Tag / WetheGeek

by WetheGeek

The Fall of Smosh

The Fall of Smosh

It was announced on November 7, 2018 that Smosh and Smosh Games are shut down. Not shutting down in January as many suspected but immediately. As of the official announcement from the parent company, Defy Media, Smosh is done. The 80 or so people who worked there are now all out of work.

It’s over.

This is one of the larger closings we have seen in the YouTube community. Most of the time when channels shut down it’s a small group or an individual. It’s never been one of the giants like Smosh, Fine Brothers, or Rooster Teeth. Each of those companies employing into the double digits and being widely successful.

Until now.

Smosh was one of the oldest and most successful channels on YouTube. It started in 2002 as a website called Smosh.com, created by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox. After the creation of their website they started posting videos and YouTube and by 2005 they were one of the top channels.

In 2011 the duo sold the company to Defy Media. The duo only received stock options in the company, no actual payout. Stock options only work if the company goes public, which Smosh never did. The duo never made any money from the sell out. But under Defy Smosh grew and expanded to several other channels.

On June 14, 2017 Padilla announced he was leaving Smosh. He left for details that had never really been discussed.

Till now.

Padilla has since come out with a tell all video after the closing of Smosh. Padilla said in his video that Defy made radical changes after the sell out. Defy changed staff, shows, and managing style. Defy also reportedly took Padilla’s Facebook page, Twitter, and denied him from joining the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and ignored sexual harassment issues with other employees.

Defy reportedly has debts to several large backers and employees, and even though Smosh was widely successful, had to shut it down. Several early reports were that Defy was shutting down it January. But since then several sources in Defy have said that is not true. The closing is immediate and permanent.

All is not bad though. Ian Hecox said on Twitter that Smosh would find a new home, so there is still hope.

Be sure to see watch the videos from those closest to the shutdown here:

Padilla: https://youtu.be/1_zuDvgfULw

Lasercorn: https://youtu.be/d6TcHAggoy4

Joven: https://youtu.be/mXUvpLQRoBo

Mr. Sunday Movies: https://youtu.be/LBcbknAcJwk

As more news comes out we will update you.

-RytheGeek

#smosh #smoshgames #youtube #defymedia #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

Ry starts a War

RytheGeek has started a blog. It’s about all of life through a geek’s Eyes. Be sure to check it out. Here is his most recent post.

From: https://lifethroughageekseyes.wordpress.com/

Entry 004

Stardate 96458.13

I’m starting a new crusade.

No I’m not taking back a holy land or murdering thousands of innocent people. But it is a religious war of sorts.

I want to stop subscription services from ripping us off!

Why?

It seems really obvious to me. Each subscription service charges around $10 a month for media. Initially that doesn’t seem like a lot. But it adds up pretty quickly. I have three services currently. I pay for Netflix, Spotify, and Rooster Teeth First (technically I get Hulu for free since my girlfriend has Sprint [not an ad]). All together that’s around $325 per year.

Rooster Teeth is by far the best deal. I pay $35 a year for their services. Rooster Teeth is a YouTube and video company that makes content for people of all demographics. They have multiple channels that produce daily content. I spend less then $3 a month to watch all that content! Do you realize how nice that is?

Netflix alone costs around $11 per month. But I’ll give them credit for how much content (like Marvel’s Defenders) they produce. They make enough binge worthy shows to keep me satisfied.

What you’re hearing is that I’m happy with my current subscriptions? In a word? Yes.

But there is a storm rising.

DC comics has already created a service that is its own subscription service called “DC Universe” (1). Disney has reported that they are not far behind and it should be up and running late 2019 (2). Those are just the biggest giants that irritate me. There are probably others who want to follow in the steps of Netflix and Hulu.

Well stop.

People are not going to pay for these services. I see no reason to give $10 to subscriptions that should be on Netflix. Disney already has a deal with Netflix and it has worked out fine for the viewers.

In 2018 Netflix had a 11% spike in traffic (3). They made millions and continue to make a profit. I understand the desire of Disney and DC to tap into this money machine but it’s going to work. Netflix succeeded because of how few streaming services exist. I can go watch How to make a Murder right after I watch Beauty and the Beast. If I have a straight DC or Disney platform I’m going to miss out on lots of content. Keeping one or two subscriptions is easy. But this isn’t magazine sales, this is digital media.

I’ve been writing this for a week and Disney finally announced Disney+ in that time. Even with the confirmation of two Star Wars live action shows (which definitely shouldn’t happen) and the announcement of a live action Loki show, I’m far from sold.

Everything Disney is trying to do with Disney+ seems like it should be on Netflix. They have had six different live action MCU shows on Netflix (Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Defenders, Dare Devil, and Punisher). With the exception of Iron Fist, the shows were amazing.

I’m tired of the corporate cash grabs. That’s all this is. One way for Disney and DC to make an extra buck.

Please don’t continue down this path media industry.

I’ll see you geeks and nerds later!

-RytheGeek

#blog #wethegeek #geek #nerd #netflix #hulu #marvel #DCComics #Disney #Disney+ #rythegeek

————————————————

RytheGeek is a content creator for @wethegeek and writes weekly articles

Sources:

1: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/6/28/17512226/dc-universe-subscription-service-batman-superman-harley-quinn-launch-date

2: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/547220001

3: https://www.investors.com/news/technology/click/netflix-stock-rise-price-targets/

by WetheGeek

Cowboys ride again

The third installment in the ​Red Dead​ series dropped on October 26th and gamers everywhere were freaking out, including me. For those who aren’t familiar with this title, the original ​Red Dead Redemption​ was released in 2010 by Rockstar Games and is the second in the series following ​Red Dead Revolver ​from 2004. This series overall is a Western-themed, open-world, action-adventure with an easy-to-follow story that lets you live your dream of being a cowboy/outlaw in the late 1800s to early 1900s. To be honest, it’s ​Grand Theft Auto​ with horses.

The premise for ​Red Dead Redemption 2​ is similar to the previous titles, in that you play as an outlaw trying to choose between the gang and himself, killing as many (or as few) people as it takes to achieve mental clarity for your character. ​Redemption 2​ plants the protagonist, Arthur Morgan, right in the middle of Dutch Van der Linde’s outlaw gang, which was the same group John Marston left and was tasked with taking down in ​Red Dead Redemption​. Due to the presence of Marston as an active member of Van der Linde’s gang, ​Redemption 2​ is actually a prequel and not a sequel, as the number “2” would imply. Enough about the story, let’s get into the mechanics.

I’ve been playing every day since the release, and I can safely say that this game is outstanding. The graphics are phenomenal and the environment is beautiful. Not many games can pull off different climates and weather fronts well, but wow, these developers put forth some intense time and effort to perfect the environment. Not only is the setting majestic, it is more than deadly. Your character and horse will take damage if you get caught in extreme weather which makes it even more immersive. It takes the ease of traversing an open world and makes the player have to think about how they proceed in the environment, which increases the challenge. The weapon wheel, inventory menu, and pause menus are easy to navigate and separate every aspect of your character’s needs appropriately. Another mechanic Rockstar does well in all their games is assisted targeting. I will admit that I am terrible at aiming in-game weapons with my console controller, so I rely heavily on assisted targeting when provided to me. ​Redemption 2​ delivers four assisted targeting options for a wide spectrum of gameplay options.

All in all, ​Red Dead Redemption 2​ has lived up to the majority of the hype. It was a long-awaited addition to the ​Red Dead​ franchise that will become a classic, as did the previous two titles. I give this title an 8 out of 10 rating, taking the lack of fast travel into account. Unfortunately, this is as close as we will come to Westworld…for now.

-KatTheLadyNerd

#wethegeek #reddeadredemption2 #reddeadredemption #reddeadrevolver #geek #nerd #game #videogame #gamer #gamergirl #rockstargames #grandtheftauto #western #adventure #action #reddead #openworld #shooter #wildwest #westworld #hbo #kattheladynerd #videogames #gamernerd #gamergeek #casualgamer

by WetheGeek

Block by Block

So today we break old ground. Not new ground, that would be out of character. No, today we discuss a game that most are quite familiar with: Minecraft.

The result of me saying the name of the independently made voxel-based crafting and survival game will elicit either a quiet smile, or a shaken head. Or, as normal people put it, you either hated that name, or loved it.

Either way, Minecraft is still a game that should be talked about. Many feel like it needs to disappear, the game having been released in “full” in 2011. However, the game grew year after year, and very much is still thriving with an astounding 74 million estimated active players (1). This is especially true since the Microsoft purchase of the game. The purchase itself was even hotly contested, encouraging Microsoft to simply let the team there do what they needed to, and just providing funding (at least as far as we can tell). Since then, there have been many updates to the game, and multiple console releases. Playstation, Xbox, Switch, PC, and Mobile devices now all have a version of the game, and in PC’s case, 2 (3 if you count the raspberry pi edition). With the move to consoles, Mojang, the developers of Minecraft pushed an idea: true cross-platform. Now, one of the first (if not THE first) games to be truly cross-platform with all current consoles and similar devices stands tall (if quietly), at the second-best selling game of all time (1), right behind Tetris.

Alongside the main game, there were many mods, modpack launchers, YouTubers, and spinoff games that pushed it to new popularity, and still do to this day.

Recently announced was a Minecraft dungeon-crawler, which looks to take inspiration from the community, and from games like Diablo, and promises to be interesting at the very least. I await it’s release, and will definitely talk more about it once it comes out.

Until then, as a longtime fan of the game, this is Incensum saying: “Thanks Mojang, for the [redacted] hours of pure entertainment.” And thank you, for reading.

-Incensum

#Incensum #WeTheGeek #Minecraft

(1) according to Wikipedia and PCGamer (2018) https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-had-74-million-active-players-in-december-a-new-record-for-the-game/

by WetheGeek

Pixverse Part 6: Monsters, Witches, and Time travel! Oh my!

The Pixverse ends (currently) with Monsters University and Monsters Inc. After humanities final extinction and the demise of the robots earth is abandoned. Except for the animals. They have been there the entire time. Struggling to survive on a forsaken planet. With out the pollution from the robots and humans life can return to normal. Bugs are the first creatures to emerge as we see in A Bugs Life. They are much more intelligent and creative then we last saw in Finding Dory. They have entire societies and inventions. Eventually these bugs become bigger and we get the mostest we see in Monsters U and Monsters inc.

But those Monsters do one important thing. Time travel. The doors they use to scare kids are time portals. They go back in time to scare children.

Boo sees this as a child. She is one of only a few kids to see this. Riley from Inside Out also saw a monster (Bing Bong) but like most kids she thought she made him up. Boo on the other hand was convinced that her “Kitty” was real. She would spend the rest of her life searching for Sully.

How do we know this? Because Boo is the witch from Brave. The old lady who uses doors to create new houses? Sound familiar?

But how did she end up in the 10th century? Great question. Boo either helped create portals with the government or made them herself in her adult life. I lean towards helping the government. Why? We see simple portals used a lot in the second Incredibles movie. That is part of Jack Jack and Voyd’s powers. You see them use simple visual teleportation.

Before the supers went extinct the government (more accurately probably Buy n Large) discovered how to recreate this teleportation. Boo helped perfect the science and then stole it to find Sully.

She uses the teleportation door to accidentally go back in time instead of forwards. She spends her life going the wrong direction from Sully and leaves Easter eggs all throughout time (and the Pixar movies) for him to find her. In the end she finds the start of magic. Which is during the time of Brave. But sadly we never know if she found Sully again.

It has been a long six weeks going through the Pixverse. But we can summarize it really quick.

Everything is Boos fault. She used time travel and created hints and clues and used science in Times she shouldn’t have. Her science and technology (magic according to Brave) created a butterfly effect that would destroy humanity. The entire Pixverse is all Boos fault.

-RytheGeek

#Pixverse #PixarTheory #Disney #Pixar #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

Streaming Wars

With the announcement that Marvel (and Disney) have pulled Luke Cage from Netflix one has to ask, what are they thinking? Iron Fist was canceled because it was pretty bad. Luke Cage on the other hand was well received by fans and critics. What could Disney’s motivation be for doing this?

Money.

It’s not because they are broke or having problems by any means. No. They want to join the streaming wars. There has been rumors floating around that Disney is making its own streaming app. The biggest scare came out last year when Disney dropped its app that had every Disney movie, to buy. But that was quickly abandoned by fans because Netflix still carries most movies.

But Disney and DC Comics are hoping to change that. They are just the latest in a long line trying to make a streaming service. Netflix continues to make a profit and this hasn’t gone unnoticed. Other media companies are considering what DC and Disney are trying.

This is all going to fail. For a while before Netflix and Hulu people would pirate all the shows they wanted. Then things started getting carried by the two streamers. For a while piracy rates went down. But not for long. With the rise of “premium content” that you have to pay for fans are going to find other ways to watch the content. Illegally.

Disney and DC need to rethink their ideas before it’s too late.

-RytheGeek

#Disney #DCComics #Netflix #Hulu #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

Pixverse Part 5: AI Haven

Earth is destroyed. Humans and robots have waged a war that has destroyed most of humanity. All that remains is a broken planet. And that’s where Wall-E comes in. After the Robot-Human was earth was left decimated. All that was left of humans was left on the Axiom. At the end of Wall-E humans return to earth. But it doesn’t work. The humans quickly die out leaving just robots and AI on earth. The robots thrive and you end up with the Cars trilogy. The cars thrive for years until they begin to have an oil shortage. Just like humanity the cars/robots go too far and in the end kill themselves.

Because in the end even robots will wipe themselves out.

Next week we end our Pixverse series. Well until Toy Story 4.

-RytheGeek

#Pixverse #Disney #Pixar #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

Pixverse Part 4: Robot-Human War

Part 4- The Robot Human War

We left of with robots rising in power and animals rising in intelligence. We briefly saw the rise of the supers but they quickly died out. Humanity had lost its greatest protectors.

Up plays a pivotal role in the beginning of the war. We see the takeover of BnL. BnL is the company that destroyed humanity and let robots rise. BnL is the company that takes over Carl’s house. Or tried to at least. They were the ones leading the urban expansion.

Inside Out and Coco let us see the use of magic and science working together. It also lets us see the last few years of “normal” life before the war.

We never actually see the war. But the aftermath is evident. Wall-E lets us see what happened. The robots won. It seems pretty easily too without the supers. All that’s left are a few humans controlled by an AI in space. Leaving earth totally abandoned…

Till next time when we find out what happened to earth

-RytheGeek

by WetheGeek

Predator (the decent one)

It’s the 1980s (again. That’s where all the good movies come from) and Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the highest paid action stars of his era. Conan the Barbarian came out in 1982 and Terminator came out in 1984. Now comes an action movie that all geeks recognize.

Predator.

Classic Geek Sci-Fi. I’m talking about the one from 1987. That’s pretty much the only one anyone should be talking about.

Predator first came to theaters June 12, 1987. With only a $15 million dollar budget the film did surprisingly well and grossed over $98 million. It was not critically acclaimed due to a flimsy plot but it has grown quite a fan base in the past 31 years, enough fans to make a bunch of crappy sequels and spinoffs.

The story follows a team of American Special Forces in the jungles of South America. They are on a rescue mission to find a buddy of the teams leader who is a CIA agent.

The team discovers a downed helicopter with dead US military on board. The team continues to search for the CIA agent and arrive at the town he is being held captive at. The team kills the terrorist only to find out there mission isn’t to rescue anyone but o find out information on the Soviets.

As the team leaves they are tracked by a mysterious figure that turns out to be a killer alien. The alien is one of the best hunters in the galaxy. Through traps and an assorted weapons the alien kills most of the soldiers. The final battle between Arnold and the Predator is very explosive.

This movie was the first use of one of the most iconic lines Arnold has ever said, “ Get to the Choppa!” As far as quality it’s not a bad movie. It’s a lot of fun and very interesting to watch and see that man isn’t always the top of the food chain. Overall the special effects are typical of 80s movies and for the most part the plot isn’t super crazy. It’s all pretty straight forward. I enjoyed it and I think it’s the best in the series. Which isn’t saying much.

I give it a 6/10 😐

-RytheGeek

by WetheGeek

Venom: Turd in the Wind or Surprisingly Sweet?

Venom

I was wrong. The critics are wrong. Every opinion I had about this movie was wrong.

When I walked in I was prepared to hate it. I didn’t pay for 3D or a huge screen, just normal movie tickets for my girlfriend and I. I had already been apologizing to her because I was sure this was going to be a crap shoot. Nothing even remotely interesting and probably pretty gross.

I was wrong.

**Spoilers**

Venom is a fun and interesting movie. It doesn’t throw a twist like Infinity War (or honestly any superhero movie since Dark Knight) but that doesn’t mean it was bad. Yeah I thought the predictability would bore me and because it was PG-13 I would be disappointed. I wasn’t. It did follow a pretty linear plot and that in of itself would be dull. But Sony did something that surprised me and worked really well.

Venom, the symbiote, was funny.

Surprising to say the least. The symbiote was the unexpected comic relief of the movie. It was aggressive and dark but also extremely humorous and polite. I enjoyed the banter between Venom and Eddie Brock more then anything. It was fun to watch the dynamic. They play off of each other and in many ways come to a fun understanding of what it’s like to be a crazed hungry human alien hybrid. There is one particular scene when Brock is being chased by the villains that the symbiote politely moves two cars aside so that Brock can escape. He didn’t flip the cars (like I expected), just politely moved them aside. The symbiote cared a lot more about not only Eddie but also most of humanity a lot more than I thought it would.

I really enjoyed Venom. Was it perfect? No. Was is predictable? Yes.

But it was fun.

Venom gets a solid 8/10 😃

-RytheGeek