Some thoughts on the TTV Podcast
Let me make this clear: I do not hate TTV. I do not enjoy the TTV podcast (mostly just personal preference — I do not enjoy getting my news in video form when given the choice), but I respect them for what they do — and I reserve the right to be disappointed when they do it badly.Seriously, let's stop the hate. They do things fast to get content. Sure, they could've waited til the sets are released to do reviews, but they just wanted to get it out to fuel the excitement and show what the set is generally like. It can definitely be inconvenient when they get incorrect ideas out there, but blatantly hating them for it does nothing good for anyone. I wish they would be a little more cautious with how they output info, but let's relax. Rude is rude, no matter who it's being directed towards and for what reasons.
If a BZPower set review made similar mistakes, praising or criticizing features that do not exist when the set is built correctly, then I would want them to be held accountable as well. In fact, I have vocally criticized instances when I feel like BZPower set reviews have fallen short of expectations, such as when a Legends of Chima set was criticized earlier this year for a building mistake made by the reviewer, or when reviewers poorly "estimated" the piece counts of those and the summer Hero Factory sets, despite the official piece counts already being publicly available from several reputable sites.
"Fueling the excitement" is not necessarily an honorable goal in and of itself. Even excitement ought to have real substance behind it, or it devolves into tabloid-level sensationalism. But even if it were unquestionably honorable, having honorable goals does not mean freedom from criticism. People DO make mistakes, and when they make mistakes they should be held accountable. And a mistake by a well-respected YouTube channel with hundreds of viewers is not the same as a mistake by a random dude on a message board. The wider and faster misinformation spreads, the more of a mess it is to clean up.
I do not criticize TTV or try to correct misinformation originating from them because I enjoy taking them to task. To be honest, I'd rather I didn't have to. I'd like to be able to just trust them completely to keep people informed. I'd rather not feel a sense of apprehension when I see they've "reviewed" a set months before its release. But if I see them saying something untrue and see others repeating that information, I feel like I'd be amiss if I didn't correct it.
So please, if you see me (or anyone) criticizing TTV, don't assume it's because I have some kind of petty grudge against them. The fact that I have high expectations of news outlets like BZPower News or TTV means that I care about what they do, and consequently, about how well they do it.
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