Justin Carmical - A Case of Online Video Creator

Justin Carmical - Google Trends

Disclaimer: I am an anonymous writer. Do not believe everything you find on the Internet. Do not trust the opinionated online courts. This blog post is just a fictional financial tale I am, for sure, wrong in many aspects of this fictional story. The whole point of this article is looking at the economic aspect (e.g., salary and job security). I firmly believe members of society to create their destiny but under specific financial circumstances. This notion is not a capitalist mindset.
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Justin Carmical was born in April 1971 in a lower-class US petite bourgeoisie family and died by suicide in January 2014. No father was in the picture. He later states he mostly lived with his grandparents (full time from 12 years old).

The boy (seven years old) wanted more than anything in the world an Atari console. But his family couldn't afford it. It was the area of Atari 2600. So, his grandpa made him one: a wooden one. He used to sit down and play with this fake Atari console and imagined he could play a real one. Finally, his mother’s boyfriend, after seeing him playing with his fake wooden console, bought him a real Atari 2600. He owned his first NES console after high secondary school graduation by his own earning. In secondary school, he was a member of Drama School.

Then, he got familiar with a significant TV show: Robotech: The Macross Saga. He quickly fell in love with this anime and starts to re-watch this episode again and again. That was a beginning of his passion for Japanese culture, anime, and games. He joined an anime club in Denver and started to collect Japanese games. Carmical was a dedicated fan of the Dr Who series. He graduated in 1989 from secondary school and went to Pikes Peak Community College and University of Colorado in Japanese language major. In college, Carmical decided to get a Japanese language major. He got different jobs including a job in the studio, many Japanese cuisines (to also improve his Japanese), bookstore, and Japanese language tutor. At the age of 27/28, he was working in a game shop: Compleat Games & Hobbies. He moved to Florida, Orlando, with his at the time girlfriend and worked at small TV station in Tallahassee (2000-2001). Returning from Florida to Colorado, married his wife and were both working in white collar jobs. He worked for Lexisnexis. His career salary was annual $23,000. This income was the highest income throughout since he was 16 years old.

Carmical was a registered Republican and talked with resentment about workplace unions. He was an amateur game collector in his basement (aka his museum) in Springs Colorado which he jokingly call "C.H.E.E.T. Museum" collection (Carmical Haven for Electronic Entertainment Technologies). He is a passionate Go (board game) gamer and was a member of The Colorado Springs Go Club with his friend Max and created a short-lived comic series for their website. He was diagnosed with disk degenerative disease.

Carmical is a frequent guest in his friend's podcast (Derek K): Son of Cheese. He had many hobbies but a passion for the Internet and website making. He made a website about creating an Iron Man costume with the budget of $100. He dedicated the site and costume to his favourite comic bookshop (Bargain Comic) owner who passed away in 2008. The costume making, ultimately, was a failure due to lack of fund. He made a fan site for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. He tried to create a fandom encyclopedia type site for his favourite manga. He even purchases a domain for it. Soon after, the website that hosted his webpage had a fire accident, and all files and backups were lost. Back then, he used the pseudo-name: Noriaki Kakyouin. He was staff at a short-lived non-profit organisation: The Colorado Springs Conservation Corps which was mostly focused on local energy conservation education. He started to create short video clips on YouTube; mostly on Japanese import games. His first YouTube channel can be still found as LudusChallalenge. He used the Two Poor Sods production at the beginning of his videos indicating him and Shuuki (Max). He got familiar with his first and most significant online video making inspiration: Jonathan Mann. Carmical started to follow Mann's work with colossal enthusiast and even built an online store for Mann's songs and albums. Mann's old personality (a lookalike of Mario) was the primary inspiration and theme for Carmical's YouTube channel at the beginning. This adoration and inspiration. Carmical invited Jonathan Mann to join the podcast to one of the episodes. His wife asked Mann to surprise Carmical with a birthday song.

Carmical has a long history of psychological issues in his family and relatives (e.g., a severe case for one of his cousins). Manic depression, bipolar and alcoholism are the issues. He, at some point, also started to use prescribed medicine for anti-depression. He was medicated with lithium and Prozac since 2000 for bipolar (manic depression). He is reluctant in taking medicine (he mentioned he couldn't cry in his friend's funeral due to side effects of Prozac). He stated that he made a suicide attempt in 2002. He decided not to have any kid against his wife's wishes. One of his dreams is brought to reality in 2006. His wife saved money, secretly, to pay for travel expenses to Japan.

Then, his job got outsourced to India. Justin lost his 23 thousand dollars annual income. He is penniless and even more than ever dependent on his wife for a living. Justin starts two things simultaneously: 1) going to classes for MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate); 2) make short videos on YouTube about the imported Japanese games.

His primary character name was based on the character he found his polar opposite: Wario. Another of his character’s name was J-dub. An example of his imported game reviews is Captain Tsubasa Vol. II: Super Striker. He had few vlogs, in this early period, with his friends: Shuuki, and Razma (Eric). He became friends with Mark F. Mark wanted to start his own Japanese import video series but found Carmical's already available contents. He failed his MCSA exams. A significant event happened in this period: He got accepted to join a viral aggregated video website: That Guy with The Glasses (TGWTG). He suddenly finds himself within a community and dedicated fans. People who watch his videos on Blip (with advertisement revenue) and recognise him in a video game and anime conventions. He, continuously, mentioned that he wanted to make his dream real: making his video content producing a full-time affordable job (similar to several of his successful colleagues). He worked in a GameSpot store (one day per week) and also as quizmaster for Geeks Who Drinks. He also worked with Koku Gamer site. Later, he got a job in a local game store as an assistant to the owner. However, he was let go due to financial pressure. He started to attend all available collaboration events via project million entertainment. He desperately aimed to create connections.

One of his collaborators Patrick B. donated some games and console to Carmical. His website: youcanplaythis.com (now archived) was designed freely by Scarlett T.
TGWTG fandom size though very small but is ready to be emotionally invested in the producers. One of the much more popular content producers asks the fans to donate to another content producer (due to having bad times) to buy a new laptop. Another content producer of TGWGT gets his internet bills paid by one of his fans. The higher-up managers of the company also asked for donations too. For instance, a higher-up who missed the flight back home from Toronto after a convention purchased a new ticket by gifts.

Examples of Monetary Favours between managers/employees and the fans within That Guy With The Glasses (TGWTG or Channel Awesome) Environment

TV Tropes wiki has plenty of other examples in its "heartwarming" sections. On the other hand, these types of fandom, similar to many different Internet cliques, are notorious for trolling and Internet harassment. The permanent shadow of internet abuse, stalking and trolling is the norm for content producers of TGWGT. The political perspective is similar to any other archetypal North American attitude in the multimedia businesses: conservative views (or at least mute) on fiscal matters, but tremendously liberal regarding social/environmental issues.
 Concerning education, many content producers are with no college degrees (few of them are dropouts) and even secondary school. Although some undergrad degree holders are also among them (i.e., bachelor degrees are not related to the multi-media). Regarding the earning, it is a fascinating case. Due to newness and direct online approach, the income was directly and nearly linearity dependent on the popularity of the content producer. Views directly affect the income rate. Moreover, the standard issue concerning the producers in the traditional multimedia businesses, internet piracy, nearly did not affect these types of content producers (TGWTG) in comparison. This earning system, directly based on popularity, create ongoing pressure and friction concerning spotlights, collaborations, video rank on the first page and... Working in TGWTG should be little more explained. The corporation didn't host any content producer's video. Videos are uploaded to the personal accounts (i.e., mostly Blip TV). The corporation only embedded the video on their aggregated site. As one of the producers explained, the producers were not "fired" but only "let go" due to not having a contract/a payroll with the corporation. The corporation had anniversary events for a few years: collective movies showcasing some of the content producers of the site. The selection of the cast was not based on the popularity but higher-up managers' preferences. The corporation provided the travel (including international flights) accommodations and food expenses, but no wage is paid except exposure.
Participating in these events were sought by nearly all the content producers due to exposure, collaboration with colleagues, and gaining experience. Back to Carmical. He creates different personas and tries to use his connections in the TGWTG. The polar opposite personalities in his shows are commonplace. His application to be a video creator on SoulPancake website site was rejected. One of his closest colleagues from this specific group is Sean F. The financial situation got worse. It doesn’t get better although Carmical is, little by little, became more known for a small but dedicated fandom. The case is that his fame didn’t bring him any money back. Even his most planned and significant collaborations didn’t pay back the money he spends to buy material for that specific video (e.g., back to the future 2). He spent a significant amount of time and even money to purchase games but no revenue in return due to not being a success to also pass the $60 purchase price with Blip TV and YouTube simultaneously. Justin was over 40 years old by then. He works for sites that their owners and other collaborators are much younger (the average age fluctuated in the 20s). He consistently produced more contents with more collaborations. He starts to create more extensive online network. He doesn’t ignore anybody. In his of videos for YouTube, he showed his collection of games to the audience and asked them to check the list on his website for purchase. He has a small live stream on Twitch (back then Justin TV) for nearly four years. He danced in customs, signs happy birthday songs. He asks his new acquaintances, connected to TGWTG, to join him in his streams to make them different and fun. He was very eager to invite other content producers to his show to create variety and excitement in his streams. The YouTube content ID and net SOPA news hit any content producer on the TGWTG hard. The site is in the critical process of alterations and is not focused on the producers anymore and tries to create and develop a new theatrical face. He asked for donations on his website with the promise of if anybody donated to him $50; then he will thank them permanently in all of his following videos. By the end, Jason B is the only significant contributor. Mark, Jason, and other fans paid for Carmical's travels expenses to the conventions. Moreover, he attended these conventions via project million entertainment. He increases his outputs. He works as a quizmaster in another city (via long hours driving) but in his free time rises his channel outputs. He was with Machinima Inc for nearly two years. He stated that he had the monthly income of $18 to $25 from the Machinima. His old and best friend Shuuki (Max), who was not involved with TGWTG, left the Springfield to Amsterdam and then later to another city in the US. He produces more than six different shows on his channel. He mentioned that he can only afford a pay-to-go mobile phone and cannot afford other options with his current Blip TV payment rate ($300).

And he tried to create a new power ranger lookalike show for himself: Famicom Rider. He starts an IndieGoGo campaign. The campaign is successful. He also works for another site: Retroware TV beside Channel Awesome. In the meantime, Mann and his girlfriend got separated publicly (his most famous song is dedicated to this) due to disagreement about having kids in Dec. 2012.

It was 2013 then. A person has the sexual deviancy claim by Carmical (late Jan 2013). She told the HR person at CA.

Channel Awesome in three weeks let Justin go from the site (Feb 2013). No mention or public inquiry or announcement is done. The claimant does not want to make a formal complaint. The managers were even in doubt whether to inform the Carmical the reason of sacking at all. Legally, the employee may counter sue due to slanderous allegations and sacking by the claimant and the company respectively. It is apparent the company wanted to keep the sacking in a short and brief session to avoid any repercussion.

 

The communication text Justin Carmical's sacking by the four Channel Awesome Managers 

Based on Illinois law, the companies are not prohibited from revealing the reasons firing truthfully if the potential future employee "asked" for reference. But the norms is to confirm dates of employment and salary information to avoid lawsuits due to slanderous references. Four higher-up managers of TGWTG are aware of the reason for Carmical departure. The corporation consulted with a lawyer concerning this issue. On the other hand, it doesn't seem that the corporation wanted to investigate or be involved in this issue at all and kept all the news in the third person and indirect. After letting go of TGWTG, Carmical, after some time without streaming, had a stream. He looked very emotional (moody), and mention wanted to have a charity stream soon. He was hoping to have collaboration with his ex-colleagues in TGWTG (e.g., with Blockbuster Buster). He cried at the end of the stream and gave his famous speech: "you're not stupid" which has become famous for after his suicide.

Justin Carmical's departure note on his site

 Carmical was in last year of his life. TGWTG didn't demonstrate any hostility or grievousness towards Carmical. For instance, one of the four managers, the mentioned HR person in the chat logs,  met with Carmical during the C2E2 (2013) after Carmical's sacking in Feb 2013.

Holly Christine Brown ((one of the four managers) with Justin Carmical after the letter sacking from Channel Awesome in Feb. 2013

His connections and network with TGWTG content producers are disconnected or weakened. He also realised that Blip TV might delete his channel, and many other small channels, in a clean-up session. He is frustrated concerning money and even more dependent on his wife for paying the bills. He stopped using his anti-depression medicine. He doesn’t have any health insurance. In one of his live-stream, he told the audience he nearly has only $10 until he got paid for his job as a new intern in Xerox call centre in 2014 (the pay rate in 2018: ~ $13.60 per hour) and tried to sell his t-shirts to the stream audience. His requests from his friend to help him with the Famicom rider project is not as smooth as he hopes. His financial situation got worse. Few months before his suicide in one of the streams, Carmical mentioned his frustration with not even finding one actress for his, now, postponed Famicon Rider. Carmical started another project too: Scan This. He tried to pitch a phone app barcode game. He worked with the designer of the app directly and attempted to introduce this app to his audience. He also tried to sell point cards for this game. Few years after his death, this app was discontinued due to unpopularity which didn't justify even the app server costs. He constantly battled with financial issues. He has problems in the house in this regard and also not taking his medicine. He talks about economic issues with his friends and is continually looking for a stable job. On the other hand, in his convention attendances, by Project Million Entertainment, he is not a financially broken unemployed middle age man but a very knowledge Japanophile and retro game expert. A site which supposed to pay him breaks the promise (~$2000). He is penniless and had to stop the Famicom rider project until finding a job. The collaboration with Project Million Entertainment discounted in late 2013. He opened a patreon.com account and got $21 pledge per month. His goal was to achieve $600 per month so he can make his channel into an equivalent payable job; he wouldn't need to work in other part-time jobs. By this, he had worked for five years as a video content producer. He is nearly 42 years old now. He mentioned that he stopped using anti-depression medicine due to not having medical insurance. Concerning collaboration, he was, naturally, isolated in his last year in comparison to the prior three years. Any of his streams in 2013 was a good example. 

By the end of the year 2013, he had one of his last streams. He talked bitterly about people who make content about bad movies and stated he hadn't watched Nostalgia Critic for months (the lead and the most important figure of the corporation focused on bad movies) and mentioned the colab video with Blockbuster Busters wasn't done (one of the content producers of TGWTG) as he hoped and mentioned in his after departure stream (mentioned few paragraphs before).

Nevertheless, he attended a convention in the early Jan 2014, which is the most common gathering and attendance festival for these types of content producers, and met many content producers of the mentioned sites again. His few dedicated fans paid his travel expenses. He had a quiz pop show at this convention and asked some of his older or just-met (wasn't sure the former would show-up) acquaintances for help with quiz pop show.

His previous collaborators, later, mention they haven't talked to him recently and got a call from Carmical nearly two months before to get an answer whether they are still willing to join his mini series. He committed suicide in the late Jan 2014. He told his wife that she would be better off without him. He left a short message on the Foursquare app for his few connections: "Goodbye. I love you all". In the same day, his last work is published online: a collaboration song with Mann. People got shocked. This is one of the first ever suicide (or death) hitting this specific group of content creators and their Fandom (~average age in twenties). Money was collected in Carmical's name. Emotional audience, who weren’t familiar with his projects and problems, mourned him dearly. His strong presence on Twitter and Tumblr and attending cons, due to Project One Million, helped the illusion of closeness. 

No hyperbole, but one of the first Internet saints is indeed born for this specific fandom and content producers. The list of homages, beautiful words, and pictures of him in some conventions, and videos of him are numerous. Edited and put together pictures of Carmical are most common on many social media pages. He was very active online and attended many conventions (via project million entertainment), and was open to take pictures. The keyword, here, is the IMAGE. This small online clique suddenly and unintentionally found itself with a perfect image. A hard worker but the mediocre content producer who was a failure in all of his ventures. A martyr and unrecognised hero of us. The IMAGE created substantial exposure. The timing is another factor. This just happened before many of the upcoming significant departures and personal quarrels within TGWTG. As the producers and employees get fallen apart more by more, the most beautiful words concerning this fallen colleague belong to the good old time, is more appealing.

His network, now spent money, time and efforts to create homages to him. He was an older content (Japanophile) creator in his 40s who ended up with a suicide. These young content producers were in shock. His pretty small live-streams were cut down and shown to the world to demonstrate his inspiring quotes to the world (i.e., "you're not stupid" stream). For the next four years, Justin Carmical was "an inspiration to all" phenomenon. His videos were flooded with kind words in the comments. Carmical was a small size YouTuber even for his working genre. For a platform that hundreds of thousands or even millions watch videos of the same genre creators, he even after four years of intense publicity (2018) still have a small number in comparison.
One of the noticeable comments in his videos (even more than RIP) was wishing to know/watch his videos before his suicide. One small omen: the TGWTG (now called Channel Awesome) doesn't keep (or transfer) its short tribute video on their favourite YouTube channel. Even though, they kept the one for Robin William's suicide (same year). The TGWTG people are started to fall apart. The most significant issue is e-begging. The problem of patron and crowd-funding projects are a serious matter after 2014. The companies are tired to forbid these for their employees but yet, use such methods for their benefits. It is not uncommon to hear patron/Adblock as an issue of controversy for ex-Channel Awesome producers. One producer stated that was put under pressure because of concerns with high number mid-ads in videos. The corporation had to ask all content producers to keep only max two mid-ads to avoid encouraging the audience to use Adblock. The Patreon.com site and became a prominent issue in this period by adding a reliable source of income (now called donations) for producers beside selling merchandise, and YouTube/Blip ad-revenue. None of the content producers and Channel Awesome are 501c companies. The idea of tax exemption wasn't clearly defined due to the newness of Blip TV earning system. It might not be an immediate concern for individuals, but for a corporation, the vagueness of donations/ tips could be disastrous. The corporation doesn't have a Patreon.com account and doesn't want to its aggregated site to be known to be affiliated to the Patreon.com site. On the other hand, patreon.com let the producers their biggest dream possible: an independent financial and reliable source of income. Not dependent on YouTube copyright mercy. The Patreon.com site became even more crucial due to the shutdown of the Blip TV. Blip TV advertisement payment was more significant (reported in some cases ~10 times higher) than YouTube and was substantially more flexible on copyright. Channel Awesome had to change its policy on Patreon.com site, quietly, only because its core clique of producers has started taking advantage of the Patreon.com site. Nothing is permanent. The old faces are leaving the site back and forth. It seems the corporation is content about these departures and tries to use fresh faces who are, this time, official employees with clear payments and duties. One of the four mentioned higher-ups, the HR person (relatively a new employee and not a founder), is fired based on "at will" law of Illinois. This higher-up was hoping to stay more in the corporation.

Holly Christine Brown's departure from Channel Awesome nearly ten months later

 The HR manager was bitter with regard to the departure.

We have a polar opposite situation again, this time for these four higher-ups who are aware of the reason that Carmical was let go. The three still working higher-ups are passive and distance towards Carmical, and on the extreme, the sacked higher-up is friendly connected with all relevant people (e.g., wife, mom, and his best friend Mark) in Justin's life and active in his remembrance (e.g., many pictures and posts on public Social media). In the meantime, the name of Carmical comes back and forth in nearly all other ex-content producers of Channel Awesome with respect and fondness. There was an incident that a person (henceforth called Jane Doe), via Misha Mayhem, claimed sexual deviancy by Carmical but it was commonly rejected or dismissed without any public impact.

The primary concept of the aggregated site became obsolete due to new opportunities of YouTube partnership programme and Patroen.com site and also lack of interest from the new Channel Awesome (e.g., not having the collaborative anniversary movies anymore and focusing on the new paid with contract employees). By mid-2017 the corporation is changed its face completely. The intros and channel banner are only focused on the new paid employees who weren't involved in any of the old content producers (from anniversary movies). There is no mention of the former group, unless a rare collaboration event. The corporation starts to show its flag show: Nostalgia Critic, in one or two cinemas. The cast members are only the new paid employees. One of the smaller producers of Channel Awesome, with the new confidence from the recent relocation and better financial status, leaves the Channel Awesome publicly, and this is one of the triggers to create a document against Channel Awesome. The fired higher-up manager also has a large section, in comparison, at the beginning of the document. The average age of the same content producers, now, is fluctuating in the 30s.
The document talks about the grievances of the content producers. The video content producers grievances have some similarities with Emma Blackery’s YouTube rewind complaints. Exposure as earning is not enough for the projects. Even in Hollywood, now, extra make money out of their work. The grievances might sound like retaliation for alleged years of elitism, cliquism, and condensing attitude of higher ups of Channel Awesome. On the other hand, there are other complains by content producers, on the extreme opposite side, which indicates their desires to be part of these unpaid anniversary movies and grievances due being left out by the higher-up managers of the site due to cliquism or cancellation of anniversary movies. The document doesn’t seem to contain anything legal but more like a note on the corporation reputations. Bullseye is the TGWTG/Channel Awesome current fandom. The corporation had a good time recently since its change of direction towards focusing on only wage-paid employees and creating a theatrical face. During the heat of these revelations, all paid employees (i.e., new theatrical faces) stayed, and all the unpaid employees (from the old aggregated site concept) left.
The ex-employees use the twitter hashtag: #changethechannel. A different note exists at the end of the document. Jane Doe claims that she was groomed by one of the content producers. Jane Doe stated was 18 years old but 16 years old mentally. In mid-April 2018, birthday of Carmical, the three working higher-ups replied with the screenshots of the communication about this content producers and let the public know that they fried the guy in less than three weeks when they heard complaints (from another person, called second person, and not the Jane Doe). The fired higher-up is also part of conversations with the three other managers.
By looking at the time log, it is just too easy to realise that Carmical is the mentioned producer. Then, the second claimant, who was the actual person of the chat logs, made an anonymous note on the Reddit site. The fired hired-up confirmed that was the intermediary person between the claimant and the rest of managers. The active and involved audience to these stories were generally divided into three groups: (a) trolls, online drama lovers, and the click-bait video makers (i.e., the only sleuths of this story) and (b) the shocked & disgusted fandom (who only reacts moody to the day by day revelations); (c) attention seekers who with blink of eyes made these allegations all about themselves. One person who is actively involved in this is the fired higher-up. Carmical's close acquaintances that were mentioned in this article kept quiet and out of these new revelations. With the Carmical's new revelations, the exposure of Channel Awesome went to substantially higher level. The Channel Awesome loses more than 64,000 subscribers out of their nearly 1,080,000 subs on YouTube, and one or two advertisement contracts and partnerships are cancelled.

The ex-employees, during the heat of controversy, got relatively large YouTube/patron/twitter boost. One of the producers put his DVDs on sale; the other one looks for ideas for T-shirt and merchandise to sell. The fired higher-up shared a PayPal account for donations for purchasing a standing desk.