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The John Linneman aka Dark1x And DF Appreciation thread
- Thread starter TheDutchSlayer
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I spend way too much time at work on youtube and more time than i'd like on youtube on my commute and at home. The grand majority of the content I watch is related to video games. DF Retro is easily my favorite youtube gaming content out the 100+ different channels I subscribe to specifically for video games. John turning the Ark Switch video into a mini-DF Retro by reviewing Contra 3 while waiting for Ark to load had me laughing my ass off.
Thanks for everything you do, John. Your videos never fail to be a highlight of my day.
Thanks for everything you do, John. Your videos never fail to be a highlight of my day.
I wanna join this appreciation thread by saying that his detractors lack listening comprehension skills: John always disclaims the limits of his research. he never declares his findings as the absolute truth and he is always open to further revision and discussion of footage. he is the first pointing out how icredibly variable counting fps and resolution can be nowadays!
as a content creator he is so great too. i adore his passion, his personality and his style. DF retro is the very best.
haters and console warriors you are always lame and everybody is ashamed of you
as a content creator he is so great too. i adore his passion, his personality and his style. DF retro is the very best.
haters and console warriors you are always lame and everybody is ashamed of you
DF is my most viewed channel on Youtube, not even exaggerating. I love learning about the technology behind video games, and everything DF puts out is always very high quality and professional.
Another thing I love is just the positivity and passion behind the people at DF. Even when some games have a poor showing, there are usually details worth praising, and that's very refreshing in this industry. Thanks Dark1x!
Another thing I love is just the positivity and passion behind the people at DF. Even when some games have a poor showing, there are usually details worth praising, and that's very refreshing in this industry. Thanks Dark1x!
They are the best! I could go on for all the reasons why and have but my biggest highlight on Gamescom was just getting to meet and say thank you to John and Alex.
Hmm, we're among Ladidoodettes and Gentledoods, anyone could see John, Dark1x , that you are a genuinely nice fellow.
Whatever happens happens, i don't want to search for what's happening right now; in our gray world sweet people like you are a blessing. May the dusts of contrariety quickly disappear and your smile shine for a long, very long time.
To the pleasure discussing old things with you at the corner of a topic.
Take care.
Whatever happens happens, i don't want to search for what's happening right now; in our gray world sweet people like you are a blessing. May the dusts of contrariety quickly disappear and your smile shine for a long, very long time.
To the pleasure discussing old things with you at the corner of a topic.
Take care.
Thanks for all the nice comments. Haven't been posting anywhere much lately but I do appreciate it. Feeling a bit deflated after working so hard on a recent project only to have so few people watch it. It's always those labors of love that fail to make an impact like but what can ya do.
I assume your referring to your Surge 2 project? That was really good and I enjoyed it!
Since I don't think it was posted here:
To be fair that one didn't show up on my feed, the Links Awakening one did.
I had to find out about The Surge 2 one (one of your best videos) in a thread about The Last of Us part II.
I really hope you do more like this, sorry if it sounds selfish since it's a lot of hard work.
If you ever did one for CP2077 or Death Stranding It'd be amazing.
The Surge documentary was phenomenal, Dark1x
Hope you get the chance for future projects like it. And it was great seeing a studio from Germany being featured. We don't have too many console devs right now, so having Deck13 making such a great title is really cool. Keep up the good work, John! :)
Hope you get the chance for future projects like it. And it was great seeing a studio from Germany being featured. We don't have too many console devs right now, so having Deck13 making such a great title is really cool. Keep up the good work, John! :)
Are you referring to the The Surge 2 doc? I've been meaning to check it out after seeing Jim Sterling's impressions, but I guess a combination of it being long + the apparently buggy visuals + the relatively low-profile of the game have made me put it off. I'll be sure to check it out at some point.
I have no doubt that it's top quality coming from you, which is why I'll watch it anyway, but if I may hypothesize as to how it hasn't gained that much traction, I'd say it's because the subject matter itself is perhaps a bit niche. Also, the sponsored nature of it might have some people worry that it's going to be fairly uncritical, even though people have been complaining about technical bugs. Lastly, maybe it's just my personal tastes, but what I've seen of the game doesn't strike me as all that impressive technically or aesthetically. Don't get me wrong, it's fine, especially coming from a mid-sized developer, but it doesn't have a particular hook that grabs me. No idea how prevalent that opinion is, as it's just mine, but I have a feeling I might not be alone in that sentiment.
I think I already said this last time you were a bit disheartened about the fact that people didn't watch a video you were very passionate about, but... It has nothing to do with you, your skills or the quality of the end product, you know? You're genuinely awesome as far as I'm concerned. But if people can't really be bothered to watch a 40-minute-long video about a game they're not interested it, it just can't be helped. I cannot convey the tone of my voice through a forum post, but I mean all this in the most compassionate way possible. Sometimes, people are not gonna have the time, energy and/or interest in something, no matter who made it, because... Well, they just don't care about that particular topic all that much.
Lastly, this might just be personal, and I might revise my judgment once I watch the Surge 2 video, but... I get the sense that you were super excited about being able to achieve high production values with this video, thanks to the sponsorship. Am I wrong in this assumption? If that's the case, let me just say this: high production values are all well and good of course, but your regular stuff is already so high quality if you ask me that any production improvements you're able to achieve are gonna feel, to me at least, incremental. Besides, I watch your videos for the content and your personality first, and the production values second. Just having footage of a game, with your voiceover and commentary, some nice soundtrack choices - yours are always killer IMO - and your editing are enough to please me. Your passion breathes through every project regardless of production values. Your regular videos are comforting like a warm blanket. I rewatch some of your DF Retro videos every once in a while even though you didn't necessarily have high production values on those. Heck, one of my favorite videos of yours recently is your playthrough of TMNT on the NES with Audi, just for how informative you two were. And playthroughs have about the lowest production values you can have lol.
Don't take this as an invitation to rest on your laurels or anything. By all means, make the stuff you want to make. However, I hope you'll eventually come to terms with the fact that there's nothing wrong with you or your videos. Oh, I'm sure you've read some nasty stuff based on your current state and because this is the internet, but you know what? Fuck that noise. Those people just have no taste or appreciation for hard work. You're already working yourself to the bone to bring us all this awesome content, and trust me, it shows. We might not be vocal about it everytime, but we feel it, and we appreciate it all the same. Be proud of what you make - I know I would be -, even when people don't watch it. People who don't watch your vids are a different demographic than the haters: their problem isn't you, it's the game/topic you're covering. Period. It doesn't mean it's a bad topic, just that its appeal is narrower than, say, a retrospective on Doom.
[EDIT] To reiterate: I'm sure I'm gonna eat some of my words once I've watched that Surge 2 vid and it blows me away, haha. But I think my overall point will still stand.
[EDIT2] I've been thinking: maybe making less descriptive titles to your videos might catch people's attention more? I'm not telling you to make them clickbaity, but maybe try to zero in on the main interesting point about what you're covering and put that in the title. Like, I watched Jim Sterling's video because a) it was short enough that I could afford to give it a chance (about 10 minutes), b) the title made me curious. It's literally "A Surge of Brilliance". I was like "is this game really that good? I haven't even heard of it!" By contrast, the title of your video is extremely descriptive. Why should I care about the evolution of the Fledge Engine? What is a Fledge Engine? Not saying fixing your titles alone will triple the viewcount obviously, but it might help, especially for more niche topics.
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Dark1x I will definitely watch The Surge 2 documentary, because I just love your work. Don't beat yourself up about it having not many views, it is more about the game not being that popular than you not doing great work. I can understand your disappointment, but you have made so many great videos that have entertained me and many other people and shown them things they have never seen before, please look back on your achievements with pride. You. Are. Awesome!
The Surge 2 video was fantastic, John - so much so that I watched it twice - it's a massive shame more people aren't watching it because I think it's one of the best videos on DF (and I've seen pretty much everything on there) and I'd echo Rich's thoughts from one of the DF Direct videos where the sum of all its parts is so high it could legit be something on Netflix in the documentary section.
DF is my favourite YT channel and I can honestly say that the majority of that is because of your videos (shout out to Dictator as well who has been incredible and I think you two have really great chemistry in your videos).
Haha yes I am guilty of that as well. But sometimes John appears as a guest like in the recent Link's Awakening analysis and then it is all good again. :)
I guess it is because he reminds me so much of myself, growing up with such a deep love for gadgets and games. Hard to describe, but watching these videos often feels like listening to an old friend. I am a deeply introverted person and knowing that there are people like John out there who share my passion and sense for quality games and gadgets, growing up deeply sunken in video game magazines (looking at every new screenshot 20 times), helps me out tremendously. Life is hard and these videos give people great comfort. DF retro is like a time machine to simpler times for me. Thank you John.
I only haven't watched the Surge 2 doc yet because I'm just not interested in the game, but after watching the last DF Direct and them mentioning it, it's definitely on my watch list. Believe me, anything Dark1x produces will be high quality and always a labor of love. Thanks for everything you do, John.
Dark1x is by far one of my favorite people in general. He is just so honest and fair with everything he does, and I absolutely love his eclectic retro game coverage. Even if it is something I am not particularly interested in he always makes it a fascinating watch. It feels like even with how big he has grown over the years he is always willing to reply to any random nobody with well thought out responses.
Hang in there man, I am pretty miserable in a lot of my life too but you honestly bring a lot of joy to it. Seeing the reactions here and on Twitter I can tell I am not alone.
Hang in there man, I am pretty miserable in a lot of my life too but you honestly bring a lot of joy to it. Seeing the reactions here and on Twitter I can tell I am not alone.
I watched this one as soon after release as I could. Super in-depth as usual, and extremely well structured and edited. Exactly the kind of content I like to see from DF.
I feel like The Surge 2 is flying under the radar a bit so far. Maybe due to the amount of games out right now, maybe because the original Surge was a bit of a dark horse. I think given time people will play it, and when they do they'll want to watch videos like yours.
The Surge 2 special really made me interested in the series I didn't know anything about. After watching it, I went and got the first one downloaded and ready to go on my ps4.
Kept reading good things about the Surge 2, but yours was the only video that convinced me to watch it and give it a chance, and I don't regret it one bit.
Maybe because it's not a well known series yet it wasn't as succesful as expected, but the special is quality stuff and the developer was pretty awesome by letting you go behind the scenes of everything, pretty much clearing any speculation you had on the game.
Anyways Dark1x don't let some haters keep you down, never forget that many more people really appreciate your work, you really make the internet a happier place. But it's also ok if you take some time off to regain some energy and then come back better than ever.
John is a bro. He's become the face of DF more than Richard for me, as blasphemous that is to say
It's a sad fact in life that very few people care about what you do as much as you do. Keep up the good work.
I watch the DF channel with some regularity and feel like the Surge 2 doc was dropped as a complete surprise. It would of been nice to get some indication it was coming because honestly my first introduction to it was a new video on YT that started in big letters with the words [SPONSORED]. At that point my brain kind of auto filtered it out as anything I would be interested in. Then later I watched the DF direct and heard you two talk about it and what it actually was and why it was sponsored and it all made sense and sounded up my alley so I tagged it to watch later. The only reason I will end up watching it is because it was sold to me by you guys and your sales pitch worked. I wish you had done more before it's release to give us the anticipation and perspective on it. Especially with it being a completely new thing that you've never done before.
I want to make clear I have no issue with it being sponsored and I think you guys justify that part in the direct, but when you have no idea what something is and it says sponsored right up front I kind of assume the worse automatically. I would guess that's a pretty common thing, and given how easily I got on board with it upon having it explained in the DF Direct I think that sort of communication before release can be really helpful. I mean sure the idea of dropping something as a total surprise and seeing it blow up sounds great, but in general I think good communication is more effective more often.
Anyways I'm sorry to hear your hard work is not hitting the way you would like, I've definitely enjoyed your work and passion in the past and look forward to watching the doc.
I want to make clear I have no issue with it being sponsored and I think you guys justify that part in the direct, but when you have no idea what something is and it says sponsored right up front I kind of assume the worse automatically. I would guess that's a pretty common thing, and given how easily I got on board with it upon having it explained in the DF Direct I think that sort of communication before release can be really helpful. I mean sure the idea of dropping something as a total surprise and seeing it blow up sounds great, but in general I think good communication is more effective more often.
Anyways I'm sorry to hear your hard work is not hitting the way you would like, I've definitely enjoyed your work and passion in the past and look forward to watching the doc.
Man... I just saw "John Linneman aka Dark1x And DF" and my heart skipped a beat. Almost went into a panic.
But yes, DF Retro is Def one of my favorite YouTube shows out there
But yes, DF Retro is Def one of my favorite YouTube shows out there
Depression can be such an isolating thing, despite the opposite. It slowly seeps in to your mind that you are alone and of no value, despite the opposite.
What John needs to know is that he is of tremendous value as a human being and as a member of the video game community. Little does he know the legacy that he is creating for himself. All these videos we watch that are now archived are going to be time capsules in the future. He, and DF, are the only people doing these types of videos consistently and of this kind of quality. The fruits of his labour will not be forgotten.
I know it can feel like it's all meaningless sometimes,John, but seriously and honestly, it's not. You've got a massive fan and supporter out here in Seoul.
What John needs to know is that he is of tremendous value as a human being and as a member of the video game community. Little does he know the legacy that he is creating for himself. All these videos we watch that are now archived are going to be time capsules in the future. He, and DF, are the only people doing these types of videos consistently and of this kind of quality. The fruits of his labour will not be forgotten.
I know it can feel like it's all meaningless sometimes,John, but seriously and honestly, it's not. You've got a massive fan and supporter out here in Seoul.
John legitimately saved my life by believing in me after I felt I had used up all of my talent and potential and forcing me back into the world of video game history. So yeah the dude is appreciated. People don't know just how generous and bonding the guy is off camera. Even my hair started growing back after we began working together.
John legitimately saved my life by believing in me after I felt I had used up all of my talent and potential and forcing me back into the world of video game history. So yeah the dude is appreciated. People don't know just how generous and bonding the guy is off camera. Even my hair started growing back after we began working together.
Thanks for sharing. You can tell he's a great guy and his passion for gaming shines through in everything he does. I've been a huge gamer since I was a young kid. It's something I genuinely love and it's something that sometimes seems lacking in gaming media. You can tell John has that lifelong passion for gaming. I don't think he could contain it if he tried, and that's why I watch everything he releases.
Having had spent months unemployed in pursuit of a passion and depleting my savings and losing my wife because of it, I understand exactly what you're going through. My project eventually came to naught, and many sleepless nights I wonder if it was all worth it, not just the project itself but the childhood passion and interests I retained up to that point which culminated up to the project. After some months I found my answer and am at peace with it, so will you!
John, you somehow managed to convince me to buy Turok and Turok 2. If that isn't a ringing endorsement, I don't know what is. (also I'm generally just a huge fan of DF Retro)
Meeting John Linneman at an E3 a few years ago was one of the coolest things that's happened in my line of work, and I'm honored to call him a colleague. Dark1x, your hustle is incredible, only topped by your kindness.
I wouldn't dream of "ranking" the Digital Foundry team. They're all top of the class, so if any of the others are peeking at this, thank you for your classy, funny, and insightful work surrounding the newest and oldest stories in gaming and tech. There's never been an easier slam-dunk of a Patreon to subscribe to.
ALSO Y'ALL SHOULD SUBSCRIBE TO THE PATREON.
I wouldn't dream of "ranking" the Digital Foundry team. They're all top of the class, so if any of the others are peeking at this, thank you for your classy, funny, and insightful work surrounding the newest and oldest stories in gaming and tech. There's never been an easier slam-dunk of a Patreon to subscribe to.
ALSO Y'ALL SHOULD SUBSCRIBE TO THE PATREON.
Based on the content he puts out, I can't imagine why anyone would hate on his work or take anything personally. Is he getting hounded by platform fanboys or something?
John is one of the most knowledgable dudes in the industry, a new video from him is always a treat. Just picked up gt sport thanks to his analysis
For years. Maybe more when he started working on DF, but even back on GAF with his tag been "60 fps 60 fps", that also invited some responses . XD
Yeah I can see how that would hurt. Still, I watched it and enjoyed it, and I'm not alone. I'm always after more deep dives and interviews with the creators. There's not a lot of that out there. It's great that you're not just one of these people making endless outrage videos or Frozen x Spiderman toy unboxings or whatever crap gets all the clicks on YT.
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