Youtube and youtubers

So i have been making Youtube vids for a few years and it has always been a hobby as much as i would love to make money doing it i know the chances of that are pretty remote,

And here is a cute owl for no reason

I am part of a network but to be honest they are beyond useless i really thought once i got accepted to one of the big networks it would jumpstart my channel earn money and get better equipment but in the end they have done nothing and after the contract expires i will leave. But that puzzles me i always thought it would be in the networks interest to promote as many channels as possible as when the creators make money then the network does but in the end it does seem like they rely on a few select channels.

Having been part of many groups and communities i do feel that it is getting a bit saturated with click baits and using sex to get people to look at the videos , it does seem like everyone and there dog is making a channel and i guess what bugs me is some channels i really do not know why they have so many followers and there are some channels which i wonder why they are not massive. I have noticed though with a lot of channels they almost seem very desperate to be come a success and would bombard other channels with sub 4 sub requests and that drives me mad as i would not expect anyone to sub to my channel who was not interested in the content as i would not sub to channels i did not like.

Now when it comes to youtubers one of my big bugbears is interaction or rather lack of, if you are small youtuber it is very simple to interact with fans and i understand if your running a huge channel with millions of followers then it is not possible to reply to everyone but what annoys me is when they do not interact at all and you might as well be watching a Tv show. I have seen that with a few channels that started small and then got bigger there interaction really dropped.

So i thought i would highlight channels that i really think they engage with the fans and cool content

https://www.youtube.com/user/Cobra89Reviews
https://www.youtube.com/user/ImKnomad
https://www.youtube.com/user/AlphaOmegaSin
https://www.youtube.com/user/boogie2988
https://www.youtube.com/user/AdamKoralik
https://www.youtube.com/user/Yakumo1975
https://www.youtube.com/user/HappyConsoleGamer
https://www.youtube.com/user/realhksmash

And my channel is here https://www.youtube.com/user/eastyy and for the ladies here is my wifes channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4RLCzEDENWNH4oGDORG6w

If you want to create a youtube channel start of with perhaps using a phone camera and then learn editing and try to do something different or in your own way if you have a money to spare can get a better camera later on. Practice , as it will take a while to get confident i would highly suggest have two people as playing of another person makes things more natural. And i would say if people comment then engage with them and hopefully they spread the word.

Just had to upload this as it made me laugh

Was outside the supermarket and saw this and i had to add the caption

Star trek Renegades review

So watched this and i thought i would give opinions on this pilot/film.

Budget was limited and it really does show in places sometimes the make up for the aliens and special effects do look a bit cheap but i really think they do well in places i really like some of the ship battles and with the budget they had it was a good job.

Script and acting are  mixed it is good with the established actors and bad to average for the rest but on the whole it is acceptable.

The fact it has people from previous star treks does give it some continuity and really helps set up the universe years after the voyager crew returned home.

In the end i did enjoy it while it would not set the world alight i enjoyed the story the characters and some of the effects and i think it is a good foundation for a series but with the new star trek film in development i really doubt a new series would get a green light.

Streetfighter V beta impressions

Played from 4pm till about 10 pm

So impressions are it does seem a little bit more beginner friendly, moves that would have been harder in SSF4 such as Light punch to medium punch links are easier here, not having a Focus cancel makes the game feel a little less combo heavy but there are some fancy stuff you can do when it comes to the v skills which differ for each character. Damage output seems really high and feels much more back to Super street fighter 2 turbo, if you miss a move you can get punished really badly

Graphics i really like every things seems to have much more of a feeling of impact i love the little touches such as when your character animates when blocking a attack and the animation on the whole looks great and even though it is all unfinished i do like the look of the game.

As far as the roster goes

Ryu was my most played character as i had played as him in previous games a fair amount and seemed to have very easy damaging combos to do and his V skill was really good

Nash. has potential and is motion based moves made things easier i could do a lot of neat fancy stuff in training mode but for some reason just had a real issue pulling it off online and i really think he needs a decent wake up move also i really think with his V skill he should get two teleports instead of one

Cammy having played her more was starting to find more options though do wish she had more moves to set opponents up for a juggle. But her v skill is pretty good and can set up juggles into a super.

Chun li having a motion for hundred foot kick i like but her fireball and spinning bird kick are charged based ..again not a fan of charge based characters  and it does feel with her and bison that the charging time is longer i could be wrong though but playing people who are good with her she has some great set ups and her v skill is pretty deadly.

Bison again as above i really could not gel with him but seen some players doing a lot of pressure with him and his super caught me off guard many times.

Birdie. The surprise for me the only character i used where i actually got a perfect against a opponent combo wise pretty limited but they do a lot of damage and he has some great moves for getting past fireballs and catching jumping opponents.

I reckon today about 80% of the matches the online quality was fair to good but for some reason the 20% i could say were nearly all in the last couple of hours of the beta.  I have to say even in its early stage i do prefer it to Streetfighter 4 and all its iterations the combat just feels more satisfying and the characters i played all have potential though again if they would make all characters motion based or reduced the charging times then i would enjoy playing all the characters.

Observations

Watching TV and a shampoo advert came on and in the bottom of the screen it said Caution please do not shampoo your eyes, i cannot say that was ever on my mind.

Anyone notice on a lot of tv shows where say for example some people go up to a house knock on the door and the people open the door then suddenly there is a view from a cameraman already inside the house filming them to ?.

Film trailers spoiling films now

Youtube and copyright trolls

So yesterday i did that vid and i got hit by a content id dispute. Now i do not make any money on Youtube so did not bother me but the company that did it was called INgrooves and after a little looking around it appears they are a copyright troll

Last year the creator of the recent killer instinct music even got a dispute for music he created https://twitter.com/mick_gordon/status/519272470289739776

In the end this sucks i hear so many stories of things like this happen and youtube really need to clean it up and put things more in the favor of the content creators.

Game Genres i would love to see make a come back.

God Games , i am a massive fan of games like populous, powermonger and black and white and i really think with modern tech they could be really awesome.

Lock on style on rails shooters, games like panzer dragoon and starfox

Light gun games i was a huge fan of games like time crisis and virtua cop and would love a decent light gun to come to consoles.

2d animated fighting games most of the big games are now using 3d graphics but i still really think with 2d hand drawn art there is still so much they can do.

Things i have hated about this gen and last gen in gaming

Day 1 patches

Broken games at launch

Dlc overload /Dlc already on disc and season passes

Reliance on having a internet connection even for a single player

Microtransactions

What i used to call a demo is now called a Beta

And with some games they release so many editions at launch sometimes you need a graph to work out what you are getting.

Comic books movies

So i am a huge comic book fan have been following them for years and now the movies of them have blown up to epic proportions but you have to remember there were some good films before.

The original superman film with christopher reeves was awesome with a big budget and was a very well done film then of course you have the batman film with michael keaton again another good film.

But for me the films i remember was blade and blade 2 infact blade 2 was my first ever dvd i bought. And it did not feel like a comic book movie at the time as they were a lot more violent.

Now we have got to a stage i never would have dreamed of, multiple super heroes movies and they are becoming linked to create the epic story arcs of the comics it really is a golden age and while the new fantastic 4 movie is a major misfire i have high hopes for the new deadpool movie and what Dc will do

Killer instinct season 3

So to say i was hyped at the announcement of season 3 would be a understatement

I was really never sure it would get a season 3 i hoped but had no idea how well the game had done but when they announced the pc version i thought it would be more likely. With season 1 and 2 it did feel more complete but was still not quite 100% there.

Since the game was announced and during development i always got the impressions the developers were really under strict deadlines to get things done and then of course they had a change of developers and again felt like they were under time constraints. So i really hope they get a bit more leeway so they can take there time. With a release date next march it is longer timescales then previous seasons but i suspect there will be more characters at launch to download.

  

So i feel like i should add my wish list of stuff i would like to see (not going to mention characters and stages as i know they are coming)

1.Tutorials for each of the characters

2.Tweaks to older stages perhaps more interactions and i can imagine some stage ultras on season 1 stages.

3.Improving the ultra combos. I dunno i just think they could look better perhaps with more over the top hit effects.

4. Hit counter, It is just a minor thing but i think it could have more flair perhaps as the hit counter goes up the font gets more and more over the top.

5. Hidden ender. I know now it is not really feasible to go to all the characters and add it but perhaps add a throw back to Ki2 where if you do all the enders you get to do a hidden one....perhaps could be for a new character.

6. Unlockables perhaps videos of making the game and of course more costumes for the characters.

7. Make the shadow counter a bit more useful.

8. Upload replays straight to youtube rather then via upload studio.

9. More multiplayer options (such as find players via ping and location).

Why Do Games companies do stupid things

It has felt like the past number of years publishers are not just shooting themselves in the foot but more like nuking themselves.

What with Sega running sonic into the ground (pun intended) , Capcom and its massive number of missteps and konami looking to kill its legacy and franchises my mind just cannot comprehend why they do this.

To work high up in these companies you need to be intelligent but think the problem is they are so far removed from the public and the people working on actually making products that they really have no idea. Not so much there head in the clouds more like there head just going past pluto.

I have worked for several companies at the ground level so to speak but i have seen many many frankly dumb decisions that me and people all around me knew would come back to bite the company in the ass we make our opinions known but of course nothing is done and all we can do is say told you so later on.

Companies reputation is really important i know Capcom are trying to improve there image with Streetfighter V that will have free dlc characters (though part of me wonders if that was more at Sonys request). And Sega have admitted the problems (but they continue to still do stupid things). Konami though do not acknowledge anything though and they continue to literally bury the past and they hope to make money in the mobile business.

Hate to say it though i think if a company plans to join the mobile business and release free to play games on android or Ios they maybe in for a nasty surprise. Fact is while making games for mobile will be cheaper there is a ungodly amount of competition and frankly a load of rubbish and any company attempting it may get lost in the crowd.

In the end most of the companies i loved are but shells of the former self but i just hope they good elements from these places leave and set up brand new companies.

Memories of going to video games shops

Went into a games shop and saw this mother and her 10 year old kid and the kid ran up to his mum and said mummy mummy can i get this game and the mother said no you cannot buy this game as it is 18 rated....i will have to buy it for you.

Would often see in some places New game 59.99 euro ..second hand version 55.00 euro....wow what a discount and they probably only bought it back for half the price.

Mother asked a person a good console for there kid and was told wii u and she said oh are you french ?.

Something that made me laugh just it was a you had to be their kind of moment. I was walking towards a games shop and guy came running out he had stolen something from the shop followed by the store manager a employee......and then a little kid with a toy guy trying to shot the thief.

The silent protagonist in video games

So started playing half life 2 again and there is just something that really bugs me....the player character gordon freeman never speaks.

And there have been a number of games that do this and often heard the reason to make the player feel more immersed but for me it really does no do that at all. But worse than not speaking which they could easily say something like the player character had a accident and lost his voice is it feels like the character never reacts or responds to what other characters say.

I have seen lots of moments in games where after being told something i would be busting to say something or react but they do not. In the end if you make a silent protagonist make them have a reason to be silent but make them more human so at least react to what other characters say even with just a nod or shake of the head.

  

Is a public beta really a beta ?

In the old days beta version of a game were all done in house to test a game and sometimes you may get a super exclusive external beta for a really limited amount of people.

But now does feel like betas are basically demos and would often you would get access if you preordered or if you bought another game they would give you beta access to a game.

The most recent one was Streetfighter V which did not go all that well and they had to cancel it. And  it bugged me and i could not think why it bugged me was it because it went so wrong even though they had experience of fighting games before ? was it due to being a preorder incentive ? did they do a closed beta test before the public one ?.

More likely it was due to me wanting to play the game and i could not and i saw it as a demo release. It just feels like if you take a demo and call it a beta then it is immune to all criticism.

As i am not in the industry i just find it hard to understand how things like this can go wrong as i always thought it was just a case of stats for example if they release beta keys i would have thought they would know how many they have sent out and what parts of the world they went to so they can use that information to get the servers they need.

In the end it does feel the definition of beta has changed and to me will still feel like a demo in another name.

Windows 10

Recently got a new SSD drive and a copy of windows 8.1 in preparation for windows 10 but thought i would give my opinions on it.

But first my opinions of other versions of windows.

Xp: Good

Vista: Rubbish

7: Good

8 and 8.1 Good but needed tweaking to get it to a level i liked.

So Installing windows 10 was a breeze i had it on a usb stick and ran it while still in windows 8.1 and it just did its thing and what impressed me was it kept all my programs and short cuts and even pinned programs to the task bar as well (though i would always say make sure you back it up).

Starting it up every thing ran smoothly and quickly and now we have a decent start menu in the bottom left hand which is a hybrid of the classic one and the new one finding your software is easy.

After i had a look i realized i had a problem...it installed the wrong drivers for my graphics card and it would not let me install them manually so had a browse online and this page helped me http://www.custompcguide.net/2-methods-to-fix-nvidia-installer-failed-issue-for-geforce-video-cards/

After that though i was sorted. So initial thoughts are the interface is clean and smooth i have played a some games on steam with no issue, had no hardware issues even the software i used for using my PS4 controller worked fine, searching for files seems a lot better then before and it does feel like especially with the task bar they make much better use of the screen estate.

So thumbs up from me so far will do another blog later on if there are any issues or cool things i find.