- Joined
- Apr 15, 2018
Mike was/is a complete sperg. We all know it. I don't think anyone, even the people who look back on Mike's involvement fondly will deny that. He's not the most charismatic guy. But he clearly knows his stuff, is pretty good at old games and most of all, he's passionate about them.Mike Matei had his moments of tism.
When AVGN had a minor controversy surrounding the cheetahmen revival scam Matei handled it in the worst way possible by raging against comment sections and trying to silence people who noted their failure to see they were advocating for a scam.
He also used to hate any dissent against AVGN dickslurping/yes manning, to the point James told him to stop and just not reply to anyone anymore.
So I don't get why he gets modern praise as being the reason AVGN was good. James and Mike balanced each other accordingly during their first decade.
That said, I think it's that same autism that grants him an undying passion for games and AVGN-like comedy. James, much like his contemporary Doug Walker, had the fire die at one point and wanted to pursue other ventures, like directing, only to realize they suck at it. Their webshows are their lightning-in-a-bottle and meal ticket lest they want to bag groceries or work retail... and I think they sorta resent their fame in a way as it locked them into doing something they no longer enjoy (don't kid yourself into thinking they still love being screaming cartoons from a bygone age).
He gets a pass (from me at least) because sperg or not? He did a ton of the work on AVGN and imo, carried a lot of the show in a way I think most people don't realize. I don't just mean fluffing James up either. His NES-autism was basically the spirit of the show. It's clear James never really had the same passion for retro gaming that Mike did. If anything, he got more into it because he was friends with Mike. He's always been more into music and movies. Remember, James didn't even want to do any more AVGN shit after the original iirc. Mike convinced him to keep going, and after Mike uploaded the original trilogy to Youtube and the videos took off? Then James started focusing AVGN full time.
If you watch some of the James and Mike Mondays videos of episodes that got made into AVGN episodes too? You can clearly see how much of the writing came from Mike just coming up with stuff while playing. I can't help but think most of the older episodes were like that, with the retro gaming aspect of AVGN coming from Mike, and the filmmaking parts coming from James.
TLDR; Mike's a sperg, but the show was better off with him vs. Screenwave.