Enter The World of YouTube Gaming!

I love videogames. I caught the gaming bug during the Christmas of 1998. It was shaping up to be like any other Christmas, but little did I know that I was about to receive a gift that would infect me with a chronic case; a PlayStation console and a copy of Croc 2. Well, it was actually my parents’ gift to my brother, but the point remains – on that day, I became a gamer.

In fact, I don’t just love playing videogames. Whether it be buying them, collecting them, displaying them, talking about them, reading about them or writing about them (as I am now) – if it involves videogames, then I’m interested.

However, as a child growing up in the late 1990s – and in the isolated city of Perth, no less – it was difficult to find anyone who shared my passion for the medium. Sure, I had those special friendships that were forged atop a couch with a pair of DualShock 2 controllers, but I knew nobody else who had thrice defeated Doctor Neo Cortex or had even heard of Sonic The Hedgehog. In those days, if you were looking for people to share a mutual passion for gaming with, you were limited to the few family members, friends or neighbours who happened to be gamers.

Today, things could not be more different. Gaming is increasingly popular and mainstream – and the ability to play online with people living far and wide is an unspoken expectation of most multiplayer games. We can access a plethora of social media websites and applications through which videogames can be discussed ad infinitum; some are even marketed specifically to a gaming audience.

The one that has (arguably) had the biggest impact on the gaming community so far is the video-sharing website, YouTube. On YouTube, not only can videogames be discussed but also shown to varying extents and in an assortment of increasingly creative formats. For example, a friend of mine recently claimed to have ‘finished’ Marvel’s Spider-Man for PlayStation 4. After I (astutely) observed that he didn’t own a PlayStation 4 console, he explained to me that he had finished watching a series of playthrough videos uploaded by user jacksepticeye.

According to SuperData Research, my friend is but one of 701 million viewers who, in 2018, chose to experience videogames in this way – that is, vicariously, through the creators of ‘gaming video content’. This year, that number is expected to surge by an estimated 42 million viewers.

I initially saw little appeal in watching videos of other people playing videogames. But in 2010, I began following a small number of American creators (including cobanermani456 and TheCoDBrothersGaming) who played games like Ratchet & Clank and Super Mario Galaxy; the sort of games that I was obsessed with. I tuned in as they played and shared their thoughts on these games at the height of the ‘Let’s Play’ format’s popularity.

These ‘YouTube gamers’ were rallying points for thousands of like-minded gamers who didn’t even know that the others existed. Finally, it was easy to find and connect with people who were passionate about the games that you were passionate about. I was inspired and created my own channel, ‘GamingAtOne’, in the hope that it would become a similar rallying point. That was seven years ago and my channel – since rebranded as ‘GameAndWongerz’ – has amassed a modest community of 900 gamers.

I haven't quite reached the heights of my mentors but my time as a YouTube gamer has been anything but a waste. In fact, it has been very rewarding. By setting myself as my target audience, my videos attract viewers with a similar taste in games to my own - some of whom produce great gaming content of their own. This is how I’ve connected with gamers based in Perth, across Australia and beyond!  

I’ve also picked up more hard skills than I know what to do with. Good news for any technology buffs that are out there – this hobby lives off of technology! At the very least, it needs a decent computer and internet connection. On top of those, I needed capture cards to record gameplay, microphones to record commentary and software to edit videos with. It took a while to teach myself to use these devices and to edit…and it really shows in my earlier videos. I was probably too ambitious – a video about gaming can be as straightforward as playing through a game, after all. But I later had the advantage when I started creating films for classes at university, because I already knew the basic recording and editing skills.

Surprisingly, there are plenty of soft skills to be learned, too. If a video is particularly complicated, it can require as much hard work as any university assignment! My average viewer only watches a video for about two minutes – so clear and concise communication during that time is essential to holding their interest! And of course, it takes planning, writing, time-managing and problem-solving skills just to upload these videos regularly.

There are also miscellaneous rewards. For a time, I was lucky enough to have my channel qualify for YouTube’s Partner Program. I received revenue generated from advertisements that were run next to my popular videos. As some of my friends put it, I was ‘paid to play videogames’. But before you drop out of university, let me say; it didn’t last for long and was a far cry from an income. As a Communication and Media Studies graduate, my channel is more important to me as a showcase to potential employers – a showcase of technical skills that I’ve acquired over the years and of some things that I’m very passionate about (videogames).

So if, like me, you struggle to keep your love of videogames to the confines of sound and space, then you should think about entering the world of YouTube gaming - you’ll encounter hundreds of people with whom you can share that! And if you’re at all interested in a career in the media (or are just the next PewDiePie), a YouTube channel is a valuable asset! Even if you’re neither of these things, dabbling in YouTube gaming is a proven way of learning transferable hard and soft skills while working on something that you’ve built and can be passionate about.

This feature article was originally published in the ‘Enter’ Edition of the University of Western Australia’s Pelican Magazine (March, 2019).