Watching YouTube for a living - How It Makes Me Feel

For starter, I should acknowledge the fact that I have a great job. Who wouldn't be happy watching videos all day? Right?
I have built my career around content and even though I started in Television, I was always a lot more interested in new media and new video technology so going the digital route made sense. (Hopefully one day I'll get to work in the video game world). However, I have no talent. I am no writer or producer. I have no imagination. I am not an engineer or a tech person either. What I do have though, is a sharp critical mind that spots what works and what doesn't. That's the reason why I am an editor.

Being a content editor in the digital space is very rewarding but at the same time frustrating and a little overwhelming. There are so many great creations out there that it is very tricky to do a perfect job. Also, there is popular content on the forefront of this business that, to an editor's eye, shouldn't be there. I live for the days I have to curate and edit content from Scott DW but I very much dread having to watch Seven Super Girls' episodes. In full. Like, the whole thing. I watch a wide breath of content every day and not only does it sometimes shocks me to know millions of people are watching this below average content, it makes me feel totally inadequate.

Here I see thousands of people who have the drive and the talent to create something out of nothing and become successful at it. Even if most might not have the PewDiePie numbers behind them, they still get great pocket money out of it and most importantly, they have fun doing it. I always found myself to be a hobbyless person but working on YouTube content totally highlighted that fact even more. And should I have any, I wouldn't know how to turn one of my passion into something lucrative. I do not have that mindset of an entrepreneur. I love video games so I am going to try and work for a developer one day but that's really all I can do. I am not going to have a successful gaming channel or write a story or crazy things like that! To me, these YouTube creators are more than just talented at what they do, they are fucking builders. They are extremely resourceful and driven and that is something I envy. Am I more boring or less charismatic than most of these people? I don't think so. But I do not have that instinct of creating something and making an idea come to life. This is extremely frustrating to me and it always was. My dad was a business owner and built a little empire. I could never do that. I am sure I have exploitable skills and knowledge to make a business successful, but I just do not have the vision.

Working on other people's vision is what I am destined to do I suppose, and I should just be happy with that. However, everybody strives to be relevant and have purpose in life. The YouTube and Digital stardom phenomenon shifted that quest in a weird, virtual, instant gratification direction and made me feel even worse about myself. I am an expert in my field and I should be proud of that but I hope one day I will be able to visualize something of my own, anything, that I can make into reality.

Week of 3/7 YouTube Videos to Watch - Let's have a Giggle!

Hey dudes and dudettes, 

I compiled some funny stuff for you this week so be prepared to laugh (you better)! Some of the below videos are from pretty established YouTubers but some have a much smaller audience which shows the digital platform is truly filled with amazing content in every corner.

Hope you have a good time with these!

COMEDY: F-Comedy is a small channel with comedy sketches and other funny bits. They have less than 30,000 subs but they recently attracted a lot of people with their new video: Make Your Face Great Again – Trumping. I mean, who doesn't like a good beauty how-to am I right?

COMEDY: Smosh really doesn’t need introduction. Their recent video is obviously popular and pokes fun at the HGTV show and trend “tiny house”. I love HGTV with a passion but I am sure if they'd watch it, they'd fine it funny too. 

ENTERTAINMENT: Anybody interested in table top or video games know Geek & Sundry. However, some people might know the channel/website because of the remarkable Felicia Day (Supernatural, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. We really should be best friends). They create a great mix of content and recently picked up “Riftworld Chronicles”. The below video is a sneak peak of the whole episode that can be found on their website. This is high production value, great acting, hilarious and very special if you like video games or just fantasy lore.

ENTERTAINMENT: Good Mythical Morning’s presenters are huge YouTube stars and present a really cool show every week day. Their latest is about Fallout Shelters and it’s great! They probably should have released that in November with Fallout 4...

COMEDY: Nuclear Family is again one of those smaller comedy channels with potential. Their latest sketch is called “Your Favorite Movie Characters Gender Swapped” and is fitting with the ongoing Hollywood sexism conversations. Also, it's very good. 

EXTRA VIDEO (Not Funny) - COOKING: Tastemade has created a very cool cooking docu type series called HERITAGE. The 10min show focus on chefs’ personal stories and inspirations. It’s really beautifully made and this episode follows a cool chef who boxes on the side! I mean, he's not a vegetarian but I guess he's still a catch. 

Let's Play NEPTUNIA VII - Didn't expect this!

I was not familiar with the Neptunia series before picking up Megadimension Neptunia VII so I really didn't know what to expect. The game came out in February in the US (in 2015 in Japan) and I thought I would give it a try. As everybody knows, I love a good RPG and I am a sucker for female protagonists so when I saw that this game was basically a female fest, I went for it whole heartedly. I am usually not a fan of Japanese games but it did look good in the trailer so I had to try it. (I have been a long time fan of Final Fantasy though, until Final Fantasy XIII).

The whole thing is pretty straightforward and simple. This is a turn base combat RPG with some degree of crafting, customization and strategy. The levels are very linear and there is close to no cinematic or animation. The whole thing is told through drawings. Mind you, they are very pretty and appealing drawings. I actually loved the concept art A LOT.

The style is very anime and recognizable but they did it really well, with popping colors and distinctive designs for each characters. The latter are very cool. Some of them are whiny and slightly annoying but that is part of the tone of the game. They were never Final Fantasy XIII Vanille annoying though. Their voices were just super high pitched and they talked like they were Valley girls (however, I very much appreciated the dubbing quality). Apart from that, they had great personalities, cute outfits and very neat combat animations. There are two things that really surprised me in Neptunia VII. 1) The story is amazing. Granted, it has a Power Rangers feel to it with mega monsters destroying cities and the girls morphing into "superheroes" but the meta aspect of this game is refreshing. I am not sure if the series always broke through the 4th wall but I thoroughly enjoyed that. The world is called "Gameindustri" and the girls are "CPUs". They also often talk about the fact that they cannot die because they are the protagonists and the fact that they need to talk to the writers about things they don't like. I really enjoyed that. 2) I got some hints of cheekiness in the first lines of dialogue but I just thought it was my filthy mind. Well, it was not. It was all real. This game is definitely cheeky. The dialogue totally uses double meanings and the girls sometimes shower together, because, tits. The drawings for that part were still amazing, if unnecessary. I just thought it was very funny and unexpected. I am looking forward to more girls showers and pillow fights!

Below is my playthrough of the 1st hour and 1st mission. Unfortunately, the shower scene only came later!! Did you play it? If so, what did you think? I personally give it a 5/5, partly because I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this game and I really didn't expect it to be that entertaining. Some people who played the previous games in the series might have a different opinion, but having a fresh look at this title, I really didn't want anything more out of it. I had fun, I was intrigued and sucked in Gameindustri, loved the characters and the gameplay. I am off to play some more.

Week of 2/28 YouTube Videos to Watch - More Oscars and Politics?

It’s that time of the week again and I believe I have gathered the most random collection of DiFi content to date. No theme this week but a lot of quirky videos that I wanted to share with you:

Week of 2/29 DiFi Videos

ENTERTAINMENT: The Oscars might be over but they are still very much trending online. Casey Neistat’s video is right in that soft spot. He got an invite to the big event and was even able to go backstage so this video is very much “YouTube goes to the Oscars” and it’s better than the actual show.

TRAVEL: The BuzzFeedBlue channel describes its content as “bite-size knowledge for a big world” and their videos are really interesting and creative, much like the original BuzzFeed content. Here, we learn about Japanese Maid Cafes! Neat!

COMEDY: I have already shared an awesome travel video from Above Average (I call it “online SNL”) but here is an even better comedy skit focusing on the presidential race news.

COOKING: Rosanna Pansino (Kin Community) is the crème de la crème of YouTube cooking stars. I honestly cannot stand her voice but she's cute! She shares a cute Emoji Waffles “recipe” this week that might appeal to people with smaller persons at home.

COMEDY: I had to share a Jenna Marbles video at some point. I love this lady. She’s hilarious and makes pretty random videos that hit more than 1M views every week. She embodies what YT content is at its core.

See you next week!

Lulu 

How To Cope With Video Game delays - Advice from an obsessive personality

Today, as we know, was a pretty tough day for all of us obsessive gamers. When I say "obsessive gamer" I do not mean obsessed with video games in general. I mean obsessed by one or very few specific titles. It's very easy to cope with delays if you are interested in all of the games released every year. This is more of an issue when your yearly happiness quota relies entirely on one or two games. The delay becomes more than just an additional waiting period, it brings a dreadful feeling of loss and emptiness and disorientation. The obsessive personality will understand when I say that I had planned my emotional schedule leading to the release of my favorite IP very specifically. Now the year is all messed up and I basically need to reschedule my happiness.

Of course, people will say that a delay is for the best. Indeed, it allows developers to fully finalize and polish their creation. And that is completely true. However, do not give an obsessive personality a goal to reach if that goal is going to be moved over and over. This is very disconcerting.
So if you are like me and do not cope well with change in your emotional gaming schedule and need help, here is a video that gives you steps to deal with the disappointment, pain and confusion that a video game delay brings. Stay strong my friends, stay strong!

Week of 2/22 YouTube Videos to Watch - Oscars, Presidential Race, UFC, Skiing.

There was a nice amount of strong content this week. I had a very hard time cutting it down! Fortunately for you, I am Editor extraordinaire and also a genius so I managed to do it. I went the seasonal route: Oscars, Presidential Race, UFC (there’s more than just the Oscars on this weekend), Skiing. Done. Hopefully you haven’t seen all of them yet!

Week of 2/22 DiFi Videos

ENTERTAINMENT: A small channel got a lot of attention this week as Huw Parkison released his video called “Winter is Trumping”. His timing was pretty spot on, with all the Game of Thrones tease and Trump’s wins, a lot of trades picked it up and this small little Australian channel reached more than 1M views for the very first time. Awwwwwwww.  

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SPORTS: Most of us might be passionate about movies and TV and video games but it doesn’t mean nothing else matters. There’s an important fight happening on Saturday in London and the UFC YouTube channel is gearing up for it. I love what they are doing with their original programming and this “UFC Fight Night Embedded: Vlog Series” is the perfect format for both fans and casual viewers:

SPORTS: Another seasonal sports’ video is taking over the Internet and you can thank Candide Thovex for that. If you do not know who he is, he’s one of the best freestyle skier in the world, sponsored by Quiksilver and he is, of course, French! He has released the previous episodes in 2014 and 2015, with the second episode gathering more than 18M views. This is awesome, exciting, fun YouTube content at its best.

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ENTERTAINMENT: Finally, the main event! The Oscars. There was no shortage of digital videos poking fun at the Oscars or simply talking about the award ceremony this week. I have picked the two that were the most popular, and in my opinion, the funniest. The first one is obviously from John Oliver and the second one from Screen Junkies!

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Here’s a little extra video only relevant to us animal lovers. The others, I am not sure what’s bloody wrong with you you heartless shits…

NEWS: Quasi The Hunchback Hound has become a social media sensation over the past few weeks and it was only a matter of time before his cute little head popped up on YouTube.

Week of 2/15 YouTube Videos to Watch

Hey guys,

This week, the Internet was ruled by Valentine's Day and Grammy feuds. Thankfully, only one of my videos feature the holiday and only one features an award show (this time the Oscars). Hope you have some time to watch these beauties!

Week of 2/15 Videos to Watch

COMEDY:  CollegeHumor, no need to introduced those cheeky monkeys, published a new video calling out people who say they care about food waste (aka Angelinos). 

CollegeHumor also produced a video for the Code/Media conference. It is both awesome and extremely relevant

GAMING: A small online video game went viral this week, even my co-workers played it. But most importantly PewDiePie rode the wave and did a video about it.

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COMEDY: Unclaimed Youtube royality, Nigahiga, created a sweet Valentine’s day video about romantic gifts. In my opinion, these ideas can be used year around for birthdays and Christmas so it is still relevant a week after the holiday!

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GAMING: Part of Collective Digital Studio, AndrewMFilms is an awesome channel for fans of both gaming and cool, quality videos. You might not know who the characters from Portal and Half Life are but you can still enjoy the film’s quality. If you like this video, browse their channel and don’t miss Fallout vs Skyrim or Mario vs Minecraft (45M views). AndewMFilms videos are often featured on Digital Spy and every single gaming site ever. Since everybody is now looking at the gamers as a desirable audience (see Hulu original, CW eSports etc.), you should pay attention J

Week of 2/8 Youtube Videos to Watch

Hey guys,

So most of the viral and digital videos this week were Super Bowl commercials. URGH. I had to dig deep to find you these nuggets of gold. You’re welcome.

Week of 2/8 DiFi Videos to Watch

ENTERTAINMENT: Trying to put their React World debacle behind them, the Fine Bros (Fullscreen) released a new episode of Kids React. They have a sub category of react videos that are for toys only and this one is about Furbies!

This is why I love animals and hate kids (apart from the little girl in the green shirt below, she’s going to rule the world someday, she kind of looks like me from far away so she’s fine)

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ENTERTAINMENT: As you all know, Youtube has launched an SVOD service back in October and released the first batch of original programming this week (among them is Scare PewDiePie: not good, believe you me). This is a clip for their original feature film (by Rooster Teeth - Fullscreen) called Lazer Team. Interestingly, the comments, likes/dislikes and view count have been disabled on every Youtube Red promotional videos. This was a very good idea.

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NEWS/EDUCATION: Premium Publishers and News sites are doing extremely well on Youtube these days. This week, VOX had a very popular and relevant video out on the platform about the NFL Yellow Line. Perfect timing and great reception for their most viewed video since November.

ENTERTAINMENT: Screen Junkies (Defy Media) are obviously famous for their Honest Trailers series but there are many other great videos produced by their team that are less mainstream, or shall I say nerdier. Here is one for whoever is going to see Deadpool this weekend and wants to know a little more about this (awesome) character. I am going to the movies this weekend. I am dressing up as Deadpoolette, it’s an actual thing.

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TRAVEL: The French Embassy would have scolded me should have I not shared this with you. This is an episode of Laughs in Translation, a travel show hosted by comedian Brooks Wheelan on the Above Average channel (Premium Publisher). The latter has a lot of views but not many subscribers even though the production quality is a lot higher than many of its competitors.

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GAMING NEWS: You guys need to watch Mortal Kombat X: Machinima’s Chasing the Cup on the CW Seed. This is such a great example of what TV and MCNs can accomplish together. It also shows that gaming and eSports are becoming a lot more mainstream and people are interested in the community a lot more. There are clips available on the CW Seed and extra content on each competitor. I am rooting for BioHazard, he’s cute and sensitive, but he plays Ferra Tor so that shows a grittier and manly personality. Who will be your favorite?

Scare PewDiePie - Are people going to pay for this?

Have you watched the new PewDiePie show? It's on Youtube Red, as I am sure you are aware, and unless you have already subscribed to the service because you either are a super fan of one of the creators or a weirdo, then you might have just seen the free episode Level 7. What did you think of it?

Basically, the show is all about putting Pewds in "scary" situations and record him. That's about it. I would have totally been down for that! I love Pewds reactions to ANYTHING so I would have watched that for sure. However, as I started watching, two things appeared very clear to me:
1. Pewds was super out of his element and kind of awkward.
2. The show was really cheesy and non organic.

In Level 7, PewDiePie has to walk through a mental hospital floor. That seems to be a pretty great start. Again, what I found interesting is Pewds personality didn't shine as much as in his own Youtube videos. He was sort of reserved and weird, I wanted to give him a big hug. Then, a doctor appeared and you figure out that Pewds is not the only person featured in this show and most importantly, the show is scripted and Pewds doesn't seem to work well with that. I understand that this is mirroring a video game level so some sort of interaction with other characters does make sense and is necessary. I think the issue I had with it is just the way Pewds interacted with that world. I am so used to seeing him at ease and just doing his thing that it was sort of cringe worthy to see him so out of his element which awkwardly put him between a spontaneous situation and a scripted experience. I wouldn't pay just to see this show, I would much rather watch his current free videos on Youtube. What did you guys think? Did you think it was a great show? Did you see anything worth paying for on Youtube Red? Do you think that PewDiePie could have done a better job at this without a crew and writers and money?
Because Pewds will always be a cutie, I give his new show a 3 out of 5 cats! Love you Pewds. Hugs/Bro Fist!

Fallout 4 - How easy is it to create a sexy character?

How many times can I say the word "prominent" in a video? Well you can find out by watching my "how to make a sexy Fallout 4 character" video, it should be a drinking game.

I just wanted to take some time to talk about the now old Fallout 4 character creator. The latter exercise in imagination and wishful thinking is one of my favorite part of any RPG and I always find myself spending hours and hours creating and re creating my characters. Granted, most of us do, but this is how Dragon Age: Origins hooked me back into the world of gaming so it has a very special place in my heart.

I do like Bethesda's ability at making a great character creation tool and we've seen them do it time and time again with Elder Scrolls so it is no surprise the Fallout 4 version is as good. In my video I mention that I really liked the recent Final Fantasy XIV one and I stand by this. I thought it was one of the greatest. I suppose that the fact that FF XIV aesthetic is much more rooted in fantasy and anime makes for a more entertaining experience. It gives you so much more freedom and options with your character that it's pretty difficult to beat. I was able to choose some awesome outfits, ears, tales, races and I could go on for a long time. Even though Elder Scrolls had different races to choose from, the realism was still too important to really let your imagination loose. But this is the type of game we are dealing with here: realistic representation of a fantasy world, so your character needs to be somewhat relatable.

I will compare Fallout 4 character creator with DAI's. Even though, as an overall game I much prefer DAI, the character creator was fairly lacking. You didn't have much option when it came to hair, unless you wanted to choose between 3mm or 5mm on your head. The different features were also limited to a few choices and unless you went with the Elf, you couldn't really add much to a human's face. I understand the constraint of realism and I am aware that there are lady gamers out there that want for their female hero to be as realistic as possible but I am not in that camp. For sure. I know people who want their female warrior to exclusively have short hair because that would be the practical choice in that situation. They also do not want their warrior or soldier to use skimpy outfits and show some skin because, should you be in the situation of fighting off a horde of Reapers or creepy monsters of the Wasteland, you certainly would cover yourself with as much armor as possible. Well, I say fuck feminism and equality. I want my characters to be both bad ass AND fashionable! Nothing made me happier than seeing Shepard fight her way through the Citadel defenses in her little black dress (Citadel DLC). I want super long hair that get tangled in branches while fighting dragons and skirts that don't stop bullets.

I have to say that Fallout 4 gave me some of the tools to make that happen but still, no hair below the shoulders my dear friends!! I still tried to make a sexy Fallout 4 hero and I think I succeeded, because who said that short hair wasn't super attractive? What do you think of my character? Have you managed to make a sexier, better female in Fallout 4? What's your favorite character creator? 

I give Fallout 4 three cats out of 5 for their tool...

Youtube Videos to watch - Week of 2/1

I am late, as usual, at posting this but I will not be for the next ones and that's a promise!!
Here is something I have wanted to do for a while and that's compile some of the best Youtube original creations that come out every week so you don't have to skim through all your subs and all the trending videos out there. You're welcome!

Week of 2/1 Videos to Watch

EDUCATION: Educational videos are limited to a few popular channels on Youtube but last week, one of the smaller ones was in the spotlight for one of its video. The channel, Kurzgesagt, part of Endemol, is publishing about 3 videos a month only but with a very specific aesthetic and style which drew almost 2M views in 3 days. This is little video about stars is sure to make you either very depressed or slightly depressed. 3/5 cats!

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ENTERTAINMENT: ScottDW (Fullscreen) is again one of those creators that take its time to publish high quality content (original music, 4K resolution, original choreography etc.). He just released a Super Bowl themed video with a chicken wings song that will blow your mind. (SYTYCD fans, Cyrus is a regular in his videos) 3/5 cats.

Staying in the Football theme, Maker’s Bad Lip Reading channel released a new Bad Lip Reading of the NFL. Again, they don’t publish content often, but when they do, it’s always a hit with 6M views in only 2 days. I personally liked the first one a lot better, because of the Orange Peanut, of course! 2/5 cats.

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ENTERTAINMENT: Youtube Red is on the attack! PewDiePie (Maker Studios) just released the trailer for his new original series that will only be available through the Youtube Red subscription service. I will be watching! Anything PewDiePie does. I didn't mean to, it just happened, he grabbed me and never let go!!! 4/5 cats.

SPORTS: The UFC official Youtube channel has uploaded the 2^nd episode of their new Dana White: Lookin’ for a Fight series. The travel/combat sport series is a Youtube exclusive and the 30 minutes episodes are scheduled to release on a monthly basis. The series is bound to be the channel’s most popular programming with Episode 1 almost reaching 1M views and episode 2 trending on the Youtube homepage. 2/5 cats.

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ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: The Fine Bros (Fullscreen) released a video earlier last week about React World, an initiative they have been working on and were proud to announce. They basically wanted to trademark the REACT format of their videos and license it around the world. Suffice it to say, people were NOT happy. It got so much backlash from Youtube stars (response videos etc.) and subscribers alike that they lost more than 600k subscribers - to date. It keeps on going down. They released a video to try and respond to some of the criticism but it didn’t appease anybody. 2 days later, they just completely shut down their React World project and removed all related videos. Don’t screw with the Internet. The latter already gave this initiative 0/5 cats.

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