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44-470: Stuart Clive Ashen (born 16 December 1976), better known online as Ashens ( / ˈ æ ʃ ə n z / ASH -ənz ), is a British comedian, filmmaker, critic and YouTuber best known for reviewing counterfeit consumer goods . Since 2006, his YouTube videos have centered around examinations and reviews of various, often low-quality, products including toys, video games and food. His main channel has over 1.6 million subscribers. Stuart Clive Ashen grew up on
88-552: A contestant in a remake of the 1980s TV show Knightmare during the YouTube Geek Week event. Ashen made his first television appearance on a 2008 episode of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe , where he played a cameo role as Mr. Noseybonk, a character from the 80s BBC children's show Jigsaw . Ashen guest starred on The Armstrong & Miller Show for their "The Node" segment in October 2009. In early 2009, Ashen also released
132-399: A forum by an individual named Steven Roach who claimed to have worked on the original. To complete the illusion, Rogue Synapse's owner Dr. Estil Vance founded a Texas-based corporation bearing the name Sinnesloschen (without umlaut) in 2007. He transferred to it the "Rogue Synapse" trademark and a newly registered trademark on "Polybius". Its website says that it is an "attempt to recreate
176-541: A mixture of influences in the 1980s. He notes real news reports that two players fell ill in Portland on the same day in 1981, one collapsing with a migraine headache after playing Tempest , and another suffering from stomach pain after playing Asteroids for 28 hours in a filmed attempt to break a world record at the same arcade. Dunning records that the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided several video arcades in
220-626: A sci-fi webseries produced by ChannelFlip in partnership with Dell Alienware . The series took eight days to film, consists of 10 episodes and won a Marketing Week "Engage Award" in the "Gaming and Entertainment" section. Ashen wrote and starred in Ashens and the Quest for the GameChild , a feature film released in August 2013, for YouTube's "Geek Week". The film also stars Warwick Davis and Robert Llewellyn , and
264-408: A series of Advent calendars throughout December, has over 318,000 subscribers and over 59 million video views. In addition to his own channels he has also produced videos for other YouTube channels, which included "The Multiverse", a geek-themed channel controlled by ChannelFlip . In 2013, Ashen, along with Emma Blackery , Daniel Howell (danisnotonfire) and Phil Lester (AmazingPhil), starred as
308-515: A very limited edition DVD anthology dubbed Ashenthology, containing a selection of his early videos as well as some unseen videos and animations, some of these videos were later released on his second YouTube Account; extraashens. In 2010, Ashen created the series Ashen's Tech Dump for BBC Online Comedy. In 2011, Ashen co-starred alongside Karen Hayley in another BBC Online Comedy series Back Space . The next year, he starred as himself in The Proxy ,
352-461: Is Sinneslöschen . The word is described by writer Brian Dunning as "not-quite-idiomatic German" (a word constructed outside the norms of German-language usage and grammar) meaning "sense delete" or " sensory deprivation ", and in German would be pronounced [ˈzɪnəslœʃn̩] . Its meanings are derived from the German words Sinne ("senses") and löschen ("to extinguish" or "to delete"), though
396-403: Is no evidence that the game ever existed, no less turned its users into babbling lunatics ... Still, Polybius has enjoyed cult-like status as a throwback to a more technologically paranoid era." Ripley's Believe It or Not! called Polybius "the most dangerous video game to never exist". Offbeat Oregon History says "There remains a possibility—a tiny one, really too small to measure — that
440-721: The COVID-19 pandemic . In 2020, Time named Neto and fellow YouTuber JoJo Siwa to its annual list of the world's 100 most influential people. Due to this level of influence, in 2013, University of Michigan associate professor Robert Hovden argued for the creation of a new index similar to the g-index and h-index to evaluate a person's output and impact on YouTube. YouTubers can earn revenue from Google AdSense . Additionally, they can supplement their income through affiliate links , merchandising , and 3rd party memberships using platforms such as Patreon . Popular channels have garnered corporate sponsors, who pay to be included in
484-628: The Heartsease Estate, Norwich and attended Heartsease High School . He previously worked for PC World and Norwich Union . His mother, Pauline, died of cancer when he was eight years old. Ashen has been reviewing food and various products in a distinctive style on YouTube since 2006. The items he reviews are often low quality and procured from various variety stores (notably UK's Poundland ), or are poor knockoffs of well-received or well-known products, which he refers to as " tat ". Featured products are typically personally sourced by Ashen in
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#1733093200334528-632: The Polybius game as it might have existed in 1981". In 2016, Llamasoft announced Polybius for the PlayStation 4 with PlayStation VR support, released on the PlayStation store on Tuesday, May 9, 2017. In early marketing, its co-author Jeff Minter claimed to have been permitted to play the original Polybius arcade machine in a warehouse in Basingstoke , England. He later acknowledged that his game
572-580: The Unbound crowdfunding platform. The book reached its funding target in 12 hours. On 24 February 2017 Ashen announced a sequel to Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of , titled Attack of the Flickering Skeletons: More Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of , again through Unbound, was released on 2 November 2017. Ashen released the book Fifty-Thousand Shades of Grey on 23 September 2012; it parodies
616-416: The 1980s may actually be recalling the video game Cube Quest . It was released in arcades in 1983 as a shooting game played from laserdisc . Kellogg describes its visuals as "revolutionary" and far ahead of typical games of the time. He states that frequent breakdowns are typical of laserdisc games, so this one was often removed from arcades. Ben Silverman of Yahoo! Games remarked, "Unfortunately, there
660-543: The Partner Program, which allows channels that meet certain metrics (currently 1000 subscribers and 4000 public watch hours in the past year) to run ads on their videos and earn money doing so. The Partner Program allowed for the first time YouTube personalities to make a living from the platform. During the 2010s, the ability for YouTubers to achieve wealth and fame due to success on the platform increased dramatically. In December 2010, Business Insider estimated that
704-558: The UK or during holidays abroad or submitted by viewers. He frequently collaborated with his friend and fellow YouTube vlogger Barry Lewis , and in the mid-2010s, had a podcast and YouTube channel with him, both called Barshens. As of 8 August 2023, Ashen has produced 920 videos on his primary YouTube channel, which has 1.6 million subscribers and over 545 million video views. His secondary channel, used mainly for DVD extra -style clips, along with an annual look with Daniel Hardcastle at
748-542: The arcade market. This urban legend has persisted in video game journalism and through continued interest, and it has inspired video games with the same name. The urban legend says that in 1981, when new arcade games were uncommon, an unheard-of new arcade game appeared in several suburbs of Portland, Oregon . The game was popular to the point of addiction , with lines forming around the machines and often resulting in fights over who would play next. The machines were visited by men in black , who collected unknown data from
792-450: The area just ten days later, where the owners were suspected of using the machines for gambling, and the lead-up to the raid involved FBI agents monitoring arcade cabinets for evidence of tampering and recording high scores. Dunning suggests that these two events were combined into an urban legend about government-monitored arcade machines making players ill. He believes that such a myth must have been established by 1984, and that it influenced
836-557: The entire platform at once. When the ads were introduced in August 2006, YouTube CEO Chad Hurley rejected the idea of expanding into areas of advertising seen as less user-friendly at the time, saying, "We think there are better ways for people to engage with brands than forcing them to watch a commercial before seeing content. You could ask anyone on the net if they enjoy that experience and they'd probably say no." However, YouTube began running in-video ads in August 2007, with preroll ads introduced in 2008. In December 2007, YouTube launched
880-621: The established and commercial system of celebrity culture; rather, they appear self-governed and independent. This appearance, in turn, leads to YouTubers being seen as more relatable and authentic, also fostered by the direct connection between artist and viewer using the medium of YouTube. In 2014, the University of Southern California surveyed 13–18-year-olds in the United States on whether ten YouTube celebrities or ten traditional celebrities were more influential; YouTube personalities took
924-524: The first five spots of the ranking, with the YouTube duo Smosh ranking as most influential. The survey was repeated in 2015, and found six YouTubers on the first ranks, with KSI ranked as most influential. Several YouTubers and their influence were subjects for scientific studies, such as Zoella , and PewDiePie . Numerous studies in the late 2010s found that YouTuber was the most desired career by children. YouTubers' influence has also extended beyond
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#1733093200334968-492: The game as part of a government-run crowdsourced psychology experiment based in Portland, Oregon . Gameplay supposedly produced intense psychoactive and addictive effects in the player. These few publicly staged arcade machines were said to have been visited periodically by men in black for the purpose of data-mining the machines and analyzing these effects. Supposedly, all of these Polybius arcade machines then disappeared from
1012-530: The game seems catastrophically integral to the multiverse, and is a key example of Loki interplaying conspiracy with reality. For Paper Girls (2022), CBR reported that the Polybius cameo conferred the series with 1980s science fiction credentials, and differentiated it from Stranger Things (2016). The Polybius Conspiracy is a 7-part podcast published in 2017, adapted from a canceled feature film project. The novel Polybius , which combines tropes from horror, conspiracy, and coming of age fiction,
1056-453: The game's existence to be "inconclusive", helping to both spark curiosity and spread the story. The alleged original Polybius arcade game is generally believed to have never existed, and the legend a hoax . Snopes.com , a fact-checking website, concludes the game is a modern-day version of 1980s rumors of " men in black ". This led to the hypothesis that the government was hosting some sort of experiment and sending subliminal messages to
1100-452: The highest earner on YouTube during the previous year was Dane Boedigheimer , creator of the web series Annoying Orange , with an income of around $ 257,000. Five years later, Forbes released its first list of the highest-earning YouTube personalities, estimating top earner PewDiePie 's income during the previous fiscal year at $ 12 million, more than some popular actors such as Cameron Diaz or Gwyneth Paltrow . Forbes estimated that
1144-462: The legend by claiming possession of a ROM image file from the 1981 arcade machine, claiming to have played it, and on May 16, 2009, promising to bring future updates pending an investigatory flight to Kyiv, Ukraine . The first known printed mention of Polybius , exposing the legend to a mass-market audience, is in the September 2003 issue of GamePro . The feature story "Secrets and Lies" declared
1188-477: The legend is true." Portland Monthly calls it "one of Portland's craziest urban legends", comparing it to the CIA 's MKUltra mind control program of the 1950s-1970s. In 2007, freeware developers and arcade constructors Rogue Synapse published a free downloadable game titled Polybius for Windows at sinnesloschen.com. Its design is partly based on a contested description of the Polybius arcade machine posted on
1232-401: The machines, allegedly testing responses to the game's psychoactive effects. Players supposedly suffered from a series of unpleasant side effects, including seizures , amnesia , insomnia , night terrors , and hallucinations . Approximately one month after its supposed release in 1981, Polybius is said to have disappeared without a trace. The company named in most accounts of the game
1276-533: The online video-sharing website YouTube , typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006, and subsequently appeared in the 2006 Time Person of the Year issue. Influential YouTubers are frequently described as microcelebrities . Since YouTube is widely conceived as a bottom-up social media video platform, microcelebrities do not appear to be involved with
1320-469: The opportunity to view exclusive content by clicking on the ad. The first such ad was for the Fox show Prison Break and solely appeared above videos on Paris Hilton's channel. At the time, the channel was operated by Warner Bros. Records and was cited as the first brand channel on the platform. Participatory video ads were designed to link specific promotions to specific channels rather than advertising on
1364-699: The platform. Some have ventured into mainstream forms of media, such as Liza Koshy , who, among other pursuits, hosted the revival of the Nickelodeon show Double Dare and starred in the Netflix dance-comedy film Work It . In 2019, Ryan's Mystery Playdate , a show starring Ryan Kaji, the then-seven-year-old host of the toy review and vlog channel Ryan's World , began airing on the Nick Jr. Channel ; later that year, NBC debuted A Little Late with Lilly Singh in its 1:35 am ET time slot. Singh's digital prominence
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1408-399: The players. Magazines and mainstream news of the early 1980s do not mention Polybius . Aside from the mockup cabinets and games inspired by the myth, no authentic cabinets or ROM dumps have ever been documented. Skeptics and researchers differ on when, how, and why the story of Polybius began. American producer and author Brian Dunning believes it is an urban legend that grew out of
1452-441: The plot of the film The Last Starfighter , in which a teenager is recruited by aliens who monitor him playing a covertly-developed arcade game. Dunning considers "Sinneslöschen" to be the kind of name that a non-German speaker would generate if they tried to create a compound word using an English-to-German dictionary. Internet writer Patrick Kellogg believes that players claiming to remember having played or seen Polybius since
1496-438: The popular erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey . The title is literal, as the book simply consists of the phrase "Shades of Grey" repeated 50,000 times. As of 2013, Ashen lives in his hometown of Norwich . He has a doctorate in psychology , but claims to have never professionally worked in the field. YouTuber A YouTuber is a type of content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on
1540-420: The principal photography was wrapped. On 5 May 2020 it was announced on the official Twitter account for the film, that The Gaming Muso; a fellow YouTuber, and musician would be performing the opening theme tune for the film. On 9 October 2020 Ashen announced on Twitter that the film is available for preorder, and was released on 19 November 2020 on iTunes, YouTube Movies, Amazon and Vimeo. The reveal trailer/teaser
1584-424: The tenth-highest earner that year was Rosanna Pansino at $ 2.5 million. That year, NME stated that " vlogging has become big business." The rapid influx of wealth within the YouTube community has led some to criticize YouTubers for focusing on earnings more than the creativity and connection with their fanbase that some claim was at the heart of the platform before expanded monetization. In August 2021, it
1628-437: The videos. In 2018, Walmart , Nordstrom , and others sought YouTube stars as influencers . In the early days of YouTube, there was no way to monetize videos on the platform. Much of the site's content was homemade and produced by hobbyists with no plans for making money on the site. The first targeted advertising on the site came in the form of participatory video ads, which were videos in their own right that offered users
1672-473: The way they are combined is not standard German; Sinnlöschen would be more correct. The game has the same name as the classical Greek historian Polybius , born in Arcadia and known for his assertion that historians should never report what they cannot verify through interviews with eyewitnesses. The first online mention of Polybius is a coinop.org article alleged to have been created in 1998, which extends
1716-647: Was cited as a reason for her selection as host by then-NBC Entertainment co-chairman George Cheeks. In 2024, Canadian YouTuber Jasmeet Singh Raina , otherwise known as JusReign, released his half-hour comedy series titled Late Bloomer . In addition to expanding into other forms of media, several YouTubers have used their influence to raise money for charity or speak out on social issues . Notable examples include James Stephen "MrBeast" Donaldson and Mark Rober , who helped raise over $ 20 million with their Team Trees campaign, and Felipe Neto , who publicly criticized Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro for his response to
1760-461: Was inspired by the urban legend but does not attempt to reproduce its alleged gameplay. It has a central cameo as the "main attraction" in the Nine Inch Nails music video " Less Than ". Polybius has cameos in many TV series, such as The Goldbergs (2013), The Simpsons (2006) and Dimension 404 (2017). The Loki (2021) cameo gained its own acclaim on social media, including that
1804-455: Was produced by the multi-channel network ChannelFlip , in association with The Multiverse. The film was partially paid for through crowdfunding website Indiegogo with contributions totalling US$ 73,690 at the end of the month, which comprised 41% of the US$ 180,000 budget. As of June 2016 it has been viewed over a million times on YouTube. A remastered and slightly extended edition of the movie
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1848-508: Was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 14 July 2014. On 2 July 2018, the full film was released on his YouTube channel. In 2016, Ashen confirmed a sequel to Ashens and the Quest for the GameChild at a fan screening. In July 2018 Ashen created another Indiegogo campaign for the sequel titled, Ashens and the Polybius Heist . By the time funding was closed, the project earned over US$ 195,000 from over 4,000 backers. On 9 May 2019, Ashen announced
1892-521: Was reported Kevin Paffrath made $ 5 million in just the first 3 months of 2021 and his YouTube analytics showed he made "several million" in ad revenue within the prior 12 months. By 2021, YouTuber earnings had expanded even more, with Forbes estimating that the highest earner that year was MrBeast at $ 51 million. Polybius (urban legend) Polybius is a fictitious 1981 arcade game that features in an urban legend . The legend describes
1936-468: Was uploaded on his YouTube channel on 14 October 2020. In October 2023, Ashen announced that a currently ongoing Kickstarter campaign had been launched for a new Horror film about the demonic hound, Black Shuck , who features in English folklore . In November 2015, Ashen released the book Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of , a collection of textual reviews of poor retro games, released through
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