Hello again, friends, and welcome to probably one of the more weirder posts on this blog, given most of them are the Professor's adventures and my feelings on Nostalgia. I came up with this idea during the 12 Days of Frezmas, a 12 day twitch stream marathon my friend FreezingInferno does every year to celebrate the holidays, and it was during one of these streams when we began talking about the good old days of YouTube. Now, given I was born on the last year of the previous century, this would be right around the time I started watching YouTube, 2008 - 2011. Nowadays, YouTube is chockfull of random and copycat like work with clickbait titles and reaction channels and random amounts of who knows what that bury the diamonds inside these piles of garbage.
However, back then was a simpler time. We're talking before the Partner Program, Before the Large Youtubers of Today. The days of A Day at the Zoo, When Fred, Annoying Orange, and PewDiePie fought for the number 1 spot on the subscriber count. When Smosh ruled the scene, and when the Forums began the migration. YouTube during this time was almost like a cable package in of itself, Where there were people who did it just to be themselves, and the variety of content stretched from sea to shining sea. When Recommendeds were completely random, and they led you down the rabbithole to something you never knew about.
That is why I am here today. I started my viewing experience during this time, and I would like to take you down that journey. Down a journey of self-reflection, of purpose, of interest, and of clear and utter insanity that will probably drive some of you insane along the way. So my dear friends, let us hop into time machine, and take you back to that riveting timeframe.
Nostalgic Youtube Experience
Let's Plays -
For any good and thorough look into the past on YouTube, we need to look at the very thing which I think put YouTube on the map in the first place. While the Lets Play was around before YouTube, it was mostly how people would think of walkthroughs today, done through blog posts and with step by step instruction since you were unable to see the game while they were explaining it. Then came the dawn of YouTube, and the world changed for the better.
In 2008, I was just starting to get into the internet and learn about the marvels that would hide behind it. We began to get Book reports in school, and we needed to look up certain things on the internet, do at least some research into the book, but not necessarily put it into these reports. And it was during one of these Book Reports, I found myself onto YouTube for the first time, and right there on the front page, was the first Let's Player I ever saw.
Now, Being a young Child in 2008, I did not know about Mario RPG. My very first video game was Super Mario Brothers on my GBA, so I knew some basics, plus what I gathered from others around me. So learning about this? A Mario RPG? With Peach AND Bowser, the Bad Guy, fighting a new villain? Of course I was interested in this! There was only a couple videos out at the time I got into LordVega, but He was what started me on this path to where I am today. It was through him I began searching others, like this interesting RPG named Earthbound? Chuggaaconroy, who's that? And Indiana Jones! I loved the movies, and there's a game about him?! and look! LordVega's on this channel, with who? a FreezingInferno? I like this, I'll keep watching this!
Nowadays, Let's Plays are still kept alive in the community, And we still have some of the YouTube Veterans around from the old days keeping on with the old format, and I am thankful for them, like Nakateleeli and ProtonJon. Many of the old youtubers sadly moved on from YouTube, or they went to Twitch, and it was through Twitch that I found out a few of the ones I used to watch as a kid are still around, making content all these years later, like ssskinner and SuperSkarmory.
Parodies -
Way back in the day, YouTube copyright was like the wild west of programming and like shooting fish in a barrel. Somedays you would have someone drop the entirety of Doctor Who on YouTube and it could go months without being noticed, or full on Television shows and Movies which some, if you know where to look, have been able to dodge the bots even to this day. However, it was during this time of twisted Copyright protections and confusing rules, came the birth of the Parody.
Sometimes people need music to make something fresh and new. It is why fanfiction is so popular, making new stories in a universe long since shelved by the people who originally created it, or just because people thought there was a new story to tell. Sometimes, People come up with new lyrics to a familiar tune, a song people know and trust with brand new vocals to tell a new story, and that is where the Parody song came from. Parodies nowadays fall just on the line between Fair Use and Copyright, but back then in the wild west days, under the protecting light of mass uploads of television programs, the Parody song rose to great heights.
What's kinda hilarious is again, tying it back to video games, this was how my young brain got introduced to all of these old games, and peaked my interest into what to go look for, and ones that made me want to search and explore my horizons for what these retro games were. Funny enough, Nearly two decades later, I have fallen in love with the music of Billy Joel, so it would seem Music can predict some things but not others.
Nowadays, we still have cover bands on YouTube, but they are nothing when it holds up to the parody songs and skits that once populated the platform back in the early days. However, there are relics out there to watch, and still laugh at even today, so give out a look, and you may find one of those Diamonds out there.
Structured Episodic/Skit Content -
I'm gonna tell you right now, This one is where the bullet was hit the most nowadays. Dealing with Prank Channels and their acidic presence on the platform has led to multiple adpoclypses that could have been avoided if they, Reaction Channels, and the Vlog Channels which are Prank channels in disguise were removed from said platform to begin with. It is no Surprise though that these would be the progression to what we had back then, as tastes would change, although it feels like no one wants to try and replace what we had before and just follow what has almost killed the platform on 5 separate occasions.
Back then, we had a Few different sources of entertainment, but the ones I knew most, were the two I did not watch but knew of people who did, which were the Ever popular Fred and Annoying Orange, You had the Lonely Girl series, something I was not in the demographic for at all but over the years would learn of it and learn of it's importance in this area, and then we come to Stupid Mario Brothers and Smosh.
Smosh were it when it came to Skits. They were the ones at the top of the hill, everyone eyed their place on that hill as honestly some of the funniest on the platform, even though some of it may not have aged as well today, it was still one of the revolutionary channels and deserves it's place in history, even though today it is merely a shell of what it used to be.
Now we come to Stupid Mario Brothers. Sometimes people did try their hand at episodic content, telling a story over a long periods, but given YouTube at the time, it either was unable to hold up over the long period, or it eventually stopped at a point like a car into a brick wall. The golden Standard for this format, the Episodic Adventure story, which lasted far longer than anyone thought it would, was the Adventures of Mario and Luigi, leaving the Mushroom Kingdom after being tired of saving Peach so many times, and decided to return to the real world, which led to even more, and even worse, villains and situations around them.
In the age of Watch Time, Watch Views, sustained viewership, sponsors, something as innocent as this wouldn't make the cut, since people go to YouTube and streaming services to get away from cable, so long term stories such as this get passed by the wayside. However, sometimes you find them buried in the rough and someone new takes the journey, and for a series that lasted over a Decade, It kept it's plot and rivaled even TV shows at the time. It led to multiple others, that sadly when I looked up the ones I could remember, either the channels were gone or the videos had up and disappeared. That's what happens with time, sadly, sometimes what was once there is blown away in the breeze and replaced with what's "new and fresh".
RomHacks -
Coming from the new age of Mario Maker videos and the games that brought a new generation into the age of making their own levels to have others play makes me smile in a way. Sadly, it would seem while people are beginning to remember this part of YouTube's Past, they are only remembering one part of what was a wide and vibrant checkerboard of Mario Romhacks, which was Kaizo. Peel back that layer and what you get is a treasure trove of old YouTube Channels who led the way in these RomHacks, showing the custom sprite work and innovative ways someone could take Super Mario World and twist and turn it into their own story.
ProtonJon and AzureBlade49. Two giants of this part of YouTube at the Time. Nowadays, Azure has all but disappeared, but is happily married with another YouTuber and try to make videos and streams whenever he can, and ProtonJon is still around, remembered not just for his Group Channel with two other YouTube Veterans, but also his attempt to make the longest LP in existence, started by sheer accident and Bad Luck. However, before this, before Superman 64, These two were the top players of Mario RomHacks on YouTube. Infact, they were the ones who first started showing the decline in the medium back in the early 2010s, with how much they began to blend into one another, and could see the shift towards indie development. That was the great Thing about RomHacks, some of these very people took their knowledge of making them and turned that experience into making their own video games.
It is probably one of the most popular genres of old YouTube, and was the first sign that the tides were changing when they began to disappear. It was a completely different time, seeing how two different people could take the same game and turn it into two completely different games with two completely different styles. I think that was what got people into Mario Maker now, was that drive to create something fresh with something familiar.
CAWs -
People back then didn't make money off of the platform like they do now. Infact, before the programs of today, you had to join one of the big channels in order to make anything, but even then it didn't feel like a job like it does today, it felt like communities, like Machinima and Screw Attack. Due to that, we didn't get things like we do today, like All of Buzzfeed, or the multiple Wrestling review programs, or anything of the sort. In the absence of these, came new ideas, and that was what led to the creation of Wrestling Leagues, using the old WWE games at the time.
Now, I have to admit, Back then I was falling out with Wrestling even when I was getting into YouTube, but every now and again I did catch some playing, and it did catch my attention, but I wasn't a big viewer of these. However, I knew of their importance of the grand scheme because again, tying it back to what was discussed so far, it did bring in another crowd into YouTube, and form their own communities. The best thing of all was that each one felt unique, their own styles to the Announcing of the matches which made them seem real back then. I think that's one of the reasons why they were so appealing, were the announcers and what they felt and the stories they told.
Sadly, for this part I cannot link a video from this part. Given how Videos back then had to be 10 minutes at the most (Moving up to 15), each "episode" was multiple parts, so it wouldn't make sense to link just one. However, They do still survive out there, again, buried behind all of the new and fresh, you just need a point in the right direction.
Specialty Reviewers-
There was a time, long ago, when Reviewers had a choice to make. Do they stay with the old traditions or do they move to generalized reviews? Instead of staying with what they started with, which was reviewing one part of Media, take the dive and open the floodgates, and many reviewers opened those floodgates. Which was another way that YouTube was changing. You see, back in the old days Reviews were more done out of recording their television screens, or pictures, since the capture card was years away from being created in the fashion it is today.
As such, you had multiple different reviewers, and their specialties for what they were reviewing. The most important thing is that back then they stuck to lanes. A Movie reviewer only stayed in Movies, so on and so forth. You had unique and individual reviewers for Movies, TV, Video Games, even Comic Books. Sometimes, they were in video form, or they were just video essays to tell what one was reviewing.
Sadly, again, These are either lost to the ages or so old that they are unable to work here in the blog. But they, like the CAWs, are still out there, and they are ready to take a look, a look into quite a different time.
I think that is where we shall take our leave for now. A Group of 5 Major things of the old Youtube Experience, all spread out for you. Youtube was a wild west back then. It's rules not built up and tight as they are today. However, that is what made them fun. So then, until next time, everyone.