2019 in Games: Gamers of the Year
When I pitched the idea of doing a full-on retrospective of the past year in games, I honestly wasn’t going to talk about “gamers,” mostly…
When I pitched the idea of doing a full-on retrospective of the past year in games, I honestly wasn’t going to talk about “gamers,” mostly because I don’t engage with games and content about them in the same way as a lot of the community. Yet, it was the most popular result in my poll about topics for this series so apparently people need my opinion on this.
Ultimately, I decided to go for it, because I think for every “Dr. Disrespect committed a crime on stream and all he got was a Twitch-approved vacation and a TV deal” story, there are stories of people using games both for good and furthering the ways we engage with this medium in exciting ways, and if I can recommend someone new to you, that’ll be worth it. Without further ado, here are my Gamers of the Year 2019!
10. Autumn Burchett
Wizards of the Coast’s attempts to turn Magic the Gathering into an eSport have been less than ideal. With unclear planning and a focus away from what many consider to be the game’s best features, it’s been tough to be too excited about professional level play of MTG. Even so, great moments can still come from that situation, and Autumn Burchett’s rise to the major leagues has been exactly that. In the very first of WOTC’s new Mythic Championship series, Autumn bested the competition to become the first openly non-binary player to win at that level of competition in the game’s 26-year existence; beating long standing pros including a truly stellar mirror match against future Hall of Fame player Reid Duke.
Their story doesn’t end there — when the fledgling Magic Pro League was found to have both a cheater and an alleged sex pest in its ranks, Autumn was brought on to fill one of the newly opened slots, again becoming a first for non-binary players. Burchett would spend the rest of the MPL season as a fan favorite, earning their way into next year’s MPL as well; and all while never wavering in their identity or determination in asserting as such — most recently by publicly challenging WOTC’s relationship with an artist who’s expressed negative opinions about trans people in the past by writing “NO TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) ON GRUUL TURF” on cards illustrated by the artist and being told that they would need to remove those cards to continue playing and guaranteeing “NO TURFs ON GRUUL TURF a permanent fixture in the MTG community forever.
Recommended Content: Mythic Championship I Semifinals vs. Reid Duke; Mythic Championship I Finals vs. Yoshihiko Ikawa
9. Dan Olsen
It feels disingenuous to call Dan Olsen (who operates under Folding Ideas on YouTube and FoldableHuman on Twitch) a game critic, since he spends only a portion of his detailed and precise critique on games, mostly choosing to talk about pop culture in general. However, his work talking about games this year is some of the best you can find here on Al Gore’s Internet. Whether in his streams, where he’s dedicated himself to speed running 2012’s “game of the year” Amy and featuring truly bad games in a series titled “Charles T. Sadboy’s House of Disappointments” (a name meant to give you a history lesson) or tuning in for well written and educational critiques of all media but games in particular recently; Dan teaches us not just to think about games deeper, but how you might actually do so. By presenting his topic in a straightforward way, designed less as video essays but as lectures, you feel almost compelled to take notes like you’re in a college class no college bothers to offer.
His work is so useful for sharpening your own critical thinking, it’s worth watching his videos even if you’re not interested in the topics at hand — and you might even get a new appreciation for it. This year, Dan explained exactly how Fortnite keeps people coming back to it, what a return to World of Warcraft’s classic state means for long-time players, why a lack of Haunter completely destroys the immersion in the Detective Pikachu film, and more; each video entirely unique to itself and uncaring about pleasing YouTube’s algorithms. Learning can still be fun!
Recommended content: Manufactured Discontent and Fortnite; World of Warcraft Classic and What We Left Behind
8. Brian David Gilbert (& the Polygon video team!)
Polygon’s Brian David Gilbert has been running his “Unraveled” series since last year, but it’s in 2019 that I think it’s broken out of the “Game Theory but hosted by a madman” concept into something entirely unique and bizarre unto itself. It’s not really criticism in any real way, but the series is completely irresistible in the way it uses the innate unreality of games to deliver some top tier humor. Making consistently funny content on a weekly basis like this is hard for even the most talented creator, and when you have to narrow that focus around video games, it’s easy to fall into the trap of just referencing Reddit memes and perpetuating the same material everyone else does. But when it comes to Unraveled, even when it tiptoes to “think the internet already joked about too much,” BDG manages to pivot into something new and consistently hilarious.
That said, as amazing as Brian has been, he’s just one example of the high-quality work being put out by Polygon’s video team on the regular. Not every single video is a comedy but every single one is interesting and put together near perfectly, making it all the better when they are a comedy.
Recommended Content: The Perfect PokéRap; How to tell apart all 596 Fire Emblem Characters
7. Tanya DePass (cypheroftyr) and I Need Diverse Games
Some folks talk a big game, but Cypher plays it. She’s on the grind daily as a diversity advocate both in the video game scene and the TTRPG scene, all while contributing her own content at the same time. She’s also the founder of I Need Diverse Games, a non-profit dedicated to increasing visibility to marginalized creators and their works through online pushes, scholarships, and publishing critique from voices that would otherwise be ignored.
On her own, Cypher is a player in Rivals of Waterdeep, an actual play D&D series on the official Dungeons and Dragons Twitch channel, travels to conventions to run panels and consult on issues of diversity, design and more; revealed this year to be working with Green Ronin Publishing to help bring the N.K. Jemison series The Fifth Season to the TTRPG world, all while running her own Twitch channel and working as a constant advocate online. You might not have seen Cypher’s work, but she’s touching all the corners of the gaming world and chipping away at the barriers put in front of marginalized gamers, helping to create a better medium as she does it.
Oh, and I Need Diverse Games needs help to get into the green for 2020! Consider helping at https://www.patreon.com/INeedDivGms so they can continue the good work!
Recommended Content: www.rivalsofwaterdeep.com; https://www.twitch.tv/cypheroftyr
6. James Stephanie Sterling
Of course, they were going to be on here. The Cassandra of video games themself had one hell of a 2019, watching many of the crows they saw flying in the industry coming to roost. Sterling is often categorized as one of a million angry YouTube boys yelling about video games, but that completely misses basically everything they’re saying. Yes, Sterling’s work is often angry, sometimes comically so, however that anger is always pointed in the direction of those who would exploit this medium for their own gains. In between getting digs at Kingdom Hearts fans and Bethesda’s uncanny ability to trip over its own dick, JSS took deep dives on the history of Randy Pitchford’s bizarre conduct as a CEO, shared stories of mistreatment of employees at Rockstar Games, and shared many heartbreaking stories of people who’s pockets the mainstream games industry can’t keep their hands out of.
JSS chose to take their content in a far more driven direction this year as well — where as in the past he’d only make passing remarks to the political elements that create situations like Epic Games basically buying itself a foothold against Valve in the PC games market, now they’re making sure people know the issues aren’t of good capitalism versus bad capitalism, but of capitalism itself. Their motivations and passions have always been clear, but as gaming continues its march towards the dystopia he’s predicted; his commentary has only become more critical and even more radical.
Recommended Content: The Addictive Cost of Predatory Videogame Monetization; The Epic Brutality of Unchecked Capitalism
5. Can You Pet the Dog?
There was an absolute smorgasbord of good video game critique this year like most years, but in my humble opinion none are as fascinating and damning of this medium as a silly Twitter account and a single question — “Can you pet the dog?” In a year when the design space for games was explored in curious new ways in games like Untitled Goose Game and Sayonara Wild Hearts, it was game criticism’s attempt to do the same, in a funny Twitter meme way by providing a simple yes/no paradigm to all games with animals and creatures in them. At first, that’s what I thought the account was, but a Kotaku interview quickly changed my mind on that:
“I started this account after playing The Division 2 beta and Far Cry: New Dawn in quick succession,” they told Kotaku in a Twitter DM. “The latter has a satisfying dog-petting feature, whereas the former does not. The Division 2 is made worse in this respect because from what I can tell, you can only interact with the dogs in the game by means of violence… Even for a game set in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, that is a needlessly bleak and cruel way to design a neutral creature for your world.”
Once you think about it — something Can You Pet the Dog tries to get you to do — it is particularly weird that this wild and crazy medium where the sky is very literally the limit but most developers and creators don’t even think about what almost all people want to do when they see a dog. Obviously making video games is hard and some things just take more priority, that makes sense. But that just makes we wonder how wrong we’ve all gone if something as natural as petting a dog or cat put in a world to help with immersion isn’t one of those things. Notably though, it seems that Can You Pet the Dog has been successful in its inadvertent quest. More and more games have changed this paradigm, such as Enter the Gungeon, which credits the account for the change directly. The account has also caused others to show more concern for the digital versions of our best friends — when The Last of Us 2 showcased dogs being used in combat, Naughty Dog VP Neil Druckmann had to quickly promise that not only were dogs in combat an optional feature, you would indeed be able to pet the good boys. Finally, Twitter is good for something.
Recommended Content: https://twitter.com/CanYouPetTheDog
4. Scott the Woz
There is only one YouTube gaming channel, and it’s Scott the Woz. Scott’s channel harkens back to a time where gaming commentary was often filled with strange and funny non sequiturs, except Scott has so far managed to avoid the pitfalls that befell most of the pioneers of that style. The specific type of off-brand, almost too weird humor and specific timing he’s mastered has made the channel somewhat algorithm-proof — allowing him the freedom to explore all kinds of topic other gaming channels and publications couldn’t touch. The guy’s done not one, but two videos on Wii Play for crying out loud.
Scott’s not just some young guy making shitpost-y YouTube videos about games, even if it seems that way. He’s basically the only major gaming YouTuber I know of who gave a modicum of a shit about the Wii Shop closure this year, someone who doesn’t postulate some sort of “hardcore” identity (in fact, his Tales from the Backlog series suggests he’s missed out on a good lot of the ‘canon’ of game history), and he may be the best internet personality at doing charity runs when it comes to being upfront and clear about how it all works.
The community has noticed all this as well, when ProJared turned out to be a right ol’ creep this year, his subreddit revolted and converted itself into one for Scott, and that’s not even the first YouTuber that’s happened for. Scott’s videos might not be the most challenging for the medium, but the are challenging the people who consume to reconsider the kind of creators they like, and that’s a huge deal.
Recommended Content: The WiiWare Chronicles Complete Series; The Great Mysteries of Gaming
3̶.̶ ̶C̶e̶c̶i̶l̶i̶a̶ ̶D̶’̶A̶n̶a̶s̶t̶a̶s̶i̶o̶
Memo from 2021:
In lieu of both overwhelming evidence of her mistreatment of sources, particularly chronicled by Nathalie Lawhead and her own attempts to frame such detailed and sourced information as “false,” I’ve made the determination that Cecila’s work cannot be take in full good faith at this point, and as such have revoked this nonsense award in an attempt do ensure none of my work references hers. Instead, consider reading the linked account from Nathalie and this much better piece by Brendan Vance.
2. Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai
Once upon a time, Blizzard was a lot like Valve, a company that built itself such a devoted fanbase that even colossal fuckups could be weathered simply by exchanging out banked goodwill. And then Blitzchung cleaned them out of it.
Blizzard’s completely over the top and unnecessary reaction to the political opinion of a single Hearthstone player did something that Diablo 3, Overwatch’s microtransactions, and allowing the Warcraft movie to release couldn’t — it reminded people that Blizzard is a company. Not just a company, one of the biggest companies in the medium, a tax-dodging, exploitative, and overall uncaring company. Blizzard is just an arm of Activision, a company famous for running IP into the ground, hoarding others from their creators, and laying off people the same day they report record profits to their shareholders. Did I mention the tax-dodging? They do a lot of that.
In briefly standing up for what he believed in, Blitzchung outed Blizzard not only as caring more about their market in China than the well being of one of their best eSports players, but that Blizzard probably doesn’t care about you either. Do you think that Blizzard would have reacted differently if a member of the Overwatch League decided to say “Fuck Trump” during an interview? The punishment of Blitzchung was a revelation that rallied the gaming community in a way I haven’t seen in over a decade, even if some people were only doing so to spread xenophobia, one that forced Blizzard to try their best to guide the conversation away from all things politics; but frankly the damage is done. Blizzard will never be viewed the same again, and that’s for the best.
Recommended Content: https://www.twitch.tv/blitzchung/
1. Harry “H. Bomberguy” Brewis
The world is full of gamers, some of the best are on this list, but only one has been recognized as such by an actual country. Nothing in gaming or elsewhere this year felt as important or moving as the Donkey Kong 64 Nightmare Stream, in which hbomb played a complete run of the titular monkey game and raised money for Mermaids, a UK based charity that provides critical support and resources for young trans people. The fascinating thing about the Nightmare Stream is how unintentional it all was. The idea for the stream came from one of hbomb’s videos that looked at speedrunning culture and what made it so special and cool — working on the video inspired him to finally finish Donkey Kong 64, which he had never been able to as a child. At the time, he didn’t even have a charity in mind.
However, as many of you are aware now thanks to J.K. Rowling talking out of her ass, the UK (in addition to deciding to run itself into the ground) is gripped but a cultural hatred of trans people right now, spurred on by people of influence — to the point where charities like Mermaids have mass reporting done to them to have funding taken away. And let’s be frank — that’s not a problem exclusive to the UK.
That’s what makes the Donkey Kong 64 Nightmare Stream such a joyous and amazing moment. What was just supposed to be a good time for an existing community turned into political action — a show of solidarity the world over with our trans friends and family — a message that we are with them. And what a testament to the power of games that people could rally around something as silly as Donkey Kong 64 for this purpose. The lesson here is clear — not only should we stand in solidarity with the marginalized through action, but that action is quite easy to take and can be in all kinds of forms. Hbomberguy started the stream with a small goal and no expectations and managed to create an act of protest. Imagine what you could do with what you’re passionate about.
When it comes to hbomb specifically, this was only the beginning of a stellar if smaller year for his particular work, and he delivered some of his best critique videos ever this year, every single one of them are worth your time and attention, thoughtful and celebratory of the medium. Gone is the “____ is Terrible and Here’s Why” of his earlier content, choosing instead to focus on larger issues and more fascinating aspects of games and film — almost like the stream changed something about him too. Scotland is right — Harry Brewis is a gamer we should aspire to be like.
Recommended Content: Donkey Kong 64 Nightmare Stream Playlist; Pathologic is Genius, and Here’s Why