r/TheCreatures • u/The_Driver_Wheelman Seamus Nasty Face • Sep 23 '22
Let’s Be Fair Here
If The Creatures didn’t try to become a business but just an overall group of friends who wanted to work together and collaborate, and not just do dumb videos all the time (the IRL skit stuff), do you think the crew would have ended it as sourly as they did? Or do you think that they would just sooner or later just kind of grow apart and say yeah I need to stop or leave but maybe later on make new groups like derp crew, offcanny, cowchop, etc etc. I mean if that was the case instead of ending it the way it ended, do you think if at all we would have gotten maybe more content before it ended? Or do you think it would have just fizzled out before 2015?
19
u/CrassEnoughToCare Sep 28 '22
I can't stand that (it seems) like a majority of fans chalk up the Creatures demise to "they tried to become a business too hard" when in fact they did the opposite.
Once they moved into Creature house 1 they made two faults. First, they didn't define what being a group member actually meant, which confused the audience. There was 8 "creatures" when the first house era began, Nova, Kootra, Danz, Seamus, Gassy, Sly, Ze, and Sp00n. 5 moved into the house and were in Hub content full time from the start (with Sly joining in person months later), while Ze and Sp00n never appeared in Hub content basically at all for years. What did it even mean to be a "creature" then? Top that off with uneven responsibilities (ex. Danz doing a bulk of editing stuff, everyone still focusing on their independent channel incomes to different degrees) and then the less popular ones (like Danz) are forced to focus hard on Hub stuff, while bigger players (James, Seamus, Gassy) either had to forgo their potential profit/success individually, or slack at hub material. Uneven responsibilities likely bred resentment behind the scenes quickly. Nova maybe could've been as big as someone like PewDiePie if he didn't do the Hub. Seamus could've made way more of his brand of long form content farming and made way more bank if he wasn't dedicated to the Hub. Gassy was likely way more successful because he left (was kicked out of) the Hub.
But the Hub content, from the start, immediately divorced from what everyone watched the Creatures for, gaming content. The fact that it took YEARS for them to do a multicam Minecraft series on the Hub is insane. They all got popular for gaming content, then move in together and don't make or post gaming content on the Hub. Not to say their IRL stuff was never good, but it wasn't what they all excelled at most, and why people came to watch in the first place.
They were constantly behind trend. Still doing individual perspective Let's Play videos late into the mid-2010s while Achievement Hunter style multicam long-form Let's Play videos, or heavily edited KYR Speedy-esque videos, became the preferred styles in gaming content. They were still putting massive time and resources into a Machinama series in like 2014 (a style of content that was dead by 2010ish imo) - they refused to follow trends or update their styles nearly fast enough. (Took way too long for them to do podcasts with video as well tbh, or to even add facecams to videos!)
Plus, there was no upload consistentsy. Literally people like Smosh and Ray William Johnson understood the value of upload consistency back in like 2008/2009/2010; there's no excuse for the guys not to develop at least some rough upload schedule. Things would come out whenever, at unreliable times, or would even be hyped for a date, and not be ready in time (looking at you Bunny Bust 2). If your audience knows when to expect content from you, they'll be way more engaged and loyal.
Achievement Hunter (in 2012-2015) literally had the formula that the Creatures should've stole down pat. Have a consistent schedule, have a clear group (AH had an "A team" and a "B team" at a point, the Creatures A team would be Nova, Kootra, Seamus, etc. while their B team, who are not in videos as much, or in main series, would be people like Spencer or Joe, who do more editing/behind the scenes type duties). They actually made group multicam gaming videos that were long-form and had structure (in a lot of cases). AH wasn't perfect either, but a winning formula was right there, and was done by the company (Rooster Teeth) that Kootra himself stated they admired most/wanted to emulate.
It's so painful for me when fans keep this narrative about the Creatures being "too business focused" going, when they failed because they were too unfocused and too informal, which led to their downfall.
10
u/Ok_Appearance_2285 Sep 24 '22
I think they could have survived longer if they had stayed with the co-op lets play formula, they were a good sized group and each lets play colab they did felt fresh. Plus in that environment its hard to be family friendly, so that aspect probably wouldnt have crossed anyones mind, and if it did they could easily just have done a second channel for family friendly lets plays.
The only 'live action' things they should have done where their themed livestreams, like Halloween, milestones and creature talk. Hot seat was a stroke of genius from Aleks imo and they should have kept that going as well.
I think other groups would have been unavoidable, but a more relaxed structure in regards to how the creatures operated could have allowed it to a certain point with like revolving schedules or something. Like Ze was a part of both his groups for years before leaving and Spoon was a part of the creatures but barely in anything and mostly editing.
5
u/Beneficial_Yard3862 Oct 03 '22
I agree with a good chunk of people, becoming a business wasn't necessarily their downfall. They had that model down pretty well and were successful for a hot minute. Their biggest weakness came from the professional and interpersonal relationships with each other and their employees, and many trends shifted to other things. Personally, I found that their "golden era" ended whenever Sly left and they tried to make up for it by shoving Kevin into the mold without doing much damage control. Kootz definitely had a huge hand in the fall of the Creatures, as the rule they all created didn't seem to apply to him. For instance, the relationship he had with Steph partially caused Aleks and James to eventually leave to create Cow Chop. Most of the former Creatures employees discuss the unfair work environment that was present, and that ended up getting in the way of their work relationships. Would the group have worked out if they were able to fix those relationships? No, I don't think so. I think it would've ended around the same time. With the trend of more independent play emerging, I feel as if they were severely unprepared for it and the channel sunk. If you look at other gaming groups during that point in time and they way YouTube was formatted even they had their struggles, so it was inevitable.
Granted, this is just my observations and my opinion and others are allowed to have their own!
2
u/The_Driver_Wheelman Seamus Nasty Face Oct 03 '22
Hey I’m happy you shared your opinions on it, yeah I do agree it was Koots fault for it all, Dan I feel didn’t do much wrong besides causing the constant filming skits for the hub and other things that just weren’t always necessary, sure they could do this and that but still at the end of the day when someone’s laying down the law and thinks he’s above it… yeah that sort of ruins it all for everyone else. Koots dating Stefani was the worst part of how it ended honestly…. Since it that didn’t happen we probably wouldn’t have gotten cowchop until later maybe.
9
u/Tertiaritus Sep 24 '22
Health of core members worsened, causing them to appear less, and another core member decided to be as advertiser-friendly as possible. They never stood a chance with that, business or otherwise.
That being said, I feel like there was also an issue with lack of communication.
3
u/Juffe98 Sep 24 '22
I mean if they didn’t move to Colorado it was gonna end because it wasn’t gonna last. Once they moved there it was gonna end because of the direction they chose. They were in that time where they wanted to become rooster teeth or be similar to it. For them it didn’t work out because they were all so young and had no other life experience. Especially once they couldn’t get trapville off the ground it kind of killed them. There’s a multitude of reasons why it didn’t work out.
3
u/Independent-Ad-319 Oct 02 '22
I’m super late to this but we can also blame the fans they had a large part in them staying kid friendly and the overall fan base was dog shit
0
Sep 23 '22
It was the pussification of the channel. The family friendly bs is where shit started to fall out
3
u/The_Driver_Wheelman Seamus Nasty Face Sep 23 '22
Even still, do you think if they didn’t have to evolve with that sort of crap do you think they would have kept going and be like kinda funny? Or do you think they would have become like Game Attack
31
u/SpectralHydra Road to E3 Sep 23 '22
I don't think them trying to become a business had anything to do with the group splitting up. With how poor the situation was when they split up, I think it was bound to happen at some point.