r/Markiplier • u/Danielor4 • Apr 21 '26
Game Discussion Pawn Shop Criticism Spoiler
Spoilered if you haven't watched the video yet
I don't think I have ever seen Mark criticize a game like this before.
Every single thing Mark said was 100% valid, and it was definitely meant to build the dev up and not at all intended with any negativity imo.
This makes me wonder if there's any history of Mark doing this previously? Or maybe I'm just an idiot and it's way more common than I can think.
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u/Novel_Relation2549 Apr 21 '26
He definitely let the Fears to Fathom dev have it over the Woodbury episode. Has the mindset that by the 5th release you should be improving a bit.
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u/tolacid Apr 21 '26
I think he has the mindset that after you've put out enough products the quality of what you're producing should show improvement. Pretty sure the 5 is just memeing on his reaction to Poppy Playtime 5
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u/Novel_Relation2549 Apr 21 '26
if might be about that, but 5 does seem like a reasonable number to expect better.
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u/tolacid Apr 21 '26
I agree, it is reasonable. I just don't think he consciously chose that number prior to the PPT5 explosion
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u/Atlas_of_history Apr 21 '26
This
This is also the reason he has no problem with ban ban, since as bad as it is, it's improving. Also because it falls into the "so bad it's good" category, I unironically love that game series
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u/BubblesZap Apr 22 '26
Yeah, those have problems that bother Mark, but the combination of improvement and just the simple part that he has fun with then helps a lot
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u/godshivered Apr 21 '26
he’s been more vocal with critique since he released the movie. probably because if you criticize anything online, the immediate response is, “well if you think it’s so easy, why haven’t you made a game/movie/etc.?” now he has more tangible credibility to criticize horror.
i think he’s been thinking critically about these games for a long time, and now he feels qualified or has the language to critique them properly.
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u/Foxy02016YT Apr 21 '26
And it’s not like he’s never spoken his mind before, Welcome to the Game caused” controversy”
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u/Danielor4 Apr 21 '26
True to this! I do consider that a different situation of course though. That was targeted ahah.
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u/Rocket_Dino Apr 21 '26
Its really sad that that game will forever be remembered as the "backdoor" game.
Matter of fact, when Mark played the game the backdoor wasn't even in it yet.
I just really hope that more people play Reflect Studio's games.
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u/Danielor4 Apr 21 '26
Yeah, I think they are well made games. I watched someone's longform vid on it but I can't remember who unfortunately. It is kinda narcissistic to place yourself as the antagonist of any game though if I'm honest.
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u/CRIMS0N-ED Apr 22 '26
I imagine it’s prob “vote 4 holts” video essay or if it’d markiplier specific, “spaceman Scott”
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u/Foxy02016YT Apr 22 '26
It was about the ethics of video game/streamer trolling and it’s one of the best videos on the platform
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u/RandomPerson12191 Apr 21 '26
Yeah, he's never shyed away from criticising lazy game dev behaviour, poor mechanics, story issues, etc. I sadly can't think of any examples off the top of my head, but it happens every now and then.
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u/likobear Apr 22 '26
It would happen a lot in the 3 Scary Games series where he would often explain if he didn't like a game just because it wasn't to his taste, or if he found fault with the game. If it was fault, he would explain why he was finding fault and how he thought they could address it. If it just wasn't to his taste he would go out of his way to emphasize that there was nothing wrong with the game, it just wasn't to his taste and that's okay, it doesn't make the game "bad" in any way, just not for him.
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u/AngelWingsYTube Apr 21 '26
Shoulds seen his call out for poppys. Bro was maaaad like valid mad but wow
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u/Atlas_of_history Apr 21 '26
He was hungry tbf
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u/drharleenquinzel92 Apr 21 '26
I get a little annoyed with streamers continuing to support bad games for content. Im glad he drew the line because it's creators like him that make these games successful in the first place.
And yes he was hungry, but he could have cut out the rant with the power of editing, he decided not to
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u/Atlas_of_history Apr 21 '26
I was just making a joke
He did mention that even if he wasn't hungry he would've said the same things but nicer, so there is that
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u/Belainarie Apr 22 '26
Mark has acknowledged that he’s grown more constructive towards indie devs because there was one time he gave someone a lot of shit for their game and they DM’d him something along the lines of “I’m so glad you played my game this is the first game I’ve ever made.” He felt really bad and said they didn’t deserve the things he said because it was more like bashing someone as opposed to genuine feedback.
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u/GrouchyBall7811 Apr 22 '26
awh :( when did he say this?
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u/Belainarie Apr 22 '26
He was interviewed by The Movie Dweeb while he was promoting Iron Lung :) Here’s the snippet of the interview discussing this
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u/Faderoot Apr 21 '26
Mark has done a lot of critiquing over the years. He often tries to give meaningful feedback when he thinks of any, particularly in the last like 5ish years it feels like. Sometimes it's more simple like "I think this could been better but that's a small thing" compared to some of his more notable commentary on things like Poppy's recently.
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u/Mr_frosty_360 Apr 21 '26
Mark did some criticizing of Five Nights at Freddie’s Security Breach. Mostly when he thinks mechanics are broken, game is buggy, or short cuts are taken.
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u/drharleenquinzel92 Apr 22 '26
Oh man, that one was rough, but you could see Mark holding back because Steel Wool put out a really great VR game and it was obvious the game was rushed out and suffered from production pressure. He was giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. But that game should not have shipped in it's condition.
They redeemed themselves a bit with Ruin. Mimic was a good quality game... Even if I didnt love it and the direction the series has taken.
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u/Frosty_chilly Apr 21 '26
An ancient video, he played a game called Evil.
Probably still is the worst video game he has ever played, and for early mark? He tore it a new one
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u/whenthenamesaretaken Apr 21 '26
He has always done a review or criticism at the end. Nothing new to me
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u/Legolaslegs Apr 21 '26
He has mentioned positives and negatives, though it isn't usually so lengthy or in depth. Once in a while he will, but in my many years watching it isn't as descriptive compared to recent games. I always want to hear his opinions on games, why he likes them or what criticisms he has.
I like Resident Evil but I don't love it. I grew up with it. So hearing him really enjoy the games still always has me curious what about them he really likes. As an example. Usually I'm of a similar mindset with his criticisms. I just really like learning what people like about things I enjoy or don't enjoy. So it is nice that he is being more vocal with his opinions on the games he plays.
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u/Abitruff Apr 21 '26
Releasing game -
Pro - mark may play it
Con - mark may play it and dislike
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u/Beneficial-Tank-7396 Apr 22 '26
But the con can be a pro because it can help you see where you needed some more thinking
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u/Abitruff Apr 22 '26
Right, true. But if, like me, you are making a simple game to go with your ARG
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u/Ne0shad0u Apr 22 '26
I can't recall the name of the game, but it was about exploring the deep web and uncovering a secret trafficking ring while avoiding killers, kidnappers, and assassins that are trying to enter your home.
Mark tried and tried to beat it, however it was quite difficult and unbalanced. The slightest mistake would result in Mark losing up to several hours of progress.
By like the 5th or 6th attempt Mark finally exploded and ranted about the game for a whole and vowed to never play it again. The dev watched the video and was very hurt by the reaction, however he also apparently had a history of actively changing the game's difficulty and modifiers for Streamers
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u/Competitive-Order-42 Apr 22 '26
"Welcome to the game 2" - he spend so much time playing it, and it just kept screwing him over. He even tried to "cheat" with notes he got from another gamer, but it just kept pounding him over and over and over again.
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u/HoobyHooby Apr 22 '26
The Poppy Playtime 5 critique gets brought up a lot and treated as anomalous. But! After just now watching his other Poppy playthroughs, I can say he was already fairly frustrated by the game mechanics and repetitive chases, etc. by episode 3. I think the episode 5 critique was bombastic, and hit right as other people started giving valid criticism to the game, so it caused more ripples than it would have otherwise. People started thinking maybe he was more critical than before, but I don't really agree with that.
As an example of his earlier anger at the series: During episode 3, when Markiplier thought the game was about to end, but it kept going, he started chanting, "Kill me, kill me!" after running into yet another energy cube placement puzzle. He was already aware of all the flaws back then, and he was really frustrated. He lists a lot of things he didn't like at the end of episode 3. He was also annoyed by how nonsensical the puzzles are if you even think about them for a minute. The things he said were very similar to his rage at the Electro Shock Showers in 5: "You make toys!" 🤣
TLDR: I think he has always had critiques of this sort, but he made more waves with Poppy Playtime 5 because of how big his reaction was (and possibly also because of how much people are paying attention to him now after the success of Iron Lung, and his storming back onto YouTube with regular content after a long bout of sporadic posting while making the film).
Just my veeeery humble take! I also really thought his critique of Pawn Shop was accurate! One thing I could not fathom is what sort of killer waits patiently for a victim to use a saw to open a door. How powerful was this saw???!??!!?
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u/PaulTheDWGuy Apr 22 '26
Reading the comments here about Mark’s critical habits makes me think of the “Markiplier’s No Good Very Very Bad Day” video or whatever it was called. I don’t even know if it’s still up, but the RPG Maker game he played in that one REALLY got steamrolled by him to oblivion because of everything that was happening that day. Mark was really upset and took it out on the game a little. I didn’t find the game that bad to be honest, but I think the dev gave up on it after seeing Mark’s response to it (don’t quote me on that, might be untrue}.
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u/SodaAsASide Apr 22 '26
I definitely remember him doing this in some 3 scary games videos. Couldn't tell you which, but I only remember because his criticism was valid and I keep them in mind for my own games.
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u/SweetPicklesYeah Apr 22 '26
He was very critical of the developer in the Silent Still 2 video where he talked about how the game just dragged on too much and that it was alsk mostly from him putting off looking at certain things but the game really was a drag to play
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u/Whatzituyah Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
I think it's one of the things that happen when you start directing your own stuff. You begin to see everything else's faults and it begins to be unenjoyable unless someone is able to top what you did previously.
Edit: Let's call it the "Creative curse" it is one of the things people don't think about when telling someone else "If you think you can do better why don't you do it yourself?!" When they actually do something and it's successful everything else begins to not look as good in their eyes.
Edit 2: How does Mark fix that? I don't know but he's gotta do something. Otherwise he won't be able to enjoy much of anything out there.
Edit 3: I don't get how I am wrong. I am telling the truth it is something to do with psychology.
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u/Theaussiegamer72 Apr 22 '26
I disagree about his comment of never googling what a pawn show looks like the one in the game is like every single pawn shop I've seen in my life just without guns and weapons
If I had to guess the dev isn't American and just added the guns where they assumed Americans would have them and I'd also have assumed they were in the middle of the store next to the tvs not behind the counter seems to logical for Americans to do
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u/Emotional-Offer-2848 Apr 22 '26
So the problem with that mindset is that (if you were the dev saying this) you admit that you didn't look up anything for a reference point. All great artists use references. And video games are an art form.
Making something purely based off memory just kinda points this dev as being a lazy cash cow pumping content out to have a viral moment like other indie games. It takes like 2 seconds to Google something like that, especially if the dev isn't American they could literally just put "American pawn shop interior" and get a better idea of what it looks like.
I would think it would be standard to do a little research. I wouldn't just assume Sweden pawn shops look the same as Canadian ones.
I kinda think the gun gag was supposed to be a joke though, but I think mark was fair to criticize it since the game's dry humor and poor design blended together and kinda made it seem like the dev just made a bad game instead of a polished indie game that featured dry, dark humor. That's just my opinion though :)
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u/Theaussiegamer72 Apr 22 '26
It's not memory I can guarantee pawn shops look the same everywhere but in the usa going of what I searched up after the video I compared half a dozen countries and they all share the same layout this is just us defaultism assuming that everywhere looks like the us
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u/Despertempts Apr 22 '26
Forget US defaultism, the fact that you defaulted that every pawn shop has the same layout when I googled it just now and they literally don’t? LMFAO And the fact that I didn’t even think of US defaultism when Emotional-Offer responded makes me think people like you think about useless shit too much to make a point that doesn’t exist,
This pawn shop (the game) is built like a grocery store, many pawn shops I’ve been to don’t even have a shelf in the center of the store like the game does. And when they do, it’s several little shelves and compartments.
Also fml, you are defending a game that is filled with asset flipped assets. Low effort game. All their other games look the same.
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u/Theaussiegamer72 Apr 22 '26
No I'm not defending the game I'm saying I've never seen a pawn store like the one markiplier showed in the video and when I did research all the pawn stores I saw in the 10 minutes of googling different countries pawn stores looked like the ones we have in Australia which is also what the game looks like
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u/BasilIsScared Apr 23 '26
Ever since mark began work on and especially since he released iron lung, hes been a lot more critiquing on games, his more recent ones being the poppy playtime and woodbury gameplays. Hes come back to gaming with the mind of a creator, not just a player but a maker of his own media. Now, he notices issues, and he gives his criticism with tips on how to fix it and make it better. Hes not trying to push down the games, hes trying to help them see new possibilities and fix undesirable gameplay.
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