This comic came to mind when I was watching that video the other day. But it's not full 4 hours, it's about Mario 64 not Mario Kart and it's only tangentially related to speedrunning, so in your face, last place comics!
Wait what video? I would legit watch this, very fond memories as a kid playing Deus Ex after finding it at a thrift shop for $1 the year after it came out.
Hbomberguy has a 3,5 hours one about why Deus ex human revolution is okish and the original great. So spoiler for human revolution, but if you played both it will definitely scratch that itch:
I think I've seen the video he's referring to. It was good background noise for when I explored the underworld in Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (took ages!)
In terms of video game essayist, I just want to throw out this criminally underrated creator named Timmm
The production value is, imo, absolutely unmatched. He has fewer than 50k subs and I really don’t care the topic he picks, I’m going to be fully submersed in it.
When did YouTube rambles become essays? I've seen this a few times now. Dont call them essays! Its just people talking endlessly about things they often know very little about but make it sound convincing.
A 3 hour video on a subject is, in fact, an essay. The presenter, presumably, wrote the essay, and is now reading it out to you and offering it in video or audio format.
to talk about something for even an hour requires much more than just "i like this thing", and an analysis of why you like the thing does make the script of a video an essay. It could be a critical essay, it could be an opinion essay, but it's an essay nonetheless
It's pretty clear you dont watch long form video content, most of the time they're quite thoroughly written and well prepared. I haven't seen long form video content that actually is just pure rambling, they're pretty generally well structured. I don't even watch them typically but the effort that goes into them is above just rambling lol, and you can tell they were actually written and scripted... Almost resembling an essay.... How strange....
I do appreciate some 10-15 minute videos on a subject and I'd agree that they often are well planned and structured.
Many of the hour long videos though, I feel could have been 10 minute videos that the creator has put effort into making longer mainly in order to make the video longer (I don't even know if there is more money in longer videos, or its just a way of showing more ads maybe?)