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YouTube “Let's Play”s are preserving video game history

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Re: YouTube “Let's Play”s are preserving video game history

#131

Post by CmdrKrool »

gxqoz wrote: post #127
pmarreck wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know. But I don't see how watching a "Let's Play" is going to get you much closer to those experiences

For games that have online components or are updated over time, a Let's Play video can at least be a window into how things worked at the time. Seeing a video of someone playing an online match in a game where the publisher has shut down the server is better than not having this information.

Here's a nice example of someone playing Demon's Souls on PS3 a few days before Atlus shut down the server - a neophyte playing together with an old hand who explains lots about the game and why it was loved.

Gaming Jay: Demon's Souls (PS3) (feat. Matt) - Let's Play 1001 Games - Episode 272 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x1mC1M0_Cs

EDIT: Adding the title of the video to go with the link, because one thing that's especially annoys me about bare YouTube links is that if the video was removed, YouTube doesn't even give you the former title so that you know what you missed.

Re: YouTube “Let's Play”s are preserving video game history

#132

Post by greiskul »

minimaxir wrote: post #60

It's worth noting that video game LPs as a format in general have been on a downtown lately, likely because streaming (a la Twitch) has been on the rise, is more profitable, and requires substantially less post-production work. The implosion of the Something Awful forums which incentivized the creation of high production-value LPs didn't help.

True. And one extremely sad thing for conservation, is that Twitch does NOT save all streams forever, it only keeps vods around that have been marked (I think by the creator?) as interesting. In one of those speedrun history videos, there was actually a case of a world record in a game, that was streamed, had many people witness it, but was not saved, and deleted by Twitch, and now we are not exactly sure how the run was actually performed, we just have the time for it. Luckily I think the record I mention was broken, but I can imagine that there are similar important moments out there that will be lost before anyone notices their value.

Imagine if we only had Twitch Vods of PT, and nobody actually saved them cause at the time there was no point to it, and they were all lost now.

Re: YouTube “Let's Play”s are preserving video game history

#133

Post by montag »

cobookman wrote: post #11
velcrovan wrote: post #3

Does YouTube have any incentive to “preserve” anything once it costs them more money than it brings in? If not, maybe it's a little early to say they are actually preserving anything. (The article does kind of acknowledge this.) Maybe its real role is as a link in a chain that leads to /r/datahoarders

You overestimate the cost of storage at this scale. It's totally worth them storing the data given the marginal cost. A 10TiB HDD is only 150$ retail. These videos can likely be stored in less than 200MiB on average. Storage has gotten cheaper YoY

How many megabytes of storage are subsidized by, say, 100 views per year?

Re: YouTube “Let's Play”s are preserving video game history

#134

Post by GuB-42 »

TrainedMonkey wrote: post #125
velcrovan wrote: post #3

Does YouTube have any incentive to “preserve” anything once it costs them more money than it brings in? If not, maybe it's a little early to say they are actually preserving anything. (The article does kind of acknowledge this.) Maybe its real role is as a link in a chain that leads to /r/datahoarders

It is a ponzi scheme right now. As long as cost of storage is falling exponentially, they can afford to keep the old stuff.

That the cost of storage is falling exponentially certainly helps but it isn't necessary if we want to keep the old stuff.

In fact most of the exponential increase in storage space is used to cover the even more exponential increase in video file size.

But there is a limit on how big video can get. Our perception is limited and passed a certain point, we won't notice the improvement. Audio has been "perfect" for quite a while now, and with 4k video, we are getting there too. There is also a limit on the amount of content users can produce before people do nothing but film themselves.

We may find ourselves running out of stuff to store before we need to delete the old stuff.

Re: YouTube “Let's Play”s are preserving video game history

#135

Post by RandomInteger4 »

RandomInteger4 wrote: post #18
cobookman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You overestimate the cost of storage at this scale. It's totally worth them storing the data given the marginal cost. A 10TiB HDD is only 150$ retail. These videos can likely be stored in less than 200MiB on average. Storage has gotten cheaper YoY

Maybe I'm mistaken, but my understanding is that YouTube has been operating at a loss for its entire existence.

Sources:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/viewers-dont-add-up-to-profit-f...

http://fortune.com/2016/10/18/youtube-profits-ceo-susan-wojc...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-04/alphabet-...

While there's nothing concrete concerning how much YouTube costs and brings in, it seems to be generally understood that YouTube is an investment that hasn't reached profitability yet and only exists in its current state due to the fact that Google is willing to lose money on it in the mean time.

Re: YouTube “Let's Play”s are preserving video game history

#136

Post by dpkonofa »

criley2 wrote: post #106
dpkonofa wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to say something similar. I actually think YouTube (as a hosting/sharing platform) is a net-negative for the internet because there are already millions of videos that were embedded in pages that are no longer working because YouTube removed them, the account was deleted, or any number of things. If the internet worked the way it was intended, these videos would have been hosted on the site rather than em…

In nearly all of those cases, the content was removed because either the uploader wanted it removed, or the owner of the intellectual property in the video wanted it removed. In both of those cases, I don't see how this is Youtube's fault or decentralized hosting would be better. In the first case (uploader wants it gone) you have a sticky situation where loosely managed websites refuse (or can't) respond to requests…

I would agree with you if thousands of videos and accounts weren't removed daily due to false "intellectual property" claims and automated reporting. YouTube's system is terrible because they're so large that they've had to try to automate a system that can't really be automated. A decentralized system would require those claims to actually be validated before they're processed because, otherwise, it would be a waste of time and money for the companies making the false claims.

I agree with you on the Library of Congress. We need a digital LoC.

Re: YouTube “Let's Play”s are preserving video game history

#137

Post by TrainedMonkey »

GuB-42 wrote: post #134
TrainedMonkey wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a ponzi scheme right now. As long as cost of storage is falling exponentially, they can afford to keep the old stuff.

That the cost of storage is falling exponentially certainly helps but it isn't necessary if we want to keep the old stuff. In fact most of the exponential increase in storage space is used to cover the even more exponential increase in video file size. But there is a limit on how big video can get. Our perception is limited and passed a certain point, we won't notice the improvement. Audio has been "perfect" for quit…

You are thinking only about quality of video increases. I agree that is essentially finite if we ignore upcoming technologies such as 360 video and eventually VR ready video (fully 3d, any perspective).

My argument was primarily based on the number of videos uploaded (see https://tubularinsights.com/hours-minute-uploaded-youtube/). Looking at the area under the curve, supporting the historic videos is a fraction of what it takes to store the most recent ones.

I am arguing as long as the youtube continues to be able to support to store the recent videos, storing the historic ones is not that much more expensive.

edit: also, running out of stuff to store is not going to be a thing ever. Amount of cameras in the world is increasing and people will keep shooting more videos.

Re: YouTube “Let's Play”s are preserving video game history

#139

Post by euske »

buzzert wrote: post #130
velcrovan wrote: post #3

Does YouTube have any incentive to “preserve” anything once it costs them more money than it brings in? If not, maybe it's a little early to say they are actually preserving anything. (The article does kind of acknowledge this.) Maybe its real role is as a link in a chain that leads to /r/datahoarders

I think you’re looking at it the wrong way. YouTube is not preserving video game history by providing a place to host these videos. Instead, they’re offering an incentive for people to create these videos that are currently hosted on YouTube but will eventually be archived somewhere else. In other words, YouTube is somewhat responsible for the creation of this new content, but has no expectation or responsibility to…

And the same thing can be said for any type of videos, not just video games videos. YouTube gave an incentive (not necessarily monetary incentive) to preserve something to those who previously wouldn't if such a service didn't exist.

Re: YouTube “Let's Play”s are preserving video game history

#140

Post by godelski »

> It’s a long-observed fact that the phenomenon of the YouTube let’s play has benefits beyond just entertaining viewers and gradually introducing teenagers to neo-Nazism via YouTube’s algorithm.

This is really poor wording. Maybe s/benefits/affects? Because I don't think anyone (well maybe neo-Nazis) think "introducing teenagers to neo-Nazism via YouTube's algorithm" is a benefit.

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