Visiting Tokyo with Arin (Game Grumps) & Jirard The Completionist!

[Solister]

Basically just reposting what I've said on a Status Update earlier.

Well, being very sincere, I don't know none of them (I'm from Brazil, as well never heard of them), so yeah, I don't care about the "main" content of the video.

I really enjoyed that Super Sonic Racing Techno Remix, looking forward to see that track on the game (Or at least have a full release). Plus, can anyone tell me which song is playing between 1:50 - 2:18? I really liked that one.

3 hours ago, Tornado said:

It never ceases to amaze that the company that once came up with "GENESIS DOES" and "Welcome to the Next Level" has decided that the best way to advertise their Sonic games (even above and beyond memeing how much Sonic fucking sucks on Twitter) is to fly YouTubers famous for shitposting about how terrible Sonic always was all the way around the world to so they can get that sick internet meme cred from the people who still think there's anything about Game Grumps that is still watchable.

I know I might look like a little dumb kid right now, but could you (or anyone else) explain the bold text? I'm nearly 99% of what I'm thinking is not the real thing: For me seems like Above and Beyond (An English Trance (Electronic kind) music group) made a Sonic meme?!? I know this probably wrong, but if real, it would be one of my favorite bands memeing my favorite video game character. (Yeah, quite no sense, but it would be very funny to see, would pay for it).

[Ryannumber1gamer]

This is such a baffling decision to me. Like, I understand at least the Completionist being there because he's a big enough fan of the series, at least remaining on board for a lot of the newer titles, offering more balanced reviews on them, and seems to be a long-term fan from what I know.

But Arin? Really? What sense does it make exactly to have the man who constantly shits on your games, to the point he purposefully and knowingly went and got the worse, and more buggy version of Adventure so he could have more reasons to shit on it? It was one thing when you were sending him a few things and it was just kind of a knowing joke, but ponying up the cash to send him to Tokyo to promote a Sonic game and he likely couldn't really care less about? How does this make any kind of sense, bar the novelty of memes? 

[Plasme]

3 minutes ago, Solister said:

could you (or anyone else) explain the bold text? I'm nearly 99% of what I'm thinking is not the real thing: For me seems like Above and Beyond (An English Trance (Electronic kind) music group) made a Sonic meme?!? I know this probably wrong, but if real, it would be one of my favorite bands memeing my favorite video game character. (Yeah, quite no sense, but it would be very funny to see, would pay for it).

He's claiming that the Sonic Social Media constantly makes jokes and memes based upon Sonic being terrible.

Apparently that's something they do.

[Tornado]

34 minutes ago, Plasme said:

In fact, sorry to pick you out specifically, but your point perfectly encapsulates the fanboyism I'm talking about

And you can get bent.

 

Now that that's out of the way:

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The central point of the post; your statement that the current marketing has degraded because SEGA is flying off people to their HQ who shitpost about Sonic never being good is untrue and complete hysteria.

It's actually pretty true, though; so again, see my first point. The official Twitter account retweets cringey Sonic memes, mocks random elements of the franchise in between posts that go back to relentlessly sucking off Mania, and throws confusing jabs at media outlets for not giving games high enough review scores. Even before they did a publicity stunt with someone famous for being a shitheel in regards to the franchise that didn't do much to actually advertise the game, the marketing for the series had already degraded to the point of being pathetic.

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The Completionist doesn't constantly go on about how much Sonic was 'never good'. In fact, he's typically praising Sonic as one of his favourite franchises and featuring many games from the franchise on his channel.

If I was talking about Jirard specifically, I would have mentioned Jirard specifically in my post instead of talking almost exclusively about Arin after a vague "YouTubers" label.

 

Note how I didn't do that.

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Neither does Sterling, although I'm really not sure why you'd bring him up,

The hint would be the specific descriptions I said in that sentence.

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Shows how little you know about his opinions, since you are seemingly conflating his modern coverage with his earlier Sonic 4 reviews' criticism of the fanbase (which were positive reviews I might add, the only negative Sonic review I've known him give is for Colours).

Actually, it shows how little I give a shit about Jim Sterling's opinions, important journalist with important viewpoints, since I put it at the end of my post as a throwaway joke referencing one time time when he was an infamous prick.

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So, yeah, Arin does shitpost Sonic, but that's one Youtuber. And as I've said, his opinions on Sonic have softened over the years after he's become friends with Aaron and Hesse. That's one person, not some huge marketing problem of flying multiple people out like you are claiming.

So what has he actually done for Sonic, then? Because if you're going to shack up with influencer/celebrity to advertise your newest release franchise, one would think that they could clear a much higher hurdle when looking for one than "he mostly isn't directly antagonistic towards the franchise anymore."

[Plasme]

6 minutes ago, Tornado said:

And you can get bent.

Wow.

6 minutes ago, Tornado said:

It's actually pretty true, though; so again, see above. The official Twitter account retweets cringey Sonic memes, mocks random elements of the franchise in between posts that go back to relentlessly sucking off Mania, and throws confusing jabs at media outlets for not giving games high enough review scores. Even before they did a publicity stunt with someone famous for being a shitheel in regards to the franchise that didn't do much to actually advertise the game, the marketing for the series had already degraded to the point of being pathetic.

I'm not familiar with the Sonic Social Media. My gut instinct tells me that you are being hyperbolic, but I'll believe you on that front.

6 minutes ago, Tornado said:

If I was talking about Jirard specifically, I would have mentioned Jirard specifically in my post instead of talking almost exclusively about Arin after a vague "YouTubers" label.

 

Note how I didn't do that.

Jirad is the completionist. Jirad famously likes Sonic games. You are claiming Jirad constantly shits on Sonic.

Your post is wrong, just accept you were being really over the top. You made out SEGA is flying people over who shit on Sonic, as though sucking up to Sonic 'haters' is something they commonly do and is a big problem, when it's only really Arin. And even with Arin, most people can tell it's just a joke/friendly thing. 

This isn't the massive corporate problem you are making out.

[Shadowlax]

4 hours ago, Tornado said:

It never ceases to amaze that the company that once came up with "GENESIS DOES" and "Welcome to the Next Level" has decided that the best way to advertise their Sonic games (even above and beyond memeing how much Sonic fucking sucks on Twitter) is to fly YouTubers famous for shitposting about how terrible Sonic always was all the way around the world to so they can get that sick internet meme cred from the people who still think there's anything about Game Grumps that is still watchable. ARIN, PLAYING A SONIC GAME AT SEGA'S EXPENSE!? HIS SMUG IRONIC DETACHMENT AT THE PROCEEDINGS SURE PASSES AS HUMOR!

 

 

What will they think of next? Paying Jim Sterling to throw copies of Sonic Mania Plus into a woodchipper that has "Sonic 4 Green Eyes" spraypainted on the side? HOW WACKY!

1) Jirad genuinely likes sonic

2) While the self awareness was novel at first it has quickly grown into a means , while not intentionally , to try and wash criticism away. I wouldn't mind the sonic humor they have , but the issue is the games... largely aren't great. And I think that's the bigger issue , because no matter what advertising angle they go with, it ain't gonna mean shit ass if sega keeps fucking up the games.

[Diogenes]

The whole thing is silly and kind of dumb but I don't see a need to get worked up over it. TSR looks like a bit of a dud, and between that and the delay they probably don't have a whole lot to work with in advertising it, so they're just doing some goofy shit with some moderately big names to try to get some attention and keep it in people's minds. It's not a great ad campaign sure, but I can't imagine it's harming anything so like, whatever, yeah? Mediocre game gets mediocre advertisement, it'll all be forgotten within a couple of months.

[Blue Blood]

So depressingly but not all surprisingly, this video current head 16k views on YouTube, with over 2k likes and less than 50 dislikes. Popular comments are all memes and meme related. 

Urgh...

[Milo]

...this was actually supposed be a (quasi-)marketing stunt for TSR? Figured it was just another Sonic social media stunt.

Everything about this game's advertising campaign screams:

 

[Tornado]

1 hour ago, Plasme said:

Wow.

You wander in this thread, call me fanboy spreading hysteria for, essentially, not liking Arin and finding it absurd that Sega would make him part of the marketing push for a game with an already spotty reception (a sentiment that I'm pretty sure Arin himself expressed last year around when the event actually happened, but I don't care enough to actually try and dig it up), and then don't even bother to actually get the point before you respond?

 

Deal with it.

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Jirad is the completionist. Jirad famously likes Sonic games.

I'm aware of all of these things, thank you.

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You are claiming Jirad constantly shits on Sonic.

It's strange that you quoted the part of my post where I explained that I wasn't saying that and was pretty much exclusively talking about Arin, which should have cleared up any confusion from the admittedly poor way I originally worded it, but you're still insisting that's what I'm saying.

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Your post is wrong, just accept you were being really over the top.

The interpretation of my post that you constructed to argue with, perhaps. I'm not too terribly worried about that interpretation, though, since it was made in the same breath where you explained in great detail Jim Sterling's recent relationship with the franchise after failing to notice that I was making a joke mocking the things he was saying circa 2010.

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You made out SEGA is flying people over who shit on Sonic,

You mean the thing that this thread is about, filled with people confused about it for that very reason?

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as though sucking up to Sonic 'haters' is something they commonly do and is a big problem,

This is not an isolated occurrence of forcing dank Sonic memes. This isn't even the first time they've done it with this event thing, since as already noted it actually happened around TGS last year and they posted about it then and made people confused. 

 

Don't know how to break this to you, but people that throw around "Gotta go fast" and "Sanic" aren't necessarily doing it out of endearment.

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And even with Arin, most people can tell it's just a joke/friendly thing. 

Yeah... no. Even assuming I agree with your interpretation of how Arin conducts himself on Game Grumps, you're giving the typical YouTube viewer far more credit than they'll ever deserve.

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This isn't the massive corporate problem you are making out.

Making the Sonic series a self aware parody of itself that carries around a Shatner-esque swagger, even as it still struggles to put out actual product with anything resembling consistent quality, has been a rousing success for people who communicate in image reaction posts on Twitter. There's no doubt about that; and that's a prime demographic for sure, even if they only care about the series for the purposes of mocking it.

 

 

You're out of your mind if you think I, someone who genuinely likes Sonic rather than just finding it amusing when they fuck up and actually buys Sonic games, has to like it.

[Tracker_TD]

1 hour ago, Plasme said:

I'm not familiar with the Sonic Social Media.

...then why are you defending it and going after @Tornado so vigorously? At least know what you're talking out before going out to defend it.

[SaturnWolf]

1 hour ago, Plasme said:

Wow.

This...is all I can really say in response to your response. You're going to take a condescending, insulting tone with people and then act surprised when it's given back to you? What?

[Plasme]

36 minutes ago, Tornado said:

This is not an isolated occurrence of forcing dank Sonic memes. This isn't even the first time they've done it with this event thing, since as already noted it actually happened around TGS last year and they posted about it then and made people confused. 

 

Don't know how to break this to you, but people that throw around "Gotta go fast" and "Sanic" aren't necessarily doing it out of endearment.

Yeah... no. Even assuming I agree with your interpretation of how Arin conducts himself on Game Grumps, you're giving the typical YouTube viewer far more credit than they'll ever deserve.

Making the Sonic series a self aware parody of itself that carries around a Shatner-esque swagger, even as it still struggles to put out actual product with anything resembling consistent quality, has been a rousing success for people who communicate in image reaction posts on Twitter. There's no doubt about that; and that's a prime demographic for sure, even if they only care about the series for the purposes of mocking it.

 

I think you're imagining some great self-loathing in the Sonic social media that simply isn't there. A lot of people do use Sanic as a pisstake, but it's not solely used as a form of attack. A lot of fans make jokes about it too, because you can like a franchise while finding criticisms of it amusing. 'Gotta go fast' is pretty neutral, a lot of people use it, both fans and haters. It's based on the old cartoons, so it's obviously based on fan endearment.

When Aaron and his team use these kinds of jokes, and mocking Sonic 06, they are just taking a light hearted approach to the franchise. I think you are way, way reading into some kind of self-loathing going on. Again, it's part of the whole persecution thing I'm talking about. Reviewers all hate Sonic! Youtubers hate Sonic! Even the Social Media indulges Sonic hate, even when they try to promote him! It's so reductive and non nuanced.

And maybe the self-criticisms go too far, and I'm not an expert on the Twitter page, I haven't read every post. But I've a cursory enough knowledge to think this is a bit over the top.

30 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

...then why are you defending it and going after @Tornado so vigorously? At least know what you're talking out before going out to defend it.

Because Tornado was making out the Sonic Social Media was flying out 'Youtubers' (just Arin) and sucking up to people who hate Sonic, when they don't except for Arin. Nor does Jirad hate Sonic. Arin is just one person, it isn't this massive problem. It was an implication that the Social Media commonly sucks up to Sonic haters when that's just untrue.

I know the Sonic Social Media somewhat, but I don't know too much about this self-loathing in terms of what they themselves post that's alleged. Although I'd guess it's somewhat exaggerated.

24 minutes ago, DreamSaturn said:

This...is all I can really say in response to your response. You're going to take a condescending, insulting tone with people and then act surprised when it's given back to you? What?

I didn't personally attack Tornado, I said his post, the content of his argument, was fanboyish.

He personally insulted me. Despite the Sonic Movie thread getting closed because of personal attacks, moderators are given free reign to tell members to get bent. Seems pretty bizarre to me.

[Tracker_TD]

3 minutes ago, Plasme said:

Because Tornado was making out the Sonic Social Media was flying out 'Youtubers' (just Arin) and sucking up to people who hate Sonic, when they don't. Nor does Jirad hate Sonic. It was an implication that the Social Media commonly sucks up to Sonic haters when that's just untrue.

I know the Sonic Social Media somewhat, but I don't know too much about this self-loathing in terms of what they themselves post that's alleged. Although I'd guess it's somewhat exaggerated.

Arin does hate Sonic. And that's fine. Making someone who hates Sonic the face of your Sonic marketing on more than one occasion is maybe not so fine.

He's not even exaggerating - they do commonly suck up to Arin. Arin's pretty much the only Tuber they do suck up to, so Tornado's right. Jirard is there, true, but it's kind of mitigated when their focus has always been on Arin.

I implore you to actually research before going "weeeeell it can't be that bad". It's the Sonic series, you should be well aware by now that yes, it absolutely can be that bad. 

[Plasme]

3 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

Arin does hate Sonic. And that's fine. Making someone who hates Sonic the face of your marketing on more than one occasion is maybe not so fine.

He's not even exaggerating - they do commonly suck up to Arin. Arin's pretty much the only Tuber they do suck up to, so Tornado's right. Jirard is there, true, but it's kind of mitigated when their focus has always been on Arin.

I implore you to actually research before going "weeeeell it can't be that bad". It's the Sonic series, you should be well aware by now that yes, it absolutely can be that bad. 

Arin is one person.

This isn't some kind of massive corporate strategy to suck up to Sonic haters. It's literally only with Arin. And the social media team have promoted a number of Youtubers in the past.

Anyway, Arin's not as over the topic Sonic hater as people make out. He has taken the piss out of the franchise in the past sure, and was notable for it, but he also praised Mania and was ambivalent on Forces. I find the whole 'Arin is mean and HATES Sonic' so excessive. Most of his fans know that he's playing up on his Sonic hate as part of the joke. People are influenced by his arguments, and sometimes he's wrong, but I can't say he's always completely wrong either.

I can't help but feel that fans who are outraged over the social media manager being friends with, and promoting, a critic of their franchise are being over the top.

[Sean]

2 minutes ago, Plasme said:

Anyway, Arin's not as over the topic Sonic hater as people make out. He has taken the piss out of the franchise in the past sure, and was notable for it, but he also praised Mania and was ambivalent on Forces. I find the whole 'Arin is mean and HATES Sonic' so excessive.

I was going to make a post commenting on this earlier anyway, but it's worth mentioning that Arin later admitted (on GG itself, no less) that he lied about liking Sonic Mania and only pretended to like it for the attention. He doesn't like it better than any other Sonic game, which makes Sega sucking up to him all the more perplexing.

[Plasme]

3 minutes ago, Sean said:

I was going to make a post commenting on this earlier anyway, but it's worth mentioning that Arin later admitted (on GG itself, no less) that he lied about liking Sonic Mania and only pretended to like it for the attention. He doesn't like it better than any other Sonic game, which makes Sega sucking up to him all the more perplexing.

They probably just don't know.

I do get the impression that Aaron and Arin are actually friends, and they don't really give a shit about their opinions on Sonic the Hedgehog. My best friend hates Sonic and it's a joke between us.

Obviously that's different to promoting him with the game, but I don't see how it's this massive problem, especially seeing as he was actually more positive about the game than he felt. Shows that he was at least trying to be polite and courteous to Aaron.

[Indigo Rush]

I think it's worth noting that he did seem to genuinely like the aesthetic and the Special Stages specifically, as well as a few other mechanics (the ring system being the one that comes to mind), but on the whole... Sonic isn't really his jam. That's fine. It's not the sort of thing that everyone "gets," and he gave it a fair shake.

[Meta77]

When will Sega stop treating sonic as just a joke and meme creator. Honestly of ALL people you get game grumps. GAME GRUMPs. Sure I watched them play 06 a little but all they do for any sonic game is bash them. And their followers make fun of the state of sonic. Yet Sega thinks this little of their series. Is there anything outside of classic sonic sega treats properly (looks at anarchy regins and sheds a tear)

[Badnik Mechanic]

So I'm not going to do this myself but... Here's something someone with more time can do.

 

 

3 Return flights to Tokyo, from LA. (+ Flights for translator and camera crew) So let's be ultra conservative and say 5 flights total.

Lets say it was 3 nights at a hotel in Tokyo (find average price for a cheap hotel)

Shopping trip (prices of all the merch they buy is on ebten).

+ Salary for person who edited the video together. 

 

= Total cost of the video.

 

For 2 seconds of gameplay footage.

What a bargain!

 

 

[Tara]

I'm a big fan of Game Grumps, and even I agree that making Arin Hanson, not even Game Grumps as a unit but Arin Hanson specifically, a face in your marketing seems like a severe misstep.  It's not controversial logic that people who support your brand are better for your brand than people who don't.

And that's not even to say that I think it's wrong for them to partner with people who have been critical of Sonic.  Negative criticism can be a valid source of insight, after all.  But Arin's never really been that; Game Grumps has never been that.  In fact, even the most devote of Grumps fans tend to agree that Arin, while entertaining, often tends to completely ignore fundamental gameplay elements in order to mock a game.  When people say "Arin sucks at video games," they may be saying it from a place of love, but they're also not denying that it's true.  Complaints about the self-depreciative humor in Sonic social media aren't suggesting that they legitimately loathe themselves but that it's not how you carry a brand you hope will have a positive reputation.  The Tumblr page for Denny's restaurants gained notoriety for its surreal humor, which Sonic's social media pages desperately try to ape at times, but at no point does Denny's make jokes that seem to actively dissuade you from actually eating at their restaurants.  Like, yeah, they're just jokes, but they're jokes that for many people essentially fail to do what a social media page is intended to do: Foster audience engagement.

[Plasme]

It's interesting that a great number of people here are very dissatisfied with Aaron Webber's management of the Sonic Social Media page. I thought he was pretty popular, and that people here used to praise him?

[Tara]

I think Aaron's a nice guy and I think he has the power to do wonders for the brand.

But especially on the internet, you can't go forward with the same strategy for years on end without people getting tired of it.  Some jokes just get tired after awhile.

[Tracker_TD]

2 minutes ago, Plasme said:

It's interesting that a great number of people here are very dissatisfied with Aaron Webber's management of the Sonic Social Media page. I thought he was pretty popular, and that people here used to praise him?

What started as something somewhat entertaining has begun to run its course a tad. It's more exemplified by how shit the marketing for TSR has been. Genuine missteps like randomly reaching out to the likes of Elon Musk and RTing Brazil's pretty goddamn bad President for the sake of saying "hey 06 lol" don't help. 

[dbzfan7]

Out of the two I will say Jirard is a good pick. I don't watch his stuff much no more since the split (Mainly felt him playing the fool and straight man too much in videos), but dude is a fan of Sonic and even today still will die on the hill of SA1 and SA2 for instance, which lately has been popular to shit on. I can defend Jirard despite being a former fan, and personally enjoy more of Scary Game Squad than his own stuff.

Arin though.....yeah....I really have no idea. To promote your titles, I wouldn't get the person who shits on them. Hell I have an image now of a dorky virgin Sonic trying to appeal to the Chad Arin right now. That is how cringy and bad this partnership is.