[GW2] How Vistas Feed my Need for 'Screed

With the latest Beta ArenaNet have released a new feature "Vista". A vista is a spot on the map where the player can look out and appreciate all the hard work which ANet have put into making the game so goddamn freaking beautiful.

Think of Vistas as the stereotypical rap video of Guild Wars 2 - ANet are shaking their scenic blizzle in yo' face, saying "Yo Logan Thackerizzo, check my beast landscape skillz yo. Word". I was never street.

But the really nice thing about them is that they're usually in hard-to-reach spots - on top of buildings or after relatively complicated jumping puzzles. Clambering up vast buildings takes me right back to Damascus, Venice and Rome - and makes me hunger for the next AC installment. I've enjoyed scrabbling up the sloped cubes of Rata Sum and the twisted trees of The Grove. Had to shelve the YouTube series till release when I'm going to cover the final few cities and then LA.



I would go far as to say that the Vistas, along with the Jumping Puzzles, are fast becoming my favourite thing to do in the game.

Yogscast vs The Reply Girls

I think these little internet micro-events are important to capture, because unless you write, vlog or talk about them, they will quickly get forgotten in the ever growing and changing digital landscape. The Reply Girls incident, is akin to Alki David’s ill-judged Suicide Event which I blogged about some time last year: a little microcosm of the trials and tribulations of getting on in a cyber world.

One of the side effects of the press-beta for Guild Wars 2 was that a number of gaming press YouTubers grabbed a LOT of views over a very short space of time. When you think that 1000000 people signed up to the Guild Wars 2 beta in just over 48 hours – you can just imagine how many people were watching these Guild Wars 2 beta videos from Yogscast and TotalBiscuit between the time the non-disclosure curtain was dropped at the start of last week and the opening of the beta signup shortly after.

Yogscast particularly seemed to drive up their viewings. I was already a subscriber (but, admittedly, was only introduced to them when Tasha announced out that she was squeeing in delight because she had the chance to harass them on the flight back from Gamescon last year). This parade of new viewers is extremely well deserved. Yogscast combine real light-hearted, almost Laurel and Hardy-esque, banter with proper gameplay analysis – a winning combination in my opinion. They seem to know their audience and have made a real effort to cover all aspects of the game which they could capture. Their tidal wave of new views has come at a cost, however: the Reply Girls have found them.

Firstly, “Reply girls” is a little misleading; they weren’t just busty Eastern-European ladies, I saw a couple of guys spattered here and there. But for the most part it was the females which dominated the reply stream; they drew your eye with low-cut tops, click-hither eyes and long dark hair. Working through a number of different accounts, armies of almost identical videos were posted as “Replies” to the video in question (usually a gameplay vid with very high views), with content exceedingly loosely related to the video (such that you got the impression that what they were saying was only really based on having read the video title) and the exact same “tags”. Similar videos were posted numerous times, such that they began to completely fill the reply feed. Some of these reply girls have also somehow managed to get YouTube partnership – so with every view their videos got, they received money.
 
Logically, swathes of angry YouTube viewers religiously “down-voted” these videos in order to push them off the main page. Unfortunately, the like/dislike buttons on YouTube don’t work like that: the like button will make the video pop up in your news feed as a video you’ve thumbed up, but the dislike button pretty much does nothing, so all the viewer had done by visiting the video was to add another point to the ReplyGirl’s view-count.

The guys at Yogscast, alongside a number of disgruntled YouTubers, took it upon themselves to advertise this problem (not that it needed much advertisement) imploring viewers to contact YouTube's owners through twitter and to mark each ReplyGirl video as spam using the in-service reporting system. As noted by TheWillofDC sometimes YouTube can move at glacial pace when getting coming up with a solution for a problem like this and as of yet (as far as I'm aware) they haven't acted in any substantial manner - certainly, if you go on a few of the higher-viewed Yogscast vids the sidebar is full of busty ladies talking crap.

[GW2] Could GW2 be the first MMO with a Real YouTube Presence?

Games nowadays have to be able to extend beyond the client. Most developers recognise that a good game is built on solid story, decent gameplay and compelling characters. But a great game bleeds out of the game world and into ours. Now, I've already discussed a number of ways this can happen in a previous post, so I won't be reiterating too many points which I covered back then, however, I will emphasise the importance of one particular medium which a number of top-flight games have failed to break: YouTube.

The popularity of YouTube videos has boosted bedroom gamers from teenagers with a hobby to fully formed businessmen. YouTube made celebrities of Call of Duty players and has blasted games such as Minecraft, Amnesia and Terraria from underground indie classics to big-buck moneymaking machines.

MMOs don't traditionally do hugely well on YouTube (at least not when compared to CoD, FIFA, Minecraft and Starcraft) this is probably the case for a number of reasons. It's difficult to distil the MMO experience down into 10 minutes of recordable gametime (which is often the limit for the average YouTube video). FPSs have games which average about 6-10 minutes at a time and so provide nice bite-sized pieces of gameplay which are fast-paced and entertaining from pretty much start to finish. They are almost designed for YouTube. Additionally, MMOs often have UIs and game mechanics which are difficult to understand unless you are a player of the game itself and can interpret what is going on. If I were to dive into an Alliance Battle and film my gameplay of course any Guild Wars player could see me kiting, crippling and interrupting like a madman; but to someone who didn't know, for example, what the skill symbol for d-shot was, it would be a very confusing experience.

If Guild Wars 2 is going to crack the YouTube market they are going to need to have gameplay which can be distilled down into meaningful chunks of around 10-12 minutes. The PvP gametype Conquest looks ideal for this: it's fast paced and exciting, very visual and varied and seems to last about the right length of time. Hopefully we'll find an equivalent in PvE. The problem of the complicated UIs and gameplay mechanics is always going to be difficult; ANet can't dumb down the whole game just so that it makes sense on YouTube! There is one thing, however, which would certainly help in this matter: a community of players who are enthusiastic about producing quality videos for YouTube audiences.

If Guild Wars 2 is going to thrive in the YouTube market it is going to need players, video editors, montage makers and commentators who are passionate about getting the game to the wider audience. If we have charismatic speakers to produce quality content; exciting videos with interesting, funny and insightful commentaries then we can't go too far wrong. We, as a community, are the only ones who have the power to take the game from our own bedrooms, studies and living rooms and push it into the limelight of YouTube. We already do this to a certain extent with our blogs, interviews, fan sites and forums - but YouTube is where the real audience is and if GW2 is going to crack it, then it's up to us to make sure it happens.

What do you think? Could GW2, or even an MMO, ever be as popular as CoD on YouTube? What needs to happen for GW2 to succeed on YouTube?

PS. Guild Wars 2 Insider is already doing a brilliant job already of bringing quality YouTube content for GW2 - keep up the good work peeps!

MLAndersen0 and his Slender "Friend"

I'd been avoiding MLAndersen0 for a while because I'd assumed it was just another "WHY HE MAKE MOVE NOW!?" type Slenderman story. However, last night I bit the bullet and sat down and watched the videos. It was well worth the effort. The story is kinda different from the other Slendervlogs out there as it pits the protagonist as a sort of Anti-Hero (as Michael is essentially batshit bonkers) and his relationship with Slenderman is fatherly at best, homoerotic at worst.

Plus they made a sweet ass April Fools video:

The Wisdom of Seananners: Part 2

I love this guy, he has so many youtube followers and he uses his fame to teach teenage gamers that they don't need to act like assholes all the time. I think that there is an unfortunate negative stereotype which is attached to gamers, as reclusive sociopaths, stuck in basements and bedsits - roleplaying and "pwning n00bs" for a living. Its a stereotype which is supported by both gamers and non-gamers alike. In a way a lot of us just accept the stigma that is attached and either live with it or hide our gaming like some kind of secret shame. Gaming is our crossdressing, and we'll hide it away until one day we are caught by the "norms" trussed up in our stockings and suspenders, pouting in front of the mirror.

Seananners is using his place as a well known gamer to spread a really wholesome and uplifting message. The main reason he has so many subscribers on YouTube (currently 655,007!) is not because he is an awesome CoD player, its because he is so down to earth.

Satan; You have the Bridge

I don't think I've laughed this much in a long time. It may also have to do with the vast number of freshly baked valentines cookies which the Girl has made for me...

Thankyou to CornishRocker @ I Move Like a Dwarf! for this particular gem.

Top 5 Black Ops Commentators

Usually, when I get in after a hard days work, I like to sit down on my arse and blow peoples heads off with high powered assault rifles. Its therapeutic, I suggest you try it. NO not in real life you 'nana, in Black Ops. Foo'!
When I'm not doing the blowing myself (steady...) I like to watch other people doing the blowing (now really, steady on - stop laughing). What I'm trying to say is that I like to watch Black Ops commentary videos. One of the reasons I spend so much time on YouTube browsing around for Black Ops gameplay is because I'm looking for tips on how to improve my game - I can't tell you how much I've learned by watching superior players play through their games. Although I do it partially for tips; I guess the main reason is because its very satisfying to watch the game played like a pro. I'd never be able to get a 67-1 gameplay in real life, so its nice to see that some people can still absolutely go batshit bonkers with Black Ops.

So, what I thought I'd do is share my Top 5 Black Ops Commentators for your approval and hopefully I can share some real gems with ya'll (there's a lot of embedded videos so follow after the jump for the top 3!)

Ok, slipping in at number 5 is:

Scotty Johnson

If you're new to Black Ops game commentaries, Scotty's videos probably aren't where you want to be starting off. Lets just say things get a little bit... odd. Scotty is usually accompanied (assuming Scotty is the player and not the chimp), by another dude with an overactive noise-gland. What is created is this almost schizophrenic dialogue between the player and the observer - every kill is accompanied by (and this is censored for ya'll sensitive folks out there) "WOOOO YEAH F**K HIM, MAN!" whilst the player laughs in the background. Some people find it a bit too much, but I think its hilarious.

At number 4 we have:

IXI sweat IXI Aka Marine Sweat

Marine Sweat is a commentator I came across about a month ago on the codops247 channel. He seems like a genuinely nice guy and has a good relationship with his viewers and subscribers. In addition to his personality, I think the main thing which brings people to his videos is the information he has on his life in the Marine corps. More often than not his commentaries include a story from his days at boot camp, or a discussion about what it takes to be a Marine.
He is enthusiastic and confident in his abilities as both a player and as a real life amphibious land/sea, no sleep, eat otter poo to live, sleep for fortnights in the swamp, killing machine. I enjoy every one of his videos; but find below the latest one I saw - he includes the footage of the latest map pack, a shiny golden AK and more stories from Boot Camp:

Black Ops News 26/01/11

Recently received a glimpse of the game play involved in the new map pack for Black Ops. Pretty excited, even though I'm not a sniper myself I'm hoping the maps will give more scope (*snigger*) for long range combat to keep the whiny snipers happy. I'm also hoping that the darkness in the Kowloon map will give a greater viability to infrared scopes, which have seen little to no play since the game was released (compared to Modern Warfare 2, where they were relatively common for snipers).

I have to say I was hoping that the "stadium" map would include the ability to fight across the large plain of the hockey rink. There are no maps with large open plains (again, unlike Wasteland and Derail in MW2) in Black Ops - the closest, in my opinion, being the central street in Havana and the Snow field on Grid. Still, can't wait to get to grips with the new features such as the zip line and the collapsible bridge.

Other Black Ops news: the 1.06 patch came out last night.
Notable changes:

• When you down an opponent into Last Stand, if your team mate finishes them off you will be credited with the kill and they will get an assist, this was sorely needed. It doesn't remove the pain in the arse that is Last Stand from the game, but it does at least make it less frustrating.
• Adjustments to the AK74u and RCXD - both sorely needed, although I'm not sure which changes have actually taken place.
• Changes to PSG1 sniper attachments.
• Tweaking the Silenced Sniper rifles.
• Numerous fixes to connectivity problems - although I believe I still crashed a number of times last night...

Full list can be found here: Gamrfeed on Black Ops 1.06

Finally, Wired.co.uk tells me that Gamers' Voice are reporting CoD to trading standards for not delivering a stable online gaming platform for PS3 and PC gamers. I have to agree, it is incredibly frustrating being kicked out of a game when you are doing well, and probably even more frustrating being kicked out when you are doing badly and so are given no chance to redeem your K/D ratio.

From wired.co.uk: http://cdni.wired.co.uk/620x413/a_c/bloppy.jpg

Whilst I'm hoping the latest patch will fix most of the problems; I don't believe the problems are game breaking. For the most part I can play full games and get a decent connection; but that won't stop me trying to twist my controller into a turkey twizzler if I d/c in front of 3 angry enemy players.

I'm still thoroughly enjoying the game and am improving my play style with every day. I'm at 5th prestige now! Wooo!
Next weekend I have some friends coming over and we will be partaking of some "Buzz! Music Quiz!" action, I'm quite looking forward to it. Seeing as, with the exception of Becky and possibly Sam, they are all completely clueless about popular culture - I'm quietly confident.

Anyone tried Buzz? What do you think of it?

Guest Post: The Experience of Evil by time2pwnu

Distilled: This is the first ARG Report for the New Year - penned by time2pwnu (E. Richardson) from the unFiction boards, it concerns the YouYube series: Experience of Evil.

Eric; in the Introduction, looks tired and scared: Introduction.

The Experience of Evil ARG series on YouTube started on December 18th, 2010. It started out like any other ARG; but with a surprising twist. Most viewers believed we were being giving another video series about Slenderman; but that was not the case. The story begins with the main character; Eric Hanes, talking about how his two friends have recently been killed in the past few months. Eric and his two friends; Justin Jones and Grant Compton, started a paranormal documentary in January of 2010. Eric believes a demon killed his friends and is now after him as well. The story starts out fast, as Eric starts posting all the videos from the past year in order, in Episode #2 we get a first-hand look at the demon and the horrors don’t end there. The story begins to make sense in the next few episodes, as Eric tries (in the current time) to run from the evil that has been chasing him and trying to kill him.



The trio of friends are being followed by what they believe to be a man. In Episode #9, the team was doing an investigation of one of Eric’s friend’s home; the man (or demon) says a few choice words to the camera. No one has been able to figure out what was said, but it is defiantly another language. As Eric continues his research into his friend’s deaths, he comes across a demon named “Mush” on the internet. Right now this is the best lead he has to finding the killer.

In Episode #13, they finally seem to make contact with their attacker. Grant is pulled through the house by an unknown force and they are attacked by the demon. Then in the continuation of that video (Episode #15) we see that the demon is definitely more than human when it makes them run off the road. We are left with a cliffhanger; the police do not believe Eric and Justin’s plea that their friends has been kidnapped by this thing, and at the end of Episode #16 it seems that Eric is not alone in his house. The next episode, #17, is sure to be one not to miss. More answers are soon to be revealed and rest assured, the longer this series goes, the more terrifying it will become. Will Eric survive long enough to post their entire story? Guess you will have to subscribe like the rest of us and find out.

See Episode 16 below:

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheExperienceofEvil
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#%21/ExpofEvil
unFiction thread: http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31163


Distilled: time2pwnu is an active member of the unFiction boards, and I want to thank him for taking the time to write this article for me. As always, if you are interested in writing a guest post regarding an Alternative Reality Game (or ARG subject) just drop me a mail or post a comment. Full details can be found here: Looking for Guest Writers!

Marble Hornets Entry #33

I... I'm just... holy crap - just watch this.




I continue to be astounded by Season 2 guys. Muchos kudos, you do not disappoint.

Had a very busy day, my sister was taken to hospital earlier after fainting at work - considering her medical history and whats happened over the past year, its not been an easy night. Thankfully she has now recovered, but not without scaring the crap out of us all.

EverymanHYBRID: Murder is a Dirty Habit

Having spent the last post talking about the latest Marble Hornets info, I thought I'd focus on the other big Slend-romp of the moment - EverymanHYBRID.

[WARNING SPOILERS FOR EMH]
As I was saying in the last post - although the subjects of the two Slenderman stories might at first seem similar, group of friends, Slendy-goings-on, and stuff "goin' down" - in fact the way the stories are approached and presented to the viewers are quite different. Take, for example, the latest offering from the guys over at EverymanHYBRID:

The video comes after a torrent of excitement from the followers over at UnFiction when we heard in the last entry that one of the characters, Ryan, had been in a car accident (it seemed). Vince threw us a small bone stating "I heard that noise"...
Most of the latest video shows the crew over in what appears to be a field, they are dimly lit by candles - presumably they are at the scene of the accident. Before this, we hear Jeff telling Evan to slow the car down so he can get a shot of a mutilated deer by the side of the road - uh oh, I smell the work of a particularly gougey garden-utensilly named foe (although, Slendy has also been known to mess with animals). The camera then cuts to laughter and a darkened interior location, we hear a sneering voice talking loudly in the next room, the place appears to be lit by lots of candles. The camera cuts again to the guys in the field. Vince tells us that Ryan was in an accident and passes on to Jeff to describe the rest of the story. Jeff describes to us how he was asked by Ryans Mother to help identify the body, how he had been mutilated with scratches all over his body and a broken neck.

The EMH crew doubt this is a car accident. Using their super-power detective skills they summise that as most of the glass was inside the vehicle it means something smashed through from the outside, rather than Ryan going through it from the drivers seat. The guys then go on to describe how Ryan recieved a strange email from a person known as HABIT (see here for a description of this character) asking for information, Ryan pressed him for his identity but also provided the information. We see the address come up on screen and the screencap of Ryans reply is linked in the description:

In the final scene in the field the guys describe how they have now sent their info to this guy and are so similarly "signed up". Almost everyone in the world has now also done the same! Some have been provided ID numbers for this "contest" already, I'm eagerly awaiting my reply!

The final scene is back in the candlelit house, the camerman moves closer to the voice in the next room and we see that it is Evan, talking to someone across the table - weilding a butcher knife. Evan describes how he has brought these "little fishes" for this person. Finally, as the cameraman moves further into the room we see the seat opposite is empty - finally the cameraman speaks and we hear that it is Jeff. He asks Evan what he's doing, as Evan gets up and advances on Jeff he turns and immediately runs into the ghastly figure of what appears to be Slendy - accompanied by his signature audio/visual distortion:

I really liked this episode - it was fast paced, it had a slick feel to it - with events seemingly occurring simultaneously until we realise who the characters involved are. The camera always cut away from one scene just as it got juicy and left you wanting to go back.

Feels to me like the guys really stepped up the game in response to the new season of MH coming out. I can't wait to see how insane Evan is going to go, how long Vince's beard is going to grow and where they are going with the whole Rake-in-Alex's-bedroom dealio. As always, the best place to follow the debate is over at UnFiction - I'd definately suggest getting an account over there and getting involved. I'd also suggest heading over to YouTube and Twitter and subscribing to both EMH, Marble Hornets and also Tribe Twelve - who I will do a post on tomorrow.

Argh! Porcelain Bees!

I've mentioned in a number of my posts that I am an avid gamer. However, what I haven't mentioned is that I also like to indulge in a bit of ARG-y goodness now and again. ARGs or "Alternative Reality Games" are games in which the player can get totally involved, the story unfolds in front of them through a number of different mediums and more often than not the puzzles are solved through community collaboration. I've mentioned my interest in online communities and their composition, evolution and cohesion in previous blabberings.

One of the most widely known ARGs is the horror/thriller game Marble Hornets (although, it is often seen as more of a chaotic fiction). MH tells the story of a group of friends who are haunted by the ghostly figure of Slenderman, as well as a number of other unsettling characters. The story revolves around the character Jay who is given a bin bag full of old videos by his friend Alex and told to destroy them. Instead Jay watches the tapes, originally meant to be film from the budget movie they and a few friends were filming, and sees Alex's sanity unwind as his is stalked by Slendy.

The story is mostly told through youtube and Twitter (@marblehornets) posts, with updates coming in the form of "Entries" - beginning with The Introduction and culminating in Entry 26. I don't want to give too much of the story away, just in case you are interested in getting involved, but its certainly worth watching from the start - also keep an eye on the video responses!

The main reason for this post is that "Season 2" appears to be starting, with Jay's Twitter being updated with 3 new mysterious and cryptic pictures - the ARG forums are furiously attempting to decode them, check out the action on unFiction here. I would thoroughly suggest getting involved in the forum and contributing, they are all very friendly and the community spirit of solving each problem as a group is really rather thrilling. There are tonnes of other viral and grassroots ARGs to get involved in on the unfiction forums, it was a big part of my life in the early part of this year and I've lost contact with the group of late, I'm hoping to get back into it with the new season of Marble Hornets.

Just.. erm, watch your windows, do not start to film yourself and, whatever you do, don't go into the freaking woods...