Guude - Mindcrack 359

[guiltyshirts]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bssnjzTZrvs

Bit of an update on lots of stuff, including Deathly Trails. Basically being super busy with RL stuff and only having a certain window to record, which they haven't been able to get together in. The really bad part is unless something changes, they may not be able to do anymore OOG at all after this series.

And that makes me really, really sad. :(

Comments

[mindcrack_love]

We discussed this concept a while back, of OOG drifting apart due to different lifestyles/life goals, and it breaks my heart to know that it's at least partially true. :(

Also, Guude talking the tiniest bit about his wife having surgery - we will never know details, but I have the feeling part of the reason we haven't had many "talky" Mindcrack episodes from him lately is because he's bottling that up, too, and that also makes me really really sad.

Poor Guude. Is someone seeing him at Minecon or PAX East who could give him a hug for me? :(

Edit: Talking about the car, but probably applicable to everything: "I don't trust people!" (39:38). STOP MAKING ME SAD, GUUDE, STOP IT. I WANT PEOPLE TO MAKE YOU HAPPY AND I WANT YOU TO HAVE FRIENDS AND TELL US YOUR FEELINGS BEYOND RAGE AND SADNESS. :( :( :(

[guiltyshirts]

Me too, and it's not even about fandom and shippiness-tinted glasses, it's just heartbreaking to think that such good friends could be drifting apart. :(

Poor guy sounds like he's really had his hands full. I really hope he's got someone to talk to somewhere.

If I make it to the London meetup post-Minecon I will give him THE biggest hug from all of us.

[mindcrack_love]

If Jason is anything like me, his wife is that person who is that "someone to talk to", and her struggling makes it much, much worse.

My partner is the one person in my life who knows everything - every thought and every fear in my mind, my history, my struggles. They're the one to keep me going when shit gets rough, they're my reason to keep going in the face of pain and tragedy. And when they have trouble - when they are hurting and needy - of course I'm there. But if that translates to problems on my end, suddenly I don't really have much to turn to. ...if that even makes any sense. >.>

(This is really relevant to my current situation that I alluded to in a previous pre-Sandy Snarky Yellow Text, strange enough, though it's not health related in the slightest. I can't imagine having the fear of *losing* my partner - which Jason may or may not have been implying with his wife's health problems - on top of everything else.)

Seriously, someone give this man a hug. :(

[guiltyshirts]

Makes sense to me. People who just 'get' you are worth their weight in gold.

I really hope his wife's okay and things get better. Maybe Minecon and being able to see everyone will give him a boost.

Here's a happier thing: Guude alluded to needing more plots in the spawn village sometime soon. Could we be getting more new people? :D

[placeblocks]

Re: plots, that's a hopeful thought! Though I seem to recall Etho saying recently that he wanted a spawn plot as well, and apparently Pause wants one, too. So it could be that they'll just give them to people already on the server... Though of course I'd like new people as well.

[guiltyshirts]

I wonder why he wouldn't just say so if it was all people already on the server? I'm going with new people, maybe after Minecon, perhaps. (My money's on Juice :D)

[placeblocks]

Yeah, man, this episode is so full of feels from OOG drifting apart to CAN'T TRUST ANYONE THEY WILL SCREW YOU OVER GUARANTEED and the surgery and ugh, yeah. Not even in shippy ways, it's just sad. Guude's so amazing and it really hurts to see him hurting or sad or whatever.

And I don't know how to feel about OOG/Deathly Trails. What the hell is Bdubs doing that is preventing him from recording with Guude? 7-midnight is a pretty big time gap and Bdubs is doing YouTube full time now. I know he had an emergency trip to Canada recently, but I don't get why he's not making time for Deathly Trails unless it's really a "Recording with Someone-Not-Guude is more important to me right now" and if that's the case, then... :( Which isn't to say I haven't sort of seen this drift coming, but it makes me really, really sad. I also find it really interesting that Bdubs has never made it on the Podcast...

It's definitely interesting to see the dynamic shifts happening with the guys. Beef and Pause are doing less together, and Bdubs and Guude are doing less together. It makes sense in some ways, but it's still quite sad. (Though I don't get the same semi-underlying bitterness between Beef and Pause that I'm starting to pick up between Guude and Bdubs... at least on Guude's end. Probably because Bdubs has Generik, Juicetra, Kurt, etc., etc., etc. to fill his days with, whereas Guude tends to have to record alone due to his schedule.)

I dunno. I HAVE FEELS.

[guiltyshirts]

I have feels too, a lot to do with the way Guude seemed so firm about it being Bdubs not being able to make it. Then I remember one of the last eps of Deathly Trails where they were talking about Minecon and all the stuff they're going to do and how they should have roomed together... ;_;

What happened, guys?

[placeblocks]

I really feel like since Guude has limited availability, coupled with Bdubs going fulltime, that he's started filling in the gaps Guude's made by not being available all the time. Bdubs is actively trying to grow his channel. Which isn't to say that Guude ISN'T, but he's not doing it in the way Bdubs is. Bdubs is networking, finding new people with big subs he can collab with to get more subs, more recognition, etc. and right now Guude's not that guy. Bdubs and Guude probably share 80% of the same subs or more, so although I don't think Bdubs or Guude had a falling out or anything, I think that right now, in terms of growing his channel, doing stuff with new people is more lucrative/important to Bdubs than doing stuff with Guude. I think Deathly Trails is netting Bdubs like 12,000 views an episode, which is pretty low numbers for a guy that has almost 150,000 subs, and whose regular Mindcrack episodes bring in roughly 60,000-100,000 views.

It's just sad that it's become SUCH a business to Bdubs. And of course I don't know 100% for sure that this is the cause, but it's my guess. Obviously Guude wants to make money as well, but I think he enjoys the game/companionship just as much, otherwise I think they'd both go, "You know, 12,000 views an episode isn't worth it, let's just quit the series." But Guude wants to play it even if the views aren't that high. I think Bdubs would rather record something else with someone else where he's more assured a 50,000+ episode. And that's really sad. :/ I understand it, but friendship--and the guy who fucking made your channel what it is--deserves more than that.

[guiltyshirts]

You make some very good points. There *has* been a bit of a shift with Bdubs lately. I was just watching a bit of his last Mindcrack and he was actually surprised people were disappointed/angry/etc about him pulling down MC's village house. I had to laugh when he compared it to wrestling. As someone who's been a wrestling fan most of her life, he's walked into the same pitfall that industry does. Namely you can't make a big blur between stories and real life and then be surprised when people mistake one for the other. (And by real life I mean Mindcrack being a group of friends on a server) Mindcrack really didn't do 'stories' until the whole thing with the B Team and the trial.

Ugh, sorry, pet peeve. -_-

tl;dr : Bdubs is in danger of trying too hard and making fun into work.

[isi]

I thought it was disappointing that people took the dismantling of MC's house the wrong way. Mostly because I like the "story" elements as a person who likes making up stories, and because I very much do recognize that it's make believe drama and not "real," so I guess I forget how easy it is to confuse the two. But maybe it is better not to risk having a redux of "XYZ hates Etho," because that got way out of hand despite it also not being real.

[guiltyshirts]

I love the story elements too, and I'm honestly glad it hasn't become a big thing, at least on the reddit it was just a few people saying 'Hey, that wasn't cool.' Maybe it's because when MC built the house he wasn't part of the 'story', but when Bdubs took it down he was? :/ When you've got those things running side-by-side, you really need nice big fat lines to keep them apart. I just found his surprise surprising.

Sorry, I'm in 'old and jaded' mode tonight. :/

[placeblocks]

It really is a big mix of "story" vs. not, as well the fact that we're dealing with a huge number of like 12-16-year-old kids who don't get the difference even if you spell it out for them, and who possibly only watch every fifth episode or so. I think it's very easy to go from "Yay, MC built a cute house for Bdubs, can't wait until he sees it" to being shocked and upset to find that Bdubs' reaction (after saying he wanted everyone to come over and build houses) is to take it down. It's easy to see Bdubs as a big jerk, and he IS portraying himself as a mafia guy, so the jerk impression is easy to understand. So to then have Bdubs be like ITS ALL A JOKE WE ARE FRIENDS... yeah. WE get it. We're adults and following along, but I can totally understand why it's confusing the kids/casual viewers. Destroying someone's house is pretty dickish, even in character.

I do like some of the storyline stuff. The Trial was brilliant. But I'm worried about this sort of stuff, too, and it getting too out of hand. And I'm worried about it alienating the guys who DONT want to play along. It's okay so far, but I can see a point where this divide happens between the guys who are storytelling and the guys who just want to get on and build and be themselves, and them not interacting because of it. Or ones like Guude who might want to play along a bit but who can't be on all the time, and thus the storylines move too quickly for him to participate and just... I dunno. I just worry that it's a shift that is going to leave some people behind. :(

[isi]

Too many feels, cannot properly reply, but you said pretty much everything on my mind, especially the last bit comparing it to Beef and Pause, and also your other reply about Bdubs focusing so much on the numbers, which isn't BAD if you're trying to get the most out of what you're doing, but it leads to some unfortunate implications for Guude in this situation. :(

[theropod]

Oh Guude ;_; I'd give you all the hugs if I could, poor guy. I can't even make down to London for that meetup or I so would.

[damnreddit]

Poor Guude. :( I really feel for his time struggles and kid struggles, and I hope his wife is all right.

I'm not liking some of the not-quite-drama trying to make BdoubleO out as the bad guy, though. Not least because I doubt that Guude sees him that way beyond whatever frustrations might come from a stressed-out guy dealing with a happier and free-er friend. Other reasons, too, but that's probably the most important one.

As for Bdubs and the business side of things, I don't know, but I don't see things the same way as others. It's evident that money/sustainability stresses Bdubs out in a way it doesn't Guude or most of the others, but I think that's a bit understandable considering his former career was potentially a very lucrative one and that he and his family probably have certain expectations as to what sort of lifestyle he'd be able to provide. He feels he has to do these things, has to make more contacts, but it's not even entirely a money thing. He obviously really likes the people he plays with and they him; and it's also obvious he's having the time of his life with his career currently, which he wouldn't if it were really about money as such. He just wants it not to all go away because he didn't work hard enough at doing it right, you know? And I don't think he would ever abandon Guude or OOG because of viewership.

[isi]

For the record, I don't wish to demonize anyone in this equation. They're just two people who have vastly different things going on in their lives compared to how they were in the past, and it's really not anyone's fault if their friendship has suffered because of it. I don't want to blame anyone for circumstances they can't control, but it's still kinda sad the way things are turning out.

[guiltyshirts]

Likewise. :(

[placeblocks]

I get where you're coming from, but I do think there's a lack of communication going on between the two, and I couldn't tell you why. We KNOW they're not talking as much as they should be because of the conversations they've been having in Deathly Trails where they discuss Minecon or rooming together and such which should've been done months ago over Skype or something. I kind of get the feeling that Guude's "This is gonna be the last OOG thing if something doesn't change" was almost as much to Bdubs as it was to us. It's passive aggressive and NOT the way to communication with Bdubs, but I suspect that it's something Guude's decided on his own and Bdubs will hear of it first via that video. Guude has only a small window of time to record and Bdubs knows that. It sucks that they've both got life issues going on, but it's Bdubs at this point who has to make time to record when Guude can. If he can't, there's nothing Guude can do about it. (Except stress and apologize to his fans.)

I don't want to demonize Bdubs at all. I do get where he's coming from. But I also don't get the impression from Guude's tone of voice or choice of words that Bdubs is entirely doing the best he can to make time for Guude/Deathly Trails.