Desert Bus is happy to welcome back Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw for a call-in on Wednesday, November 20th at 6pm PST.
Yahtzee is an English ex-Pat based in Australia who is the genius behind the hilarious and cutting online game review series Zero Punctuation. Yahtzee’s moniker became a gamer household name in 2007 when he reviewed Fable: The Lost Chapters and a demo of The Darkness and released the videos on YouTube. Shortly after their release, Yahtzee was contacted by online magazine The Escapist who presented him with a shiny contract for a weekly series. Since then, Yahtzee releases a new video every Wednesday, each full of scathing wit and rapid fire criticism. Yahtzee also stars in a series on The Escapist called Jim & Yahtzee’s Rhymedown Spectacular, which features original poetry.
Yahtzee writes his own video games and provides the graphics and animations himself using a combination of Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Paint. He’s the creator of several independent adventure game lines, such as The Arthur Yahtzee Trilogy and The Rob Blanc Trilogy, as well as many other standalone titles.
In 2010 Yahtzee added “Write A Book” to his list of achievements when he released his first novel, Mogworld, which tells the story of a miscreant zombie hero named Jim. He released a second novel in 2012 called Jam, which fittingly involves “an apocalypse… WITH JAM IN IT”. Yahtzee is also one of the four founders of The Mana Bar, a video game cocktail lounge with locations in Brisbane and Melbourne.
If you would like to ask Yahtzee a question, please leave it in the comments below.
yahtzee, you charismatic stallion that you are, Where do you come up with your ridiculous wit when doing your shows?
yahtzee, forgive me for being pants on head retarded. but when are you going to do more mail bag episodes? PS: I need to buy more of your shirts.
Do you every get tongue tied or just find it difficult to review a game?
Are there any video games that you didn’t really like at first, or gave a negative review, that you eventually gained some appreciation for as time went on?
In a recent podcast about Let’s Plays, you talked shortly about how it’s actually an exercise in video game criticism. Do you think Let’s Plays are something you would reconsider exploring after Zero Punctuation has run its course?
Related to that: do you have plans to continue video game criticism in general if/when Zero Punctuation ends?
How did you and Gabriel Meet and become such good friends?
What do you think about Valve’s efforts to bring a 3rd party to the hardcore console fight and their approach in doing so?
What games are you looking forward to in the coming year?
Hey Yahtzee! Love your content!
Will you be coming to PAX Aus next year? A fellow “Aussie” wants to know.
How much foreskin is too much foreskin?
Hey Yahtzee, how hard was it getting your books published or do you have any interesting/funny stories from getting your books published?
Hi Desert Bus Crew & Yahtzee! You’ve said in the past that you love chocolate;
are you a Nestlé or Cadbury man, or do you favour a higher quality brand such as Hotel Chocolat? Also do you know which British TV show my name is an homage to…?
Hi Yahtzee
You’ve said before that cooking mama is one of your favorite games, so what makes cooking mama such an excellent game?
Hello Ben!
Do you ever miss dear old, grey, sarcastic, Blighty?
Love your work and just wanted to say that your homeland loves you…or, well, everyone I know who uses the internet here does anyway.
I loved Mogworld and Jam! Are you going to do more novels? In fact, any more writing from you at all would be much appreciated.
Hey, Yahtzee! Love your reviews, and loved Mogworld and Jam.
Has there ever been a moment in a game- playable or otherwise- that just gripped you, just made you go, “Wow”? A tense moment in a horror game, a dramatic twist that threw you for a loop, an amazingly fun boss fight, something like that?
If you were a flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, which would you be and why?
Hi everybody! Let me start by saying that you guys are all doing an amazing job.
I wanted to make a question to Yahtzee about the upcoming Thief reboot, since it was actually his retrospective which introduced me to that amazing series.
As you claimed in the past, before reviewing a game you go in a media blackout of sorts, so that your opinion of the game is not too much influenced by marketing hype, pre-release news, etc.
How much did you break your policy on this one, given that you’re a fan of the series? And given what you know about it, how would you rate your expectations on a scale from “cautiously optimistic” to “I hate everything”? I’d bet something along the line of “I want to hurt someone”.
Keep being awesome, guys!
As someone who has written a novel, what advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Dear Yahtzee,
What fantasy worlds did you draw from as inspiration/bases for the universe of Mogworld?
In your critical opinion, is The Last of Us the Citizen Kane of board games?
Yahtzee, I hear very little about The Mana Bar.
1. What kind of success has The Mana Bar seen?
2. How does it feel to be a founder?
3. Will there ever be any plans for multinational chains?
Yahtzee, I know you’ve made a few games over the years – I personally particularly liked Trilby: The Art of Theft.
Is there anything you’re working on/would like to work on that you think you could make yourself, and what would you design if you lived in a fantasy dreamland with unlimited time, money, and assistant coders and artists?
Dear Dr. Yahtzee:
How many ukuleles do you own?
I fixed a typo in Yahtzee’s last name. Talk about eating crow!
Hey Yahtzee. I was wondering, where did the name Yahtzee come from?
how do you play video games with boxing gloves on?
what do you think of the current prime minster of Australia?
do they remind you of tony Blair?
Do you feel that the Rhymedown Spectacular is letting you express a different type of your artistic side apart from your reviews or books?
I really enjoyed the Mogworld audiobook, as I have problems reading and audiobooks provide a great opportunity for me to experience them. My question is if we’re going to see an audiobook of JAM anytime soon.
I am currently trying to write a novel for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and it’s harder than I thought. What gave you the energy and drive to write your own novels?
I loved your novels! Are you going to write more?
I especially enjoyed Mogworld’s focus on the difference between a hero and a protagonist.
Why can’t Suda51 make a new game that is as good as K7?
What games are you really excited for after watching some e3 trailers?
Any plans on making another crossover with Unskippable (or any collaboration with LRR)?
Hey, Yahtzee! Love your reviews, and loved Mogworld and Jam!
Has there ever been a moment in a game- cutscene or other wise- that just stuck with you? An amazingly fun boss fight, a twist that threw you for a loop, things like that?
Dear Yahtzee
I liked your Ghosts review! Do you think that those spunkgargleweewee games will continue to be released for the foreseeable future, or will they eventually die?
Where do you go for your games criticism, reviews and commentary? What particular sites and people do you enjoy in the field?
I really enjoy Zero Punctuation since it applies criticism humorously. Do you think the few prominent academic games critics the world ever hears from should use criticism to say “this game is bad, this is why,” as they tend to do, or do you think this is holding games criticism back?
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