This was honestly one of the hardest videos I've ever made - diving into financial exploitation, algorithmic manipulation, and the death of authentic criticism wasn't easy. But these stories need to be told. Notes: - You can retweet this here x.com/MRIXRT/status/1874139046488007012 - You can rebsky this here bsky.app/profile/reallycool.bsky.social/post/3lemjrwjfo224 - I legitimately expect this video to do very badly, it's dense and nuanced and not really very algorithm friendly. So, anything you're able to do to help out (sharing it, liking it, watching it) is really helpful. Especially if you get one of those surveys I mentioned. But, I also know that it's MY JOB to make you want to do that, so I hope I did it well enough
Im not done yet, but wow this is very informative, i didn’t realize things were quite this… ugly. And the video itself is very well made, I can tell this took a lot of research (or maybe just your prior experience, that caught me by surprise).
Two hour video to explain what has been happening since game reviews started. I stopped watching once you started to praise old media as if it was good. Nintendo Power regularly praised some horrible games.
@@aminorityofone You did not understand the video, and that's fine. It was not praise, it was a statement that this was the perception. Thanks for the comment though.
Hey! So I've been doing gaming UA-cam for 14 years full time now, I've gotten to see a lot of these changes and talked to well over a hundred gaming UA-camrs first hand over the years. Mrixrt hit the nail on the head on literally everything. For a dude who's been doing this for only 8 years, he obviously knows this stuff inside and out and is able to articulate a lot of the problems much better than I ever could.
@@MahDryBread YOOOOOO BREAD?!?! how's it going dude?! just wanna say thank you for streaming man. I saw your Crusader Kings 2 playthrough where you almost play as "stomp that baby" long ago. it was a vibe having that in the background while i was busy with my hopelessly addicting hoi4 era lol. i hope you'll keep on rocking on :-P
@@cool-soap Thank you! Was that the Bohemia playthrough? Probably either that or the Spain one Don't worry, always rocking! Come drop by the channel sometime, I'll be doing a new CK3 playthrough sometime in the next month or so
totalbiscuit called out Bethesda many years ago for having a scummy clause in their contracts for content creators, and nothing has changed (in fact, many other companies have taken it and ran with it, like recently when they said you can't even talk about trans topics when playing Black Myth: Wukong). fortunately, it's easy to see when content creators aren't telling the truth, and i suggest that people avoid those creators.
But the trans things makes sense? I do think it’s bad precedent, they should’ve just asked politely not to talk about irrelevant topics (which for an action game based on Chinese Mythology, the T topic *is* irrelevant) Right motivation, keep the review on topic, wrong execution.
@@sulimanthemagnificent4893 you are inferring that the intent behind the rule was to keep the conversation on topic but It seems very clear that the intent was to not have any one talk about topics the CCP does not like to hear considering that was the common thread behind the banned topics
@@sulimanthemagnificent4893 not yelling 'liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times' during a heartstone tournament also makes sense, doesn't mean Blizzard should ban you if you do.
UA-cam as a platform was built by hobbyists making videos for fun and it needs to return to that cuz the more it becomes like traditional media the less unique the creators are
@@TheBlackRam666 I absolutely agree with you man. And that's what I've been doing on my channel is just post videos whenever I want without deadlines or schedules, simply because I don't see myself making money off of this platform, when jobs outside of this place pay me better and do have better benefits than what UA-cam offers.
13:55 Funny that Google supposedly knows so much about me, yet it still never serves me ads I care about and UA-cam's recommendations page leads me to a channel I'm interested enough to sub to maybe one in a hundred times I actually look at it. They undoubtedly have a ton of data on me, yet it still does a terrible job of trying to engage me in what they're hocking.
Where possible, I pay for ad free experiences and use ad blockers every where else, it's a very nice life not having to deal with ads anymore, at least personally (obviously ads still distort the reality of what's said more broadly)
@@nihouma11 I run Privacy Badger, which does block ads that have invasive tracking and I have certainly noticed that's more and more of them these days. I have no issue with that. I don't run a general ad blocker because if we want content to keep getting made, creators and services need to get paid and if people don't want to pay for stuff, this is the way it is. If there was a better way, it would already exist. I don't way my finger at anyone who runs an ad blocker, this is just why I don't. Funny enough, I just consider myself largely immune to advertising these days. I can't begin to remember the last ad I saw (even though it was probably just a few minutes ago) and they just don't register with me anymore. It wasn't always this way, but it has been for me for at least the least 10 years now.
Oh come on, M, you can still surely trust IGN. They would never do immoral or illegal things because those things are illegal. Alanah Pearce told me so.
Holy shit this explains every issue I've ever had being a content creator in the last 7 years, it's scary looking at those financial numbers and realizing that's just the stuff I live off of, it's what I've been doing for so long, and while it's not a good thing that so many of us are in this faustion bargain that is UA-cam... It is comforting knowing that there are others dealing with the same issues
Just now getting to the end of the first segment but already this video has helped me reinforce why I've largely stopped trying to regularly upload content after I stopped being a Let's Player six years ago (which also coincided with me returning to a full-time job; shockingly, working 8-10 hours a day severely cuts into your UA-cam time). Especially everything about the algorithm. The way you have to "play the game" nowadays has just soured me on being a UA-camr; the time and effort investment does not seem worth the (potential) return. If I upload anything now, it's whenever I feel like it and if I actually want to, and I try not to care about viewership or engagement.
Thanks for sharing your experience - it really validates the deep dive coming up about creator burnout and the algorithmic demands. The next section actually breaks down the exact financial math of why so many creators struggle to sustain their channels, even with seemingly "successful" metrics. Your mention of working 8-10 hours fits perfectly with my analysis of how creators working 60-hour weeks often earn below minimum wage. I examine how UA-cam's monetization model forces creators to choose between authentic content and financial stability. If you're interested in UA-cam creator economics, algorithm manipulation, and content monetization challenges, stick around for the detailed breakdown of how a channel with 100k subscribers might only earn $18k annually from ads. The data might help explain a lot of what you experienced.
Work smarter not harder, I could easily keep up my current output of letttuce play videos (2 25 minute videos a day) while working a full time job, just 6.5 hours a day every weekend would give me 2 months worth of videos
Was making vids on here before money existed and it was such a pure but pretty bland experience. The rise of machinima suddenly dishing out 10s of thousands of dollars to creators on their channel monthly suddenly everything changed. When we could start earning on our own personal youtubes which felt really strange that crazy CPM had dried up because SO many people jumped into it hard.
Same as it ever was. Even in the 90’s “professional gaming writers”, had “press events” where they were wined and dined with parties, free shit, and things like real airplane lasertag It’s disgusting, don’t trust ANYONE who has ANY skin in the game You are being taken advantage of and influenced by advertisers
This doesn't just affect gaming UA-cam, it affects the entirety of UA-cam. I've noticed more and more clickbait on UA-cam over the years. How often have you seen "[insert thing here] is the best / worst [ thing ] ever" in a video title? Don't even get me started on tag manipulation and censorship. It's disturbing when you realized this has been happening for years. I personally don't expect anything to change anytime soon regarding this issue. As long as there's money and views on the table, people will always return, especially if it's thier main source of income. Nonetheless, amazing video.
Is keemstar just un-cancelable? Like just a genuine piece of garbage and has been for years and years. Kind of impressive to be such a loathsome waste of humanity in the limelight for such a long time.
You’re not wrong but he makes money, for himself & his partners. That’s all that matters sadly. The moment he stops being profitable, that’ll be the day he gets cancelled.
When it comes a media figured being "canceled" it all comes down to what their own fans think. As this video points out, TheCompletionist fell off because his fans decided that what he did was unacceptable. You can also look at someone like Shane Dawson. His videos used to get 20-30m+ views, but after the story broke his videos now get around 4m views. Which to be clear is more than most UA-camrs could ever dream of, but it's also an absolutely massive drop off from where he once was at. While not a UA-camr, you have someone like Chris Brown who we know beat Rihanna. But he's continued to be successful. His fans just don't care. It all ultimately just tells you a lot of about the fans they've cultivated.
My working theory is that he has surrounded himself with so many scummy people (e.g. Boogie) that nothing really ever sticks directly to him because he can always feed another lolcow to the angry mob. He clings to these people like stink sticks to excrements.
$52,000 is a lot of money. Especially considering how poor the average person in the US is. And thinking people want to pay for memberships with UA-cam already serving a ridiculous amount of ads and wanting $20 for premium?
In somewhere like Kansas then sure its livable. But somewhere like California or New York then your screwed as that property tax alone will eat away that meager check.
@@Sinistar1983 I wouldn't say meagre. Sure it doesn't match even the poorest state for living wage for a family of four at $80,000 a year. Still, It is above the national average even for states like California or New York which is $32,000 nationally with even those states only at $39,000 a year on average. It is the average wage for someone in the entertainment sector. It isn't ideal and I don't say they shouldn't earn more but to call it a pittance is a bit disingenuous. Statistically, it is more than most Americans earn. It would be a meagre wage if we removed the sponsorship deal. With it? It's fine. Not ideal but not terrible.
As a indie game reviewer I'm happy I work so close to those developers. Most of them treat me like I'm human and I give them respect back. Great video! Also I definitely see myself as a reviewer most of the time over a critic.
I deeply prefer being myself and making videos that I am proud of. but I know the exact consequences of creating in this manner, slow, infrequent uploads, high community churn, people clicking off because they came to my channel for something different than what I am actually providing, I'm doing everything TECHNICALLY wrong, and I know that. But I just can't overcome the love of the art, the Deeper level of fulfillment I feel from releasing something that, while it may not be optimized, and may not pull in as many folks, is meaningful. all I can hope for is that my romanticism doesn't Kill the only career path I've found in life. and that's scary. I wish there was a better space for people like me.
Mad respect for going out of your way to talk to Keemstar, most would not, understandably so. Sorry, dont have much more to offer besides this comment. His argument really is the epitome of what discourse has been lately and why it's been so exhausting lately. I really enjoyed the fallen idols chapter and even say this is one of your best videos.
You should watch the rest of the video that interview-esque clip comes from, if you haven't already. It was on the Every Frame A Pause podcast's 300th ep, and the other members of the panel have very interesting things to say to keem when he makes an appearance
He didn't go out of his way to talk to Keemstar, he was guesting on the EFAP podcast and Keem appeared out of the ether when it was discovered that Boogie actually admitted to lying about cancer months ago but nobody noticed. Also The Little Platoon was the one really holding his feet to the fire about continuing to keep Boogie as an employee.
Selling out to make money to survive can be applied to many industries. Google/YT does the same thing to please advertisers because they're a business and want to make money. Ultimately though it is on YT and their algorithm that decides who does and doesn't make it on YT. I think anyone getting into YT with the intention of it being a job that can provide a living is the wrong way of doing it. Better to have a 9-5 and do YT as a side hobby, if it takes off then you can go fulltime at best, or at worst it just provides supplemental income.
By this point I fully expect any published articles or UA-cam videos on recent AAA releases to be either outright advertisements or pulling their punches so the publishers don't blacklist them. I suspect a lot a lot of folks have for a long time now, for good reason.
There is still a lot of legitimate criticisim of Fallout76 and Cyber Punk. I see (probably due to the algorithm) more nuanced takes on both these titles. That being said, I agree with your point that the first thought out of the gate is often the one remembered. Additonally, the idea that traditional media and journalists are more accurate or comitted to honesty is false. I have personally been at events that the media sensationalized or outright lied about. While it is regrettable that UA-cam is going down this path, it is the same traditional media has gone down before, just amplified.
20:00 ok you’ve brought up cyberpunk 2077 several times now, it hasn’t been fixed so that’s why that specific negativity is still there. It was sold as a revolutionary RPG, setting a new bar for the genre and released as a run of the mill FPS, even with fixing bugs it’s still a FPS, light years away from what was promised. It’s my biggest complaint and having played it, will remain so, there’s zero that can be done to fix it as it’s a mediocre FPS so the complaint imo is valid and still up to date, even when so many parrot that it’s been fixed. The most fascinating thing that I hope is analyzed much further is hogwarts legacy. People bought the game to stick it to the other side for boycotting it, however those that bought it for that reason ended up supporting something they generally oppose and saw it as a win. Controversy creates cash. Great video so far, I prefer these types of video instead of “everything is amazing” or “everything is woke,” that slop content makes me want to puke.
Something else that I think distorts critics' opinions is that they play games all the time, for work (so not necessarily games they want to play). Imagine having to play video games constantly, having to play all the new releases on a tight schedule, having to consistently turn out reviews and opinions. This is such a different way of interacting with games than most people! It makes sense that small things might start to bother them, or that they might ding a game because it's not "original" enough or something...if I played games for work constantly I would also probably get bored and crave some novelty! Maybe I'm a philistine or something but I very much don't mind if a sequel is just more of a game that I already enjoy. Not everything has to be some groundbreaking avant-garde experience that changes the medium as we know it. Another theory that I have is that a lot of criticisms catch on because they make people feel/sound clever. The yellow-ledge controversy is a good example of this as it's a relatively small and somewhat helpful touch (maybe some people like to hunt around for ages to figure out what they can climb but I sure don't), but if you make the argument that "good thing actually bad" then you can sound profound or something. Finally, I think that a lot of critiques rely on a very intellectual approach to games when they are, in part (maybe mostly) emotional experiences. I have watched a lot of videos ripping games I like to shreds (sometimes even agreeing with them) but I still enjoy playing the games because it's not an intellectual thing. My cynical take is that we form an emotional opinion of a game first and then 90% of criticism/analysis is about justifying it.
I just hate how game reviews and gamer yt went from passionate people talking about stuff they love to people who basically just regurgitate patch notes or people who make million hour "retrospective" videos to farm engagement that make drying paint look interesting. From hobby to basically full on grift. It is what it is, but I can't stand it.
That's not entirely true. Go watch monty zander videos on control, bioshock, & other games... then tell me the truth - It's a Spaghetti Mess (a la Rick & Morty) but there's still regular old spaghetti that's really tasty and made with pure love and passion (and not people eating other people, which I think is an apt description of the gaming review culture).
Also, for great reporting on gaming: * TheOtherFrost (the guy who roasted Calandra) * Laura Fryer Just to name a couple. Tiny channels, but there's a reason - they've called out the industry, the journalists, & their ex co-workers... algorithm doesn't like that
You know what's so tragic about this. The narrative of your video played out in real time with your own promotion of this video. I followed a link here from reddit. I was immediately engrossed in the video but had other things to do, so I watched it over the course of about 4 hours. I wanted to go back to the reddit post to reply to it but by the time I got done watching your video, reddit decided the post was irrelevant, swept it up, and brushed it away. It's probably still out there, but I can't find it. I like the funny words that come out of your mouth, I subbed, liked, and I'm commenting.
??? It's #1 on /r/videos. Not sure how you can interpret that as "reddit decided the post was irrelevant and swept it up" when it's number 1 on a sub with 26million readers.
a lot of the things you say sounds similar to bands going mainstream, which we all used to hate back in the day. I guess there will always be those that just want to milk the system as much as they can, but there will also always those who just have a passion for the craft. Indie bands are still going strong, and so are more creative and authentic Interneters
So, I've now watched the whole video and can comment on it as a whole. Overall, aside from one factual misstatement (see other comment), I think this was very well done. I completely agree with your "call to action" in the last section and I've done that myself for many years, in addition to rarely relying on UA-cam recommendations and making sure to hide channels I know I don't want to see. This has generally served me pretty well and I trust the channels I watch, many of which are actually video essay channels who aren't on the content treadmill and have insightful things to say. These are the creators I tend to focus on supporting and have a monthly Patreon bill of almost $120CDN as a result. I've also been a UA-cam creator for almost ten years, making content for a channel that no one watches. I put my channel on pause earlier this year due to some personal reasaons not related to it, but I've since been really debating if I should bother starting it up again. It's not a job, nor do I want it to be, but I've wondered if my limited free time budget is better allocated elsewhere and this video, while in part telling me things I already knew, has still given me a lot to think about. Speaking only from the viewer angle, UA-cam is my primary source of video content. I haven't had cable since 2009 and don't even watch Netflix much anymore. UA-cam provides background while I work and I like to have longer videos on when I'm playing games that have a lot of grind. I would lay money down that I'm in the top 5% of UA-cam users by watch time. I also go out of my way to maintain my critical thinking skills and purposefully seek out multiple opinions. I do not support clickbait and hide channels that are clearly just grifters. That said, for as valuable as your insights into the algorithm are, I don't think viewers should have any obligation to care. We aren't supposed to care about the business models behind the content we consume, that's the business owner's problem. I don't care about Netflix's business model because I don't own shares in it. I care if they're giving me good content for my money. UA-camrs stoke the parasocial element of the platform to try to convince people to get invested in their financial success, even though the viewer doesn't get to share in that. I've subscribed to UA-cam Premium since the day it launched in Canada and don't run an ad blocker on the web in general, but I do run SponsorBlock. Why? Because I pay for Premium to not see ads. If a creator intends to dilute the experience I pay for by inserting ads in other ways, I won't feel bad for blocking them. Aside from the fact that UA-cam sponsorships are littered with outright scams, I'm not interested in an overpriced web creation tool, massively marked up rebadged AliExpress earbuds, an overpriced version of Udemy, a mediocre news aggregation tool or paying a company to non-transparently fight a data broker industry that shouldn't exist to begin with. I wasn't interested the first time you pitched them and I won't be any more interested the 50th time in a week I see a sponsorship for the same company. If you can't maintain your standard of living without resorting to being unethical, I don't care because you're still being unethical. Adapt your model or die, as a meritocratic free market is theoretically supposed to work. I work in IT and I don't get to lie to clients and sell them stuff they don't need because our company had a bad year and if asked to do so, I would quit on the spot. That would hurt me significantly, but my principals are worth a lot to me and as someone who tries to be good, I think that's how it should be. Being a content creator is a high-risk career and always has been. If you can't handle the risks, don't do it. The reality that no one wants to admit is that UA-cam is massively oversaturated. Every kid who got a $50 microphone for Christmas thinks they can be the next big star, so they all start channels regurgitating the same tired points, whether or not they believe them. 99% of these people fail, but even in their failures, they dilute the ecosystem and long-term viability of everyone else. This hype bubble needs to pop before we can start seeing this platform return to being a place where you don't have to be a top 5% creator to be successful. UA-cam needs more quality over quantity. Google doesn't care right now as long as they get to show more ads. To them, the videos are all just a means to an end. But make no mistake, something else will come along one day and this bubble will pop. I don't know if UA-cam will fail at that time or evolve into a better place with more quality stuff that you don't have to look as hard to find, but I hope it's the latter. Speaking as a creator, what I've seen in this video makes me never want to restart my channel. I focused on showcasing cool indie games that people may not have seen in an analytical, but casual fashion. I tried it for years and at the end of the day, no one cared and I don't have the time in my life to do more heavily produced videos than I was. Hard truth, but still truth. Like you said early on, I refuse to play this manipulative games for "the algorithm", selling out my integrity just to get popular with a crowd who is there for my fake projection, instead of for my true passion. But I also still have devs sending me dozens of emails a week, offering my nothing channel game keys because any coverage is good to them. Then, every couple of weeks, someone will leave a comment on an old video of mine that only got 200 views, but will say how much they liked it and how much they appreciate me turning onto a game they would have missed otherwise. I even got connected to a developer of one of my favourite retro pinball games (Balls of Steel) and worked with him to get this game that is notoriously hard to run on modern PCs working perfectly and in a way I can release to the community. I have UA-cam to thank for that. But when I think of the other hobbies I want to try and have constantly brushed aside because I'm living in a sunk cost fallacy, continuing to spend hours cranking out videos that no one watches, I get really sad and feel like I've wasted my time. And it's clear that this niche of UA-cam isn't going to get easier for people like me. Maybe it's time I just rip the band-aid off and learn to be content as a viewer alone. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
Moral of the story: Full-time content creation is not a viable career choice for most people. If you’re interested in doing UA-cam, you should view it as a hobby that might provide you a bit of extra income one day.
For what it's worth, I did enjoy Starwars Outlaws, just not for the reasons you think. As an aspiring solo developer it was great to see how Ubisoft created the ingame atmosphere yet dropping the ball in other places. Games nowadays are rushed to reach deadlines to appease investors and let's be honest the impatient fans. Meaning the games can't get the care they need whether it's polish to avoid bugs or even the development of satiafying game loops and mechanics. I've been called out for reading the review script I wrote, just because I didn't have a prompter and you could see me reading what I wrote down. Meanwhile bigger channels get away with flat out lies and mob mentality of being unforgiving to hard working studios who've had bad leadership.
You sing high praise for the old days of gaming journalism, but i would not be surprised if they too were beholden to similar financial pressure just in a different form. Keep people renewing thier subscription and courting advertisers to print ads on critical pages. So if an advertiser didn't like the magazine's review and pull out, could seriously hurt the magazine's ability to operate and this create an incentive to not review big games too harshly. The difference now is there is more transparency as to what goes on behind the scenes. With magazines you had to trust that the reviewer played the game sufficiently and not just the tutorial.
@@reallycool well it seems like your only reinforcing that perception when several times in this video you decry the modern state of games journalism with conflicts of interest, in reference to what it was before the era of UA-cam. To me this would imply you believe there wasn't conflicts of interest or unethical reporting with the old outlets of gaming journalism, and that's not something I can believe.
Oftentimes with looking back at the past you only remember the bits you loved and never the struggles of the time. Ignorance plays the biggest role as old methods of advertising games weren't perfect and plenty were never known about like Metal Arms for the PS2, magazines often stated falsehoods and lied to get engagement while review sites in their infancy had the tendency to bomb games for superficial reasons like "not being Christian" and et cetera. Like OP says, we have better transparency now. I may be too young to have hung around forums but a bit of websurfing on dead/broken links with the internet Archive was revealing enough.
Fantastic video! You made it really easy to follow a topic that gets complicated and detailed quickly. I have been thinking lately about what happened to the game reviews I used to watch years ago, and this video echos how I have been feeling. And reiterated that the change in gaming reviews wasn’t just a natural change, it was a deliberate devolution.
A similar upload to Star Wars Theory's latest concerning the drama. As someone who played around with UA-cam as a hobby, was on the UA-cam Gaming discord early on, lived through the adpocalypse, etc. the whole thing was a mess from the start. Constantly changing, totally obfuscated, pushing for daily uploads, etc. Just horrible. I continued making videos just for the free games, games that I would play for the review and rarely afterwards. Once that was restricted (too many scammers getting game copies), I gave up on it all. Just not worth the time.
i see this all a bit different. i mean. you (any creator) arent entitled to make youtube your carreer. if "the market" pushes you out then maybe your product wasnt good enough. this is a respond to arguments like "what if you are banned and dont get a key for the next big game" and so on. i actually think the publishers are entitled to block someone. they can do what they want with there game and this will have consequences for them. there is no rule that states you have to give your game to ANY reviewer. everyone can BUY ANY GAME. you arent force to play this shitty game youre blocked from day 1 if you actually have a solid concept for your channel and not just riding the news cycle. for example.. there is this new trend of "cozy game channels" they often look at 20 year old games like the sims and get million views. nobody forces someone to ride the news cycle and get engaged in these shitty PR companys and so on. if you (any creator) get compromised its also your fault. you dont have to do this. if your frustrated choose another carreer path. like any other person would, in any other line of work! sure there are really hollow and big channels but they also get the crowd they deserve. people that dont realise your just a marketing mouthpiece. channels liek SKILLUP are critical but are also very big. so there is also an audience for that. if he dont get a SONIC key. i dont think this woudl have any impact. its a bigger failure for the game as for him. i have to agree that some of youtubes systems dont seem very thinked trough and intransparent. i think they dont do themself a favour by spliting this all up in so many revenue streams all with different systems and rules. ps: it was always the case that the smallest common denominator gets most popular. avenger movies, pop music, realityTV, uncharted games. its never the smartest or best thing that gets famous. its always the dumbest shit everybody can get behind. not the deepest or most artsy. i like to watch frame breakdowns of graphic engines. BUT NOBODY ELSE CARES. so these channel are tiny! the masses are shallow. i acepted this long time ago. if i wanna read a GOOD BOOK i look at the CLASSICS not current top10 lists! this is all explained by the statistical distibution of intelligence. very few at the top, very few at the bottom. most in the middle! the smartest "ART" will never be the most famous bcs nobody gets it! pps: you can introduce your shiny new words for things but the masses will never hear them, lol. maybe the 5% over average IQ will. but this will not change anything. you seem rather smart. so, use your smarts and simply play the game better then the simpletons. fck ethics or morals, like everybody else. these are just concepts. you cant measure them! its just an illusion (opinion) in your head that your are more moral then keemstar. the unvierse doesnt care! your both just hairless monkeys with a limited lifespan figuring things out, meanwhile floating through an endless universe. if humanity likes fake and bad youtube channels. they pretty much get what they deserve. you need two sides for dumb shit like mr beast. it should be obvious for a dog with one eye that this is all fake! but it isnt. so, people get what they deserve. the religious concept of KARMA isnt so bad after all! but did mr beast gets what he deserves, you coudl ask? i would say yes. hes a rich psychopath now. not a good tradeoff for him. its only so much you can spend to make you happy. this curves falls pretty heavy after a million. ( im from germany, hope my english makes sense)
The least of Outlaws problem was removing or keeping yellow paint, if a game studio with butt loads of money is influenced by a UA-cam review then maybe those developers shouldn’t be working in game development.
23:03 Disagree. A vid is, by its nature, static. So yea, the review of game at release will remain unchanged. Viewers should know this. . Most games are not worth a second vid even if they get better. What, we re-review every game every year? And take down the old outdated vid?
I'm nearing the end of the video now and thought it was fantastic! Like many of your other videos. Well done mate! I am very glad that clicking on one of MauLer's TFA videos lead me to your channel through EFAP, which whenever you're on, it's a wonderful episode so I hope to see you as a guest again soon!
I miss the good old days of UA-cam. Many years ago, the censorship was not as centralized and controlling like it is now. Creativity has been damaged for a while here on YT. May you see great and create good content, fellow UA-camrs.💯🇺🇲😎✌️
UA-camrs know people often just put them on in the background like a podcast when they're cleaning house, cooking, working, playing Minecraft & WANT the content to be over an hour.
Doing my part engagement boosting this video. The recommendations have been full of horrendous slop/bait channels, game discourse is so simplistic and boring on yt, if I don't manage catch a gem by the algorithm's mistake, rather than its design.
It should be listed as a trope for influencers to disguise their exhaustion with low engagement using jabs at algorithms and UA-cam. Influencers played a factor in Starfield but it honestly had little to do with it, fan hype was the main drive behind its release during E3 with Bethesda fan communities spreading the word on Reddit and such, UA-camrs essentially catalysed it but they wouldn't have much material without fan hype.
1:34:54 Well said! As a conservative, myself, even i agree with you here. I feel that a loud minority of radical reactionaries on our side are causing this and, as a result, nuanced discourse is being undermined. We should be able to criticize toxic identity politics without becoming as toxic as those we are criticizing.
it sounds to me like you're just describing verbatim how neoliberal market-driven mass media works! it's suffocating for society at large. our tastes and opinions are driven almost entirely now by the market itself.
If I hadn't gotten a virus from youtube ads, I'd feel worse about not whitelisting creators. UA-cam itself has screwed over its own creators in myriad ways, but their poor to nonexistent curation of the ads they place on content has certainly ground down the ad revenue they gain. My experiences with the ad system has left me feeling unsafe if I try to support creators in that way.
And the bleak reality is that we have the same for every other piece of media as well. Its also in news, journalism (what is left), sports, politic discussion, any kind of social platform and interaction.
Another thoughtful and thorough look into the world of games and journalism. I’ve come to expect nothing less of you, man. As always, keep up the great work.
The rewriting history part is a millennial specialty. I've heard so much rubbish about things that they either weren't around for, or because of their young age, weren't really aware of at the time. Most of it is for minor pop culture stuff, but the echo chamber they live in forces them to believe it to their very core, even if it is verifiably untrue. Very small example - that they are the ones who magically uncovered the satire within Starship Troopers movie......REGARDLESS that it is heavy handed and front & center to the movie, REGARDLESS that 95% of reviewers talked about it at the time (many didn't like the film, but the satire is acknowledged), REGARDLESS that it was Verhoeven and the majority who saw it at the cinema grew up with Robocop. The millennials watched it as kids and saw a fun bug killing movie only, which is fine, they were kids. But somewhere in their early teens someone points out the satire to them, their minds are somehow blown by it, "how did nobody ever notice this!", it propagates on places like Reddit constantly.....and forever more we now have to hear this BS.
I put this on the second screen to start with and it quickly became my primary focus. I wouldn't worry about people finding it dry, it was interesting and informative. Maybe I'm different, but I hate the algorithm. I don't click on anything unless its from a creator I know. That makes it a bit hard to find new people, but so be it. I basically have no use for youtubers like are described in this video. I just wait for the people I trust to talk about something, or if they aren't talking about it, I will branch out, but I don't watch early reviews. I wasn't always that way. I spent $100 on the Starfield preorder because of that type of review and how much I liked Fallout 4. (I didn't pay attention to criticisms of that game or 76.) That was all it took to learn my lesson. I think the acronym system at the end of the video is a good suggestion for evaluation. Sorry, I don't remember it, but I basically do it now anyway. The world would be better if people actually thought about what they see on social media.
So I've been listening to / watching EFAP for a while and that's how I heard of your channel (went out of my way to search for it, I've never seen your videos in my recommendeds). One thing I personally despise is UA-cam videos that ask a question and then put the answer in the thumbnail, For example Title: "How many Mario games have Yoshi, actually?" and then the thumbnail will have a giant ABOUT 17 in it somewhere, that type of video instantly makes me want to hit "Do not recommend channel" like you're killing the intrigue immediately by spoiling the answer before I even click. I even saw one thumbnail that had "This is an interesting question, I swear" in it. If I could wipe that type of video title / thumbnail combination off of UA-cam I would. Little tangent but I felt like this was a good place to put it. If anyone reads this let me know what type of UA-cam videos you can't stand and avoid at all costs.
Another great video. Would be really cool to see you team up with Laura Fryer and/or TheOtherFrost and/or Tim Cain to do a podcast on these topics. They have incredible insights to UA-cam and game development as a whole.
@reallycool they've all don't similar, albeit much less in depth, videos on this particular subject. These rare types - speak truth, offer honest critique, & remain humble... all without taking bribes, handouts, or coercing their viewers.
1:10:01 This is misleading at best. THQ is not THQ Nordic. The old THQ failed in 2012 and Nordic Games bought the THQ name, becoming THQ Nordic. The failed company being addressed in that video is not the THQ of today and running ads on it saying "We're another comoany still making games." I honestly have a hard time finding issue with. Also, THQ Nordic is not Embracer Group, it's one of many divisions of it. Fact checking as you say.
@@reallycool No, they are not. They are a separate corporate division, headquartered in a different place as a different corporation. Embracer Group owns them yes, but they operate autonomously. That is not the same thing. You also have not addressed the fact that in your script, you incorrectly equated THQ Nordic with the old THQ Inc. (originally known as Toy HeadQuarters), which are not the same company, nor do the failures of the original reflect on the new.
Really insightful and helpful video. Honestly you could re-edit the script for this to apply to UA-cam as a whole, of course the gamer element is fascinating but many you tubers in other genres openly say they create certain types of content because it does better algorithmically. Even a make up artist I followed doesn't post make up tutorials because reacting to TV shows performs better.
@@reallycool totally understand, that must be incredibly frustrating. I genuinely hope that it reaches a wider audience because even with the gamer angle you've made it very approachable.
Shill influencers and game journalists are terrible. But i also add the grifting youtubers as well. The 'anti woke' types who do nothing but angry rage bait every new game release for clicks. Adding nothing to the conversation but more toxicity. They are just as inauthentic as anyone from IGN/Polygon or influencers flown out by companies to mindlessly praise a game. We real gamers covering games on youtube, who don't rely on buzzwords and cover games on their own merits. No get fake outraged because they see a woman in a game trailer.
i just hate how the current algorythm feels like its straight outta 1984. Media during the 90's to early 2010, wasn't afraid to express it self and protize making money, there was a golden age of media all around, movies, TV, video games, if something wanted to play it safe and have soul, it could, if something wanted to be edgy/push the envelope/ dare to be bold. It most certainly could! I doubt its a factor of getting older, cause when I was a kid I always avoided zombified family advertiser friendly content anyway, it just wasn't my thing. Now that's all the algorithm cares about ensuring your watching the most perfectly over situmatiating, zombified, censored, advertiser family friendly content. No body can be edge, dare to be bold, have imperfect output on their expression but still staying true to its self.
i can confidently say google/youtube doesn't know anything about me, cause the shit it recommends me is 95% stuff i don't want to watch. but occasionally something like this pops up, which i'm happy to watch from start to end
43k for cost of living seems a bit low considering most content creators live on the west coast, with a lot of them taking up residence in LA County. The smartest creators will seek out a place with a low cost of living so they can afford pennies on the dollar in terms of their expenses. However, that creates a different problem with inconsistent Internet service. If a content creator does not have good Internet, they cannot do their job...and it forces them to seek out high cost of living areas just so they have access to a reliable ISP.
The bit about perception of a game changing is definitely something I've seen in real time and it is scary. People turning on a game because of some dipshit's supposed "authoritative" stance relative to people who actually seriously play titles in a genre is endlessly frustrating. I guess it pays to be stubborn and stick with what you like, despite the online echochamber telling you it sucks or is good.
This is why i wait at least a year to buy a game. Let's Play's are also a good avenue. There's always a conflict of interest when money and incentives dangle over people.
It's not entitlement to not want ads shoved in my face at all times. It's not entitlement to not pay for something being offered for free. If a youtuber wants to restrict a video to paying customers, that's their call and i have no problem with that, but the value proposition on a youtube video is too low to justify paying for them instead of putting that money towards saving for a house or something
"The result is over bloated content that prioritizes watch time over substance, dragged out past it's natural conclusion, and quantity over concision" *Looks at 12 hour video game retrospective on the front page*
12 hours for the entire history of videogames is not that long if you think about it. A topic being discussed for many hours doesn't mean it's inherently bloated or stretched
It's not just gaming. This reminds me of all the LotR channels that I loved before Rings of Power came out. There literally were none that panned the series and every fan I know hates it. Influencer effect makes all reviews suspect.
It isn't just influencers. Look at the rave legacy media critical reception for True Detective: Night Country then watch the season and tell me you believe those were the legitimate opinions of the reviewers lol. This was right around the time 'HBO Max' rebranded to simply 'Max' and they were pumping a ton of money to promote both it and the first new season of TD for five years. The original concept for Night Country wasn't even meant to be TD at all and no one involved with the previous seasons had anything to do with it but they shoehorned it in for IP recognition. The flood of "The prequels aren't as bad as you remember" articles just before the launch of Disney's Star Wars is just as suspicious. All of this to say that if a reviewer hasn't already been bought they're probably in the minority.
Did you actually watch it? A lot of outrage tourists were panning the show hoping to make a quick buck while calling it WoKe. Not chasing the clout is a sign of integrity.
@@MonicaMoraal Yeah, the key to those LotR channels isn't whether they like it or not but how are they analyzing the show. Does it come across as just blind praise? Does it seem inauthentic like they're just reading bullet points? Then sure it makes sense to question their integrity. But if they're giving you nuanced analysis for each episode where they're breaking down what they liked and disliked about it while overall holding a positive opinion of it, then I don't see where the problem is. That's what you should want with a channel. Maybe you don't agree entirely with it, but you'd appear to be getting that persons genuine opinion rather than them chasing outrage or telling their viewers what they think those people want to hear.
@reallycool crossing the fingers for the delayed hit hearing the facts would be really benifitial for the youtube viewers and might lead to some collective action on the part of the creators it gotta blow up 🚀🚀🚀
I remember predicting what would happen with Cyberpunk 2077. I basically said "It's not ready yet, they said it's not ready yet but shipping it anyways," and got into an argument with someone claiming that I had no idea what I was talking about. I'm still salty about spending months seeing UA-camrs come to the same conclusion that I came up with immediately, and that I was bullied on Reddit for saying. Never got an apology from the people who said that I was completely wrong and I should trust the studio.
I agree with everything you have said about the modern gaming influencer ecosystem, but I am about when you believe that honest ethical gaming journalism existed. Gaming journalism was a cesspool plagued by conflicting interests and backroom deals between journalists and game publishers long before UA-cam. Gaming journalism has never been good. If anything, I think UA-cam has made the dishonesty more obvious, and therefore easier to avoid. And with the large number of creators on the platform, it is at least possible to find a couple gems among the pile of manure.
It's better to be the honest asshole than to be the popular sellout. That's what I tell myself before I cry myself to sleep, but nobody said it would be easy!
I'mma keep this short because I don't want to lose people in the weeds here, as far as reviewing games go, the best a reviewer can do is just tell the viewer what the game is as accurately as possible and what state the game was in during that time. You can't say what's good and what's not because that is subjective and shouldn't be tried to standardized in the first place. Just inform the viewer, that's it. everything else is just fluff.
This was honestly one of the hardest videos I've ever made - diving into financial exploitation, algorithmic manipulation, and the death of authentic criticism wasn't easy. But these stories need to be told.
Notes:
- You can retweet this here x.com/MRIXRT/status/1874139046488007012
- You can rebsky this here bsky.app/profile/reallycool.bsky.social/post/3lemjrwjfo224
- I legitimately expect this video to do very badly, it's dense and nuanced and not really very algorithm friendly. So, anything you're able to do to help out (sharing it, liking it, watching it) is really helpful. Especially if you get one of those surveys I mentioned. But, I also know that it's MY JOB to make you want to do that, so I hope I did it well enough
Im not done yet, but wow this is very informative, i didn’t realize things were quite this… ugly. And the video itself is very well made, I can tell this took a lot of research (or maybe just your prior experience, that caught me by surprise).
There is no such thing as authenticity in gaming youtube twitch or anything, 100% of the videos you ever saw comented were paid, i can prove it
A comment for the algorithm.
Two hour video to explain what has been happening since game reviews started. I stopped watching once you started to praise old media as if it was good. Nintendo Power regularly praised some horrible games.
@@aminorityofone You did not understand the video, and that's fine. It was not praise, it was a statement that this was the perception. Thanks for the comment though.
Hey! So I've been doing gaming UA-cam for 14 years full time now, I've gotten to see a lot of these changes and talked to well over a hundred gaming UA-camrs first hand over the years. Mrixrt hit the nail on the head on literally everything.
For a dude who's been doing this for only 8 years, he obviously knows this stuff inside and out and is able to articulate a lot of the problems much better than I ever could.
Thanks for the support!
@@MahDryBread YOOOOOO BREAD?!?! how's it going dude?! just wanna say thank you for streaming man. I saw your Crusader Kings 2 playthrough where you almost play as "stomp that baby" long ago. it was a vibe having that in the background while i was busy with my hopelessly addicting hoi4 era lol.
i hope you'll keep on rocking on
:-P
@@cool-soap Thank you! Was that the Bohemia playthrough? Probably either that or the Spain one
Don't worry, always rocking! Come drop by the channel sometime, I'll be doing a new CK3 playthrough sometime in the next month or so
Bread I didn't think I'd see you here! Hell yeah!
@@MahDryBread it was the Bohemia playthrough ya. also CK3 POG?! I'll try and pop in when i can :-P
totalbiscuit called out Bethesda many years ago for having a scummy clause in their contracts for content creators, and nothing has changed (in fact, many other companies have taken it and ran with it, like recently when they said you can't even talk about trans topics when playing Black Myth: Wukong). fortunately, it's easy to see when content creators aren't telling the truth, and i suggest that people avoid those creators.
TotalBiscuit is the reason I became a UA-camr, so I didn't come up with these thoughts all alone
You can't talk about trans people while playing black myth wukong? That is hilarious, I think people should start insisting that sun wukong is trans
But the trans things makes sense?
I do think it’s bad precedent, they should’ve just asked politely not to talk about irrelevant topics (which for an action game based on Chinese Mythology, the T topic *is* irrelevant)
Right motivation, keep the review on topic, wrong execution.
@@sulimanthemagnificent4893 you are inferring that the intent behind the rule was to keep the conversation on topic but It seems very clear that the intent was to not have any one talk about topics the CCP does not like to hear considering that was the common thread behind the banned topics
@@sulimanthemagnificent4893 not yelling 'liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times' during a heartstone tournament also makes sense, doesn't mean Blizzard should ban you if you do.
Platoon politely inferring that Keemstar's podcast is unethical to his face is the most gigachad moment on EFAP.
Where in the video is that shown off? I think I missed it
@@masako8980 it's not in the vid, but it's what lead to the clips where it's just Keem and Mrixrt's discord icons.
@NerotheGame ohhh
@@masako8980 I think you can find it on EFAP highlights channel
Balls of diamond. It helps to know your logic is sound.
The Cynical Brit warned everyone, yet few listened, and many who did seem to have forgotten.
All of this just reaffirms my belief that UA-cam shouldn't be a persons main source of income.
True to this one.
Absolutely. I have a full time job and UA-cam is just a hobby for me and one of several.
UA-cam as a platform was built by hobbyists making videos for fun and it needs to return to that cuz the more it becomes like traditional media the less unique the creators are
@@TheBlackRam666 I absolutely agree with you man. And that's what I've been doing on my channel is just post videos whenever I want without deadlines or schedules, simply because I don't see myself making money off of this platform, when jobs outside of this place pay me better and do have better benefits than what UA-cam offers.
I'm glad to hear in the opening someone acknowledging the influence UA-camrs have over culture instead of downplaying it.
13:55 Funny that Google supposedly knows so much about me, yet it still never serves me ads I care about and UA-cam's recommendations page leads me to a channel I'm interested enough to sub to maybe one in a hundred times I actually look at it. They undoubtedly have a ton of data on me, yet it still does a terrible job of trying to engage me in what they're hocking.
When you have so much data everything becomes mush.
All colors mixed together result in a mess of brown
Where possible, I pay for ad free experiences and use ad blockers every where else, it's a very nice life not having to deal with ads anymore, at least personally (obviously ads still distort the reality of what's said more broadly)
@@nihouma11 I run Privacy Badger, which does block ads that have invasive tracking and I have certainly noticed that's more and more of them these days. I have no issue with that.
I don't run a general ad blocker because if we want content to keep getting made, creators and services need to get paid and if people don't want to pay for stuff, this is the way it is. If there was a better way, it would already exist. I don't way my finger at anyone who runs an ad blocker, this is just why I don't.
Funny enough, I just consider myself largely immune to advertising these days. I can't begin to remember the last ad I saw (even though it was probably just a few minutes ago) and they just don't register with me anymore. It wasn't always this way, but it has been for me for at least the least 10 years now.
@nihouma11 use ad blockers for your own safety and support creators you like directly
I mean you're here, youtube could care less what you're subscribed to. You're engaged baby.
Oh come on, M, you can still surely trust IGN.
They would never do immoral or illegal things because those things are illegal.
Alanah Pearce told me so.
Long live Jeff Gerstmann trashing Kane and Lynch 2
Holy shit this explains every issue I've ever had being a content creator in the last 7 years, it's scary looking at those financial numbers and realizing that's just the stuff I live off of, it's what I've been doing for so long, and while it's not a good thing that so many of us are in this faustion bargain that is UA-cam... It is comforting knowing that there are others dealing with the same issues
Just now getting to the end of the first segment but already this video has helped me reinforce why I've largely stopped trying to regularly upload content after I stopped being a Let's Player six years ago (which also coincided with me returning to a full-time job; shockingly, working 8-10 hours a day severely cuts into your UA-cam time). Especially everything about the algorithm. The way you have to "play the game" nowadays has just soured me on being a UA-camr; the time and effort investment does not seem worth the (potential) return.
If I upload anything now, it's whenever I feel like it and if I actually want to, and I try not to care about viewership or engagement.
Thanks for sharing your experience - it really validates the deep dive coming up about creator burnout and the algorithmic demands. The next section actually breaks down the exact financial math of why so many creators struggle to sustain their channels, even with seemingly "successful" metrics.
Your mention of working 8-10 hours fits perfectly with my analysis of how creators working 60-hour weeks often earn below minimum wage. I examine how UA-cam's monetization model forces creators to choose between authentic content and financial stability.
If you're interested in UA-cam creator economics, algorithm manipulation, and content monetization challenges, stick around for the detailed breakdown of how a channel with 100k subscribers might only earn $18k annually from ads. The data might help explain a lot of what you experienced.
Work smarter not harder, I could easily keep up my current output of letttuce play videos (2 25 minute videos a day) while working a full time job, just 6.5 hours a day every weekend would give me 2 months worth of videos
Was making vids on here before money existed and it was such a pure but pretty bland experience.
The rise of machinima suddenly dishing out 10s of thousands of dollars to creators on their channel monthly suddenly everything changed.
When we could start earning on our own personal youtubes which felt really strange that crazy CPM had dried up because SO many people jumped into it hard.
It was a gold rush to so many
There hasn't been a youtuber whose opinion I value and trust since Totalbiscuit died.
He's the whole reason I wanted to be a youtuber.
Came here to say this. TB was one of a kind. I still miss him.
I think I like this fella
Same as it ever was.
Even in the 90’s “professional gaming writers”, had “press events” where they were wined and dined with parties, free shit, and things like real airplane lasertag
It’s disgusting, don’t trust ANYONE who has ANY skin in the game
You are being taken advantage of and influenced by advertisers
This doesn't just affect gaming UA-cam, it affects the entirety of UA-cam. I've noticed more and more clickbait on UA-cam over the years. How often have you seen "[insert thing here] is the best / worst [ thing ] ever" in a video title? Don't even get me started on tag manipulation and censorship. It's disturbing when you realized this has been happening for years. I personally don't expect anything to change anytime soon regarding this issue. As long as there's money and views on the table, people will always return, especially if it's thier main source of income. Nonetheless, amazing video.
thank you
Is keemstar just un-cancelable? Like just a genuine piece of garbage and has been for years and years. Kind of impressive to be such a loathsome waste of humanity in the limelight for such a long time.
You’re not wrong but he makes money, for himself & his partners. That’s all that matters sadly. The moment he stops being profitable, that’ll be the day he gets cancelled.
When it comes a media figured being "canceled" it all comes down to what their own fans think. As this video points out, TheCompletionist fell off because his fans decided that what he did was unacceptable. You can also look at someone like Shane Dawson. His videos used to get 20-30m+ views, but after the story broke his videos now get around 4m views. Which to be clear is more than most UA-camrs could ever dream of, but it's also an absolutely massive drop off from where he once was at. While not a UA-camr, you have someone like Chris Brown who we know beat Rihanna. But he's continued to be successful. His fans just don't care. It all ultimately just tells you a lot of about the fans they've cultivated.
My working theory is that he has surrounded himself with so many scummy people (e.g. Boogie) that nothing really ever sticks directly to him because he can always feed another lolcow to the angry mob. He clings to these people like stink sticks to excrements.
What's a Keemstar?
$52,000 is a lot of money. Especially considering how poor the average person in the US is. And thinking people want to pay for memberships with UA-cam already serving a ridiculous amount of ads and wanting $20 for premium?
In somewhere like Kansas then sure its livable. But somewhere like California or New York then your screwed as that property tax alone will eat away that meager check.
Then move
You dont have to be at an office for youtube@Sinistar1983
@@Sinistar1983 I wouldn't say meagre. Sure it doesn't match even the poorest state for living wage for a family of four at $80,000 a year. Still, It is above the national average even for states like California or New York which is $32,000 nationally with even those states only at $39,000 a year on average. It is the average wage for someone in the entertainment sector. It isn't ideal and I don't say they shouldn't earn more but to call it a pittance is a bit disingenuous. Statistically, it is more than most Americans earn. It would be a meagre wage if we removed the sponsorship deal. With it? It's fine. Not ideal but not terrible.
Oh hey, actual journalism. Good job dude, I'll pray you don't end up in court.
Not for this one, but the next couple of videos maybe
Lmfao, "Moriarty is not suicidal"
As a indie game reviewer I'm happy I work so close to those developers. Most of them treat me like I'm human and I give them respect back. Great video! Also I definitely see myself as a reviewer most of the time over a critic.
I deeply prefer being myself and making videos that I am proud of. but I know the exact consequences of creating in this manner, slow, infrequent uploads, high community churn, people clicking off because they came to my channel for something different than what I am actually providing, I'm doing everything TECHNICALLY wrong, and I know that.
But I just can't overcome the love of the art, the Deeper level of fulfillment I feel from releasing something that, while it may not be optimized, and may not pull in as many folks, is meaningful.
all I can hope for is that my romanticism doesn't Kill the only career path I've found in life. and that's scary.
I wish there was a better space for people like me.
I can only say buiild a strong Patreon community that believes enough in your passion to allow you to do it
I've come to stop listening to pre-release reviews and wait for day one streams, to see it unfiltered for whatever it actually is.
Mad respect for going out of your way to talk to Keemstar, most would not, understandably so. Sorry, dont have much more to offer besides this comment.
His argument really is the epitome of what discourse has been lately and why it's been so exhausting lately. I really enjoyed the fallen idols chapter and even say this is one of your best videos.
You should watch the rest of the video that interview-esque clip comes from, if you haven't already. It was on the Every Frame A Pause podcast's 300th ep, and the other members of the panel have very interesting things to say to keem when he makes an appearance
He didn't go out of his way to talk to Keemstar, he was guesting on the EFAP podcast and Keem appeared out of the ether when it was discovered that Boogie actually admitted to lying about cancer months ago but nobody noticed. Also The Little Platoon was the one really holding his feet to the fire about continuing to keep Boogie as an employee.
youtube gaming went mainstream, and this is the unfortunate price
Selling out to make money to survive can be applied to many industries. Google/YT does the same thing to please advertisers because they're a business and want to make money. Ultimately though it is on YT and their algorithm that decides who does and doesn't make it on YT. I think anyone getting into YT with the intention of it being a job that can provide a living is the wrong way of doing it. Better to have a 9-5 and do YT as a side hobby, if it takes off then you can go fulltime at best, or at worst it just provides supplemental income.
This is why capitalism is a failure.
We shouldn't accept a company doing something to make money. We don't need companies at all.
By this point I fully expect any published articles or UA-cam videos on recent AAA releases to be either outright advertisements or pulling their punches so the publishers don't blacklist them. I suspect a lot a lot of folks have for a long time now, for good reason.
There is still a lot of legitimate criticisim of Fallout76 and Cyber Punk. I see (probably due to the algorithm) more nuanced takes on both these titles. That being said, I agree with your point that the first thought out of the gate is often the one remembered.
Additonally, the idea that traditional media and journalists are more accurate or comitted to honesty is false. I have personally been at events that the media sensationalized or outright lied about. While it is regrettable that UA-cam is going down this path, it is the same traditional media has gone down before, just amplified.
20:00 ok you’ve brought up cyberpunk 2077 several times now, it hasn’t been fixed so that’s why that specific negativity is still there. It was sold as a revolutionary RPG, setting a new bar for the genre and released as a run of the mill FPS, even with fixing bugs it’s still a FPS, light years away from what was promised. It’s my biggest complaint and having played it, will remain so, there’s zero that can be done to fix it as it’s a mediocre FPS so the complaint imo is valid and still up to date, even when so many parrot that it’s been fixed.
The most fascinating thing that I hope is analyzed much further is hogwarts legacy. People bought the game to stick it to the other side for boycotting it, however those that bought it for that reason ended up supporting something they generally oppose and saw it as a win. Controversy creates cash.
Great video so far, I prefer these types of video instead of “everything is amazing” or “everything is woke,” that slop content makes me want to puke.
Saw this video on reddit. Never seen your content before. 5 minutes in and I'm sold. I can't wait to watch your backlog when I'm driving for work.
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it
1:08:28 Similar situation with Josh Strife Hayes. He's talked about it a few times on stream.
Something else that I think distorts critics' opinions is that they play games all the time, for work (so not necessarily games they want to play). Imagine having to play video games constantly, having to play all the new releases on a tight schedule, having to consistently turn out reviews and opinions. This is such a different way of interacting with games than most people! It makes sense that small things might start to bother them, or that they might ding a game because it's not "original" enough or something...if I played games for work constantly I would also probably get bored and crave some novelty!
Maybe I'm a philistine or something but I very much don't mind if a sequel is just more of a game that I already enjoy. Not everything has to be some groundbreaking avant-garde experience that changes the medium as we know it.
Another theory that I have is that a lot of criticisms catch on because they make people feel/sound clever. The yellow-ledge controversy is a good example of this as it's a relatively small and somewhat helpful touch (maybe some people like to hunt around for ages to figure out what they can climb but I sure don't), but if you make the argument that "good thing actually bad" then you can sound profound or something.
Finally, I think that a lot of critiques rely on a very intellectual approach to games when they are, in part (maybe mostly) emotional experiences. I have watched a lot of videos ripping games I like to shreds (sometimes even agreeing with them) but I still enjoy playing the games because it's not an intellectual thing. My cynical take is that we form an emotional opinion of a game first and then 90% of criticism/analysis is about justifying it.
Looks of good thoughts here, I agree
This is Noam Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent"
Totalbiscuit predicted all of this, but we didn’t listen.
TB warned us about the state of the games industry, journalism & youtube. I wish more people had listened.
I just hate how game reviews and gamer yt went from passionate people talking about stuff they love to people who basically just regurgitate patch notes or people who make million hour "retrospective" videos to farm engagement that make drying paint look interesting. From hobby to basically full on grift. It is what it is, but I can't stand it.
True. That's part of the reason I made my own channel, got tired of game reviewers not actually reviewing games.
Your very correct. Greed killed gaming period let alone yutube gaming videos. The passion and love of the medium is gone
Not with indie, looking forward to Subnautica 2.
That's not entirely true. Go watch monty zander videos on control, bioshock, & other games... then tell me the truth - It's a Spaghetti Mess (a la Rick & Morty) but there's still regular old spaghetti that's really tasty and made with pure love and passion (and not people eating other people, which I think is an apt description of the gaming review culture).
Also, for great reporting on gaming:
* TheOtherFrost (the guy who roasted Calandra)
* Laura Fryer
Just to name a couple. Tiny channels, but there's a reason - they've called out the industry, the journalists, & their ex co-workers... algorithm doesn't like that
You know what's so tragic about this. The narrative of your video played out in real time with your own promotion of this video. I followed a link here from reddit. I was immediately engrossed in the video but had other things to do, so I watched it over the course of about 4 hours. I wanted to go back to the reddit post to reply to it but by the time I got done watching your video, reddit decided the post was irrelevant, swept it up, and brushed it away. It's probably still out there, but I can't find it.
I like the funny words that come out of your mouth, I subbed, liked, and I'm commenting.
I'm glad you enjoyed it
??? It's #1 on /r/videos. Not sure how you can interpret that as "reddit decided the post was irrelevant and swept it up" when it's number 1 on a sub with 26million readers.
Is it really? That's pretty neat
@@lazerrr. It was not when I found it, and when I was looking, it was neither hot, rising, nor top.
@@xXAkirhaXx we commented 10 minutes apart. That’s just a blatant lie lol
a lot of the things you say sounds similar to bands going mainstream, which we all used to hate back in the day. I guess there will always be those that just want to milk the system as much as they can, but there will also always those who just have a passion for the craft. Indie bands are still going strong, and so are more creative and authentic Interneters
You can remove the “games” part from the fall of journalism. The rot effecting gaming is effecting everything
So, I've now watched the whole video and can comment on it as a whole. Overall, aside from one factual misstatement (see other comment), I think this was very well done. I completely agree with your "call to action" in the last section and I've done that myself for many years, in addition to rarely relying on UA-cam recommendations and making sure to hide channels I know I don't want to see. This has generally served me pretty well and I trust the channels I watch, many of which are actually video essay channels who aren't on the content treadmill and have insightful things to say. These are the creators I tend to focus on supporting and have a monthly Patreon bill of almost $120CDN as a result.
I've also been a UA-cam creator for almost ten years, making content for a channel that no one watches. I put my channel on pause earlier this year due to some personal reasaons not related to it, but I've since been really debating if I should bother starting it up again. It's not a job, nor do I want it to be, but I've wondered if my limited free time budget is better allocated elsewhere and this video, while in part telling me things I already knew, has still given me a lot to think about.
Speaking only from the viewer angle, UA-cam is my primary source of video content. I haven't had cable since 2009 and don't even watch Netflix much anymore. UA-cam provides background while I work and I like to have longer videos on when I'm playing games that have a lot of grind. I would lay money down that I'm in the top 5% of UA-cam users by watch time. I also go out of my way to maintain my critical thinking skills and purposefully seek out multiple opinions. I do not support clickbait and hide channels that are clearly just grifters. That said, for as valuable as your insights into the algorithm are, I don't think viewers should have any obligation to care. We aren't supposed to care about the business models behind the content we consume, that's the business owner's problem. I don't care about Netflix's business model because I don't own shares in it. I care if they're giving me good content for my money. UA-camrs stoke the parasocial element of the platform to try to convince people to get invested in their financial success, even though the viewer doesn't get to share in that.
I've subscribed to UA-cam Premium since the day it launched in Canada and don't run an ad blocker on the web in general, but I do run SponsorBlock. Why? Because I pay for Premium to not see ads. If a creator intends to dilute the experience I pay for by inserting ads in other ways, I won't feel bad for blocking them. Aside from the fact that UA-cam sponsorships are littered with outright scams, I'm not interested in an overpriced web creation tool, massively marked up rebadged AliExpress earbuds, an overpriced version of Udemy, a mediocre news aggregation tool or paying a company to non-transparently fight a data broker industry that shouldn't exist to begin with. I wasn't interested the first time you pitched them and I won't be any more interested the 50th time in a week I see a sponsorship for the same company.
If you can't maintain your standard of living without resorting to being unethical, I don't care because you're still being unethical. Adapt your model or die, as a meritocratic free market is theoretically supposed to work. I work in IT and I don't get to lie to clients and sell them stuff they don't need because our company had a bad year and if asked to do so, I would quit on the spot. That would hurt me significantly, but my principals are worth a lot to me and as someone who tries to be good, I think that's how it should be. Being a content creator is a high-risk career and always has been. If you can't handle the risks, don't do it.
The reality that no one wants to admit is that UA-cam is massively oversaturated. Every kid who got a $50 microphone for Christmas thinks they can be the next big star, so they all start channels regurgitating the same tired points, whether or not they believe them. 99% of these people fail, but even in their failures, they dilute the ecosystem and long-term viability of everyone else. This hype bubble needs to pop before we can start seeing this platform return to being a place where you don't have to be a top 5% creator to be successful. UA-cam needs more quality over quantity. Google doesn't care right now as long as they get to show more ads. To them, the videos are all just a means to an end. But make no mistake, something else will come along one day and this bubble will pop. I don't know if UA-cam will fail at that time or evolve into a better place with more quality stuff that you don't have to look as hard to find, but I hope it's the latter.
Speaking as a creator, what I've seen in this video makes me never want to restart my channel. I focused on showcasing cool indie games that people may not have seen in an analytical, but casual fashion. I tried it for years and at the end of the day, no one cared and I don't have the time in my life to do more heavily produced videos than I was. Hard truth, but still truth. Like you said early on, I refuse to play this manipulative games for "the algorithm", selling out my integrity just to get popular with a crowd who is there for my fake projection, instead of for my true passion. But I also still have devs sending me dozens of emails a week, offering my nothing channel game keys because any coverage is good to them. Then, every couple of weeks, someone will leave a comment on an old video of mine that only got 200 views, but will say how much they liked it and how much they appreciate me turning onto a game they would have missed otherwise. I even got connected to a developer of one of my favourite retro pinball games (Balls of Steel) and worked with him to get this game that is notoriously hard to run on modern PCs working perfectly and in a way I can release to the community. I have UA-cam to thank for that. But when I think of the other hobbies I want to try and have constantly brushed aside because I'm living in a sunk cost fallacy, continuing to spend hours cranking out videos that no one watches, I get really sad and feel like I've wasted my time. And it's clear that this niche of UA-cam isn't going to get easier for people like me. Maybe it's time I just rip the band-aid off and learn to be content as a viewer alone.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
I think we're all feeling the pressure to be creators and consumers at the same time right now. Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
@@reallycool Thanks for your thoughtful analysis!
Well-reasoned. I appreciate this.
Moral of the story: Full-time content creation is not a viable career choice for most people. If you’re interested in doing UA-cam, you should view it as a hobby that might provide you a bit of extra income one day.
90% of active UA-cam channels will never even reach monetization, and 99% never break 10k subs
For what it's worth, I did enjoy Starwars Outlaws, just not for the reasons you think. As an aspiring solo developer it was great to see how Ubisoft created the ingame atmosphere yet dropping the ball in other places. Games nowadays are rushed to reach deadlines to appease investors and let's be honest the impatient fans. Meaning the games can't get the care they need whether it's polish to avoid bugs or even the development of satiafying game loops and mechanics.
I've been called out for reading the review script I wrote, just because I didn't have a prompter and you could see me reading what I wrote down. Meanwhile bigger channels get away with flat out lies and mob mentality of being unforgiving to hard working studios who've had bad leadership.
christ that keemstar interview makes me want to puke... can't believe he is still around
how the hell did you get him to agree to talk about it?
First rule: never preorder
Second rule: never trust opinion of someone, who were granted pre release access
Simple consumer hygiene
You sing high praise for the old days of gaming journalism, but i would not be surprised if they too were beholden to similar financial pressure just in a different form. Keep people renewing thier subscription and courting advertisers to print ads on critical pages. So if an advertiser didn't like the magazine's review and pull out, could seriously hurt the magazine's ability to operate and this create an incentive to not review big games too harshly.
The difference now is there is more transparency as to what goes on behind the scenes. With magazines you had to trust that the reviewer played the game sufficiently and not just the tutorial.
It might appear to be praise, but it's really more of a "this was the perception."
@@reallycool well it seems like your only reinforcing that perception when several times in this video you decry the modern state of games journalism with conflicts of interest, in reference to what it was before the era of UA-cam. To me this would imply you believe there wasn't conflicts of interest or unethical reporting with the old outlets of gaming journalism, and that's not something I can believe.
Oftentimes with looking back at the past you only remember the bits you loved and never the struggles of the time. Ignorance plays the biggest role as old methods of advertising games weren't perfect and plenty were never known about like Metal Arms for the PS2, magazines often stated falsehoods and lied to get engagement while review sites in their infancy had the tendency to bomb games for superficial reasons like "not being Christian" and et cetera.
Like OP says, we have better transparency now. I may be too young to have hung around forums but a bit of websurfing on dead/broken links with the internet Archive was revealing enough.
Ill never forget pre-ordering darksouls 2 steel case and just losing my mind on just how different and soulless that game really was.
holly shit, amazing content bro, thanks for sharing your knowledge about youtube with us, loved it
Fantastic video! You made it really easy to follow a topic that gets complicated and detailed quickly.
I have been thinking lately about what happened to the game reviews I used to watch years ago, and this video echos how I have been feeling. And reiterated that the change in gaming reviews wasn’t just a natural change, it was a deliberate devolution.
A similar upload to Star Wars Theory's latest concerning the drama. As someone who played around with UA-cam as a hobby, was on the UA-cam Gaming discord early on, lived through the adpocalypse, etc. the whole thing was a mess from the start. Constantly changing, totally obfuscated, pushing for daily uploads, etc. Just horrible. I continued making videos just for the free games, games that I would play for the review and rarely afterwards. Once that was restricted (too many scammers getting game copies), I gave up on it all. Just not worth the time.
i see this all a bit different. i mean. you (any creator) arent entitled to make youtube your carreer. if "the market" pushes you out then maybe your product wasnt good enough. this is a respond to arguments like "what if you are banned and dont get a key for the next big game" and so on. i actually think the publishers are entitled to block someone. they can do what they want with there game and this will have consequences for them. there is no rule that states you have to give your game to ANY reviewer. everyone can BUY ANY GAME. you arent force to play this shitty game youre blocked from day 1 if you actually have a solid concept for your channel and not just riding the news cycle. for example.. there is this new trend of "cozy game channels" they often look at 20 year old games like the sims and get million views. nobody forces someone to ride the news cycle and get engaged in these shitty PR companys and so on. if you (any creator) get compromised its also your fault. you dont have to do this. if your frustrated choose another carreer path. like any other person would, in any other line of work! sure there are really hollow and big channels but they also get the crowd they deserve. people that dont realise your just a marketing mouthpiece. channels liek SKILLUP are critical but are also very big. so there is also an audience for that. if he dont get a SONIC key. i dont think this woudl have any impact. its a bigger failure for the game as for him. i have to agree that some of youtubes systems dont seem very thinked trough and intransparent. i think they dont do themself a favour by spliting this all up in so many revenue streams all with different systems and rules.
ps: it was always the case that the smallest common denominator gets most popular. avenger movies, pop music, realityTV, uncharted games. its never the smartest or best thing that gets famous. its always the dumbest shit everybody can get behind. not the deepest or most artsy. i like to watch frame breakdowns of graphic engines. BUT NOBODY ELSE CARES. so these channel are tiny! the masses are shallow. i acepted this long time ago. if i wanna read a GOOD BOOK i look at the CLASSICS not current top10 lists! this is all explained by the statistical distibution of intelligence. very few at the top, very few at the bottom. most in the middle! the smartest "ART" will never be the most famous bcs nobody gets it!
pps: you can introduce your shiny new words for things but the masses will never hear them, lol. maybe the 5% over average IQ will. but this will not change anything. you seem rather smart. so, use your smarts and simply play the game better then the simpletons. fck ethics or morals, like everybody else. these are just concepts. you cant measure them! its just an illusion (opinion) in your head that your are more moral then keemstar. the unvierse doesnt care! your both just hairless monkeys with a limited lifespan figuring things out, meanwhile floating through an endless universe. if humanity likes fake and bad youtube channels. they pretty much get what they deserve. you need two sides for dumb shit like mr beast. it should be obvious for a dog with one eye that this is all fake! but it isnt. so, people get what they deserve. the religious concept of KARMA isnt so bad after all! but did mr beast gets what he deserves, you coudl ask? i would say yes. hes a rich psychopath now. not a good tradeoff for him. its only so much you can spend to make you happy. this curves falls pretty heavy after a million.
( im from germany, hope my english makes sense)
Well, if I ever had a plan to get into the UA-cam business then this sure as hell is discouraging.
Thank you for making this. It was both fascinating, but more importantly, helpful in providing understanding into how this platform operates.
I'm glad it was helpful! That was the goal
The least of Outlaws problem was removing or keeping yellow paint, if a game studio with butt loads of money is influenced by a UA-cam review then maybe those developers shouldn’t be working in game development.
23:03 Disagree. A vid is, by its nature, static. So yea, the review of game at release will remain unchanged. Viewers should know this.
.
Most games are not worth a second vid even if they get better. What, we re-review every game every year? And take down the old outdated vid?
I'm nearing the end of the video now and thought it was fantastic! Like many of your other videos. Well done mate!
I am very glad that clicking on one of MauLer's TFA videos lead me to your channel through EFAP, which whenever you're on, it's a wonderful episode so I hope to see you as a guest again soon!
Glad you liked it, thanks for the support!
I miss the good old days of UA-cam. Many years ago, the censorship was not as centralized and controlling like it is now.
Creativity has been damaged for a while here on YT. May you see great and create good content, fellow UA-camrs.💯🇺🇲😎✌️
This is definitely something I've been thinking about and I can't think of a better way to describe it
UA-camrs know people often just put them on in the background like a podcast when they're cleaning house, cooking, working, playing Minecraft & WANT the content to be over an hour.
Doing my part engagement boosting this video. The recommendations have been full of horrendous slop/bait channels, game discourse is so simplistic and boring on yt, if I don't manage catch a gem by the algorithm's mistake, rather than its design.
Yep UA-cam doesn't recommend actual gaming review channels like ours. It recommends open mouth thumbnails with misleading titles. God bless.
Awesome video man! I've thought about some of these topic before but this video highlights a bunch more I haven't initially considered, great work!
It should be listed as a trope for influencers to disguise their exhaustion with low engagement using jabs at algorithms and UA-cam. Influencers played a factor in Starfield but it honestly had little to do with it, fan hype was the main drive behind its release during E3 with Bethesda fan communities spreading the word on Reddit and such, UA-camrs essentially catalysed it but they wouldn't have much material without fan hype.
1:34:54 Well said! As a conservative, myself, even i agree with you here. I feel that a loud minority of radical reactionaries on our side are causing this and, as a result, nuanced discourse is being undermined. We should be able to criticize toxic identity politics without becoming as toxic as those we are criticizing.
it sounds to me like you're just describing verbatim how neoliberal market-driven mass media works! it's suffocating for society at large. our tastes and opinions are driven almost entirely now by the market itself.
If I hadn't gotten a virus from youtube ads, I'd feel worse about not whitelisting creators. UA-cam itself has screwed over its own creators in myriad ways, but their poor to nonexistent curation of the ads they place on content has certainly ground down the ad revenue they gain. My experiences with the ad system has left me feeling unsafe if I try to support creators in that way.
And the bleak reality is that we have the same for every other piece of media as well. Its also in news, journalism (what is left), sports, politic discussion, any kind of social platform and interaction.
Another thoughtful and thorough look into the world of games and journalism. I’ve come to expect nothing less of you, man. As always, keep up the great work.
"....and that's why I'd like to talk about today's sponsor Nebula" 💀
“Before we get into the video, it is in fact your boy: Raid Shadow Legends…”
Twilight sold a lot so it must’ve been good right?!
The rewriting history part is a millennial specialty. I've heard so much rubbish about things that they either weren't around for, or because of their young age, weren't really aware of at the time. Most of it is for minor pop culture stuff, but the echo chamber they live in forces them to believe it to their very core, even if it is verifiably untrue. Very small example - that they are the ones who magically uncovered the satire within Starship Troopers movie......REGARDLESS that it is heavy handed and front & center to the movie, REGARDLESS that 95% of reviewers talked about it at the time (many didn't like the film, but the satire is acknowledged), REGARDLESS that it was Verhoeven and the majority who saw it at the cinema grew up with Robocop. The millennials watched it as kids and saw a fun bug killing movie only, which is fine, they were kids. But somewhere in their early teens someone points out the satire to them, their minds are somehow blown by it, "how did nobody ever notice this!", it propagates on places like Reddit constantly.....and forever more we now have to hear this BS.
We noticed it, we just didn't care. And we unironically loved the very things that idiot Verhoeven was trying to criticize.
I put this on the second screen to start with and it quickly became my primary focus. I wouldn't worry about people finding it dry, it was interesting and informative.
Maybe I'm different, but I hate the algorithm. I don't click on anything unless its from a creator I know. That makes it a bit hard to find new people, but so be it. I basically have no use for youtubers like are described in this video. I just wait for the people I trust to talk about something, or if they aren't talking about it, I will branch out, but I don't watch early reviews. I wasn't always that way. I spent $100 on the Starfield preorder because of that type of review and how much I liked Fallout 4. (I didn't pay attention to criticisms of that game or 76.) That was all it took to learn my lesson. I think the acronym system at the end of the video is a good suggestion for evaluation. Sorry, I don't remember it, but I basically do it now anyway. The world would be better if people actually thought about what they see on social media.
So I've been listening to / watching EFAP for a while and that's how I heard of your channel (went out of my way to search for it, I've never seen your videos in my recommendeds).
One thing I personally despise is UA-cam videos that ask a question and then put the answer in the thumbnail, For example Title: "How many Mario games have Yoshi, actually?" and then the thumbnail will have a giant ABOUT 17 in it somewhere, that type of video instantly makes me want to hit "Do not recommend channel" like you're killing the intrigue immediately by spoiling the answer before I even click. I even saw one thumbnail that had "This is an interesting question, I swear" in it. If I could wipe that type of video title / thumbnail combination off of UA-cam I would.
Little tangent but I felt like this was a good place to put it. If anyone reads this let me know what type of UA-cam videos you can't stand and avoid at all costs.
Another great video. Would be really cool to see you team up with Laura Fryer and/or TheOtherFrost and/or Tim Cain to do a podcast on these topics. They have incredible insights to UA-cam and game development as a whole.
I'm always happy to meet new people
@reallycool they've all don't similar, albeit much less in depth, videos on this particular subject. These rare types - speak truth, offer honest critique, & remain humble... all without taking bribes, handouts, or coercing their viewers.
1:10:14 THQ and THQ Nordic are essentially 2 different companies Nordic Games just bought the THQ trademark and slapped it onto their name
appreciate your insights, this is a sobering look at the issues creators face and what a minefield gaming discourse is these days.
Yep. This is the one reason my channel will never be big or successful. Because I refuse to sell out and placate to the algorithm.
14:23 all that data and they still can barely show me 3 videos im interested in beyond my subscriptions. What a useless company.
@@skyfall-1738 I thought I was the only one
1:27:10 - Holy crap, Scykoh. It's been so long that seeing that name is making me nostalgic. And we still get the fruit back!
Holy crud*
Never heard of sponsorblock before, just the regular adblock. Will try it out.
1:10:01 This is misleading at best. THQ is not THQ Nordic. The old THQ failed in 2012 and Nordic Games bought the THQ name, becoming THQ Nordic. The failed company being addressed in that video is not the THQ of today and running ads on it saying "We're another comoany still making games." I honestly have a hard time finding issue with.
Also, THQ Nordic is not Embracer Group, it's one of many divisions of it. Fact checking as you say.
THQ Nordic is, in fact, the Embracer Group.
@@reallycool No, they are not. They are a separate corporate division, headquartered in a different place as a different corporation. Embracer Group owns them yes, but they operate autonomously. That is not the same thing. You also have not addressed the fact that in your script, you incorrectly equated THQ Nordic with the old THQ Inc. (originally known as Toy HeadQuarters), which are not the same company, nor do the failures of the original reflect on the new.
no. Both of you are just wrong. I AM THQ
@@BonusCrook "That's not truuuuue! That's imPOSSible!"
Really insightful and helpful video. Honestly you could re-edit the script for this to apply to UA-cam as a whole, of course the gamer element is fascinating but many you tubers in other genres openly say they create certain types of content because it does better algorithmically. Even a make up artist I followed doesn't post make up tutorials because reacting to TV shows performs better.
Yes, but as a gaming youtuber this video has to be "about gaming" or it gets seriously penalized
@@reallycool totally understand, that must be incredibly frustrating. I genuinely hope that it reaches a wider audience because even with the gamer angle you've made it very approachable.
Shill influencers and game journalists are terrible. But i also add the grifting youtubers as well. The 'anti woke' types who do nothing but angry rage bait every new game release for clicks. Adding nothing to the conversation but more toxicity.
They are just as inauthentic as anyone from IGN/Polygon or influencers flown out by companies to mindlessly praise a game. We real gamers covering games on youtube, who don't rely on buzzwords and cover games on their own merits. No get fake outraged because they see a woman in a game trailer.
You covered so much in this vid! I need a moment to process this but ill make a fuller reply to this vid on the crub disc
i just hate how the current algorythm feels like its straight outta 1984. Media during the 90's to early 2010, wasn't afraid to express it self and protize making money, there was a golden age of media all around, movies, TV, video games, if something wanted to play it safe and have soul, it could, if something wanted to be edgy/push the envelope/ dare to be bold. It most certainly could! I doubt its a factor of getting older, cause when I was a kid I always avoided zombified family advertiser friendly content anyway, it just wasn't my thing. Now that's all the algorithm cares about ensuring your watching the most perfectly over situmatiating, zombified, censored, advertiser family friendly content. No body can be edge, dare to be bold, have imperfect output on their expression but still staying true to its self.
i can confidently say google/youtube doesn't know anything about me, cause the shit it recommends me is 95% stuff i don't want to watch. but occasionally something like this pops up, which i'm happy to watch from start to end
43k for cost of living seems a bit low considering most content creators live on the west coast, with a lot of them taking up residence in LA County. The smartest creators will seek out a place with a low cost of living so they can afford pennies on the dollar in terms of their expenses.
However, that creates a different problem with inconsistent Internet service. If a content creator does not have good Internet, they cannot do their job...and it forces them to seek out high cost of living areas just so they have access to a reliable ISP.
Yes, I based the COL on the average US city with gigabit internet, so it's going to be lower if you're in a major metropolitan area.
Always grateful for the depth and quality of your analysis on any topic! This has been an insightful video and I appreciate your transparency.
The bit about perception of a game changing is definitely something I've seen in real time and it is scary. People turning on a game because of some dipshit's supposed "authoritative" stance relative to people who actually seriously play titles in a genre is endlessly frustrating. I guess it pays to be stubborn and stick with what you like, despite the online echochamber telling you it sucks or is good.
What about all the "free" stuff you get from sponsors?
A friendly reminder that Jason Shrier knew all about the SH allegations in Blizzard.
This is why i wait at least a year to buy a game. Let's Play's are also a good avenue. There's always a conflict of interest when money and incentives dangle over people.
New Year's Eve means an avalanche of awesome vids from all my fave creators! Happy 2025 everyone!
great video, honestly amazingly insightful.
It's not entitlement to not want ads shoved in my face at all times. It's not entitlement to not pay for something being offered for free. If a youtuber wants to restrict a video to paying customers, that's their call and i have no problem with that, but the value proposition on a youtube video is too low to justify paying for them instead of putting that money towards saving for a house or something
"The result is over bloated content that prioritizes watch time over substance, dragged out past it's natural conclusion, and quantity over concision"
*Looks at 12 hour video game retrospective on the front page*
12 hours for the entire history of videogames is not that long if you think about it. A topic being discussed for many hours doesn't mean it's inherently bloated or stretched
It's not just gaming. This reminds me of all the LotR channels that I loved before Rings of Power came out. There literally were none that panned the series and every fan I know hates it.
Influencer effect makes all reviews suspect.
It isn't just influencers. Look at the rave legacy media critical reception for True Detective: Night Country then watch the season and tell me you believe those were the legitimate opinions of the reviewers lol. This was right around the time 'HBO Max' rebranded to simply 'Max' and they were pumping a ton of money to promote both it and the first new season of TD for five years. The original concept for Night Country wasn't even meant to be TD at all and no one involved with the previous seasons had anything to do with it but they shoehorned it in for IP recognition.
The flood of "The prequels aren't as bad as you remember" articles just before the launch of Disney's Star Wars is just as suspicious.
All of this to say that if a reviewer hasn't already been bought they're probably in the minority.
Did you actually watch it? A lot of outrage tourists were panning the show hoping to make a quick buck while calling it WoKe. Not chasing the clout is a sign of integrity.
@@MonicaMoraal Yeah, the key to those LotR channels isn't whether they like it or not but how are they analyzing the show. Does it come across as just blind praise? Does it seem inauthentic like they're just reading bullet points? Then sure it makes sense to question their integrity. But if they're giving you nuanced analysis for each episode where they're breaking down what they liked and disliked about it while overall holding a positive opinion of it, then I don't see where the problem is. That's what you should want with a channel. Maybe you don't agree entirely with it, but you'd appear to be getting that persons genuine opinion rather than them chasing outrage or telling their viewers what they think those people want to hear.
im so lucky to have stumbled upon this video. 17k views is way too low. seems yt is actually suppressing the video in the algorithm.
Most of my content takes a while to hit, and I legitimately expected this video to get much less considering the subject matter
@reallycool crossing the fingers for the delayed hit
hearing the facts would be really benifitial for the youtube viewers and might lead to some collective action on the part of the creators
it gotta blow up 🚀🚀🚀
I remember predicting what would happen with Cyberpunk 2077. I basically said "It's not ready yet, they said it's not ready yet but shipping it anyways," and got into an argument with someone claiming that I had no idea what I was talking about.
I'm still salty about spending months seeing UA-camrs come to the same conclusion that I came up with immediately, and that I was bullied on Reddit for saying. Never got an apology from the people who said that I was completely wrong and I should trust the studio.
I agree with everything you have said about the modern gaming influencer ecosystem, but I am about when you believe that honest ethical gaming journalism existed. Gaming journalism was a cesspool plagued by conflicting interests and backroom deals between journalists and game publishers long before UA-cam. Gaming journalism has never been good. If anything, I think UA-cam has made the dishonesty more obvious, and therefore easier to avoid. And with the large number of creators on the platform, it is at least possible to find a couple gems among the pile of manure.
It's better to be the honest asshole than to be the popular sellout. That's what I tell myself before I cry myself to sleep, but nobody said it would be easy!
I'mma keep this short because I don't want to lose people in the weeds here, as far as reviewing games go, the best a reviewer can do is just tell the viewer what the game is as accurately as possible and what state the game was in during that time. You can't say what's good and what's not because that is subjective and shouldn't be tried to standardized in the first place. Just inform the viewer, that's it. everything else is just fluff.