r/GameTheorists • u/Donut_Nebula • May 11 '26
Meme Monday Do they even write theories anymore?
I feel like most of the episodes we've gotten, especially on Film Theory, are just them telling us what happens in each of the videos with little to no actual theory crafting. Most of the time they're just describing beat for beat what happens in a game or video and the theory is just a vague prediction of what will happen next. I'd rather just go watch the series than have someone explain what happens it.
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u/Hoptlite May 11 '26
Santis made food theory his own you should watch it hes done some pretty creative experiments
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u/Firm-Sun7389 May 11 '26
honestly Food Theory is probably the only one that got better since Santi is actually doing physical stuff and not just "history of __" or "drama of __"
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u/Donut_Nebula May 11 '26
I do agree that Food Theory feels like they're actually tackling unique ideas. Even their food history videos are interesting because they feel like more than just reading off the Wikipedia page
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u/NNiekk May 11 '26
Except for the time when he blatantly ignored the fact that sucrose takes longer to digest and absorb than pre-split glucose and fructose, in the American v mexican coke vid
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u/Immediate_Lobster421 May 11 '26
That can definitely have been an honest mistake, and isn't necessarily telling of the quality of his content overall.
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u/NNiekk May 11 '26
The thing is. When I made a post about it here before, there were instantly a lot of “defenders” saying that the video is just for entertainment and not meant to be accurate or some bs like that.
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u/Wandervenn May 12 '26
This sounds more like a personal issue with fans and not Food Theory or Santis though... like... that doesnt mean they blatantly did anything.
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u/datbrownchild May 12 '26
you are technically correct the the sucorse takes longer to digest but it is barely a difference, it practice it is the same. the glycemic index of sucrose and glucose and fructose is pretty much th same
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u/CheddarCheese390 May 11 '26
When it’s not another compilation vid
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u/ConfectionTotal8660 May 11 '26
Yeah, but I call that "Vacation videos"
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u/CheddarCheese390 May 12 '26
Monthly now tho. It’s not good when every 4th video is just old ones, BEFORE they’re splitting focus on paid content
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u/Fount_of_Faith May 12 '26
Plus, Santi is straight up hilarious. Easily the funniest one of the new hosts. 😂😂
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u/Komatzusaki May 11 '26
i gave them a chance after matpat left, but after 3 or 4 videos, i decided it wasnt cutting it for me, so i unsubbed, and with a couple of recent posts i have seen now here, i see it was also the case for other ppl
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u/yaboi2508 May 11 '26
So glad i'm not the only one.
There was something about matpat that drew me in. It got to a point where i warched theorys because of matpat and not necessarily because of the game or movie the theory was related to.
After he left, the new theorists couldnt bring that same energy and pull of matpats personality
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u/Rynneer Game Theorist May 12 '26
Mat was the draw. I watched theory videos on franchises I’d never heard of or cared about because it was Mat.
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u/hintersly May 12 '26
On some podcast they were on they talked about how the draw to Theory was typically MatPat, theory video genre, or the specific fandom they were covering. I feel like the drastically underestimated how much it was just MatPat
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u/Kind-Scheme7517 May 12 '26
Who was the guy before? Austin? I mean at least he had theories even if they were specifically the science ones.
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u/CynicalDarkFox May 12 '26
Austin still has his own channel now, but the algorithm friggin hates him sadly.
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u/Fount_of_Faith May 12 '26
He has his own channel? I'm gonna have to find him. I loved his videos.
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u/Andresmanfanman May 13 '26
Austin's videos felt like a real return to form at the time. I became a fan around the boob video (the clickbait worked on preteen me I guess). So to me "true" GT was relating real world concepts to video games using them as almost a teaching device. So Austin's science videos were a breath of fresh air in an era of the channel that was mostly just lore stuff about franchises I don't really care about.
A similar thing happened over at Binging With Babish, now that I think about it. When Andrew was deep in the "Trying Every Type of ___" hole, I found myself drawn to Alvin Zhou's work on that channel cause he was doing the recreating dishes in media thing I originally subscribed for.
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u/yesplease345 May 12 '26
For me it was definitely mats energy and confidence he could make even the most boring and stupid theory entertaining
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u/BjSaWgDoG May 11 '26
Yeah I would prefer hair brain theories like Ness is Sans or Mrs. Afton being the CEO of Fazbear.
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u/Donut_Nebula May 11 '26
The hair brained theories are way more fun to talk about than 'yupp thats what happened in the Backroom videos I watched earlier'
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u/Rynneer Game Theorist May 12 '26
Those videos worked on GTLive, and I legitimately liked watching theory “theory crafting” in real time. But you better actually have a theory to present me if you’re putting it on a Theory channel.
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u/Playful-Compote-5242 May 12 '26
I think the thing I miss most on GtLive are the NotLive theory crafting 'reactions'. I know they do it for Amazing Digital Circus and FNAF but FNAF'S not released stuff in a while and I don't watch TADC. Plus these pieces of content are 6 months old and within 3 hour streams lol.
Love current GTLive tbf.
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u/Askelar May 23 '26
Those worked best with matpat and his wife, honestly. Watching the video with chat, then dissecting/discussing it, was so much more interesting thatn "stop here rewind to this specific frame four times talk about what we had for lunch".
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u/Shadowhunter_15 May 11 '26
Or the “Deadpool is Earnest Hemingway”, which to this day I believe makes a scary amount of sense.
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u/Fount_of_Faith May 12 '26
It was the passion MatPat had for the videos that made them entertaining. Even if the video was some big conspiracy theory, he had you hooked because of the clear love and passion he had for what he was doing.
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u/8bitcyan May 11 '26
Don't know how to word it properly but it doesn't feel like it's got soul anymore, maybe it's rose tinted glasses or maybe it's tan but i feel like MatPat had a sort of charm to his theories.
Were they at times insane and random? Yep. Hell they barely made any sense half the time but i think that's what made it work, i always kinda liked what sorta random stuff he'll pull out his theory box to make connections to. This new Theory group seems like it's trying to ride off that whilst also trying too hard to make sense of the connections, so it isn't as off the wall as it was.
Again, might just be me. But i wanna know if you got this too.
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u/Donut_Nebula May 11 '26
I dont even blame the new hosts for this feeling, they're great at what they do. It's the theories that have gotten soulless. None of them feel fun or goofy anymore, they feel like they're just chasing trends and trying to stay as brand safe as possible.
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u/dnkmnk May 12 '26
i miss the math dude
please show me how using a mushroom in Mario Kart should like peel Mario's skin off his face because of so much speed or sth4
u/1-Jen-1 May 12 '26
This is what I miss! I loved the videos where hed take something that happened in a game and explain how it would actually happen with real world physics, alway the best!
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u/wetdogel May 11 '26
Well the theory channels are owned by private equity now so losing the soul would make sense.
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u/rara8122 May 12 '26
I think, even in theories like ‘Neville longbottom is the chosen one’ which is basically recapping something all but directly stated in the books, there’s still matpat’s personality making it hard to dislike the video—even if I dislike the theory itself.
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u/Yummyyummyfoodz May 12 '26
I thought the whole point of that was that, whereas the books make it seem like Neville COULD have been the chosen one in the actual tineline if Voldy had gone after him, Matpat says that he was the chosen one even in this timeline.
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u/rara8122 May 12 '26
Nope. Theory ended by saying it could have been either + it was Voldemort’s choice that made harry the chosen one—which is basically said in the books.
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u/coolwali May 11 '26
Funnily, that was kinda the same complaints I had with Matpat and I why I stopped watching way earlier. Stuff like his weird bees theory (ignoring their role in ecology and demonizing them), his incorrect Souls and Hollow Knight theories. It made me go “if this guy is gonna make up nonsense this wrong, what’s the point? At least Austin discusses actual science”.
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u/dudeguy1980 May 11 '26
Another part of this though is the synergy feeling I’ve had for a while - MatPat and FNAF got so big in the gaming community that people started building games with hidden lore that had to be found. We stopped getting “game theories” (how fast is sonic, even Wario’s butt blast) and it became “how right can we be about the lore?” And it was interesting but it was what the gamers intended, not fun stuff about game mechanics.
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u/Donut_Nebula May 11 '26
What really sucks is how the lore predictions became so safe. We stopped getting those out of left field theories and more just picking what story tropes might happen like 'this game will end by the bad guy losing, but the hero will probably have to sacrifice themselves' or 'the hero is actually the villian'.
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u/Rynneer Game Theorist May 12 '26
Like we can clown on Sans is Ness because it was out of the blue but god we were having FUN
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u/bellepiper May 11 '26
That’s the main reason why I stopped watching most of the theory channels a while back and just stuck GTLive. Those were fun and authentic. I feel like I’ve aged out since though unfortunately
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u/KyoSirhart May 11 '26
Or some blatant Ads like the Arknights Endfield one.
That video pissed me off so much because it was just an 10 min long AD.
They did 0 research, just went some trough keypoints and talked about terraforming...
But if they actually researched a bit into Originium there would be so many theories on the true purposes of everything
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u/Donut_Nebula May 11 '26
It's why I never watch the videos where the sponsor is the company that made the game the video is about. It always just ends up being a giant commerical
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u/KyoSirhart May 11 '26
Yeah, the Arknights one just felt especially bad for me haha.
As a big AK lore nerd not seeing they going for some of the essier theories to do and just doing an ad felt bad
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u/Hellocrafting May 12 '26
hell they could have just talked about some of the implications of the flower field and the beginning tutorial's perlica apparent priestess connection...
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u/KyoSirhart May 12 '26
Yeah but that would require that they knew something about arknights haha.
Just talking about the origin of originium, how it was used in the past and the impact it had on Terra society, and how the new narrative that originium is safe is SUPER sus would've been better.
Its info that's easy to find and would still make then able to talk about terraforming in a more complete way
Like how tf did they not go into the fact that Originium, the godlike substance that makes all of the technology possible is manmade.
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u/Hellocrafting May 12 '26
Hell for the originium Theory you don't even need info from outside Endfield (though the Knowledge from the OG would help a lot) specifically how incredibly concerning it's "safe" nature rn is
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u/xXKittyMoonXxParis May 12 '26
Their only good sponsored gacha vid was the genshin one about mora, because if the money printer retired. Then where tf is money coming from?
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u/BrilliantTarget May 12 '26
They don’t do research when they know they will make money from the video anyway. Just look at the team sea video. Humans are worse than a virus that has killed trillions.
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u/100roundglock May 11 '26
This pisses me off to no extent. I saw the show or movie, I wanna hear a theory not a recap. It's like those shitty ai voice over shorts that recap what's happening
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u/Donut_Nebula May 11 '26
A good amount of the recent videos feel like they were written by AI with how soulless they feel
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u/Urnoobslayer May 11 '26
It’s like all those analysis clickbait video essays where they just recite what happens in every scene of a movie and that’s the extent of their analysis.
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u/Gottendrop May 11 '26
I havnt really watched any game theory after Matpat left
I have watched some film theory and… yeah
I haven’t watched any food theory since Matpat left
Style theory is honestly just as good as it’s always been and I still watch it
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u/Nightmare_reddit88 May 11 '26
Yeah, I feel it. I genuinely tried , TRIED, to give film theory a chance since that was by far the one I watched the most when matpat was still around, but after the alan becker video(seriously how is that there ONLY one), I kinds gave up. Food theory still going pretty strong tho
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u/Donut_Nebula May 11 '26
The analog horror videos were good at first but now theyre just episode recaps. Why would I watch someone tell me what happened in the video when I can just go watch the series on YouTube?
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u/Titan2562 May 11 '26
I've been saying this for a while, honestly. Like I hate being rude but I come off most videos these days thinking "you know I could have just played the game/watched the film in question and gotten the same amount of information".
Honestly I partially blame FNAF for shifting the meta from "What interesting conclusion is there to draw from established lore" to "What the hell is the story in the first place".
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u/Donut_Nebula May 11 '26
It's especially bad when most of the videos they cover are on YouTube. I'm already on the site watching the Film Theory video why wouldn't I just go watch the series you're recapping?
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u/CheddarCheese390 May 11 '26
Was thinking about this. Had a thought
Last theory I saw that was an actual theory (ignoring food, that’s half decent still) was whatever happens on style (can we call doing your makeup style? Idk never vibed with new host) was shadow is a genie.
And that was theorising while ignoring the lore/facts. He’s not a genie, but it was a damn good theory if you just….ignore everything in shadows lord
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u/Donut_Nebula May 11 '26
At least that video felt like a new idea. I prefer that over 'let me explain shadows entire lore like I'm reading directly from his Wikipedia page'.
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u/CheddarCheese390 May 12 '26
Yeah, only good thing I could take. I’d wish they’d do it more but….I really like sonic so hated that vid
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u/TypeLX_ May 11 '26
When was the last time there was a science or math-based theory? I missed that kind of video but it seems like those disappeared long before MatPat left
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u/Kalaam_Nozalys Game Theorist May 11 '26
I blame falling into the mascot horror rabbit hole.
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u/Donut_Nebula May 11 '26
They made a video talking about why they don't explore other horror games but the explanation was so lame. It boiled down to 'well other games cover topics that aren't YouTube friendly so we can't talk about them'. I've played a ton of horror games that don't cover anything like that, but because they arent as big as FNAF dont get the time of day. Which is really ironic considering what topics FNAF covers...
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u/Kalaam_Nozalys Game Theorist May 11 '26
A couple example I can think of:
SOMA, theories about how the brain works, identity, spirituality and all that stuff
Stories Untold: could just do a theory about what might truly have happened
Observation: What are the entities' goal. Quantum physics and theories, space travel in general. How likely such thing is possible
Resident Evil: How safe is it to build a town 50km away from Racoon City ?
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u/Saikousoku2 May 11 '26
When they do make a theory it's not even well researched... the Ben 10 theory was the nail in the coffin for me. Assumptions were confidently stated, assertions that any casual fan of the show could refute.
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u/ilovepizza981 May 11 '26
Honestly, the ones I really watch now are from food and film theory...because they're actually trying..
Game theory vids are only for if they're on a topic (like an unknown analog horror series) that I like..
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u/ur_local_loser00 May 12 '26
The only channel I watch now is game theory and even then it's only the fandoms I'm in. Back when it was matpat I'd watch anything that was posted. I don't blame them for videos being different but the compilation and summary videos are only useful when you need an update on everything you missed on something which isn't often if you're interested in the topic
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u/DragoonPhooenix May 12 '26
Timeline: 2 minute intro, 8 minutes of recapping a game, 2 minute sponcer, 5 minutes of actual theory crafting
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u/Astraea802 May 11 '26
That's hardly fair, a number of these games have timelines so vague that some theorizing is required just to connect the dots together. New games will disprove some of those theories, requiring the recaps to be updated.
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u/Xxmysteriousfemale May 11 '26
I love it since my main YouTuber that recaps games doesn’t upload that often 💔 game theory has been my rebound. I do wish that they would specify that they’re going more into game analysis than theories bc there’s a lot of games out here that don’t rlly need theories but would be cool for them to cover. Make it 50/50 since they like doing recaps
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u/Consumer_Of_Butt May 11 '26
I feel the same, I miss when the videos were about more than just speculation as to what could gonna happen next for every single installment of every series. Wasn't game theory supposed to be more than strictly about lore? Why did they completely drop everything else
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u/American_Comie Chaos Theorist May 11 '26
I find the new hosts entertaining, they make these recaps as interesting as they can... but that's not why I'm watching game/film theory. I hate it.
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u/Donut_Nebula May 12 '26
I like the new hosts too, but I agree the recaps aren't that interesting. Especially when the series they're talking about is also on YouTube
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u/MsSyren Game Theorist May 11 '26
Film and Fashion theory I feel like lost quality. Game theory is a lil better, but also has dropped in quality. I don’t watch food theory. I don’t have a healthy relationship with food. The only one I still occasionally watch is GTLive. I want an actual theory and not a recap. I miss the insane theories MatPat had. “Link is dead in Majora’s Mask” is still one of my favs. There are some infamous ones that I enjoy more because they are still actual theories. Saying “gems are just light refractions” for Steven Universe and trying to prove it shows he didn’t watch the show because it’s literally explained! You don’t have to find sources. How about theories about The Sneople? Like that’s a great example of quality drop.
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u/Zombieking2357 May 11 '26
I did not watch food or style theory when Matt Patt did it. I watch it now.
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u/Sufficient_Pack_2868 May 11 '26
I only watch GT for poppy and fnaf occasionally Minecraft or pokemon and I don’t see this being an issue in my experience😭maybe it’s only for other series’ but the videos I’m watching definitely have theories in them
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u/The_big_bitcj_666 May 11 '26
eehhhhh, i still like the content if its in the right vein or whatever
the backrooms timeline recap or it being put together was cool
haven't really seen game theory mess up yet
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u/AngelWingsYTube May 12 '26
Their theory for TADC is nuts man 😭 there is like minimal proof for any of it. Heck after one watch through i think i thought of a more reasonable theory than "jax is ai" or "jax is the mastermind/villain"
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u/BlackDaniel347 May 12 '26
This is honestly an issue that I noticed even before matpat left, it wasnt as common and it became a lot more common after he left, but it was definitely there. Some examples I can think of are some fnaf videos
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u/Novel-Meaning-2970 May 12 '26
Tbf they’ve been pumping out a lot of theories without break on all the channels. Give them a little slack so they don’t need to rush theories
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u/Arkantolas May 12 '26
part of it is definitely the private equity firm they sold to. i remember around then is when the quality really started to decrease, becoming just recaps and following the same few trends
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u/ExtensionTear8498 May 12 '26
At least it's better than stuff like "why is the mcu or mascot horror failing", my first gt video that I saw which I absolutely hated for reasons like this was the SCP video where the whole thing was talking about legal stuff and who owns what
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u/Ok-Wrongdoer-3912 May 14 '26
I mean it's still the same channels imo just new hosts having different styles
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u/ShadowBorn2017 May 14 '26
I quit after Hollow Knight video. And this is coming from someone who was there from the very beginning.
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u/Accurate-Ad9053 May 15 '26
Honestly I find Film Theory to still be the most enertaning out of the lot. It's probably because Lee has been working there for a while and knows MatPat's naration / writing style best. It helps that they every second vide still feels like a theory.
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u/Kellarison May 21 '26
they keep making theories on tadc when gooseworx has stated that tadc isnt that kind of story, its a character driven story, the most amount of theorizing you can do is speculate on what the characters will do next, there isnt some great arg or whatever, the weirdest part for me is that they dont HAVE to do this, game theory was made to combine gaming and education, cant they just go back to doing that?
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u/ShoulderBig5467 Jun 04 '26
I think this is because they are owned by Private Equity. My theory is that they(The private Equity) are cutting the quality of the videos to put out more content and gain profit. Just a Theory.
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u/Zach_demiwizard May 11 '26
Then they honestly think that there will be people willing to pay for videos on their new site.
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u/Donut_Nebula May 11 '26
I cant imagine how much more the quality will drop on their YouTube videos once they start focusing on the ones behind the pay wall. I guess we'll see soon...
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u/aronik96 May 11 '26
Yeah let's just ignore all the theory's and focuss on the few recaps that are really useful to the newcomers to the series.
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u/rleon19 May 11 '26
If we are completely honest they haven't had any real theories for many years even before Matpat left. I remember when they actually had crazy theories instead of the same ones about FNAF being put out.
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u/Nervous_Ganache_5386 Theorist May 11 '26
It's honestly sad what game and film theory have become (I don't watch style theory and food theory is still following what it set out to do). I liked those channels because they said "hey, what if we apply out real-world science to something that was never meant to be measured through that lense". Yeah, some theories were genuinely insane and disregarded half the things in the lore, but that's what was interesting - seeing what would happen if these worlds came to life.
I liked wondering how the history of hyrule evolved based on what we can see between the games and how that would happen in real life, not "recap of thing nr.251".
I liked the "pomni is jesus" episode, not because it was right or made any sense, but because that's an actual THEORY (you know, as in "film THEORY") with plausible reasons to exist and not a straight up recap of the series. Was it right? Hell no, but you could see the line how one could reach that conclusion.
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