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ghoulmouseOk so I guess Youtube is on fire because a whole bunch of big video essayists got exposed for some pretty extreme plagiarism (among other things, it's a whole deal).
So I wanted to post some video essays that I think are actually really good!
These are all about video games because 1) I like video games and 2) I think gaming YouTube is an extremely dire space full of opinions and people that are at best annoying so I think it's cool to highlight the non-terrible parts.
Without futher complaining:
[There will probably be spoliers for various games in these videos, don't say I didn't warn you.]
Jacob Geller is one of my favorite video essayists. Not all of his videos are solely about games, or even about games at all, but a lot of them are. He's quite prolific, so here's a few of my favorites.
Ape Out and Freedom -- This one is short, like 8min long. Just enthusiastic discussion of a game I really enjoyed playing!
The Strangest Game of 2023 -- An analysis of a game I have never played and quite frankly had never heard of before seeing this video called Wanted: Dead, which seems really wild. I love games that completely swing for the fences and just like...totally miss. But at least they took the shot. I think this is also a good example of engaging earnestly with art you don't think is actually that good.
The Decades-Long Quest for Shadow of the Colossus' Last Great Secret -- Oddly moving deep dive into the ways a great game can inspire people in the strangest ways.
The Animation of Final Fantasy 4 -- Did you know I love FF4? Here's a great analysis of how the original game uses the technical upgrades of the Super Famicom for its storytelling. This is the level of detail in which I like to think about this game, lol.
Sinistar or: How to Play Games Wrong -- A look at an aspect of artistic criticism of video games I've never seen anyone articulate, and one that is pretty important to me as someone who grew up playing old roleplaying games that were strange and obtuse even for adult players. Might someday make a post from this kind of perspective about my own experience playing Ultima: Quest of the Avatar on the NES, a game I loved to DEATH as a little kid despite understanding exactly zero percent of it. This guy, Big Joel, has a lot of videos doing serious thematic analysis on extremely bad art, like we're talking Disney remakes and sequels tier, some of which are very insightful and some of which are very funny.
The World Record History of Banned% In Club Penguin -- As a lifelong bizarre internet person there's something really fascinating to me about the history of bizarre internet activities like this. Also this video taught me that people will cheat at fucking anything.
My Strange Obsession With Elevators in Video Games -- Maybe one of the most specific topics for a video I've ever seen in my life, and honestly I think people could do more thinking about video game storytelling and narrative construction in this kind of detail. Just my favorite thing to talk about and hear other people talk about. It's so easy to just handwave away so many details like this in video games, disregard them as just unimportant game mechanics that don't have anything to do with the "story", but I don't think that's true -- even something as seemingly banal as the way you move between levels.
[This isn't an elevator but a great example of one of the uses of them that this video talks about, giving the player a shocking sense of scale, kinda shows up in FF4. There's just stairs (actually why ISN'T there an elevator???) but in my recent playthrough I remember getting into the Tower of Babil for the first time. You've likely flown past the Tower in your airship a couple times by that point in the game, but the abstracted scale of the world map doesn't really give you a sense of how tall it is. You slip in on the lowest floor and are immediately confronted with the name of the zone you've just entered -- an ominous "B13". More than TWICE as tall as any other structure in the whole game so far, and that's just the section below ground. How much higher does it rise above the surface? You've heard this is the path from the earth to the moon but this is the first moment you really get what that means. Anyway it sprung to mind while I was watching this video again.]
my favorite places in pokemon -- A personal essay in the purest sense, all about one person's experience and feelings. There's a lot of emphasis on Information and Analysis and such in video essays but I really love this kind of, idk, "creative nonfiction" kind of thing where someone just shares their perspective, especially with such a subjective medium as video games. Hazel's channel is overall great with some really obscure, creative topics and a great aesthetic. They don't quite fit the theme of this post but I also freaking love her rating of various anime Denny's and retrospective on anime and video game fansites
If any of these turn out to be plagiarized also, I'm sorry.
So I wanted to post some video essays that I think are actually really good!
These are all about video games because 1) I like video games and 2) I think gaming YouTube is an extremely dire space full of opinions and people that are at best annoying so I think it's cool to highlight the non-terrible parts.
Without futher complaining:
[There will probably be spoliers for various games in these videos, don't say I didn't warn you.]
Jacob Geller is one of my favorite video essayists. Not all of his videos are solely about games, or even about games at all, but a lot of them are. He's quite prolific, so here's a few of my favorites.
The Animation of Final Fantasy 4 -- Did you know I love FF4? Here's a great analysis of how the original game uses the technical upgrades of the Super Famicom for its storytelling. This is the level of detail in which I like to think about this game, lol.
Sinistar or: How to Play Games Wrong -- A look at an aspect of artistic criticism of video games I've never seen anyone articulate, and one that is pretty important to me as someone who grew up playing old roleplaying games that were strange and obtuse even for adult players. Might someday make a post from this kind of perspective about my own experience playing Ultima: Quest of the Avatar on the NES, a game I loved to DEATH as a little kid despite understanding exactly zero percent of it. This guy, Big Joel, has a lot of videos doing serious thematic analysis on extremely bad art, like we're talking Disney remakes and sequels tier, some of which are very insightful and some of which are very funny.
The World Record History of Banned% In Club Penguin -- As a lifelong bizarre internet person there's something really fascinating to me about the history of bizarre internet activities like this. Also this video taught me that people will cheat at fucking anything.
My Strange Obsession With Elevators in Video Games -- Maybe one of the most specific topics for a video I've ever seen in my life, and honestly I think people could do more thinking about video game storytelling and narrative construction in this kind of detail. Just my favorite thing to talk about and hear other people talk about. It's so easy to just handwave away so many details like this in video games, disregard them as just unimportant game mechanics that don't have anything to do with the "story", but I don't think that's true -- even something as seemingly banal as the way you move between levels.
[This isn't an elevator but a great example of one of the uses of them that this video talks about, giving the player a shocking sense of scale, kinda shows up in FF4. There's just stairs (actually why ISN'T there an elevator???) but in my recent playthrough I remember getting into the Tower of Babil for the first time. You've likely flown past the Tower in your airship a couple times by that point in the game, but the abstracted scale of the world map doesn't really give you a sense of how tall it is. You slip in on the lowest floor and are immediately confronted with the name of the zone you've just entered -- an ominous "B13". More than TWICE as tall as any other structure in the whole game so far, and that's just the section below ground. How much higher does it rise above the surface? You've heard this is the path from the earth to the moon but this is the first moment you really get what that means. Anyway it sprung to mind while I was watching this video again.]
my favorite places in pokemon -- A personal essay in the purest sense, all about one person's experience and feelings. There's a lot of emphasis on Information and Analysis and such in video essays but I really love this kind of, idk, "creative nonfiction" kind of thing where someone just shares their perspective, especially with such a subjective medium as video games. Hazel's channel is overall great with some really obscure, creative topics and a great aesthetic. They don't quite fit the theme of this post but I also freaking love her rating of various anime Denny's and retrospective on anime and video game fansites
If any of these turn out to be plagiarized also, I'm sorry.
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Date: 2023-12-08 09:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-12-10 09:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-01-27 04:46 am (UTC)