The Video Game Critic

Call me slow, but I just found out a few days ago that some of the most popular Let's Play channels are actually able to make a living off the ad revenue they get on YouTube. That means their whole career revolves around playing video games, making funny commentary, and then putting it on the internet. Does that not sound like the best job ever? Cuz that sounds like the best job ever to me. I've considered starting a channel myself, but 1. I don't have the money for the recording software I'd need, and 2. that market is oversaturated, so I'd never get anywhere anyway.

You need an angle.

For instance, are you famous or related to anyone famous? Do you special connections or skills related to gaming? Are you very attractive or willing to go to the work of being very attractive? Are you female and willing to shamelessly leverage your assets? Could you create an amusing or memorable on air personality? Do you have or can you learn an a charming accent? Could you create videos with outstanding production values? Cod you create videos that stand out for deceptively low standards that are really a lot of work? Do you know a lot of gaming cosplayers? Could you work with a few others as a comedy troupe? Could you focus on one type of gaming and become the guru of that small genre? Can you ruthlessly disparage your competition to create the atmosphere of battling titans?

Like music and acting, always room for more talent as yesterdays talent is tossed aside.

The only person I have ever followed for "Lets Play" videos was AVGN. Love Mike's live streams. Pat the NES Punk just started doing them as well, and its not too bad. There is another girl on YouTube I follow called "Cannot be Tamed" who does quite a few Lets Play videos, but they are usually PC games that dont interest me.

My favorite Let's Players are PB&Jeff (PeanutButterGamer and Space Hamster). Game Grumps can be funny, but I don't like how they have to rely on bad words and dirty humor. PB&Jeff are hilarious, but they do it by being genuinely funny, not by dropping the F-bomb a hundred times per minute.

I'm not a huge fan of let's plays but I have watched several of Mike's videos on Cinemassacre. I agree that you need some kind of angle to make this work. I think i'd honestly start to hate gaming if I had to make it my job. Still, compared to other types of youtube channels to start, gaming channels tend to do very well with youtube's current advertising policies for a couple reasons:
1.) the videos tend to be quite long and require minimal editing, thus Youtube sees how long and how many people are watching your videos and advertises your videos more, and 2.) Youtube has become a big home to gaming channels and is one of its biggest markets.

I don't get it. I don't get it at all. Why would anyone want to watch somebody else play a video game and then hear that person talk about it and say bad jokes. I get watching reviews, but I don't get this at all. It reminds me of Science Mystery Theater 3000. I love the movies they play, but can't stand listening to their jibber jabber. I guess I just don't find that stuff entertaining.

My 10 year old daughter watches Dantdmdan play Minecraft on YouTube. He's incredibly obnoxious and I wish she'd watch something like looney tunes.

If you do ever make gaming related videos, you should stick to simple and straightforward. Not that I ever made any, but when I do look for gaming videos (let's plays, reviews) I like simple and straightforward. I like SNESdrunk and knightwing, for example, as those show videos that show gameplay, and get to the point without all the crazy skits and over the top humor and everything.

And then there's twitch, which opens up a whole world of $$ for successful streamers. Of course, for every streamer who does it full time and actually makes a living, there are a 1000 who don't. Still, take a streamer like Lirik, who supposedly makes $250K a year streaming games....not a bad gig. I follow a few people on twitch, and most are speedrunners who use the money they make to pay for trips to speedrunning events.

Speaking of, the list for ADGQ 17 was released yesterday!!

https://gamesdonequick.com/submission/games-list

Though honestly, as much as I like gaming, that would get old pretty fast.

The idea of being a big gaming personality on YouTube sounds good on paper, but I think one needs to consider the potential implications of making this into what is effectively your job.

Gaming might go from a fun hobby, to something you HAVE to do. Even if you don't feel like it, you still need to work. Let's not forget many YouTubers, not just gaming personalities, release new videos every day. You gotta keep releasing videos so your audience will keep watching. If you don't, someone else will. Having to work every day must be tiring. I could never do that, I gotta respect those people for being able to work so hard.

It's not a job that would appeal to me. I don't want to end up hating my hobby.

Shootingstar, actually from what I've seen making multiple videos and releasing them on a daily basis is surprisingly easy. Their episodes only tend to be 10-15 minutes long, so if you sit down and play for, say, two hours, you've got 8 to 12 episodes once you cut them up. Then you put that game away and play something else for two hours, and boom, you've got 2 to 4 weeks worth of episodes ready to go!