1) I'd love to interview a member of the Kiwi Farms community regarding Phil and your thoughts/opinions on Phil as a person and content creator.
I'm not looking to be interviewed, so I'll try to make this response style comment as structured and informative in a robust style.
As a content creator, Phil is not very good; he tries to downplay this by claiming he's the guy who does things his way and doesn't adhere to norms. The problem being, the way he does things is not conducive to have what he would call "meaningful content" or even survive, and I will attempt to explain this as simply as possible.
1. Phil does not foster a healthy community
If you were to watch other streamers who focus on gameplay, you'd see that most are ran as what I'd call an open air asylum; that is to say there are rules, but for the most part, chatters are allowed to do/say damn near anything (slurs, racism, etc are usually against said rules, just to be clear, especially on Twitch). This often leads to what people can call a community and how every streamer has a different community; you let your viewers run free, and you'll develop your own community with your their own style, in jokes, and a number of other things.
Phil does not do this, Phil wants to be the rockstar on stage, with the spotlight and everyone's attention should be on him. Was there a sportsball game and people talking about it? Well Phil doesn't watch sportsball and doesn't know anything about it. Is chat talking about something without Phil/game/content as the main subject; you guys need to stop talking about that, because you're at Phil's stream, so him and his content should be what you're concerned with. Is chat not chatting enough; hey guys, Phil's playing a game, why don't you try talking to him about the game. Does he allow freedom from time to time, sure; he'll let his viewers tell him what they did for the day, or ask him what Kat made for dinner. But if the World Cup was on and you want to talk about something that happened during it, well Phil doesn't understand the World Cup, and he's playing a game if you hadn't noticed, so why not try talking about what's going on in the game?
Do you know why Phil hasn't had any sort of fan made content in about a decade; because Phil would rather keep his audience in shackles and not allow any freedom of thought, something that'd allow in jokes, memes, and other creations boil to the surface. Sure you can argue about the pre-stream roll that got copyright struck which led to him deleting a number of videos that killed his channel in the algorithm; but if you were to look where a lot of the fan content he still uses (pre-stream music), they're all from his early YouTube days from when he was still pointing his camera at his TV. He locked shit down and no one wants to hang around or be creative for a tyrant.
As an aside, if you were to ask Null (owner and operator of this very website), he'll proclaim his hate for the people who post in the DSP section as well as Articles and News... but even he gives us more free reign to do dumb shit than Phil does... and this is even after Null getting letters from the FBI about dumb shit people have said on his website, on top of all the recent shit with the website being blacklisted from the Internet at large.
2. He is slow to adapt, actively resists change, and incapable of learning
In the early days of YouTube, when gaming content wasn't able to be monetized, I'd argue that it's okay to point your camera at your television to get footage; and if you're willing to put effort in to make the audio and video decent, it'd be forgivable, as the early YouTube days was the Wild West. As early as 2009/2010; around the Modern Warfare 2 / Black Ops timeframe, there were YouTubers using direct capture for better quality audio and video; Phil did not adopt direct capture until 2013, and did so in the middle of his Metal Gear Solid 4 playthrough.
You can see the old quality in Part 45
and the new quality (with watermark) in Part 46
And he actively resisted the change, as he routinely cited his videos being different from the more professional YouTubers and more "like we're friends, hanging out on a couch." This compounds into another issue with him straight refusing to edit any of his footage. He liked to source himself as a "no bullshit, you see all the problems" in games and would often have entire 10 minute segments of gameplay where he just dinks around in menus or dies to a boss over and over. Using the 10 minute segment as a launch pad; he refused to use longer segments of gameplay when YouTube granted creators the ability to upload videos longer than 10 minutes. We reason he did this because more videos means more ads which means more revenue; while ignoring cries of Phil uploading dozens of videos a day and making subscribers inbox be filled with junk. He eventually corrected this, but just like direct capture, it was years after longer uploads were normalized. When his audience brings up things he could do to have a better video/stream; he'd often say things like "I'm not a techie, I'm a gamer." Offloading his poor quality content down to him not being willing to learn a new skill or piece of tech; and while it's different in our current year; in the early days of YouTube to even the mid to late 2010's; very few channels had teams or professional editors on staff/retainer. Most creators were one-man bands, and put in the effort, even behind the scenes (or non-works hours) while Phil refused to do so.
But perhaps the best explanation of why he's like this is best explained in DSP's own words
That video is timestamped to where he starts talking about General Electric, and how they were failing as a company and thus pivoted into a new area of business to keep themselves afloat. This involved hiring and firing new people, and while yes that's a reason to be mad, it also makes business sense. But DSP would rather slam the CEO and the business decision he made to save the company, instead of letting it burn down. That's DSP, a dude who'd rather have shit burn down (but not really, because he needs that money he really does, to pay his bills) instead of pivoting into something new to stay afloat.
3. He is impulsive, harms himself, and refuses to accept he is the architect of his own destruction
The big one I can list here, is when an old viewer put out a copyright claim on a number of his Ask the King videos via the artwork appearing in them; dozens (if not a hundred plus) videos were hit for Copyright; and per how YouTube works, if you get too many hits (three), your channel can and will be destroyed. The bigger problem is that when this happens, YouTube restricts your ability to stream or upload videos to your channel while these claims are in place. Phil was under the Machinima umbrella at the time and MCNs like Machinima exist as a go-between for creators and YouTube (as YouTube's actual help/support for anyone but the top 100 performers is non-existant). Phil claims to have counter-claimed and I have no reason to not believe him. But he claims he researched all the content the user once made for Phil, so Phil then spent time deleting every video with content before the channel was able to get struck. Phil then claims that if the user had links to the videos, he could still go in and make claims if the videos were private; so privating them wasn't an issue, and they had to be deleted. What this did, was tank his channel's standing in the algorithm, as the computer reads a massive loss of views when you delete said videos. Phil makes no comment about what Machinima or YouTube may have to say about how to proceed. He admits that the strikes were against his Ask the King channel, but he jumps to conclusions and ended up hurting himself as he deleted videos under his DSP Gaming channel which had yet to receive a strike. He could've waited or let Machinma talk to YouTube, but he couldn't; and anytime he was to bring this up in the future, he would blame everyone except himself for acting like a hysterical girl who didn't get the Mercedes for her Sweet 16; he did nothing wrong, he did everything correct.
All this is documented per this video
That's the biggest one, but you could look at him failing to live up to Patreon requests at times (Persona 3 was a wage quit). Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII has two unique issues, the first of which was his "unboxing" where the box isn't even opened, but he filmed during the condo's fire alarm going off, and he's too impatient to wait for it to be cleared, so his audience get to listen to him talk over a fire alarm going off. Then at the end of the game, he died to the boss, and thus found another YouTuber's video of the ending and decided to use that as his end of game video.
Yes, I'm fucking serious
Silent Hill Alarm unboxing
Ending (with time stamp)
And he does this shit, while claiming his content is robust, meaningful, and a handful of other empty adjectives.
4. He's just not good at games and shows no retention of what should be learned behavior
This may sound weird at first, but let me explain. Games exist in genres mostly; people say FPS, RPG, or other terms, we generally have an idea of what that game is probably like. And while this can be argued as an over-simplification, I'd like to think there's sufficient truth in the claims I'm going to make. Certain games that exist within genres are able to have massive differences, but at the same time, can carry a core of mechanics that are similar if not universal across a game series or genre as a whole. In fighting games, you can have a jab or the concept of a jab; well what is a jab? A jab is often a quick but short-ranged attack; they can be used to start a combo, but are often used to "check" your opponent, that is to say, they're used as a "let me see if you're pushing buttons." They're used like this as they often come out faster than most attacks and the recovery is so short, you can go into a block stance before your opponent returns their own jab. So if your opponent tries a slower attack and you jab, you can now get in on them, because you checked them, and caught them slipping. An attack similar to this is what's called a "poke," a poke is like a jab as it's used to check your opponent, but often at a greater range, one that the opponent may not be able to hit back because they lack an appropriate attack with the proper speed and range. Now you hear these terms and you can realize they're not unique to a single game, they're generally used across all fighting games, because they have a set of core mechanics that are universal across Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Dead or Alive, Guilty Gear, etc. With these come ideas of whiff punishes, combos, cancels, links, as well as a host of other meta (in brain) skills like zoning, distance, timing, etc, things that are separate from the game, but should be instilled in the player who may not be 100% familiar with said game, but familiar enough with the idea of a fighting game to know when to rushdown, defend, etc. Phil does not exhibit these proficiencies often enough to make it seem like his brain is retaining what should be written in stone, as he likes to claim he has a 20+ year history of fighting games experience under his belt... and while I'm not one to drop names to make an example, our own
@Piece of Peace has only started playing fighting games within the past 6 months or so, and has already had his own wins against Phil. Sure it's not a 100% win rate, but the fact that a dude with less than a year experience has figured out fighting games enough to trounce someone who wants to boast a gloried history is downright baffling. It's one thing to have a slip up or two, but with all the talk he loves to give, you'd expect Phil to curb stomp someone that new and has failed to do so, because he's incapable of learning.
There's also something to be said about experimenting with games, where you push all the buttons like a retard to try and figure stuff out. There's his Metal Gear Solid 2 playthrough, where he spent damn near an entire hour bitching "I HAVE THE RATIONS! HOW DO I USE THEM!?" while hitting every button except L2; he even hit R2 (the weapon button) but somehow was unable to try what the game has clearly labeled the item button.
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I was getting winded and hit post a little too soon, here's one last thought.
5. Elite Helplessness
If you were to ask Phil what's best in life, he'd probably tell you a money vault on par with Scrooge McDuck. The problem being not only is he unable and unwilling to do the work or learn a new skill; while at the same time thinking he's in a completely unique position that no one else could possibly understand. I'm not expecting a single person to become a master at everything in life, but becoming competent in certain areas can help mitigate problems in your life. Phil was once a big-baller shot-caller, complete with a BMW that he shelled out for the deluxe package that included free maintenance, all he had to do was drive it to the dealer. He was too incompetent to drive his barely driven BMW to the dealer every 3 months / 3,000 to 5,000 miles while paying for the service. He's since downsized to a Toyota, and there's nothing wrong with that, in fact Phil could save a lot of money by buying a few lifts and being able to do an oil change and other small maintenance tasks on his own; but we know he'd rather take the vehicle to the dealership for that top of the line maintenance. And not to drag on too much, but there's also the problem with his shower, and a number of other problems in his life that could be solved with a little self-starting and work; but he always needs to call a professional while crying things will cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. Then when people who are in the no point out, no Phil, in fact going by what you're saying, this is probably the problem, and can be solved by doing x, y, z. He'll then launch into a tirade about how you don't know what you're talking about, in fact, you're probably making shit up. Well hold on a minute Phil, you're too stupid to know how to fix shit yourself, you have no place to say others are wrong. And I have to wonder how you go so far in life without ever picking up a wrench or a screwdriver in your life; and I make that claim that you had to import your mom and dad to do housework for you instead of doing it yourself. You're quick to tell anyone who may know otherwise that they're wrong, while displaying nothing but helplessness yourself.
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With most people it'd be rude to say; but with Phil, there's a very real sense of brain decay, and that should be something to be pitied. But it's coupled with an inflated ego and thus makes him come across as some sort of narcissist who's unable and unwilling to accept that they have faults and try to learn from them. This accumulation of retarded self-worth is best showcased in his "I did nothing wrong, I did everything correct" speech.
These are my thoughts on Phil and him as a content creator. QED.
