Manni gets banned

And one other thing that I want to throw out there: the timing by Manni gets brought out here often. Fair enough, maybe he did have an ulterior motive.

But is anybody pausing to consider Pixonic's timing? I mean Manni was being Manni for years, he had rant videos and made mistakes about game's features long time before this. So Pixonic was tolerating all this for years and now that they get a wind of this petition they decide to ban him the day before? Maybe reading too much into things, but seems like a move designed to divide the YT community. And if that was the intent, it has to be admitted that it worked well.

440k subscribers won't mean much if the game finally implodes.

Manni is smart enough to know this (amongst some others). Hence the branching out to other games. He has decided to speak out and others have decided to toe the line and feed off the teet for as long as possible. That's their choice.

I think he tried to get others to back him up for some sort of coup but not as revenge to get other channels banned, but why don't they just ban the other channel he is posting on if it's still violating game rules?

It would have backfired on everyone if we had posted all together at the time of Manni's ban. It was very suspicious that he didn't mention his ban to anyone, in fact another person had to inform us, and that's what didn't feel right. Manni should have been honest with us from the start. 

Our alternative option was still in the work, but it involved speaking directly to Pixonic. We didn't really have time to set up anything because Manni just posted without consulting anyone.

It was just too risky to post. And the fact Manni tried to hide his ban was suspicious.  If he really cared about what he claimed in the petition he would have waited for all the creators to actually agree on something before posting.

If you think it was risky to post then you pretty much admit fear of retaliation from Pixonic. That explains why so many of you wanted to blunt the message (or back out altogether). If I were in Manni's position I would have done the same thing and moved on with petition, for exactly the reason of how that process went. There's an idea of petition, but some of you wanted to change it into direct talks, some wanted to post at their own convenience, some wanted to ask Pixo for permission first, some thought it would be an "attack" and so on. Nothing or very little would have gotten done in the end.

But that's water under the bridge. Manni got his petition out and a lot of you showed that you had nothing to do with it, so I don't think you should be concerned about Pixonic's reaction. Now you can show how much you care and proceed with your idea.  
  

I don't think many people wanted to be seen as working with Manni, because of his ban. It wasn't that we were scared of Pixonic silencing us for the petition,  I personally was worried about getting tarred with the same brush as Manni content-wise. Most of his recent videos have just been hate videos on the game. Personally I don't think that's a very good way to tackle the bigger issues. I try to focus on some positive aspects in my content because I believe there is still some enjoyment in the game. I don't really blame Pixonic for taking action against Manni, because it was true most of his content portrayed them in a negative light, and having one of their mentors do that obviously didn't look good.

Also, there would have probably been no need to ask Pixonic about the petition (yes I believe a couple creators gave them a heads up, I didn't, not going to name any) if Manni hadn't have been banned. I'm in no way scared of posting a controversial video, I've done my 100 reasons why the game is bad series, and had nothing said about it by Pixonic. But in a way Manni killed the petition by getting himself banned. It just looked bad and a group ordeal from the creators at the time of Manni's ban would have looked like an attack, and I personally couldn't take the risk of it looking like I was siding with him when he was clearly in the wrong. I can't speak for the others though, they probably had other reasons.

I don't know what the plan is moving forward, because our plans for another attempt at getting change were destroyed when Manni posted his original petition video. He pretty much slagged off all the creators, making us look weak for not posting. It was suspicious to me that he didn't even want to take another attempt at the petition once we found out about his ban. It seemed to me he had decided his fate already.So even if we did try something now, it just wouldn't have the desired effect, instead people would be focusing on the "drama" between the creators rather than the actual issue of asking for change.

I'll try to summarise my main reasons why I pulled out.

Manni deciding not to tell anyone about his ban which he knew about before the petition triggered alarm bells for me. That was suspicious for a start.

The fact that it could be seen as a revenge attack on the game put me off too, because the point of it was to ask for change.

Manni seemingly wanting to go down a martyr rather than actually rework the petition idea with all the creators agreeing on a format finished it for me. I was actually the last person to pull out, and I'll admit it was a hard decision.  I just don't think it would have worked, especially at the time where there was a lot of tension from Manni's ban. It's a shame, because all the creators pulling together might have done something. 

You would think that, but for better or for worse, there is a significant amount of nuance in delivering meaningful, constructive criticism. Too little criticism and said criticism does not land, but too much bashing and negativity, and it also does not land. You often need to demonstrate that you care about and have solid ideas on how to improve the game, not just be constantly whining about seemingly everything. Regardless of how justified said whining is, if it is too aggressive to Pixonic then they will just dismiss you as a hater, which I think these YouTubers understand. This is not a democracy, so the only way to get Pixonic to listen is if we genuinely appeal to them, not just scream and whine until something happens.

As for the Ukraine comparison, I disagree honestly. Caring for a game you spend your free time on and being patriotic for your homeland and livelihood are two very different things. I think it is completely understandable for people to not want to get overly invested in War Robots drama and maintain a less demanding relationship with the game.

In the end, pix will do what they want.

I think all of the endorsed content creators are walking a tightrope here. Falling to the left sees them cancelled by the playerbase. To the right, by Pixo. I don't envy them the free gear, or whatever money they make. We're all 'only human' and I don't want to judge their choices from the sideline. None of this affects my gaming.

Predator gives his side of the story:

We already have a response:
"About Predators video: My choice of words during that live-stream was bad. I also wasn't happy, myself with how I responded there. When being asked on the spot about something imporant while doing live-gameplay, maybe it's better sometimes NOT to answer and find the right words, first. Because if you don't something like this can happen: You'll be quoted at your worst moment."

You can read the rest pinned to his latest video, one where he announces he is buying War Robots.
Happy April Fool's day all.