Matt Mercer Won't Admit the REAL Reason for the "Mercer Effect"

Omega · March 01, 2019, 11:04:24 PM

Quote from: Christopher Brady;1076494So, honest question for you, Pundit. When you do your video essays/podcasts, is that the real you or an act?

The cat is obviously an animatronic...

Mistwell · March 01, 2019, 11:47:24 PM

Quote from: Christopher Brady;1076494So, honest question for you, Pundit. When you do your video essays/podcasts, is that the real you or an act?

Pundit is an act. He admitted that in an interview he did. Professionalism has nothing to do with genuineness. You can be acting, and unprofessional. In fact, I'd argue MOST acting is done unprofessionally.

I mean, he never wants anyone to know his real name (despite living in a different nation from anyone he's communicating with) and goes by "PUNDIT" and courts controversy and won't even show his face on camera and uses the picture of an actor for his avatar. OF COURSE it's an act.

Mistwell · March 01, 2019, 11:50:10 PM

Quote from: CondorDM;1076639He said in an interview with d&d beyond that his first campaign was on camera but he had played some games off camera, before trying to run a game.
He made jokes about the fact his first go at it was on camera.
He said this was his third campaign, the one he is running now(even if he ran one or two offline, that would still be puppy dog stage in my opinion).
I could be wrong but I swear up and down, that he said what I am claiming, I am open to being corrected,
everything else I said still stands but I am open to debate on that.

You remember wrong. Mercer's been DMing a long time. In fact he was DMing that very group (the first one) well before they were ever on camera. He had been DMing a Pathfinder game. It's why Talisin adapted the gunslinger to 5e.

RPGPundit · March 02, 2019, 06:34:40 AM

In my videos, when I'm joking, I'm actually joking. When I'm enthusiastic about something, I'm sincerely enthusiastic. When I'm ranting mad, I'm honestly ranting mad. When I'm showing affection to my cats, it's a genuine level of affection.

If I was pretending to be SUPER DUPER SQUEE EXCITED about a game, or pretending to be SUPER DUPER GRUMPY MAD when I'm really not, or if I was making my cats fake-spontaneously get in the shot and then faking excessive affection toward them, and generally emoting the fuck out of the camera, then I'd be "acting" the way the CR actors are acting.

deadDMwalking · March 02, 2019, 09:32:18 AM

So if you're a naturally demonstrative person (ie, wear your emotions on your sleeve), you're acting no matter how much you're consistent with your life outside the camera?

Alexander Kalinowski · March 02, 2019, 09:43:59 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;1077349In my videos, when I'm joking, I'm actually joking. When I'm enthusiastic about something, I'm sincerely enthusiastic. When I'm ranting mad, I'm honestly ranting mad. When I'm showing affection to my cats, it's a genuine level of affection.

On the other hand, you have admitted to having some amount of training in improv acting...

Rhedyn · March 02, 2019, 11:18:21 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;1077349In my videos, when I'm joking, I'm actually joking. When I'm enthusiastic about something, I'm sincerely enthusiastic. When I'm ranting mad, I'm honestly ranting mad. When I'm showing affection to my cats, it's a genuine level of affection.

If I was pretending to be SUPER DUPER SQUEE EXCITED about a game, or pretending to be SUPER DUPER GRUMPY MAD when I'm really not, or if I was making my cats fake-spontaneously get in the shot and then faking excessive affection toward them, and generally emoting the fuck out of the camera, then I'd be "acting" the way the CR actors are acting.

If your videos were watched by millions, I would assume everything was staged and was fake.

Regularly people just shooting the shit isn't some sort of phenomenon that people watch in-mass.

RoyR · March 02, 2019, 11:37:41 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;1077349If I was pretending to be SUPER DUPER SQUEE EXCITED about a game, or pretending to be SUPER DUPER GRUMPY MAD when I'm really not, or if I was making my cats fake-spontaneously get in the shot and then faking excessive affection toward them, and generally emoting the fuck out of the camera, then I'd be "acting" the way the CR actors are acting.

How do you know for a fact that CR people are "acting"?

Haffrung · March 02, 2019, 07:10:25 PM

Quote from: RoyR;1077384How do you know for a fact that CR people are "acting"?

Their reactions may be spontaneous. But the way they hold them in poses is acting. When normal gamers are shocked, they might gape with surprise and hold their hands over their mouth. But they don't freeze in the reaction for eight seconds. While the player beside them looks up to the heavens and shakes their fist. For eight seconds.

These are actors. Being aware of where the cameras are, exaggerating all of their emotional responses, and holding poses for maximum effects is what they do.

RoyR · March 03, 2019, 03:22:40 AM

Quote from: Haffrung;1077437Their reactions may be spontaneous. But the way they hold them in poses is acting. When normal gamers are shocked, they might gape with surprise and hold their hands over their mouth. But they don't freeze in the reaction for eight seconds. While the player beside them looks up to the heavens and shakes their fist. For eight seconds.

These are actors. Being aware of where the cameras are, exaggerating all of their emotional responses, and holding poses for maximum effects is what they do.

If so, how do you know that this is not how it looks when actors are playing RPGs, even at home?

(Not that I recognize your description of CR, but let's leave that for now for the sake of argument.)

deadDMwalking · March 03, 2019, 09:03:23 PM

I'm not a classically trained actor, but I have certainly seen people at the table emulate acted scenes that were relevant to their own case. For example, many variations on Shatner's classic 'KHAN' have been reenacted at my table in various degrees of seriousness.

RPGPundit · March 04, 2019, 01:22:13 AM

Quote from: Rhedyn;1077382If your videos were watched by millions, I would assume everything was staged and was fake.

Regularly people just shooting the shit isn't some sort of phenomenon that people watch in-mass.

Well exactly.

The actual play livestreams that are just people actually playing an RPG, rather than acting, usually get views in the 100s at very best.

RoyR · March 04, 2019, 02:32:28 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;1077565Well exactly.

The actual play livestreams that are just people actually playing an RPG, rather than acting, usually get views in the 100s at very best.

If we have hundreds of live-streamed games, most will be fairly uninteresting to watch. But by random chance one or two will have a combination of players and GM which are really fun to watch, and they will get thousands of viewers. Thus the high viewer count of CR is not a valid argument to use in favor of it being "acted", it can equally well be explained by them being an outlier, a "perfect storm".

Motorskills · March 04, 2019, 09:02:52 AM

Quote from: RoyR;1077570If we have hundreds of live-streamed games, most will be fairly uninteresting to watch. But by random chance one or two will have a combination of players and GM which are really fun to watch, and they will get thousands of viewers. Thus the high viewer count of CR is not a valid argument to use in favor of it being "acted", it can equally well be explained by them being an outlier, a "perfect storm".

CR is an outlier in many ways. In addition to YouTube / Twitch (etc), there's also a large number of Actual Play podcasts.

Haffrung · March 04, 2019, 11:40:23 AM

Again, anyone who wants to hear people playing an RPG in a dramatic and entertaining way that is also close to the way most people actually play (certainly closer than CR), then give the Glass Canon Podcast a listen.