Video games have always had bugs. Though developers do all they can to playtest the game and patch out any unintentional mechanics or errors, some inevitably slip through for gamers to find. And as games get bigger and bigger, the chance that one of these bugs will slip through grows, too.
And if anyone is going to find and exploit that mistake, it’s Tom, the creator of The Spiffing Brit.
Armed with little more than the persona of the most stereotypical British chap you could imagine, Tom is every developer’s worst nightmare. Did you know that you can beat Skyrim with nothing more than a fork? Are you aware that every single boss in Elden Ring can die in one hit? Perhaps you might want to know that farming a single potato in Stardew Valley can earn you unlimited money?
Yes, there are many games that have met their match with The Spiffing Brit. But it’s not only games that have failed to be, as Tom slyly puts it, “perfectly balanced games with no exploits.” He’s also found some of these bugs in real life, such as on the popular gaming store Steam or YouTube itself.
Of course, most of these exploits don’t inherently cause harm to anyone. The vast majority of Tom’s videos deal with offline games, wherein the only experience that will be affected is his (or, should you choose to follow suit, your) own. And there’s technically nothing wrong with playing a solo game the way you want to play it.
In fact, for many videos, such as Tom’s own on how to exploit the YouTube algorithm, the point of his post isn’t for exploitation’s sake. Rather, Tom attempts to expose how the problem works so that developers can patch it. To that point, The Spiffing Brit mentioned being intentionally hired by the developers of one game to try to break it so that they could fix those issues ahead of release.
There are a few “bugs” on the channel itself for which viewers will want to watch out. Swearing takes place in some videos, where Tom uses words like “h—,” “d–n” or “d–k.” God’s name is likewise used in vain occasionally.
Every so often, viewers might hear a sexual joke, such as the childishly carnal name of his Elden Ring character. And depending on the game he’s playing, viewers may have to note violence or magical elements in some of those games, too.
Now, some of Tom’s exploits can be done online. However, in those instances, The Spiffing Brit warns that anyone who tries it online will likely get little more than a swift ban from the game by developers (or a quick “unfriend” from any local buddies).
Part of the fun in The Spiffing Brit, I think, is watching him break a game that you enjoy playing. It may indeed be a comfort to some Elden Ring players, for instance, that the boss they’ve been stuck on for the last two weeks could be defeated in one shot if they truly wanted to do so. However, I suspect that most viewers are more like myself: while it’s fun to watch someone show it’s possible to cheat the game, we’ll still play the game how it was intended to be played.
Unfortunately, despite the fun, the light swearing and occasional sexual joke may turn a viewer away from the channel—and there’s no exploit to get around that. With that in mind, it’s up to you to decide if The Spiffing Brit is your cup of Yorkshire tea.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
