My Top Five Favorite Types of YouTube Game Content

I’ve always been amazed at how much fun some people manage to squeeze out of a game, new or old. When given a chance it seems that users almost always create more impressive content than developers. Before the internet, and specifically YouTube, those who managed impressive in-game feats or imaginative recreations of in-game content would do so alone, without an audience.

Now however, there’s an entire web full of videos about each and every aspect of almost every single game. Some of these may simply be reviews or a “let’s play” videos, but others are much more imaginative, and in some cases, require much more talent. After the jump are my five favorite examples of user created content. Be warned, some of these videos contain NSFW language.

1. Rage Videos

I enjoy these types of videos because those who rage are essentially the ones who end up being the butt of the joke. The more they rage, the better the video is. I can’t stand hearing it while playing, but in this setting I’m pretty satisfied listening to their endless whining. Below is an example of one of my favorites, mostly because of how much I despise CoD chat on XBLA.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4-UrxJTpQE&feature=plcp

I’ve seen plenty of knife only Call of Duty videos in my day, but ONLYUSEmeBLADE has raised the bar from a whimsical break in traditional gameplay to, well, a career path. He has over 600 videos that span back all the way to Halo 3 and the original Modern Warfare. By sheer volume he has shown a dedication to his craft and a strict adherence to the knife only gameplay rules that make him who he is. The video above is a pretty textbook example of what happens on his channel. I love listening to his victims stammer out a response, claiming he isn’t playing properly, as if a guy with 20 knife kills doesn’t know what he’s doing. I’m mean come on; his name didn’t give it away?

2. Speedruns

To me, speedruns are the pinnacle of mastering a game. It’s one thing to beat a game over the course of a few weeks, it’s quite another to do it in a fraction of the time, in a few hours let’s say, or less than that in some cases. Those who successfully execute a speedrun utilize a combination of natural talent, practice, and most likely, some obsession. Below is an example from one of my favorite games as a kid, Mega Man 2.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7CLZaFA3lQ&feature=related

I thought I was pretty damn good at Mega Man 2, at least I was 20 years ago. This speedrun, however, showed me how far away I was from really mastering the game; I didn’t know Megaman could move like that to be honest. I don’t know how many hours went into perfecting this run, but judging by how he handled Airman’s level, I’d say a lot. Still, you have to admire someone who’s willing to put in the time and effort it takes to do something like this.

3. Minecraft Timelapses

Timelapses are the calmer more precise cousin to the speedrun. While both take an enormous amount of practice and imagination, a successful timelapse, especially in a game like Minecraft, takes an enormous amount of preparation as well.  I’m not just talking about the actual creation itself, although that alone can be impressive. No, I’m also referring to all of the people management that must go on behind the scenes. As you can tell by the video below, there were an awful lot of 8-bit avatars working on this specific project.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxPsrOmm4mQ&feature=plcp

Apparently this entire station was built over three days and was inspired by the architectural style of New York City’s Penn Station. Having been to Penn Station before the scale does seem to be roughly accurate of the actual station, if you assume of course that a Minecraft avatar is the same size as an average person. While I do enjoy these types of videos, they also have the added benefit of making me feel bad about everything I’ve ever built in Minecraft.

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