As some of you may know, I watch a lot of video walkthroughs as research for the Areas of Concern on this blog and recently ventured into Let's Playing as well.
What started off as a hobby in my lonely teenage years when I was still an acne-faced know-it-all, became an otaku in my adolescent years, where I'm now a beard-faced know-nothing-at-all.
Having over four years experience watching Let's Plays, and two months experience actually making them, (my second series just started on my channel.) I decided to try something that I'm sure plenty of you would like:
Let's Player Reviews, where I, ahem, review all the different LPers on the internet. From huge fanbases, to rabid cult followings, I'll take a look at those who ventured beyond simply being couch potatoes enjoying the occasional video game and taken up the hard task of entertaining the never satisfied masses.
First up, it's arguably one of the fastest growing gaming channels on YouTube: NerdCubed.
Bio:
A quirky, geek in his mid-twenties hailing from the UK, Daniel Hardcastle started off his career by making MineCraft videos just like so many millions have done.
What set his videos apart later on, however, is his distinct approach to editing and a "procedural" format, where it's very easy for the casual viewer to watch one of his videos and just enjoy it due to his short and sweet playthroughs which rarely last more than 30 minutes.
As such, Dan is less of a Let's Player in the long form, with complete playthroughs being very rare. (He does occasionally make a full length walkthrough.)
Raking in over a million subscribers, Dan's Let's Playing career has earned him enough to make a living off of, and his fanbase keeps on growing......
Areas of Concern:
The biggest issue Christians may have with NerdCubed is that he is a self described "hardcore atheist", and makes quite a few nasty cracks at the Bible and Christianity in particular, a result of his upbringing as a "Jesus-ist".
Of course, we don't judge people, and so I'm able to look past this obvious flaw.
Otherwise, Dan unfortunately does use strong language at certain points, albeit infrequently. The swearing in his videos feel very extraneous, and it was a bit of a shock when I heard it for the first time in his Red Dead Redemption playthrough.
(Not like I'm not used to hearing swear words, he just seemed like he could be a very family friendly playthrough guy.)
Sexual references are very mild and infrequent, but do occur, for example; in his Surgeon Simulator 2013 video he jokes about a bottle labeled "XXX" is "The finest in liquefied pornography!" (Yours to decide if this is vulgar or not.)
NOTE: According to a blog reader, he did say "Hail Satan" in one of his videos seemingly out of nowhere. I watched the video where he apparently said it, and I didn't hear it. To the blog reader: If you can provide me with the exact timecode, that would be greatly appreciated. I don't know if I missed it or what.
Review of Style:
Pros:
NerdCubed is very funny and a joy to listen to. His playthroughs are the sit-down-and-enjoy-with-a-drink kind, sort of like watching TV but without several annoying advertisements.
It's hard not to fall in love with his style, and the first time you watch some of his stuff it's hard not to watch more, and more, and more.
It seems like he started uploading videos daily, which means his channel is becoming a full time commitment for his fans, which leads me too......
Cons:
.....That could be what breaks his channel. Even though he has hardcore fans, it's kind of hard to keep tuning in every single day of the week to watch his videos.
Also, his playthroughs can't help but feel very superficial at times as a result of his short and sweet videos which rarely ever venture further.
His ramblings are funny, but after a while the video feels very pointless and often ends very abruptly. This is an unfortunate downside of his style, and that may upset people looking for deeper gaming material like myself.
Conclusion:
Nevertheless, in spite of all his flaws, Dan is a very entertaining commentator and deserves the huge, celebrity-like status he earned. To all who can tolerant the content listed above, tune in, and have fun!
Trivia:
-NerdCubed makes his living off of advertisements on his videos, as a result of a partnership program with YouTube. More and more people seem to be pursuing this method of making money, albeit, it's not very easy to accomplish....
-His catchphrase, "Hello procrastinators!" was said in one of his videos as a joke, but he decided to keep it as his distinct introduction.
-He probably likes cookies.
No comments:
Post a Comment