McElory + BDG Love Zone

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Rapidly Going Deaf > McElory + BDG Love Zone

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

I appreciate the OP for making a new thread and starting with a 100% accurate documentary jpeg of a munch squad

I didn't realize how much I valued this space to nitpick about whether something is good until it was gone

# ¿ Mar 23, 2021 06:07

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 01:32

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Just Chamber posted:

Yea for sure, like honestly they should just scrap The Besties as Chris and Russ are just boring imo and it's on its last legs

Just Chamber posted:

For sure, it's why the Besties needs to end (the other reason being the two Brothers should be using that time to make more video game content on youtube), he just gets to that 59 minute mark and it's a hard out, it's so obvious he doesnt want to be there.

Jeez dude The Besties is fine. I'm not sure what "last legs" means for a now-weekly show that previously had only one episode a year several calendar years.

I think the second half of the show can get kind of weak when they come up with some game-adjacent bit instead of talking more about playing games, but I don't think it's any worse than the show has been throughout its history.

I think all video game podcasts are having a slow time because it's a slow part of the year in what's going to be a slow year overall.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2021 05:54

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

I gotta say as a free-floating piece of content out there on the internet this article is as the expression goes "buck wild"

Vice Magazine posted:

For some in the fandom, the current season of The Adventure Zone is a disaster. Some fans who have spoken to Motherboard have said that things have gotten so bad that they've dropped off the show after listening to it for nearly a decade. While the complaints are numerous, almost all of them revolve around the way the story is being told. Some of these fans feel that the current Dungeon Master, middle brother Travis McElroy, has made the show unlistenable.

Vice Magazine posted:

One fan, who goes by AwuBuwu on Twitter described the concept of a wheelchair using character as "hot as hell and I love it."

I'm not sure where else I've seen such a high density of inconsequential pseudononymous opinions outside this very thread

# ¿ Mar 31, 2021 01:02

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Ok Comboomer posted:

Reddit is the site where fat dudes who don�t wipe for political reasons go to share their ex girlfriends� nudes for fake internet clout

Reddit is a million separate little websites that barely interact, it's weird to characterize it as any one thing so strongly.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2021 16:56

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

New Super Metis posted:

please put this thread out of its misery again

Shinjobi posted:

Please god close the thread again

~cycle of complaints~

MaxFun Ads suck
Munch Squad sucks
Travis sucks
TAZ sucks
Live show questions suck (temporarily offline)
This Thread sucks <-- you are here

Why complain about the thread? If the quality of commentary here isn't to your liking you could choose to visit any other thread or website.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2021 23:05

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

George H.W. oval office posted:

I wish they would take regular questions instead of goofy rear end poo poo that probably didn't happen

The pumpkin in the tub seemed a little suspect but it was the most I've laughed at the show in a while

# ¿ Apr 2, 2021 22:54

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

I'm not gonna make anyone listen to the latest Besties that is only Russ and Justin if they don't want to. But you might have missed out on the revelation that Justin's dog (which he hates) in Monster Hunter is called Woofa Doofa.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2021 21:56

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

a pipe smoking dog posted:

I've missed this but I'm assuming he's finally being outed for being a weird creep to women?

hard to imagine any sex pestery coming from a guy who would yank out his pubes and scatter them over the crowd

# ¿ Apr 11, 2021 09:34

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

@Seglegs from Twitter posted:

You'd think after all the ableism, racism, Travis's Twitch blowup, biphobia, then having their PR AGENT call it a "family D&D game", they'd lay low for a few weeks!

Honestly I'm not gonna take seriously any zaccusations from someone who's primary deal seems to be getting mad at anything these three nerds do.

# ¿ Apr 13, 2021 03:47

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Bonaventure posted:

maybe don't court those kinds of people

Can we try not to give them so much oxygen here in the thread? Otherwise every 10 pages has a rehash of every bad faith non-controversy from the last 5 years

# ¿ Apr 13, 2021 17:33

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Wasabi the J posted:

Oh poo poo, I thought "nude tane" in the moment exactly before Travis said it.

you and me both

Sankara posted:

I'm not sure I've ever met someone who likes SNL. Or at least, if they did, they never brought it up.

I like SNL, though maybe in the way a fan of a mediocre sports team who follows all the players and goes to all the games but doesn't expect them to win.

George H.W. oval office posted:

The Lonely Island was the last good SNL content and even then it was SNL being a vessel to serve their comedy. Make some good poo poo for YouTube and you can go far.

I think any episode of SNL has 0-2 skits that are worth watching, particularly the pre-tapes. Maybe it's not a great hit rate but over a whole season it adds up.

Totinos skits

Romano Tours

Undercover Boss - Starkiller Base

Sports Announcer

Career Day

Diner Lobster

That's The Game

They've also had a lot of success with songs

Permission

Slow

Loco

Weird Little Flute

# ¿ Apr 14, 2021 06:04

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Crazyeyes posted:

Gets worse as they all have gotten insane abilities out of nowhere as well.

same thing as when I want to finish out a CRPG but the last guy is too hard so I just boost my guys stats up to max

# ¿ Apr 16, 2021 00:48

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Lot of joking-(not-joking?) talk about needing to find something to fill out the runtime of the episode to make a living / keep the advertisers happy

I dunno how much of that anxiety was truth vs joke, but I'd be curious how much revenue comes from MaxFun subscriptions vs ads. I was under the maybe-mistaken impression that most of the hosts' revenue comes from subscribers.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2021 05:59

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Undead Hippo posted:

They're doing 3-5 reads per episode. (As well as each doing multiple podcasts with TAZ/Wonderful/Sawbones/Schmanners)

According to Jesse they're actually limited to two ads reads per episode, which I confirmed by looking at the fandom wiki pages for the last bunch of episodes.. The promos for other podcasts on the network don't count.

I know with Munch Squad it can seem like there's five ad reads but shockingly those are unpaid!

# ¿ Apr 21, 2021 17:15

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Shinjobi posted:

The Besties should really just not do "best of" two parters. Their Zelda and GTA episodes felt like a colossal waste of time.

I mostly agree with this.

I think the problem is the hosts don't have a lot of time to actually play games, or try out anything new in the slow season of what's going to be a slow year.

Leading to these low-research episodes that amount to saying one or two facts about 8 games instead of anything of substance. Doubly silly to break them up into two parts.

A weekly show that gets no revenue must be a grind. I've been playing the same game the last three weeks and I probably couldn't get that many podcasts episodes out of it.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2021 05:43

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

waiting to see if any enterprising person samples this ep to remake Neil Cicerega's "Yahoo"

# ¿ May 11, 2021 05:52

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Entropic posted:

lmao Travis was on JJGO last week and of course he immediately interrupts their normal thing where they talk before they introduce the guest, like within the first 30 seconds.

I think it's more like the Blank Check podcast where the guest is encouraged to jump in if they don't need the extra time to finish up their dishes or whatever.

Though I'm shocked how long Jordan and Jesse will go by themselves sometimes, especially if they have an unfamiliar guest. It's a lot of time to be on the skype listening to some Santa Cruz grads talk about ding-dongs.

# ¿ May 22, 2021 03:26

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Shocking moment this episode where they tease not doing a munch squad then do the whole drat thing, sans theme, including everyone's favorite: Justin playing audio of a commercial.

could you even imagine what it would be like for Justin if they were able to do this signature segment back during the heyday of "�Yo quiero Taco Bell!"?

a dog!! hawking tacos!! hachi machi oofa doofa if it isn't the wildest thing you've ever heard!!

# ¿ May 25, 2021 06:11

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Tears In A Vial posted:

It's an episode of Triple Click, which I have never heard of

I guess people really do lay into that 15 second skip button

# ¿ May 31, 2021 20:41

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

blossommirage posted:

Just taking every recent McElroy related drama into account, coupled with the pandemic, has led to Maximum Fun no longer growing in size as much as they want. Having to 'rethink business strategies' or something, even after extending the donation period for a bit. Didn't know they had lost that much of a listener base, I just figured it was mostly Too Online people, but Too Online people are basically their whole demographic.

This is the actual quote she references from Reddit at the end of the video:

/u/IamMyBrain from Reddit posted:

So what happens now?

I only started listening to maxfun shows (mainly the McElroys) in 2019, so I've only been a witness to a couple of maxfun drives. The ones I've seen have been successful in meeting their goal up until this year.

Are shows in danger of getting cancelled now?

JesseThorn posted:

We budget backwards a bit. Things like, say, adding the cost of booking studios for JJHo litigants mostly happen as the revenue appears to make it happen. So some things we had hoped to do like that may be forestalled a little, it may take a bit longer than we'd hoped for newer shows to cover their costs. But that's about the worst of it.

Podcast listenership overall has been down somewhat thanks largely to people commuting much less, which for us has mostly meant a bit less growth than we've had in the past more than actual contraction of audiences. We weren't really sure how that would affect membership, especially after the unusual drive last year, and decided to take a shot at a pretty ambitious goal. We actually ended up doing pretty well, relatively, but obviously didn't quite make it to the goal.

Generally, though, MaxFun is in very good health, especially with (hopefully) the economy rebounding this year. Our members largely stuck with us over the past year, which is pretty awesome given the circumstances, and adding over twenty thousand new and upgrading members to that is only to the good.

So I guess long story short: we definitely aren't planning on canceling anything.

I've been a MaxFun subscriber for years and I swear they fool around with the goal and/or get a big spurt of last-minute donations every year. I wouldn't read much into it until shows jump ship or it happens over multiple years.s

# ¿ Jun 2, 2021 06:15

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Pennsylvanian posted:

I listen to Triple-Click in episode blocks and it's low-energy topical discussions where everybody seems afraid to take opinions on even simple topics, which is very Maxfun.

I've listened to Triple Click weekly since it was Splitscreen and your criticism is valid. Some episodes of Triple Click are neither funny nor especially informative which is a bad place to be if you want to build a listener base. I think they need to bring on more guests or something, but they don't seem willing to put any more effort into the show than the current amount.

"afraid to take opinions" is a little broad though, there was a recent episode where Jason tried to take a hard line against gacha games and Kirk/Maddy took a weird "but all games are addictive" stance. But I get the feeling Jason is an incredibly irritating person to argue with so I'm fine with it not being any more heated than that.

I'm choosing to believe that both Triple Click and The Besties are especially low energy in this moment due to the slump in games releases, but who knows.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2021 16:55

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

The World Inferno posted:

They're still pulling in respectable numbers, probably, but it's a fair metric to see how comparatively low engagements posts on the new episodes get compared to Balance's heyday.

I see it as a good ol' reversion to the mean. Balance somehow set sail the ships of a million tumblr teens, and that's really not an audience you can keep the attention of forever.

In my view TAZ's runaway success is the aberration, not their inability to sustain exponential growth.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2021 16:59

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Bip Roberts posted:

I stopped the episode at some point during the Chuck E. Cheese children's album, is there a good bit in the last 10 min?

The Chuck E. Cheese parts of this episode were just okay but I'm always gonna give Justin poo poo for playing brand audio on the podcast instead of thinking joke.

It mostly reminded me of a superior podcast episode about a fictional character's song career: Podcast: The Ride - McGruff the Crime Dog's Music Career

# ¿ Jun 4, 2021 00:43

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Entropic posted:

It seemed like Griffin didn�t get that it was about Moby the musician.

Moby is more of a pull for "famous baldman" than a musician that people actually listen to though.

At least, I think so. No offense to the mobyaniacs out there.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2021 17:35

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Zero One posted:

Please enjoy... THE TRAVIS

there's a lot of build up on this for something that's basically a wet burrito with too many drat french fries

Speaking as a Travis I can't really endorse this product. If I was going to manifest a mom-and-pop eatery life threatening food vice it would have a lot more nacho cheese

# ¿ Aug 2, 2021 06:00

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Alaois posted:

did the nier thing come up recently or did he do it again

I assume this is about the latest Besties when he complains about the quality of the writing in the Great Ace Attorney but seemingly hasn't gotten past the first case

I dunno, I think it's a fine opinion. VNs or Animes or anything like that is something that you have to give yourself over to willingly. If you come in with a skeptical eye it will usually seem dumb.

The podcast made me more willing to play the game, not less. I played the first three back in the day and don't have a huge fondness for the series but the way people talk about the big turnaround moments in the cases gives me an excited nostalgic feeling.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2021 03:08

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

John Wick of Dogs posted:

INTERACTED! (?)

Apparently "it's ripened"

https://twitter.com/actualmontaigne/status/1372719264335982601

# ¿ Aug 10, 2021 15:46

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

eke out posted:

it's nice for history podcasts or other informational things when you're paying close attention, but using it for comedy seems totally insane

I used to have personal rules about not listening to comedy podcasts at high speeds, so I could hear the jokes as the speakers intended

now I don't give a crap, everything is on chipmunk speed let's gooo

# ¿ Aug 13, 2021 05:44

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Entropic posted:

The latest Chapo episode is what the Sawbones Havana Syndrome episode should have been.

I don't listen to Chapo but decided to hop in for this one because I will listen to literally anyone making fun of this Ozy media / Carlos Watson situation.

I was surprised that they mostly just take the whole article and read it out loud? Oh well better than a kick in the pants

# ¿ Sep 29, 2021 21:30

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

um excuse me posted:

The last clipshow made me super aware they used to be funnier.

gonna pop in here to state the obvious that if you're listening to a clip show or a highlight playlist the average bit quality is going to be higher than a normal show

# ¿ Oct 6, 2021 20:20

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

This may be too far down the road of McElroy Adjacency, but I dunno if anyone has posted the Tom Cardy / Montaigne joint from last week.

I watched it with my 2yo and afterwards she was chanting "Hu-man Centipede! Hu-man Centipede!" during bedtime which thankfully my wife did not ask me to explain.

edit: i didn't know they actually mentioned it at the end of the podcast so it's not that too far off i suppose

Sivart13 fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Nov 2, 2021

# ¿ Nov 1, 2021 23:00

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Shinjobi posted:

and Justin was pretty up front about not even going to pretend he was playing them.

I consider the besties to be a show by Russ and Chris where a couple mcelroys occasionally show up to either try to push a conversation to its conclusion prematurely or allude to Final Fantasy XIMMO being a good game

# ¿ Nov 10, 2021 01:27

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

JOSEPH SAMOAN posted:

I do not listen to besties so maybe I dunno the concept of the podcast well enough to answer why they would make the subject of an episode of their podcast a game they intended to play little or none of. Why not instead play a game they would like to play

weekly podcast episodes mean there's a lot of games to keep up with an Justin and Griffin particularly do not play games as their primary job anymore

The original format when it launched in 2012 was that there would be 4 games featured each week (each host brings a game) and they would vote which was the "best" one, hence the title "besties" and the vestigal "...and I know the best game of the week!" in the intro of the podcast

Now they just pick a game to talk about every week, you know, like a podcast. but still not everybody got time for that

# ¿ Nov 10, 2021 06:21

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Previa_fun posted:

sucks that you're forced to listen to those

a person is trying to say a nice thing about a podcast and you're here focusing on the negative

# ¿ Nov 11, 2021 23:14

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

I slogged through Inscryption even though I don't like deck building games and I still don't like deck building games so I didn't much like Inscryption.

I say this just to balance out the myriad "I don't usually like card games, but..." takes you can find on the internet

but not every game has to be for everyone

# ¿ Dec 23, 2021 02:57

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Previa_fun posted:

I don't understand why one would "slog through" a game they don't enjoy in a genre they don't enjoy.

everyone was so hyped about all the secretive elements I thought it would be worth playing despite the parts that I don't like (most of it)

turns out that may have been the wrong call for me but it's hard to know until you've done it

That it's showing up on so many GOTY lists justifies my decision to play through it because otherwise I'd be wondering what I was missing out on. But I wish other games would be getting those goaties because Inscryption didn't bring me much joy.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2021 23:48

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Previa_fun posted:

if a game doesn't grab me pretty quick I don't go back to it

I did end up refunding Loop Hero within 15 minutes because I hated the font

# ¿ Dec 25, 2021 02:36

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

Ariong posted:

If your music is being used in a commercial product without your permission or knowledge, you should probably make some sort of claim against them.

you just keep that pitchfork sitting right there by the desk huh

# ¿ Jan 14, 2022 21:24

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

SpacePig posted:

All MaxFun ads are bad unless you already listen to the show being advertised, are otherwise familiar with the hosts, or somehow fall into the incredibly narrow niche each show seems to be aiming for.

what's the comparison point here? Are there other ads for other things on other networks that spark joy within the all children of the world?

I know "MaxFun ads are bad" is a popular thread topic but I think that simplifies down to "ads are bad". I'm equally sick of hearing about BetterHelp or stamps.com or the same "Electic Cars: They're Normal Now!" copy that seems like it was frozen in place from the year 2005

# ¿ Feb 5, 2022 03:22

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 01:32

Sivart13: May 18, 2003; I have neglected to come up with a clever title

jeeves posted:

Hey I like the Flophouse, but mostly because they actually go over the plots of movies in some sort of detail (much like ABZ) instead of just being like "MAN WASN'T IT WEIRD WHEN THIS HAPPENED?" like most movie podcasts.

I admit the Flophouse has spoiled me for any other podcast where the topic is a piece of media but they only ever describe it obliquely or by bringing up the parts they think are interesting.

I would love if certain podcasts just took 5 or 10 minutes to overview the thing they're talking about before going down the tangent wormhole.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2022 07:42

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