The desire has not subsided. While the thought may leave my consciousness, the passion for personal analysis resonates with a powerful glow.
Two and a half years ago, I wrote a post that documented my desire to review people. While stated bluntly like that gives the impression that I am a raging sociopath, I explain within the original post that I wanted to review Youtubers, specifically. After finding a certain WatchMojo Top 10 video featuring underrated Youtubers—six of which were Let’s Players—I grew curious as to how these different synonymous channels differed and what made them so unique. This, in turn, led to an inner discussion as to how controversial it was to simply say to someone, “Hey, I’m going to review who you are. Hope you don’t mind.”
Thinking on it now, I believe the original post was a little overdramatic, if not purely clickbait. The desire to review Youtubers wouldn’t be the same as reviewing people, specifically. Let’s Players are a little more intimate a space to review, as one’s personality and/or wit is on display more and is more important to carry the content than other types of videos. What I had in mind back then was reviewing Youtube reviewers, such as Projared or SomecallmeJohnny. In those cases, it’s simply a review of a review—or reviewer. It’s redundant, but perfectly doable and likely not all that controversial.
People question reviews and reviewers all the time. It’s not necessarily put within the scope of a review of a review (as it is more of a callout or something hostile)—even so, one is stating their opinion in a formal format, and the other is voicing their opinion reacting to the original opinion, normally in a comment or rant-y basis. My thoughts on the matter were basically an extension of what I knew best: reviewing. I would review a review/reviewer and rate its/their effectiveness as a review/reviewer based on various aspects, such as detail, entertainment value, bias, information, etc. It’s not so much peering at the individual as much as it is picking apart their work… kind of like what I do anyway.
Since the original post, I’ve taken a job as a writer for an online gaming publication called KeenGamer. In my time there (about eighteen months now), I’ve reviewed many indie titles, ones that only had one or two developers at the helm. Something I noted in the original post was my fear of sharing genuine criticisms with people in person during a writing workshop class I had in college, as I felt it would make me feel too cynical and empty-hearted. While it’s still not in person, my time with KeenGamer has had me face the people who put their life into these games, some of which I have serious problems with. These people and their games would essentially be little different from reviewing the content of a reviewer; them being within a video or placing themselves in the seat of the viewer is what gives a little more intimacy and identity to it. Almost like reviewing snippets of an autobiography with no end in sight.
It wasn’t too long of a post, but I wanted to re-open something that I had serious doubts about when I initially brought it up. Amusingly enough, I had made a vague promise that content related to “reviewing people” may be a part of the blog “very soon”… two and a half years later, zilch. A lot has happened in that time, granted, though I do like the idea that I used to be confident enough in myself to promise something I was very much on the fence about. I will say now, with the idea still desirable and the content no longer as repugnant morally to me, that I could end up doing something of the sort based on individual videos from Youtube I feel like I could speak upon. It may not be “very soon,” but it’s possible. We’ll see what the future holds together.
For other posts on miscellaneous topics, be sure to check out the accompanying archive.
Thank you for your time. Have a great day.
The Visualist's Veranda 