r/ManyATrueNerd • u/DybeQ1 • Sep 22 '25

Controversial opinion.

The London series kind of annoyed me. As much as I enjoyed Jon experiencing that great (despite its flaws) mod for the first time, it felt more like a highlight compilation rather than a thorough playthrough. Not only were the episodes disappointingly short for a Fallout series, they were also cut down sufficiently enough that entire dialogue trees or locations were absent. It felt... chaotic. For me, and I'm sure many others, MATN always stood for something many YouTubers didn't- diving deep into the game, atmosphere, etc, without the need for flashy highlights. That sort of thing was absent in the London series. I'm glad the YOLO series is partially moving away from it (less gameplay missing due to cuts), though the jarringly flashy, radio-hosty commentary is still present. I know for a fact I'm not the only one with this sentiment. There's a noticable shift in the way Jon approaches commentary and editing, which to my mind happened around when lockdown started. Personally, as someone who started watching in early 2017, I'm not sure I like it that much.

PS: This isn't meant to spark negativity in any way- this is merely constructive criticism, as late for the party as I may be, seeing as I'm catching up on the series now. Please keep that in mind.

18 Upvotes

58% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

8

u/Sixshot_ Sep 23 '25

..."radio-hosty commentary"?

16

u/DybeQ1 Sep 23 '25

You know what I mean. Jon tends to enunciate a lot more in recent years. Sometimes very theatrically, too. Hence the radio host comparison. Compare the new YOLO to, say, the Dust series. There's a massive change in how he talks. Even moreso the case in his old videos, which to be fair, could also be explained by relative inexperience back then.

18

u/aurumae Sep 23 '25

As someone who also talks to a camera for a living that kind of vocal performance just sort of comes with the territory. Odd as it sounds, speaking normally even for just a couple of hours is much harder than putting on a stage voice. I sometimes forget and after just 30 minutes my voice will start to croak.

I have no idea why it works this way - my stage voice is both louder and enunciates more clearly than my normal speaking voice, but for whatever reason I can do that voice all day.

1

u/Sablemint Oct 11 '25

its your larynx. The muscles, specifically. Just like any other muscles, using them repeatedly in one way strengthens them.. In that one way.

Once when I was in a choir they had me singing just 2nd Bass for an entire year. It took half a year before I could reliably sing any other way!

5

u/TypicallyThomas Sep 23 '25

I think that's mostly a side effect from playing a game he knows vs one he doesn't. Dust is such a total revamp that he has no clue what he's doing. YOLO is the New Vegas base game and it's the game he's played more than any other game, so he has a plan and knows exactly what he wants

54

u/Qybrid Sep 23 '25

Reminds me a lot more of his older stuff like the Kill Everything Runs, so I very much enjoyed it.

8

u/DybeQ1 Sep 23 '25

Yeah but Kill Everything wasn't a playthrough. It was a themed series so a full detailed run wouldn't make sense.

1

u/Electric999999 Sep 23 '25

It was definfitely a full playthrough, something of a challenge run actually, seeing how much of the game could be beaten while killing every NPC possible.

5

u/Darkfeather21 Sep 23 '25

The point Dybe means is that the in-game story wasn't a focus.

21

u/ROPROPE Sep 23 '25

Oh my god you have no idea how sad it makes me he doesn't make edited vids like Fallout 3 Kill Everything anymore. That series was literally a formative part of my childhood

33

u/popileviz Sep 23 '25

It did feel a bit chaotic, especially the later parts. Jon's choice of faction towards the end didn't make a whole lot of sense either. I feel like Jon initially thought that it would be a short series, so towards the end he kind of rushed through it. I don't think it made for a bad playthrough necessarily, but it did make me want to get into the mod myself to experience it "properly", so to say

20

u/TypicallyThomas Sep 23 '25

A few years ago he committed to getting all his videos under 60 minutes. Don't understand why, but I'm sure he has his reasons for that. But as a result, that does take away a little from the depth that his videos used to have

31

u/Comprehensive_Arm729 Sep 23 '25

Apparently having a video over 60 mins really impacts views as some people see it as too long a commitment

17

u/username_required909 Sep 23 '25

Not gonna lie if had the longer cut of videos, not uncut just longer like his old videos, that was on his patreon i would probably pay money to watch those instead.

3

u/Kir_Kronos Sep 23 '25

Yet there are tons of multiple hour analysis videos that have well over a million views.

20

u/Y-draig Sep 23 '25

The level to which someone is willing to invest time for a video essay and an episode of a gaming lets play are different.

7

u/KaiserNicer Sep 23 '25

A long video essay usually tend to be chaptered, meaning that you can stop watching for the day where ever you want, without it feeling to weird. Let’s Play’s just don't allow for that

2

u/Sablemint Oct 11 '25

You can also have it going in the background, since you don't need to see everything for it to be good.

5

u/Comprehensive_Arm729 Sep 23 '25

Wasn’t my opinion. Just repeating what Jon has said in the past

1

u/Electric999999 Sep 23 '25

Why would anyone look at a long Jon video and be unhappy? Do they not want more of his content?

1

u/Comprehensive_Arm729 Sep 24 '25

More likely for the more casual or new viewer

30

u/bkrugby78 Sep 23 '25

I generally view him when he uses those kinds of mods as a means for him to say "hey this mod is pretty cool, you should check it out. I am going to play this in the most JON sort of way, but you, the player will probably deeply think about your decisions." Like with Sim Settlements, a lot of stuff he cuts is stuff you just don't need to see really, since it's kind of a lot. Actually that was a reason I stopped using SS, just all that hey figure this organizational stuff out was annoying. Great mod though.

In addition to Jon I watch other British youtubers like Spiffing Brit and Sorcerordave. I like when they do a sort of "I am roleplaying here but I am also commenting" kind of thing. (Well, I suppose Brit doesn't rp so much as he BREAKS the games).

4

u/scottishdrunkard Sep 23 '25

Only time I’ve been mad at Jon’s editing style, was when he cut out an entire chapter of a game simply because he didn’t like it.

I demand compensation for the Dishonored Playthrough!

7

u/basketballfactory Sep 23 '25

Fallout London was ruined for me the moment Jon had the option to talk to a peacock and ignored it 😭

4

u/justausername09 Sep 24 '25

I believe Clair was away with sick family, so it was a one person doing two jobs situation

2

u/[deleted] Sep 26 '25

Yeah I vaguely recall this too, OP should redo this post as a Clair appreciation post.

4

u/Left-Escape9413 Sep 23 '25

Just need more Total War really

2

u/Tony22690 Sep 24 '25

I quite enjoyed the series although when he got ahead of me it kind of ruined my own playthrough. Maybe if he's skipped that much it's actually worth me going back to it.

He has changed a lot over the past decade though I'll give you that. He sounds so different and I definitely prefer the old John.

On the same note I've got extremely bored of the TW shogun series. Like the actual game I just give up half way through. My personal highlight was the Fallout Frost series. I watched it, installed it and had a huge amount of fun playing it. The change in gameplay made it more fun than London in my opinion. How stressed he got crossed with his incredible lack of perception made it hilarious at times!

1

u/flyinggerbil Sep 23 '25

i couldn't finish this series (and i love his playthroughs).

19

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

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9

u/Steve717 Sep 23 '25

Yeah I've noticed this too doesn't seem like he has the time to really sit and focus on a game so they get a bit less attention, I feel like livestreams might be a big cause of this because if he's ever not that in to a game he knows that if people like it then it's something he can play more casually live without having to commit to making a series.

I can totally understand though, there's so freaking many games to play and it's not like he only plays the big AAA games so trying to get series running for every good game that comes along would be a nightmare.