Boy Wonder: Ben Croshaw vs. Yahtzee

Yahtzee is the name of the game for many aspiring industry gurus. Ben Croshaw, more often known as Yahtzee of The Escapist's Zero Punctuation video column, has quickly become the gold standard of game boy success, but don't be fooled by his handle. The rise of Yahtzee wasn't purely a dice toss.

In his mid-twenties, Croshaw has a loyal following, a steady job, and a prime piece of print real estate writing Gary Whitta's old "Backspace" column for PC Gamer as a contributing editor. He's dipped his oar into game development, fiction, journalism, and animation, and where many would sink from overexertion, Yahtzee paddles on.

From the look of his website, FullyRamblomatic.com, Croshaw would prefer to remain an enigma. The About section begins:

A somewhat epic, if not slightly exaggerated origin story for a website. Even though he calls his pet page (which he now uses primarily as an online portfolio) a website for "Real Men" and claims, "If Bruce Campbell were a website, he'd be this one," it's safe to assume the irony is last lost on himself. Couple his take on manhood ("I'm 100% red hot hunk of man, and all men like watching boobies jiggling around, when they're not lifting weights, grunting and messing around under the bonnets of expensive cars (the men, that is, not the boobies).)" with a typical Croshaw mugshot. His stingy brim hat and dweeb-chic eyewear seem more ironic than iconic in the context of hot rods and exhaustive reps.

So how much of Yahtzee is Croshaw, and how much is shrewd caricature? In a post-Colbert world, it's sometimes hard to tell where personalities end and pundits begin.  After all, as valuable as is the knowledge of Croshaw, it's pennies to the dollar on Yahtzee's acidic tongue. That sweet boy in the picture would never sell without a shtick.

For all the distance theatrics afford him, Yahtzee hasn't managed to beat the backlash. Know-betters all around the globe use forums and fan mail to wag their own caustic tongues in disapproval, and the critic's critics don't have their affiliations to worry about. It's telling that, before he'll invite you to make contact, Croshaw has a lengthy list of caveats, one advising women that they don't stand a chance, but most saying roughly "don't be an ******." And on Digg.com, where Zero Punctuation is as much a staple as Huffington Post, Cracked, and Parody Motivational Posters, he has droves of proud anti-fans who range from sceptical like BradOFarrell:"Yahtzee's kind of going from a serious games reviewer to a jokesy whiner," to venomous like GodIsntReal: "I wish this idiot was even a LITTLE bit funny."

Still, Croshaw is beloved by many, and envied by most. He is the Peter-Pan-gone-right that misleads many of us to think that a little luck and a general lack of focus might lead to our discovery. Aspiring models and actors tell themselves the same myth, although it's admittedly a larger leap for someone to genuinely identify with Kate Moss or Christian Bale. Croshaw, on the other hand, is just unkempt and self-deprecating enough for us to emotionally access him. At the end of the day, odds are we find ourselves to be prettier, richer, hipper, or nicer than little Ben C, which makes it all the more easy to think we could do what he does.

Yahtzee is living the collective dream of plenty of people I know online. In fact, he's living the dream of some of the most ambitious, charismatic folks I know in the real world as well. Nobody is asking him to define himself by trade, title, or career path. He has dabbled in most aspects of the industry he enjoys, enough to give him the ethos and vocabulary that substantiate his reviews. Simultaneously, this lack of specialization gives him the refreshingly removed perspective of an outsider, and at least at one time, the enthusiasm of a fan boy.

It is indeed the sensation of Yahtzee that causes us to forget the hard labor of Ben Croshaw. Almost by the book, he got his lucky break being discovered by The Escapist (and a number of other outlets who wanted him) after MS Painting just two installments of Zero Punctuation and uploading them to YouTube.

After feeling a 400% increase in traffic, it was clear to The Escapist that Croshaw had been a lucrative acquisition.  It may be tempting to say Zero Punctuation was a bit of a lottery ticket on both ends, but to undermine the work that went into production is hazardous. An avid writer, Croshaw understands narrative. A student of humor, he understands timing. His breadth of knowledge of game mechanics comes not only from playing, but developing, constructing, and imagining. The difference between Yahtzee and every mook who thinks he or she can, is that Yahtzee does and frequently, Yahtzee fails. His own site is stacked with work that never really got off the ground ranging from novels to games to storytelling in GMod. He hit it big by synthesizing many of his talents in a way that rang culturally relevant, but that took the kind of insight that grows out of patient observation. For most of us, patience is the missing link.