Do YouTubers help you make better games? To find out, Gamasutra took to Twitter to ask our followers: Who do you watch?
The rise of the YouTuber (and cheap capture technology) has meant that games get dissected as they're played, live on stream. And while many YouTubers don't offer much in the way of analysis, others do think carefully about games and explain their content and context.
Do any of them help you make better games?
With that question in mind, we took to Twitter to ask, and these are the responses we got.
Remember, if you're interested in participating in these conversations in the future, make sure to follow @Gamasutra on Twitter. The questions usually go out on Fridays in the late morning, Pacific time, alongside Tweets of our regular news, blogs, and original writing.
Some YouTubers are, in fact, game developers (or is that some game developers are YouTubers?)
@gamasutra The entertaining and informative @Pentadact: https://t.co/jf7UwagGdd
— JF Frankel (@JFhimself) October 2, 2015
Observing play is undoubtedly valuable:
@gamasutra i watch a lot of @MANvsGAME and bananasaurus rex. i like to see how people overcome insane obstacles in games.
— Josef Ortner (@Iossif) October 2, 2015
Errant Signal got two votes of confidence; History Respawned is unique, in that academics look at the historical accuracy of games set in the past (and blog their videos on Gamasutra!)
@gamasutra Errant Signal (https://t.co/3xu9ZFrzzV) and History Respawned (https://t.co/d65mY1HiNk)
— Christiaan Moleman (@ninjadodo) October 2, 2015
Extra Credits is one of the most frequently cited video series by game develoeprs, so it's no surprise that it makes the list:
@gamasutra definitely the guys at @ExtraCreditz they are the best
— Ahmed (@Ahmedaa1000) October 2, 2015
And a channel that promises "in-depth reviews and analysis" gets a shout-out:
@gamasutra Definitely @Matthewmatosis. His reviews are spot on. http://t.co/MOFdphWucd
— corn punisher (@goldenwebz) October 2, 2015
It's not a surprise, given his popularity, that the self-styled "cynical Brit" made the list:
@gamasutra as a future game dev, I really appreciate @Totalbiscuit and his work
— Elijah RJ Cunningham (@SerevionMan) October 2, 2015