My Life In Fandom: It's Not Work If It's Fun

It can't rain all the time.

I went looking around YouTube for some Warhammer 40K stuff the other day, and I found this video reviewing Relic Entertainment's excellent Space Marine action game. Take a coffee break and watch this. It's hilarious.

Yes, he did enjoy playing that game. Since Relic doesn't exist, there is no sequel. Instead, he relied on its spiritual successor to follow that up.

I'm pointing out Russian Badger here because of one thing: he is consistently funny. The goofy interaction you see in the Deathwing video is not staged; I've seen him stream live on Twitch, where he plays his main game--Rainbow Six: Siege--with those game goofy pals. That interaction is authentic, folks, and if he only streamed more often I'd have more to show you. Instead you'll just have to watch more of his videos while you wait. Oh darn.

He's a shitposter. That's it. Don't expect more from Badger than that. He clearly doesn't; he lives in Globohomo Central (San Francisco) and makes his living cutting videos on games that are in the Live Service model (like Siege), such that he was actually asked to participate in an Influencer show tournament at the Raleigh, NC event for Siege last weekend. (Said event was more entertaining than any MOBA or Starcraft 2 event I've seen. That's sad.)

What he is doing is being the entertainment folks want to see. He's taking his talents and resources, making the most of what he's got, and cashing fat checks accordingly; he is not hurting for being in Frisco. Yes, he puts in plenty of work that you're not seeing; he edits his own videos, and that is a valuable skill in itself he's cultivated and honed over several years. (Check his backlog; he's been at this for almost as long as Razorfist.)

I'm pointing it out because he's been noticed increasingly over the last few years, and that's the reward for consistently producing work that draws and holds an audience, which these two videos--videos he did because he liked the games, games he bought with his own money--demonstrate. His overnight success took years to set up, and now he's beginning to reap the harvest of that labor. We'll get there too if we hold the course.