Overview
Ben Croshaw was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, in 1983. He goes by the moniker "Yahtzee" in his online videos and posts. He currently lives in Australia. He is known for wearing a trilby hat that he never takes off outside of his own house. In his videos, he is always seen wearing it.
Zero Punctuation
An example of Croshaw's artwork in Zero Punctuation.Zero Punctuation is a weekly online video series published in The Escapist in which Croshaw reviews video games using dark, sarcastic humor. The videos are notable for Croshaw's style of delivery, a fast-talking rapid-fire speech delivery which lends to the humor. During the first videos, Croshaw claimed that he did not "intend" to speak so rapidly, but it happened "by accident" because of his anger on the game. The videos are also famous for their minimalist animation. The images on-screen relate to what is being said, creating Croshaw's trademark humor. He is almost always outright cynical about the reviews, and it has been remarked upon that he becomes more and more critical of games the more hyped they are, as seen in his generally unfair reviews of Metal Gear Solid 4, BioShock, and Halo 3.
Reviews (Name/Date/Description)
Games
Croshaw had become known in gaming circles even before Zero Punctuation for his adventure games, made independently and published on his website. They are all available for free, special editions used to be available in exchange for donations but now he has recently decided to give the special editions away for free as well. Games he has created include the Chzo Mythos, 1213 series, Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment, and Trilby: The Art of Theft.
Webcomics
Yahtzee Takes On The World.Croshaw used to be an avid webcomic author. His work includes Yahtzee Takes On The World, The Adventures Of Angular Mike, and Chris and Trilby. however, since his videos took off, Croshaw has abandoned his comic, and apparently maintains a disdain for tendencies in the gaming webcomics industry, making a Zero Punctuation video about it, and smashing the gaming webcomic Control-Alt-Delete in several blog posts and parts of some of his videos.
It can be argued, however, that his criticisms are not directed at web comics as a whole, as the prior paragraph suggests, but instead criticizing specific comics for not utilizing their medium properly, and using cheap humor with no build up, with Control-Alt-Delete exemplifying this tendency. His criticisms extend toward the many comic writers who, in his opinion, water down and degrade the medium. In the video he even suggests that many of these comics creators are simply trying to cash in on Penny Arcade's success. Some have pointed out that his strong criticisms are disingenuous given that he used to work in the medium himself, but he acknowledges in the video that his criticisms could be considered hypocritical.
What follows is his parody of Control-Alt-Delete, written by him and drawn by his girlfriend:
Game Damage
A parody of Control-Alt-DeleteGame Damage cast (left to right): Yahtzee, Yug, and MattCroshaw and fellow Austrailian gamers Matt Burgess and Guy "Yug" Blomberg, recently debuted a pilot for a new video game related TV show called Game Damage. In it the three talk about recent game releases, provide their own reviews, previews, and perform comedy skits with video game themes. The pilot episode can be seen on the show's website along with a new trailer. The show has now been confirmed to be picked up by an Australian television network, but no one currently knows which.
Novel
MogworldYahtzee has released his debut novel through Dark House Books named Mogworld. According to the official press release:
Mogworld, a comedic fantasy novel with a twist, is the story of Jim, who, sixty years after dying in a magic-school mishap, is wrenched back to life by a renegade necromancer. All Jim wants is to die properly, once and for all - no easy task for a minor character in a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game).
Mana Bar
Yahtzee has recently opened a video gaming bar in Brisbane called " Manabar" which he co-owns with Yug among others. It holds 50 people and Yahtzee shows up every Tuesday to run trivia and Guitar Hero competitions. It can also be booked out for functions. Entry is free with only drinks costing anything. The bar has consoles along the wall which people can pick up and play as they wish. Despite claims by the Australian government that the mixture of video games and alcohol could cause harm, only three glasses have been broken, all being accidental. There has also not been one forceful ejection from the bar. Patrons are not allowed to wear shorts or thongs in the establishment unless part of a cosplay in which case it will usually be allowed.
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