The rise of Youtube gamers

Even though oversharing is starting to be considered as invading any one’s private life, its power permit the creation of online communities today able to save dying institutions in the entertainment field such as the gaming industry.

Five months ago, I was on Youtube looking for new songs to listen to on my iPhone but got distracted by gameplay walkthrough posted by the youtube user and gamer jackscepticeye published on 5th September 2013. The video taken from the horror exploration game Outlast was introducing the adventures of Miles Upshur, a freelance journalist investigating the mysterious and gloomy events that led to the abandon of a psychiatric hospital.

In few videos, I’m following the journalist’s progress through the isolated hospital, the struggle of the jackscepticeye looking for clues, using the night-vision of Miles’ camera to look for clues, consulting the journalist guidelines in his notebook to avoid weird appearances and anticipate next step of the game.

Amused by the reactions of this Irish Youtube gamer, I subscribed to his Youtube’s channel with my Gmail account. By paying more attention to his Youtube introduction page. Jack collects a lot of “likes” per video posted, those videos are posted daily to keep 8,187,206 fans posted with any gameplay.

By sharing those videos on Youtube, jackscepticeye managed to build social engagement by reuniting gamers or non gamers sharing an interest on horror gameplay. Youtube is the tool that is helping jackscepticeye to interact with fans quicker, get feedback on his ‘gaming performances’ and be challenged by other gamers.

Jack’s example demonstrates a strong will from the gaming community to belong somewhere, exist and find their path in the gaming hierarchy. Gamers owning a Youtube account have the power of video sharing gameplay demos or walkthrough, commenting reviews, making tutorials and compete each other.

Even though oversharing is starting to be considered as invading any one’s private life, its power permit the creation of online communities today able to save dying institutions in the entertainment field such as the gaming industry. Youtube is the best illustration of it today.

That is the reason why I think it is relevant to point out today how new technologies have considerably changed human’s mindsets into thinking sharing, posting as something normal, a prove showing you are being very active and present online.

This new way of communicating also encouraging self-expression can take several directions; to be viewed and heard as an individual by posting on the Web something very personal you can take a selfie, to mention an extraordinary thing recently did like winning a game you can record it as a video and post it on Youtube.