Michael Sawyer, better known as Slowbeef, is an American

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

and

internet personality An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...

. Originating as a member of the

Something Awful ''Something Awful'' (SA) is an American comedy website hosting content including blog entries, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka in 1999 as a largely per ...

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/or a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough or strateg ...

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 Syst ...

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 kin ...

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

'' 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 Snake 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 science fiction short story by American writer Harlan Ellison. It was first published in the March 1967 issue of '' IF: Worlds of Science Fiction''. It won a Hugo Award in 1968. The na ...

''.

''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 film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...

''. Janine Hawkins of ''

Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is a 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 publication fro ...

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

ASMR Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) 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 has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia a ...

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 that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...

''; 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'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. In 2008, he contributed to a fan translation of ''

Policenauts is a graphic adventure game developed and published by Konami. It was written and directed by Hideo Kojima, and originally released for the PC-9821 in 1994. A hard science fiction story, ''Policenauts'' is set in the mid 21st century and follo ...

'' which came to completion in 2009. In 2022, he released an indie horror game with a small team called Atama.

Personal life

Sawyer has worked as a video game programmer for various mobile phone applications.

References

External links

* * * *{{IMDb name, id=10264693 American YouTubers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Gaming YouTubers YouTube channels launched in 2006 Let's Players Video game commentators Twitch (service) streamers