Day9

I recently stumbled over Day9. Day9 is basically a very experienced StarCraft player and game commenter who posts daily videos on YouTube where he analyzes some multi-player matches and discusses strategies.

Day9’s channel is highly recommended if you are interested in StarCraft 2 competitive game-play. I’m really impressed with his smooth and entertaining delivery. It’s a pleasure to listen to him especially since he has an never-ending stream of smart insights to share.

Day9 isn’t an exception. There are quite a lot people put there video podcasting about StraCraft 2. You have guys like HuskyStarcraft, HDStarcraft, TheStarcraft2Dude and many, many more. What’s more, StarCraft 2 isn’t the only game that people videopodcast about. For example I have been doing our recent Monster Hunter Podcasts with SocialDissonance who is doing excellent video tutorials for Monster Hunter. And then besides people dedicated to just one game there is the entire Let’s Play scene on YouTube where people just play various games and record that with commentary.

It’s a fascinating culture growing there. It struck me that these people finally managed to create an adequate TV-style format for video-games. As games grew popular there were many attempts at creating a TV show for video-game players. They all failed miserably. Games are very long and complicated. With only 1 hour at best the shows couldn’t even scratch the surface of most games. In Germany there was an entire TV station dedicated to computers and gaming. It was called Giga TV. They had more time so that worked better. However the TV station went down. The topics they addressed seemed too special interest to appeal to an audience wide enough to keep the station going.

The YouTube channels are an exciting new solution. They have all the time in the world to really get into very in-depth strategies. There are hardly any costs associated with doing them. Most of the channels are a one-man show. There is even no revenue in play, the authors can manage to keep it as a hobby. And as a result the content quality shoots through the roof. The people doing this are doing it because they love the games they discuss. They are frequently extremely experienced and often manage to acquire some amazing delivery skills.

It’s mind-blowing to watch that culture grow and expand, especially now that I found myself actually consuming that content on a regular basis. Mainstream TV really seems to lose a lot of ground, day by day…. 9.