His fans are right though: Arin HAS changed. What they fail to understand is that he hasn't changed for the better.
His online persona is one of the biggest farces especially when compared to his actual online behaivor. He's an asshole to people who criticize him, Game Grumps has allowed him to fester into a bitter, creatively bankrupt hack, he's surrounded himself with Yes-Men who wouldn't stand up for themselves to save their skin and he's content with that, he's explicitly terrible at video games despite many many MANY attempts at being a credible expert and critic of them which is something that has driven a massive wedge between him and former fans, and Arin laslty stubbornly refuses to admit when he's wrong instead deciding to through pity-parties every time he's caught.
That many of his peers have surpassed him and still find it necessary to air grievances speaks volumes to Mr. Hanson's ability to keep positive connections.
That's the thing: if that was all he did, most people wouldn't care. Hell, he wouldn't even be considered a lolcow at this point, save for the fact that he's so openly despicable and
so openly heinous to others and doesn't even attempt to hide it. Instead only choosing to hide behind his clout, which in turn causes the people who naturally form a bond with them due to their Let's Plays to lash out against people. Hell, most
did ignore it when it was on Tumblr. The second it spread like an infectious disease everywhere else though? All bets were off.
I'd argue that if not for Arin heading, and in fact
encouraging both his company and his fans, to act the way they do, the fans would be more deserving of a Community Watch thread than Arin in Internet Famous, and I'd dare say they're even more responsible than Arin for having it reach this point in the first place. Yet every time Arin just constantly and effortlessly one-ups himself (at this rate) every single
week. To the point that they just fade into the background and become interim commentary to Arin's stupidity.
I'll say it again: it'd be fucking hilarious to watch spiral downwards, if it didn't end up taking so many people down with it, and cause so many people so much unneeded harm in the process. Now, on top of laughing, you end up just simultaneously loathing everybody involved for making everyone around them be forced to see their acts of stupidity, lest they burn on the fandom's stake. Not even, just purely
existing, in fandoms or not, makes you liable to Hanson's stupidity. Whether it's making a Sonic walkthrough online or working IRL in the middle of bumfuck Ohio where the employees don't even know who the hell they even
are.
EDIT: Gee, it's almost like I said this is the state it would get to 2 months ago, and would you look at that: it's somehow actually gotten even
WORSE since then. How 'bout that; ain't that some shit?
It turns out Arin didn't have a permit to be there, and may actually get fined for possibly endangering people's lives in LA. Naturally the Game Grumps stans on Twitter were giving excuses like "Oh it was just a mistake", "Well people going should have researched the event before going out there", "Geez maybe people shouldn't be upset that they cancelled the second day, they didn't expect that many people", "STOP BEING ENTITLED THAT YOU FLEW OUT TO LA TO MEET THEM! They're just people", and so on.
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Remember guys: never argue. These guys are
learning.
...oh...
It's worse than that because at least that's a meme, that's something related to autism itself that's fun to mock.
With Game Grumps, you say anything against that (it doesn't matter if you're a fan or even a fellow creator using their office) or disagree in any way with the status quo, not only will the people in Grumps disassociate from you out of pettiness and out of the want of preserving their own egos, they will have their fans attack you (regardless of whether or not they even know what's going on) to the point that they'll find your personal information in any way they can (DingDong/Leadfoot), cause people to try and commit suicide (Ohnips), or be forced to cower in fear and delete and backpedal on everything you said regarding the Grumps (the Goddammit Ross joke thing from the Skyward Sword stream).
And God help you if you wanted Ghoul Grumps like the SBFP community would want Shitstorms.
These stunts are gonna end up with someone getting killed one of these days, and Arin and co. are too fucking stupid to realize that! It leaves one laughing, awestruck at the state of things, but once you actually realize what's happening and what the fandom and the Grumps themselves have done: it's honestly pretty fucked up just how much the company or most in the fandom doesn't give a shit. Or even worse, how much they actively encourage it.
