#oneaday Day 59: Popularity produces pricks

And not in the way you might be thinking. Okay, there are times when someone getting popular or enjoying some success with something leads to them becoming a prick, but that is not what I’d like to talk about today. I’d like to talk about life as a small-scale creative person on the Internet, and what happens when something you produce manages to extend far outside of its usual audience.

I’m prompted to talk about this as a result of the thoroughly lovely RoseTintedSpectrum’s recent video on the first series of beloved video game TV show GamesMaster, which, to put it mildly, has been doing numbers since he released it. If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend giving it a look:

What we’ve all been noticing since the video started blowing up, however, is how much more frequent comments from complete arseholes become once you cross a particular popularity threshold. Not necessarily comments that are being directly insulting to the video maker, but comments from people who are just being dickish. People who use terms like “woketard”. People who think the ’90s was a utopia where white people flourished and you never, ever had to look at those filthy Muslims. You know the sort of people. The same sort of people who cry “DEI” anyone someone with a slight tan appears on screen.

When this first started happening, we were discussing the phenomenon in a Discord server that hosts a number of UK-based retro gaming and retro tech YouTubers, and we all had similar stories to share. There comes a point, it seems, usually after you cross the 1,000 views mark, where there’s a marked uptick in comments from twats.

It makes sense when you think about it. A video blowing up and getting a lot of views means that it’s being pushed by the ever-mysterious YouTube Algorithm to people beyond your usual audience and subscriber base, which means people from circles you might not normally mix (or want to associate) with may start stopping by. And boy, do they love to hear themselves talk.

I had something similar a while back when I had my own video “blow up”. It was this one, a video I’m still pretty pleased with, but which left me feeling well and truly vindicated in just making videos about what pleases me, rather than what is guaranteed to be “popular”.

Because what no-one tells you about getting popular and suddenly attracting all these complete penii is that it’s genuinely stressful and often quite upsetting. I got to a point where I had to “pause” comments on the video above because the influx of them was stressing me out so much. And I wasn’t even getting nearly as many dickheads as Rosie is getting on his video. It was just overwhelming, and not in a good way; I did not like it at all.

The same is true for anything tangentially related to social media or online presence. Post something — be it picture, video, blog post, article, whatever — that manages to get a significant reach, and it’s seemingly inevitable that you’ll have to deal with dickheads. This is, of course, frustrating, because one would hope that it’s possible to get a significant reach on something without attracting the very dregs of Internet society, but with every “success story” like the ones I’ve described above, it seems increasingly inevitable that the dickheads? Oh they will come. They will come in droves.

I wonder how many people have been put off from a potential career of making creative things online by this sort of thing. I guess after a certain point you start to get used to it and be able to tune things out — and once you reach a certain size as an online personality, you can start hiring staff to take care of things like the comments section for you, so you can focus exclusively on actually making the videos.

But for everyone who gets to the point where they’re able to hire a staff, I’m sure there are myriad more who gave up the first time they saw mild success, because the dickheads came. And I can’t help thinking that’s a real shame. Online culture shouldn’t have come to this. But it has, and we just have to live with it, it seems, because no-one seems in a particular hurry to do anything about it.

Thank heavens for YouTube’s “Hide user from channel” setting, at least, which means the dickhead of your choice is banished to the abyss; you’ll never see them in your comments section again, and neither will the rest of your audience — but, here’s the fun bit: they’re still able to rage impotently at you, never knowing that you’ve effectively “blocked” them because YouTube doesn’t tell them that.

This is the one bit of YouTube I can honestly say is absolutely masterful. There are few things better than knowing that there are dickheads who think they’re posting amazing putdowns of your latest work, only for their comments to be silently banished to the abyss before they get anywhere near you.

Anyway, the Internet sucks, but go subscribe to Rosie ’cause he makes good vids. Ta-ra.

Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.

2431: I Also Made This

I made another video today in an attempt to further solidify my knowledge of Hitfilm 4 Express, and indeed to refresh my subject knowledge with regard to video editing in general, as it’s one of those skills that can atrophy from non-use, particularly with how non-intuitive professional-grade programs can be.

I’m still in two minds about the advent of video on the Internet and how, for young people in particular, it has taken the place of good old fashioned text Personally speaking, I’d still rather read a good article with nice screenshots than watch a video — particularly if I’m out and about on my phone and am not in a situation where listening to the audio of a video would be practical — but I’m forced to reluctantly admit that for gaming content, video does sort of make sense.

Video games are, for the most part, a dynamic, audio-visual medium in which the way things move around the screen and the noises they make are just as important as what they look like as still images. This is more true for some genres than others — shoot ’em ups such as the two games I’ve covered with my videos over the past couple of days are a good example. But even in more sedate games, there’s value to being able to actually demonstrate what the thing looks like in motion, how its interface works and all manner of other things. And while you could take the TotalBiscuit approach and make hour-long videos about options menus — there is value there for some people — I think the real strength in video coincides with the atrocious attention span most people have these days: short, snappy summaries of what something is all about and why you should pay attention to it.

I don’t yet know if I’ve nailed that format in my videos just yet, but I’m enjoying making them if nothing else. Plus insofar as creative projects go, they could potentially end up forming a “portfolio” of sorts should I find myself in a position where my video-making skills might potentially get me a job of some sort. That would be nice, wouldn’t it? I’m trying not to think about it too much, but as I’m broke it’s kind of constantly on my mind.

Still, I guess this counts as a vaguely productive use of my time, and I did at least apply for two jobs earlier today, so I can say I got something done. Unfortunately none of those somethings quite pay the bills at present, but, well, doing something is better than nothing, non?

2029: Our Video Future

I’ve been playing a bit more with making some videos using the PlayStation 4 and its ShareFactory software. As it turns out, today I actually hit the upper limit of how many clips of commentary it’s possible to add to a single project; apparently I need to record narration all in one go, then split it up later if necessary rather than recording in small chunks!

This was today’s project:

Sword Art Online Re:Hollow Fragment is a really good game that I’m enjoying a whole lot, and making a video about it seemed like a good idea, because a lot of people who haven’t taken a chance on it and just started playing it really don’t know anything about it at all. My good friend Chris Caskie, for example, specifically thanked me for showing all the different parts of the game across the course of my six-minute video, since gameplay footage he’d seen in the past had only ever shown a tiny (and, from the sounds of things, boring) excerpt of what’s actually on offer.

I think I’ve found a format I like working in, too: I never felt quite comfortable doing “Let’s Plays” or recording live reactions as if I was streaming a game. At least part of this, I feel, is due to the fact that, as a viewer, I don’t really have much interest in Let’s Plays and streaming, because I’d much rather play a game than watch someone else play it. What I do appreciate, however, is the opportunity to see a game in action, find out a bit about it and perhaps a touch of personal opinion as to whether or not it’s worth exploring. I am also uninclined to spend 20 minutes watching someone go through options menus and whatnot; short and relatively snappy is the key, summarising everything I might want to know about the game without rambling on and on about it for too long.

So that’s the format I’ve adopted in my last couple of videos. I feel it works well; I’ve been pleased with the result (though not so much with the sound quality; I need to 1) adjust the sound levels between the game footage and my commentary recording and 2) invest in or find a pop filter for my headset microphone, which is otherwise proving to be pretty good for this) and I actually find myself going back and watching the videos I’ve recorded again; considering a few years back (prior to the first time I went on a podcast) I absolutely loathed and detested the sound of my own voice and would rather have stuck my head into a woodchipper than listened to myself, this is Progress of sorts, I guess.

I think the fact I’m enjoying making these videos — and that I can do so quite quickly — is important though. I will always be someone who enjoys writing about games first and foremost, and that’s what the magazine project I’m currently working on is all about. For a basic “review” of sorts, however — which is effectively what I’m doing with these videos, or at the very least providing some first impressions after a few hours of play — video seems to be an eminently suitable medium, perhaps even better than dry written words on a page.

Perhaps I’ll even be able to make some money off this sort of thing eventually, though I’m realistic here; my viewing stats have broken three figures on, I think, just one of my videos posted to date, with the others having anywhere between 10 and 70 views. That’s not at a point where it’s worth putting ads on my videos as yet, though that said I haven’t really made a huge effort to try and promote what I’m doing; I’m just putting it out there to see what people think.

If nothing else, it’s something to do on empty, tedious days, and I’m having a whole lot of those at the moment.

2022: Video Star

Been experimenting a bit more with video today. Specifically, I had a play with the PlayStation 4’s app ShareFactory, which allows you to take video clips and screenshots you’ve saved while playing PS4 games, then edit them together with commentary, music, transitions and effects into something that can then be rendered and uploaded (almost) directly to YouTube, Facebook or DailyMotion.

ShareFactory is a decent bit of software, it turns out, and works quite nicely with the DualShock 4 controller. Its interface is initially a little difficult to parse, since it’s largely icon-based and not immediately apparent what all of said icons are actually for, but once you get your head around it it mostly works well.

ShareFactory is no Final Cut, obviously, but then it doesn’t need to be. To make an effective gameplay video, all you need at most is the game footage along with perhaps some still images, some music and some commentary. There’s no real need for multiple tracks of video or anything like that — though I believe ShareFactory does support picture-in-picture if you have a PlayStation camera — because you’re not making a multi-angle extravaganza of a movie; you’re making a video about a game.

I learned something else while making my ShareFactory project, too; I much prefer making videos that are “pre-scripted” rather than improvised Let’s Play-style videos. This is probably due to the fact that I also prefer watching videos that are pre-scripted rather than improvised Let’s Play-style videos. I grew up on traditional media, remember; I’m not really interested in watching Kids React To Something Pretty Mundane, nor am I interested in listening to someone’s reactions in real time as they play something for the first time. I am, however, interested in seeing video used in the “documentary” style; footage of something relevant, with explanatory commentary over the top. This sort of thing doesn’t have to be dry and boring, either; more importantly, though, it tends to be a lot more concise, with pre-scripted videos more often than not clocking in at considerably lower durations than Let’s Plays.

More to the point, though, it means that I can write something in a “traditional” manner, then just read it out (with feeling!) when it comes to time to record the video. The only real difference is that in the script I found it was a good idea to mark where different video clips/sections should begin. That really helped with editing later, particularly with the way ShareFactory’s workflow goes. I could take a clip at a time, record the commentary, then trim/split the clips down to fit the commentary afterwards. After that it was a simple matter to upload it to YouTube and share it with the world.

What’s that? You want to see it for yourself? Okay then!

1791: Future Press

I was browsing Twitter earlier when I came across the following quote, retweeted by someone I follow.

“If you’re a writer writing about video games, I recommend you get your face in front of a camera to prepare for the future.”

My initial reaction to this was a fairly straightforward “fuck that“, but then I contemplated it a bit further.

I still don’t agree with the premise. The written word is a powerful medium and to unequivocally declare, as some people do, that its days are very much numbered is to show that you’re extremely blinkered. Yes, there is a large audience out there who enjoy video-based content, but they’re just one group who occupy the somewhat younger end of the spectrum. And while this is an important group to court — particularly as they’re one of the key demographics for the video game industry — this doesn’t somehow mean that all the 30-40 year olds who have grown up with computer and video games since their inception are immediately irrelevant. What it should really mean is that content should be provided to cater to these different audiences, who have very different wants, needs and expectations from media relating to their favourite things.

I’m not sure how representative an example of a 33-year old gamer I am, but personally speaking, I’m not a big fan of video-based content for the most part. I can’t stand Let’s Plays, for example — I’d rather play the game myself, and there’s no way I’m going to watch someone play The Binding of Isaac or Minecraft for literally hundreds of episodes — and I’m not a fan of the numerous variations on the “angry dude shouting about something” formula that proves quite popular.

Exceptions for me are things like TotalBiscuit’s “WTF Is…” series, in which he spends 20-30 minutes giving a good overview of a diverse array of PC games, including everything from the options available in the menu to how the game itself actually works; Yahtzee’s “Zero Punctuation” series, which doesn’t rely on game footage at all and is instead actually more of a well-written comedy series that happens to explore specific games as its central premise; and Extra Credits’ (usually) intelligent discussions of all manners of game culture. These are all carried by strong personalities and well-written content, and for me represent the best that video game videos (you heard) have to offer.

Thing is, though, I’m not always in the mood to sit down and watch a video — particularly longer stuff like TotalBiscuit’s 20-30-minute affairs. I’m not always in a particularly ideal situation to watch a video, either; perhaps I’m on my phone in an area of poor signal or in an environment where I can’t put sound on — in both those cases, this makes video almost completely useless as a medium of delivery, whereas text is absolutely fine in both scenarios.

Despite all this, though, I can sort of see why more and more people are turning to these video content producers. The overall quality of video games writing is rapidly going down the pan, to my eyes, and it’s at least partly due to the continuing reliance on the clickbait advertising model. The need for page views has lead to many individual writers (and even publications) jumping aboard the insidious and obnoxious “social justice” train, stirring up pointless Daily Mail-style moral panics and controversies at every turn under the guise of cultural criticism. Long-form pieces such as those that Polygon used to be renowned for clearly don’t draw in readers in the same numbers as a table-thumping opinion piece about how terrible it is that you can kill prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto V — and, by the way, let’s just recall that the games press a few years ago was quick to quite rightly point and laugh at any mainstream publications that pulled this still exceedingly stupid line of criticism — and thus we get more and more of these perpetually outraged pieces driving frustrated readers away from sites and towards personalities who don’t subscribe to these ridiculous, borderline hysterical viewpoints.

But it shouldn’t have to be a case of one or the other. There should be a range of different opinions and writing styles; those of us who enjoy the written word shouldn’t be pushed away from it in the direction of video by the fact that all these issues are only ever explored from one single sociopolitical perspective. That’s what’s happening, though, and unfortunately I don’t see it getting any better any time soon.

I’m glad I got out of the games press when I did. I don’t want to sit in front of a camera — I don’t look good on camera: I’m fat, I have bad hair, I’m perpetually unkempt (even when I try to be… kempt), I have terrible dress sense, I have dry skin on my face that flares up when I’m stressed and, moreover, I find it terribly difficult to act naturally when being stared down by a camera — and, on the writing side, I have absolutely no desire to become a source of further moral panics or fuel the perpetual outrage machine. So there doesn’t really feel like there’s a place for me anyway.

It’s sad, really; there’s a clear gap in the market here for some old-school media — magazines! — of the ilk we had in the ’80s, ’90s and early ’00s, but no-one seems to actually want to fill it. I can’t be the only one hungry for this sort of thing, can I?

1662: Moving Pictures

Call me a traditionalist, out of date, out of touch, whatever you like, but I’m really not a fan of the current obsession with video as the be-all and end-all of publishing things online.

I have numerous feelings about this, not least of which is the fact that as a former member of the gaming press, it smarts to see my particular skillset — writing compelling words about my specialist subjects — being sidelined in favour of video, but as a consumer of online content, it also frustrates me immensely, too.

Put simply, I like to read. I prefer to read. If I see an interesting-sounding link on social media, I’ll read it if it’s text, but if it’s video I will, nine times out of ten, not watch it. And this is true whether I’m sitting at my computer or browsing on phone or tablet — though it’s particularly true when I’m browsing on a mobile device, since due to patchy network reception and exorbitant data charges, watching video on the go is often, to say the least, a somewhat subpar experience. Text is much more desirable in these circumstances. (This is to say nothing of live broadcasts, which are even less desirable than video on demand to me.)

There are types of content where it’s simply easier to refer to text, too. Take game guides or tutorials in general, for example; while video can show you the things the creator is trying to teach you in context, it’s difficult to refer back to specific points or cross-reference things, whereas this is a snap to do with text. Again, if I’m using a mobile device to browse this information, I much prefer having the information open in front of me to keep referring back to, rather than watching a video and having to take as much in as possible, perhaps over the course of several viewings. It just doesn’t seem like a very efficient means of delivering information — particularly when that information is complicated.

This isn’t to say video can’t work, of course. Video is a great means of delivering educational content that you passively absorb rather than actively refer to while working on something. Crash Course on YouTube, which my friends Mark and Lynette introduced me to recently, is a good example of this.

And video is great for comedy, when said comedy has been written to be performed in the form of video. Glove and Boots is my current favourite example of this:

I just get a bit annoyed when people make sweeping declarations about video being “the future” of online content, as if those of us who still like to read words on a page rather than watch and listen are somehow irrelevant. Like so many other things, there are plenty of different tastes out there, and lots of different ways of doing things. Rather than only pursuing one to the exclusion of all others, let’s accept that fact: continue to provide relevant, interesting content to all people and all tastes, not just the fashionable, young market who, at this point, are obsessed with video. My individual opinion may not matter all that much, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person out there who will close a tab without checking out an “awesome” link if the link turns out to be just another video.

1379: Press Pause

The assertion that “video is the future” of online media is probably more hyperbole than anything else — much like the argument that “free-to-play is the future” of gaming — but it still concerns and frustrates me somewhat.

This isn’t to put down any of the hard work that genuinely talented video producers, editors and performers do, of course. It just makes me worried — particularly given my occupation — and also frustrates me as someone who still likes to, you know, read things.

You see, I don’t like video as a generic means of consuming information. It’s intrusive, it’s noisy, it’s disruptive and it demands your full attention for a fixed period of time. This is fine if what you are specifically doing is sitting down to watch a video, but when you want to get a piece of information quickly, video quite simply can’t compare to a simple piece of text and possibly a Find function.

Video is not particularly portable, either. While mobile phone data networks — and the devices with which to access them — have improved considerably over the last few years, there’s still a significant chance that if you’re out and about on the go, you may not be able to watch a video link, and even if you do, there’s the risk of running afoul of your mobile provider’s data limits and/or fair use policies. A simple text link, meanwhile, is something that is quick to download and, perhaps more importantly, easy and discreet to browse in public or while doing other things.

It also makes me a little sad to see people well-known for their entertaining writing skills stepping back from penmanship in favour of video content. Let’s take Jim Sterling, for example. This isn’t specifically to “pick on” Sterling; he’s just a good example of what I’m talking about.

Sterling’s work around the Web has historically been somewhat provocative, but to an entertaining degree rather than any attempt to deliberately cause offence. He’s mellowed somewhat from his quasi-“shock jock” nature of a few years back and become someone who can bellow well-informed vitriol without alienating people — or at least, without alienating people who don’t deserve to be alienated. His reviews and opinion pieces over on sites like Destructoid were always a good read — he wrote in a distinctive voice, but from a well-informed perspective, and even if you didn’t agree with his points, he usually made a convincing argument.

Now, Sterling is primarily doing video content, in which he does much the same thing. No bad thing, you might think, and indeed I’ve specifically sat down and watched a good few Jimquisition episodes when I wanted to have a giggle at the game industry’s expense. But I’m significantly less likely to watch a Jimquisition video than I am to read an article simply because of the time involved — and now he’s taken to variations on Let’s Play videos I now have even less interest in his content whatsoever. It’s a bit sad, though I also recognise that I am but one person and he is simply doing what there is apparently demand for.

I’ve made my thoughts on Let’s Plays reasonably clear in previous posts, but I’ll reiterate and perhaps reinforce them, since I’ve had a while to think about them as the format has grown in popularity: I’m not a fan. At all. Particularly Let’s Plays of story-based games, which, to me, completely defeat the object of a story-based game. People already get pissy at the slightest hint of a spoiler about games, movies and other media, and yet there are people out there doing nothing but spoiling games… in more ways than one. This is baffling to me; I understand the basic concept of a Let’s Play as an opportunity to see how a game plays and get some commentary about it, but to watch a story-based game with someone babbling over the top of it rather than playing it is just, frankly, the absolute last thing I want to do with my time. Again, though, I recognise that the format has popularity and there’s apparently demand for it.

I guess what I’m getting at is that I don’t want traditional media to go away. I don’t want to see the death of long-form articles about games — or even short, snappy news pieces, though I wouldn’t mind seeing the back of two-sentence placeholder pieces. I want to see talented writers continue to have the opportunity to express themselves in a medium that they’re comfortable with; I don’t want to be forced to watch a video just to find out what a voice I trust thinks about a particular game or issue in the industry, particularly when I’m out and perhaps want to share it with friends.

By all means, then, video content producers and consumers, keep doing what you’re doing; just don’t forget that the way you do things is not the only way to do things.

#oneaday Day 872: Haters Gonna Inspire Worldwide-Trending YouTube Videos

I really love it when someone I know achieves success with something. That’s why it was so utterly delightful to see something that a friend from university worked on gradually spread around the world today.

I am talking, of course, about this video, which if you haven’t watched yet… well, you just should. (Probably NSFW.)

I don’t know Isabel Fay (the lead performer) directly, but I do know one Mr Tom Hopgood, who co-produced the piece and has worked very hard with Isabel and the rest of the team at Clever Pie TV to produce some high-quality comedy skits over the last few years. Today, it seems, all that hard work really paid off.

I watched it happen over the course of the day. Another university friend shared the video. I expected this. But then someone who, to my knowledge, had no direct connection to Tom or Isabel shared the video, which surprised me. Then I shared it after watching it and finding it hilarious.

Then I went and did some work. As the day progressed, I saw the video start appearing in various tweets along with Facebook and Google+ posts.

Then Stephen Fry shared it, which is pretty much a guarantee that you’re going to be a sudden global sensation, at least temporarily. Sure enough, a lot of the YouTube comments indicated that Stephen Fry sent them.

As it gets close to bedtime, I see more and more people still sharing it, including other unrelated Twitter followers. It truly is something which has spread worldwide and has enjoyed universal appeal among everyone I know online. This is delightful to see.

It’s especially delightful to see as it was absolutely perfectly timed. I have a feeling it was just a happy coincidence that it happened to appear on everyone’s radar today, but after reading this depressing post over on Feminist Frequency regarding the harassment, misogyny and silencing tactics the author had endured after promoting her upcoming research and video series, it just seemed perfectly, perfectly apt. Perhaps the fact that hateful comments on the Internet are very much at the forefront of people’s minds right now meant that it resonated more than it might have done otherwise.

Or, you know, perhaps it’s just a great piece with an infuriatingly catchy melody.

Whatever the reasons were for the video enjoying the success it has done so far (and still is — Twitter mentions of it are still flowing in even as I type this) don’t really matter, though. I’m absolutely stoked for Isabel, Tom and the rest of the Clever Pie gang, and though I haven’t seen Tom for a large number of years now I’m very proud to say that I have both known and worked with him. I have photos to prove it and everything.

I hope this is the beginning of something really big for Clever Pie. If they can continue to tap into relevant topics like this, then they’ve got it made. “Thank You Hater!” manages to be both topical and timeless at the same time — Internet trolls are always going to be an issue, but they’re particularly prominent in people’s minds right now for various reasons.

Enough gushing. Time for the weekend. Have a good one, everyone.