let it cloud your judgements, don’t turn into the same cult of personality that destroyed Star Wars and Doctor Who, and comics, and gaming.

It’s called tough love guys, to be strong and capable we gotta suffer criticism and be able to rise above it, or simply be phenoms. If we can’t, we’re not cut out to be creatives. Rippa is neither a phenom, nor able to put the elbow greese and 10,000 hours in to become good at producing comics, Drinker wasn’t either in regards to film making.

Try to learn to detach yourselves from your personal connections with people when it comes to craft and business.

It used to be common knowledge, you DO NOT go into business with your friends, because we human monkeys are REALLY BAD at viewing reality when the connections of friends is concerned and our base natures to rely on petty politics begins to creep in, we start to think that just because we know someone and like them, that they should be successful and everything they do is wonderful. It’s nepotism, and it’s at the very heart of why the world has gone to shit.

I know these posts are a thorn on this forum where people are just trying to just come together and enjoy this corner of the internet that isn’t subverted garbage safe from all the woke bullshit. But I don’t like seeing it turn into the same bullshit hero worship and wrongthink machine those others assholes pull.

This group did enough damage to comics. I sure as shit don’t want them fucking up the indie gaming scene.

It would do these guys a lot of good who want to make their own creations if they watched this recent Trashcast and internalized the lessons within, lots of wisdom to be gleaned from the perspective of creators who have dealt with artists and writers over many years:

They really get into the trials and tribulations that you encounter in the creative sphere. Liam and the shit he’s going through with his entitled artist is very common, the members of comics gate who all think they’re entitled to more, who think they know better, who think it’s going to be easy, and think they should get a huge piece of the pie and make their own rules.

Everyone thinks they should have more control, be making more money, is being wronged by the others. Sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re wrong. And figuring this out becomes murky as people come up with excuses and entitlements and focus diverts from making a damned comic book.

Making art requires herding cats. You have to be mindful who you work with, the terms you set, and you have to learn how to find the right people and keep a revolving door early. Key people in key positions form the foundation of your enterprise, set the standards, uphold them in time. Eric hired up a ton of friends and kiss asses while taking success for granted, thought it would be easy. It was easy until the product was revealed.

These ventures are so damned mind blowingly big with so many considerations that it’s impossible to fathom every hurdle you need to vault, and now they’re coming to realize this the hard way. They’re having to stew in their hubris. You’d think it would be easy enough with 3 million dollars to find a few competent artists, find some writers, make a comic book. It’s not, you need the right competencies in the right places and you need to resist falling into the trap of listening to the yes men around you that you’ve installed to elevate yourself. A quality product must be made.

Eric was the crux of this all falling apart. His entitlement, his petty politics and exploiting of friends. Every single hire he made who valued brown nosing over talent. He created a massive cult around himself where he deemed himself above all criticism and took for granted all the hard work and discerning eye it takes to create a product of cohesion. One can only imagine how many people whose critiques he outright ignored and pushed forward with full confidence in his untested vision.

I do feel for Eric a bit. Success happened to him so fast that he didn’t have time to take it in, didn’t have much of an opportunity to get feedback and readjust his expectations. He really thought we was making hot shit right out of the gate. Most all us creatives do, we need to be slapped down by reality because we’re so high on the feeling of just putting out our first creations it’s hard for us to gauge them personally. I think once this all blows over, Eric may be able to look back on ISOM and see where he made mistakes more clearly.

Everyone’s a critic, eveyrone’s an idea person. Everyone thinks, “Why doesn’t someone just give people what they want and get rich!?” The gall to push so hard and invest so much into this shit comic book… All the yes men, all the affirming creators, all the greed and arrogance from everyone in this sphere mixed together and escalated this venture into a truly epic disaster. For all the talk, no one in this sphere stood up to the consumer or stood up for quality entertainment when it was their friends putting it out, their wallet getting fat. It was easy over the past couple years to scream, “FRIENDSHIP!” as the money poured in.

Now the cognitive dissonances are setting in, now the squabbles, the entitlement, the politics, the hurt feelings and pettiness are going to rise to the surface and it’s going to get ugly fast as promises are unable to be kept and fan outrage remains unanswered.

The piper has to be paid. And the sooner the people in this sphere own up to it and hold themselves to the standards they set for others, the sooner they can get past this and grow and maybe find success with future endeavors of creation.

In the meantime. this scene is turning into lolcows with Rippasend looming on the horizon.

SAME damned shit that happened with woke Hollywood. A inexperienced, friends  lacking the work ethic to really grind and produce quality entertainment getting together thinking they’d all smarm it up and make a ton of money selling consumers hot garbage with no understanding or appreciation of the craft, who were willing to burn the fields others earn their livings in for personal gain. Shameful.

I’m lamenting this community’s fall, its wasted potential.

It’s easy to wallow around in the mud, demand others create great movies. It’s easy to shill for your “friends” lining your pocket. It’s easy to talk shit about anyone that confronts you with painful truth from your bubbles.

Is this how this saga unfolds? Gary often talks about how it might end tomorrow… maybe it will. Maybe this is all that this community stood for: a fart in an elevator.

They got to fuck off with their friends while farming huge chunks of money in plushies and super chats. They got to finger other incompetent grifters while holding themselves to no account and being celebrated by a throng of Stans attacking anyone who dare question their shilling of these divas.

How long has this gone on… 4+ years now? How long did these guys have to at least ATTEMPT to build something of value? ATTEMPT to platform other creators? Attempt to contribute to this cultural fight in some form of meaningful way that will last beyond this petty backlash? This fandom became their “precious”, all this money and power just given to them. No need to produce great movies, no need to produce great comics, the content was handed to them on a silver platter.

They could have played to their strengths, they could have created interesting talk shows showcasing interesting life lessons or indie ventures, or creative processes. They coulda teamed up with Epicverse to do a series on the trials and tribulations on learning how to make films, or worked with other hard working indies in an attempt to give back.

Would this have been successful or entertaining? Who knows. What we do know is week after week for the past 4+ years these guys have been more than happy to do absolutely nothing beyond blowing smoke up our asses, too comfortable with that money rolling in, too comfortable with the fun griftings.

Why attempt to make a difference when grifting is just so damned safe and fun?

I’ve talked a lot of shit about Rippa in this thread, but to his credit, he did make a business, he did try to create culture and content, he poured his time and energy into this shit and went to fucking bat.

And these guys shilled HARD for it while it was advantageous for them, while it was safe and lucrative, even when they knew the product wouldn’t be up to quality they kept the grift going and played it off as loyalty as they betrayed the fans.

I realize this thread is more than cringe at this point, I realize how fucking stupid it’s been to watch this scene decay and bitch about it over all this time, but this is entertaining. The drama, the stakes of society hanging in the balance. As covid tore our lives apart and many of us had our careers and industries going to shit, this scene was a beacon of hope for a long time that things might get better. That we would band together and take back entertainment.

It’s devolved into a soap opera with EVS talking shit about everyone and wondering what the next controversy is going to be as all this goes to shit, but it’s still better entertainment than most of what’s on TV right now, unfortunately.

The usual accusations will be levied by anyone who happens to read this in this bumfuck corner of the internet. I’m a hater, I dislike a succesful business man, anyone who makes such a post is “gay ops”.

I really just wanted to see this cultural rot turned around. I wanted to see people who believed in things, believed in building back better entertainment and bringing back meritocracy would DO LITERALLY ANYTHING to facilitate that outside of bitching and moaning while they had the means and platform to do so.

In this late chapter of the fellowship, it’s becoming painfuly clear these guys really never cared about any of this shit. They are nothing more than critics and grifters unwilling to sacrifice or risk even a sliver of their comfortable little neckbeard corner of the internet to try to foster anything of value.

This place is a fucking neckbeard farm. It’s a fucking cult. It’s see no evil, hear no evil, for the delicate sensibilities of the Stans guiding every aspect of this community.

It didn’t have to be like this, some level of authenticity and attempt to make a great comic, or a great comedy sketch, or a sketch comedy show, or something of a level of quality could have been made. Attempts to give others exposure who are fighting in the trenches to make entertainment while this little sphere gets heaps of funding and exposure thrust upon them for this massive circle jerk.

This whole machine operates on the same cult of personality as Hollywood, and in this machine of see no evil hear no evil as everyone cowers away from speaking the truth, quality things cannot be made, meaningful culture cannot be made.

There are more and more elephants in the room that are just building up poisoning this scene. And it all came to a head on FNT this week with that Danica guest. These guys are burned out feeding this audience its hate, they don’t believe in this shit any more, they’ve shilled garbage over the years which makes all their criticism of movies meaningless, they’ve backed their incompetent friends professionally and grifted fans for their $$$ which makes all the cultural criticism meaningless as well, then they wax poetic about how they’re above personal attacks after talking shit about women’s toenails for years on end.

It’s frustrating to watch, it didn’t have to be this way, but this is the bed they’ve made over the years. Many asked them to grow a little, to put a little bit of money where their mouth was, to do things of substance and to have a bit of actionable principle, but they chose the bubble, they chose the easy, sweet grift money. In the end, they grew into another cult of personality incapable of producing anything of value, just like Hollywood.

Shout out to Pierry Chan (i’m sure i’m butchering the spelling), that dude did consistent and amazing work producing great entertainment, and Gary too for putting together a quality team and herding cats making great content. But overall, this scene just ended up being a huge mass of wasted potential.

There was so much talent here, so much positive energy to fight, so many great personalities, so much good will to foster and grow into something positive and good. All flushed into dirt, all in service to the same mundane comforts and reach arounds.