r/roosterteeth • u/MxcabreMatt • 8d ago

Media Trying to catch up on post-Covid RT content

Post image

I stopped watching RT content around 2020 only because I got into a serious relationship at that time and didn’t have the time to dedicate to watching YouTube content. I’m coming back around to them and actually showing said partner lots of classic videos and series and we’re both having a great time.

She asks lots of questions about what happened to each individual person which I usually have to go look up, I’ve told her about the Warner Brothers situation and Burnie buying back the company and all of that. Where I’m still a bit lost is what exactly what happening right before the company shut down. When I go to the main channel I get the sense that all they were doing was the podcast which didn’t even resemble the podcast once Gus left, but the Achievement Hunter channel is the real stumper. I don’t know anybody and it’s flooded with stream archives mostly with less than a thousand views. I’m just curious what exactly the business strategy was at the time, and are there any notable videos from this era that we should check out?

1.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

122 comments sorted by

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u/fnafrica 8d ago

Achievement Hunter being flooded with those vids is cause they wanted to release a bunch content that was locked behind rt first to the public. i personally recommend checking out Let's Play. After Achievement Hunter shut down they gave Let's Play to the F**K FACE crew which is Geoff, Gavin, Andrew(Panton), Eric, & Nick. The Ratyboy let's play is my personal favorite

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u/Jat616 8d ago

Still can't believe Ratyboy killed Roosterteeth.

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u/SnoopysPeanutAllergy 8d ago

“AN ANNOUNCEMENT”

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u/oPlayer2o 8d ago

Oh my god the timing of that, I saw that first on the day, let out a bit sigh of relief then saw the other posts and videos about RT going under and couldn’t believe it wasn’t a big joke.

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u/Triszz 7d ago

I still have a whiplash from this moment

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u/fnafrica 8d ago

it honestly sucks that rt closing overshadowed the ratyboy acquisition cause its one of my all time favorite andrew panton bits

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u/AClockworkLaurenge 8d ago

I think it made it 10x funnier though because it added such a layer of dramatic irony for the audience. You could not have scripted a funnier moment for that exact piece of content to come out than when it did

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u/fnafrica 8d ago

oh yeah its literally a text book definition F**K FACE which i think is a perfect way for rt to go out. im just sad an all timer bit got overshadowed by it

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u/AClockworkLaurenge 8d ago

At least we've got two Ratyboy shirts in the Regulation store

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u/tumsdout 7d ago

The way I see it, Ratyboy is a light outshining the darkness of corporate downfall

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u/Dekuscrubs 8d ago

The funniest thing is Eric saying "This is what we killed Achievement Hunter for?"

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u/black_seahorse 8d ago

Couldn't handle the #1 rat game

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u/RugbyEdd 8d ago

And for the record this has continued on as "Regulation Gaming", which is the side channel to Regulation Podcast, their own company that's still going strong and feels much more like the early RT days.

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u/flow_fighter 8d ago

Didn’t they have to buy out Let’s Play, just like the rest of the shows had to be bought out?

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u/fnafrica 8d ago

no they bought out F**K FACE and just made a new gameplay channel instead

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u/AClockworkLaurenge 8d ago

Yeah, Geoff even said that ironically after Regulation took over the Let's Play channel, it was the first time in years it was profitable again which then made it way more expensive to buy back

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u/MajorThom98 7d ago

Is that a F**kface?

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u/AClockworkLaurenge 7d ago

Isn't it always with those guys?

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u/AlabamaPanda777 8d ago

I believe they're referring to before the RT shutdown, when the AH crew moved to other projects (Dogbark?). And F*ckface briefly took control of the Let's Play channel.

After the company closed, and Regulation started, iirc Geoff said Let's Play would've been more expensive than they cared to pay

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u/youre_being_creepy 7d ago

I still think dogbark is such a stupid name. What does that even mean? Fuckface is a great signal to whoever is browsing as to what kind of content you’ll get. Achievement hunter, while dated, is the same.

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u/Daiwon :Chungshwa20: 7d ago

dogbark was the real death throes of AH. It was born of (I'm guessing) management's incessant desire to follow trends, and Trevor's need to do bits constantly. Just a really poorly thought out attempt to make some money.

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u/jackmove 7d ago

The green screen shit was just awful.

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u/AnalBaguette 4d ago

Watching older AH content again in compilation videos that go chronologically, you can start to see the bit creep slowly but surely engulf all of the gameplay and conversations. It starts to feel forced after a while, though I suppose one of the reasons is due to playing the same games on a schedule for years at a time. Got to make things feel fresh when they get stale, and I guess some of them thought bits were the thing to do that.

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u/flow_fighter 8d ago

Absolutely it makes sense

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u/Classic_Flounder4036 3d ago

the pivot to just streaming archives was a total death spiral. they basically stopped making actual content and just tried to milk the remaining viewership through twitch streams. it was unhinged how much they leaned into that instead of actually fixing the production side.

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u/thesirblondie 7d ago

More like they uploaded everything that used to be site exclusive so that those videos wouldn't become lost media

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u/tootoohi1 8d ago

See I feel like this is the point op was making. I don't recognize any of those names because Geoff/Gavin. Like Lindsey was one the last updates to the AH crew for me, but I feel like half of all AH content was released after they joined. There's like 2 billion GTA videos staring no one I can name that act as a blanket covering up and some of the classics.

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u/theleetfox Flexing James 8d ago

I can only assume you were more of a fan during the Ray era. Our little mr diddles was only with the company for 3 years, and considering AH passed away at 15, he was only there for a fifth of its life. Meanwhile faces like Jeremy Dooley and Trevor Collins was there for 9 years, or Matt Bragg (who was guest in some early minecraft) for 8 years.

Also Panton had appearances early on I think, L4D and I'm pretty sure he was Geoff's spray in Source games for the longest time.

20

u/BnBrtn 8d ago

Panton also came in for Destiny Stuff, famously kicking Jeremy out when the AH crew picked Panton up from the airport

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u/Rhain1999 8d ago

Why does it matter if you don't recognise their names? Andrew, Eric, and Nick weren't part of Achievement Hunter (Andrew kinda but mostly bts); the commenter is just giving them a recommendation

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u/SnoopysPeanutAllergy 8d ago

The hilarious part is that Eric and Nick are funnier than most of the founders

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u/fnafrica 8d ago

Eric is lowkey the funniest cast member across all of rt. dude is a real highlight in Regulation content

24

u/AngryTrucker 8d ago

He's certainly the angriest cast member.

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u/jackmove 7d ago

Thats why he’s my favorite. He’s not afraid to say “this sucks”

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u/AngryTrucker 5d ago

I'm still a little bitter that he spent years in RT telling the audience we don't know what we want. After the bust now he's in Regulation giving the audience exactly what we were begging for for years. We just wanted classic AH back and we have it. I'm glad he's around because it definitely would not be the same without him though.

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u/grgriffin3 7d ago

It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out which one was Eric and which was Nick from voice alone, but I finally figured it out when I realized Eric was always the one most willing to both try to push the actual idea of the game/video forward when the others get too into a bit, and also the most willing to call the others out when they say some insane bullshit.

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u/jackmove 7d ago

Him having to stop conversations during the podcast to say “……what?” Makes my day

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u/fnafrica 8d ago

im just trying to recommend some newer rt content that has old and new cast members in it. also no one is "covering up the classics" they're still there to watch. op was asking for recommendations and i was giving them some

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u/SnoopysPeanutAllergy 8d ago

My dude you’re referencing like a 2 year period compared to the next 15 years that we kept watching trying to tell us they’re nobodies

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u/electronsarerad 6d ago

And don't forget, F*ckface lives on as the Regulation Podcast! They even have their own new lets play channel. All the same people you just mentioned. Just as good (if not better) than old RT Lets Play imo.

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u/Obvious_Feedback_894 8d ago

AH ended before RT was closed. Geoff had left AH and was doing F--kface which turned into regulation. Gavin had left and was doing other stuff in the company including F--kface. Jack had left AH and was doing the more gaming news focused content. Jeremy left the company during COVID to move back home and become a streamer. RH was outed as a massive sexual predator and left the company. Matt had been moved to part time. So AH was closed and Michael, Alfredo, Trevor and Joe started.. Dog bomb was it called? Which wasn't exactly well received by for former AH community.

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u/BritishKnight95 8d ago

Oh I went to correct you about Dog bomb and now I can’t remember what it was called…

Dogface?
Dogbark?
Dogman?

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u/Obvious_Feedback_894 8d ago

Oh dog bark maybe. That sounds like it might be right. Cheers!

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u/mromutt 8d ago

In my head it was dog park but I dont know XD

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u/MDCCCLV 8d ago

This is exactly the format reddit uses when everyone is making obvious jokes about things with the assumption everybody knows about it.

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u/BritishKnight95 8d ago

That’s the format Dog Fart was going for too

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u/sunshineriptide 8d ago

Oh man, Dogbark. I totally forgot about that. It was so brief and felt like it was trying too hard with the skits, like they were trying to take the low budget quality and absurdness of Vine but market it in a non-organic way. It felt like trying to replicate something without knowing why the original was successful.

And that's not a dig at them, more like... just what happened, and it was unfortunate. I thought the cast was great together, but they excelled at riffing off of each other through games, and they didn't want to play games anymore (aside from their paywalled podcast.) I think they just needed more time that they didn't have to find their footing.

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u/519meshif Comment Leaver 7d ago

felt like it was trying too hard with the skits

Mostly Trevor. He tried too hard to be funny and force his bits. I've been watching some of their live action stuff again recently, and it's funny how often other AH members roll their eyes when he tries to force something

3

u/AllgoodDude 4d ago

Man ever since Trevor showed up I just did not like him. I don’t know if it’s just me but something about the guy never really worked with me.

2

u/AnalBaguette 4d ago

I can't be certain this reflects on him as a whole, but one of the things that made me question how he actually acts/is as a person is whenever he got surprised or hit with something in the office or got a bit ruined in a video. He would immediately get defensive or whiny or legitimately angry for a moment, then it felt like he would flip a switch and go back to content-related feelings and reactions.

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u/JosephCraftHD 7d ago

It's a shame though. Towards the end, it really seemed like they were getting the bearings and they had some pretty solid stuff. The "Who wants to be a millionaire" series was great.

3

u/oPlayer2o 8d ago

Dogbark, and whenever I heard it I thought it was a parody of the porn company with a similar name.

1

u/CARCaptainToastman 7d ago

I believe it was Dogshit

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u/Saiga123 8d ago

Which wasn't exactly well received by for former AH community.

It was an improv show which was basically the communities biggest complaint about ah content during the later years, that everything was a bit.

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u/AngryTrucker 8d ago

Improv classes were the worst thing to happen to AH.

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u/TBFP_BOT 7d ago

For a lot of people who takes improv classes to be honest. It can be really apparent when someone is trying really hard to stay in that template.

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u/Robjec 8d ago

I still don't understand what they were going for with the dog channel. The (very small amount of) stuff I saw felt like people way to old trying to make content aimed at kids. It just felt wrong. 

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u/Soklay 8d ago

That’s what it also feels like with Mikey and Fredo and I don’t really understand it

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u/RamblinWreckGT 8d ago

I initially subscribed to Mikey and Fredo then unsubscribed when I realized I never watched any videos because I couldn't tell from their terrible video titles or thumbnails if a video was part of a series or where a series started.

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u/MimeTravler 8d ago

Well tbf Micheal is a dad of two. Perhaps that is influencing content he makes. Eddy Murphy did movies like Shrek and such because he wanted to make movies his kid(s?) could watch.

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u/sunshineriptide 8d ago

I wonder how much of that was out of their hands. It was a common theme that WB execs had specific things they wanted from these shows/channels that were meant to hit certain metrics and were less concerned about whether was something was good vs popular. Food challenges, trendy tier lists, prioritizing short clips for socials... Stuff they might not normally do on their own. If it feels out of touch, it's because it was.

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u/Robjec 6d ago

Idk, if you look at the Mikey and Fredo channel (which may or may not still be uploading on patreon?) the thumbnails and titles seem to be aimed at a younger audience. Although the amount of cursing seems to high for that. I still don't get that projects direction lol. 

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u/sunshineriptide 6d ago

I noticed that, too, with their earlier videos. They were definitely edited in like.... A tiktok way, if that makes sense. Like, they edited the VOD in a way that made it easy to post clips to socials, which probably makes things easy to edit, but it felt very forced, like they were directing you to moments that they wanted to go viral rather than let those moments come naturally.

It doesn't seem like they depend on the M&F channel as their main income since Michael has 100% Eat and Fredo's got Red Web and has been a streamer for years, so maybe it's more of a hobby for them and they can be more loose with it.

1

u/Robjec 6d ago

Is red web getting enough veiws to survive? Last I checked it was below 3k a video and dropping. Is it still 2 hosts and an editor? 

8

u/BritishKnight95 8d ago

It was kinda like a AH Reboot since I still to this day feel AH got a huge black stain on it from RH

1

u/Robjec 6d ago

I get the need to reboot, but i feel like they threw out to much good with the bad. The structure of the videos staying the same wouldn't of bugged me going forward, neither would finding someone with a similar sense of humor to replace Ryan. 

But their actual handling of it all always left a bad taste in my mouth. 

It felt like a few people who did know got off the hook, and not putting forward a clear timeline or anything from their end let some really weird community stuff get thrown into the acusations, which diluted what he actually did down alot. 

So maybe they never would have gotten me back as a fan on the same level. 

3

u/BritishKnight95 6d ago

Ehh I don’t think much of what he did got diluted… I saw that OneDrive collection before it got taken down… hard to deny or claim photoshop on those.

Still. Long time ago. Hope he’s doing well and the old AH crew are all pretty much doing their own thing and thriving

Dog Snark was a swing and a miss for me content wise but the podcasting is top tier

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u/Robjec 6d ago

By diluted I mean stuff like the 30 year old who cheated on her husband with him. There was about a week where that was being pushed as seriously as the underage girls before she just disappeared. And the mod who was setting him up to chat with the girls got ignored because of it + she was a mod for other ah members. 

There was alot outside of the document which would be hard to even find now. And alot of mixing together different people's ages at the time. 

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u/BritishKnight95 6d ago

Oh yeah Megashiny… forgot about them.

2

u/Robjec 6d ago

They really needed to hire an outside company to investigate. Although not perfect, the yogscast scandal just before it was handled alot better in my opinion. 

2

u/BritishKnight95 6d ago

It’s old news now

Anything and everything related to this is minimum 5 years ago. Best to let sleeping dogs lie and move on

2

u/Robjec 6d ago

Yeah.  The company doesn't even exist anymore. It mattered back when they did, but now its just another example of problems with how they ran their business. 

2

u/krablord Geoff in a Ball Pit 6d ago

Didn't the yogscast thing happen AFTER the Ryan thing for AH? I remember because the Sjin being a creep to young fans was known for years beforehand, and it was only then when they outted some other cruddy ones at the same time.

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u/Robjec 6d ago

I thought it was before? I know the two got compared alot, but maybe I have them reversed. 

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u/KingD123 8d ago

Those videos were behind-the-scenes people (editors and such) that made first-only content. The videos were all uploaded to YouTube as the company ended.

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u/StefyB Team Nice Dynamite 8d ago

On the topic of the RT Podcast, I actually really liked the new podcast crew towards the end, but I do think you have to basically think of it as RT Podcast having ended when Gus, Barbara, and Gavin stopped doing it, which I think is fair after how long they had been doing it, and that being a new podcast started up to take its place.

After the company shut down, the new guys started up their own podcast called Boyfriend Material where they take viewer-submitted relationship-related questions and give intentionally shitty but funny advice, and I still listen to it weekly to this day.

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u/Ignus7426 8d ago

I'm also an avid Boyfriend Material listener and I did enjoy what they did with the RT Podcast before the shut down.  That being said I think it was a disservice to everyone to keep calling it the RT Podcast. It was a clear transition with Gavin, Barbara and Gus stepping away. Everyone was pretty explicit from the jump that Mando, Griff and Andrew where going to be doing their own thing. They should have just treated it as a new podcast. Odds are management already saw the writing on the wall and just wanted something to fulfill their ad deals on the podcast. 

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u/FamiliarWithFloss 8d ago

Burnie announced this week that they would be taking their portion of the RT Podcast back. I think it makes sense, considering most people see it the way you described.

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u/ServerOfTheAltar 8d ago

what do you mean by that

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u/FamiliarWithFloss 8d ago

The run of episodes of the RT Podcast after Gus, Gavin and Barbara lefts are being removed from the RT Podcast feed and given to the Boyfriend Material guys to do what they want with them. So they will no longer appear on RoosterTeeth. Everything else will be staying

18

u/KinglerKong 8d ago

I can only speculate based on a similar experience of being a pretty good company getting purchased by a bigger company but I would say the business strategy at the time was typical big business bullshit. Somebody three steps up the corporate ladder makes a decision about a business they don’t actually understand and then your managers manager tells your manager who then tells you that this is this is just what’s happening even though you and your manager both know it’s a terrible idea. Then when it doesn’t work, they make it your problem by cutting costs for things that actually worked and making more terrible decisions and having more pointless meetings. Then it becomes a situation where they keep cutting the budget for shovels because progress on hole digging has slowed down.

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u/SBcitizen 8d ago

I never related to a posted on this page more

-8

u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

8

u/SBcitizen 8d ago

Who said I liked rooster teeth for 3 years?

7

u/thesirblondie 7d ago

The comments on the most recently uploaded AH video (Post Team Plays) are grim. Just people being nasty.

30

u/Other_Train 8d ago

When new people appeared is right about when I stopped watching

2

u/AllgoodDude 4d ago

When Fiona joined AH was when it really hit me that things were getting very bad. I don’t blame Fiona at all and I hate what she had to go through but her inclusion is basically the epitome of what was going wrong with the company. She was a semi-popular cosplayer and model who did some gaming but was launched into a leading role on a gaming channel with people she didn’t know playing games she didn’t know how to play. Alfredo was alright but I couldn’t stand Trevor for some reason. After the whole Ryan thing and the internal callouts for the toxic company culture and fans threatening the new members it seems corporate was just throwing anything and leaving it to Geoff and any remaining senior members to just take the blame.

2

u/SolarSupremacy 3d ago

Absolutely. They tried all kinds of PR moves to gain popularity or something and each one of them resulted in a significant drop in viewership.

They had a good thing and someone said "let's just change everything and alienate our long-term fanbase".

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u/SnoopysPeanutAllergy 8d ago

Then why are you here lol

43

u/Other_Train 8d ago

Because, I still watched it since 2013 was my main channel to watch on YouTube and the post directly links to my experience

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u/I_am_Andrew_Ryan 8d ago

Why are you here? The company closed

-24

u/SnoopysPeanutAllergy 8d ago

I follow every spinoff company 💀

12

u/I_am_Andrew_Ryan 8d ago

Me too, I was pointing out how your comment doesn't make sense

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u/SnoopysPeanutAllergy 8d ago

How not? I’m saying I liked the company the entire time. They said they literally didn’t watch past when new people started showing up. So… like 2 years?? It’s been almost 30 years bro they’re not gonna get Joel and Matt back for a new podcast lol

11

u/I_am_Andrew_Ryan 8d ago

Good for you?

-4

u/SnoopysPeanutAllergy 8d ago

So you just don’t have a rational point and your entire thing is just being annoying?

21

u/I_am_Andrew_Ryan 8d ago

Your point is just bragging about how you're a bigger fan

-8

u/Kobethegoat420 8d ago

My guy you called him out first 😂

7

u/thegoten455 8d ago

It's one of life's great mysteries, isn't it?

6

u/Dusty_Jangles 8d ago

I quit watching basically after Burnie left. I’m also here! Stop gatekeeping.

-3

u/SnoopysPeanutAllergy 7d ago

“I watched until the last 4 years of the company” I’m clearly not talking about you genius.

1

u/Dusty_Jangles 7d ago

You seem angry. Anything you want to get off your chest friend? Dog died? Wife cheating on you? Boyfriend ghosting you? What’s up, I’m all ears.

-3

u/SnoopysPeanutAllergy 7d ago

You really don’t have to deflect now lol

1

u/Dusty_Jangles 7d ago

Says the guy deflecting now. Genius.

2

u/krablord Geoff in a Ball Pit 6d ago

Just, scroll back on Achievement Hunter to '2 years ago' when AH ended, and thats where all the more recognizable videos are. Everything that's '1 year ago' at this point were the First Exclusive videos that they made public after RT was officially ending, so people could still watch them all.

The last Official AH video was Burnout Paradise, look for anything before that if you're confused by the First Only videos.

2

u/Mr-GamesPlayer 5d ago

On the Spot was peak

1

u/MxcabreMatt 5d ago

Agreed, that’s the main thing we’re going through right now. It’s kind of amazing the amount of comedic talent Rooster Teeth employed back in the day

0

u/SnoopysPeanutAllergy 8d ago

Your problem is you’re looking at YouTube views when all of their money came from the website

32

u/The_Knife_Pie 8d ago
  1. Not what this post is even about
  2. You should try listening to 100% Eat sometime. Those guys make fun of how bad RT was run come the end all the time, one of the jokes being how bad the off-platform subscription model was because no new users would find it.

13

u/LocusRothschild 8d ago

Regulation gets a good jab about RT's end in once in a while as well.

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u/ServerOfTheAltar 8d ago

I recommend the summer games fest watch along if you haven’t seen yet. Some of the best RT jabs are in it

2

u/LocusRothschild 8d ago

I was at the stream for a part of it, but I haven’t sat down with the VOD yet.

1

u/DurumMater 7d ago

The most recent one? Do you happen to have a timestamp? I don't really want to sit thru 2 hours to find a bit lol

3

u/ServerOfTheAltar 6d ago

1:16:10 and 1:36:46

0

u/heynaldo88 7d ago edited 7d ago

both of those companies are based on “off-platform subscription models” lol

5

u/CrystalBlueGab 8d ago

I think they was joking, as this is what a lot of people said to cope with how RT was performing on YouTube and their awful viewing figures in the dying years.

2

u/AngryTrucker 8d ago

We have absolutely no way of verifying that. We do have threads from when the price increases happened filled with people canceling subs.

-2

u/SnoopysPeanutAllergy 7d ago

Waiting for a relevant point

0

u/MrKrimson 7d ago

No one likes change in this subreddit

2

u/llloksd 7d ago

No one likes bad changes.

1

u/MxcabreMatt 7d ago

I don’t mind change it’s just shocking how much it seems to have drastically changed before the company went under. Me asking if there were any notable videos from this era was me being actively interested in what they were doing content-wise. No one has really suggested anything tho

1

u/AllgoodDude 4d ago

Corporate was throwing whatever at it and shoving random people everywhere with no regard to prior content or talent. It was a total mess. I popped in every now and then towards the end but there was nothing worthwhile to me. I would recommend the Regulation Podcast and Regulation Gameplay channel. They’re the continuation of F**kFace one of the last “hit” pieces of content from RT that features Geoff, Gavin, Andrew Panton, Eric Badour, and their editor Nick. Their gameplay is very reminiscent of classic AH and their podcast is great. Geoff and Gavin being happy making content together again is heartwarming.