The Impact Factor

More Than ‘Kinda’ Great: How ‘Kinda Funny’ gets video game discussion right

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Abstract: Kinda Funny is a team of tremendously talented and hardworking individuals who have nailed how to talk about video games. A concerted effort to hone in on what works in, and what was missing from, video game discussions has produced stellar content. I am excited for what Kinda Funny does next and highly recommend checking them out.

When I started following Kinda Funny's video game coverage, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I had followed Greg and Colin's work pretty closely during their time at IGN: from reviews to editorials to their excellent Podcast Beyond. Leaving IGN meant the Kinda Funny crew could finally talk about video games—but what they would do with that new freedom puzzled me. Twitch and YouTube talking heads generally have a certain method for discussing games. A method of which I’m not too fond. A method in which level-headed discussions and authenticity rarely come across. Part of the nature of the beast that is making a living through Twitch/YouTube is appealing to an audience. Generally speaking, the larger the audience the more comfortable a living. This creates a certain drive for content creators to work to endear themselves to the largest possible audience; to give the people what they want. I feared the worst and hoped for the best as the Kinda Funny crew started their new endeavor.

Over the course of a couple weeks, my fears were assuaged. It became immediately apparent that the team behind Kinda Funny had a clear vision for how video game discussion could, and should, be handled. Kinda Funny initiated Colin & Greg Live and the Kinda Funny Gamescast with complete confidence. This innovative daily talk show and podcast from seasoned experts bring something new and something refined, respectively, to how we as a community think and talk about games. A lot of what makes Kinda Funny’s video game coverage so great are the intangibles: the clear friendship between the crew, the feeling of warmth and inclusion, and more. But it is clear, to me at least, that concerted efforts were made by the crew to create a more productive space in which video games are discussed. I’ve narrowed these efforts down to the four ways Kinda Funny gets video game discussion so right. What makes me excited about the future of their work. Let’s get into it.

Putting the News in Perspective

The tide of video game news is faster now than it has ever been. Every week, every day, news about one project or another is breaking. You’ve got tidal waves of news that come from press events or conferences, and then you’ve got the gradually rising waters of stories that take shape over time. Keeping up with all video game news is practically impossible. The news items you do consume hardly have any time to digest before the next big thing comes around. Sorting through this sea of news, and making sense of all of it in the context of the larger industry, was a missing piece in the video game discussion puzzle. Kinda Funny figured that out.

Colin & Greg Live fills this niche perfectly. Every weekday at 11amPST the two hop onto Twitch to go through the previous days’ biggest and most impactful news stories. Given in the format of a daily sports talk show, Colin & Greg Live is not only able to keep you up to date on what’s happening in video games, but also give perspective on what everything means. For starters, their approach to discussion of each news item is highly synthetic. Colin & Greg Live weaves stories into the larger narrative of the state of video games and the industry itself. The news is elevated to more than just face-value bullet points. The existence of Colin & Greg Live itself also helps to show the scale by which video game news is released. The fact that there are enough stories to fill out a full show every single day is telling. Colin & Greg Live shows just how fast an industry I love is moving. Kinda Funny works hard to report on every corner of the industry, too. No news item is exempt from discussion. As long as it will make an impact moving forward, the topic is discussed. The end result is a show that takes respect and knowledge of video games and combines them into something we have never quite seen before, and something desperately needed.

There's nothing quite like getting your daily games news digest with these two.

Passion without Pandering

As I mentioned briefly in my introduction, I understand there is great temptation within this sphere to try to appeal yourself to the largest audience possible. Doing so could result in increased followers, subscribers, etc. That’s not the case with Kinda Funny. Everything, and everyone, feels authentic. The personalities of Greg, Colin, Tim and Nick feel true to themselves. They feel genuine, not designed or carefully crafted to appeal to a certain group of people. Their passion for video games is real, and their reaction to news and games isn’t a façade.

It’s easy to be passionate about video games, and Kinda Funny has that in spades. What it has, the others lack, is proper checks and balances that work to contextualize and understand the excitement. The Kinda Funny crew does an excellent job, as I described above, of understanding what news is exciting and why they are excited. Each member keeps the others honest, looking at the same announcement or game from their own unique perspective. The discussions they have help to move away from the hype machine we see so often in video games coverage and discussion, and move towards a place where a piece of news does not have a singular impact.

The passion that emanates from the Kinda Funny crew clearly comes from a place of knowledge. I believe Colin’s excitement for Shovel Knight and Bloodstained because of his tremendous experience with, and appreciation for, Megaman and Castlevania. Greg’s deep knowledge of Metal Gear Solid helps to frame his excitement for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. Tim’s love for all things Nintendo comes from his long history with their franchises, as well as an awareness of the missteps the company has made in recent years. I trust the passion of the Kinda Funny crew because it’s deeply rooted in who each of them are, and they make sure this comes across in their discussions.

Letting Developers (and Games) Speak for Themselves

As a longtime video game enthusiast, perhaps my favorite aspect of Kinda Funny’s video game coverage is their decision to let games and their developers speak for themselves. This solves two important and very separate problems. First, video games are an entertainment industry. Because of this, a lot of their coverage can come off like advertisements. Instead of trying to tell me about a game, more often than not I feel like I’m being sold the game. Being told exactly what consumer studies have discovered I ‘want’ to hear. This approach is disingenuous and often neglects to disclose the information I truly need to hear to determine a purchasing decision. The second problem is that games are released at a nearly unfathomable rate these days. It’s hard enough to keep track of the games being released on one console ecosystem, let alone following those released across all the various platforms. To cut through all the noise, and get their game known about, developers need their voices heard. Not only are they the foremost experts on their game (duh), but initiating a relationship between a developer and their potential playerbase is the best way to put a game on peoples’ radar.

Kinda Funny has worked to provide that direct connection between fans and the developers. During GDC, Kinda Funny devoted the bulk of their coverage to speaking with developers about their new games. Kinda Funny impresses upon developers to be themselves and to have fun, not just to sell their product. While talking with developers like Mike Bithell and Ryan Payton, it was less about saying the right things to get me to buy Volume or République, respectively, and more about a conversation between friends. In a short amount of time I felt like I got to know who Bithell and Payton are as people, and how they incorporated their experiences with the industry to create their new games. The coverage gave me enough information to put the game on my radar, while giving me ample tools and information to decide for myself whether to pursue the game further. As an extension of this direct connection between fans and the games, Kinda Funny produces a lot of extended play sessions with freshly released games. Now, this is a pretty standard practice with YouTubers/Twitch streamers. Let’s Plays generally help in making purchasing decisions, as long as the whole exuberant personality-driven nature of video game talking heads doesn’t get in the way (which, for me, is often a problem with others’ content). But an initiative Kinda Funny took recently that I hope they will continue with is doing these Let’s Plays with unreleased games. The team recently did one for the upcoming Guitar Hero game. This style of preview coverage takes some power away from marketing/PR bullet points, and again puts the power in the players’ hands to decide what they think.

Building a Positive Community

‘If you listen to us, you’re a best friend, not a fan.’ This is a point that is reinforced over and over again at Kinda Funny. They’re not there to sell you games. They’re not there to put on a mask for you to laugh or get angry at. Kinda Funny creates a community that synthesizes everything positive I’ve written about them so far: it is thoughtful, it is genuine, and it respects those within it. The crew invites you into their homes, into their lives, to join in a conversation with them. Everything they do is about cultivating a discussion, including the voices of their best friends. Kinda Funny devotes effort to building a community that values unique opinions, and is supportive of the diversity within the group. Feedback is welcomed and incorporated, as the crew always works to be better.

I never hurts to have a couple more best friends to talk to about video games.

The way Kinda Funny approaches their community is the best I have seen in games. It’s more important to Kinda Funny to cultivate a community of best friends, who care about each other and talk freely, than it is to grow a massive fan base for increased page views or ad revenue. Kinda Funny keeps things fun, but grounds their work in authenticity. Watching or listening to Kinda Funny’s video game content is an inclusionary experience—it’s the closest I’ve felt to when I used to sit down with my core group of friends and talk games. Or how I feel doing my new podcast, The Impact Factor. Kinda Funny works to be a place you want to be, and I’m excited to see how the team moves forward in the months to come. You should, too. Be a best friend.