Why is Scrapyard Wars dead?

[Neroon]

I've heard this a ton over the past 1-2 years, including in a recent Wan that I'm catching up on. I just don't understand why.

 

Yes to be clear, I clearly see the issue with Linus and Luke being recognized constantly, but they have 80 people working at LMG, with many of the faces that are unfamiliar to the audience. And while I would suggest disguises, I can imagine that a not so known LMG'er with a different look, would be sufficient for all of this. 

 

So they can just work in teams, or just have that 1 person to pick stuff up (maybe the one who also operates the camera), and you can still do a very entertaining series of videos.

 

Like many, I really enjoyed them, and while they don't have to be a yearly thing, having a new one like that would be great. It could even be used as a way to introduce new LMG staff that will work in front of the camera or whatever.

[Imbadatnames]

They haven’t really been able to do one due to the mining boom and prices going through the roof. Now is really the only time it’s been viable for a while. 

[Shimejii]

I mean Covid kind of killed off most in person stuff like that for a few years. Its just not an enjoyable thing to watch in their location. Canada is pretty spread apart, so traveling hours for a video like that and nothing is guaranteed content wise. Its usually just a thing about is it worth the time, and honestly? Its not. 

 

Used hardware isnt like it use to be, there was a LOT you could do with the original hardware on there, but now most modern cpus are so good, that buying one or two gens old is more then adequate.  Old hardware SUCKS when it comes to issues, especially motherboards, as they will be the component that dies the most out of everything. GPUs tend to be pretty good but if theyve been mined on a ton and pretty much burnt out, its a pretty slim pickings.

 

 

Overall they could do it now, but so much more is online then it was even a few years ago for those parts stuff, and that can make way more sense for people.

[Neroon]

Why wouldn't it be an enjoyable things to watch in their location? Their location hasn't changed, not to mention that location doesn't make the videos fun.

 

Traveling for hours is absolutely guaranteed content wise, they have failed deals before, and they made it in the video, because the video isn't about those great deals, but fun content. Also Linus failing to buy something, surely is a fan favourite.

Worth the time? Again, it's about content. I think they did 6 videos in 2-3 days time, fairly sure that's worth it for LMG.

 

Yes buying older gen is adequate, but scrapyard wars isn't about adequate, it's about beating the other person, so it doesn't matter if it's nearly as good, it needs to be better.

Yes older hardware can break, again, part of the batle.

Slim pickings is fine.

 

Yes much more is online, but they make the rules, so they can just state that all deals need to be in person. I think they already had that rule.

 

I feel like you are trying to approach this from a buyers advice point of view, when in reality it's a fun contest and it just needs to hold up during testing. They can give themselves any budget they want, and whatever rules they want to make it fun.

[Spotty]

Scrapyard Wars 8 was teams made up of other LMG employees. The general feedback from the season wasn't great from what I remember, but I don't think that was because other employees were part of the challenge. The way it was scored was stupid where the winner was determined by which team were the best gamers not who built the best PC or got the best deal.

Scrapyard Wars 7 was also pretty heavily criticised for the excessive product placement they had with the woman in every shot holding up a nintendo switch. I can't remember anything else about that series other than that awful product placement.

 

Aside from Linus being easily recognised, filming scrapyard wars is pretty disruptive to their filming schedule with them basically needing to shut down for a week to film it, plus a lot of time spent editing afterwards. If you film a series involving more of the staff from around the office then that just adds even more disruption.

The format seems pretty tired by now and I don't think they were happy with the last few series. Ultimately what would a new scrapyard wars series bring to the table that they haven't already done in the past 8 series?

 

 

I actually hope they don't do a scrapyard wars 9 because it'd just be made to appeal to current Youtube trends, which means it'll be #Shorts videos hacked up with editing done by a monkey on cocaine with text bouncing across the screen and an overexcited host yelling "WE'RE BACK WITH SCRAPYARD WARS 9 YEEEEEE BOIIIIII WE HAVE $420.69 TO SPEND LOL NICE! Each team will be given one LTT store screwdriver buy on lttstore.com to build their PCs with and to go out and buy parts they'll each be given an LTT backpack buy on lttstore.com backorders available now. Teams can only buy what pc hardware can fit inside their LTT backpack but there's a surprising amount of space inside the backpacks as I can demonstrate with showing how it fits our new 64oz lttstore water bottle buy now on lttstore.com and if you like the shirt I'm wearing it's available to buy on lttstore.com just like my underwear also available on lttstore.com... But first let me tell you about our video sponsor"

[wgaca]

It was dead long before they ended it

[Neroon]

56 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Scrapyard Wars 8 was teams made up of other LMG employees. The general feedback from the season wasn't great from what I remember, but I don't think that was because other employees were part of the challenge. The way it was scored was stupid where the winner was determined by which team were the best gamers not who built the best PC or got the best deal.

Scrapyard Wars 7 was also pretty heavily criticised for the excessive product placement they had with the woman in every shot holding up a nintendo switch. I can't remember anything else about that series other than that awful product placement.

 

Aside from Linus being easily recognised, filming scrapyard wars is pretty disruptive to their filming schedule with them basically needing to shut down for a week to film it, plus a lot of time spent editing afterwards. If you film a series involving more of the staff from around the office then that just adds even more disruption.

The format seems pretty tired by now and I don't think they were happy with the last few series. Ultimately what would a new scrapyard wars series bring to the table that they haven't already done in the past 8 series?

 

 

I actually hope they don't do a scrapyard wars 9 because it'd just be made to appeal to current Youtube trends, which means it'll be #Shorts videos hacked up with editing done by a monkey on cocaine with text bouncing across the screen and an overexcited host yelling "WE'RE BACK WITH SCRAPYARD WARS 9 YEEEEEE BOIIIIII WE HAVE $420.69 TO SPEND LOL NICE! Each team will be given one LTT store screwdriver buy on lttstore.com to build their PCs with and to go out and buy parts they'll each be given an LTT backpack buy on lttstore.com backorders available now. Teams can only buy what pc hardware can fit inside their LTT backpack but there's a surprising amount of space inside the backpacks as I can demonstrate with showing how it fits our new 64oz lttstore water bottle buy now on lttstore.com and if you like the shirt I'm wearing it's available to buy on lttstore.com just like my underwear also available on lttstore.com... But first let me tell you about our video sponsor"

That made me laugh... but mostly because I can see them doing it...

 

While I don't disagree, I do believe they can do a better job if they actually use the feedback.

As for it being disruptive, I mean they got plenty of camera's, they can just use handhelds, and they could do it with 4 people, 2 people using camera's/making the physical transactions, and the other 2 people Linus and Luke. This should limit interruptions. 

They also got shitloads of space right now, lots of it being unused, so it should have very little impact on the day to day. Yes editing etc takes more time, but they are getting 6 videos out of it. As far as I can see, this would be a money maker.

And yeah the sponsored stuff is a thing, but that's in every video now. Between an outside sponsor, merch mentions and floatplane, LMG is going heavy on pushing stuff regardless.

[Middcore]

Even if COVID hadn't happened and it didn't take so much effort to film, they were clearly out of ideas for SYW. The last season just didn't make any sense.

 

There's also the problem of Luke and Linus getting recognized constantly.

 

The only way I could see bringing it back would be to bring in other creators like Danny from Nerd on a Budget to be the contestants and just have Luke and Linus do commentary and judging.

[Needfuldoer]

The only way I see an in-person cheap budget PC build-off working now is if they partner with a place like FreeGeek and let the contestants rummage around the warehouse for parts. 

 

They could also order parts online, but then you're basically just doing head-to-head $69 gaming PCs.

 

Scrapyard Wars had its day, and it will always be "classic LTT", but I think it's best left alone. I'd rather see more challenges like the Linus vs Anthony troubleshooting race, or "yesterday's high end vs today's low end" showcases.

 

12 hours ago, Spotty said:

Scrapyard Wars 8 was teams made up of other LMG employees. The general feedback from the season wasn't great from what I remember, but I don't think that was because other employees were part of the challenge. The way it was scored was stupid where the winner was determined by which team were the best gamers not who built the best PC or got the best deal.

Was that the one where they had to build a whole gaming setup on the cheap, and one of the teams picked up a free dining set off the curb? The idea was solid, but the scoring made no sense.

 

That's a problem with any "challenge" series that always has to one-up its previous iteration; eventually it loses the plot and just becomes a parody of itself.

[SansVarnic]

4 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

That's a problem with any "challenge" series that always has to one-up its previous iteration; eventually it loses the plot and just becomes a parody of itself.

This^^^