So for me the videos have a few purposes.
- I enjoy making content about rugby gaming, and rugby 25 is the latest rugby game out so want to cover the updates.
- To try an make entertaining videos that hopefully people enjoy and can escape their own lives for half hour a week.
- Its a fun way to provide “live” feedback to BigAnt, on how the game currently looks and plays from a customer perspective rather than in in-house game tester, and the guys at BigAnt can watch the video or clips to see exactly what went wrong, as opposed to me writing a paragraph of text on here, that they might know know what I mean or how to replicate it.
- To give my completely transparent and honest thoughts on the game, and in turn potentially help someone else decide whether its a game they would want to pick up.
So the videos try and combine all those things into 1 package.
The choice of using the sideline camera in the videos is because that is how I as a person have played every rugby game ever. You can go through my full content catalogue, any “end on” is only ever for testing purposes, but i dont find it fun. “End on” to me feels like cheating, you can see all of the pitch, you can kick to space behind the AI with ease, you can run gaps in defencive lines so much easier. Ive said numerous times in videos, “playing the game in end on [in my opinion] is playing the game in easy mode”
Im fully aware in the social media scene that being negative is always a bigger view pull, than being positive, thats just the state of the internet in the modern day. But playing on side camera isnt some purposeful attempt to put the game in a bad light for more views. Ive certainly become far more cynical about the game post launch, but thats mainly because to me the gameplay changes keep feeling worse than it was in EA 
But the videos arent designed to make the game look worse. I COULD record 5 matches, and edit all the worst bits together, then post that video and say thats my experience. But i dont, i play 1 match, try to leave as much of it in as possible (except when is just 10 rucks in a row or something else boring) and let the audience ses that experience and decide whether that gameplay was enjoy able enough for themselves.
But theres a couple of other things worth touching on with the cameras. Before Rugby 25 came out I honestly thought about 90% of people played side camera in rugby games, because its the best representation of how the game looks on TV translated in to a game. It was in this very FAQ page where I found out I had been wrong about that my whole life with more people playing “end on” in basically every rugby game ever.
So in actuality whats happenned, is ive stumbled in to basically being one of the only content creators who represents the customer base who play the game side on. Seen other CC’s videos like BearsGamer, Rugby Guru, SammyX2, CW, Odd1x. All play end on. So if you were looking to buy a new rugby game but you dont like end on, you might not even know Rugby 25 has the option of a side camera if not for my videos. But also, if there are bugs caused by side camera, the audience/customers need to be aware by watching the videos these bugs exist, otherwise they are never caught, and then people pick up the game and experience all sorts of problems.
I remember when it got revealed that BigAnt were focussing the game to be played end on. And understanding like 60% play end on, theres some level of logic to it. BUT, ultimately I think its a stupid idea. I cant ever imagine hearing the guys developing a new Forza game say “were going to prioritise how the game works, when only driving in cockpit camera view”. So anyone who plays racing games from a 3rd person view behind the car is screwed, with a broken mess of a game .
Camera angle to me as a consumer shouldnt be prioritised, should be as equal as possible accross the board. And therefor it shouldnt be my responsibility to play a game (that costs money), in a way I dont enjoy, in order for it to be represented “better”, when im part the customer base BigAnt says isnt their priority.
Final point is how much does side camera impact the bugs? There certainly are bugs that are actively worse on side camera, some even exclusive. I have found a good handful of full on exploits, that I have specifially kept out of videos and the FAQ page so people wouldnt exploit them in multiplayer, and contacted the BigAnt guys directly about for them to patch without anyone ever knowing.
So there are issues that come from the side camera. But then there are other bugs, like at Scrums, Lineouts, Conversions, cutscenes. That I just dont believe can be the result of your camera choice. I also play side camera on the PC version, and the Xbox version, and on some updates have WILDLY different experiences. Game feels like it changes from person to person. But to me end on doesnt make it better. It just makes it easier, and so you dont face the issues.
So does side camera allow the absolute best representation of the game, when that camera isnt the priority for BA. Probably not. But the videos are absolutely the fairest representation of my experience as a customer playing their game the way I would play any rugby game. It just so happens my experience can reach 1000s of people. If you can watch my videos and think “this makes the game look really bad with all this broken stuff in it”. Then that thats BigAnts job to fix. BigAnt are fully aware of the channel, fully aware 1000s of potential customers every month watch to see whether they think its good enough to buy. They by no means have to make any changes just to make my personal experience better, certainly not at the cost of other players.
But I play the game duting videos exactly how I would play whether I would make videos or not, and give the most honest representation of my experience playing the game that way. For every 1 of me showcasing the issues, there might be 1000 people playing on side camera that just uninstalled the game because there is too many bugs, without ever contacting BigAnt.
If the gameplay was solid, wouldnt matter what camera anyone was playing on. So hopefully the updates will one day bring the improvement.
