eGameFame: Ben “The Yahtzee” Croshaw, the journalist with a vision

Gamers love him, publishers hate him and games tremble in fear of him.

First off before we move onto the target, or rather, this enigmatic personality I just would like to say the South African Pillars series is not canceled, but from next week it will be running on Wednesdays and Thursday’s alternating.

With that out of the way we can move ahead.

Most people will know him for creating the Zero Punctuation series but he is a multi-faceted person. His skills do not only stop there they continue to grow and he has already made himself pretty well known in many circles. If you haven’t guessed who this guy is well his name is Ben Croshaw (WHAT YOU STILL DON”T KNOW?) aka “The Yahtzee”.

It all began one stormy night in the year of 1983 due to very strange occurrences a baby was born. Obviously the events surrounding the birth are still unknown but we do know this that 20 years later the people of England rejoiced as he left the country moving to Australia. All that nonsense aside except the bit about the places and the dates and time frame (which are true) we can now move to the really interesting bits. He really moved up from the not well known status to being one of the most talked about gaming personalities.

Anyways less useless nonsense (what isn’t in here) and moving onto more pertinent information (not sure what is in context of previous box). Ben is not just a gamer, he is a developer and not one that started really really late in the game but rather when he was young. While in High School he created his first game and since then has gone on to make many more games. His games are written and created by himself (all the bits except the music). Most of them are created using Visual Basic 3 and MS paint (the earlier ones) and later on moved to Photoshop and Adventure Game Studio. This is from where his early comedy can be seen developing also his first game “The Arthur Yahtzee Trilogy” but what we find more importantly in here is his alter ego/persona manifested which most people know as The Yahtzee. All in all he has created over 12 games (counting the trilogies as one) which is a feat in its own right. So from here we see is fame shooting up in the AGS community and in the indie game creation industry exponentially.

Now the bit most of you probably have been waiting for, yes you got it; it is Zero Punctuation time. ZP’s roots are humble ’ish, they began when Ben Croshaw reviewed a demo of The Darkness and Fable: Lost Chapters. But what really sparked this was as he was watching YouTube videos (obviously blasting away at people in his mind) he struck on the idea that what could I do without real video equipment and just stills and narration. And thus ZP was born with the first episodes airing on YouTube thereafter The Escapist contacted him and contracted him. A lot of the attraction around his review style is his critical view and the way he can rip a game to shreds. Few games rarely receive a good review from him but games that have include s Silent Hill 2, Left 4 Dead, EarthBound, the Thief series (“The Thief series are the only games that have done stealth well”), Saints Row 2, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Painkiller, Infamous, Prototype, Call of Duty 4, Psychonauts, Assassin’s Creed 2, and The Orange Box (more importantly Portal being one of the games he enjoyed). Those are just a few of the games; those are 70%-85% of the list. Onwards and forwards, a recurring character besides the Yahtzee character is the imp. The imp became a recurring character after The Darkness demo review; they are portrayed as minions or sometimes as a sidekick. Michael Atkinson the attorney general of Australia has been bashed by almost every gaming journalist for his stance on gaming and Ben Croshaw is not exempt from that list. He cites Charlie Brooker as the main inspiration behind his style and if you ever watched him you would understand what he means, another reviewer that he watches and really seems to enjoy is Noah Antwiler who runs the Spoony Experiment (go ahead and watch something there, we can wait).

And his talents do not stop here they go even further. He has created a few comics but what is of more interest is his book that is set to be published by Dark Horse books in August this year. The book’s name is Mogworld and is about a boy who is wrenched back to life 60 years after his death by a necromancer.

The last piece I would like to touch on is his 2 latest ventures. The first being a gaming show that he and his mates (make him feel at home should he read this, oh the presenters names are The Yahtzee, YUG and Matt) are trying to get launched. The show is called Game Damage which is their take on all gaming related things and from what the trailer/pilot has shown it is set to rock. Let us just sit here and hope that this gets picked up.

The second thing is Mana Bar, no he I am not talking about games but rather the fact they are opening and designing a gaming bar. Do not be surprised if you see potions as drinks as it is targeted at a gaming audience but not the hardcore type. It will be a casual place for people to chill out and game with friends.

Just a random bit of trivia he won 2 awards for his journalism. The Screwattack Gaming’s 1337 award for Best Reviewer and the Sun Microsystems IT Journalism award for Best Gaming Journalist.

So this brings me to the end of this review, I still feel that I have not done complete justice to this personality. He is extremely talented and I wish him the best in all his endeavors. On a final note this is not the last you will see of him on eGamer as I sit here and hope to do an interview soon (hope it materializes soon).

Name: Husain Haffejee
Location: Johannesburg
Position: Author

Husain has published 121 posts. Read all of Husain's posts.

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