"Pulling a Brad" meme has taken its toll on him

@Ghostiet said:

@FluxWaveZ said:

Ironically, Ryan is like 10 times worse at playing games than Brad and he ain't got a meme.

It's a light-hearted jab, that's all. I'm not counting assholes, of course.

Yeah, maybe, but Ryan doesn't give a fuck and he can take a joke. He is immune to the internet.

I don't know. Brad made plenty of "time of death, add it to the list" jokes. I think he's more frustrated with people who take the joke and instead of laughing begin to insult him. There's plenty of people like there - I fucking hate everyone who uses the "anime is for jerks" line, because most of them treat a joke as ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

Besides, I don't think Brad was EVER as frustrating to watch as Ryan was when playing The Darkness II co-op. Jesus Christ. Not even the Shadow of the Colossus QL was close.

@darthvader300 said:

ahaha

@Beaudacious said:

I resent Brad assuming all the "Pulling a Brad" trolling is summed up by some jealousy for his job.

1. Brad is "bad" at video games, doesn't mean he can't enjoy them, or review them. It does mean he needs to suck it up butter cup when he gets teased. He needs to learn how to embrace this "meme", like the Will Smith cum face.

2. " Pulling a Brad" comments rarely lead to people saying he doesn't deserve his job. Brad can be a great reviewer, and has written some fantastic reviews when he tries. BUT when Brad can't figure out controls, then follows that up by a 40 minute complanathon on a quick look, its hard to respect his opinion or following review. When a game actually has awful controls there is nothing wrong with that, but it seems to happen more often then not for Brad.

I'm pretty sure Will smith has been pretty vocal about how irritated he is by that meme.

Also there are a ton of people who does say that pulling brads means he doesn't deserve his job. Whether they mean it or not, who can tell.

@Jeffsekai said:

Why do they post more on Gaf than on their own goddamn forums...

Now here is a very valid point.

So that's why he's leaving (I know, retarded meme but at least it fits for once in it's miserable life)

The fact he has this anxiety shows that he cares about what he does but getting worried about dieing in a videogame infront of people is a bid crazy imo.

But them not being the world's best videogamers is what makes me love them even more. If Brad can't beat something, then I probably can't and that just makes it even better for me as a form of consumer advice.

For someone who gets paid to play videogames and preview a lot before they get released means that all the haters can go fuck a tree (no offense to any trees here). To err is human, to derr is Brad-- NO! I kid, I kid.

Adam Boyes isn't the only guy outside of the GB crew to quote the meme.

On one hand, the people sincerely bitching about Brad's skill, or lack thereof, take life too seriously. They need a bit of perspective and realize that even though he has been doing it for years it is completely understandable that a guy gets nervous playing a game in front of 3000+ people on the internet. Being bad at playing games in a live stream/QL != being bad at playing games in general. Besides that though, his playing ability should have no impact what so ever on your life. If it does, you need help. Seriously. I'm not fucking around. Go to a therapist and work out your issues.

On the other hand Brad should realize that his job opens him up to any and everyone critiquing him and what he projects to the world via his different mediums. And he should thicken his skin ala Ryan. Take the meme and make it his own like he has already has kind of with the Breaking Brad segments. If he is remembered in the future, it will not be for his lack of public gaming skills. It wont even be a footnote, unless it is in a comedic anthology. He will be remembered for his writing ability, which is superb.

A point to that is his cameo in Indie Game The Movie. In his appearance you see him die at Super Meat Boy a lot, via Lemon Lens. The game's difficulty was the point of the segment, though. It didn't reflect that Brad was bad at the game at all. And, I don't consider it a spoiler, Tommy Refenes says that Brad's QL/review was a high point.

Man I still remember one of my first posts here was commenting on how Brad could improve his Deadly Premonition skills. Looking back at those times is weird, like I'm seeing myself crawling through the wrong end of a luchadeer.

Neogaf is fucking retarded, I sent an 'application' to join months ago, and those ass-holes can't even follow up my email.

@Grissefar said:

Adam Boyes made a joke about 99 lives in World Gone Sour QL, and it felt like he took a giant shit on Brad. When someone from the outside who is not a part of the core tries to make the joke, it really hurts like a motherfucker, I think.

It's a shame, since Brad has actually been more entertaining lately, as has all of them really. He's not been near asleep or on his way to just get the Quick Look over with. So thanks for that, Gamespot. I wonder how long it will be till they return to their usual summer lull.

Someone from the outside who is not a part of the core!? WTF is that ffs the GB community isn't the fucking Freemasons.

Sad that he didn't post that here.

Fuckin' GAF.

@James_Giant_Peach said:

@Grissefar said:

Adam Boyes made a joke about 99 lives in World Gone Sour QL, and it felt like he took a giant shit on Brad. When someone from the outside who is not a part of the core tries to make the joke, it really hurts like a motherfucker, I think.

It's a shame, since Brad has actually been more entertaining lately, as has all of them really. He's not been near asleep or on his way to just get the Quick Look over with. So thanks for that, Gamespot. I wonder how long it will be till they return to their usual summer lull.

Someone from the outside who is not a part of the core!? WTF is that ffs the GB community isn't the fucking Freemasons.

I think Adam Boyes is pretty tight with the dudes.

@artgarcrunkle said:

All those guys have been terrible at games on camera but Brad is the only one who gets defensive and won't roll with the punches. Gosh I wonder if that has anything to do with people fucking with him.

Yeah the last TNT was just a 2 hour Gerstmann Suck fest.

Oh god, what did I just type.

No one gets mad at the staff being bad at games, until the staff uses their own badness to demonstrate why the game is bad.

I think it was some top down racer, Brad kept going the wrong way or driving full throttle into a wall. And then I went "but he said he S-Ranked Arkham twice, and that isn't simple". So either his skills are super specific, or yeah, he just loses all left-side brain functions on camera. Which is amusing to watch anyway.

I consider myself slightly above average when it comes to video games. By definition the majority of gamers fall in the slightly below to slightly above average and I am actually glad that there are reviewers that aren't elite gamers because obviously their perspective is different from the majority.

You mean internet bullies are finally getting to Brad? Gee, what a surprise.

I've given Brad some shit on some of his videos, but some people revel in their ability to post anything. I'd be happy if the moderators took greater liberties with banning/suspending people who qualify as 'total assholes'.

@Beaudacious said:

I really like Brad as a person, but I've grown to dislike his work. On the other side i fucking despise Alex Navaro as a person to the extent that i would probably be moved to leave a mutual room, but i really like his content and reviews.

I don't get this. How could you possibly "despise" Alex as a person? You don't even know him. If you don't like someone's writing, fine. But how can you say someone is a shitty person when you know literally nothing about them?

@Gizmo: You sound bitter.

@Brodehouse said:

No one gets mad at the staff being bad at games, until the staff uses their own badness to demonstrate why the game is bad. I think it was some top down racer, Brad kept going the wrong way or driving full throttle into a wall. And then I went "but he said he S-Ranked Arkham twice, and that isn't simple". So either his skills are super specific, or yeah, he just loses all left-side brain functions on camera. Which is amusing to watch anyway.

Plus I personally can't believe a guy who makes a habit of blaming games for his own badness would provide an accurate representation of a games quality in reviews or whatever.

I've never thought much of it because like Brad my skills instantly seem to drop once someone's watching - and I mean one person not a thousand.

Shoemaker's a boss. Best reviewer in the biz as far as I'm concerned, and has been for a long time.

@gbrading: 100% Agree.

i find the whole thing really funny and endearing, i just feel a little sorry for him and angry at the people who question his integrity and ability to review games

My biggest issue with Brad in Quick Looks and stuff isn't that he screws ups, it's that he gets defensive about screwing up. It just brings more attention to it and ruins the flow of things. Occasionally he'll even try to blame the game for his failure, which in some cases is justifiable, but just as often it's his own fault. The rest of the crew makes plenty of dumb mistakes, but they can all roll with it better than Brad. As a result, I generally find his videos to be the least enjoyable. It's pretty clear that he has anxiety issues that feed into the problem, and I don't know what the proper way to deal with that is. Regardless, I'm not going to soften my opinion because of it. He's a public persona and a grown man, it's his prerogative, not ours.

Why do they post more on Gaf than on their own goddamn forums...

@Jimbo said:

Or, you know, blame whoever it is that keeps assigning the employee with crippling stage fright to 'on stage' duty. Brad is by far GB's best writer and -oddly- their best interviewer (I guess it's a prep thing). QLs and other chucklehead 'personality' content clearly doesn't suit him, it rarely turns out well when he has to do it and he's wasted on it anyway. All the time he spends playing games (badly, apparently) in front of a camera could probably be better spent writing something worth reading.

There's a big difference between 'dying a few times on camera' and 'crippling stage fright'. I'm pretty sure Brad doesn't suffer from the latter.

Brad is one of my favourite members of the bombsquad and I have to say recently Ryan seems to be getting stuck or lost in games. Also everyone dies or gets stuck on a obvious puzzle in games, it's just nobody is recording us doing it

Maybe this has been brought up, but didn't someone chart out the amount of deaths in qls and ql appearances.. and brads chance of death was a lot lower than Jeff and Ryan?  I'd look for it but I have to leave for work :x  I always enjoy brad in qls and videos in general. 

Ryan is the most frustrating one to watch for sure, but he realizes how much he misses things by not paying attention and comments on it. His hubris prevented me from quitting the Chrono Trigger ER early.

Brad should watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ko1pS9LeTg - Fearless Performance

I know it's none of my business, but what was the rest of the thread like?

Also, I love Brad.

Shock horror, the guy finds it hard to play games and talk at the same time, what is this world coming to? Next you'll all be saying he can't Skii down a mountain, while maintaining a 2 set lead on Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the French Open. (Yes, identicaly perfect comparison).

Brad sucks at games and I deserve his job of writing expertly crafted reviews, two things that have very little to do with each other...

@Marokai said:

@Jeffsekai said:

Why do they post more on Gaf than on their own goddamn forums...

This is probably the more notable thing about this whole ordeal. As if it weren't clear enough that they've drifted away from their own community already.

if I were them I wouldn't want to post on the GB forums either, it can be an echo chamber at times where another forum might not be.

It's not his constant nervous dying in quicklook's that troubles me, it's his lack of knowledge regarding pc games. Like when stalker is too hard and he doesn't get it. Or when he confuses dungeon keeper with dungeon siege because he doesn't know what either of them are.

These things bother me, but I take brad for who he is; a console video game journalist - and a pretty damn good one in my opinion. As far as well written, well communicated reviews, Brad is the top of the pile.

@Animasta said:

@Marokai said:

@Jeffsekai said:

Why do they post more on Gaf than on their own goddamn forums...

This is probably the more notable thing about this whole ordeal. As if it weren't clear enough that they've drifted away from their own community already.

if I were them I wouldn't want to post on the GB forums either, it can be an echo chamber at times where another forum might not be.

Indeed. It's like Jeff has said about GAF before: it's kind of the one big neutral territory we have about video game discussion of all sorts within the industry. No developer, publisher, or other formal entity holds any sway over its inner-workings and, by extension, the way its community is expected to think and act. It's not like the staff doesn't enjoy posting to these forums (they tend to just do it in surprising places), but especially when bringing up an issue like Brad's, it's not like having a discussion about it with a community that has the very people perpetuating it is going to be a fruitful endeavor, either. I know when I want to vent about an ongoing problem with, say, a professor or a good friend, I'm likely to not feel comfortable about openly talking about it until I'm somewhere that isn't related to the issue.

At least he doesn't have a fun face meme

Lol stupid autocorrect turned cum to fun.

Heh. Memes are for simple folk who don't understand jokes, or just suck at contributing. As soon as something becomes a meme, you know it's worn it's welcome. If anything, "pulling a Brad" could be referring to whinging for hours to get your way ;)

Never understood the "skill" criticism. Skill has nothing to do with silly unprofessional things like skipping instructions and then criticising the gameplay. Besides, I generally skip his QLs now so I'm not concerned over his 'elite MLG gaming skillz duder <>'.

It's hard to take him seriously because I don't much care for his attitude towards things he clearly doesn't understand. For a guy who appears intelligent enough, you'd expect some semblance of patience and understanding but he has all the attitude of a spoiled child. I do enjoy his writing style, though. Probably my favourite writer on the site, after Jeff and Alex, if only he would write more outside of reviews and bitter sounding PMs.

@sofacitysweetheart said:

Heh. Memes are for simple folk who don't understand jokes, or just suck at contributing.

Of all the things to be pretentious about, you choose internet humor? Good god, Lemon.

@Milkman said:

@Beaudacious said:

I really like Brad as a person, but I've grown to dislike his work. On the other side i fucking despise Alex Navaro as a person to the extent that i would probably be moved to leave a mutual room, but i really like his content and reviews.

I don't get this. How could you possibly "despise" Alex as a person? You don't even know him. If you don't like someone's writing, fine. But how can you say someone is a shitty person when you know literally nothing about them?

I don't get how people get this mentality. It's one thing to not like a persons work, but to despise someone you've never met? Just seems odd.

Also definitely agree that Ryan seems the worst. And you know what? That's fine. Who cares really?

@Meowshi said:

@sofacitysweetheart said:

Heh. Memes are for simple folk who don't understand jokes, or just suck at contributing.

Of all the things to be pretentious about, you choose internet humor? Good god, Lemon.

This coming from the person being pretentious about being pretentious. Nice work. That's quite a hole you've dug yourself.

I Believe In Brad and you should too!

@Rowr said:

It's not his constant nervous dying in quicklook's that troubles me, it's his lack of knowledge regarding pc games. Like when stalker is too hard and he doesn't get it. Or when he confuses dungeon keeper with dungeon siege because he doesn't know what either of them are.

These things bother me, but I take brad for who he is; a console video game journalist - and a pretty damn good one in my opinion. As far as well written, well communicated reviews, Brad is the top of the pile.

I think all gaming journos do this though. Not fair to single out Brad for this. It's hard to remember every single detail of every single game, especially knowing that the internet is waiting to jump down your throat at the slightest mistake.

Also I've noticed a bit of Alex hate in this thread. What's the deal with that anyways?

This is what anyone with any amount of emotional intelligence knows, and it's why I think very little of this community,

I never knew he got people claiming they don't trust his reviews and shit, that's dumb. I thought our community was better than that. Even if Brad was the worst player of video games ever that doesn't mean he couldn't give great insight on games (as he does).

Plus, not only do I sometimes suck sometimes, but I had the pleasure of playing Steel Battalion in front of people from Capcom, Microsoft, some work friends, and cameras. It was a terrifying experience and when the game wasn't reacting how I wanted it to I got really frustrated and made more mistakes and was turning all red and shit.

@Video_Game_King said:

@ryanrulez said:

Hopefully he doesn't CHOKE playing Doom II then...

@darthvader300 said:

ahaha

The juxtaposition of these posts could not be any better.

Today you earn your crown...

@sofacitysweetheart said:

@Meowshi said:

@sofacitysweetheart said:

Heh. Memes are for simple folk who don't understand jokes, or just suck at contributing.

Of all the things to be pretentious about, you choose internet humor? Good god, Lemon.

This coming from the person being pretentious about being pretentious. Nice work. That's quite a hole you've dug yourself.

BRAD! we love you. 'pulling a brad' is meant in jest, and who cares which times you're great and not so great at any game.