People have been asking for the developer's work , but RU-vid keeps taking down his comments so here ya go He's a young German developer, freshly started Maki's Adventure store.steampowered.com/app/1843110/Makis_Adventure/?curator_clanid=44304243 Rogue Jungle store.steampowered.com/app/2352850/Rogue_Jungle/ And he's working on an indie kart racer featuring characters from other indie games like Another Crab's Treasure, Frogun, Smushi Come Home, and Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus Follow its development on Twitter: x.com/Zoroarts
@Nickachuuuuu no clue. I was messaging him back and forth as it was happening. They all disappeared and I don't see the comments in my 'held for review' section
@@TheOtherFrost RU-vid as a general thing won't allow comments that include links except from the creator, as a general anti-spam safety measure. I don't know what exactly the setting is placed at, but they're just instant-deleted.
I feel like anyone in a position of power threatening their capability to "make sure they never work in X industry again" in response to a personal spat is a universal red flag.
@@HUNbullseye This is just hit back since Nick threw Frost under the bus already. Don't throw people under the bus if they're going to survive and hit back.
Meanwhile, Gamergaters: "So to kick off our very sincere campaign for honesty in games journalism, we're going to harass my ex-girlfriend, and then Steve's, and then Chad's - oh right, of course we can't forget the most important thing, which is to also dox them. Yup. Honesty in games journalism!"
Its fucking sad, is what it is. These are the working conditions of some of my favorite creatives, in a company they could hypothetically do whatever they wanted with. They're rudderless and picking at each other. I don't love the tone and presentation of a lot of that last 3rd, everyone has weaknesses in the workplace, and the only people who know why the SWG employees responded as they did is them. But Frost also personally knew these people and so a frank reminder that these are working adults with complexities is always helpful.
Don't forget the side bar of "Yahtze didn't want to cover big games" as a reasoning why the views dipped. Which can be true but Nick literally blames everyone else for issues and lifts himself up as the guy who has to hold it together...
@@TBrius88i'm no nick supporter, but anecdotally i just really wasn't interested in the show this summer, in fact i did wonder just what he was reviewing. Then again its tje summer months
@@cameronjohnson918 I agree with the last 3rd comment. The video is excellent in most areas but I do feel like Frost just goes in on the other members of SWG unnecessarily, them just being bad at running a business isn't really in line with the rest of the video. The section on Jesse felt particularly unnecessary.
Gaslighting. Pure and simple. Until you've met a psychopath in real life, a person simple isn't prepared for dealing with a person who will treat you exactly like they treat a video game controller.
@@NoAgendaStudios I legitimately felt sick when I heard this. If this is how he treated volunteers who worked for free, imagine how entitled he must feel with paid workers and how he treats them.
@@Grizabeeblescompletely agree. I used to live a bad street life, but im a halfway decent person with personal morals. "Typical" people like us have absolutely no defense against these narcissists. I used to view my standards as a detriment in my life. However, I learned being Nice can be used as a weapon. The very second a person screws me over, I cut them out of my life forever. I can't think of a worse punishment than me not being your friend anymore. It's cruel and unusual! 😂
That Gameumentary call is rough to listen to. Props to whoever was speaking because if I was told working for free for a year wasn't worth anything I would've exploded. Nick might've tried to backpedal and justify himself but that kind of attitude is genuinely inexcusable when multiple people are expecting and trusting you for a livelihood.
Problem is telling the truth will have you cancelled and attacked faster than anybody. Every single dirt about you will be unraveled and your career will be ruined. And believe me NO ONE IS CLEAN! The industry never likes honest people. It is what it is.
Yup, I'm pretty sure I saw like 3 new shows since Frost's original video which accused him of spamming new shows for short-term profit while ignoring long-term effects. So he probably did that out of spite lol
i wish i could turn off SWG notifications except for yahtz stuff. i don’t have the time or energy to get invested in a dozen different shows that will be replaced for not hitting unrealistic expectations anyway
@@Bard2DaBoneI'm just staying unsubbed and hope the algorithm pushes Yahtzee's videos my way. Seems to be doing alright so far. Funny to see that so many others supported SWG despite all the mediocre shows and non-video game related stuff. Like The Escapist before it post 2019ish, I tolerated it all for the good stuff...
@@purebaldness people will always rally behind what looks like the little guys stepping up to be independent and out from under awful business people little did we know..
They’re learning why bosses and CEO’s exist first-hand, lol. You can complain about people having more power or it’s not “equal” all you want until decisions have to get made and you have zero interest and wish it was offloaded to someone else. The issue is those heads having zero understanding of what players want, what devs need, and not trying to find some sort of balance between those and a reasonable timeframe/budget.
Happens a lot in Indy wrestling too - let’s make our own show, hang on - who was balancing the books?, what do you mean everyone is angry they didn’t get the promised things? 😜
As a former journalist, I appreciate the heck out of how calmly and succinctly you laid out your point, the journalistic ethical code, and while you obviously had and have your own opinion, you still made sure to note for people "this is my thought, and the evidence, your conclusions are your own but understand why I think this way." Extremely well done reporting, and I'd love to see more takedowns like this on other aspects of the games industry bloat!
I find it hilarious that Nick, in that meeting, blamed the poorer revenue in the summer on Yahtzee "not wanting to play the biggest games", as I've watched enough of Yahtzee's videos to know that, every summer, with great consistency, Yahtzee complains about *the summer games drought.* There are almost no "biggest games" in the summer, as the studios save those games for the fall and winter.
Shadow of the Erdtree. He's talking about the Elden Ring DLC. It was the only hit release for 4 months and Yahtzee skipped it. Otherwise it was a dire May-August release schedule.
The receipts in this are longer than the ones at CVS. I think this video made me realize that I liked the idea of Second Wind more than I liked the actual channel. A bunch of creatives sticking it to corporate and forming their own gaming journo co-op is a great story but in practice what they’ve actually produced is just the same things we saw on The Escapist. Still I hope big changes happen at SWG because of this and it ultimately does succeed because if it fails the narrative will be “creative types couldn’t hack it without corporate backing”. Gaming media needs a Second Wind, just not the one we currently have with Nick in charge.
"if it fails the narrative will be 'creative types couldn’t hack it without corporate backing'”. -> Not a narrative, just the norm. Watch PMG's documentary about Disco Elysium (the whole thing), and maybe you'll learn that the world is way more nuanced than you think.
Their video channel outside of the escapist was exactly what they wanted to re-create. They resigned when the execs wanted to cut back to profitable ventures. Which was just yahtzee and frost. Very similar to what happened when all of the escapist was just Yahtzee when all the other creatives where fired from the original lineup.
@@fernandofaria2872 Or don't actually. Turns out that CEO said a lot of shit in that documentary only to fire the rest of the team he was "protecting". Effectively nullifying anythign said in that doc.
The stuff with THQ Nordic really feels like the last nail in the coffin for Nick, it suddenly makes so many of his more confusing actions make complete sense.
"And they made what? The same stuff they made at other outlets they claimed were holding them back." That's what separates internet funnymen from real ass people. Astute observation, Frost.
It's rare to find anyone with rational takes on the games industry. Rarer still to find someone who takes the time to explain his entire stance. This is why I respect Frost.
I think the aftermath of frost’s resignation highlights that frost is interested in “games journalism” and SWG is interested in “games media coverage.” The flippant responses and lack of follow through towards frost’s issues show that they just want to keep their head down and do their thing, regardless of if that might be complacency to toxic behavior in actuality
Pretty much hitting the nail on the head, Frost is an actual journalist, focusing on more stuff like the state of the industry and on the rare occasion an exposé with a lot more care on journalistic integrity, where the rest of SWG just wants to be a bunch of game reviewers, except for JM8 who's... kind of just an armchair developer with little actual experience. This will commonly result in butting heads because whilst the reviewer just wants to create content and accuracy can often come second to entertainment, a journalist whilst still caring about entertainment value, will care FAR more about integrity. A reviewer could not care less about biases granted by their connections, and in the video game industry it's straight up the expectation for non independent reviewers to play nice for the big companies so you can stay in businesses from them giving you sponsorships, early access, invitations to closed events, etc. but this is quite damning for a journalist. In fact, it's one of the strongest arguments against a few points Frost raises about the stuff Nick gets, the reviewer space just doesn't care, it's not a problem to them and never will be. Nick isn't a journalist failing to follow the ethical standards, he's a stubborn douchebag reviewer who whether he realizes it or not, springboards off of other people to further his own career.
@@LeahThe3th JM8 makes entertaining videos, but he embodies everything that made me hate game design students until ultrakill was made by one. i'd start going off on similar youtubers by name if i was less sober
@@LeahThe3th I think you two have really nailed it. Frost is playing by different rules and expectations. That doesn't exactly excuse the actions but it does explain it. A lot of shovel-content gaming blogs aren't producing journalism but 'content' to run ads against or to be sponsored. So there's no ethical problem in that business model... Add to this folks who just like games and want to work in a gaming adjacent space.
I know this was ultimately part of the lead in to the stuff about Nick Calandra, but I did find the preamble before that fascinating, a good history lesson that more people should learn about. The stuff about W.R. Hearst was fascinating too, since the most I knew about him before this was that Charles Foster Kane of Citizen Kane was supposed to be as send-up of Hearst.
I have a couple books by Ambrose Bierce, now a forgotten author, he's one of the most celebrated American authors of his time. He was also one of Hearst's attack dogs. Hearst could destroy anyone's career by making a few editorials appear, written by the best literary minds of his time. Some parallels with our own time, methinks.
1:10:48 I am a former software engineer currently pursuing a career in sales, and my immediate reaction to hearing that sales wasn't allowed commission was a very loud "WHAT?!"
Technical sales or..? How'd you pivot to that? Sales seems more 'straightforward' than the B.S. of software and because of that seems more attractive, but not sure how to get a foot in the door.
@@grieben yes, technology sales. I went on course careers and completed their tech sales course. Only just recently passed the final and started looking for work though
I was baffled as well. The whole benefit of giving your sales people commission is that they fight for better and bigger sales. It's literally in a company's best interest to give their sales people commission.
I think my biggest issue with the responses from everyone was that they felt very "corporate". Most of them weren't addressing any issues or providing counterpoints, but were just kind of vague, "Frost is wrong", or "my experience has been different". Don't get me wrong, I understand that when it comes down to it, they have to try and protect their livelihood. It's just that the way it was done felt more like they were putting out statements because they were forced to, when several of them just wanted to stay out of it entirely, and the end result was making it a lot harder to trust anything that comes out of them in any official capacity. I still watch Fully Ramblomatic and Design Delve, because they're good shows, and for Yahtzee in particular he's always made it pretty clear he just wants to do his own thing and be left alone, so I certainly can't fault him. It's just that more and more, the channel really does just feel like Escapist 2.0, rather than a new start as everyone initially said it would be.
Guy dodges lawsuits like Neo in matrix (by not writing contracts as well), while second wind response was "He is kinda complicated but works on himself uwu"
I won't lie, when I first pulled up the video I was skeptical because of the thumbnail and thought you may have just been coat tailing off of the controversy but it's anything but the case watching this video. This is extremely well made and really shines a light on what's going on. I wonder what the response to this has been.
Man, no one has a better voice for a hard-boiled-era private eye than Frost. And being able to write prose that sounds as if it came from the pen of Raymond Chandler himself is absolutely astounding.
I'm glad that I'm not the only one just thinking about this. It's almost like we can imagine him typing away while we hear his internal monologue while he sits in his office.
I just wanna add a little personal thing. I didn't know about Cold Take in the Escapist Era, and I didn't know about it at first in the SWG era But I learned about it when you got to slap your OWN logo onto it, because that logo stood out, and the title was good And then I watched it. And I've been a fan ever since. You do great.
Ive never had a positive interaction with Nick (and if you're an engaged fan of anything on Second Wind, you almost certainly will interact with him, because saying anything even slightly critical anywhere on the internet summons him like Beetlejuice to be a defensive manchild). I had to skip some of the bit where he's on conference call, I just cant listen to someone self-righteously bully their own employees while taking no responsibility for their own immature and shitty behavior.
Exactly that experience. Nick seems to think himself above his audience and will start snapping at anything critical no matter how it's presented. Watching him get mauled on Side scrollers (not really a fan of that channel either to be fair) really showed just what a snivelling apologist he is when confronted as opposed to his ridiculous twitter crusades. Man has tiny rodent energy in abundance.
Nick is a f'n douche and a POS, I think we can all agree on that. But holy shit, a damn near 2 hour video about a dude and a company that averages MAYBE a couple HUNDRED viewers on their live streams seems a bit much. And besides Yahtzee's vids their other vids only get a few thousand views. But sure, let's paint them as the bane of gaming journalism, cuz that's not weird. 99% of gamers don't even know anyone at SW but Yahtzee. So, that being said, this just seems like a personal drama you're dragging out to prove some point to....honestly, I don't even know who. You make it seem like Nick is some giant mogul and titan in the industry bringing the whole of gaming journalism down. He ain't that fuckin important, man. At this point Maybe Frost should just chill out.
Don't post to much in comments, but got into it with escapist post once, defending another commentor. Wish I remembered who it was from the staff posted to response, might have even been Nick. Amounted to, that person's dumb and your points about their comments bringing up negatives is wrong cause I say so.
Yeah I noticed this in the comments under the videos too, everytime someone dares say something that isn't high praise, Nick comes to belittle them, he just can't take ANY criticism or negativity, and his answers are generally aggressive. And that's a really bad sign.
"(we) were talking about a hypothetical... what if Yahtzee was hit by a bus? ...we would keep going" Yeah and if my head fell off I'd sing the national anthem.
If there is one takeaway I have from this video it's that Nick wants to complain about out-of-touch executives that have no idea what it means to be the boots on the ground... while being so egotistical he easily represents that out-of-touch executive profile he constantly belittles while being a case study on how those people shouldn't run a business. the other thing I think about is... I feel bad for Yahtzee. The guy wants to do his thing and make enough money to support himself and his family and everything else is just so exhausting that he'd rather just dip and hope that someone else will handle the "cross your T's and dot your I's" aspects of the business ethically that he doesn't have to think about it. It sounds lazy but as someone with several mental diagnosis etc. of their own I can easily relate to the idea of "people obviously like what I put out but why is there so much extra in-between." and I hope that at some point he realizes that he really needs to find someone to work as his assistant to use his leverage as a creative personality to actually deliver a world in where he can just do whatever the hell he wants without having to also think about if someone is exploiting his apathy towards business and power of his brand to ruin the lives of others.
Somewhat yes. That said he has repeatadly tried to invest in difficult to sell creative ventures in the desire to see if they can make them profitable over time. And failed a bunch. So he is simultaneously being ridiculed for being too business like and not enough business like.
love calling him egotistical and out-of-touch with literally nothing else backing up ur statement...lmao..yet you have more empathy for a dude letting others just suckle his tit of creativity as long as he gets to move as little as possible? Not dogging the quality of the milk, I was watching no punctuation like almost 10 years ago at this point. But cmon dude lol.
@@Cryten0 I disagree. I think he’s being ridiculed for believing that there’s only one or the other and rigidly sticking to that. You can play the algorithm game while still allowing the creatives under you to thrive, all you have to do is look at previous models that worked and look at the past models (they’ve used) that failed. It should be incredibly obvious looking at nick and co’s history that this thing was going to fall flat on its face without giving some thought to how the algorithm works.
1.5 hours of Frost muckraking and making it a whole documentary on the nature of demagogue and history of journalism is not what I anticipated, but is something that I love and support. Thank you, good sir.
I appreciated the whole video but HIGHLY suggest editing this down into a video chronicling journalism through the years and how it mutated into GG. That was the best and most concise summation of the subject I've seen or read and deserves its own video.
The abbreviated version is simply that people like Steve Bannon recognized that disenfranchised or entitled (or both) gamers could be easily manipulated towards sympathetic right wing viewpoints that portrayed them as victims and gave easy targets for their anger. Milo Yiannopoulos was the perfect tool to help further these aims because he doesn't have a true belief in his bones and his chameleon-like nature made him very adaptable to whatever messages needed to be pushed. They highjacked legitimate concerns and turned it into a perverse movement intended to funnel gamers towards right wing viewpoints, the consequences of which you can still see today (go woke go broke, etc.)
Frost feels plucked from a different time. In an era where dishonest low-quality high-volume content is king, he brings honesty through a genuinely artful command of speaking and storytelling. The ability he has to make something as dense as the subject matter of this video engaging puts him in a league of his own.
For a while, I was wondering about the sources Nick was defending, until you got to the bit where THQ Nordic was involved in most of the things Nick was doing.
What bothers me the most is Yahtzee's bland uninterested response. He's just the creative, apparently doesn't have an administrative bone in his body but maybe that's why we love him
I've stopped watching Yahtzee. Decade+ I've followed him on and off. There are agencies that would love to do all the paperwork for him. Giving his lions share to a charaltan is just so confusing to me. 😮
@apexnext I don't think yahtzee likes change all that much. He'd rather stay where it's comfortable, even if he's worse off. I especially get that vibe when frost went over his statement in the video.
Dude makes a video every week with barely any breaks ever, a second video biweekly, two streams a week, professional writer with multiple novels released, a game creator and a father of two. I REALLY don't blame him for not wanting even more stuff to do.
"Need to step up." These little quips are so revealing. Nick knows what people want to hear, but he's also socially inept. Why is he in a recorded call throwing blame against named coworkers.
Unfortunately alot of people will put their fingers in their ears when it comes to Nick. Ive seen pundits say it looks like this whole thing happened because Frost wanted the company to go one way and Nick wanted it to go another. And Nick won because he was the "boss." I dont know if thats true and even if it was, it doesn't make Nicks behavior any less gross and hypocritical.
@@ggthxpwntI may be misunderstanding what tanking is or underestimating what qualifies as tanking but their patreon is slowly bleeding, yes, and quite steadily so, but it's not as severe a tank. People left when the whistleblow from frost wemt through, especially since nick made the-in my highly uninformed opinion-mistake of broadcasting the event to everyone by posting about it, but their current patreon status is more like bleeding than tanking, again imo.
It really sucks how so many good creatives tend to be bogged down with crap like this, and can't just look around them and see what is going on, thank you for continuing to do what you do even when these people try and ruin it.
I'm so happy to hear you own the rights to "Cold Take" because that is a brilliant format and definitely the first Second Wind video I watched. Well played, Mr. Frost.
Thanks for muck-raking Frost. You have done everything expected of a professional journalist. The first video’s allegations were shocking, but easily refutable. Then SWG’s responses said the allegations were easily disproved and i was really surprised that they proceeded to disprove nothing and just talk about their feelings. This new video really provides all the context needed to understand the situation and make a determination. You’re right that Nick is problematic, but just a symptom of systemic issues. He is in a position where he can take advantage of the system without oversight. Not all people in that position act as Nick does, but safety nets of accountability are just people at the end of the day. And they won’t function if the people who should do something feel apathy. ALAB podcast had an excellent episode discussing how Epstein was able to run his life because multiple layers of accountability were useless because the people in those positions decided to do nothing because they didn’t see the value in taking initiative. If every person took the initiative Frost has shown recently, our systems wouldn’t be taken advantage of.
Honestly? It's a bit because so many people are not as great as we want to believe they are, but it's mostly because of the incentives are misaligned. Sensationalism and backstabbing are more incentivized than truth and decency. Which, you know, is kind of a longwinded way of basically saying "because capitalism".
I can *see* the fatigue in people, without having to actually see even one of them. It's one thing to know every single person or group you have ever or could ever like has something horrible about them. It's another to be shown it, over and over. The funny thing is, the answer here appears to be just, carry on. Second Wind will succeed, or it won't. Make financial choices accordingly. Frost is either a man putting in an astounding amount of time and effort because he wants to help improve things, or a man driven by an astounding amount of spite because he feels he was treated unfairly. But some of these examples are absolutely irrefutable. That ONE clip where Nick responds to someone saying "respect my time and effort please, or I'm out" with the most disrespect he can muster in the moment is not the kind of thing that ever, ever, comes out of somebody you can trust. Behavior like that is never a one-off. And people who do it tend to be great at manipulating others, until something snaps those others out of it. Personally, I kind of think Frost is both things I laid out above. There's too much time and effort and careful source citing here for it to be nothing more than petty vengeance. But nobody puts in this much time and effort, or writes a script out in several of the specific ways Frost chose to speak here, without being very, *very* angry. Make choices accordingly.
well yeah, like you said, I do agree he comes across as both things (angry and wanting to improve things), but then again, -usually- the ones who REALLY do commit to change things for the better, are the ones who have been affected directly in a negative way by it (and therefore are angry) so yeah, I don't see "being angry" as a negative trait, if you are using it to expose what is wrong in order to change it.
@@adamsalmon8076 If you would care to enlighten a confused onlooker as to what it was you were referring to in your message I would be quite grateful, my good man.
Listen to the language Nick uses during the Frost KC mediation, when slagging off Jack, (someone not present, of course) no attempt to understand or explain, no "in his defence" just straight up yeah thats his fault. Bro would stab himself in the back
As someone that has worked for several toxic and manipulative bosses, this video hits pretty hard. I do worry about the optics that this video might get in that it can be viewed as petty. I don't personally believe this is true but SWG is definitely going to paint this video as such if they decide to respond to it at all.
Starting with that call at 29:00 should make most people watch the rest of the video without thinking it's petty. This is not a guy who views himself as an equal employee at a co-op who understands business and very much a guy who thinks he's at the top and everyone else needs to accept that and if you're not he immediately goes on the attack.
I think anyone who views this as petty can only do so by having decided Frost is being petty before they heard what he has to say. Frost has carefully built his case for why his opions are formed they way they are with direct evidence to back it up and raising ethical concerns is never a petty thing to do. People can and do get selective hearing. Until they get some evidence to refute Frost's conclusions, allegations of petty drama mongering are most likely just basic human tribalism. They like SWG and want it to succeed, so they jump on the bandwagon dismissing the critics rather than thinking critically about Frost's complaints. Basically, the problem Frost talks about in this video probably extends to the consumers. They buy the narrative they want to believe because it best fits their interests.
It actually was uncanny how much of the things he said resonated with "oh my last boss did that. and that. and that. and that." I was fired for the first time from a boss who acted like this and it took me months of soul searching to realize while I could have been better, I wasn't the problem. I was bringing up issues, trying to work through things, trying to let things go, and endlessly it was the sheer idea that I was a person who already showed i was willing to hold others accountable and not lower my standards of ethics to "get the job done" that did me in, and there was nothing i could do to bring myself back because my boss already labeled me a threat. No amount of correcting what my action was for a write-up would help because they take it personally, suddenly they need to find something else to make the noose out of. Yet another way I was being a difficult employee. Almost like I was being "petty" for creating higher standards so I wouldn't continue the write-up-able action while constantly asked to continuously do things that would constitute a write-up in any other case. Asking you to step into traps. Like its crazy how comparable it is to an abusive interpersonal relationship. Then when you're out, they're ready to continuously consider you a petty person because you, in their eyes, were ALREADY petty. When in reality, you were just making them extremely aware of their own failings and being narcissistic, take it personally like you're only better to show that they're worse. A lot of people who consider the behavior of Frost petty, benefit from abusive relationships someway or somehow. And they will never admit it because admitting it means they lose the power those abusive relationships grant them. It's a real mask-off moment for a lot of people.
I remember once, in an interview, Nick described how he had been put to the task of finding "the next Yahtzee" while at the Escapist and had felt like he had succeeded in finding you. He was woefully mistaken. You're not the next Yahtzee, because you have sharp teeth and a spine.
Yahtzees role in all of this is kinda hard to grapple with. He's the diva celebrity, functionally. He pulls in half their income single handedly. His mere presence is sufficient to keep the company afloat. So, if he wants his role to be the celebrity pull while everyone else handles the business and fleshes out the corners of their media operation, I don't really see a problem with that. He's the whale, his mere existence creates a small ecosystem around him. SWG exists at his leisure. However, he is an owner. His input is the single most valuable one simply by dent of his ability to impact the company. His hands off approach results in whoever acts as his primary go between in the company, whoever acts as his steward, having enormous power. And we saw one result of it in Nick becoming the "bottle-neck". If there's a problem, you can't defer to Yahtzee because he doesn't get involved much, so everything defaults to Nick. Ultimately, because of Yahtzee's desire to not be bothered with running the company he partially owns, Nick ends up with outsized power even for his role, since he functionally takes on some of Yahtzee's power and influence. There's no real equality there. Nick is the boss as a result of Yahtzee's incalcitrance. It's hard for me then to call Yahtzee spineless. More so I'd say he's irresponsible. If he wants to be hands off, he needed to actually commit to that. If he wants to defer responsibility and authority to Nick, he needs to be more self aware and acknowledge that the actual nature of the company is one of uneven power distribution and drop the pretense of being a co-op.
As someone else put it, Yahtzee’s producing 1-2 videos a week, plus streams, plus making a game, and has a family with 2 kids. Not to mention the company exists basically because of him. It’s not as easy for him to leave. One because if he goes solo, now he has to figure out how to handle all the business stuff himself, and trim out content which he’d rather do. Or he leaves and gets someone else to handle the business side… which will likely also be a jerk. Leaving one jerk, and all the problems that come with “starting again” just to find another jerk, is a hard “offer” to justify.
@@FBracht It's another version of recalcitrant. I certainly didn't make it up. But it is uncommon. I like to use it contextually, though I couldn't tell you where I picked it up.
I don't even understand what Nick thought he was offering his volunteers if it wasn't money or a stake in the company, just some bs like experience or exposure?
I'm glad you spoke up, Frost. I started watching the Escapist because of Yahtzee but then i stumbled across your vids and became a fan- eventually your stuff was the shows I actually paid attention to. I'm praying and rooting for you to stay independent and hope it's not too long before the first post-sw Cold Take!
@@unshavendillon149 How do the things here not qualify? For example, the funded travel trips, the funded documentary, and the continued, obvious ties with THQ Nordic?
@@onimaxblade8988he's being criticized for not having receipts but then also being criticized for "leaking documents" so it is difficult to know what they actually want.
Never expected more than Nick to get caught in the crossfire, but it seems the stray shots aren't exactly unwarranted, and hold some major validity and implications. TBH, as frustrating as it is to see Yahtzee so apathetic to the situation, its simultaneously a relief that he is not so deeply involved in the controversy.
Man that footage of the meeting with you in the "addressing the rest of swg" section is infuriating. You just can never get a word in, they bounce back and forth and you are literally sitting with your hand raised like you are in a classroom, all while nick keeps direct eye contact with his webcam.
It is quite rare that I leave a comment on anything, but for the sake of engagement being valued by algorithms, appreciation of the work presented and effort behind it and a wish for future success, I am chiming in with this small comment. A toast to you and your work~
On the SWG Doc: > 3 Documentaries for 2025 > - Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 > - TBD > - TBD Game is not even out and Nick already wants to made a documentary about it. I wonder why?
nick doesn't. The devs do. all nick wants is for them to pay him for consulting on how to get swg... sorry i mean himself, to take the contract so he can get more back breaking chairs and a vive (like who even wants a vr headset that is bricked if you don't have social media account?)
You know, i love a lot of the creator's from SWG but im usually more inclined to believe an individual with proof over a group statment put out by a company. Sad to see yatzhee say that though
1:08:12 and the video at large I feel is relevant to Manufacturing Consent; fundamental Chomsky stuff. People are reliant on wherever they get their money from, it's an inherent bias that exists everywhere. Most journalists rely on readership driving income, like selling access to that readership to businesses or advertisers. Keeping that readership then becomes paramount. Some people, like Yahtzee, maintain readership by being genuinely interesting and insightful personalities. Many games journalists use access to publishers and developers as their primary readership draw instead (first looks at new games, exclusive interviews, etc.). Publishers and developers are very happy to take advantage of the reliance built on access to them. The threat of revoking access is enough to leash those journalists entirely. The bias is baked into the business model. Thanks for the video, it's really good.
Nobody actively being ripped off thinks they are being ripped off- otherwise they’d be trying to get out. The words of people who have made themselves reliant on Nick are meaningless. Unless they’re negative because it’s gotta be really bad if they’re willing to talk- no matter how much they downplay it.
@buckstop was he also demure? I kid. But we used to have ethical CEOs under the doctrine of the professional manager but that went away and now we have investors being the only consideration.
I dunno how much horrible shit the IKEA guy gets up to - probably a lot - but on some level he's a dude who founded a company which (through the efforts of countless workers, of course) allowed a lot of people to get affordable furniture where there otherwise weren't a lot of great options. Depending on location, probably; some areas no doubt have a better supply. But yeah, he's probably a crapsack too. To some extent, anyway.
The vibe I'm getting from this is that Nick claimed he was fired because of shady/unfair demands, whereas in reality it seems to be he was fired because he was bad at his job and pretty damn unethical to boot.
I remember the huge Escapist downturn, when, for the longest time, Yahtzee was the only one working there. Nobody would talk about what happened but it was obviously very bad. Then escapist 2.0 came along. He was still there. I always wondered what was SO BAD that EVERYBODY else left, but he just didn't care. I liked funny gremlin guy's sassy videos. But at a certain point... You owe it to friends and fans to recognize when something is messed up. Especilly when you have the fanbase to be fine leaving the company. That said... Nick is the big bad here. All these ither dudes are gonna have to make their peace when they realize they're doing their part to ensure the abusive status quo. That when their chance to step up and say something came, they just didn't. Thank you for publishing this, Frost. Its good to know whats behind the curtan in situations like this. I have no problem believing Nick will follow through on his threats to blacklist you, it's indie from here out or nothing. I really hope you become the Jason Shreier you never wanted to be, but are clearly equipped for.
Yahtzee may not be in the wrong in a legal or "etiquette" sense, but I'd say he is in a moral one. He could easily go solo and continue his content on his own platform, but he refuses to do so, preferring to work under someone else, no matter their ethics. My theory from this is that he just doesn't want to deal with the burocratic side of doing businesses, so he's more than willing to have literally anyone else take the spot, even when they're abusing the other stuff and tainting the games journalistic well, so he can deal with his own project. Now that Calandra helped him publish his game he also owes a debt of gratitude (if not more) to him, so I don't see the two of them partying ways anytime soon.
@@eallaterza Its certainly true that he does not want to manage business side of things. He just wants to continue doing his job and engaging with his creative endeavours. I respect the man a lot for his work. Its worth adopting other points of view to examine this whole thing. Nick certainly has had some personality issues and a lot of desire to try out media ideas that have not had much success. But for many people that isnt something that makes him a villain, infact for a good many people in the escapist video team and then second wind it was that willingness to invest yahtzee's clout into their venture that let them grow out their own content. So from their perspective Nick might of not been the best executive but he got them all paid and grew their careers. And for Yahtzee he is the man that revived the best times for Yahtzee, where he was surrounded by other creatives and they where all looking to grow out their ideas which also let Yahtzee himself publish his books and new series. The real problems arise from Nicks attempts at using free labour and trying to convince companies to allow his pet projects to go ahead combined with his ego issues. There is a real separation between those Nick helped and those Nick did quite badly by.
@@eallaterza I haven't seen anyone mention the Mana Bar. The failed business that probably haunts Yahtzee to this day. I don't know the details but I wouldn't be surprised if it's why Yahtzee doesn't want to be responsible for anything business wise.
I mean I can tell you why Yahtzee was the only guy on escapist for so many years. There came a point when the escapist just sorta stopped paying everyone that wasn’t Yahtzee. Strikes were organized, meetings were held, and eventually escapist just fired or failed to renew contracts with everyone that wasn’t Yahtzee. It wasn’t anything “bad” specifically. Just a failing business that cut its costs down to the only profitable employee.
I'm of course in no position to definitively say who's right and wrong here and my opinion ultimately doesn't matter, but having watched this whole thing I can only conclude you were justfied in doing what you did. The patterns of behaviour outlined here almost speak for themselves. Looking forward to whatever you put out next. I'm glad Cold Take isn't going anywhere.
Absolutely 100% this. The phrase "one-sided" seemed at least alluded to, often, but it was misrepresented: the only actual evidence I've seen (though I haven't looked hard) has come from Frost. It's also not hard to pick a side, if you're into that, because of this.
I'm a published author, writer, took journalism classes, and I have a sneaky feeling an article I wrote comparing Black Panther to Ready Player One got me all kinds of ignored by various editors. Rough sledding out there.
Huh, that's an intriguing combination! If you feel comfortable doing so, would you share the title so we can search it up and read it? If it's still up online
Frost, im up to 1:01:45, where you mention that Nick kept pushing people to the patreon. Is that why Yahtzee kept shilling the patreon in a lot of his videos and podcasts (Slightly something else, Windbreaker)?
57:50 is completely crazy to me you can't claim to be any sort of journalist while going to parties and promotional campaigns in vegas, disclosing none of it and not even publishing coverage while claiming to be press. i literally know more than one journalist who was fired for doing much less than that
Just finished the video, thank you for making it. I found it illuminating, responsible, and well-paced. Hopefully this will help bring positive change.
Leadership by committee never works out and always end friendship. This whole situation is a leadership failure.. everyone thinks they are the chef but, no one wants to be the chef. when you see way way way too many meetings always ask what the leadership is doing wrong..
A leader needs to be confident in telling people what to do, but that's not all. The good and great leaders also understand that they need to _listen_ to what people tell them, and work with those people; not over them, not _at_ them or around them. There's no need to manipulate people if you can just understand them, care about them, and be honest with them about what you can and cannot do, and why. Bad leaders waste so much time and energy overcomplicating the simple act of communication.
Garbage in, garbage out. If people have a say in a meeting but no expertise in the subject matter, then the decision will be based on who is more charismatic, not who is right. All these people trying to say, “I just want to make my videos, and Nick is a cool guy that helps with that” are saying, “I have no justification for my vote, nor reason to care, so Nick can have it.”
It’s funny that they wanted a “co-op”, but never took the 3 seconds to realize that, no, they actually don’t. Because none of them want to be involved with these decisions, they just want to offset it to someone else. In this case, Nick. They yearn for a boss, and because he’s the only one willing, they concede to him. I don’t know if/how they could do this. But maybe they should become a board of directors or something. Where they can ultimately fire or veto a boss’s decision (if they hired a new one), but that said boss would be in charge of all the daily duties and whatnot. Because clearly none of them want that responsibility anyway.
I must admit, I dithered about unsubscribing from the Second Wind Patreon. I was in agreement that if any of the accusations thrown at Nick were true, I wouldn't want to support such a channel, but then I had to grapple with the fact that you had just quit so how much could your words be trusted. But then I saw the statements from the owners, and I saw that it was circling the wagons time. How each one cited no evidence and just responded to your claims with bluster. I said as much in the comments of that post, and was of the few dissenting voices in a sea of people not wanting to admit the MAY have backed the wrong horse, or saying that you were trying to promote yourself through muck-raking. I dithered further on unsubscribing, but you have to forgive me, I have untreated ADHD so task agency is kinda non-existent for me. But what finally made me unsubscribe was the fact that it had been 2 weeks since I had watched anything from Second Wind. Design Delve was less about highlighting good gameplay mechanics, but instead shitting on bad ones, Yahtzee seemed to be getting vindictive with his attacks on Fully Ramblomatic and covering really uninteresting topics in Semi-Ramblomatic, and the streams were boring because everyone accept Frost has no on screen presence. And I don't say that as a suck up; Frost is very laid back, but kinda like that friend who's happy to have you over just to vibe in each other's presence without the presure of talking. But Yahtzee feels like he wants the stream to just end, Marty and Jack feel like drive time radio hosts, KC was alright I must admit, and Nick was super awkward. So I quit the Patreon, citing Nick Calandra as the reason. I'm glad this video has assured me further this decision was correct. I just hope you keep yourself safe, mate. Because the sort of people who have blinkers to people like Nick have blinkers to reason, common-sense and thought, and think if they hurt you it will silence you. So please, keep close to your friends and family and even alert the local police. If all you've said about Nick is true, the petty son-bitch will play dirty. Additionally, you can totally be incompetent and manipulative! Often times being manipulative doesn't require intricate plans, its knowing what people want and applying force until they do what you want because you don't have the skills and acumen to see it through yourself. If you're someone like Nick with the want to be big in games journalism, but not the raw writing talent or organisational skill to get ahead, and you lack moral scruples, you will totally be dishonest and take credit for other's work to get ahead. A fallacy people really need to unlearn is that manipulation takes skill. It doesn't. We are naturally social creatures who want to ultimately contribute to a bigger whole and assume that others do to. The grifters, manipulators and con-artists play on this, and make you ultimately believe you both want to see the success of the group when you are doing all the work. And then we are angry at the person who was fooled because they were being human, when we should be angry at the fucking devil in the cloak who fooled them. Remember the phrase "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" we really need to relearn that meaning of this phrase. That is someone is fooled, it ultimately the fault of person doing the fooler, the Nick if you will, and we the audience, cannot be blamed for his duplicity. But if we then trot back to his orbit and he fools us again, well, we should have noticed the patterns.
Gonna up this particular comment. You've put a lot of my feelings on this whole situation into words, triply so on the Patreon post explaining SWG's side of things when this first went down. Yahtzee's own (admittedly understandable) apathy to the whole thing, and it being placed at the very top of the response, colored my feelings to it in a way that made it feel kinda suspicious. Regardless of everything, man's painted a target on a back boldly in Nick's field of view. If Frost's wrong, then all Nick needs to do is fact check the receipts that Frost shared, and then d'oh, weren't we all fooled by the suave-spoken man. If Frost is on, or close to, the bullseye with Nick's character though, then a much stronger retaliation from them isn't outta the question.
"task agency is kinda non-existent for me. But what finally made me unsubscribe was the fact that it had been 2 weeks since I had watched anything from Second Wind" My man, I remain subscribed to some channels I have not watched in years. Your task agency is fine.
I don't think I could ever reasonably work in any industry where the boss says "I PLAN to pay you for the work..." No, how about right now? Because you know, I did some work? There's a word for unpaid workers...
I’m still scratching my head over the meeting agenda that says “no back pay for November, December, or January.” People didn’t get paid for 90 days? Or what?
Its an inherent part of business for profit as opposed to not for profit business. Not a pleasant part either, just a part that comes from the need for profitable survival.
Speaking as someone who is mediocre in many respects, it seems like what Frost is really getting at here is that a lot of people in the industry need to face up to their own mediocrity. Or at least areas of improvement. And Frost is pointing out their historical inability to self-evaluate. That's worth something
The last time someone told me "And I'm totally going to compensate you for that", I never saw another fucking cent from them, and it's been over a decade. Nick sounds like the type of guy that you have to wash the grease off after you shake his hand AND count your fingers.
@@Ornithopter470 "Oh, I wouldn't even know how to write a good contract for that! But we don't need something so formal, do we? A handshake is all we really need, since we're such good buddies!"
If you're taking suggestions, I loved "The Stuff of Legends" back on the Escapist, and I noticed the dip in quality when you said Nick started forcing it. But the original idea, if you made a series like that, i would watch hours of it.
SWG being a shitshow isn't a surprise, in fairness; even without a parasite like Nick, any kind of horizontally organized entity is pretty much guaranteed to be a shitshow it's kind of hilarious to see Jack arguing that they had more meeting ergo communication was good. meetings,, by themselves, are NOT a good sign of communication, and an over-abundance of meetings are a sign people aren't able or willing to communicate frequently enough
Don't know if you'll personally see this, but great stuff! I had to watch it (well, listen to it) twice to feel like I absorbed it but I felt it painted a pretty clear picture by filling in important things (dysfunctional internal SWG dynamics, the ties to THQ Nordic, solidarity with Nick because of a lack of options, etc.). Anyway, on a completely different note, I was wondering if you'll continue with the one-off reviews and other short, gremlin-energy videos like the GameScent going forward. I started picking through your hidden playlists and original Cold Takes and you're just a generally entertaining dude no matter the topic. Regardless, I'm going to stay tuned to whatever you have up next!
This was absolutely infuriating. Thank you Frost for your work. But Second Wind is still pretty much running relatively fine despite all of this evidence. As long as Yahtzee pays for Nick's checks and he is tolerated, I don't know if he will be held accountable. The fact that we were lied to by Nick over the escapist scandal, I will not forget that.
Whatever happens professionally in the future, I doubt the SWG is going to be very personally accessible to Frost in the future. Many of these things don't relate to behaviour under Nick's management, and I feel that not mentioning other co-owners Matt or Javed comes directly because they didn't contribute to the joint statement against Frost. 1:06:19 While you may wish to highlight Omar's history outside working with Nick, you're attacking his character, not his actions or inactions 1:18:30 Whilst it was undoubtedly frustrating to deal with, this footage has to do with Jack being incompetent, not Nick being toxic 1:26:08 This is literally just complaining about JM8, not impropriety 1:27:59 Not even related to SWG 1:31:46 You've definitely burnt the bridge, torpedoed it, then sucked the remains into a whirlpool
Very thoughtful and detailed piece. I've dealt with similar people in a different industry, and took a similar approach... though I was fortunate enough to not have it be so public. Thank you for speaking out, and bringing evidence to back your stance. Also, thanks for the history lesson.
Makes me sad to see Frost keep trying to say something in the live meet, and being patient, yet not getting a chance to fully finish speaking. Frost even kept his hand raised- like c'mon already.
I liked the Hearst vs Pulitzer stuff a lot. Go that direction and just let Nick fuck up whatever he's fucking up. Eventually it will be untenable without you stressing over it. I mean true, I said that about the Presidential race too but here we are again. Now I don't even know what my point was. ... Oh I remember. A Third Nick Teardown will make you look obsessed.
The problem you know is always safer than the solution you don't know.....this is why people put up with, or dismiss, being in toxic relationships (romantic, platonic, business, etc). But there's always a breaking point eventually.
I'm finding it all too easy to be caught in a *wind* of validation here. As rude as it may have been, I felt the same way when reading all of the _we only want Yahtzee_ comments, with this 'Nick' guy responding to so many of them under the channel account. It turns out that my low tolerance for all of the years of mediocre content spam, including the stuff outside of gaming, came about because of that one guy who also, along with Marty, were absolute charisma vaccuums - Though to be fair, it wasn't until SWG that I was exposed to such people being thrusted into a live entertainment setting. Meanwhile, Frost's work became my favourite stuff and was solely the reason I resubscribed to The Escapist after so many years of remembering to routinely search 'Zero Punctuation' each week on a Wednesday to keep up. Whilst I'm not into their long running TTRPG show, nor do I enjoy the style of Design Delve, I can certainly appreciate the effort that goes into both and the value they provide to fans. Just about everything else felt like filler. Even the Slightly Civil/Uncivil War stuff had an air of 'we don't really want to be doing this' about them. Come to think of it, The Escapist website was how I got introduced to Jim Sterling. Man, that was quite a while ago...
After SWG's PR statement, which I saw after watching your video on this mess, I'll admit: I was skeptical. I second-guessed my decision in subscribing to this channel. That may have been a healthy approach - it's generally unwise taking something/someone at face value - but you had something Nick, KC, and the rest didn't in their response: receipts. Especially in this video. So, I'm happy to say I'll stick around to see what comes next for you. Hopefully, more Cold Take episodes, as I value your work.
I haven't watched this one yet, but I've been in the same boat as to who to believe. The PR statement was basically a bunch of people suggesting that a lot of the previous video was taken out of context or exaggerated and, sure. That's plausible. I don't know any of these people, including Frost. But its just as likely that the staff are hoping to brush this all under the rug to avoid jeopardizing SWG's precarious future. And like, I couldn't even blame them if that's what they're doing. They all just lost their long-time positions at the Escapist and have only just started establishing themselves as SWG. Its natural that they wouldn't want to rock the boat again.
I had the exact opposite reaction. I saw the SWG statement 'reaction' and now I'm even more sure I made the right call with believing the folks in SWG. Frost goes on a 30s rant about Marty "feeling" no pressure. Something completely unrelated to the statement, then trying (and failing) to link it back together. His entire stance on Jack is just Frost saying "nuh uh" and "take my word for it." Then goes on to say that Jack a bad man and abused his power...trust me (frost). Then goes on to make meetings a big deal by talking about all the ones that happened that Frost wasnt in. As if those mater. They do not, not even one bit. Frost was in the ones that he was privy too, and not in the ones he had no say in. Exactly as they should be. Omar is, again, Frost saying "Trust me" a lot while providing next to nothing. Makes claims about Omar being clueless, but doesnt provide ANY evidence to support it. All Frost does is connect very, very, thin assumptions to support his "trust me, hes clueless" opinion. Frost completely dismissed Jesse S. because he failed to understand what Jesse said. Resorting to belittling Jesse because he couldnt come up with anything to say other then "I dont understand a word in context." JM8 gets his character assassinated right off the bat. "Hes emotional," as if thats a problem. Says he gets focused on his work, like thats a bad thing, then Frost condemns JM8 for having an opinion that he doesnt agree with. Jesse G's statement is just "Hes an idiot, you cant believe anything he says." Sure, thats a perfectly reasonable thing to say (it isnt). For KC its more of the same, Frost making claims without any evidence, and just saying "Trust me." Going on to paint KC as a greedy asshole (as he did with others in the SWG) without any evidence, other then (again) "Trust me." He then paints KCs rebuttal to Frosts goals segments as being a terrible thing to say. None of it is. KC is trying to keep everyone together, and Frost is going on a rampage. "Why should a testimonial with no evidence carry and weight when it comes to the bigger picture" ---Frost. Yes that applies to Frost too, and he failed that many times here. Frost goes out of his way to demonize every single person, provide no evidence outside of screen shots of nothing that can be verified, and conversations that dont show at all what hes talking about. I fully expect this comment to get deleted by Frost. Hes done it before to one of my comments, so we'll see if he keeps at it.
@@soulofmendude, you're saying Frost doesn't give evidence about things that he very explicitly gives evidence about, such as meeting details and financial receipts.
If only one thing happens off the back of this, I hope it's that more people begin recording meetings and keeping records. Evidence of a person's own words is far more likely to open the eyes of those who might not want to believe things because they like the person in question.
1:14:26 Reading that discord message from Jack is making my brain hurt. Co-owners apparently get paid through a profit share, have salaries, are all contractors. 2 out of those three things makes sense, but all three is extremely weird to me. An owner who has a profit share but is also a contractor makes sense for an owner who isn't a full-time employee. But that wouldn't require a salary Co-owners who get paid salaries shouldn't be contractors, they are then employees, but why would you have a profit share if you're actively taking a salary? That's double dipping and is very bad business practice for such a diverse ownership portfolio, And Cisco was a co-owner and head of sales, so he would have gotten a revenue share but didn't get a commission? That seems like a really fancy way of distributing the commission amongst all the owners. You would bake into the position and by-laws that the head of sales commissions contribute to their portion of the ownership revenue share, because otherwise you'd effectively be paying them the revenue split twice. I'll admit that I don't have the best business acumen, but the structure on the face of it has a number of areas where the owners can game the system for their own benefit which is catastrophic given such an imbalanced and diverse ownership structure. It feels like they wanted to structure like a publicly traded company with dividends to stockholders without understanding that will drain the business of the cash it needs for expansion. Completely bizarre to me, but I could be wrong.
I think some of the more unconstructive things in the situation are the joint testimonies SWG gave out. From a PR perspective I understand a united front, but from the perspective of me just wanting to know what actually happened, it seems like a strategy meant to pledge loyalty to Nick. To commit before having a chance to reconsider. Here's hoping time brings further clarity to the situation... Looking forward to the next Cold Take, stay Frosty ;)
Saying Frost doesn’t speak for them when he never claimed such is just a way to pretend he’s a liar. Combine that with the way they had little positive to say about Nick and the blatant PR bullshit was more damning to me than silence. When people try to misdirect you, you know somebody has touched a nerve.
"seems like a strategy meant to pledge loyalty to Nick" I really don't get that impression. Mostly it just seems like a bunch of guys who have no background in business management suddenly taking on the responsibility of business management, many with motivations which boil down to, "This is the only thing I've got on the table for the foreseeable future so I must protect it." It's not loyalty to Nick, it's naive hope that all of this will blow over and they can stop thinking about it.
Three things. First, the intro summary of demagogues was incredibly well done and I feel like other people not invested in this Nick Calendra stuff should see it. Second, I think the addressing the other SWG members’ statements was also a smart thing to do because when I read them before this it felt very strange. Then realizing so many of them are fucked if SWG goes south it makes more sense. Third, I’m someone who has always been curious how Marty got hired to do more games media stuff after IGN (idk what happened, wish I did because I’m a gossipy bastard like that). Watching the interview you posted with Nick and Colin Moriarty talking about Marty gave me even more red flags because Colin is scummy in his own way and seems to be underplaying Marty’s past/situation that Nick is taking advantage of. Fantastic work, good luck!
All good points. Not addressing the "rebuttals" would be problematic if your currency is "principles" and they sort of put themselves out there but the doubling down and bluntness was tough to listen to. Guess that's it for those relationships.
It sounds like a personal matter, but personal matters can absolutely reflect on how you are viewed professionally. A violation of a personal promise indicates someone who can’t be trusted to keep a professional one.
Where is the video of the interview, if you do not mind me asking? It sounded like a video was to be provided around 1:11:10, but I did not see one. I did not realize how big of a mystery this thing with Marty was, but there is all sorts of rumors and discussion on it apparently.
