PickVidsBest Gaming culture & analysis Videos
The 92 Gaming culture & analysis videos here were recommended by different people across different months. Choose by who it is for: 3 introductory, 9 intermediate, 80 for a general viewer, and 0 for someone who wants the harder derivation. Most of them are a commentary. What they share is that something that already happened gets one reading. Channels you will keep seeing include Folding Ideas, People Make Games, Accursed Farms.
In Search Of A Flat Earth
Dan Olson's 76-minute essay on flat earth belief, built around a hike to a lake to test earth's curvature.
This Is Phil Fish
Innuendo Studios uses Phil Fish, creator of the game Fez, as a case study in internet celebrity.
The Engoodening of No Man's Sky
Internet Historian tells the story of No Man's Sky, from its over-hyped and badly received launch to years of updates by Hello Games that redeemed the game.
Contrepreneurs: The Mikkelsen Twins
Dan Olson of Folding Ideas investigates the Mikkelsen Twins and the ghostwritten-audiobook passive-income course industry, even playing along with the scheme.
This is Financial Advice
Dan Olson's long Folding Ideas video on the GameStop meme stock phenomenon, its online community and the conspiracy thinking around it.
Why Are You So Angry? Part 1: A Short History of Anita Sarkeesian
The first part of Innuendo Studios' six-part video essay series on the online hostility around Anita Sarkeesian and GamerGate.
Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper.
A People Make Games follow-up investigation into Roblox, built on stories from players and creators after the channel's first video.
Manufactured Discontent and Fortnite
Dan Olson of Folding Ideas critiques Fortnite's monetization, arguing it uses manufactured discontent, such as shop design and skins, to push spending.
The Future is a Dead Mall - Decentraland and the Metaverse
Dan Olson of Folding Ideas spends months in the virtual world Decentraland and delivers a long critique of the metaverse, NFTs and DAOs, and why virtual worlds fail as places.
How Valve is Profiting from Steam's Back-Door Casinos
People Make Games investigates the unregulated CS:GO skin gambling economy and Valve's role in it.
Robocalypse Now: Using Deep Learning to Combat Cheating in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Valve's John McDonald presents at GDC 2018 on how Valve uses deep learning (VACnet) to detect cheaters in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
MyHouse.WAD - Inside Doom's Most Terrifying Mod
A long video essay on MyHouse.wad, a Doom II mod uploaded by an anonymous user that hides unsettling secrets in its walls.
How lucky is too lucky?: The Minecraft Speedrunning Dream Controversy Explained
Matt Parker analyzes the Minecraft speedrunning controversy in which Dream was accused of cheating via improbably lucky drops.
Free to Play
Valve's feature-length documentary following three professional gamers competing in the first Dota 2 International tournament for a million dollar prize.
"Games as a service" is fraud.
Ross Scott of Accursed Farms makes a 76-minute argument that selling video games as a service is a form of consumer fraud.
Cities: Skylines | Power, Politics, & Planning: Episode 1: Parking
The first episode of a Cities: Skylines series on urban politics and planning, focused on parking.
Ross's Game Dungeon: Deus Ex
Ross Scott's Game Dungeon episode on Deus Ex, a long review of the game covering its narrative, politics and economic philosophy as well as its design.
The First Video Game
An hour-long, carefully sourced video essay from Ahoy asking what counts as a video game and which one was truly first.
RetroAhoy: The Secret of Monkey Island
A roughly 75-minute video essay from Ahoy's RetroAhoy series on the making and history of The Secret of Monkey Island.
How Gamers Killed Ultima Online's Virtual Ecology | War Stories | Ars Technica
An Ars Technica War Stories episode in which Richard Garriott and Starr Long describe Ultima Online's planned virtual ecology and how players wrecked it.
Space Station 13 Review | AHELP: Clown Grief Pls Ban He™
SsethTzeentach reviews Space Station 13, the chaotic multiplayer game, by recounting absurd stories of singularities, malfunctioning AIs and plasma fires.
What Games Are Like For Someone Who Doesn't Play Games
Razbuten has his wife, who has never played games, try a sampling of titles and shows where she struggles.
Game Critics
A videogamedunkey video essay on video game critics.
TUN: Un-Ruining the MMO
MrBtongue argues that modern theme-park MMOs lost what made earlier sandbox online games compelling, and that MMOs could be saved by returning to sandbox design.