UPPER TIERS BLOG: DOING RETRO GAMING CONTENT IS FUUUUN!

Oh-hoh! Funky Spectrum has finally had a proper pop at me, having been taking a few unprompted Twitter cracks at Gannon in recent weeks.

If you don’t know who or what Funky Spectrum is - and I suspect there are many of you who don't - the venerable “George Bum”, as he’s known, has in recent years taken it upon himself to call out the “YouTube circle jerk”.

He’ll have a go at those in a retro gaming scene he feels is cliquey, and those who he damns as acting in ways that exploit their audience. He’ll do it in a shouty, foul-mouthed, style, and… yeah. You know. Rage-baiting.

In all honesty, I’d half been expecting something from him since Digi Level 2 started – mainly because of our guests, most of whom are among his regular targets – and was almost disappointed that it didn’t happen.

Thankfully, he was, at least, nice about Sanja in the comments on his video. I mean, I say nice… he says Sanya’s “not as much of a massively derided wanker” as I am.

Which is fair, because she isn’t. Though I always tell myself that if someone as lovely as her married me then I can’t be that awful.

Yes, I watched the video. Well, I skipped through it. I’m not a complete masochist. Literally, I originally started this post by saying  “I’ve not watched the video, as I didn’t want to risk hearing something that might get under my skin and ruined my day”... then got to the end of writing this post and thought I probably should listen to it in case there was anything litigious that I needed to deal with.

I mean… the video’s fine. It could’ve been a lot worse. He has a go at me and Gannon – we’re unfunny, washed-up, in it for the money and the “clicks”, and fame, he calls us names – and says that Digi Level 2 has been a failure etc, and I should go away. Nothing to lose any sleep over.

I tend to only really get upset by these sort of things when they hit close to home, or jab at an insecurity, and none of this came close. If somebody says something about me that’s objectively untrue, it can hurt. If it’s subjectively true… then it doesn’t. Does that make sense?

I've read stuff on the Cheapshow Reddit that has upset me, far more than anything he has said.

CATALYST (CAT) CAFE

The catalyst for him making this new video seems to have been the ‘I Am A Retro Gamer’ song, which I put up yesterday as a standalone thing. That was a case of biting the hand that feeds me, apparently, and finally gave him something he can have a go at me over.

Most of the retro gaming community who have heard the song took it in the spirit that was intended; taking the piss out of all of us. Myself included.

Not to point out the obvious, but Digi has ALWAYS bitten the hand that feeds it. When it comes to streamers and YouTubers… again, it’s just sort of what we’ve always done. We punch up where we can. Plus, it made me laugh to put out a song with those lyrics in a show about retrogaming, with THOSE guests, because… Digi reasons. There'll always be those who can't laugh at themselves, and for me that makes it funnier.

It's interesting though to think about Digi Level 2 in terms of success and failure. Everything I do will, to a degree, be compared to the original Digi on Teletext, but it’s apples and oranges. I’ve always said that was my Sergeant Pepper, and anything I do after – at least when it comes to gaming – will be Give My Regards To Broad Street.

Not even that, probably. I've had enough other successes in life - and I'm not just talking about my career - that I don't feel defined by any one thing, even if retro gamers always will define me by that one thing.

It's wiser to stack it up against Digitiser The Show, but views-wise… at this point they’re comparable. It got more views over time, but DTS never really exploded. And I had a horrible experience with it, so…

NOT WHAT IT WAS

Aside from anything else, retrogaming YouTube isn’t what it was 6 years ago. I think it’s expanded as far as it can, and has now started to contract, like an exploding star. There has been too much unpleasantness, it's too fractured. The big RG YouTubers are established, and it's unlikely there'll be room for anyone else to punch through.

Aside from anything else, we're making videos about a subject that’s mainly of interest to people who – on the whole – don’t watch YouTube.

Plus, I’ve not promoted this series like I did Digitiser The Show, because it isn’t what I’m driven to do long-term… which is why it was on a new channel. In some ways, we were starting from scratch, but that was intentional because I didn’t want it to become confusing over on the main channel when we’d finally started to find our audience.

I hold my hand up and say I’m not a die-hard retrogamer; I love playing games, and I happen to know stuff about old games, but something like Marillion, or travel and history, are things I’m much more passionate about. I was pretty clear when we did the Kickstarter for Digi Level 2 that it was because the TV industry was dragging its heels post-Covid, and I wanted a chunky project to work on.

The 30th anniversary was approaching, and Digi means a lot to me. I wanted to celebrate it in some way with those who still cared. And then mostly missed the anniversary thanks to my dad getting ill and dying.

That said, I’ve loved making it, and deliberately made it in a way that meant I would enjoy making it. The people I wanted to like it have liked it. From a personal perspective, it’s done what I wanted it to do, and the next two eps are shaking up the format so that I keep enjoying doing it. See above for something I've put together to loop in the background of Saturday's final episode shoot.

That said, Sanja and I have discovered that we enjoy doing the Let’s Plays, and probably will carry them on. That wasn’t expected!

I’m 53 this year, about to become a grandfather for the second time, and have had a steamingly awful couple of years. These days I only want to focus on what I enjoy doing, as much as I can.

I enjoy pushing myself creatively, I enjoy hanging out and making stuff with my best friend, and being silly. I wouldn’t make such polarising content if I was in it for the clicks. I could suppress my instincts and make something with broad appeal - I do it in my day job all the time - but where's the fun in that? If I can think of a way to make Digi Level 3 fun and fresh to make… then I’ll do it. If not… I won’t.

I’m under no illusions about any of it.

BUMHOLE

George Bum though...

Before he spun off on his crusade to take down UK retrogaming YouTube one “shill” at a time – pretty much everyone ended up in his sights, with the exception of Larry Bundy Jr, mysteriously… – I found his YouTube persona funny. I almost asked him to record something for Digi at one point. And then… I dunno. His content kind of changed quite abruptly.

I don't know why, and it's a shame because I think he had something unique at one point.

I’m not going to pretend I haven’t kept an eye on him – and I know I’m not alone in that, and for good reason; there was/is somebody close to the centre of the UK retro gaming YouTube community that, while pretending to be friends to everybody on the one hand, some of us suspected was feeding things through to George, and stirring up trouble. Someone who, if that is true, was far too successful a creator to really be doing such things.

The paradox about George Bum is (and not everyone I know will appreciate me saying this) there are some things he’s said that I’ve sort of agreed with. Certainly not all of it, mind, but I do think if we’re putting ourselves out there as creators, and we’re asking people to back us financially, then it’s okay to ask questions of how the money is being spent, or how that money is raised. It's okay to be held accountable.

Legitimate criticism, people not liking us (or finding us funny) comes with the territory, and we should expect it. I’ve known that for 31 years. And I know I’m Marmite. Sometimes I go out of my way to be Marmite!

I don’t have many – indeed, any – close friends who are big retro gaming YouTubers, but I have met most of the ones he has had a go at (oviously), and… people are a mixed bag y’know. They’re not any one thing. People are complex. Nobody is just “bad” or just a c-word.

We’re all a mix of good and bad, nice and nasty, and some swing more one way than the other. While I don't want to speculate on what drives him, I actually think George Bum is smart enough to understand that; there’s a degree of theatre and playing a character with him.

Unfortunately, I don’t think all of his audience understands this, and that’s where I feel it becomes problematic.

Consequently, the criticism too often gets inflamed to become abuse and trolling. What many in the UK retro gaming scene have been on the end of all too often crosses over into something that becomes genuinely nasty and threatening, and has risked causing genuine harm to individuals.

On a far grander scale, it's the same psychological and emotional process you saw happening in America that lead to January 6th. Simmering, unfocused, anger - whatever is at the root of it - can be stoked and focused, and if the wrong people have their anger stoked and directed by those who are careless with their words and delivery... well... people eventually end up getting hurt... and sometimes it backfires to cause trouble for the person who originated it.

I dunno. The world's an exhausting, tedious, place innit?

Anyway. Just to end this by saying - once again - how much I appreciate this community and audience. I appreciate your comments, your trust, your support, and your kindness. It's so much nicer in here than it is out there. Thank you.

Paul