Big thanks to Jan for all his patience

Right at the top I want to say that everyone is doing a great job in their respective streams!

That said I really wanted to single out Jan for how great he is during his streams.

As we all know Chat can be a bit much sometimes. When it comes to games like the Souls series, everyone has an opinion on how to play them and they go flying left and right in an effort to help the staff out. It's important to also note this distinction that however oppressive and sometimes unwanted it might be, chat generally is trying to be helpful. The underlying intent is always to steer the guys in the right direction. That said of course it can sometimes be a flurry of GO LEFT GO LEFT, GO RIGHT, YES, NO, YES!! I can only imagine how frustrating it can get to receive dozens of conflicting messages a second while also actively trying to play the game.

But man is Jan not only a pro at it, but a real gentleman at that. The man is extremely patient and understanding with us monsters hounding him in the background. He reads the comments and I've never seen him complain about OUR complaining once. If it gets to be too much he will politely say that he's happy about all the info but it's getting a bit much.

There isn't much of a point to the thread apart from wanting to let Jan know that not only is he doing great at the game itself (Bloodborne) but he's doing a great job at streaming it as well.

Jan has been a great replacement for Drew, not only because they're both great producers but they've both got that big sweetheart energy.

Agreed, and this coming from somebody who has tried to give him directions (unfortunately while he was running. I... didn't type quite fast enough and possibly added some confusion).

Not only is it difficult from the standpoint of directions, but Bloodborne is HEAVILY prone to styles of play differing from one person to the next; so some of the moment to moment suggestions may or may not apply (or even make sense). Still, he's patient and polite, where others would take an obvious "screw this" stance. Take Martyr Logarius: any advice that I could have given would have been pointless. Why? Because my experience with him was seemingly different from everybody else's: I carved through him on my first try in about five minutes. So I sat, I watched chat, and I chuckled. So many well meaning people, and sometimes the advice just doesn't help as so much of it was conflicting, or fired off in a flurry. And there was Jan, politely taking suggestions, while also finding his own way.

Good on him. He's been a professional throughout.

Niche point, but Jan has also reminded me that Filipino food is completely fucking rad. He has improved the site, my quality of life, and the odds of me contracting gout drastically.

Jan is also really chill during the Minecraft streams that I have seen, and has a great energy. I never thought when Drew left they might get someone with similar energy, and didn't even think about it till I read @retris post above, but it is a completely accurate and awesome observation.

Yeah, yeah, “calm, patient Jan” is great.

...but, “angry, exasperated, had enough of this shit and doesn’t care who knows it” Jan could be pretty awesome. Just saying.

Vinny said it best when he said that people were completing video games long before they were streaming them. In general , chat being helpful is nice, but getting shitty and pissy when your directions arent followed is the hallmark of jerkdom. The early Resident Evil Abby streams were rife with that, so much so that I just closed the chat. It has improved a lot, but boy backseat gaming can really be a massive bummer and ruin any kind of fun communal experience.

I don't get where it comes from, either. Anyone with a sibling knows how annoying it is to have someone trying to backseat game while you're playing. No one was over YOUR shoulder while you played for the first time, why do people insist on being that weird kid that can't control their impulse to "help"?

Now, if a question is directly asked or maybe they walked right by something real obvious and important but missed it because they were talking (and would have seen it had they not been distracted, not some hidden secret like jumping off the elevator in Dark Souls 1) then sure, I think that's fine. But these step by step instructions by people who apparently exhibit physical pain in the event that they can't communicate directions isn't just annoying, it seriously kind of creeps me out a little, well-intentioned or not. I assume most users (especially premium) on this site are full-grown adults, who should be more than capable of controlling such obviously annoying urges.

Maybe I'm being a little too harsh, but this is prevalent EVERYWHERE and I've been sick of seeing it for years now. Think I'd get used to it by now, but it only grows more annoying with time.

I've grown fond of streamers now who tend to invoke pretty harsh policies against backseating unless asked. It can turn into a really obnoxious problem real fast, especially with certain games.

I too think Jan is doing well, and is with a good eye so far, filtering out the noise without turning on (or say turning off) the chat. Most ppl. do mean well, Jan appeals to that and it loops. Best way to go.

I do object to the some who throw out bullshit just to try to wrench things. But I don't believe there are that many.

A hard rule, don't go negative on the streamer who is both entertaining you, and taking a few chances on good will.

I love Jan but don’t play games anymore so I’m in no position to tell him what to do. I know Abby gets a lot of hate on this site. I can find her annoying too but I recognize that as a me problem and I’m certainly not so self important as to yell at her in the chat for it. That said i’ve caught myself yelling during streams at the screen. as long as the streamer can’t hear that’s perfectly healthy I think. But man do I get overly invested in these play throughs

Jan's a top-notch duder. It'll be awesome when everyone's back in the office and he and Ben can get back to doing Ben's Lens and that kind of stuff again.

Bless Jan. I can't follow his love for the Pokemon games, but he seems like a very pleasant human. I've been slowly but surely getting through his bloodborne vids and where i did feel some annoyances in the first 2-3 vids (like not getting rid of the onscreen messages :P), suddenly he clicked with that game to the point where i could only be impressed by him going through the game at a steady pace while talking to chat and creating a chill vibe.

He's playing Bloodborne wrong... because playing Bloodborne instead of more Judgment is the wrong choice.

Jan is going to some fun places while stuck (on a stool, in his kitchen). Gotta commend that.

I think the only thing I'd change is having Brad be the "trickster mentor" on his Bloodborne Identity, but its kinda late for that now.

Vinny's a trickster mentor. Brad's more a 'my memory fails me' sage. Jan's powering through it and he's not been bogged down too much.

He's a true gent and I appreciate him not getting pissy with chat, I can appreciate that may not always be easy but folk are largely just trying to help and get involved. He also has possibly the closest interests of staffers to my own when it comes to games so that's good for me.

Literally everyone: Uhhhhhh...?

Jan: I got you

@shindig: I love that he defeated Ebrietas on his like third try or so by breaking the boss aggro with a summon and just shoving his giant sword in her cosmic ..void.. without a care in the world.

Jan has downloaded Bloodborne with an incredible quickness. Especially with all the contradictory advice being thrown around, and enough people who remember just enough to be dangerous, he's doing REAL damn well. To say nothing of how entertaining he is, even solo.

@thursday1977:I always have a hard time wrapping my head around people one moment saying "The great thing about Souls-games is how many different ways there are to play" and then the next moment someone else says, "EXACTLY! NOW PLAY IT EXACTLY THIS ONE CORRECT WAY!!!!!!"

And likewise: I only found out Maria is widely considered one of the hardest bosses in the game in retrospect. I beat her my 2nd try, she was supremely fun and fair to me, and STILL probably my favorite boss fight in the game. Sometimes people's brains just click in a certain way.

I kinda appreciate the lockdown for more Jan content, honestly, cause otherwise he's so behind the scenes. He's a really chill, funny guy, and he's really open to anime bs and jrpgs and stuff which aligns more with my interests. I don't care at all about Bloodborne but he's entertaining to watch and seems pretty decent at it? and hasn't given up.

(I also really like his cooking content, and hope one day he finds out about the obscure manga Iron Wok Jan.)

Hell yeah, I am here for these positivity threads. Jan rules. I love that he plays games that others often pass over, plus his calm demeanor is super refreshing. Jason also has that calmness to him, and after watching him stream as a father I have a deeper appreciation for him for sure. He's just such a good papa. Makes sense how he was able to work with Dan for so long.

As a whole, I think the entire GB crew has been super open about how their lives are being affected right now, and I just want to appreciate them for that. It is really helping me feel like I have some company throughout the day despite not leaving the house. Every Friday, I expect them to say that they'll be cutting back the streams and while I am glad that hasn't happened yet, I know that all good things must come to an end.

I loved Jan's insights, humour and calm expression back in the non-coronavirus days on the podcasts. Back then I thought this guy should be out front more. Now he is and Jan is awesome. He's the one I look for first, to see what he's done that's new.

On the Abby hate, even she admits she is annoying and not to everyone's taste. I like Abby as part of the Beastcast balance, she too is one very sharp guy.

@Jan Jan Da Man! You’re doing an amazing job. I love your topics you come up with and then run out of time. So far my favorite videos off the top of my head are the LEGO build and the Judgment stream. Keep up the great work and hope to see this continue! You’re a natural!

Yeah I don't actually like Bloodborne, but I like Jan so I watch it anyway.