Jackson Bliton – better known online as Bajheera – lifts, games and gets paid to do so. He lives in two different worlds. In the real one, the 25-year-old Californian lives like a normal boy and does typical human stuff. Then, at least once per day, he goes to the Internet, transforms into Bajheera and plays a video game called World of Warcraft. He spends a majority of his day playing this game, while filming himself besides, so thousands of people around the world can follow him do it, either in a live stream or by watching recorded videos. Thanks to the power of platforms like YouTube or Twitch, online gamer play video games not just for private amusement, they play for the masses and get paid to do it. They earn money while spending their time in a virtual world and producing YouTube videos about playing video games.
As technology marches on the world of gaming changed from playing alone or at most with a partner in front of a video game console to the possibility of playing online with several people around the world. The prerequisite for playing an online game is to command internet connectivity because they can be played only after logging in to the server that hosts the game world. Furthermore, the aspect of interacting with thousands of players worldwide, possible due social media platforms like YouTube, creates a new revolutionary option of online gaming. In recent years, YouTube has been dominated by videos about online gaming that show people playing popular video games and adding their own funny commentary. More than half of the top independent YouTubers upload those videos.
On global basis, online gaming in connection to broadcast websites as YouTube has grown into a multi-billion-dollar business. While in the past mainly attract younger men, nowadays audience has expanded and include also women and older age groups.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction and Thesis Statement
2 The Online Gaming Movement
2.1 Online Gaming
2.2 Development of Online Gaming
3 YouTube as a Guarantor of Success
3.1 The Beginning of Bajheera
3.2 The Birth of an Internet Celebrity
3.3 Due YouTube to a Role Model
3.4 Future Development concerning YouTube
4 Conclusion
Bibliographie
1 Introduction and Thesis Statement
Jackson Bliton – better known online as Bajheera – lifts, games and gets paid to do so. He lives in two different worlds. In the real one, the 25 -year-old Californian lives like a normal boy and does typical human stuff (Bruce, 2016). Then, at least once per day, he goes to the Internet, transforms into Bajheera and plays a video game called W orld of W arcraft. He spends a majority of his day playing this game, while filming himself besides, so thousands of people around the world can follow him do it, either in a live stream or by watching recorded videos. Thanks to the power of platforms like YouTube or Twitch, online gamer play video games not just for private amusement, they play for the masses and get paid to do it (Ray, 2016). They earn money while spending their time in a virtual world and producing YouTube videos about playing video games.
As technology marches on the world of gaming changed from playing alone or at most with a partner in front of a video game console to the possibility of playing online with several people around the world (Böhm, 2016). The prerequisite for playing an online game is to command internet connectivity because they can be played only after logging in to the server that hosts the game world. Furthermore, the aspect of interacting with thousands of players worldwide, possible due social media platforms like YouTube, creates a new revolutionary option of online gaming (Kühl, 2015). In recent years, YouTube has been dominated by videos about online gaming that show people playing popular video games and adding their own funny commentary. More than half of the top independent YouTubers upload those videos (Mullin, 2013).
On global basis, online gaming in connection to broadcast websites as YouTube has grown into a multi-billion-dollar business (Maiberg, 2014). W hile in the past mainly attract younger men, nowadays audience has expanded and include also women and older age groups.
2 The Online Gaming Movement
2.1 Online Gaming
Online gaming describes an electronic game playing over a computer network particularly over the internet but also those games played online through consoles, across mobile phones or via peer-to-peer networks. Since 1990’s the number of computer, video and especially online games developed (Marshall, 2014). Since that time electronic game worlds have generated billions of dollars, with millions of players around the world fighting, buying and selling in a variety of online environments. Some of these are Role Playing Games which are relatively small and have a small number of players (Ralya, 2009). Others are Massive Multi Player online games, in which people play with other people around the world, so there can be thousands of players in these games, which form a virtual world (Tulathimutte, 2006). The basis of these games are that people can take on roles or characters, there are levels and themes and they have a social structure. One of the most popular massive multiplayer online game is Blizzard’s W ord of W arcraft. It drew millions of subscribers, who brought the company an estimated one billion dollars per year in retail sales and also subscription fees from 2007 to 2010 (Fahey, 2009). Online games can become very compelling, so for some people it might become an addiction (PschGuides, 2016). Partly this is due to the nature of games like W orld of W arcraft or others. There is the pull of more in case of winning points, character development or the support and admiration of groups (Frank, 2011). If the game is on one time, it can become difficult to leave. Online games allow players to disassociate from the real world into a virtual world.
2.2 Development of Online Gaming
Altough Massive Multi Player online games utilize the advanced graphics and high-end processing power typical of the current generation of personal computers, online gaming has its roots in some of the earliest computing technologies (Sanders, 2015). In the late 1970s many universities were connected by Arpanet, which is an experimental computer network and the forerunner of the Internet (Hülsbörner, 2013). Arpanet allowed users to connect their computers to one central computer for interacting among each other. Ten years later Arpanet was linked to a university in England, where two students developed a fantasy adventure game. W hen the first user outside of this university connected through Arpanet to this game, online gaming was born (Asuncion Gomez-Perez, 2005). Soon, other programmers expanded the original software by adding chat functions or player groups. These features carried over into the next online gaming generation, the Massive Multi Player online games. The explosive popularity of these games was mainly due the launch of high-speed internet (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2012). By the time W orld of W arcraft debuted in November 2004, the gaming Market changed (Conditt, 2016). Its attention to team play and other new facilities brought in millions of gamers who had never tried Massive Multi Player online games before (Piner, 2012). With the explosive growth of social media in the early 21st century, developers sought to capitalize on the new opportunities presented by websites like Facebook. They used animation programs as YouTube to create opportunities to demonstrate the players’ experiences.
3 YouTube as a Guarantor of Success
3 . 1 The Beginning of Bajheera
Today he makes a living off slaying baddies in a virtual world for six to eight hours a day, on top making YouTube videos about playing video games and increasing with his fans. But also his success began small but starts right when he was a child (Entertainment, 2016). One day the young boy started watching a TV-show and was mesmerized by the cartoon characters (Pieceinsurance, 2016). Since this day Jackson admires those anime figures and decided to go to the gym to become one of these characters. He wanted to iron out his skills because so he could look like his ideal. In 2004, when the game W orld of W arcraft was launched, he was one of a million who started playing this game (Smith, 2015). Bajheera had the idea of comparing his two hobbies fitness and online gaming. The gym is a stress reliever that allows him to build himself in any way he likes similar to developing a W orld of W arcraft character, in fact. For him there is no better feeling than depleting his body in the gym and then sitting down toy play W orld of W arcraft. In which he can continue the levelling process. After he has levelled himself in real life, he continues his training in a virtual world.
By creating a YouTube channel and uploading his first video in November 2010 his career started. Since this time he frequently uploaded videos to illustrate his gaming but also his fitness impressions and results. Years later Bajheera started to become a Twitch streamer, where thousands of viewers watch him playing after a really short time streaming there (Leack, 2014). As usual, he was really successful and was voted the number one W orld of W arcraft streamer on Twitch in 2014 (Grinstead, 2015). Through his outstanding successes in this game he had the honour to moderate the grand final of the W orld of W arcraft W orld Championship in 2015 in California (Buffed, 2016).
Due his increasing popularity he gets sponsored by tech companies like Origin PC and Corsair and also by sport supplements companies (Brockmann, 2016). Nowadays Bliton has over 250.000 followers and close to 18 million views while streaming (Trackalytics, 2016).
3.2 The Birth of an Internet Celebrity
In his junior years Bajheera had a bad place mentally and so he decided to take a break. In this he got back to himself and did things which made him feel good. While his downtime he creates his YouTube channel in November 2010 and uploaded his first video in which he mentions and explains the main rules of W orld of W arcraft (Volpe, 2016). For Bliton creating videos involving his hobby was a creative and fulfilling task. He saw an interesting parallel between fitness and YouTube because he compares those both interests and describes a YouTube channel like fitness, where he can put his energy into. He can see progresses and YouTube allows him to grow and indeed, both he and his channel began to grow (Poisso, 2013).
He launched his YouTube channel as a personal diary, where he talks beside his gaming passion about things that every college student can relate to, like the drudgery of writing a school paper. In his beginnings Bliton made videos dealing with many different topics because he wanted to be able to address people at any age and from every origin. By producing videos and continually connecting with his fans, Bajheera succeed to radically transform his own life. While focussing on things he likes to do, he changed in a positive person (Fahey, 2009).
Over the years he concretized the topics of his channel and focusses his hobbies gaming and fitness. While uploading videos giving fitness and food tips he almost remain true to his passion and published a video about gaming every day. Due social media and promotion his channel grows and became more and more follower so his high profile rises (McGee, 2016).
On an average day, he posts three videos a day, one in the morning when he wakes up after a late-night editing session, midday and one in the evening after his Twitch stream is over (W elsh, 2014). Today he uploaded more than 4.000 videos on his channel, has nearly 350.000 subscribers and all in all more than one million klicks (Socialblade, 2016).
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- Citation du texte
- Jessica Blasberg (Auteur), 2016, To what Extent Increases YouTube the Success of an Online Gamer? The Example of Bajheera, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/458879
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