What's the consensus on Spoony's Counter Monkey series? Is there anything there worth listening to, or is just a has-been stroking himself off?

>>95980408 (OP)
He represented a snapshot of a particular time in gaming, and the videos were an engaging way to hear tales of that time (a time I remember fondly).
The advice he gave is 90% obvious and/or superseded now. The object lesson of his Vampire LARP (for example) is irrelevant because LARPS now have a very different vibe with very different problems.
But at the base of it: if you enjoying hearing him then listen. If not, there's no shortage of alternatives.

>>95980408 (OP)
It's a pretty good series, I've been listening to it again for the past couple days.

>>95980408 (OP)
Youtube videos are good for demonstrating practical skills. If you are looking for information? Read a fuckin book.

Either that's the consensus or the consensus is wrong. You are welcome.

Shit for losers and only losers.
Rotten to begin with, and age hasn't been kind to it either.

>>95980408 (OP)
I mean, at the time he was making those videos he was at the highest point he's be, so it isn't really a hasbeen stroking himself off whether you like them or not. It's just a dude tellin' war stories. Some of them are fun, some are dumb, some have good morsels of advice you can tease out.

>>95980408 (OP)
One of the first to do it from a far more sincere time on the internet which compared to now where every ttrpg "influencer" is basically a hasbro bootlicker. His advice was pretty basic stuff but the real gold came from his game stories that every seasoned DM has. Spoony was a trailblazer and could of set himself up pretty nice when the big D&D boom happened but unfortunately he burned out right before it happened.
>>95980568
You sound really salty. Are you still mad he stole your patreon money and didnt make the Spoony movie anon?

>>95980408 (OP)
His videos about his Thieves' World game got me into those book, so that alone is worth the price of admission. Those videos are still my favorite ones. That campaign sounded like a fuckin' hoot.

>>95980408 (OP)
Zoomer here, it's what got me into TTRPGs. I still think those videos are fun and it's a damn shame Spoony's too fucked in the head to make new videos, 100% the best TGWTG member (although that's a pretty low bar).

>>95980872
Jesus, how old were you when you started watching Spoony? I was a teen when i started and I'm a millennial.

>>95980746
>compared to now where every ttrpg "influencer" is basically a hasbro bootlicker
how are you posting from 2018?? in current year, most ttrpg creators looooove to bash on 'le dnd' or the hasbro boogeyman and then shill their preferred/personal rpg game that is TOTALLY NOT d&d

>>95980886
I think I was 12 when I first watched him, might be off by one year. I was allowed to see the first Highlander movie around that time and I wanted to see if there were any videos on youtube about the movie (really liked watching reviews of stuff I'd already seen) and ended up watching as much as possible. Ended up finding his counter monkey channel a bit later. This would be around 2014, but my memory is fuzzy as to what I was watching and when I was watching it.

>>95980889
Hey the OGL debacle happened in 2023 so fuck you! In all seriousness you are correct but its still the same shit. They are all just fucking shills for either hasbro or some random assholes heartbreaker. Spoony despite his many, many problems at least seemed to have passion and the balls to shout to the heavens how shit your game is.

>>95980925
Respect but man did your parents not give a fuck what you watched on the internet lmao!

>>95980453
Correct.
It's a lovely little time capsule that's bitter sweet to look back on.

>>95980408 (OP)
That you should buy an ad, instead of making those forced threads

>>95981155
What the fuck are you on about? Spoony has been defunct for years retard.

I find that your enjoyment of him is incredibly dependent if you watched him when you were young.

>>95980408 (OP)
Most of his advice are really just common sense stuff, but some of his war stories are genuinely amusing, specifically the Thieves' World game he ran. But beyond that, I'd say the biggest hurdle to enjoying these videos is Spoony's tendency to be completely up his own ass when it comes to his skill as a DM and a player.

>>95981207
>I find that your enjoyment of him is incredibly dependent if you watched him when you were young.

I disagree. I think a 60 year old grog who's never heard of Spoony would still enjoy his early videos. Not because he offers good advice or that he's someone you'd want to actual game with in person, but because he was the platonic ideal of the Nerd. Unapologetically enthusiastic about ttrpg's in a way that no modern creators are. Modern creators are either girls latching on to simps, or slick production values, or numales ever so careful not to say the wrong thing, or generic dorks doing top 10 lists supplicating to the algorithm for another hundred views. None of them are pure dork like Spoony was because the algo would bury them and zoomie viewers love their spoon-fed [sic] pablum.

>>95981541
Him being more earnest than modern creators is no guarantee that someone would like him. They might dislike him LESS than other creators, but something being better than the alternatives doesn’t force it into being to your taste, and your argument for why someone would like him is entirely predicated on comparing him to alternatives.

>>95980408 (OP)
I only knew him from the dumb 5e "my book smells funny" meme.

>>95981207
Nah im mid 30s and i still enjoy his old videos and ive pretty much bounced off of every creator i enjoyed since then.
>>95981541
God he looked like such a mess there. Im glad he is doing better and looking after himself now.
>>95981642
Maybe he could smell the dogshit rules within?

>>95981541
I still fondly remember his 'wave your freak flag' post.
>Yeah I'm going to talk shit about how Final Fantasy is trash, but I can do that because I've played it. I'm not going to let some fuckhead carpetbagger drop in and moralize all over you while wagging his finger about what losers you are
>You are not losers for trying to find other people that also enjoy the things you do
Spoony had Heart.

>>95980408 (OP)
He's definitely got the charisma to carry it, not all his takes are the best but he articulated everything well and is an entertaining listen.

His main issues were around early Internet drama and latterly not putting in effort, neither of which matter that much for viewing archived videos.

Pretty good entry point for RPG mindset in general.
>>95980872
Nah I'd give best member to Brad. Spoony was fun though, but awful to be around from everything out there.

>>95983576
Oh yeah, forgot about him. You're probably right, but I will always have a sense of nostalgia for spoony. I always did feel that Brad was one of the least shitty people who worked there.

Its sad really. He basically had a complete social meltdown when he was just hitting that higher level of content creation. His Ultima series was amazing but the hang ups with his ex and total implosion of his friend group from tgwtgs fucked him up. I remember he used to stream a fun D&D campaign with a couple members and it began to die as soon as Linkara joined lol. They all apparently had a big falling out during the campaign which led to the Lordkat bitchfit.

>>95983576
>Nah I'd give best member to Brad
Honestly, Brad & NC are the only two who I've still got respect for.
Brad is still doing his thing and never got involved in drama and think he's great or think he's shit, Nostalgia Critic has put out a video every week for years.
You could set your clock by him and that takes work ethic.

>>95983401
>charisma
What. He's an ugly little gremlin with dumb ideas and opinions who can barely speak. He has below average charisma and is nothing more than an early e-celeb who somehow found fans with even lower charisma.

>>95983668
>hang ups with his ex
That hair does imply a degree of drama, though I can also see a couple reasons why a weak minded guy might not heed the warnings.

>>95983840
You dont need to be good looking to have charisma. Plenty of ugly bastardos bag moderately attractive woman all the time. I know this because ive looked in the mirror.

>>95983850
Brother im not even talking about that one.

>>95983869
>Plenty of ugly bastardos bag moderately attractive woman all the time.
Bagging women is not a pure measure of charisma.

>>95983869
>Brother im not even talking about that one.
It got worse?

>>95980408 (OP)
Counter Monkey was great, still hit up those videos from time to time. If anyone knows of a creator that does videos, podcasts, etc as good or better than him, please let me know.

If you'e an older Millennial or Gen-X'er, you'll be taken back to a time where playing TTRPGs was like being in a secret society with a bizarre social stigma that forced you to be cryptic about your interests at school or home, even post Satanic-Panic.

His Ultima retrospectives have been eclipsed by more ambitious, factually accurate videos with a higher signal to noise ratio, but it doesn't really matter nearly as much because all of his videos have the ineffable quality of him actually *being* there, of time and place which no amount of factually accurate information produced by clinical precision can replicate.

>captcha

SS0YY

>spoony
>current year
What do you think?
#JuanButNotForgotten

They were the best of times, and the worst of times.
Early enough in the internet where just being a real nerd with a camera, slight charisma, and the fresh canvas that was comedy skit reviews made you watched.
There was a genuine desire to just, create not make a paycheck that made early Spoony (and by extension all of TGWTG) some of the best material on the internet at the time.
But with all nerds with massive egos and 0 skills, their infighting and autism ruined most all of them. Lets not even talk about how most none of them upped production values during tenure and they just...died off. I think only Doug, Lindsay, and Todd have any 2025 relevance on the internet now.
But I will remember them all and sometimes go back to my favorites. Countermonkey definitely gets me in the mood for traditional games.
Pic related, one of my prized possesions.

>>95984007
Pic related was his first gf, and her breaking up with him really fucked him up, but at least we got the absolute kino that was Spoony trying to review a Twilight movie completely shitfaced while Linkara's meekly trying to tell him to ease up on the booze.

I'm over 30 and i don't even know who that faggot is

>>95984007
The legend goes that during the filming of one of those hotel room reviews with all the reviewers and one hotel. Somehow spoonie and nostalgia chick had a drunken hookup one night stand. Later nostalgia chick told spoonie that she aborted his child after the fact. Understandably that would fuck anyone up.

>>95985219
Thank God i never touched a nintendo product in my life. It fucks you up permanently

>>95980889
>Shitting on Shitfinder 2e
Based

>>95980961
NTA but my parents had me when they were in their 30s so by the time I was a teen, they were 40 and didn't have that same energy to constantly police me. Especially when I actually needed the computer for school. Best they could do was limit my computer time.

>>95985219
I'm 28 and found him when I was 12. I thought the Yor's World review was hilarious.

Man shame he got burnt on booze and depression. Man sacrificed some of his sanity for Kickassia

>>95980408 (OP)
I find Spoony a fascinating character and I greatly lament his fall. Counter Monkey was at times pretty great, but I must admit that his style of gaming is very different from my own so not too much was applicable to my own experience. I did enjoy listening to it though.

>>95991234
I sacrificed some of my sanity watching Kickassia.

>>95991234
>>95991374
Suburban Knights was the peak.

>>95992911
this anon knows whats up

>>95991073
YORS WORLD HES THE MAN!!!

>>95984702
>I think only Doug, Lindsay, and Todd have any 2025 relevance on the internet now.
Angry Joe still have a solid following. Linkara is still relevant as a meme if anything, with new nerds making fun of old AT4W episodes and stuff like his old webcomics. Brad is still doing the Cinema Snob thing and has a kid now too.

>>95980408 (OP)
>What's the consensus
Buy an actual ad, rather than keep spamming /tg/ wiith those "what's consensus on Spoony"
Literally the ONLY reason I know some e-celeb exists is fags like you spamming about them.

I like listening to it, that's all.

>>95999831
Okay but have you thought of putting in an actual janny application instead of making melty posts like this?

>>95999831
My favorite genre of post is guys who somehow never heard of shit that's older than some of the posters here, and think it's some new thing being shilled even if it fell out of relevance a decade ago

>>95980453

>Surely not this many people have this much to talk about spoony
>its bumpfag

>>96002745
The best counter monkey thread was the one where everyone listed and discussed all the best episodes and which ones were the essentials.
But you can only do that thread once before it becomes pure repetitious autism like the necromancy or alignment threads.

>>96003073
I wasn't there the last time, so I'll just mention his watergun weapons race in cyberpunk story where all the people involved just decided that squirting neuro-paralyptic serums at one another was the peak of urban warfare.

>>95980408 (OP)
>tell me what to think because I am to scared to have an opinion.

>>95980408 (OP)
It's worth checking out as a piece of history. Hobby adjacent e-celebs of varying quality are dime a dozen nowadays, Spoony was one of the pioneers back when it was new and with the power of hindsight you can see how his act shaped the business as a whole.

>>95980408 (OP)
Hell of a story about mental health

>>95980408 (OP)
What's he going to do when Trump's no longer president?
Will he just stop tweeting?

>>96009184
Same thing people did when Biden stopped being president
Continue talking about Biden

>>96009184
Bitch, moan, and complain like he did last time. Like many of /tg/ I want to wish the best for him, but everything he does is just massively unhealthy and he needs to break the pattern, delete his social media accounts, and move on with his life. However, too much of his life and success is directly related to social media and his job history is bad at best so he's in a bad spot with how important social media is to his experiences. I really hope this doesn't end in suicide or homelessness for the guy, but it feels like a slow decline into either

>>96010004
>Bitch, moan, and complain like he did last time. Like many of /tg/ I want to wish the best for him, but everything he does is just massively unhealthy and he needs to break the pattern, delete his social media accounts, and move on with his life. However, too much of his life and success is directly related to social media and his job history is bad at best so he's in a bad spot with how important social media is to his experiences. I really hope this doesn't end in suicide or homelessness for the guy, but it feels like a slow decline into either
He's completely fucked. The odds of someone like him turning it around at 45 is ZERO. He's lazy and mentally ill and isn't qualified to do anything but stock shelves, which he considers beneath him. I don't know if he's on disability, but in the UK something incredible like 20% of all adults are on "disability". He needs a true hard reset but there's nothing I can even suggest. He can't join the military. He can't start a new career path. Of course he can take a menial job but he won't, and even if he did, he'd never be able to save a dime toward retirement.

>>96010216
I've heard several times that in entertainment, the number one skill is simply having people like you. You will get jobs if they can stand being around you every day for 6 months. Of course there are also DEI hires but that ain't helping Spoony. He's extremely arrogant, can't take criticism, and you can tell he's insufferable when he thinks he thinks he has even the slightest upper hand. Of course he's at the bottom of the barrel right now and presumably has been utterly humbled. But if someone gave him a writing job out of pity, I bet within two weeks he wouldn't be able to prevent the arrogance from reemerging.

>>96010216
I know he's fucked. I know he's probably destined for failure, but dammit I need to hope for a happy ending. Not because I liked his content, but because I want to believe in the myth that anyone can achieve contentedness if they work for it. Also, how did you reply and copy all of the post and the spoilers? Also US so massively different rules, but despite being an autist I don't know them.

>>96010236
Except he was never in the actual entertainment business. He was a youtuber before it made money. He is a bad actor that only a B film would take on for the e-celeb notoriety and without the range and notoriety that a larger picture would risk hiring for anything but a minor role. He's fucked, I know he's fucked, but I still hope he lands on his feet and makes it out okay like I do for most people

>>96010216
You know when it's too late to turn things around? When you're dead. My grandmother got into painting at 80-something. She's now winning small art contests and enjoying herself. I'm doing a career pivot at 40, from IT into biotech.

>>96002416
And it's actually extra effort here to miss it.

>>96010312
Admittedly your grandma has more life experiences to pull from than any of her competition, but it's beautiful to hear. Tell her she's a wonderful person and helping spread joy. Also tell her her local school desperately needs her expertise. Not a joke, they all desperately need volunteers as most budgets are fucked beyond belief. T. my mom is a kindergarten teacher and I occasionally visit and help out.

>>96010365
Nah he hit the nail on the head

>>95980408 (OP)
His L5R video strikes a weird chord with me.
Yeah, his friend roped into playing and he died immediately in PVP caused by a settings-based argument that he wouldn't know anything about because his friend didn't make him read the book, but as a DM I'd probably have just had Spoony swap out the katana to something else just to avoid killing a PC who was sitting in on a game as a favor.

>>96005355
Thieves world is the best for me. That campaign sounded hilarious to be at the table.

>>96010216
He literally just needs to turn on the camera and start talking again. Alot of his old fans would come back and he can start growing again from there.

>>96005355
i think that was Shadowrun rather than Cyberpunk but it has been over a decade since i saw that episode so i could be completely wrong

>>96005355
>>96011723
Fuck that was him? I think about that war story like once every 6 months

>>96011642
It's a real story of a DM just rolling with it
>I hurl a jar of acid at the door!
9 words to Henderson an entire campaign.

>>95980408 (OP)
It's entertainment. Listen to it if you want to hear funny stories. Do not expect to learn anything. If you don't enjoy it, stop watching.

>>96011723
It was Shadowrun.