SWTOR Content on YouTube

I've gradually increased the amount of time I spend watching videos on YouTube (getting a second monitor may have had something to do with that), and of course I'm always on the lookout for SWTOR content. I wanted to share some of the channels I've found - sorted by their subscriber numbers, not by my personal preference. All of these are also linked up on the sidebar, but since I get the feeling that most people don't pay that much attention to that, I thought it might be worthy of its own post.

xLetalis

Even though this is the biggest channel with SWTOR content that I've found (more than 25k subs), I wasn't really aware of it until fairly recently. As far as I can tell, the guy's main thing is that he has loads of alts and records playthroughs while making all sorts of different choices. I prefer not to just watch other people play the game, without commentary, however his collection of videos is great if you ever find yourself wondering what would happen at a certain point if your character had made a different choice and you don't want to use an alt to actually see for yourself. At first I thought that the creator doesn't do any other SWTOR content at all, but then I found this review of chapter ten (with spoilers), which offers some pretty interesting insights that wouldn't necessarily occur to anyone who hasn't played through the game in a dozen different ways.



KranitokoGames

Kranitoko aka Charlie is a pretty well-known personality in the SWTOR community as he has repeatedly guest-starred on OotiniCast (and possibly elsewhere) and viewer interaction is an important part of many of his videos. He is the rare sort of MMO player who is both casual in his approach to the game and yet also highly committed and social. As far as I'm aware he doesn't raid and I don't think he's even completed all the class stories. Watching his levelling videos is pretty fun - while he's not the greatest player in terms of skill, he knows this and likes to poke fun at himself for it, while just being all-around entertaining. Recently he's tried different series like one where he's trying to learn how to PvP and another where he tours other people's strongholds.

What he's most "famous" for however are his pack opening videos, where he buys a hypercrate of the newest shipment of Cartel packs and opens them one at a time, showing off the contents to his viewers. It may sound like an odd form of entertainment, but it seems to be quite popular, and it does offer an alternative way of getting an idea of what's in the newest shipment instead of just checking a list on Dulfy. It probably also helps that he often includes giveaways in these (I won something once) and used to create machinima-like intros for these particular videos that evolved into a wacky story after a while. Here's one of the earlier ones:



Vulkk

Vulkk aka Alex is another rarity in the SWTOR community: a player who's been here since launch, loves to run operations and still tries to keep a positive outlook on the game. Whoa! He's from Bulgaria, which causes him to have a very noticeable accent. Personally I find it endearing, but apparently a lot of people have complained about it in the past, which has caused him to be quite self-deprecating about it. Vulkk's channel covers a wide range of content types, from playthroughs and guides to news and opinions (and ops runs of course). Personally I like the "editorial" sort of stuff best, like this three-parter called "SWTOR in Retrospect", in which he talks about his own beginnings in Star Wars Galaxies and his history with The Old Republic:



beattieus

Beattieus (whose name I can't spell without looking it up) is from Scotland as far as I can tell from his accent and likes to rant about everything that's wrong with SWTOR. His videos tend to not have high production values; they are just gameplay recordings with him rambling about whatever's on his mind that day, usually for about fifteen to twenty minutes, though he sometimes also records himself pugging flashpoints or running ops with his guild.

I actually find his negativity grating sometimes and he has a bit of a habit of going on for longer than the subject remains interesting (in my opinion), but the point is that he is often entertaining regardless and that many of his criticisms are valid (even if I don't necessarily agree with the importance of whatever issue he's talking about).



SWTOR Central

SWTOR Central is a newish channel that seems to be focused on guides for new players and giveaways. I found it because of the name, clicked on one of their most popular videos (entitled: "SWTOR: Tips 'n Tricks") and was astounded that I learned something new from it even though I've been playing since launch. Definitely worth checking out.



Feel free to leave any recommendations of your own in the comments; I'm always happy to find out about more SWTOR content creators! More than anything I wish I could find a YouTuber who enjoys creating SWTOR machinima with some regularity (the best ones I've seen tended to be one-shots), as this seems to be an area that's somewhat under-developed.