Unemployed To Web Video Overlord In Months

I talked briefly about Zero Punctuation during my discussion of Bioshock. It's a game review series by a demonic game reviewer who talks a hundred miles an hour with no pauses (hence the name) and does his best to skewer most of the games he reviews. After putting out a few reviews on the web (much to the approval of a fairly large viewership in a short period of time), he was noticed by The Escapist and brought on board (video). He reviews one game a week for The Escapist and his series of reviews have gotten a lot of notice and millions of viewers, making it a win win for both parties involved. Most of the attention is on the game reviews, although check out the two machinima pieces at the end of the last few reviews, especially the TF2 'love story' at the end of the SimCity Societies Review.

Now, apparently, ZP previews will be shown on G4 X-Play (covered in NewTeeVee and Kotaku). That's quite a rise from being self-described as unemployed and bored (NewTeeVee).

Two things: 1) it is quite impressive to bootstrap yourself simply by your talents and YouTube to a gig on cable TV, and 2) judging by Yahtzee's website (fullyramblomatic) he has actually produced a hell of a lot of content, comics, essays, even several short video games, and so his rise has not exactly been an overnight success. Impressive resume there.

There has been another amusing series making the rounds lately called "You Suck At Photoshop" (available on MyDamnChannel, YouTube Episode #1). It is both educational and entertaining (how often does that happen) as an apparently distraught ex-husband and employee in a crappy company uses Photoshop as a therapeutic tool to work out his frustrations at the world (his divorce? his crappy boss?). I am not sure if the stories behind these videos are even true, but there are some interesting things going on (check out some info at LaughingSquid). The videocasts appear to simply be the narrator (Donnie) working at this desk (we see his computer desktop, the photoshop window, and IM program). In episode #6, a brief flash of the desktop shows a company logo (Phebco - also linked at MDC). Well, if you check out www.phebco.com, you find something straight out of Portal. ARG? Someone simply having a lark? It's definitely an example of some of the unique entertainment being generated on the web (and asks the question - can you produce something true entertaining simply by screencasting someone's desktop?) that is also educational (when will the copycats emerge?).

Who needs television when the web is so damn entertaining?

A Few More Things

A few minor things to post on Saturday:

Info:

1. Interview with Rooster Teeth from The Globe and Mail.
2. Did anyone catch the BBC show "Virtual World, Real Millions" last week? Supposedly also shown in Second Life (via GamePolitics).

Clips:

1. I do not get this one at all: Pupino's Day: Bertha, girls, Hollywood and dance! I like it though.
2. Adventures of Mandy. Second Life to Third Life? Amusing, with some inside jokes.
3. Strange and not very well done student film using UT2004 and MovieSandBox. Player One.
4. From the maker of "Jimmy: The World of Warcraft Story" comes Time Gnomes (via MMORPG.blog).
5. G4TV Splinter Cell Co-op Theater 1.
6. I also don't get this film, which appears to be another student film: Machinima Oatmeal.
7. A recurring trend, another student film, which is more entertaining, but unfortunately I believe they get some of the physics wrong: xXxMeatloafxXx's Physics Project, Machinima Style.
8. Singing...Orcs...in...space (via Wow Insider). From Oxhorn who did ROFLMAO! (see previous post).

University Of Southern California To Offer Machinima Class

Out for a week or so. Was going to do another info barf post but don't have time. Don't break anything while I'm gone.

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One use of machinima increasingly seems to be related to education. USC is offering a class/seminar series on machinima where students will make, watch, and discuss machinima (via Kotaku, Addict3D).

Of course a few people are already using machinima in their classwork.
Macbeth - English Class.
82nd Airborne - English Class.
I've posted previously about one other case.

There's more videos tagged 'machinima' and 'education' at YouTube.

There is the Global Kids initiative that uses machinima (site, blog, YouTube).

Second Life and other virtual worlds are of course heavily infected? with education, science, and library initiatives like this tour of the solar system by Aimee Weber.

Using machinima and virtual worlds for educational information and teaching is going to be one fantastic offshoot of this burgeoning movement. I really wish it had been around when I was still taking classes. There's a reason why the old saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words' holds true. Imagery has an incredible impact and immediacy that the written word often does not have. One example is the SL ants I just talked about and another is the roller coaster/real estate price demonstration.

Are there any other cases of education/machinima/virtual worlds that I've missed.

World of Warcraft and Classical Literature

I never would have guessed that WoW and classic lit could be mentioned in the same sentence, but apparently a WoW player used the game to produce a machinima of The Pardoner's Tale (one of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - via Metroblogging Azeroth, originally on WoW Insider) for his high school english project. It's not very well done, but it's interesting nonetheless.

Hey! Would students be more interested if you used today's media such as games and machinima to increase interest and participation in the old classics? Would this help as a study and function aid? Could this benefit those who don't have the time/money/space to put on plays themselves without having to build expensive sets/costumes in an auditorium/theatre?