a reflection on MatPat's plagiarism
Hello, my name is Della, or micer2012, and 2 years ago Game Theory plagiarized three Tumblr posts of mine, making a video that now holds almost 6 million views.
My posts explaining his plagiarism made their rounds on Reddit, Tumblr and Twitter, but despite the Hermits and Pooka commenting on it (generally in support of me or saying they donât know enough details about the situation to say either way), MatPat and his team have never owned up to anything, and no mention of my name is present on the video. The one Reddit post they made denying it (which was made before my detailed takedown, which they have never responded to (though the mods on the r/GameTheorists Reddit were kind and made sure it stayed up)) didnât even mention me by name, just referring to me as âa tumblr userâ. (Though one of the screenshotted comments in the body of the post does say my name)
This experience was baffling, but itâs overall had a positive impact on my life. r/Hermitcraft gave me a Golden Apple Award (post of the year, 2021). My inbox was filled with excited fans, wanting to ask me questions or pose their own theories, far more than the hate I got. (Though the hate I got from Game Theory fans was VERY funny. I wondered why none of them gave me shit about saying âMatPat misgendered Evil Xisumaâ before realizing none of them read that far into the post.)
And getting on a more personal, and much more important note, I met most of my current online friends through this, including my partner. It helped me grow closer with my irl friends as well and gave me an entertaining story that I tell whenever I have the chance. It was one of the first things in my life that really made me feel like my talents, my autistic hyperfocusing and analyzing of things I love, could be valuable. Useful. Exploitable. It blew my mind that MatPat thought an autistic kidâs ramblings about a Minecraft Youtube joke character were good enough to steal. To put an audible sponsorship on. To get 6 million views off of.
And thatâs why Iâm writing this post, this update years later. As you mightâve been able to guess, Hbomberguyâs Youtube video on plagiarism reopened this wound. It was really hard for me to sit through, it took days of pausing and taking breaks, because I had experienced everything he was talking about firsthand.Â
In my 10 page long takedown post, I wrote about how his rewording of my sentences made him say things that were incorrect, just like Filip did. The content farm production style that made big companies like Cinemassacre take one creator (AVGN/MatPat) and turn him and his content into a brand, a voice that reads out scripts by other people with other opinions/theories, is a history shared with Game Theory. What really hit me was Harris talking about how big creators only do this to people they think they can get away with doing it to. How they view their victims as lesser, as not deserving of their words, repackaging them as their own to give to an audience that can gain from hearing them, but deserves better than to have to listen to the original victim.
Thatâs the thing, I 100% think a video version of my theory to expose to a bigger community than âEvil Xisuma Fans on Tumblrâ is a great idea!! Near the end of the video Harris talks about how video adaptations of things could be a great market, even an accessibility tool, and I completely feel that about my posts. I wrote them quickly assuming the reader was someone well versed on Evil Xisuma lore, after not even watching most of the CarnEvil series, and the diagrams I made to explain them are even less comprehensible. Harris makes a joke that I completely agree with,Â
âIâm sure some of my videos would do very well if someone translated them into English.â
I donât think I wouldâve ever made my posts if I didnât have autism, and a special fixation on Evil Xisuma and Hermitcraft. I made them because I felt the character was being done an injustice, and because I wanted to share with other superfans this theory that might explain it away. I do think that MatPat plagiarizing me was ableist. I used to wonder a lot if this wouldâve happened if my posts were articulated better, if they had been peer reviewed, if the posts themselves had been spread to a wider audience before MatPat made his video. At one point when the discourse was fresh (before I had the time to write out my 10 page rebuttal), a bigger YouTuber (100k subs at the time) messaged me and started talking on Discord, interested in possibly making a video on the discourse, but I think my style of typing and general enthusiasm drove him away. You can tell by a single look at my blog (or my original 3 posts!) that I donât usually type like this. This post youâre reading now has been peer reviewed and edited, and took me hours to format correctly. That video couldâve been huge, the entire outcome of this MatPat situation would probably be much different.
I also used to stress a lot about âbeing the one who ruined Evil Xisumaâs storyâ. If you didnât know, to me S8 Evil Xisumaâs story got wrapped up pretty quickly and unsatisfying (in my personal autistic opinion). (though this mightâve been due to s8 being experimental and ending early with moon big) There was no real culmination of the plot points and arcs going on, and I donât want to blame myself, but when Xisuma said on stream (when the MatPat thing was first going on) that he didnât want to focus on the discourse or draw more attention to it, it makes a lot of sense to me that he just wanted to wrap it all up as quickly as possible. For a while I beat myself up about it, of ruining the story of this character I love, but itâs not my fault. If anyoneâs, itâs MatPats, but I donât think itâs useful to just blame someone else. Thatâs how the story ended up going, and thatâs fine. This is Evil Xisuma weâre talking about, their inconsistent lore is what made them such an interesting character. And notably, Pooka made an animation with an awesome culmination of Jeff, the Dreamer, Evil Xisuma, and his own sonaâs story, and it makes me so happy to watch. Whatever Pooka does is of course his own choice, but Iâm glad he got to give this personal story his own ending (if it is an ending, and not just the start of a new chapter!).Â
Typing this all out and getting it off my chest has made me feel a lot better. For a while I wanted to make my OWN video essay about Evil Xisumaâs lore and CarnEvilâs lore, actually going episode by episode to explain it instead of just assuming you knew as much about Evil Xisuma as I did. That idea is still not off the table, but MCYT isnât something Iâm that into right now. Maybe if something else comes out about Evil Xisuma Iâll get back on it, but for now Iâm fine with letting that go. But I want to make other videos, share other theories and analysis⊠if I have the freetime Iâd love to make YouTube videos, and if I donât have the time Iâll continue posting to my tumblr and infodumping to my friends. Apparently my infodumping is valuable enough âcontentâ to steal! Writing this out has made me feel a lot better though, Iâm really glad I got it out.
If anyone ever wants to talk to me about the things Iâm obsessed with, or reach out to me as a source in a bigger discussion about Game Theory or other channels, my inbox is more than welcome :] Thank you for reading!Â
Sincerely, a tumblr user.
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