I recently started recording videos of my gameplay to post on YouTube. It’s not something new and there are tens if not hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of these types of videos on the internet.
What’s the Point?
Some people watch gameplay videos to get a feel for the game perhaps to choose whether or not they want to make a purchase. After all the trailers and screenshots on product pages still leave much to the imagination. It’s not that rare nowadays for games to be released with bugs, performance issues, or just not being the product that is marketed to paying players after all.
Others might find it entertaining to watch someone else play instead of playing games themselves. This could be in the sense of spectating eSports as a fan or just the sense of watching a very niche genre of TV where it’s more fun watching than playing for some people. And then there are those who might want to relive the game with others through the shared experience of watching the same thing and share comments that may grow into conversation.
Lastly there are fellow players who watch to see what other players are doing to get a clue on how to play the game better like one would with a strategy guide or to compare their own skills with whoever they’re watching. Sometimes there are bugs and exploits caught by players that were left unfixed in games that make for an interesting experience to watch.
Why Record Gameplay?
To be honest, I started just to feel like I’m being more productive with my time. Armed with the knowledge that there are people who just play games and stream or upload their gameplay or of themselves playing games and reacting, I know that it’s nothing out of the ordinary to do now. Plus it also creates an opportunity to interact and maybe connect with people I don’t know and probably would never meet, but who might appreciate and even enjoy what I upload onto YouTube.
Social media really only connects us to people we know or have mutual connections with. I could upload my game videos on to Facebook but how many of my Facebook friends actually are into games and care enough to just give anything more than an obligatory like because I don’t post updates much anymore? Opening up your Facebook to everyone also destroys the point of it as using it to connect with friends, which was what the platform began as.
Twitter was never really about long posts and tweets were never intended to run long to begin with as they were supposed to be tweets. This allows for a lot of chatter and the layout of profiles feels pretty bare-bones. If anything it’s for people who want to interact with celebrities as there are many better alternatives to use for sharing life updates or getting in touch with family and friends.
But content sharing platforms like YouTube that go beyond sharing content with just people you know, and in fact promote it to people based on the type of content, give creators a chance to reach an audience that wants to watch what they’ve created.
It would be fair to say that most social media that allow users to share and view videos are just copying the success of YouTube and adding a similar feature to their platform to draw in users. People that use social media platforms to reach out to people they don’t personally know or share acquaintances could be said to no longer be using social media to connect but to influence people, hence the term “influencer.”
What is my goal?
I never started off with a goal of becoming a highly viewed channel or anything, so I didn’t beat myself up if my unpolished game videos had nothing to offer besides the screen of what my gameplay looked like and that few people bothered to click on it, much less watch to the end.
I started with recording my play through of Neverwinter Nights™, a Dungeons and Dragons ™ based game I had played in my early teens that is still available for players seeking to bask in the nostalgia of outdated graphics and gameplay with rules no longer in use in Dungeons and Dragons.
I let my channel sit after seeing I had little viewership and decided to try and study for skills and certifications in my free time. However I had a job even if it didn’t pay well and I found myself distracted and unable to sustain the drive needed to acquire a new marketable skill and do research to see what job fields would actually be open to hiring foreign workers who aren’t fresh out of college.
So after some time had passed and I was not feeling fulfilled simply streaming shows and movies, I decided I wanted to play games again, even if it meant putting my lofty goals of learning a new skill aside. It had been some time since I last played so I decided to install and work my way through Dead Space™ and then the sequel, recording it as I went.
My breakthrough came with Warcraft 3 Reforged and I was quite pleased to see one video go from 500 to 1000, then 2000 to 3000, where it’s probably peaked by now.
Come check out my YouTube channel if you’re interested by clicking on the link below! https://www.youtube.com/@onechance2061
Thanks for reading!
One Chance Works 