Due to the cast’s clear talent for voice acting, they’re able to bring a level of professionalism to the table that’s hard to come by in the genre. Critical Role: Incredible performancesīesides the unique nature of their content and how it fosters fan creativity in really positive ways, Critical Role is also just good. This creates an incredible symbiotic relationship between the fans and the company Critical Role creates content that allows for infinite creative freedom for fans, and in return, they get insanely good works that are then monetized and used to further the brand. During their streams, they highlight fan art with a reel at the break, and their merchandise is always either commissioned or licensed art from fans. The constant stream of fan art is not only beneficial to the fan, but also for Critical Role as a brand. Aside from animated takes on these characters, Critters have created fan art since the very beginning across their two campaigns and many one-shots. On YouTube, some Critical Role fan animations, known as animatics, have views in the millions, and there’s no shortage of them. That might include things like fan songs, cosplays, art, videos, and any other medium they choose. As stated earlier, Critical Role is unique in that it’s not a visual medium, so some Critters will take it upon themselves to make it a visual medium.īut why? Well, every moment on Critical Role essentially acts as a prompt for the fan to fill in whichever way they can or want to. Critical Role: User-created contentĪs long as fandoms have been around, people in those fandoms have used their own talents to create content related to whatever media they are fans of.Ĭritical Role’s active fanbase, known as Critters, do the exact same thing, maybe even more so than those that came before them. The pleasure that comes from imagining an entire world from just verbal or written description is what keeps readers reading, and, now, it’s what keeps Critical Role fans watching. This experience is something that can’t be found within the mediums of TV or film and, instead, is a shared experience with things like books and audiobooks. This type of participation, where the audience sees the action in their mind’s eye, leaves the visual enjoyment of the content up to the viewer. I say “forced” because it’s a restriction of the medium, but it’s the opposite of a negative side effect. Rather, the audience, as Critical Role’s game master (GM) Matthew Mercer describes the scene, is forced to imagine everything that’s happening. Critical Role: User participationīecause of the medium Critical Role uses, either the purely audio podcast version or the video recording, the audience isn’t actually looking at the characters or the scene when they’re consuming their content. So, what is it about Critical Role that makes the time investment worth it to so many?įor starters, there are two critical media analysis concepts that I think work well to break down the appeal of Critical Role in a more clinical way, both of which were created by Brian L. For some perspective, Grey’s Anatomy’s 17 seasons combine for a total runtime of only 272 hours and 33 minutes. Though, despite all this success, no matter which way you slice it, 1,000+ hours of content over both the Vox Machina and Mighty Nein campaigns is overwhelming. Led by popular voice actor Matthew Mercer, the group, which consists of professional voice actors Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham, has been streaming since 2015 and has amassed a massive following in these past six years. ![]() What started out as a home game turned into an insanely popular weekly stream, a huge YouTube presence, a comic book series, and even an upcoming animated show on Prime Video. Some argue that Critical Role is partially responsible for the massive boom in popularity of this type of content, with many other shows like The Adventure Zone and Dimension 20 flourishing as well. ![]() It’s part of a new form of content called “actual play,” which is a recording of a tabletop roleplay game session that’s uploaded or streamed online. Critical Role: Actual play as a new media categoryĬritical Role is, in and of itself, a really unique piece of media. Well, I asked myself the exact same thing, and it turned into this: A deep dive into what makes Critical Role so captivating, especially as they’ve carved out their own unique space in popular culture. ![]() You might ask yourself, why would you do that? But before we jump into the newest campaign, let’s discuss exactly how Critical Role became such a success.Įarlier this year, I spent the first six months of 2021 watching over 500 hours of Critical Role as I binged their second campaign. Critical Role announced that they’re making their long-awaited Campaign 3 announcement this Thursday at 9 am PST on their Twitch channel.
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