[Citation-needed]

Re: Ply Girls

What an internet phenomenon, and not a good one either.  If you don’t know what the reply girls are, they are a bunch of YouTube channels that post crappy vlogs of themselves, then copy the tags from famous videos so that they show up in the related video feed.  The video thumbnails generally have arrows pointing to mild cleavage.  YouTube has done nothing to stop these people, even though they are directly breaking many of the YouTube community guidelines.  The guidelines clearly state “Do not create misleading descriptions, tags, titles or thumbnails in order to increase views.”

Recently video giant and gaming channel, ‘Yogscast’ have started a fight against the reply girls.  After months of talking with YouTube and getting nowhere, they decided to make the fight public.  A petition was started, videos went up, and tweets were sent to tell there fans and followers to let YouTube know that there is an actual problem.  A band by the name of ‘Area 11’ released a song and video entitled ‘Reply Boys’ which lays out the problems that the reply girls have brought to the table.  This is a real issue, and YouTube doesn’t seem to be taking this seriously.  The related videos feed no longer shows related videos, just crappy reply videos that are supposedly reviewing the original.  Let YouTube know that this is an issue, tweet them, email them, sign the petition.  Fight for your internet.

Petition

Reply Boys video

Reply Boys download

Yogscast

YouTube Community Guidelines

Why I Suck at Laser Tag

And How You Can Learn From My Mistakes

There are a few reasons you might suck at laser tag, and I am only here to solve one of them, but maybe I can help you anyways.

The way I can help the least is if you just plain out can’t hit things.  If your aim sucks, my only advice is don’t shoot from the hip, and get closer.

I also can’t help you if you are always dead.

What I can do is try and let you learn from my strategic mistakes.

I have always played laser tag like a strategic shooter, trying to avoid death, and trying to conquer ‘objectives,’ or places that are good sniping positions.  I cared overly much about staying alive, and would be to preoccupied with my safety to get enough kills.  I never really stopped to think about laser tag’s mechanics though.

Well, what are the mechanics of laser tag? Let me tell you

Every place will be different, but for the most part these mechanics are the same in every laser tag arena.

1. Hitscan, long range, semi-auto weapons that are shaped like large pistols
2. Small targets on peoples vests that you have to hit
3. One hit kill every time
4. Short respawn times that allow for cherry picking
5. Point and rating systems based off kills, possibly deaths, and rarely accuracy
6. Team or individual death-match style of play
7. Slow movement and plenty of cover

If you examine these mechanics, you begin to realize, laser tag is not a strategic or tactical shooter, and is much more like an arcade shooter.  Though the use of cover does not, at first glance, appear to agree with an arcade style, the cover is there because we can’t move and jump like players can in many arcade shooters. 

So what sort of strategy should you use?

Well, a kill doesn’t mean that an area is safe, that person is just going to shoot you as soon as their death times out, often in only a few seconds.  This means you have to scare opponents off, or keep moving.  This is the key, movement.  Many people are going to find a nice position and stay there as long as possible, thinking they are safe, especially if they are involved in long range battles with plenty of cover.  This makes it easy to sneak up behind people and pick off two or three before ducking behind some cover and making a getaway.  By getting close you have a much better shot, and by continuously moving, you are having less lost time where you aren’t getting kills.  Even if you get killed lots, you are doing better than most, because you are almost always in a position to shoot someone.

Here are a few things not to do.  Don’t get stuck behind cover.  Make an attempt to keep from dying, but remember that death does not stop you from continuing, it only stops you from killing.  Don’t get stuck in long range firefights, you won’t die as much, but you will get far fewer kills, thus less points.  Don’t stay in one place for very long, or you will get overrun by your opponents, you never want to be on the defensive, for you should have nothing to defend.

If you are playing team play, travel in groups, it can lessen individual kills, as they are shared throughout the group, but as a group you will die far less, and be able to take on all but much bigger groups.  Travelling alone can work, but a teammate can watch your back and get the people that would have killed you when facing up multiple opponents.

Now, I’m not saying disregard your own safety, just remember that staying alive isn’t as important as killing.  Use cover, but don’t abuse it, don’t play to gain a better sniping position, because that guy you just killed, well, he’s following you, waiting for his gun to turn back on.

Always know the style of play though, if you have limited lives, or you have to go to a base to respawn, play with more tactics, capture that sniping post, and preserve yourself, the field allows for more tactics.  And always know the scoring system before-hand so you can play accordingly.

But above all, Shoot first, ask questions later.

Youtube Reviews: Outdoors Orchestra

Outdoors Orchestra made by NXTManiac

This was a fun film, the sounds were great, and the rhythm was catchy.

That said, there were some things that bugged me. First, the bird sounds were overused. Now I know you’re going to say “but they weren’t even used as much as most of the other ones!” but hear me out. They stood out like a sore thumb because he used highly toned sounds more suited for melody or harmony, as rhythmic percussion. This brings me straight to my second point, it lacked a melody. This wasn’t super important, and would have been much harder to do, but it would have added to this minute fifty beat. Repetition can get annoying, and though it was held together with a bit of variation, it was almost to similar, metaphorically resting on the edge of a cliff.

That takes care of the sound, but what of the video? It was cleanly edited, the cuts were good, the shots used for each sound was well picked for the most part, and it really brought the sound down to earth, or more specifically, nature. My only nitpick -and that has been what all my negatives have been, nitpicks- was that I found it hard to focus sometimes on the visual, because it was changing too fast for my sleepy eyes to adjust. I really liked some of the camera angles and movements… and I want your camera. :P.

All in all, It was quite good. I thought it was really well done, and from the sounds of his comments, he is doing more like it! I am still waiting for Viva la Vida and Pancake Island though. D:

Pelican Poop Network

Random CG thing.

Microscale Space Ships

From left to right, a space Cadillac, an enclosed speeder, and a fighter.

The Final Frontier + Deleted Scenes

This film was made a while back in may for a contest.  I am showing it to you now because I am also releasing deleted scenes footage.

The Ultimate Explorer II

After the catastrophic end of of the Ultimate Explorer I, a bigger and better one was built to examine the cause of this mysterious phenomenon. See this video for more on the Ultimate Explorer I(renamed one after the second was built, to avoid confusion)