作者：Mike Rose

电子游戏产业中出现了一次显著的转变，但是许多传统的游戏评论家却对此转变采取了视而不见的态度。

“YouTuber”的崛起引来了无数狂热的粉丝，并为游戏开发者带来了巨大的流量和销量增长，同时书面文字将继续传播着，并伴随着过去的每一天变得更加有趣。

获得大名鼎鼎的YouTuber的宣传对于许多游戏开发者来说就像做梦一样。像TotalBiscuit, NerdCubed或Northernlion等可以带领你与主要的消费者网站（如IGN，GameSpot和Game Informer）进行比较的宣传变得越来越重要。

一年前，我建议任何开发者应该尽可能且尽早联系一些新闻媒体。现在的我也仍会这么说，但却会多出如下忠告：我们这么做是为了引起YouTuber的注意。

但如果没有任何证据能够证明这些视频与受推荐的其他开发者的视频有所区别，查看统计和订阅数便什么都不是。Gamasutra联系了一些开发者，希望从他们身上明确YouTuber对他们所造成的影响。

《逐日飞翔》的创造者Aaron San Filippo告诉我们：“的确，比起我们一直依赖的最大的网站，最受欢迎的Youtuber对于我们的流量和销量具有更大的影响。”

他补充道：“当DanNerdCubed在玩《逐日飞翔》，并公开我们的Greenlight页面的链接时，这所带来的影响远远大于我们到目前为止所出现的所有网站报道。我同样也非常肯定TotalBiscuit对于我们在Steam上发行当天的宣传有力地提升了我们的周销量，这也是帮助我们更长久地保持在Steam首页的主要原因。如果我们足够聪明的话，下一次我们一定会更认真地安排这类型的活动。”

Postitech Games的Cliff Harris也说道，尽管很难看到长期的关联，但YouTuber宣传的吸引力的确远超传统的新闻报道。

他强调：“我并不清楚哪个游戏网站对于你的游戏的宣传能够立即创造出显著的销量飙升，但YouTube Let’s Play却做到了这点。”

《民主制度3》的开发者也补充道：“尽管大多数Let’s Play频道并不能真正创造出足够的即刻销量，但是它们却能够有效地提高游戏的曝光度，从而为游戏的宣传带来帮助。”

来自工作室17-BIT（游戏包注：创造了《Skulls of the Shogun》）的Borut Pfeifer也表示同意，他认为尽管很难呈现出传统媒体和YouTuber宣传之间的区别，“但却很难去否定它所带来的影响。”

他说道：“去年或者过去两年，大多数在PC上所获得的成功的独立游戏主要是归功于YouTube的宣传。对于《Skulls》，我们致力于寻找合适的人选并发送了许多评论代码给YouTuber，这比普通的新闻宣传带来了更多消费者，因为后者并不包含联络信息。”

一位名为eligorko的较有人气的俄罗斯YouTuber宣传了这款游戏，还有一些人气没那么多的俄罗斯YouTuber也宣传了这款游戏，所以Pfeifer相信这些宣传是俄罗斯成为《Skulls of the Shogun》第二大热销国家的主要原因。

他补充道：“这具有随机性（因为我们并未发送任何评论副本），因为找到并接触国际YouTuber真的很困难。”

英国开发者Dan Pierce发现YouTuber的影响会根据不同的游戏发生改变。当他的团队去年发行《Castles in the Sky》时，带来最大销量的是Rock Paper Shotgun和Giant Bomb，而YouTuber的宣传只带来了“一些额外的销量”。

他说道：“最近因为某些人的宣传为游戏带来了超过12万的订阅者，但是我们却从中只卖出13份游戏。”他表示这可能是因为《Castles in the Sky》属于一款只有10分钟长的游戏，所以并不适合Let’s Play的用户。

然而他也表示《10秒忍者》呈现出了完全不同的故事。

他说道：“就目前为止我们所看到的，我们并未从新闻中获得巨大的销量蹿升，但是我们却通过YouTube做到了这点。特别是Total Biscuit的宣传为我们带来的销量近乎等同于促销一周的结果。而Dan Nerdubed的宣传也带来其中一半的销量，尽管他的视频拥有大约10多万的浏览量。”

所以意思就是在最糟糕的情况下，YouTuber能够带来与传统的新闻同样水平的流量，而如果你获得一个受欢迎的YouTuber的宣传，你便有可能获得传统媒体所不能带给你的销量高潮。

这是否意味着你应该更多地专注于获得YouTuber的宣传，并将传统媒体当成次要的市场营销任务？

幸运的是，我自己还有许多其他开发者仍然在寻找传统媒体所具有的，并且是YouTuber所不具有的优势。

San Filippo说道：“在Polygon或RPS上宣传比让Totalbiscuit或NorthernLion花几个小时的时间去玩你的游戏简单多了。显然这些人经常在这些网站上阅读游戏的相关内容，所以我认为不该忽视任何一种方法。”

YouTuber会定期选择一些已经备受瞩目的游戏进行体验，所以传统媒体便是吸引YouTuber注意力的重要渠道。

来自Ludosity（创造了《食人女孩》）的Joel Nystrom说道：“我想最大的区别在于你不能轻松地量化质量，因为YouTuber经常不会提供分数。所以你不能提供‘TotalBiscuit：9.5分’这样的信息，相反地你需要引用你的宣传材料。不管怎样这可能是一种更好的方法—-我总是认为量化这样的主观内容真的非常愚蠢。”

Cliff Harris补充道：“YouTuber有时成功有时也不会成功，他们中的许多人一直在寻找着特殊类型的游戏，即具有视觉吸引力或者比起玩家，对于观看者来说更有趣的内容。”

例如，他拥有一个策略游戏品牌能够比YouTube视频更好地转化成书面文字。

他补充道：“例如，你看过多少关于《文明》的Let’s Play视频？说实话，如果是用看的话这款游戏真的很无聊，但如果是用玩的话它又非常有趣。所以对于我这样的人来说，并未将转向YouTube看得和其他开发者那样重要。”

而《10秒忍者》的Dan Pearce计划在自己的下一款游戏中同时使用YouTuber和传统媒体—-他强调建立自己的品牌需要这两种曝光途径，并补充道：“我想不到未认真考虑这两种方法的情况。”

他解释道：“即便如此，如果YouTube成为人们选择获得想要尝试的游戏信息的最常见方法的话，我也不会感到惊讶。对于很多人来说视频内容是更容易吸收的。这不需要太多的注意力，让人们能够在玩游戏的同时学习游戏，如果他们想要这么做的话。这是一个好主意。并且对于那些专注于转换的独立开发者来说非常重要。”

17-BIT的Pfeifer相信YouTuber对于现代游戏来说具有重要的影响，这是之前的传统评论者未能做到的。例如在YouTuber之间大受欢迎的roguelikes，随机游戏和硬核游戏便引起了这类型游戏的显著发展。

他说道：“所有的这些都是游戏变得受欢迎的重要元素。每一个视频都是不同的，引人注目的，YouTuber可以选择一款这样的游戏，并且如果他们喜欢它，便可以从中获得一系列内容。”

很明显，显著很多开发者非常专注于向YouTuber转变，同时也小心地保持着与传统媒体间的联系。我想要认识一些较有名的电子游戏YouTuber，并衡量他们对于当前的转变趋势的看法。

Ryan Letourneau是个带有超过31.5万订阅者的YouTuber。最有名的便是Northernlion，他已经录制了好几年的视频和游戏视频。

他告诉我：“如果你将其与几年前的情况相比，很多开发者其实并不清楚存在着如此巨大的YouTube游戏领域。”

“从宏观范围来看，甚至是在如此快速发展的产业中，2年前并不是多久前的事。所以‘这是我所做的，我并不是个尝试着从你身上复制一款免费游戏的小孩。’”

那时候，Letourneau会不断徘徊于新游戏间，与开发者不断发送电子邮件想要获得深入的内容。而现在，他只需要从电子邮件和PR中拿出游戏便可，他不再需要主动去寻找游戏。

他补充道：“我认为开发者进一步意识到了产业的强大力量，实际上，比起只联系20个常规网站，如果你能够撒下一张大网去联系150名YouTuber的话，你便更有可能获得有效的宣传。”

他表示仍有些人对YouTuber的宣传嗤之以鼻，反而认为像IGN或GameSpot等大型网站的影响力更广，与这些网站相比较的话，许多YouTuber显得不是那么专业。

“有好几次我认为自己应该建立一个博客并在此通过文本去描写对于某些视频的第一印象，因为人们似乎很看重这点。所以有一段时间，特别是几年前，发行商一直在询问我的独特点，或者我在Alexa中的排名。或者他们会说，‘你是否出现在Metacritic上？’有趣的是，有些网站一天将获得1千多次的访问量，并且这些用户的主要目标是使用了这些PR政策的大型发行商的游戏，因为他们出现在Metacritic上。”

开发者该如何去获取Letourneau的关注，并且该如何获得被YouTuber宣传的机会？在此的一大要点便是在游戏发行前保持与YouTuber间的密切联系。

他说道：“如果在游戏发行后两周才想着发电子邮件的话便会很棘手。如今有许多游戏会同时出现在Steam上，你必须把握好发行窗口，否则你便很难去说服人们玩你的游戏，因为可能下周将会有40款游戏问世，并且它们将凭借‘新游戏’这一卖点吸引更多玩家的注意。”

Letourneau补充道：“这主要是针对于视频，但有有时候文案音乐也是问题所在。就像在《海盗大亨5》，他们授权了许多音乐，每个刊登关于《海盗大亨5》的视频内容的人便能够获得内容ID，这意味着钱将流到作曲家手上，而不是YouTube的创造者手中。所以文案音乐便是大问题。”

他解释道，第一印象非常重要，通常情况下在决定是否值得为游戏制作视频前，他们会先玩一个小时的游戏，所以如果你的游戏不能再开始60分钟内提供最棒的娱乐，它便很有可能被遗弃。

Jesse Cox是电子游戏YouTuber世界中的另一个大人物。他拥有64万的订阅用户，并且他所创造的每个内容都会出现无数的访客，每一次他都会专注于一两款游戏，并在转向新游戏前先创造一些内容。

他说道：“我可能不同于大多数YouTube评论中。我认为在游戏世界中YouTuber长久的‘重要性’在于想要在游戏世界中发挥重要作用。”

YouTuber宣传可能潜在地推动一款游戏的发展也有可能摧毁一款游戏，但是当提到大型发行商和AAA级游戏开发者时，他们便不会真正在乎YouTuber了。

让我们以E3为例—–Cox发现，尽管他收到许多发行商的邀请去访问他们的展位并玩游戏，但是它却并未获得与传统媒体同等的访问权。

他说道：“你可能受到了邀请，并将参观展位，但是你却未能拥有传统媒体那样的访问权。因为这些公司的负责人仍然更加重视他们。”

他补充道：“在过去一年左右的时间里，他们一直在向我们伸手。这也带给了我们更多希望。但是却还不能说YouTuber与传统媒体一样重要。独立游戏可能会更依赖于YouTuber。但是对于大型AAA级公司来说，他们仍然不确定我们的作用。”

一家独立工作室是如何获得Cox的宣传？YouTuber很坦率地说道，在发行前对游戏进行宣传将对它是否能够获得YouTuber宣传至关重要。

他解释道：“就像尽管我喜欢《光之子》，但是我的用户却都不想看到它。还有一次我想要玩像《南方公园》这样的内容，并且所有用户也希望看到它们。所以我认为主题的受欢迎新以及游戏背后的宣传非常重要。”

“如何才能轻松地选出人们当下正在谈论的游戏—-许多YouTuber都能够做到这点。但我仍会继续玩自己感兴趣的游戏，并且这种兴趣并不是虚实的。”

Bisnap便一位专注于寻找自己喜欢的游戏，并为每一款游戏创造连续的章节系列的知名YouTuber。他那7万5千名强大的订阅用户基础便很喜欢观看像《毁灭行动》，《废土之王》，《以撒的结合》以及《雨中冒险》等等游戏。

YouTuber解释道：“我认为这种转变只是在呈现现在的人们想要消费内容而已。这对于我来说是讲得通的，因为大多数人想知道游戏玩起来会是怎样的感觉，但是每个人的追求又都不同。”

他补充道：“能够看到游戏的运行将帮助玩家判断它是否有趣，即使他们的主要关注点并未被呈现出来。”

视频将能够帮助用户快速地判断一款游戏，或详细地分析游戏是关于什么并能够向人们传达那些书面内容不能呈现的东西。

Bisnap说道：“另外一点能够帮助人们的内容便是，他们可以听到YouTuber说话，即通过语调和个性角度以及声音做出评判。我们可以很轻松地判断一个人所说的是积极的还是消极的，有些人还特别喜欢YouTuber的措辞方式。”

Bisnap对roguelike元素充满热情，所以他更有可能去宣传这类型游戏。值得注意的是—-YouTuber总是会专注于特别的类型或游戏风格，所以如果你同时解除一些YouTuber的话，你就需要确保自己的游戏与他们的长项相匹配。

他告诉我自己更偏袒硬核2D平台游戏。所以你必须先了解游戏的发送对象，但是也许你也会想冒险尝试看看，这也是可行的。

他补充道：“通常情况下如果我不愿意宣传一款游戏便是因为我不喜欢整体的游戏感，或者因为游戏并不是我所感兴趣的类型，所以我并不适合去宣传这样的游戏。”

以下是我从中学到的内容：让YouTuber帮你宣传游戏非常重要，这将为你的游戏带来更多流量和销量。同时，传统媒体也同样重要，它们不仅能够提供“官方”新闻，同时也能够提供给YouTuber关于下一款宣传游戏的建议。

所以使用YouTuber的最佳步骤是什么？你可以先从请求普通新闻媒体开始，在此获得一些宣传后转向访问Video Game Caster中的YouTuber名单，并朝着更多YouTuber去推广你的游戏。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Is YouTube killing the traditional games press?

By Mike Rose

There’s been a notable shift in the video game industry that many traditional game critics would rather turn a blind eye to than investigate.

It’s the rise of the “YouTuber,” pulling in hundreds and thousands of rabid fans and causing incredible traffic and sales spikes for game developers, while the written word continues to trundle along, looking more and more quaint with each passing day.

Getting covered by a big-name YouTuber is now essentially the dream of many game developers. The publicity someone like TotalBiscuit, NerdCubed or Northernlion can bring you compared to mainstay consumer websites like IGN, GameSpot and Game Informer is becoming increasingly significant.

A year ago, I would have advised any developer to get in touch with as many press outlets as possible, as soon as possible. I still advise this now, but with the following caveat: You’re doing so to get the attention of YouTubers.

But view stats and subscribers numbers mean nothing without evidence that these videos are actually making a difference to the featured developers. Gamasutra got in contact with numerous devs to find out just how much of an impact YouTuber coverage had for them.

“For sure, the biggest Youtubers have had a much bigger impact on our traffic and sales compared to the biggest sites we’ve been covered on,” Aaron San Filippo, creator of Race the Sun told me.

“When DanNerdCubed played Race The Sun and linked our Greenlight page, it had a bigger impact than all of the website coverage we’d had up to that point, combined,” he adds. “I’m also pretty sure that TotalBiscuit’s coverage on our Steam launch day helped increase our week one sales a lot, which probably helped keep us on the Steam frontpage longer. If we’re smart, we’ll try to arrange this type of event more intentionally next time!”

Cliff Harris of Postitech Games, meanwhile, says that while it can be difficult to see any real correlation in the long-term, YouTuber coverage appears to trump traditional press coverage.

“I’m not really aware of any games site for whom coverage of your game will result in an immediately noticeable sales spike,” he notes, “but I have seen that with a YouTube Let’s Play.”

“The vast majority of the smaller Let’s Play channels don’t really generate enough immediate sales,” adds the Democracy 3 dev, “but they still increase awareness of the game and that definitely helps.”

Borut Pfeifer of Skulls of the Shogun studio 17-BIT agrees that, while it’s difficult to present concrete figures on the differences between traditional press and YouTuber coverage, “it’s hard to deny the impact.”

“Most indie game success stories on PC in the last year or two have had predominant YouTube coverage,” he notes. “With Skulls we definitely sought people out and sent out hundreds of review codes to YouTubers, which is a lot more time consuming than regular press because they don’t have consistent contact info.”

One big Russian YouTuber called eligorko covered the game, as did several other smaller Russian YouTubers, and Pfeifer believes this coverage is the main reason why Russia is Skulls of the Shogun’s second biggest country for units sold.

“Although that came about randomly (we hadn’t sent review copies there), because it’s even more difficult to find and reach out to international YouTubers,” he adds.

UK dev Dan Pierce has found that YouTuber influence has varied depending on the specific game. When his team released Castles in the Sky last year, the biggest sales spikes came from Rock Paper Shotgun and Giant Bomb, while YouTuber coverage brought “very few additional sales.”

“The game was recently covered by someone with over 120,000 subscribers, and we only sold about thirteen additional units from that,” he notes, adding that this may be down to the fact that Castles in the Sky is just a 10-minute long game, and not so suited to the Let’s Play audience.

However, his quick reactions game 10 Second Ninja has told a different story.

“As far as I’ve seen, we haven’t had a significant spike from written press, but we have seen spikes from YouTube,” he says. “Specifically, getting covered by Total Biscuit gave us a sales spike that roughly mirrored the game being on sale for a week. Getting covered by Dan NerdCubed brought in a bump of about half that, despite his video having roughly 100k more views.”

So it sounds like YouTubers, at worst, will bring in the same level of traffic as traditional press, while if you’re covered by a giant YouTuber, you can expect a rather lovely sales spike that no traditional press outlet can compare with.

Does this mean, then, that you should focus more on getting covered by YouTubers, and treat traditional press as a secondary marketing mission?

Fortunately, it would appear that myself and many others are still in a job — at least for now — as developers are finding that traditional press has advantages that YouTubers cannot bring to the table.

“Getting coverage on, say, Polygon or RPS is a lot easier than getting someone like Totalbiscuit or NorthernLion to take a couple hours to play your game,” notes San Filippo. “And obviously, these guys often read about games on these sites, so I think it’d be a mistake to neglect either avenue!”

YouTubers regularly choose to play games that are already in the spotlight, he reasons, and as such traditional press is important in getting the attention of YouTubers in the first place.

“I guess the biggest difference is that you can’t quantify the quality as easily any more, since Youtubers often don’t give a score,” notes Joel Nystrom of Ittle Dew studio Ludosity. “So you can’t put ‘TotalBiscuit: 9.5′ but instead you need to put an actual quote on your promo material. This is probably better anyway – I’ve always though quantifying such subjective things are quite silly.”

Cliff Harris adds, “YouTubers can be a bit hit-and-miss, and a lot of them are looking for a particular type of game, which is something, funny, visually impressive or with something that is interesting to a viewer rather than a gamer.”

His own brand of strategy game, for example, appear to translate better to the written word than YouTube videos.

“For example, how many Let’s Play videos of Civilization have you watched?” he adds. “It’s a fairly boring game to watch, let’s be honest, but a great game to play. So for people like me, there isn’t as big a shift to YouTube as for other developers.”

And 10 Second Ninja’s Dan Pearce plans to get both YouTubers and traditional press for his next game — he notes that establishing your brand requires both avenues of exposure, and adds, “I can’t think of a situation where both shouldn’t be heavily considered.”

“That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if YouTube became the most common way people choose to get information on the games that they want to play, if it hasn’t already,” he reasons. “Video content is so much easier for a lot of people to digest. It requires a lot less focus, allowing people to play games and learn about games at the same time, if they want. That’s a big deal, and it’s important for indies to keep an eye on that transition.”

Outside of simply exposure, Pfeifer of 17-BIT believes that YouTubers are having an impact on modern games in ways that traditional criticism maybe hasn’t before. For example, the popularity of roguelikes, randomization, and hardcore titles amongst YouTubers has led to a large number of these sorts of games popping up.

“All those elements make a game very watchable,” he notes. “Each video is different, dramatic, and a YouTuber can pick up a game like that and know if they like it they can get a good series out of it.”

It’s clear, then, that many developers are now very focused on the YouTuber shift, while cautiously keeping up the usual back-and-forth with traditional press. I wanted to get the perspectives of a couple of big-name video game YouTubers, to gauge their thoughts on the current seismic shift that’s occurring.

Ryan Letourneau is a prominent YouTuber with over 315,000 subscribers. Best known as Northernlion, he’s been recording videos and livestreams of games for several years now.

“If you compare it to what it was like a couple of years ago, a lot of developers didn’t really know that there was this huge YouTube gaming sphere,” he tells me.

“Two years ago was not even that long ago in the grand scheme of things, even with the fast-moving industry. So it took a little bit more convincing of being like ‘This is what I do, and I’m not just a kid trying to snag a copy of a free game off you.’”

Back then, Letourneau would be constantly on the prowl for new games to play, emailing back and forth with developers and reaching into the depths of the web for his content. Nowadays he usually pulls most of the games he covers from emails and PR, and he rarely has to go out and actively find games to play.

“I think developers are way more aware of the power of the industry, and the fact that you’re probably more likely to get coverage if you cast a really wide net and contact 150 YouTubers, versus if you only contact 20 standard websites that all pretty much cover the same stuff,” he adds.

He notes that some people still turn their noses up at YouTubers covering games — big-name sites like IGN or GameSpot carry more clout and prestige, he reasons, and are treated as a brand compared to a lot of YouTubers, many of whom sport non-professional sounding names.

“There are some times when I think I should just start up a blog and do text transcripts of my first impressions style videos, because people take it more seriously,” he adds. “And for a while, especially a couple of years ago, publishers were be asking how many uniques I had, or what my Alexa rank was. Or they were like, ‘Are you on Metacritic?’ And it’s funny to see sites that get, like, 1,000 hits a day getting super early access to games from big publishers thanks to these PR policies, because they’re on Metacritic.”

What can devs do, then, to get Letourneau’s attention, and how can you raise your chances of getting covered by a YouTuber? One important point is to get in touch with YouTubers well before your game is released, as promptness is everything.

“Emails two weeks after a game’s released are tricky,” he says. “You feel bad, but there are so many games that come out on Steam now, you really gotta be around your window of launch, otherwise it becomes very difficult to convince people to play your game because there’s always forty games coming out next week that are going to be more likely to garner attention just by virtue of the fact that they’re new.”

“And it’s very video specific,” Letourneau adds, “but copywritten music is a problem sometimes. There is this situation with Tropico 5 where they licensed a bunch of music, and everybody who is posting video content for Tropico 5 was getting content ID matches, which means that money goes to the composer of the song, rather than Calypso or the YouTube creator. So copywritten music is a big issue.”

First impressions are also everything, he reasons — usually he plays an hour of a game before he decides whether or not it’s worth recording for a video, so if your game doesn’t entertain thoroughly for the first 60 minutes, there’s a chance you’ll get dropped in favor of something better.

Jesse Cox is another big deal in the world of video game YouTubers. His 640,000 army of subscribers rack up tens of thousands of views for his episodic content, and he tends to focus on one or two games at a time, producing dozens of episodes before moving on to a new set of games.

“I may differ from most YouTube commenters talking about an issue like this,” he offers. “I think much of the ‘importance’ of YouTubers in the gaming world is perpetuated by YouTubers wanting to be important in the gaming world.”

YouTuber coverage can potentially make or break an indie game, he reasons, but when it comes to big publishers and AAA developers, most of the big-name don’t actually care about YouTubers.

Take E3, for example — Cox found that, while he received invites from publishers to visit booths and play games, he clearly was not given the same access as the traditional press.

“You can get invites, and yes, you will be shown around booths, but you will never have the access that traditional media has,” he says. “Because the people in charge of these companies still respond to them far more than they will ever respond to you.”

Having said that, he adds, “In the last year or so they have been reaching out. Which gives us hope. But to say that YouTubers are as important as written press I think is a misnomer. To indie games, yes, very much so. But the big AAA companies are still not sure what to make of us.”

How does an indie studio go about getting covered by Cox, then? The YouTuber notes, quite bluntly, that the hype surrounding a game before release can have a great impact on whether it gets YouTubed or not.

“While I loved Child of Light for example, none of my audience wanted to watch it,” he explains. “Other times I want to play things like South Park and everyone watches. I think it’s more about the popularity of the subject matter and the hype behind the game.”

“Which would make it very easy to just pump out the games people are talking about at the moment – many YouTubers just do that. And I wish them all the best. But, I will continue to play games that interest me, and the internet is welcome to come along for the ride.”

Bisnap is a notable YouTuber with a big focus on finding games he loves, and then recording long-running episodic series for each. His 75,000 strong subscriber base enjoy watching games like Paranautical Activity, Nuclear Throne, The Binding of Isaac, Risk of Rain and more.

“I think that the shift is just showing how people most want to consume content right now,” the YouTuber reasons. “It makes sense to me with video games, since most people want to know what the game might feel like to play, but each person looks for something different.”

“Being able to see the game in motion helps put a viewer in the player’s shoes to see if a game is enjoyable for that viewer,” he adds, “even if his or her one main concern isn’t addressed.”

Videos can help give a consumer a quick verdict on a game, or go into detail breaking down exactly what the game is about, and talk to people in ways that the written word can sometimes fail to do.

“Another thing that helps for some people is that they can hear the YouTuber speaking, from a tone and personality perspective, but also from a voice perspective,” Bisnap says. “It’s nice to hear pretty clearly if something said is meant to be positive or negative, and a lot of people enjoy particular YouTubers’ styles of delivering lines or wording thoughts, which, for most people, is compounded by hearing the voice behind it.”

Bisnap has a clear passion for roguelike elements, so he’s far more likely to cover that kind of game. It’s a point well worth noting – YouTubers regularly focus on particular genres or game styles, so if you’re getting in contact with dozens at a time, you might want to consider making sure your game fits their forte.

Having said that, he tells me that he’s partial to covering the odd hardcore 2D platformer. Making sure you research the YouTubers you send your game to is important, but you might want to try and take a chance here and there where it makes sense.

“Usually if I don’t cover a game it’s because I don’t like what I play as a whole,” he adds, “or because the game is just not a genre I’m experienced or interested in, since I’m not well suited to cover a game like that.”

Here’s what I’ve learnt then: Getting YouTubers to cover your game is incredibly important, and can bring serious traffic and sales. At the same time, traditional press outlets are equally important to hit up for coverage since, not only do they offer “official” press, but they also often advise YouTubers on what to cover next.

So what’s the best step to getting through to YouTubers? You might want to start off by hitting up all the usual press outlets and getting some coverage there, before you go and visit the Big List of YouTubers on Video Game Caster, and fire your game in the direction of as many YouTubers as possible.(source:gamasutra)