this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
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Games

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Video game news oriented community. No NanoUFO is not a bot :)

Posts.

  1. News oriented content (general reviews, previews or retrospectives allowed).
  2. Broad discussion posts (preferably not only about a specific game).
  3. No humor/memes etc..
  4. No affiliate links
  5. No advertising.
  6. No clickbait, editorialized, sensational titles. State the game in question in the title. No all caps.
  7. No self promotion.
  8. No duplicate posts, newer post will be deleted unless there is more discussion in one of the posts.
  9. No politics.

Comments.

  1. No personal attacks.
  2. Obey instance rules.
  3. No low effort comments(one or two words, emoji etc..)
  4. Please use spoiler tags for spoilers.

My goal is just to have a community where people can go and see what new game news is out for the day and comment on it.

Other communities:

Beehaw.org gaming

Lemmy.ml gaming

lemmy.ca pcgaming

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It is not tuned for what people want to watch, but to what youtube thinks you want to watch. Also what they think they can get away with suggesting you. My experience is that I do not like what the autoplay function plays next, for example.

There are indeed "backroom bosses" deciding what arbitrary hoops someone has to jump through, youtube is no lawless place. There are enforced rules as to language and video material. This has little to do with the suggestions, but not nothing.

It does a selection that give youtube the most money. That indeed filters out unpopular things (making it also way harder to gain popularity if relying solely on youtube; a widely accepted alternative would be a deal with a popular youtuber), but also controversial stuff like criticism. Also child porn so its not entirely bad (also it is very necessary), just way too powerful and obtuse to be trusted in the hands of someone wanting to make money.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And how does YouTube know what people might want to watch? By tracking what they watch and adjusting their algorithms appropriately.

My experience is that I do not like what the autoplay function plays next, for example.

Perhaps you're not part of the quiet majority.

but also controversial stuff like criticism

Sure, that one is self-serving, but it's probably in line with what the majority want. Most people don't care about YouTube drama, they just want to watch entertaining videos. Look at the most popular YouTube videos, TV shows, etc, that's what the quiet majority are watching, and it's probably a similar demographic as those who actually click ads.

By using Lemmy, you're self-selecting as not the quiet majority. I'm guessing you're quite into tech and probably either work in tech or are going to school in tech. You also probably care more about the openness of tech than the number of other people using the platform. You're absolutely in a minority, probably several different minorities.

YouTube's number one goal is to show ads, and their service does that by getting people to watch more videos. And how do they do that? By recommending videos the majority want to watch, and by nudging users toward more "addictive" videos (those high energy, high engagement videos where you just have to keep watching). People like watching crap like Mr. Beast (dream about being the benefactor of one of his stunts), which is why he's so successful.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And how does YouTube know what people might want to watch? By tracking what they watch and adjusting their algorithms appropriately.

My point is that that is not the reason, but one step on the way. And it is a way to influence people even to the point of enforcing things.

Perhaps you're not part of the quiet majority.

Correct.

YouTube's number one goal is to show ads, and their service does that by getting people to watch more videos.

Which is a singular goal with a reachable epitome of video making that is essentially enforcing a rally between content creators to find this epitome.

How does this create unique content? This is merely tolerating the existence of such content, as long as it doesn't get in the way of profits or rock any boats with "youtube drama". How does this competition create unique stuff?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

People aren't going to watch variations of the same content back to back, but they do want content presented in a fairly consistent way that draws their attention.

YouTube also penalizes creators from straying too far from their typical content, encouraging separate channels if they want to make diverse content. So that encourages creators to carve out a niche for themselves and fill it. Users will gravitate toward the "best" in a given niche (for various definitions of "best"), so there's pressure on creators to get better at whatever their unique niche is.

If you really look at YouTube, you'll find a huge variety of content with high production value that follow a similar marketing style (thumbnails, titles, and presentation format). The marketing style being similar doesn't mean the content is similar.