Nowadays, there is little that rivals YouTubee in its global reach. A creative commons rivaled in size only by Face book comprising more hours of footage than can be watched five thousand average lifetimes! There are more than five hundred million (500,000,000) channels with at least one video and among those channels are the real stars of YouTubee. Those who have worked hard and triumphed amongst the fray, some amounting over three hundred million unique views and over one billion (1,000,000,000) total views. YouTubee is a place for everyone; if you want it, it’s there. From the comedy that keeps you laughing, to the inspiring that pushed me through Tourette syndrome.
And indeed, no subject takes up more of YouTubee than the ever expanding realm of Minecraft, the indie game that was, turned billion-dollar phenomenon. Minecraft was founded on November 19th, 2011, by Markus Perrson, of Mojang, a small independent game development company, with the goal of creating a world where you could create and build anything you could possibly imagine. Many YouTube stars have been created out of Minecraft, such as the subject of todays’ article.
In my time as a writer, I’ve had the opportunity to meet some interesting people. But on Monday, I had the opportunity to talk with YouTube Celebrity Sethbling. Seth made his mark in Minecraft and on YouTube by designing incredible feats in Minecraft. One of the central features of Minecraft, and the one focused on by Seth, is something called “Redstone”, which represents a simple on/off electrical signal. Redstone can be used to indirectly move blocks, turn on and off dispensing machines, activate server protocol, or commands, or turn on lamps.
With this simple on/off mechanism, thousands of incredible creations have been built, however Seth’s work stands out from the crowd. He has built simple mini-games, to entire games within a game! Drawing inspiration from such popular titles as Mario and Zelda, game bending, and unique inventions have been built. Even Minecrafts’ creator, Perrson, has been taken aback and remarked at Seth’s Redstone mastery, which pushes the limits of the imagination.
Seth was kind enough to take the time to talk with me about his career. With over four hundred fifty thousand subscribers (followers), and over eighty two million views on YouTubee, there is nobody better to provide an insight into the life of a YouTubee star. Seth found Minecraft from his roommate, who introduced him to the game, and was reluctant at first to try Redstone. However, circumstances prevailed and Seth was encouraged to use Redstone to build a train station, and thus a legend was born. After studying and inventing with Redstone for some time, Seth began to post his inventions on Reddit, a social news website and self-described “front page of the internet”.
With an interest in math and programming in school, Seth already had the foundation to understand the intricacies of Redstone and how to program with it. It was only a matter of time before Seth’s creations caught on, and people, directed to his YouTubee channel through Reddit, began subscribing to him and he became a star. Originally graduating from Caltech (California institute of technology) with a degree in computer science, after about a year of making videos, Seth was able to leave his job and make videos professionally.
Now making videos as his profession, Seth does Minecraft for the usual forty-hour work week, like any other full time job (though his job may be slightly more interesting than most). On the subject of salary, Seth told me “I did videos at first for fun, and then I learned that I could monetize my videos and it became my career.” It took only about a year for Seth’s videos to catch on, a shorter time than most YouTube channels.
On the topic of starting out on YouTubee for oneself, Seth said “Don’t expect success, if it is going to be, it will be. Don’t expect to put out ten videos and get one thousand subscribers. Get out and advertise yourself, but not in ways people would find annoying. Make content that people would really, really, really like.”
Seth has had the pleasure of working together with several other YouTubee celebrities, and has many experiences that he looks back on fondly. One of his stories is about working with a group called Element Animation. With them, he created one of his most popular videos, Bite Sized Minecraft. “Working with (Element Animation) was a lot of fun because they were the team doing the work and it let me play the role of a writer for once” Said Seth.
Seth plans on making videos for a long time to come, at least for as long as Minecraft still is popular. “There are some games that can last a decade, and I believe Minecraft is one of them. (Minecraft) is a lot of fun and I’ll do it as long as I can.”