Youtubers Life
Youtubers Life is an unintentionally horrifying content dystopia.
Sorry, jerkwads, but I’m out. People just don’t want measured criticism, analytical features and interesting stories, all carefully written, delicately sub-edited, and bound together in a 116-page magazine. It’s all about YouTube these days, so I’m away to pursue a lucrative career pretending to be a Clarkson-esque blowhard, moaning about everything that’s wrong with the industry, while doing nothing to actually improve the situation. That’s the fantasy offered by Youtubers Life. It’s a light, quirky life sim, similar to Kairosoft’s Game Dev Story, but focused on people who make videos for the internet. You pick a subject—games, music, or cookery—and start recording. Your videos’ quality is based around your reactions, which are chosen by selecting one of a number of cards. You’re given the scenario, and must pick the response that best matches. Earning an achievement, for instance, is best met by a ‘celebratory scream’. A bug should elicit a ‘murderous look’. It’s not very nuanced.
Each response card drains your inspiration meter, which is recharged by eating and sleeping. As you play, you unlock new cards that improve your performance, but require more inspiration points to use. It’s a balancing act. Too many high inspiration responses and you may not be able to complete a whole video. Too few, and the quality suffers.
In between recording sessions, there’s a variety of actions to undertake. You can study to improve your video skills, or socialize to meet potential collaborators. Or you can go to movie premieres, and pose for photos in the desperate hope of being recognized. You can also earn extra money by spending a few hours working an actual job.
You’ll need the extra cash, because for the first few months you’ll only be earning a few cents per video. But here, in this happy-go-lucky world, success is simply a matter of grinding through the lean years—churning out Let’s Plays until the dollars start to flow. All it takes is persistence.
It’s pleasant enough, but quickly becomes tiresome. You click on things to manage your sleep, hunger and money, all while making video after video. After hours of incremental progress, you’ll get the option to unlock a new, bigger living space, incurring new costs and requiring more churn.
I don’t think Youtubers Life is satire—it’s too sugary. But it is unintentionally damning. Its characters are vapid and obsessed by yachts. Its communities are demanding and judgemental. And its depiction of creating videos is deeply offputting. There’s no passion or personality. The most you can aspire to is inoffensive gossip and a dogged adherence to prevailing trends. Want to create a weird, alienating tribute to Dragon Age 2? Tough. That’s not how it’s done on the content farms, where success is more about being relevant than being good.
On reflection, I think I’m better off staying where I am.
Earning an achievement is best met by a ‘celebratory scream’