Diary of a YouTube Gaming Channel, or Screw All These Call of Duty Videos!

Never did I imagine that I'd learn and take an interest in rudimentary video editing. But this tale recounts my initial stance on YouTube, how I've seen channels like Machinima rise and games like Call of Duty swell, and my amateur breakthrough as a YouTube gaming channel and my growth in video editing.

Perhaps 5 or 10 years ago, I was satisfied with just searching for random videos off of YouTube's search bar. But sooner or later, you register for an account in order to keep track of your favorite channels. And thus was the first step to my strange journey through YouTube: subscribing to xcalizors' channel.

If you don't know xcal, he's most known for being particularly good at Call of Duty and being pretty entertaining while he records his gameplay. If you've ever played a CoD game, you would appreciate his shenanigans as he poked fun at bad spawns, clusterfuck maps, and spouted some catchy one-liners like, "Surprise bitch!" while mowing down noobs and reacting to bullshit moments from players and lag.

If I've piqued your interest on xcal, I recommend the video that got me onto his channel: I Hate My Team 4

My taste in subscriptions grew thanks to the boom of Call of Duty videos and commentary, thanks in no part by Machinima.com. Machinima exposed me to channels and directors like Blametruth, SeaNanners, CaptainSparklez (formerly Pros Don't Talk Shit), Behrudy, TheSandyRavage, and AllShamNoWow. Many of these names have posted Call of Duty videos at some point. Lots of them went on to post a larger variety of things to their channels. Many Minecrafters should probably owe their discovery of 2010's indie darling to SeaNanners while Behrudy regularly stays on top of fighting games on his channel.

Sometime late in 2009, I wanted to get into the racket of posting videos of gameplay online and earning some internet fame. But alas, I lacked the equipment to do so. But I still started a channel thanks to many fighting games that year showing off the ability to save replays of your matches. My earliest uploads were off-screen recordings of replays from Super Street Fighter IV and Blazblue: Calamity Trigger with my MinoHD Flip camera, which was something I was inspired to buy after going through a day of video editing in my online media class in college. I also ocassionally uploaded junk food reviews to break the monotony of off-screen fighting games. But eventually I stopped feeling that the quality I was putting out was not worth the time it took to upload on a traditional home DSL connection.
 
During 2010, much of the regular videos I saw uploaded onto my subscriptions slowly veered away CoD and into more diverse titles. SeaNanners turned me onto Minecraft around this time while I also discovered a plentiful number of channels devoted to competitive fighting games like Frame Advantage Dot Com (cleverly shortened to FADC, which was focus attack dash cancel for Street Fighter IV) Option-Select, Level Up, and iPlaywinner. I also discovered many video game media sites like RoosterTeeth, InecomCompany, and IGNentertainment. I should probably also mentioned DTOID and I'd never forget EpicMealTime.

But with all this great content I'm consuming, I was getting antsy. Writing is my passion but I need another outlet besides words. Words can only get you so far when you want to be creative with your favorite medium in the world. Fortunately, Christmas was closing in and my family always honors Christmas wishes. So in December of 2010, I set my sights on what is probably game recording easy mode: a PVR, or a personal video recorder. And Hauppauge was pretty much the only way to go; a $150 piece of technology meant to make recording off a TV easy.

So near the end of December, I took the plunge and decided to celebrate my re-entrance to YouTube with a fun little indie game, Tempura of the Dead.

And thus my journey into YouTube begins proper.



By January and February, my videos are amateur works of just my voice layered over gameplay.

By the beginning of April, I've made uploads a regular part of my schedule and have at least one Let's Play and commentaries going up every week. I also developed relationships with fellow YouTubers from the Monday Night Combat community.

And by May, I stepped up to actually edit my videos for a bit of flair. Post-video select screens for YouTube annotations, sound effects, watermarks, background music, montages, and vlogs along with the occasional one off special called A Day With.

So far, I have 130 subscribers. Definitely more then my original 22 back in the day but a drop in the bucket compared to channels that have a partnership. In their first week, I'd be lucky to get 50 hits, but is it all worth it? I feel that everything I've taught myself isn't just for a comparatively small channel. All these videos are definitely worth something on a resume on top of all the writing and experience I've gathered.

If I can get a partnership, it'd be the coolest thing in the world. But that's not a sure thing. What is a sure thing is that the videos I've uploaded definitely show that I have a love of gaming and that I'm willing to work in order to create a quality piece of creative expression.

If there's one thing I've always described about my relationship towards my channel, it's that it is a 100% labor of love. And I hope to play and record and share more in the future much in the same way I do with my writing.

Monday Night Combat's Anniversary is Coming Up!

In about a month, I'll reach my one year anniversary with one of the most satisfying purchases I've ever made from the Xbox Live Arcade: Monday Night Combat.

When Monday Night Combat first piqued my interest, it was probably 4 years ago, 3 years before the game even released. I remember seeing a colorful trailer with 6 different, colorful characters of varying designs, fighting against robots, turrets, and other characters like themselves. The setting was some sort of futuristic, sponsored death sport with colorful characters and maps.

The depression and hype of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3

When it comes to fighting games, I have put up with a lot from Capcom. Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter 3. When games like Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition and Blazblue: Continuum Shift II came out, I held out hope that any updates to Marvel vs Capcom 3 would be via DLC.

Then Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 was announced.

On Terraria and Minecraft

 

A few months ago, if you saw Terraria you might've thought it was a cash-in copy of Minecraft. But that's not really fair, nor is it accurate.

My friend also blogged about it on Tumblr and someone reblogged his post with a very adequate analogy. Minecraft is a mining game with RPG elements. Meanwhile, Terraria is an RPG with mining elements. Sheer. Brilliance. That is exactly how I feel about Terraria and it explains why it's so addictive. The RPG elements are much more pronounced in Terraria while mining is a secondary function that serves to enhance it.

A simplified history of Pokémon's metagame part 4: Diamond and Pearl

Since part 1, 2 and 3 of the history of Pokémon's metagame, there have been a lot of recurring themes and ideas. Every generation had at least one powerful and memorable change that easily makes it the reason why everyone remembers that generation. Also, the metagame at this point has been ancient history to many trainers.

But now we're in our 4th generation with the Diamond/Pearl generation, or DP generation. DP was the first Pokémon game on the DS and it’s still fresh in many trainers' minds. But in my opinion, the changes brought forth in DP were some of the biggest changes ever. Old contenders flailed about in the wake of these changes. Old ideas had to be reworked as long held mechanics were turned on their head. And much like SkarmBliss and Curselax before it, one thing so defined the generation that it would be forever remembered no matter how much the metagame may change in the future. Many readers are probably familiar enough with the DP generation to know many of the things I'll be talking about.

A simplified history of Pokemon's metagame part 3: Ruby and Sapphire

Ah, the RSE generation. Personally my favorite generation even though the game itself is probably the guiltiest in terms of padding game design as over half the routes were waterways meant to be traversed via Surf or Dive. This of course meant endless random encounters and trainer battles. While the game touted new additions such as abilities and double battles, my favorite thing about the RSE generation was the addition of weather changing moves that changed the battlefield.

I hope you like Surf, because you're going to do a lot of it!

The Pokemon League: A simplified history of Pokemon's metagame part 1: RBY

At its most basic, Pokemon hasn't changed a whole lot. You and your opponent send out little monsters, you tell them how to fight and the last one standing is the winner.

But how they battle and who was most powerful has changed a great deal since the days of Red, Blue, and Yellow. Fighting types are all the rage now but remember a time when they were a joke? Remember a time when Quick Attack was the only guaranteed, priority move-first attack in the game? Remember when the Gengar family was the only ghost types in existence?

Let's take a quick stroll down memory and reminisce about where we've really come in terms of progression of such a long lasting franchise that has changed subtly over the years so much.

The Pokemon League: A brief analysis of the Eeveelutions from the Dream World

So you think you have a team ready to battle your friends and they're Pokemon? If you think you've got all your options figured out it's time to clear the wax out of your ears! The Dream World is coming and the official Pokemon website has started the launch process for Dream World.

While Dream World's official launch is still on hiatus due to Japan's earthquake, the official website has launched a flash game called “Befriend a Pokemon” which is basically Breakout. Collect color coded spheres during the game and beat all 5 levels and you'll be rewarded with a specific evolved formed of Eevee based on the items you've collected. Catch lots of red orbs and you get fire-typed Flareon. Catch lots of yellow orbs and get Jolteon.

But you can only pick one and there's no going back once you decide to take what you earn. So which forms should you consider and which are forms you're better off getting in the standard game?

Build-A-Team For Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Team Mix Ups!

Wesker/Zero/Amaterasu

Building a team in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is extremely important. Two wrong ways to build a team if you want to seriously win is to pick characters you like based on their series and to pick characters you're good with on point or as an active character.

While being good with your point character is certainly important, the characters you choose must be able to compliment each other in terms of move sets, playstyle, and of course assist selection. Many good teams have a central idea or playstyle the team as a whole emphasizes to bring themselves victory. The following is the first team I constructed: Team Mix Ups.

Diary of a Video Noob Part Two: Recording, Editing, and Doing it Live

After about two days I was feeling pretty good about myself. I was one of those new-fangled HD channels uploading some quality content. I had all sorts of ideas I wanted to try so I could get noticed but of course it would not happen all at once.

Diary of a Video Noob Part One: Opening the Box and Settling In

After months of watching some great YouTube directors upload great video game plays and commentaries, I finally have my chance to try my hand at breaking into the video game play commentary racket thanks to the miracle of Christmas.

 Terrific. Terrific.

Arcade Infinity Closing Its Doors: The End of an Era

I've probably been to Arcade Infinity five times in my entire life. Once was with my girlfriend, the next was with a close friend of mine and her friend, then I went there with an idea for a feature story, then I was with a group of friends who were all into the culture of the fighting game scene, and lastly I went by myself just to take in the sights and sounds.

AI is a good 45 minute drive away from my home. This is the main reason I don't go too often. But come this January 15, I will go for my sixth and final time. AI has had it's fair share of skilled players, celebrities, and crowds walk through its doors, but after the 15th those doors will close forever. A long history of rent hikes and waning business has finally driven AI's health bar down to zero and it was down to its last round.

Minecraft's Boo! Update Explored: The First 5 Minutes

My first clue that Minecraft's Boo! update had dropped is when I decided to hop on to harvest more obsidian only to find my .exe launcher failing to connect. Chances are, when new stuff is happening, people are flooding the servers.

So when I finally got Minecraft loaded up and found my launcher downloading updates, I got excited.

Yup. I built this before the update was even out in preparation.

7 Awesome Things You Can Build in Minecraft

There is nothing quite like the satisfaction of building something. This object, which you have constructed, stands for all the effort, planning, and careful dexterity you mustered. There's nothing the wild creatures of Minecraft can do to destroy your precious architecture (except for maybe those goddamn exploding creepers).

Welcome to Minecraft: 6 Great Things About Getting Started

So you've seen people rave about this mysterious indie game and decided to take the $12 plunge. What is there to do and enjoy? Here are six things you'll eventually encounter that'll really get you to stick with the Minecraft experience.

Know Your Role: Wrex, Battlemaster and Ambassador

Urdnot Wrex of Mass Effect is a fan favorite squadmate Sheperd can recruit for his team. He fills the archetype of Bioware's typical battle hungry warrior. When not on the front lines absorbing punishment with his heavy armor, redundant organs, and blasting enemies with his shotgun, he keeps to himself in the hold of the Normandy while usually answering with dry wit and blunt manners. Only after getting to know the krogan behind the gun do you realize that Wrex is not just a mercenary but a cultural savior of his dying species.

Red Dead Has Set Me Down a Dark Path

Red Dead Redemption lets me hunt. I can tie up women and put them in the path of speeding locomotives. I can rob innocents and gun down people at random. Out of all the darker themes I could emulate, gambling has taken a hold of me.

Official game of outlaws and marauders the world over!

John Marston: the New Silent Hero?

Wild west, open world fantasy? Check. Interesting period firearms? Check. Interesting character and story? Uhhhhh.

"My tale begins in the 19th century."

Two men, one tournament, and a pile driver

The light of fifty arcade screens brings a dim low light setting as the sound of a heavy metal causes my head to pulsate in pain. The noise of one hundred different sounds from gun shots to techno beats to grunting and death throes permeates the stagnant air. Time has no place in this reality as the lights and sounds remain constant even as the sun rises to high noon and sets to dawn.

 Spend an hour or two here and you lose track of what the outside world looks like.

A comparison between Jack and Subject Delta [Bioshock]

Anybody who plays Bioshock does so for the narrative. Yes, Bioshock 2 made the combat and controls much better in comparison to the first one. But when they first announced it, the gut reaction was pretty much, "What do you mean? The story ended so well in Bioshock 1." Everyone cared about the story and combat was at least secondary to this.

Compare the protagonists Jack from Bioshock 1 and Subject Delta from Bioshock 2. Both are completely different but their role in the story is integral. People thought Bioshock 2 would be lacking a good story at first and people even contend that there are gaping flaws in it, but I don't think so. Actually, I like Delta much more then Jack, and this can be crucial since we're playing a first-person shooter game. Since you essentially play from their view and can see their hands and legs, how you relate to your medium in the story is just as important as how good the actual story is. So consider why Bioshock 2 is just as good as Bioshock 1, if not better, because of Subject Delta.

Warning: In order to go in depth with this analysis, some amount of spoilers is necessary. Stop reading now if you don't want to spoil the story of either game. Especially considering that I've already established that Bioshock hinges on the story.