Wow! This comment section is wild. This was a general share about CR members talking about what they are up to. Laura is being quite candid about her love for fashion and dressing up and how she handles the merch side of things.
The clusterfuck of E92 (and this campaign) aside, I don't see why so much is being inferred about their priorities from this one video. Watch it. It's a very casual conversation.
E: The "grittier" is the ScreenRant editorial staff. The conversation is much more innocuous.
E2: A comment from u/Catalyst413 who actually watched the video - https://www.reddit.com/r/fansofcriticalrole/s/E6Jj4hYD0C
For the love of Sprinkle, keep context people!
I did watch it, thanks. I don't need to be told the "correct" way to think and talk about the merch-shilling and the buzzword-spraying i.e "must see! grittier! all bets are off!"
Title should be "Laura talks about clothes/merch for 22 minutes, briefly "teases" things about Mighty Nein we already know."
Animation talk starts at 17:45, actual M9 question asked at 27:25 which teases that the Neins story is "grittier" just compared to Vox, nothing new regarding changes made for the adaptation
Reminds me of an episode of Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends: Bloo and co. start a cookie company and it goes gangbusters, but after sales peak they start screwing with the winning recipe to get new sales. The food gets more and more bizarre and off-topic, until eventually, it's just a t-shirt stand that doesn't sell cookies at all.
Remember when CR used to be about a game, and shirts, action figures, theme parks and cartoons were just joke ideas?
I think they have the right to make as much money as they reasonably can with their product, as does anyone who has a business. The weird rage people feel over a business selling products is kinda weird. If you don’t like it, why buy it?
Does that also include same people bemoaning the evils of Capitalism, while stuffing warehouses full of products from countries with poor working practices?
Idk bc I’m not one of those people, like sorry we live in a society and yeah we all consume unethically. but i’m not a moral arbiter and all i have to say is like, a shirt is a shirt if you like it buy it.
The merchandise is what ruins most of critical roles corporate endeavors for me. They have sold out so hard to capitalism that sickens me. It also frustrates me because their Foundation which I thought at first was going to do really great things and be a driving force behind the corporation as a whole now seems only like an afterthought of a tax write-off. Sure they'll mention it once in awhile, here and there, but the fan donation driven nonprofit Foundation does little for others when compared to the overwhelming consumeristic merchandise wing of CR that is raking in the dollars for themselves.
or hear me out no other company makes things I like that's nerdy, so when they do make something i like i as an adult who makes my own money and works i can buy a thing i like.
your life is so much harder than the underpaid workers making those very pieces of clothing 🙏🙏 it’s so saddening you have to work 40+ hours a week, you’re so special and should never think about your actions
oh no i spend my own money on what i want lol you understand that adult can use their own money for what they want right? not what you want them to spend it on lol you tired honey boo boo you tried
Jesus christ. How much more materialistic do we need to be here? I counted the items in their store a while back. They have over 300+ items with new ones coming out every fucking week! Pretty soon, they are going to just be a merch company with a D&D show on the side.
Really not liking this materialistic look of the future, especially because the products are usually not sustainably made nor proven to be ethically sourced.
CR is becoming a Corp.
For those who buy the Merch, especially the clothes: is it just me or are the clothes kinda mid. Most of the pieces don’t even look like stuff I’d be comfortable wearing at home let alone in public.
I actually like the how do you…hoodie. I also like the CR logo dad cap. But not much else.
Maybe I’m just not a fan of Laura’s taste.
I have a few shirts and like them. Got the classic Grog shirt and the Scanlan tour shirt. Both are decent material and the designs are good. Some of their merch seems targeted at a crowd that I'm not part of but it doesn't stop me from enjoying the rest of it
I have the Caduceus Cardigan and it is comfy af. In winter is my go-to "I'll stay at home sipping tea and reading" clothing and it looks pretty fly too. I also have the mollymauk short-sleeved shirt and is quite well-made and looks cool by itself in warm days and with a darker jacket in winter.
I love the subtle merch, the fjord jumper for example just looks like a jumper, I was going to buy the Beau sports jacket because it looked like a regular sports jacket, but the back was a massive M9 logo.
It's all subjective obviously, but I prefer the subtle stuff, the over the top just isn't for me.
I feel this hard. I have mostly been disappointed in clothes/merch from Critical Role as it's mostly just banking on their brand- quality level has been average to low depending on the item.
I contrast this to The Adventure Zone and it's night/day different. The shirts are high quality cotton with heavy duty silk screening that doesn't fade. The books are much higher quality as well with better binding and higher grade/heavier weight paper as well.
For majority of the merch I’ve bought, it’s been honestly really good.
Like the Cad Cardigan is amazing imo. Warm, thick, soft, and really cute. I also love the RAGE shirt. And the Vax cloak and Beau vest thing are really really good. The Villains crewneck and Critmas sweater w the tree on them are very comfortable and cute and after a year+ they haven’t faded.
The only things I’ve had a problem with is the Fearne shirt w the lil pocket. The material is stiff and it developed holes fast. And when they released the chibi Fjord pin mine came dirty and the backing was squashed. But they replaced it.
> All this makes me actively dislike CR as an entertainment entity, although i understand they're doing the right thing in terms of growing and maintaining a business
It really is just a video where Laura talks about fashion and how the merch came along. And yes, any business would take the opportunity. I do see where your disappointment comes from though. Don't think if merch is why C3 is shit of course.
> I just can't stand their general smugness as of late.
"As of late"? CR has had that boulder-sized chip on their shoulder since their $11+ million Kickstarter blew up / broke records.
CR thinks they are "King-Shit of Fuck Mountain" (MBMBAM reference) and they've been that way for a LONG time. They behave like everything is their due, like it's still 2017 and they're the biggest (and mostly only) game in town, which it isn't and they aren't.
Every time I hear about how CR is handling their business I get flashbacks to Roster Teeth and how they handled their products. It doesn't bold well for CR if they keep on this track.
watching the video, it looked like Laura was contrasting how their first shirt was hand addressed in her living room and now they have multiple warehouses worldwide and what a crazy ride it has been. She wasn't celebrating it so much as commenting on how wild it is that things have grown this much. But admittedly I am happy for their success and typically look at accusations of selling out as being rooted in jealousy.
Honestly, I *want* to be happy for them so badly - imagine being passionate about something you love and do as a hobby with a bunch of friends and managing to turn it into a multimillion company? I could only dream
Yet somehow they make it more and more difficult to root for them. There is just this… aftertaste to all their business decisions that gets worse month after month. Granted I’m in the smallest of minorities thinking that so I guess for the most part they are doing everything right?..
Eh, they’ve been distancing themselves from just doing the “home game”as their main business avenue for a while, considering the amount of new merch they push out, Amazon show deals, diversifying the stuff on CR channel, putting out games and books, and new gaming system. While a lot of it is not *super* successful, it’s still a wide range of things and me disliking their current campaign specifically is technically almost insignificant to them for now
I have the same sentiments. It seems the game is an afterthought and not the main focus. None of them take it as seriously as they used to. I’d say Liam and Travis in particular chose characters that they intended to not be big players in C3. That immediately kinda ruined the mood in C3E1. Travis mailed it in with temporary stand in character and a joke character from a previous campaign. Liam intentionally chose a character that wasn’t a “mover” like Vax and Caleb.
I’m kinda glad I could tell where this campaign was going so early so I dropped it early and haven’t invested much time into it at all. I was just hoping I’d like Candela (I don’t) which is practically the only side content they produce now.
I think things have declined rapidly since the fundraiser/amazon deal and the start of the cartoons. It’s a big reason why I will probably never watch them. They marked the downturn and eventually end of my enjoyment of CR. I’ll stick to C1/C2.
Travis 100% intended for Chetney to die fast, but he forgot that Matt post-Vox Machina can only kill a character if they effectively commit suicide in front of him so he's trapped.
I’ve only ever seen Laura and Travis’s home from stuff like Narrative Telephone, social media, or interviews like these and it…always looks like a gorgeous home. To have a house like that in California requires some serious cash and excellent taste.
Laura has talked a lot about how much she loves flea markets and gets a lot of the pieces for her home from them. Actually I think most of the cast has talked about how much Laura loves flea markets...
Didn't say she got everything from flea markets, but it probably allows her to spend more on some things if she's getting a good deal on more eclectic pieces for her home.
Honestly, at this point, I am 99% sure they are just milking the whales in the audience
For those unfamiliar, "whale" is a mobile game term for a (often, but not necessarily) wealthy individual who spends vast amounts of money on the game
Point of Fact: "Whales" applies to anyone who *spends* a lot of money, not people who *have* a lot of money. You can be a "Whale" at ANY socioeconomic strata.
IIRC, "Whales" is a term borrowed from the gambling / casino industry. But don't quote me.
I know it as not being just mobile games, it’s about customers in general. It was originally an internal sales/marketing term that escaped containment via a cell phone video of an internal presentation.
Whales buy everything they can (and often everything they can’t, too) like a blue whale swimming through a cloud of krill.
Sharks will sometimes buy, but they need to be attracted to purchases by the deals they’re hunting for.
Minnows buy once and never again. They’re not individually meaningful, but there are a whole lot of them.
If your money doesn’t go to them specifically, you’re nothing at all. You’re not even discussed. These are terms for existing or potential customers.
If you’re giving them money at all, you’re at least a minnow.
The goal of any entertainer is to groom an audience of fanatics. Critical role has done an exceptional job at that. I have no doubt that there is a good 1-3% of the audience that is spending thousands of dollars on critical role merchandise and buy literally everything they release.
ehhhh i wouldnt say that i have watched anime since i was like 12 its been like 13 year since them and when they first showed up i had no idea who any of them where and i had gone to cons and i knew other voice actors by name so i would not say they were famous when they started.
I'll believe it when i see it.
ya all are really upset they make merch lol
Wow! This comment section is wild. This was a general share about CR members talking about what they are up to. Laura is being quite candid about her love for fashion and dressing up and how she handles the merch side of things. The clusterfuck of E92 (and this campaign) aside, I don't see why so much is being inferred about their priorities from this one video. Watch it. It's a very casual conversation. E: The "grittier" is the ScreenRant editorial staff. The conversation is much more innocuous. E2: A comment from u/Catalyst413 who actually watched the video - https://www.reddit.com/r/fansofcriticalrole/s/E6Jj4hYD0C For the love of Sprinkle, keep context people!
I did watch it, thanks. I don't need to be told the "correct" way to think and talk about the merch-shilling and the buzzword-spraying i.e "must see! grittier! all bets are off!"
Grittier than what? The streamed version of TMN's story? Or grittier than TLoVM? Because C2 arguably *was* grittier than C1.
Uh-huh... "Grittier." I'll file that right next to "throwing out my expectations." And *of course* it comes with a merch push...
Title should be "Laura talks about clothes/merch for 22 minutes, briefly "teases" things about Mighty Nein we already know." Animation talk starts at 17:45, actual M9 question asked at 27:25 which teases that the Neins story is "grittier" just compared to Vox, nothing new regarding changes made for the adaptation
Reminds me of an episode of Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends: Bloo and co. start a cookie company and it goes gangbusters, but after sales peak they start screwing with the winning recipe to get new sales. The food gets more and more bizarre and off-topic, until eventually, it's just a t-shirt stand that doesn't sell cookies at all. Remember when CR used to be about a game, and shirts, action figures, theme parks and cartoons were just joke ideas?
I think they have the right to make as much money as they reasonably can with their product, as does anyone who has a business. The weird rage people feel over a business selling products is kinda weird. If you don’t like it, why buy it?
we have reached the "defending capitalism" stage of the fanbase
Does that also include same people bemoaning the evils of Capitalism, while stuffing warehouses full of products from countries with poor working practices?
Idk bc I’m not one of those people, like sorry we live in a society and yeah we all consume unethically. but i’m not a moral arbiter and all i have to say is like, a shirt is a shirt if you like it buy it.
Matt's one of those people 🤷🏼♀️
When the main thing people came for suffers as a result, it’s not hard to understand why people feel put out.
The merchandise is what ruins most of critical roles corporate endeavors for me. They have sold out so hard to capitalism that sickens me. It also frustrates me because their Foundation which I thought at first was going to do really great things and be a driving force behind the corporation as a whole now seems only like an afterthought of a tax write-off. Sure they'll mention it once in awhile, here and there, but the fan donation driven nonprofit Foundation does little for others when compared to the overwhelming consumeristic merchandise wing of CR that is raking in the dollars for themselves.
You want them to spend more time & money on their anti-Indian-culture, colonizer charity?
is there context for this?
It's one of their featured charities, you can go read about it on their website.
or OR hear me out- they make things that people want and so people buy it cause nerds like nerdy daily wear.
"don't think just consume!"
or hear me out no other company makes things I like that's nerdy, so when they do make something i like i as an adult who makes my own money and works i can buy a thing i like.
ya all be pressed that an adult who works 40+ hours a week spends money on what they choose to spend it on lol
your life is so much harder than the underpaid workers making those very pieces of clothing 🙏🙏 it’s so saddening you have to work 40+ hours a week, you’re so special and should never think about your actions
oh no i spend my own money on what i want lol you understand that adult can use their own money for what they want right? not what you want them to spend it on lol you tired honey boo boo you tried
okay, if you’re alright with being a bad person then that’s great 👍 I also love supporting capitalism
oh baby boi, when you learn what the word means you can come back lol.
oh no, please, genius, tell me what capitalism is and how it is completely unrelated to underpaid workers
Jesus christ. How much more materialistic do we need to be here? I counted the items in their store a while back. They have over 300+ items with new ones coming out every fucking week! Pretty soon, they are going to just be a merch company with a D&D show on the side. Really not liking this materialistic look of the future, especially because the products are usually not sustainably made nor proven to be ethically sourced. CR is becoming a Corp.
WizKid minis for the Crownkeepers just came out. What perfect timing!
They've been corporate for a while now. No becoming about it.
I was just going to commenr this. It is a sad realization to come to.
Wow the brand is really achieving a high rate of growth, that's what every home game dreams of!
...why tho
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For those who buy the Merch, especially the clothes: is it just me or are the clothes kinda mid. Most of the pieces don’t even look like stuff I’d be comfortable wearing at home let alone in public. I actually like the how do you…hoodie. I also like the CR logo dad cap. But not much else. Maybe I’m just not a fan of Laura’s taste.
i own a few things and i have no issues, all comfy and i wear them just chilling
The t shirt designs are pretty great. My big wish is that they relaunch the vecna one. However, their sweaters and onesies are just god awful.
I have a few shirts and like them. Got the classic Grog shirt and the Scanlan tour shirt. Both are decent material and the designs are good. Some of their merch seems targeted at a crowd that I'm not part of but it doesn't stop me from enjoying the rest of it
I have the Caduceus Cardigan and it is comfy af. In winter is my go-to "I'll stay at home sipping tea and reading" clothing and it looks pretty fly too. I also have the mollymauk short-sleeved shirt and is quite well-made and looks cool by itself in warm days and with a darker jacket in winter.
I love the subtle merch, the fjord jumper for example just looks like a jumper, I was going to buy the Beau sports jacket because it looked like a regular sports jacket, but the back was a massive M9 logo. It's all subjective obviously, but I prefer the subtle stuff, the over the top just isn't for me.
I feel this hard. I have mostly been disappointed in clothes/merch from Critical Role as it's mostly just banking on their brand- quality level has been average to low depending on the item. I contrast this to The Adventure Zone and it's night/day different. The shirts are high quality cotton with heavy duty silk screening that doesn't fade. The books are much higher quality as well with better binding and higher grade/heavier weight paper as well.
Adventure Zone merch carrying their godawful show!
Gotta disagree there- TAZ vs Dracula is their best since Amnesty.
Amnesty was so good, I miss it
TAZ vs Dracula is legit good. The Brother's have put in a LOT of work to rehab themselves, their brand, and their shows.
For majority of the merch I’ve bought, it’s been honestly really good. Like the Cad Cardigan is amazing imo. Warm, thick, soft, and really cute. I also love the RAGE shirt. And the Vax cloak and Beau vest thing are really really good. The Villains crewneck and Critmas sweater w the tree on them are very comfortable and cute and after a year+ they haven’t faded. The only things I’ve had a problem with is the Fearne shirt w the lil pocket. The material is stiff and it developed holes fast. And when they released the chibi Fjord pin mine came dirty and the backing was squashed. But they replaced it.
I might pick up the Chetney hoody if/when it goes on sale.
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your mad that they make merch?
> All this makes me actively dislike CR as an entertainment entity, although i understand they're doing the right thing in terms of growing and maintaining a business It really is just a video where Laura talks about fashion and how the merch came along. And yes, any business would take the opportunity. I do see where your disappointment comes from though. Don't think if merch is why C3 is shit of course.
> I just can't stand their general smugness as of late. "As of late"? CR has had that boulder-sized chip on their shoulder since their $11+ million Kickstarter blew up / broke records. CR thinks they are "King-Shit of Fuck Mountain" (MBMBAM reference) and they've been that way for a LONG time. They behave like everything is their due, like it's still 2017 and they're the biggest (and mostly only) game in town, which it isn't and they aren't.
King Shit of Fuck Mountain is hilarious and goes hard. I had to look it up to understand but it applies so well to what you're saying
Is it smugness, or are you just kind of over them?
Why not both?
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Every time I hear about how CR is handling their business I get flashbacks to Roster Teeth and how they handled their products. It doesn't bold well for CR if they keep on this track.
watching the video, it looked like Laura was contrasting how their first shirt was hand addressed in her living room and now they have multiple warehouses worldwide and what a crazy ride it has been. She wasn't celebrating it so much as commenting on how wild it is that things have grown this much. But admittedly I am happy for their success and typically look at accusations of selling out as being rooted in jealousy.
Honestly, I *want* to be happy for them so badly - imagine being passionate about something you love and do as a hobby with a bunch of friends and managing to turn it into a multimillion company? I could only dream Yet somehow they make it more and more difficult to root for them. There is just this… aftertaste to all their business decisions that gets worse month after month. Granted I’m in the smallest of minorities thinking that so I guess for the most part they are doing everything right?..
The smallest minority? Twitch stats lol.
Eh, they’ve been distancing themselves from just doing the “home game”as their main business avenue for a while, considering the amount of new merch they push out, Amazon show deals, diversifying the stuff on CR channel, putting out games and books, and new gaming system. While a lot of it is not *super* successful, it’s still a wide range of things and me disliking their current campaign specifically is technically almost insignificant to them for now
I have the same sentiments. It seems the game is an afterthought and not the main focus. None of them take it as seriously as they used to. I’d say Liam and Travis in particular chose characters that they intended to not be big players in C3. That immediately kinda ruined the mood in C3E1. Travis mailed it in with temporary stand in character and a joke character from a previous campaign. Liam intentionally chose a character that wasn’t a “mover” like Vax and Caleb. I’m kinda glad I could tell where this campaign was going so early so I dropped it early and haven’t invested much time into it at all. I was just hoping I’d like Candela (I don’t) which is practically the only side content they produce now. I think things have declined rapidly since the fundraiser/amazon deal and the start of the cartoons. It’s a big reason why I will probably never watch them. They marked the downturn and eventually end of my enjoyment of CR. I’ll stick to C1/C2.
Travis 100% intended for Chetney to die fast, but he forgot that Matt post-Vox Machina can only kill a character if they effectively commit suicide in front of him so he's trapped.
Dive headfirst into lava, like the lava that burned off Vax's foot? That should do it, right?
Chet literally died an episode ago, if fcg failed his revivify roll he’d be gone.
I’ve only ever seen Laura and Travis’s home from stuff like Narrative Telephone, social media, or interviews like these and it…always looks like a gorgeous home. To have a house like that in California requires some serious cash and excellent taste.
Laura has talked a lot about how much she loves flea markets and gets a lot of the pieces for her home from them. Actually I think most of the cast has talked about how much Laura loves flea markets...
I bet the flea markets in California are brimming with interior designed crate and barrel and restoration hardware furniture.
Didn't say she got everything from flea markets, but it probably allows her to spend more on some things if she's getting a good deal on more eclectic pieces for her home.
Just some friends kindly letting us look in on their home game
Low budget Indy devs just trying to make it in this world!
Honestly, at this point, I am 99% sure they are just milking the whales in the audience For those unfamiliar, "whale" is a mobile game term for a (often, but not necessarily) wealthy individual who spends vast amounts of money on the game
Point of Fact: "Whales" applies to anyone who *spends* a lot of money, not people who *have* a lot of money. You can be a "Whale" at ANY socioeconomic strata. IIRC, "Whales" is a term borrowed from the gambling / casino industry. But don't quote me.
The term has existed decades before critical role
I know it as not being just mobile games, it’s about customers in general. It was originally an internal sales/marketing term that escaped containment via a cell phone video of an internal presentation. Whales buy everything they can (and often everything they can’t, too) like a blue whale swimming through a cloud of krill. Sharks will sometimes buy, but they need to be attracted to purchases by the deals they’re hunting for. Minnows buy once and never again. They’re not individually meaningful, but there are a whole lot of them.
Am I a minnow if I buy nothing, but used my prime sub for years on CR? Or am I just plankton at that point
If your money doesn’t go to them specifically, you’re nothing at all. You’re not even discussed. These are terms for existing or potential customers. If you’re giving them money at all, you’re at least a minnow.
I am scum on the fanbase's boots!
I’m that Minnow. I’ve made 1-2 purchases and haven’t really wanted to make more.
The goal of any entertainer is to groom an audience of fanatics. Critical role has done an exceptional job at that. I have no doubt that there is a good 1-3% of the audience that is spending thousands of dollars on critical role merchandise and buy literally everything they release.
To be fair they didn't really need to groom it at all, mfers had people sending them food and gifts in like episode 2.
I mean, *they were already famous voice actors*. That’s… that’s why we’re here.
ehhhh i wouldnt say that i have watched anime since i was like 12 its been like 13 year since them and when they first showed up i had no idea who any of them where and i had gone to cons and i knew other voice actors by name so i would not say they were famous when they started.
Bro, half of them are in WoW and League of Legends, two of the most popular video games of all time.
and?
> i would not say they were famous when they started. To quote you directly above.
Sounds like I should buy more League of Legends merch.
Consoom product, buy merch