Youtubing

Since the early 2000's (no, it's not that I am exaggerating time-related aspects because I've just turned 18...)

Again.

Since the early 2000's, many companies like Google, Facebook and... Well, basically these two gained a lot of... money and power. And presence! Yes, they're "more" omnipresent than any God of any culture, which is, in fact, a paradox in itself. Think about it. But not too much, time is money.

Youtube is one of these platforms. Now, in fact, Youtube is a part of Google. Notice how almost everything lately is part of: a) Google b) Facebook or c) Disney? Yes, I'm looking at you WhatsApp. Yes, I'm looking at you LucasArts. And Marvel... EVEN OCULUS RIFT! You don't know what Oculus Rift is? Look it up. And be not surprised.

But Youtube isn't only a part of Google now... It's a part of our life! It's there the whole time. Many of us spend a huge amount of our free time watching videos on Youtube. We love to share funny videos, it's a good way to watch and listen to the videoclips of our favourite songs (and for discovering now ones!), yes, we even watch Youtube videos in school classes! And I'm not only talking about English class (English teachers: always eager to implement new technologies in class), but also History, Physics, Philosophy...

Youtube grants us easy access to an unimaginable amount of audiovisual material of all kinds. And let's be honest: Watching a Youtube video is much funnier and less tiring than reading boring blog posts, isn't it?

And you know what kind of videos are the most popular and successful on Youtube? Music? Check. Comedy? Check. Stupid people running against walls and hitting others with footballs on their weak spots? Well, check, but that was rather a big thing years ago...

There's one more thing and it's conquering Youtube more and more everyday. A little hint: what am I always talking about in the end because I'm a damn nerd?

GAMES.

Let's Play videos are one of the biggest and weirdest Internet phenomena in my opinion (and there are looooooooots of Internet phenomena... I might do a post on that later).

What are Let's Play videos you may ask (if you do, first of all: welcome to 2014, just kidding).

In a nutshell: A guy (or a girl, but mainly a guy... in fact, I believe I haven't seen any girl doing this... anyway) plays a video game and records it while he is commenting. That's it. Sounds kind of dumb, doesn't it?

It did sound dumb to me as well when the first Let's Play videos became popular. And consider that I've always been a gamer. So it's not something that I had to support for obvious reasons. As I've always been, I was rather critical regarding that new trend.

Today I think it's amazing that there are people out there who actually make a living thanks to these videos!

What's so good about Let's Play videos? Here is what I believe:

1. It's funny if the person who's commenting says funny things, has crazy reactions to the in-game events, etc.

2. Gamers have a special need of community feeling. Gamers are, although right now much less than before, a marginal group of society. There are still those stamps on gaming like "stupid", "unnecessary", "mind-dulling", etc. People who don't play games on a regular basis themselves don't usually appreciate games as a "new" (since the 70's, guys) kind of art. So gamers need to relate with other gamers so they won't feel isolated. And Youtube is a great place to do this.

3. It's a great alternative to experience a game if you're not sure about buying it or if you can't afford it (because of money, because it's not available in your region/on your platform/whatever).

And I am even considering starting my own Youtube channel one day... With Let's Plays and comedy videos and countdowns (Top 10 "X") and some intellectual stuff.

That is the great thing about Youtube. It enables you to entertain people with... pretty much whatever you want.

One of my favourite channels on Youtube is The Game Theorists. The main "show" of that channel is called "Game Theory" and its initial idea was that each episode features an analysis of a specific game aspect applying real life science. Gaming+Science? I had to love it. 

You can find episodes like:

- The paradoxes of time travelling in the game "Chrono Trigger"

- The physics behind the "Fart Rocket" attack of Wario in the Smash Bros. series

- Best boobs in gaming

Wait... I'm not contributing to improve the overall image of gamers at all...

Later, the show had more episodes that reflected about gaming in general. In one video for example, the hoster tries to find out why we play video games, the psychological reason behind.

So I wanted to show you a video from that channel. Its title is "Game Theory: How PewDiePie Conquered YouTube". 

PewDiePie is currently the youtuber with most suscribers (the video I'm about to show you is almost one year old). He does different kinds of videos but he is also specialised in Let's Plays. And he had an incredible success doing that. MatPat, the guy talking in this video, will explain how PewDiePie became so popular. In order to do that, he exposes the mechanics of the Youtube machine. I thought it could be interesting for anyone to see how the Youtube ranking system works. Don't worry, there are only SOME game-related inside jokes in the video.

Now the only question is... When I start my own channel... Should I speak in English? Or in Spanish? Or in German? Or... Catalan?

I have a weird accent when I talk in Spanish, I don't like the German Youtube community and Catalan.. Well.. I would, but I'd like to become popular all over the world... It has to be English then I guess. I better improve my oral skills then!

tehehehe...