AAA Software, the developers behind Data Mutations, wrote an
article complaining about how streamers like Vinesauce playing their games aren't translating into more sales. (Archive)
The article is... something special.
Likewise, other game developers such as Nathalie Lawhead
have shared their experiences with Vinesauce playing their games. (Archive)
The quoted tweet. (Archive)
Recap: Weird game makers are mad that their "pay what you want" games aren't making them money and instead are blaming streamers like Vinesauce
So this is kinda interesting to me, specifically Nathalie Lawhead's perspective. Nathalie is saying that, she dislikes the culture that surrounds the type of games she and others make veering more into the "haha weird dev on drugs" type of response as opposed to a neutral or positive take. She likens Vinny's Sunday streams and the language around them (Sunday trash, Sunday garbage etc) and Vinny's response to the games he plays as a
"toxic" environment. She's also pissed that Vinny playing the games doesn't actually create any kind of download increase or significant revenue spike, be it traffic, social, or monetary.
On one hand, I can see why she thinks this is a bad thing. Weird games can be really cool, they can ask seemingly mundane questions in really interesting ways because of how they have control of the context and the visual space in which they say it. Stuff like that is cool and important and I'm certainly not dissing it. However...
Lawhead's site looks like this. Lawhead primarily makes games that evoke a "what the fuck" response just based on how they're framed, visualized and the content within them. You make an app that's only job is to scream at you at random, and you feel offended when people respond to that by saying "what the fuck?" come on Nathalie. Your site's CSS wobbles from side to side and is awash with garish colors. The first thing you see is gifs screaming at you in text. Your brand, your creative aesthetic is outlandish weird shit. You
cannot expect most people to look at it as any kind of schlock shock humor or being weird for the sake of weird.
These games have a place, they have an audience, and they have people who will see a real significant impact from them. That is not the vast majority of people. You are not making games for a mass market or the average person. Your entire aesthetic echoes that sentiment. Expecting people who are casually watching your game be played by a personality they like, interacting with it via a chatroom that has its own culture about these types of games is kind of a stretch. Expecting
random people coming to play your game on the show floor to treat it with respect instead of like a weird kooky funny game
when the game is marketed, designed and explicitly made to look like this. Most people associate the nihilistic haha cartoon style with not giving a fuck, hence the nihilism.
Nathalie even understands this and writes about it in the article she linked in her tweets.
The general consumer populace of games already doesn't have much of an appreciation for art games. This is an unfortunate reality to do with the market. Nathalie specifically is aware that she is carving a niche and that her games aren't likely to be well received by people outside of that niche. Blaming Vinny for that isn't going to get her anywhere unfortunately. If anything, it's going to fuck her rep up from the rabid Vinesauce fans that want to huff Vinny's nutsack until they die. You know, the real weird ones.
As both the posts above me point out, it seems like both these people are using Vinny as a scapegoat without even doing their due diligence or basic research (what a surprise) before making outlandish claims. For starters, nobody calls Vinny "Vinesauce" within the community. Even at the conventions he go to, he's usually listed as "Vinny (Vinesauce)" and the like.
This speaks to me as an attempt at a punching up scenario but it falls hopelessly flat and is likely to backfire, but more likely to be outright ignored. It speaks to the sheer ignorance of these people that they use a fucking "youtube revenue calculator" as if those things are anywhere near accurate. Anyone with even a small monetized channel will tell you that some clicks are considered "viable" and others aren't, likely because of adblockers etc etc. Without the proper metrics on the page, there's no reasonable way to assume a profit per video, it's just stupid.
I don't dislike Nathalie, I think Nathalie's games absolutely have a place in the world and there are people that will genuinely enjoy them for what they are. They're niche games, specifically designed to be niche in many ways. Being niche doesn't translate well to the general public. Nathalie knows this, and is probably airing frustration about the fact her games aren't doing anything magical to change it. But that's just the way it goes when your webpage is covered in garish colors, shakes from side to side and screams at you. That's your niche, you made it, it's not for everyone.
ETA: I'm not sure if I read correctly or not, but it seemed like Nathalie was saying that she'd gotten hatemail of some form after Vin streamed one of her games. If that's the case, I have to wonder what kind of moron thinks that's a good idea and why they acted on it. But to be fair, there are always crazies of some kind in any community. See above about the Vinesauce fans wanting to huff Vinny's scrote.
