Michael Sawyer, better known as Slowbeef, is an American

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

and

internet personality An Internet celebrity, also referred to as an Internet personality, is an individual who has acquired or developed their fame and notability on the Internet. The growing popularity of social media provides a means for people to reach a large ...

. Originating as a member of the

Something Awful ''Something Awful'' (SA) is an American comedy website hosting content including blog entries, Internet forum, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard Kyanka, Richard "Lowtax" K ...

forums, he is widely credited as the pioneer of the

Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and (in some cases) a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough ...

video format. Along with

personality Diabetus, he created Retsupurae, a YouTube channel which reacts to various other Let's Play videos.

Career

Let's Play

Sawyer joined the Something Awful forums during the early 2000s becoming a member after posting content on his personal website such as a commentary on '' Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake''. Shortly after Sawyer joined the site, the practice of screen-shot Let's Play threads became common as the phrase "Let's Play" was rumored to emanate from a now deleted thread on '' The Oregon Trail'' video game. On Something Awful, he began posting threads of various obscure games which contained both informative commentary and photo captures of his gameplay, such as '' Dark Seed'' and '' Snatcher''. In 2007, Sawyer uploaded a thread of obscure

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

game '' The Immortal'' to Something Awful. While the first page of the thread mainly consisted of text-based commentary and still screenshots, Sawyer decided to record himself playing the game on video while commentating over it, a practice inspired by directors' commentary on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

movies. Sawyer's video on ''The Immortal'' is often cited and recognized as the first video Let's Play. Although the Let's Play genre existed amongst Something Awful forums in screenshot format, Sawyer has been credited by numerous publications and journals as the originator of the video Let's Play format. His second series on the video game ''

Super Metroid is a 1994 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third installment in the ''Metroid'' series, following the events of the Game Boy g ...

'' established interactivity to the Let's Play genre; due to his inexperience with the game beforehand, he often asked Something Awful members for advice, in which viewers of the series, known as "goons" gave him tips and tricks accordingly. Sawyer has credited Something Awful personalities Proton Jon, Deceased Crab, and Psychedelic Eyeball as other pioneers of the Let's Play genre, along with Vlaphor's Let's Play thread on the video game ''

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is a post-apocalyptic short story by American writer Harlan Ellison. It was first published in the March 1967 issue of ''IF: Worlds of Science Fiction''. The story is set against the backdrop of World War ...

''.

''Retsupurae''

''Retsupurae'' is a parody channel formed by Sawyer and Something Awful member Diabetus that focused on commentating over other Let's Play videos in a humorous manner, similar to that of ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. It then ...

''. Janine Hawkins of ''

Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is an American monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publi ...

'' discussed a Retsupurae video in which they commentated over an

ASMR An autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR)Marsden, Rhodri (20 July 2012), ''The Independent''. is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it ...

Let's Play video and received mildly negative attention for it compared to their other videos, stating that "much of that discussion and dissent undoubtedly came from ASMR community members eager to defend one of their own, but there are also a surprising number of comments from regular Retsupurae viewers in defense of ASMR and its 'creepy' corner of the Let's Play world."

Other works

Sawyer has also written and published articles for ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

''; his article on how Let's Plays have evolved during the course of the Internet was cited in an article discussing the stagnation of the genre by ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

''. In 2008, he contributed to a fan translation of '' Policenauts'' which came to completion in 2009. In 2022, he released an indie horror game with a small team called Atama. Sawyer has worked as a video game programmer for various mobile phone applications.

References

External links