The Comedian
Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw is a British journalist, video game critic, author, comedian, humourist, game developer, and audiobook narrator. He is best known for his gaming review series, Zero Punctuation, which he produced for The Escapist from 2007 to 2023. Prior to Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee primarily authored content for his blog, Fullyramblomatic, and would occasionally review video games, often with an emphasis on humour and harsh criticism.
In July 2007, Yahtzee uploaded two game reviews in his iconic video format to YouTube in the same style that would eventually be used for Zero Punctuation. The two reviews were of the demo of The Darkness for the PlayStation 3, and the other of Fable: The Lost Chapters for the PC. Both were well-received and The Escapist, also known as Escapist Magazine, was one of several publishers to offer Croshaw a contract, and the Zero Punctuation video review series would be born.
Yahtzee cites the work of British television critic and PC Zone journalist Charlie Brooker as the “main inspiration” for his own reviewing style, as well as the writings of Douglas Adams, Sean Riley, Victor Lewis-Smith, Chet Faliszek and Erik Wolpaw. He expressed respect towards the late Roger Ebert, noting that he “might one day aspire to being his video-gaming equivalent”.
No Need To Breathe
The name “Zero Punctuation” refers to the speed of Yahtzee’s narration. Since its creation, the series has become popular in the gaming community. Yahtzee usually reviews a game in a highly critical manner using rapid-fire speech delivery accompanied by minimalistic cartoon imagery and animation on a distinctive yellow background, which illustrates what is being said or provides an ironic counterpoint to it.
Subtle references or jokes may be inserted into the visuals for comic effect or to add additional context to the narration. His reviews are intended to be humorous with constant usage of analogies, metaphors, and dark humour accompanied by the frequent use of profanity. Yahtzee usually substitutes the main character or himself with his own avatar, a cartoon man distinguished by a trilby, with other cartoon people in the same style representing the main characters in the featured game or even relevant celebrities.
Another character often used is an imp-like creature, originally used to resemble a “darkling” from The Darkness, which represents antagonists, animals, children, or less important characters from a game. Games, developers, countries, and other entities are often anthropomorphised as box arts, logos, or flags respectively, sometimes including arms and legs. Yahtzee often allegorises jokes, game details, or video game industry activities with references to, or commentaries on popular culture, politics, and history.
Prior to mid-2008, Zero Punctuation featured commercial songs at the beginning and end of each episode, which were usually related to the context of, or at odds with the game in question, such as the Ramones’ ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ and Eric Johnson’s ‘Cliffs of Dover’ at the beginning and end of his review of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
After minor legal complications with the licencing of tracks, Zero Punctuation switched to a regular theme song, a rock track composed and performed by Ian Dorsch. The ending credits usually feature humourous notes or other information relating to the review, as well as imagery of characters from the review engaging in slapstick. Post-credits scenes were also common, featuring bonus short sketches or plugs for Yahtzee’s novels.
Mr Negative
Yahtzee provides highly critical reviews of games, usually pointing out the faults that he implies other professional reviewers ignore in high-profile releases. He tends to disdain certain tropes and conventions in games that he feels have been overused, such as quick-time events, cover-based shooting, crafting systems, and an unbalanced emphasis on graphics over story and/or gameplay.
Similarly, he has expressed cynicism of the prevalence of specific game designs, including military-themed first-person shooters for being very similar in gameplay, poor in ethics, and contrived in story; open-world games including crafting, collectibles, and stealth mechanics that he feels bloats a game’s content; cinematic games that consist of linear, uneventful sections separated by action sequences and brief exploration; and live service games with repetitive gameplay that incorporates unnecessary grinding to unlock new content.
Certainly, I focus on the bad, because I reckon plenty of sources focus on the good already. Happily, the bad is also easier to make funny.”
Although Zero Punctuation episodes are usually intended to highlight Yahtzee’s criticisms of video games, his opinions are not universally negative, and any positive feelings towards the aspects of a game will usually be explicitly stated. During his review of Portal, he admitted to being unable to find any faults with the game. He opened his review of BioShock by saying “nobody likes it when I’m being nice to a game,” referring to the negative reception of his favourable review of Psychonauts.
Side Dishes
At the end of each year, starting in 2008, Yahtzee created special episodes of Zero Punctuation discussing what he believes were the best and worst games of the year. He occasionally dedicated episodes to new technologies or milestones in video gaming, such as E3 and the coming of the eighth generation of consoles. Yahtzee also dedicated certain episodes to covering events or periods in gaming history that he considered to have damaged the industry or its reputation.
In 2009, Yahtzee reviewed Prototype by comparing it to InFamous, attempting to decide which game was better. Unable to determine a victor, he jokingly suggested that the developers of each game send him artwork of the opposing game’s main character wearing lingerie in order to claim the award. Radical Entertainment and Sucker Punch, the respective developers, unexpectedly complied with the challenge, prompting Yahtzee to declare InFamous the winner after judging the quality of their images.
From 2009 to 2017, Yahtzee authored a column on The Escapist known as Extra Punctuation. These articles were originally published every Tuesday and often supplemented the previous week’s review by discussing a certain topic or trend exhibited by that game. Yahtzee resumed the series in 2021 in video format.
Internal Politics
Enthusiast Gaming sold The Escapist to Gamurs Group in September 2022. On November 6th, 2023, editor-in-chief Nick Calandra revealed he was fired from Gamurs Group, citing “not achieving goals” as the justification. Calandra, however, was highly respected by the video team for his involvement in improving working conditions and his creation of a surge in original content as the site transitioned from gaming news to gaming commentary.
Yahtzee announced that he and the entire video team had resigned from The Escapist out of solidarity following the firing of Calandra. He also confirmed that he did not own the rights to Zero Punctuation, leaving the future of the series in doubt. The Escapist published the final two episodes of Zero Punctuation, reviews of Sonic Superstars and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, on November 21st, 2023, and would unofficially discontinue the series thereafter.
Two days later, on November 8th, 2023, Calandra and Yahtzee announced that Yahtzee would continue making weekly short-form reviews under the title of ‘Fully Ramblomatic’. This show is hosted on Second Wind, a new YouTube channel formed by the staff who left The Escapist. Yahtzee’s many fans would be delighted to see the series continue in a slightly revised form. Game developers and publishers have occasionally acknowledged Yahtzee’s reviews of their games, and at least one internet meme has resulted from Zero Punctuation.
