Right well then there are really two things to talk about this week, as I see it, snapchat and developer/ game players. So let’s jump in to a bit of tech, I do use that term loosely – again I live on a hill so slowest internet ever!) Snapchat the app – that is mainly used to sent people intimate images. Come on; let’s not kid around here – that’s what it is used for. People say to me ”Oh, I only use it to see my friends stupid faces” are lying. Then Snapchat decided to get rid of the best friends feature on it – that sneak little feature that apparently most modern relationships are built on.

If you haven’t got snapchat then I will catch you up. Snapchat is an app that you can take a picture with your phone camera of your face or car or well you can guess what else and send it to your friends or that one person and they can view it for ten seconds, then the picture deletes permanently (except for the snapchat servers where it sits like a nightmare waiting to be found) So this picture sharing app, as you can see blew up with tweens and twenty something’s for fairly obvious reasons, snapchat then incorporated a ‘best friends’ feature, where you can see who your friend’s are snapping the most (oh that girl from accounting) and apparently that’s what formed the corner stone in a lot of people relationships for the past two years. Until “shock!” snapchat got rid of that feature, meaning you no longer can see who your best mates or boy/girlfriend top snapper is – which resulted in the people, in pure internet fashion, rushing to their computer to voice their anger, in 120 characters or less, about the fact they can’t see who people are snapping with the messages such as”there are going to be a lot of happy cheaters tonight.” And this is where I thought I would wander in. I dislike most normal social things from anyone who is a celebrity to hipsters who think there doing something new, but this did peak my curiosity. I have snapchat and I have been the victim of friends spying and commenting on people who have been my top snapper, so I thought I would have my say. One; if you’re going to cheat just set up enough accounts on snapchat, it’s not hard. Two, sending pics of yourself to anyone over the internet is always going to end badly. Either the person you are sending them to will get board or dependant, neither of which is good. Three, as I have pointed out they don’t actually delete, they are saved. Why do you think they are saved? I dunno (cough the celebrity hacking scandal a few months back??) So, don’t be stupid and do that maybe just go and see the person you wish to expose yourself to anyway, in the flesh or just don’t cheat?
If you’re going to cheat on someone you clearly don’t really like that person that much do you? So just break up, simple. So for people annoyed with snapchat’s change of policy I say, may be less over reacting, if your partner is cheating on you snapchat will be the last place you see it, there is facebook, twitter and all the rest . It’s like living under Starsy rule with the amount your boy/girlfriends can see about you and it is always its damaging so calm yourselves.
The second bit of tech news this week is Nintendo’s claim on adding revenue on their games so if you don’t know how this works, a quick round up. If you play games on YouTube you can become hugely popular and earn a load of cash in the process for doing, as I’ve stated before, very little work (I know I do it), developers have seen the cash cows you tubers have become and thought ‘hum I should have a look at this’, which is YouTuber’s fault in some regard. The constant online presence and flaunting of wealth by a few successful youtubers, building houses and keeping everyone updated about how awesome it will be, or taking pic of their amazing cars and the like will obviously gain the attention of the engineers and like that built the game in the first place. ‘How come he is earning millions for sitting in front of a computer playing my game whilst I’m here busting a gut to build it for a quarter of what he/she earns?” Fair point, come on, no one can be that naive can they? Of course developers are going to catch on, and have a nose about. I am surprised that they don’t shut it all down to be honest – games will go on YouTube gamers are not vital to the gaming industry there just peripheral and I speak as one of them. If some company contacted me with a deal and I had a few million views and episodes earned me thousands then I wouldn’t be surprised if the developers were saying ‘we want our cut, we made it and keep it with our servers’ So don’t argue Youtube gamers. It is like other things you buy – you have to pay! At least Nintendo had the decency to announce it instead of Xbox’s shady deals with Youtubers behind closed doors. So if you are a successful YouTuber then thank your lucky stars that you have the easiest job on the planet, they come for you, not the game play so it doesn’t matter what game you play, just make more video. Developers do have a right to take a percentage if they choose. Saying all this I do think there is probably a better way for all this to be handled and most developers don’t need it and small Youtubers couldn’t afford it so I think it needs to be looked into fully before implementing anything. Some developers should focus on fixing their games or getting on with releasing content they promised ( cough ubisoft) before they delve into other people’s pockets.
Well there you go, enough chat about tech stuff. I hope you have a good week and I will be back next Tuesday with more stuff. Bye.