Latest You Tube videos watched and enjoyed...

Yeah, creative editing. The creator's shtick is taking mildly awkward video and turning it into extremely awkward video.

For me, that's The Batman trailer. I know it's been 4 months since it was released, but it impressed me so much, that I return to it from time to time. I don't add the video cause I think most of you have already watched it.

saw this posted over at BGG, thought it was extremely cute. also, this must have taken forever to make.

Wonderful stuff, it gave me a case of the feel-goods at the end.

The final thirty seconds gave me flashbacks of turning up with a game at club nights with mixed up bits from three different games replacing half the components

Been enjoying some violence lately. I have zero interest in either boxing or MMA, but give me some well edited and narrated videos and I'll give you my time. The Modern Martial Artist does breakdowns of individual fights and in-depth analysis of personal techniques and styles, classic and contemporary. Of course I heard Muhammad Ali was the greatest, but it's something else to see him lean out of punches and knock his opponent out while walking backward.

Rossatron's back catalog of video essays on martial arts and action cinema is great, but he finally dipped his toe into an original creation with 'Acéré.' It's five minutes long and worth it.

A have a weakness for extended video game reviews (Noah Caldwell-Gervais is a favorite of mine, as is Ahoy in the rare event they release new content). So it was probably only a matter of time before I ended up watching Tim Rogers' Action Button reviews. You may have read his work elsewhere, but for video reviews this is a mesmerizing format for me. It's a combination of fascinating writing, surprisingly funny delivery and performance, and interesting commentary.

It's true that all of his reviews are REALLY long, all around the 3 hour mark. His review of dating sim Tokimeki Memorial is nearly 6 hours long, which is really more of a miniseries at that point. I linked to his review of Doom below, since it seemed most relevant to this site. It's deeply indulgent and long-winded, but I kind of love it.

Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street.

I haven't had a chance to watch the whole thing yet but xavier woods and friends playing Wingspan with Elizabeth Hargrave is Excellent Content

Xavier Woods is great.

Oh man this is great.

This guy posts videos on various legal issues/news items. He used to be a regular writer on JALOPNIK, a car enthusiast website. The vids are relatively short and often entertaining.

Ok... there's hope for the video medium when it comes to board game criticism (in the way that folks here have discussed actual *criticism* vs product reviews). I think NPI is on the right track with this format.

I know what men can do when they’re angry.

san il defanso wrote: It's true that all of his reviews are REALLY long, all around the 3 hour mark. His review of dating sim Tokimeki Memorial is nearly 6 hours long, which is really more of a miniseries at that point. I linked to his review of Doom below, since it seemed most relevant to this site. It's deeply indulgent and long-winded, but I kind of love it.

I wanted to watch his video on Tokimeki Memorial but I just can't pull myself to spend longer on an analysis of a game than the game itself takes, even if it's not translated.

Frohike wrote: Ok... there's hope for the video medium when it comes to board game criticism (in the way that folks here have discussed actual *criticism* vs product reviews). I think NPI is on the right track with this format.

I appreciate a lot what he's trying to do but I have the same issue I had with his piece on colonialism. He covers a lot of issues and games but his thoughts don't come together well. For example, his bit on Lovecraft is both too short to explain his thoughts and, at the same time, too long to justify the mention.

It also seems he's making a straight connection between the gameplay style of Tomb of Horrors and sexism which I find very questionable. But I'm not sure because I can't quite understand what point is he making. I can infer, but that also runs into other issues. For example, I think his commentary is a bit ahistorical.

Erik Twice wrote: I appreciate a lot what he's trying to do but I have the same issue I had with his piece on colonialism. He covers a lot of issues and games but his thoughts don't come together well. For example, his bit on Lovecraft is both too short to explain his thoughts and, at the same time, too long to justify the mention.

It also seems he's making a straight connection between the gameplay style of Tomb of Horrors and sexism which I find very questionable. But I'm not sure because I can't quite understand what point is he making. I can infer, but that also runs into other issues. For example, I think his commentary is a bit ahistorical.

I think NPI's analysis pieces are much better than their reviews but I do find that they reference and build upon their past body of work in a way that expects the viewer to have seen all of it. That makes them work less well for people who dip in and out for particular videos that happen to go viral. In any case, even if potentially flawed, this content is at least conversation/thought provoking which immediately makes it better than 90% of Youtube Board Game content. I do appreciate that Efka's approach tends to emphasise that these are his thoughts and personal opinions which gives space for polite disagreement, rather than him trying to state things as universal truths.