Thoughts: Binwin's Minions

Where is Binwin Bronzebottom?
During the last couple of weeks I have been on a mission to get caught up on my D&D liveplay podcasts and videos. I made some blogs about Acquisitions, Inc. (AI) and Force Gray; in the AI blog I pointed out that Scott Kurtz had resigned from the group (off camera) after the "Holiday Special" that was released January 2017 (which I watched via my Amazon Prime membership, but is probably online somewhere). I expected to find some online drama or evidence of shenanigans, but instead I found a professional response in which he explained that after a decade of playing the character with the group, he was ready to move on. The AI page lists the following info:

Kurtz explained that, essentially, even though he was being compensated well for his public appearances that Acquisitions, Inc. was property of the Penny Arcade group (the guys who play Omin and Jim) and thus they were the ones mostly making a profit from the experience. They also dictated, with Wizards of the Coast, when and how often the gaming sessions took place. The original commitment was small, but after 10 years Penny Arcade had decided they wanted more AI and Kurtz didn't want a heavier workload so he professionally resigned and kept the rights to his character Binwin. Kurtz has thus written a Binwin's Minions spinoff series comic with some liveplay and a digital app/game in the works.

You can read the comic at Table Titans (it's pretty funny and has characters on a campaign to pay their debt to Binwin after he has to pay to resurrect them):

https://tabletitans.com/binwins-minions/binwins-minions-page-1

Chris Perkins actually DM'd a Binwin's Minions sessions at PAX South (where he did the AI liveplay without Kurtz). They captured audio, but not video, of the experience and it's available online:
https://soundcloud.com/tabletitans/binwins-minions-pax-south-2017

From listening to it I think that, as with any new project, the session felt a little awkward at first. I thought it was funny, but also strange, to have a D&D session in which the players viewed themselves as expendable "meat-shield" minions to be killed off by traps and such while one player character was the focus of surviving. I suppose it could work for a one-shot or as a marketing gimmick (which it seems to be here), but it certainly sounds like it wouldn't work for a long-term campaign.

Somehow I doubt we will see much liveplay Binwin in the future (but I could be wrong). I can't help but think that everyone is trying to publicly present a professional image and not burn bridges, but there's some sort of hidden drama going on. And that's ok because, as we all know, RPG groups have drama and that's a part of life. People come and go from groups; characters come and go from adventuring parties. We got an amazing decade of Omin, Jim, and Binwin together. It only makes sense that eventually they parted ways.

Reflections
I have to say that as entertaining as AI is (and I will happily watch every new session/episode they come out with) that if I was a player in a group with a character who behaved the way Omin Dran does then it would get old to me. A PC who is the "boss" of the other PCs and constantly tells them what to do or not do in both combat and social interactions would be really annoying to the rest of the players. I assume it works because AI is a special theatrical way of playing D&D, but it wouldn't work well in most campaigns.