Pewdiepie has become one of the most prominent live-streaming gamers on the internet amassing a large audience and even significant funding. This live-streaming of gaming has grown massively–recently YouTube created their own category for video games. Websites like Twitch.tv, Hitbox.tv, Ustream.tv, etc are entities catering to this growing form. Pewdiepie and others are creating names for themselves and even supporting themselves as a live-streamer. What entails the life of a live-streamer? The hours? The games? The audience? And how is this field expanding?
Nice topic! You could also include a discussion of the many streamers that never become as popular as Pewdiepie and others on his "level" (if you'll pardon the pun); what makes a streamer popular and why do some catch on when others don't? – Caliburnus9 years ago
True! A lot of us have viewed live streaming games, but what is it like as an actual player of say, Twitch? I'm really intrigued by this. – James Smith9 years ago
Adding on to what Caliburnus said, you could also incorporate the growing presence of female streamers who wear revealing clothing to increase their subscribers/followers. Some people argue that some of these women are not skilled gamers and are ruining the 'family friendly' aspect of Twitch.tv. Personally, while I'm not a streamer, I do make gaming videos for YouTube in my spare time and I can say that both are very time and money intensive processes, especially if you are just starting out. At the minimum you need one powerful PC enough to run games (most successful streamers use two simultaneously, 1 dedicated stream PC / 1 dedicated gaming PC), internet fast enough to upload your game and face camera, and enough time to edit or provide entertaining content for people. – marknm9 years ago
This is such a prominent area of inquiry, I'd be really stoked to see what you can make of it. Food for thought: Pewdiepie, as far as I know, gained his initial following through YouTube, and this audience followed him to his streams. In fact, most of the streamers I watch have similar stories. I wonder how it could be different for someone to start from nothing on Twitch or a similar network, and build up their following exclusively from there. – jriffle9 years ago
Interesting topic! May want to include things such as what entails growing your own audience, how to keep your audience, regular streaming schedules, the issue of "burning yourself out" if you live-stream for a living, etc. – Valios9 years ago
We've all seen the terrible video game movies that don't grasp onto the feel of a game we love. They change the characters, story, and feel of some of the classics of the medium often ruining them. Recently theres been a change though, and video game movies have changed what they're about. Shifting from "Mario Bros The Movie" to things like Pixels or Wreck it Ralph we're seeing more and more movies about games rather than about a game. What is causing these changes? There are still plenty of games that have an engaging story and fast passed action but they aren't getting adaptations. Meanwhile movies about the conscept of video games are becoming more and more prevelent. What caused those changes? Why are directors staying away from pre-made stories? Is this an evoluion in how video game are seen by hollywood?
I think it's because everybody recognizes Pac-Man, et al, but you can't make a movie about Pac-Man since there's no story within the actual game. So they sort of set these characters aside, as a reference most people will get, but at the same time, the writers won't feel obligated to flesh them out, because there's nothing there. – MaxEngel9 years ago
The interesting thing about video games are that it is dynamic. If it's not about the character you're navigating, the farm you're ville-ing, the league you're becoming a legend in, or even when your stoning a hearth, it can be about the how you tried so hard to get a better score or beat a boss.
Now, with mobile devices, video games are expanding to more casual users. So, the arena of gaming and the term "gamer" has changed. Video games, interactive media is a large part of society where almost anyone can be a participant.
The reason that video games are becoming a prevalent subject in Hollywood is because it's becoming a prevalent part of life: learning games, casual mobile games, the expansion of E-Sports, and other interactive media.
Also, gaming culture is interesting and shifting. It's niche but broad enough that people can recognize it. I.e. Almost any Nintendo character. – jambles9 years ago
One point that people often overlook is that video game stories are told over the course of dozens of hours. Even for games like Metal Gear Solid that mostly tell the story through the cinematic sequences, those still add up to much more than epic three hour long movies. And it can't be solved by splitting them up into more sequels because no one would want to invest in that kind of risk. So I think that filmmakers are likely to find more success by synthesizing game culture into their own stories, like Wreck-it-Ralph (which as a gamer I enjoyed, even if it wasn't completely faithful to video games). – marknm9 years ago
I'm going to wait til Ready Player One comes out until I lay judgement on this one. – Lazarinth9 years ago
I think maybe part of video game adaptations not being so specialized is because of the fan base for those games. It's probably unlikely for someone to get mad over Wreck-it-Ralph "screwing up" the plot line (like MaxEngel said, there's no story within the actual game), but God forbid anyone ever adapt Bioshock for the screen. I would cry myself to sleep. For me, I prefer not to see my favorite games turned into movies. I guess part of it is out of jealousy (I don't want to share my favorite game with a more mainstream audience) and I don't want to be let down by a terrible adaptation. Plus, it's hard to adapt games for the big screen. Video games are unique because of the platform on which they're produced. Some games practically play like movies (The Last of Us), but others don't. – clegler9 years ago
The revolution here is the same as the Super Hero movie genre.
Video games are being looked as a medium, finally, rather than something for kids.
The shift in attitude is not only because of this change in perception, but also the fact that people who grew up playing video games are beginning to make these movies.
Both of these are reasons why, but it could also be the shift in movie making in general, that good entertainment sells. Either way, I'm glad it's happening at all. – Emishson9 years ago
Some of the most successful games to date share a unique quality – they play more as a movie than a game in the traditional sense. For example, the Uncharted series and the new Until Dawn, which are both extremely popular games, both share this quality. While you can walk around and explore as these characters, and each have their moments of combat or quick-time events, both are very realistic-looking games that have a heavy cinematic feel to them, mainly with their large amounts of cutscenes, and are fairly linear. If you were to take out the gameplay and watch the cutscenes alone, you could almost get a perfect sense of the entire game. Instead, the gameplay serves to connect these cutscenes together, giving more of a sense of playing through a movie than a game.
What makes these games so popular? And should it be done more often?
So many video games seem to have the same type of protagonist – or at least as the "default" protagonist design. White, straight, cisgendered male in his thirties with dark hair, a "rugged" feature, and questionable character. We see it again and again in some of the most popular titles. The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite, Mad Max, The Order, even Mass Effect when it comes to their default version of Male!Commander Shepard. I know diversity is a bit of a hot-button issue in many different fields right now, but how could the video game industry change the standard? It's not like every single game can have a create-a-character sytem.
That's certainly one component that the industry glosses over at times, although I feel as though most popular titles grow within their own molds, to say. You can easily examine Call of Duty and other mainstream games, there's clearly a lack of diversity in every concept of an original game, including the protagonist physique.
Honestly, it's usually up to the independent (Indie) developers of the gaming community to rectify that, as most of those companies crank products in mere interest of reaping treasures. There are a great many small titles that grind against the grain, and are amazing in their own right. But for the big names, unless a widespread consumer whiplash shakes those groups, they will stick with their typical formula, almost every time. – N.D. Storlid9 years ago
Even beyond the topic of diversity, when games have the same protagonist mold over and over again, it becomes an issue of creativity and lazy writing. For example, the rugged middle-aged white male is a popular protagonist choice in the survival horror genre because it fits into the 'gritty' atmosphere. It's almost too easy to create that protagonist for that environment, and it would be interesting to see how writers could fit a completely different character archetype in. Ellie was a much loved character in The Last of Us (probably a lot more than the protagonist) because she was younger and more upbeat, and the writers worked to fit her into the environment. It takes a lot more effort to include a character that breaks the mold, but they are generally appreciated far more. – Grace Maich9 years ago
Why are Nintendo games so hard to replicate? Smash Bros, in particular, seems to have created and monopolized an entire genre. With a game that performs so well commercially and critically it's hard to believe that there aren't a ton of pretenders, maybe even a couple that enrich the formula! What attempts have been made? Why don't they work? And what is Nintendo's secret sauce?
I think it's a little ironic this topic would come up since the new game Rivals of Aether just went out on early access yesterday. It's a game which is simple, pixel style and replicates Smash Melee greatly. There is a great uproar over it, everyone is excited and are giving positive feedback. Though some try to call it a rip off because it seems more simplistic in style and number of playable characters, Rivals of Aether has added more mechanics to the game, bringing more to competitive play options. As time goes on maybe this article could follow it's success or failure to live up to Smash's standards. – Slaidey9 years ago
Something that really helps nintendo is the amount of polish they put into every major game they make. They have incredible amounts of detail to each game to make it better for the player. Sometomes they have to sacrifice something to get that polish (usually graphics and resolution) but they always make up for it in other ways (artstyle and consistant running speed) – Cojo9 years ago
Most video games tend to fall somewhere in between genres, rather than belonging to one strict genre. However, sometimes games will combine two starkly contrasting genres, and that can create an experience which can be exciting but may also sometimes feel forced.
One example is the Persona series, which is part dungeon crawling RPG and part dating-sim style socialization, and ended up being wildly popular despite the unusual concept. What process do game creators need to go through to create a successful game that heavily mixes genres?
A phenomenon is happening in game industry. We are demanding more and more games that gives us more freedom and possibility of choice – such as the Telltale games -, in which we can alter the storyline based on our choices. We are criticizing games that lead us through a path we can't change. The Wolf Among Us is a game that evidenciates this need to choose, we go under the skin of an authority (Bigby) and face difficult choices the entire game that could change the course of the destiny of an entire community that is under our protection, and our relationship with it. We are demanding to be put against the wall and feel the weight of responsibility over our shoulders. What does it say about our society? Are we striving to connect so bad with others that we want to feel our every action can set off a chain reaction that affects us all? Or are you only become so individualistic that we want to feel in control of all of our experiences?
I think the driving factor of these games is that we get to choose the driection we take our character in so many different ways, whether it's simply a narrative decision (ie if we kill a character or not) or building the personality of a character through the dialogue options. We are essentially given authority within these games and it is reflective of making our own choices in real life.
Even so we are still only given a restriced amount of options throughout these games. There are four preset doialogue options (one of which is usually "...") and when we do have a really huge decision to make only two options are mostly given. We don't really get that much control over these characters when you look at the bigger picture, they just so happen to be the protagonist of The Wolf Among Us or The Walking Dead.
Finally, Heavy Rain would be an excellent game to look at for this subject because there are 20+ different game endings, one of which being that every playable character can die, hence our failings have consequences in this game. – Jamie White9 years ago
Until Dawn is so far the best representation of the "choose your own story" type of game. Your decisions leave the most impact and can greatly change the outcome of the story. The Wolf Among Us had a few consequences, to the story and how other characters behave toward you, but not so much. Dragon Age allowed choices in dialogue, but besides one major plot altering choice, there weren't much consequences either. Players may crave for more choices because they want to be more involved and lost in the gameplay. When you make a decision, and see the later consequence, and thus develop a reaction because of it, you've lost yourself to the story and you've ultimately have become emotionally invested in the characters. – Jmarie9 years ago
[Telltale Walking Dead Spoilers] I'm have mixed feelings towards Telltale's story driven games. I'm drawn into these games because it lets us build our own world. If we feel like our decisions have weight, we become more absorbed into the story. I was drawn to The Walking Dead because I knew that my choices had consequences. It makes moments even more moving when you feel that you were a part of it. Unfortunately, Telltale more often then not gives you the illusion of choice instead of the real thing. If you choose save a character because you see something in them (like a shot at redemption for Ben in TWD, or hope for recovery for Sarah in S2) then you feel betrayed by the game when in the next act they're killed out of your control. I don't believe it has to do anything with isolation or individualism, instead more about us wanting control over our games. – Aaron9 years ago
In the age of 3D, high-voltage, intense action-packed games, Ori and the Blind Forest stands out for its simplicity. The stunning (but mainly 2D) graphics and a Disney-ish approach to storytelling make this simple game fun. So what makes it so beautiful and exciting? Analyze the strengths of Ori and the Blind Forest.
This game brings a simplicity that we've lost nowadays. We valorize an important visual over a good story that connects us to the game we're playing (for example Bioshock Infinite, with stunning graphics but dull storyline and repetitive quests). Also, the atmosphere the games create involves a very urban and modern characterization. Ori really innovated by bringing to a modern experience (the consoles) a comfort and simplicity inspired on the tales of the "Good Mother Nature", that really stands against the aura of destruction that permeates modern games. Ori proposes that we construct instead of shoot everything to the ground, and in a certain way makes us calm and relaxed, because the graphics are cute and comfortable and the storyline is beautiful. The painting this game produces is different from what we've been seeing and maybe it would be interesting if you searched if that line of thought for games already existed (and wich games fit into it) and if it's going to be developed. – Samuel239 years ago
