Goth Gamer Nation King
"What's up, Goth Gamer Nation?!"
Grimbeard
is an American videogame critic and musician with a fondness for Horror and Point and Click Adventure Games.
He started on youtube in 2014 with a review of the point and click adventure game Syberia under the banner of Grimbeard Diaries. These earlier reviews had the framing of the video's author writing in a diary at the behest of a therapist. He would later drop this framing and instead present himself having a more direct dialogue with the audience with the backdrop of an old CRT tube computer screen showing video footage. Grimbeard's videos contain a mixture of excellently timed cuts, sincere criticism, and dark humor. The reviews are broken up into separate segments that review games on different elements such as the story, gameplay, sound/visuals, and so on. Later on he added another section where he looks at and responds to user reviews of the games in question. Grimbeard also releases a mixture of self-made industrial goth music on the channel. He also has a Supernatural retrospective, Darkened Streams, where he analyzes each of the episodes of the long-running CW series (until youtube shuts him down).
Tropes:
- Against the Grain: While most gaming channels are generally trying to stay on top of the algorithm by covering the hottest new releases, or at least doing a retrospective on something with a huge fanbase, Grim is out here doing hour-plus reviews on largely-forgotten 20 year-old games. In many ways, this trope is why his channel exists, as he couldn't find much content like the kind he'd come to make on the Web, so he decided to fill that void himself.
- Animal Motifs: Rats. Grim adores them, and if they're featured in the game he's covering, they'll usually get their own special coverage in the Rat Round-Up. He's generally looking for adequate rat representation, rats doing suitably rat-like things (scurrying, scavenging, etc.) and judging their visual appeal. Despite the potential for a wide variance in those metrics, every Rat Round-Up has been awarded a 'Good!' rating to date, presumably because Grim just likes seeing rats in video games. A Bat Round-Up was introduced later.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In the Planescape: Torment review, Grimbeard ponders on the fact that exactly what heinous crimes the Practical Incarnation did is ever fully disclosed, but he makes a guess that they probably involve mass murder, war crimes, and pre-ordering Ubisoft games.
- Author Appeal: All things goth, of course. Horror in any medium you can name, especially the work of H. P. Lovecraft. Rats, big-time. Twin Peaks and the work of David Lynch in general. 90's genre television, particularly Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files. Basically, Grim views the world quite proudly through a Nostalgia Filter and has a deep-rooted affection for the kinds of media he enjoyed in his youth, and any modern media inspired by it. He's not incapable of enjoying new things - he loved Disco Elysium, as most did - but he rarely covers new releases.
- Boomerang Bigot: While he loves games as art and entertainment, Grim generally hates so-called 'gamers' and most game publishing companies. His disdain for "gamers" is generally rooted in their frequent forays into reactionary politics, their propensity for being "terminally on-line" and lacking proper socialization, and their utter failure to purchase interesting, high-quality games when given the chance. Publishers are on his list for their increasingly grasping monetization tactics and their rabid cracking down on emulation despite making little-to-no effort to have their software available for purchase on modern platforms.
- Breakout Character: Para-Pug, who became a fan favorite pretty much on arrival in the Realms of the Haunting video. In an AMA, Grim was fully aware he should capitalize on his popularity but wasn't really sure how at the time. Chad has also found a niche after debuting in the Deus Ex episode. Both remain popular thanks to Grim being Genre Savvy enough to not run them into the ground with overexposure.
- Caustic Critic: Largely averted. While certainly capable of pointed and witty criticism where it's warranted, Grim deliberately tries to avoid the 'guy screaming at bad video games' genre and his channel is designed to provide an alternative to it. His videos formerly featured a section called Bitter Recompense where he'd highlight reviews he found from actual caustic critics and then mock them, but this was dropped in part because it began to border on You Are What You Hate.
- Child Hater: Not a fan of kids or babies. In fairness, he's not keen on human contact in general.
- Curse Cut Short: Grim loves this kind of gag, usually interrupting himself via a Smash Cut. Not that he has any problem being vulgar the rest of the time, the cheeky rascal.
- The Cynic
- Disappeared Dad: A common source of jokes in videos concerning either abandonment by dads or the death of a father.They're tricky sons-of-bitches!
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Grim's early reviews started with the (now dropped) framing device of diary entries written for his therapist, and hovered around the twenty minute mark. As with many content creators, Grim would evolve his style and format over time, and as of 2023, his reviews are now in the 60-120 minute range and feature recurring characters, full plot synopses and significantly more details about the game's origins and where it now stands in historical context.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Good ol' Para-Pug. (See Robot Dog below.)
- The Faceless: When asked if he'd ever reveal his face on stream, Grim gave a pretty strong "no."
- Goth: A proud one for quite some time, he mentioned being slightly annoyed whenever he was mislabeled as "emo" growing up. That said, he's indifferent to the more performative aspects of Gothic culture, and dislikes gatekeeping in any and all forms. As long as you wear at least a little black and have some Goth in your (black) heart, you're more than welcome in Goth Gamer Nation.
- Guyliner: Favors black nail polish, as befitting a Goth.
- Haunted Technology: The red phone seems to be of a supernatural persuasion and phenomena around it ranges from it being an explicitly haunted object like in his Fatal Frame video or being able to let supernatural figures communicate through it.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: While undoubtedly deeply cynical and a world-class smart-ass, Grim's passion for genuinely good games is obvious, and his outpourings of thanks to his community are clearly from the heart. (And charmingly awkward due to his introverted nature.)
- Inherently Funny Words: "Thief" when you say it with a lot of emphasis.
- The Insomniac: Grim off-handedly mentioned in an episode that he doesn't sleep, presumably due to both anxiety and that he Must Have Caffeine.
- Long List:"First person shooter games in Thief's time were being typecast as mindless shooters which with the exception of Hexen, Prime Target, Terminator, Westworld 2000, XS, Duke Nukem 3D, Alien Trilogy, Strife, Heretic, Witchaven II: Blood Vengeance, Quake, Powerslave, Eradicator, Marathon, Infinity Z, Disruptor, Alien Cabal, Chex Quest, Damage, Rebel Moon Rising, Blood, Outlaws, Redneck Rampage, Shadow Warrior, Turok, Codename Tenka, Hexen II, Chasm, Quake II, Unreal, and Blood 2 that was greatly exaggerated."
- He also reads all of his patron names at the end of his videos, a segment which is now hovering around the ten-minute mark all by itself and is as long (if not longer) than some of his oldest reviews. His community's penchant for using creative, hilarious and/or embarrassing-to-read donor names makes this more fun than it sounds.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: Chad, who frequently tries to rope Grim into his sexual shenanigans. Chad would be a little creepy if played straight, but given that Chad's dialog is constructed from recut, out-of-context dialog from JC Denton of Deus Ex - voice-acting that is already meme rocket fuel in of itself - the effect ends up being hilarious absurdity.
- Lovecraft Country: Grim is a huge fan of H. P. Lovecraft, covering a lot of games that either adapt his material directly or simply embrace his more prominent themes. If there's a specific reference to a Lovecraft story or character in a game he's covering, he'll spot it instantly. Despite his fandom, though, he's keenly aware of Lovecraft's appalling social views, noting specifically that Lovecraft would hate him just for being biracial.
- Malicious Misnaming: Grim accidentally refers to Meg, the protagonist of The Ring: Terror's Realm, as 'Egg.' He corrects himself at first, but as the game goes along and Meg somehow consistently fails to understand what's happening despite the game's circumstances being explained to her multiple times in detail, he goes back to calling her Egg as punishment.
- Nothing Is Scarier: A firm believer in this trope, especially when it comes to Lovecraft. This is why he's often disappointed when Lovecraftian games put a lot of gore or spooky monster designs in them, as this sort of obvious horror seems to run contrary to their own alleged inspiration.
- The Pigpen
- Robot Dog: Para-Pug, which Grim built to detect and eliminate any supernatural elements that might be afoot. Para-Pug's talent in this area is, uh, hit-or-miss, depending on Rule of Funny. On a more meta level, Grim built him for the obvious benefit of giving himself someone to talk to during non-review segments. (And because he likes dogs.)
- Self-Deprecation: One of Grim's main Running Gags is that he does not portray his on-screen persona as a particularly sane, successful, nor sanitary individual. Quite the opposite, in fact. He regularly interrupts his narration with somewhat personally embarrassing asides, mostly real-life anecdotes about moments of social awkwardness, existential angst, or neglection of various responsibilities on his behalf, and whenever the camera cuts to his first-person perspective, his gaming/work space is littered with mountains of discarded energy drinks cans and single-use coffee cups, suggesting that he has an absolutely massive caffeine addiction. There is also the issue that he frequently undergoes bouts of Sanity Slippage, manifesting as him having paranoid delusions, such as being convinced that pretty much everyone outside his apartment are spying on him and are out to get him, Hearing Voices from his landline phone (which frequently shifts shape), and having nonsensical conversations with said voices over the phone.
- The Shut-In: Grim is one of nature's great introverts and prefers to stay in his bubble.
- Take That!: A delightfully elaborate one in an early section of his Vagrant Story review. It starts as a brief overview of the Toshiba corporation, specifically concerning their work developing flash memory. While the bit features a few jokes, it's generally played straight and features calming, serene music in the background. The purpose of this historical aside? To make fun of noted charlatan and Gearbox Software bully Randy Pitchford for infamously dropping a flash drive full of both sensitive corporate information and his own preferred pornography at a Medieval Times restaurant. Grim then uses a hilariously tenuous comparison between the content of Medieval Times and the plot of Vagrant Story to then start the review proper.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Mountain Dew Kickstart Orange Citrus. Empty cans of it are usually visible in any segment featuring Grim's desk, and sounds of collapsing can pyramids during embarrassing moments are a sporadic Running Gag.
- Unusual Euphemism: Because classic games are generally quite difficult and expensive to obtain and play as originally intended, Grim generally recommends emulation. Rather than saying that outright, though, he instead says to PURCHASE these games at YOUR LOCAL WAL-MART, for the sake of both humor and Implausible Deniability.
- Very Special Episode: Humorously averted with his 100th official episode. As befitting his self-deprecating vibe, there's very little fanfare, and rather than reviewing a game he truly loves or at least has a huge profile, he chooses the wonderfully obscure, fan-localized Mizzurna Falls. His primary interest in the game is mostly just dissecting everything it shamelessly cribs (or homages, if you're more generous) from the oeuvre of David Lynch.
- What Could Have Been: Discussed. Grim REALLY wanted to love ''Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones", which was right up his alley in terms of both art style and theme. Unfortunately, the developers only released about a quarter of the content promised, and that combined with all the bugs and the arbitrary No Ending left Grim more frustrated than anything.
" ... bye. "
