Second Wind: Gaming News Worth Supporting

I don’t usually have favorite reviewers. It’s always easier to criticize than it is to create. The media reviewers I can think of whose opinions I really value are Ryan Hollinger for horror films I haven’t heard of, and Yahtzee Croshaw for his take on newer titles. Yahtzee uploaded his first couple videos to YouTube in 2007, made distinct by his simple Windows Movie Maker style animations and his near breathless cheeky delivery. When, shortly after these videos were uploaded, Yahtzee joined up with the Escapist Website , his weekly show was called Zero Punctuation. I started watching Zero Punctuation reviews in 2008 or 2009 because I was a high school kid who thought the fast-talking guy from across the pond was witty and sharp.

Yahtzee’s Original Look on the Escapist

While gaming isn’t nearly as big a part of my life as it was back then, I still kept up with Zero Punctuation and Yahtzee over the years. I found out at some point that he was also an author, and I’ve since read all of his fiction. Mogworld was a particular favorite of mine (“I’d rather be a protagonist”). Overall, the man was a creator. He doesn’t just review games, he makes them. Here’s the link to his itch.io page. He doesn’t just crank out weekly scripts, he writes actual novels, the kind of thing I want to do. What’s more, his damn-near punk rock attitude towards established norms in the gaming industry has never seemed to flag.

Imagine my surprise when, in November of 2023, Yahtzee announced he was leaving the Escapist. The owner of The Escapist, a conglomerate called Gamurs Group, fired the editor-in-chief of The Escapist, Nick Calandra, for failing to meet company expectations. In solidarity with the editor, Yahtzee and the entirety of the video team for the magazine quit, and went on to form Second Wind as a new entertainment group. Zero Punctuation was killed off, only to return as Fully Ramblomatic on the new Second Wind YouTube page.

Fully Ramblomatic is Yahtzee Croshaw’s current review show on Second Wind

Second Wind opened with a Patreon, and I started contributing a dollar a month in hopes to one day be able to contribute more. Second Wind is remarkably transparent, turning out quarterly finance reports to all supporters and producing new content that’s actually worth watching. On The Escapist I watched Yahtzee’s content almost exclusively (as did many others, given how the subscription numbers for The Escapist tanked after the video crew’s departure), but on Second Wind I actually like the other shows. The Backdrop is a decent analysis on current entertainment topics done by Darren Mooney. My favorite right behind Fully Ramblomatic and Semi-Ramblomatic is Design Delve with JM8 and his dog, Ludo. I don’t make games, but I like understanding how things are made. A lot of that information translates over to personal organization or learning about how to tell stories better. I don’t agree with every opinion expressed, obviously. If I did, I’d be very worried. I like how honest the crew at Second Wind comes off. The pandering is lessened. They don’t often treat their audience like idiots incapable of forming a thought. And in revenant fashion, these guys refused to stay down.

I wanted to write this piece in support of Second Wind Group given the latest bending-over YouTube has unleashed. The platform’s new (AI-powered) ‘Restricted Mode’ has severely impacted viewer numbers for Second Wind and many other smaller channels, with no consistency in what the Restricted setting hides. Please see Yahtzee’s brief explanation in the video below.

As he said, Second Wind is mostly supported by Patreon doners and sponsors, Second Wind cannot attract more supporters and sponsors if all there content is hidden. I wanted to use my little fractal of the internet to say, if you check out Second Wind, and if you like what you see, maybe throw them a buck or two a month over on Patreon. There are more than enough companies out there that report on the gaming industry while taking kickbacks from publishers and sleeping in the same bed with Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo. IGN feels less like journalism and more like a corporate-sponsored content mill. There’s a difference in Second Wind’s content, and I hope they’re able to continue for as long as the work satisfies them.

‘Flip a man a quarter playing sounds on his guitar / You’re on a street corner feeling like a patron of the arts’ - Sam Roberts, Them Kids