Youtubers I Watch
630 words.
My heat pump stopped air conditioning suddenly yesterday at the exact furthest point from the time that I can call for repairs, so I spent all Saturday watching my house temperature and humidity climb from normal to sweltering. Today it’s going to be even worse because the house started out sweltering.
My heat pump sucks.
Anyway. This isn’t about my heat pump.
Though it is somewhat inspired by my heat pump, in that I can’t do much today except sit in a glum stupor, huddled in my home office with a creaky old portable air conditioner and no gaming gear, clicking on YouTube videos.
YouTube algorithms being what they are, I tend to keep watching the same channels again and again. But in these cases, it’s not because it’s the only thing YouTube ever shows me, it’s because I think these people are good at making content.
There’s an authenticity to their work that I find appealing. They aren’t trying to hit you over the head and convince you that they’re worth subscribing to, they aren’t relying on an over-the-top personality to win popularity, they just do the work, slowly refine and improve their work over time, and let the work speak for itself.
Ryan George
There are, I assume, thousands or millions of these kinds of “talking to yourself” sketch comedy types of channels. Pitch Meeting was the first one I ever saw, and I’ve been watching it for years. It’s funny. I rarely need to watch movies anymore. It’s a big time saver. New Marvel movie? Pitch Meeting is all I need. I kid, I kid. But usually I watch the Pitch Meetings for the big franchise blockbusters long before I watch the movie. He also has a separate channel for non-movie-related sketches.
Seth Skorkowski
Seth makes content for tabletop RPGs. Mostly reviews of modules and systems, tips and tricks, things like that. Most YouTube content of this nature is useful but quite boring. The thing that makes Seth’s videos stand out is the little skits he puts in between reading scripts to camera. None of them are going to win any awards, but again, I just like to see people putting in the work to make things.
The Glass Cannon Network
This is a new one for 2024. It’s yet another Actual Play channel, but this one hasn’t yet descended into taking itself too seriously, and they focus on games other than D&D. Critical Role is great and all, but it’s evolved into a kind of specialized arthouse theatre that appeals less broadly than it used to. Glass Cannon still focuses on the friends-around-a-table experience, and it’s a high quality production, and they have a brand of humor that is more brash New York FM Radio, which is the antithesis of the rest of the industry.
Kruggsmash
I’m sure I’ve mentioned Kruggsmash before, but he makes Dwarf Fortress content. He’s one of the only people on the Internet who can make Dwarf Fortress look like a fun game to play. I might nominate him for an award for the most creative use of a game in video content. (I haven’t watched any Kruggsmash in a while and his newer stuff has so, so much production value. It must be a ton of work to make these videos.)
The Operations Room
Another new channel I discovered in 2024 when it just randomly showed up on a recommendations page one day. Apparently animated and even non-animated history channels are a thing, and there are quite a few. This was the first one I saw, and I immediately appreciated all the work that went into the animations. I love the deadpan, completely flat delivery of the voiceover. It sounds so historical.
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