How did you find out Phil in the first place?

[The Penultimate Warrior]

I can't remember exactly but it was fairly recent, probably the Down the Rabbit Hole video

 

[gettingthatgrooveback]

Back in the summer of 2009, I was not even 13 and extremely hyped for Uncharted 2. So I was looking up gameplay videos from the multiplayer beta and that's how I discovered DSP. English isn't my first language so I didn't understand everything that he was saying, but I kept watching because he was one of the few that uploaded gameplay back then.
I remember thinking he was a teenager like me because of his voice. But then I saw his face reveal video and realised he was a fat grown adult which I found really funny. I also remember watching his early condo tour videos and being impressed with all his gamer shit. Not at all surprising that the only people Phil could impress were teenage boys.
Since then I've been following him on and off until late-2019 when I became a full-time detractor.

 

[DamageJoy]

I ran into some "This is how you don't play" videos back in the day. After that there was plenty of content to catch up with.
Phil always amused me. He, as a content creator did everything wrong, yet he seems to make it. It didn't made sense and was interesting to see.

 

[wahkando]

Recommended videos after watching Wings highlights

I'd say 90% of his current viewership originates from the TIHYDP videos and other detractor content on YouTube

 

[Bored Euro Trash]

Back in the summer of 2009, I was not even 13 and extremely hyped for Uncharted 2. So I was looking up gameplay videos from the multiplayer beta and that's how I discovered DSP. English isn't my first language so I didn't understand everything that he was saying, but I kept watching because he was one of the few that uploaded gameplay back then.
I remember thinking he was a teenager like me because of his voice. But then I saw his face reveal video and realised he was a fat grown adult which I found really funny. I also remember watching his early condo tour videos and being impressed with all his gamer shit. Not at all surprising that the only people Phil could impress were teenage boys.
Since then I've been following him on and off until late-2019 when I became a full-time detractor.

It's so weird to me you found him like that, because I was only watching gameplay videos back then, exclusively in English (also not my first language) and not once have I seen a video of his. Granted, I watched mostly CoD (usually Xcalizorz, BlameTruth, Z7TaylorZ7 and the likes) but still.

 

[Big Brown Schlub]

I found him out with the ORIGINAL, the LEGENDARY EvilAJ TIHYDP of MGS3 in late '13. There was a video which was not related to DSP at all called How Not to Play Hitman. It was a video of Hitman Blood Money where the uploader made a supercut of beating all missions by just going all guns blazing and shooting all civilians as well as the targets and guards, the uploader of the video was clearly just taking the piss and I can't find the video for the life of me anymore. So about a year later I wanted to find the video again to rewatch it and just typed in "how not to play" and the first thing I see is this 2 and a half long video called This Is How You Don't Play MGS3. I thought awesome, someone else probably saw that video of Hitman and wanted to make their own version of it, but for another stealth game. What I thought could not be further from the truth. I've been an on and off detractor, first stopped tractor activities in '14 and got back to it in '17, then took another break from it the same year and I got back to the tractor armada again late last year.

 

[gettingthatgrooveback]

It's so weird to me you found him like that, because I was only watching gameplay videos back then, exclusively in English (also not my first language) and not once have I seen a video of his. Granted, I watched mostly CoD (usually Xcalizorz, BlameTruth, Z7TaylorZ7 and the likes) but still.

Phil was unique in the sense that he played every new singleplayer game.

 

[Unassuming Local Guy]

I never thought I'd have beaten almost everyone here to the punch, but for me it was when Street Fighter 4 came out in 2008. My friend linked me a video of DSP playing SF4 and said "hey isn't this nerd annoying?", and he was right. It was the most annoying thing I've ever heard.

Didn't even know who he was or what he did at the time. I thought it was just some nobody. But, much like that fateful day back in my ED days when I randomly clicked CWC's article, I had no idea what I had just discovered.

 

[Big Ruski]

Phil's wife boyfriend told me about him, he even bought a nintendo switch for him. Cool guy, surprised he was black.

 

[Bored Euro Trash]

Phil's wife boyfriend told me about him, he even bought a nintendo switch for him. Cool guy, surprised he was black.

He did that so both have something to play and abandon half a year later.

 

[Freshtodeath]

His heavy rain playthrough in 2010. Back then youtube had a gaming section and phil literally spammed front page with videos. He was actually entertaining back then when he didn't use guides so you could laugh at his retardation.

 

[DZoomer]

Down the rabbit hole. If I had to guess, I'd say that video is the single most powerful tool to create detractors. Just an exposition of what a shitty human being Phil is. Even people who don't like games can still appreciate that video.

 

[Shabobus]

A friend of mine showed me a TIHYDP of the Game Grumps playing Zelda, and then YouTube started recommending me a bunch from Phil's playthroughs.

 

[Shirō Ishii]

I heard about him through Guru Larry's videos where he'd have him as a side gag where Phil says "thank you, you worthless humans". But I didn't realize who he actually was until last year when one of my company's boomer clients had me profile him as a potential donor. It's also how I discovered Kiwifarms as at the time, the DSP Forum was linked to DSP under his potential social media accounts.

 

[Nicole Eggert]

Many, many moons ago I was a regular lurker on /v/, and one day someone posted a link to a youtube video of DSP aimlessly running around in Bayonetta with no idea where to go, with the OP just saying "games keep getting dumbed down to cater to literal retards like this." From that day onward I was dimly aware that there was a complete retard named DSP who played video games for a living, and sometime later discovered that TIHYDP was a thing. I never became particularly interested in keeping up with his shenanigans (I was so far out of the autism orbit that I never even heard of the SoK, even though they were apparently active around this time), but whenever I felt curious about whether a new game looked any good, I'd visit his twitch channel, since I knew that he was a loser with no job who played every game on release day.

Honestly I got more entertainment from keeping track of LTG, since I found his tantrums a lot funnier, but both he and DSP tended to get trolled by the same people, and so the more LTG clips I watched, the more TIHYDPs of DSP got thrown my way, and over time I started following his antics more closely.

 

[millais]

Clicked on his thread, followed a link to the TIHYDP Black Mesa "crouch jump failure debacle", was hooked.

 

[PomegranateKing]

The super best friends talked about him (Matt and pat).

I googled it. Simultaneously found the farms, as well as dsp.

 

[blahblahblah678]

Late 2018, early 2019. At that time I was browsing YouTube for Street Fighter 2 soundtrack videos and TAS with various characters. From there I stumbled onto some Ultra Street Fighter 2 videos and saw DSP Salt videos from Vault Boy and Soma Julius Cruz. At that point I discovered there was an entire ecosystem of detractors that were there to point and laugh at Phil at every turn. So I watched the YouTube restreams because I hated using Twitch on mobile and did not want to support Phil in any way. What sealed the deal for me to keep following this lolcow was LSB's Kirby stream which turned into the DSP Got Married Reaction Show.

 

[Julia Chang]

Someone posted the MGS3 TIHYDP on /v/ way back around when it was first released.
I remember being just... baffled. Absolutely shocked. I must have watched it like 3 or 4 times that month. Not that I'm a pro gamer or anything, but I genuinely could not believe someone could be that bad at a game - especially a singleplayer one.

We've had some better edited, more comprehensive TIHYDP's since of course, but that one was really the perfect storm. It really encapsulates DSP in the most pure way, you get to see every part of his character - from his constant scrubquote-tier excuses, his awful jokes, his disgusting way he sees women, and of course his terrible gameplay. Even today it's still one of his absolute worst playthroughs in almost every way.

The terrible part is that DSP really hasn't changed much since then. Sure, it's more scams than excuses, and instead of yelling "Titties!" all the time he can't even bear to see breastfeeding (probably the most natural interaction in nature between mother and child), but fundamentally I get the same kind of entertainment out of Phil as I did all those years ago. He still manages to impress me on a near-daily basis with just how awful he can be.

 

[smokechair]

A YouTuber I was subscribed to did a reaction video to Phil jacking off.