The iWalrus. 1000 walri in your pocket.
“
One can imagine a sane, healthy, cheerful human society based on no more than the principles of common sense, as validated each day by work, play and living experience. But this remains the most utopian and fantastic of ideals.
If America could be, once again, a nation of self-reliant farmers, craftsmen, hunters, ranchers, and artists, then the rich would have little power to dominate others. Neither to serve nor to rule: That was the American dream.
” — Edward Abbey
Check out this awesome picture Teddanator drew of us playing Portal 2 Co-op!
Fun in Portal. :D
(via teddanator-deactivated20120722)
[video]
The following quote is the last post of Astragali, AKA The Minecraft Scribe. His blog and Twitter accounts have been deleted and deactivated. If you would like to contact him, you can do so at his email address. (He says he’s answering his emails, so don’t worry about it.) astragali(at)aol(dot)com
[BEGIN QUOTE]
“This will be my final Minecraft Scribe blog post and, by extension, my final contribution to the Minecraft community. Thank you to everyone, around the world, who has read this blog, and even befriended me, over the last 14 months.
Mark”
[END QUOTE]
He has recently reactivated his Twitter account. No word as to whether he will continue witting or not.
We shall all mourn the end of The Minecraft Scribe. Bye Astra :(
Lion is the code name for Apple’s latest version of their already awesome operating software, OS X. This update takes Mac computers, and takes them about 10 steps farther away from what is considered a customary operating system. Simple things like habitually hitting Command-S to save or the old ways of scrolling through a page are done away with. Nearly every new feature is an improvement on an old Mac feature. Exposé is replaced with Mission control. Versions is like Time Machine, but on a per-document basis. And everything is worth the $30 upgrade. I have found that using Lion has made using my computer much less of a hassle. But besides all the little graphical enhancements and smooth animations, I feel that Lion helps me get more done. Lion has turned Mac computers into Beasts of Productivity.
Since my last post, my mind has been swarming with ideas on what to write today. Some were pretty good, but I’d forget them. Others were stupid, so I’d toss them out. But while walking to the store to pick up some batteries for my mouse, (which died on my just as I was about to write this) I started thinking: “What can I write about that I can make a difference in?” Politics? Minecraft? Nah… Business practices? Programming? I don’t think so. Then I thought about writing how and why I started Fear of Mobs, which led to my next idea, “Why don’t I write encouragement to those starting their own YouTube gaming channels?” That’s what I’m going with.
YouTube is a wonderful thing. Video games are a wonderful thing. Computers, consoles, and electronics in general are awesome (except for Android phones). Wouldn’t it be great if you could combine the three and make money while doing so? Many people already do. Take the Yogscast, for example. They have thousands of subscribers, and chances are they make several dollars a month because of their YouTube partnership. The Dead Workers Party is an awesome group of people who podcast about their favorite games (TF2, Minecraft, WoW, etc.) and as a result have sponsors and many followers. What people wouldn’t give to make a little extra cash or even just a small following by playing video games. But I’ll tell you now, doing so is not easy.
Even though I’ve been doing this whole YouTube thing for about six months, I’ve already seen people try and give up making YouTube videos. Now there I have been. I used to make a YouTube series called The Ace Guides. If you’ve heard of it, I’m amazed, because there are probably only a handful of people who know about it. But it was going ok-ish until I posted my 18th video and decided to stop. So I’ve a little experience with starting then stopping. There are a couple reasons I can think of why you would stop a series. You may be embarrassed by your voice, editing style, video quality, play-style, etc. Maybe you just got bored of the game. Maybe you made 100 videos and you only have 12 subscribers. Maybe you think you’re just doing it wrong and want to start afresh. But most series are shut down because the creator was not getting the results he/she was hoping for.
Here are three basic tips I would give to new let’s players:
1) Be yourself
Don’t try to mimic someone else
It’s ok to improve your style if you think you need it, but don’t flat-out copy someone else.
2) Keep at it!
If you’ve only gone 20 episodes and there are only 30 subscribers, don’t be discouraged. The more videos you make, the more those numbers will grow. Coestar has thousands of subscribers, but he also has 150+ episodes. He’s been at it longer!
3) Always go forward
If you think you’re going to be making videos like these for a long time, don’t be afraid to invest a little money into your videos. I’m not talking advertising, I’m talking about improving video quality, or getting a clearer mic. Viewers prefer clear, crisp audio rather than humming, cracking, etc. And don’t be afraid to move to a new game; video games often come in fads, and someday we’ll all have to leave Minecraft. :(
I’m in the same boat a lot of people are in; I’m still learning every step of the way and I’ll admin, I don’t always follow these three tips to the letter. (especially number 3, I’m working on that one.) But if you keep being friendly and interesting to watch and don’t stop, I’m sure you’ll get there.
Whenever I get the urge to write, it usually last a couple days, and hundreds of ideas run through my mind. I’ve written essays, letters, and the first chapter to several books that have since been abandoned to collect dust, never to be touched again. And I don’t plan on returning to them, since they’re old and I don’t know where to find them. Twitter doesn’t give enough room, and I don’t like to use Facebook. This leaves one easy option; a blog! I’ve used Tumblr before, so why not add a fourth blog to my account?
I write this all as an introduction to this blog. I’m Deaboy. I’m on Twitter, Facebook (but I never use FB), YouTube, Minecraft, Steam, Google+, and now officially on Tumblr. My interests include Twitter, YouTube, Minecraft, Steam, Valve, Terraria, Google+, Dead Workers Party, Ect. My screen name is usually Deaboy, but it is occasionally FearofMobs, as I have a YouTube Minecraft let’s play under that name.
I don’t think I’m going to leave this post as a simple introduction. I’m going to try to answer one of the most difficult questions; “If you knew everything you do now, would you have done things differently?” Because this question is so broad, I’ll answer it with an even broader answer. “Yes.” But let’s be more specific. When I was first toying with the idea of starting a second YouTube series several months ago (I’m talking about Fear of Mobs here), would I do things differently if I had the knowledge I do now? Well, the answer is a little more difficult then “yes”. I probably would have used a different account to upload the videos. I would rather have Fear of Mobs be a series that is based from my personal channel, Deaboy100. This way, I’d have the freedom to upload let’s plays of several games besides Minecraft and still have the same following. Plus, it’s quite difficult to come up unique names for series that aren’t already taken by other YouTubers. But would I change how my videos are? Well, I would have liked to have my volume adjusted on some of the earlier videos, and 720p would have been nice to have from the start. But as for the actual content and my style of commentating and playing I would keep the same. I love the layout of my Fear of Mobs world, and I often prefer to play in it rather than on servers, to be honest. There’s something about that solitude and zero-lag that makes the game fun.
But I’m going off on a tangent. This blog post is shorter than I’d like it to be, but I can tell now that there isn’t really a clear point I’m trying to get a cross, so I might as well end it now. But, if you don’t already know this, subscribe to my personal YouTube and Twitter accounts, as well as my Fear of Mobs YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook page. Check me out on Google+ and, if you don’t mind, follow/comment on this blog so I can know that people are actually reading it. If I know people care about what I post here, I’ll keep doing it. Catch you all on the flippity-flop!