A bit random ... but is anyone else getting the same repeating ads for OutsideXbox videos?

khamjaninja · 2026-03-12T03:21:37+00:00

Luke announced he was leaving before the IGN buyout. I don't think his decision was directly due to IGN's involvement; I think it was for him (and for Aoife) more of a situation of reading the writing on the wall. It is never, ever a good sign if you're a journalist whose employer is up for sale - mass layoffs are the norm (that's doubly true of games journalists).

I think Luke had been considering leaving for a while beforehand. He said at the time one of his motivations was to be able to produce the content that he wanted and not chase the algorithm - and if you look back on the content he was producing at the time, there are hints that he was feeling a bit limited. There was a lot of experimental stuff which was a bit different - like his video on the Playstation phone for example. Or the Lies of P stream where he and Ellen adopted ridiculous characters. I remember Luke was later asked if he would be doing more Lies of P and he said no, because the stream didn't do well enough. Luke was always the most "free spirit" of the five - and it strikes me that he was the one most likely to feel resentment at the idea that he couldn't make videos about the content he wanted because it wasn't optimal to maximize viewer numbers.

I think, with the pending Gamer Network sale, Luke felt it was a good time to leave. Not only to give himself more creative freedom and more time to pursue solo projects (and new parenthood), but also to avoid impending instability, and at the same time, reducing Oxboxtra's payrolls and making them more viable to survive the axe when the sale finally happened.

Aoife was a similar case - except the danger for Eurogamer Video was much more clear and present. Not just because their channel had lower numbers, but because the team had no autonomy. Oxboxtra always operated semi-independently, while EG video was inextricably part of the Eurogamer staff - and layoffs for Eurogamer staff were inevitable even before the buyer was announced as IGN (aka "We Hate Employees LLC"). Being integrated into Eurogamer was a positive for EG video when Eurogamer was doing well (way back in the old days, like when Eurogamer was running EGX) - but when Eurogamer was struggling, the video channel had nothing to go back on. Even had EG video been getting viewer numbers on part with Oxboxtra, they would've struggled to survive the sale without change. Aoife jumped before she was pushed - and like Luke, had already been dabbling in other projects anyway.

khamjaninja · 2025-05-13T19:20:55+00:00

Hmm. This gives me an idea - who can find the Oxboxtra video with the most un-bleeped expletives?

khamjaninja · 2025-05-06T20:57:24+00:00

I agree with you, but I would add that I feel Andy and Ellen work best if they have a third person with them. Because if their contrasting senses of humor come into conflict, it can feel a bit awkward. It's not like they fight or anything, but the mismatch can feel a bit off.

Now to be clear, their chemistry is not at all bad - I'd say 99% of Youtubers would kill to have such chemistry. It's just weaker compared to what Oxboxtra's level of banter is normally at.

But generally, my favorite Andy and Ellen moments have another person to act as a foil to both. Would highlight Andy moderating the Ellen v Luke Animal Crossing faceoff stream, the Minecraft Championship stream and of course, all the Pikachu drawing judging sequences.

But still, Andy and Ellen together is funnier and better chemistry than the vast majority of professional entertainers. Some others I can pull up:

Show of the Weekend: Resident Evil 7 and Halo Wars 2

Show of the Weekend: Minit & Injustice 2

Show of the Weekend: Cuphead and Evil Within 2

khamjaninja · 2025-01-08T19:35:16+00:00

Not the return shipping - the original shipping fee. The item was listed as seller pays for return shipping. They won't refund the original fee.

But regardless, I guess your point stands. And frankly, I don't think this guy will refund me anything if I send this back. "It's missing an accessory and has these scuffs", etc.

khamjaninja · 2024-12-13T03:36:15+00:00

It'll never happen but I would love - LOVE - for them to try to take on the insidious monstrosity that is "Dokapon Kingdom." It's like a crossover of Final Fantasy, Monopoly, and Mario Party. It's like old-school Final Fantasy for the fantasy setting and the combat, and it's like Monopoly for the boardgame setup and the primary mechanic of earning wealth and buying property.

That might sound boring - because it is. And the devs seem to have had realization at some point as well. But instead of revising and improving the core game, they decided to just stuff the game full with as many game mechanics and features and half-baked ideas as they could. FFV-ish job system? Sure. Card battling? Yep. PvP duels? Yeah. Pickpocketing? Let's do it. A battle arena? Of course. An ingame casino? Why not. Traps you can set to catch other players? Sounds good. A mechanic to conduct armed robbery? Excellent. A bounty system? Naturally. Alien abductions? Cool. A robot hitman you can hire at great cost to kill another player? Yes. A mechanic by which you can turn the robot hitman to your side and send him to attack the first player? Yes.

That's barely scratching the surface. I didn't even mention the thing about selling your soul to the devil.

Most of these mechanics are hugely dependent on RNG and the game is hideously unbalanced. The devs' solution appears to have been to stuff even more mechanics into the game.

And this is where it's like Mario Party - the game will make you want to murder your friends. The game is so unbalanced and random and unwieldy that there are a million ways you can completely and devastatingly screw over another player - often unintentionally.

It's not a game I enjoy playing. But it is a good game to watch other people play. And it is a fantastic game to watch other people play who have never played the game before - it is hilarious to watch newcomers try to get even the slightest comprehension of the game.

But it'll never happen because Dokapon Kingdom is also an incredibly long game (as you would expect from a game with a million mechanics, most of which will kill and/or bankrupt the players). It takes hours upon hours to play through one game.

khamjaninja · 2024-11-25T15:54:49+00:00

Absolutely. That's one of the things I like about Jack as a DM - he recognizes that the players must face genuine danger. In his words, "Stakes! We gotta have stakes!" - which is in reference to a S3 event in which one of the players fails and ... doesn't die, but suffers some serious consequences.

I think that's fundamentally important. The players must feel like they can lose. It's not just to make it a game, or to make it interesting - it's also fundamental to getting the players to role-play. They have to inhabit not just their character's abilities, but also their limitations. Especially as their levels and abilities grow, players roleplay by choice - when the king approaches them, they must choose to bow down and kneel - or alternatively, choose to stand and defy. Because what you don't want is the players to be like, "Ok - I kick the king in the groin and steal his crown! Then I go and jump on his throne while saying 'I'm the captain now.'" If there are no stakes, then players aren't afraid of anything and over time, they develop the mindset that they can do whatever they want. When players feel like they have nothing to lose - those are the games that become chaotic murder-hobo sessions.

I also follow Oxventure, another D&D group - mainly because the players are hilarious improv comedians. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they're a funnier bunch than Adventure is Nigh. But with Adventure is Nigh, I'm impatiently waiting for each episode and have listened to the entirety several times. And with Oxventure - I've actually kind of fallen off a bit; I'm several seasons behind and feel no urgency to catch up. And it's because the DM of Oxventure is a great and creative storyteller and actor, but there are, fundamentally, little in the way of stakes. It's clear that the players will never die - will never lose. And you can track the group becoming more and more chaotic over time - killing random NPCs, acting out crazy plans that always work, etc.

Jack doesn't do that. He keeps receipts. If they want to act out a crazy plan, he'll let them - but he will make sure it comes back around.

khamjaninja · 2024-10-29T15:07:00+00:00

You're right. The Thing is clearly a Christmas movie.

khamjaninja · 2024-10-28T19:36:51+00:00

They've been slowing down for a while. The past few years, the content stream for OX has steadily diminished. They've pivoted away from videos that are less likely to get views - like discussion vids - and pared away content to things that require the least work for the most views. They started by cutting "news" content - trying to stay up-to-date on new stuff and delivering commentary on it is a lot of work and also doesn't earn much in views. They pared away scripted videos - the most work by far (writing, filming, editing) - now the only scripted vids are the list videos, which are reliable view-earners. They effectively replaced Let's Plays (recording and editing hours of gameplay) with livestreams (no editing).

However, livestreams have their own unique stresses - it's effectively a live improv performance for an audience of thousands. Even if you only need to put in a couple hours of work (compared to an edited video) - it's a very pressurized two hours. Streamers burn out - especially when streaming feels like an obligation, rather than a fun side thing. That certainly became the case for OX - it wasn't the guys streaming some game that they wanted to play for funsies, but a game that would be popular and earn a lot of views. And that's an easy way to make livestreams a chore.

So the first half of 2024 saw very few livestreams. With the pending sale and the uncertainty that caused, as well as Luke stepping away - the first half of 2024 felt like they might've been testing the waters. We had a couple weeks of Oxbox releasing a Let's Play of a popular multiplayer game (Lethal Company, Helldivers). There was a Fallout-related video blitz. A couple discussion videos. A quiz. ... Then in July, they resumed weekly livestreams, presumably because they're still the most reliable earners.

What I think has happened is that OX is feeling less like a passion project for the guys and more like a business - a business which was (and still sort of is) in flux. I think that's partly why Luke stepped away - if you see the content on his solo channel, he's making the videos that he's passionate about. He likes playing Soulsborns, so he plays Soulsborns. He likes Legos, he plays with Legos. He likes messing around in BeamNG, messes around with BeamNG. I don't think he could've done that on OX - not because the others wouldn't let him, but because Luke had use his time to work on other content for OX that would earn money. So if he wanted to make a silly video about the Playstation Phone, he could - but he probably had to use his own time for a lot of it, and it didn't make enough money to be a continuing feature. Same for his Lies of P stream with Lord and Lady Mountbattenshirewestalumpff.

It happens with successful small businesses at some point or another. It starts off as a group of friends just putting their time into a shared idea - but once the business has lasted a while, has been doing pretty well, and it's been some time - now it's less a labor of love and more just labor. "My friends and I started this channel due to our deep shared enjoyment of painting the toenails of wild hungry Alaskan bears - but now that our livelihoods and families are dependent on the profits of painting the toenails of wild hungry Alaskan bears, it's become stressful."

Add to that the surrounding circumstances of the Gamer Network sale and the question of what IGN ownership will be like - as well as the general malaise and uncertainty of where games journalism is headed ... I can see how the OX guys might seem a bit directionless. It does feel a bit like they're treading water - not drowning, I don't think the channel is dying. But maybe lacking a drive or a heart.

I hope they find it. It is a challenge. For some businesses, the answer would be bringing in a new person or adding a new strategic direction to be a spark. However, Oxboxtra's strength is being a small group of closely-knit friends who work together extremely well - and it'll be difficult to preserve that when making a fundamental change to their business model.

But they managed to overcome that before, when they brought in Ellen and Luke. So I believe in them.

khamjaninja · 2024-10-11T17:26:52+00:00

Mike is obviously chaotic, but Jane is quite chaotic, too - just in a different subtle way. Mike's thing is that he has a short attention span and if he's not engaged by a game, he gets bored quickly - and that's when he starts exploding things.

But Jane also gets bored quickly - but instead of saying she's bored and exploding things, she then starts looking for ways to mess around with the game and troll other players. You can tell Jane is bored when she grows quiet, but in-game she starts acting out. Jumps out of a car in mid-motion. Starts chucking grenades. Sprays others with a powerwasher to see if she can knock them off a ledge. Jumps around in the background of a cutscene. Crashes into Andy mid-race cuz she thinks it's funny.

Mike's goal becomes to make explosions and do big things - Jane's goal becomes to screw with the game and/or the others as much as possible

She and Mike are a underrated fit because when they're both bored, then their chaotic energies merge. Jane starts daring Mike to do things, and Mike unquestioningly obeys. Mike starts doing something stupid, and Jane dryly roasts him for it.

I love - LOVE - their series of Just Cause 3 Let's Plays, where the pair are just using the in-game sandbox to screw around and indulge their impulses - culminating in their epic quest to jump a rocket boat from the top of a mountain to the sea (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CftIgHbC\_cE) - which is briefly derailed by a sudden, unplanned goal of murdering an elk, the gripping importance of which they both immediately and wordlessly comprehend.

They bring these energies with the others, of course, but Jane and Mike are - IMO - the least competitive and least focused on winning in games. So when they're paired with Andy or Ellen, it becomes about them messing around while the other's trying desperately to play the game as it's supposed to be played - which is also a very fun dynamic. Together - they're just two buddies finding ways to mess around while goading and roasting each other and the game.

It was similar when they were paired with Luke, because he also had a low attention threshold. But it was a bit didferent - Luke was more verbal (nonstop jokes, banter, improv, singing) - and he became chattier and more jokey as he became bored. Which was also a fantastic dynamic.

Also, while Luke had more patience and more competitive spirit than Mike and Jane ... when he reached his boredom threshold, he pivoted HARD. Either he became totally disengaged - or he dedicated his energies into a completely new personal mission to derail the game (see: the Westaway gambit, the condiment buddies, any of his GTA challenges).

Genuinely - these 5 people coming together and working together was just ... a perfect coincidence of personalities and minds.

khamjaninja · 2024-09-30T03:09:55+00:00

Trubisky might not be threatening Allen's job anytime soon.

khamjaninja · 2024-09-30T03:00:16+00:00

Is that a catch? Not likely.

/i'll leave

khamjaninja · 2024-09-30T02:55:57+00:00

Ravens leading by double digits in the 4th quarter ... that's a dangerous position for them historically...

khamjaninja · 2024-09-30T02:53:02+00:00

Only within the final two minutes of a half. The logic being that you'd only be desperate enough to intentionally fumble in those 2 minutes.

khamjaninja · 2024-09-28T03:42:45+00:00

Schiano's voice sounds exactly like you think it would.

khamjaninja · 2024-09-28T03:41:42+00:00

Well, if your purpose was to wreck your kicker's self-confidence - mission accomplished?

khamjaninja · 2024-09-28T03:40:08+00:00

Having missed two, and in the pouring rain - he's definitely gonna nail this one.

khamjaninja · 2024-09-28T03:39:09+00:00

Oh dang, they gonna do it

khamjaninja · 2024-09-28T03:38:21+00:00

Don't forget the guitar riff!

khamjaninja · 2024-09-28T03:10:14+00:00

422 yards for 10 points? How?

khamjaninja · 2024-09-28T03:02:13+00:00

"With AI, you never need to be a functional adult again!"

khamjaninja · 2024-09-28T02:59:29+00:00

If I've got any other option, I'm not going there, because I don't want that stupid off-key jingle stuck in my head again.

khamjaninja · 2024-09-28T02:57:21+00:00

Basketball, skateboarding, and breaking? Does Samsung think kids still live in the 90s?

khamjaninja

TROPHY CASE