Why is Nerd Gaming Malaysia one of the fastest rising Youtube group for gamers? We spoke to them to find out.
Hey guys! Tell us a little about yourselves! Who are you, what type of gamers are you, and how can we find you and your content?
Nerd Gaming Malaysia is a gaming group consisting of Malaysian Youtubers. We are casual gamers, entertainers, and content creators for our Youtube channel. The currently active members are PandaMerah, Mizblurrity, SemutHitam, Mr.Putera, NaimHY, Safwangba, JamalPatonko, LinLP, Hanifkyo, DhyDhy, Shazet, CipherXV, ThisPirateShip, RadUnicorn, Mwpinkeras, HeyPian, and Anas.
When you put together a bunch of online personalities with the same interest, it becomes a fun and creative environment especially when creating contents for our Youtube channel. We upload our contents regularly every Saturday dan Sunday. Listed down below are our social media sites. Find us here!
Main channel: https://www.youtube.com/NerdGamingMalaysia
Modded Minecraft Series: https://www.youtube.com/ModdedMinecraftMalaysia
Facebook ► http://on.fb.me/1iNEvvX
Fundeavour ► https://fundeavour.com/NerdGamingMalaysia/
Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/nerdgamingmalaysia/
Twitter ► https://twitter.com/nerdgamingmy
Soundcloud ► https://soundcloud.com/nerdgamingmalaysia
How did Nerd Gaming Malaysia get started? Was there something or someone that motivated you?
Here is a brief history of how NGMY was born.
The Beginning: Modded Minecraft
On the 13th of August 2012, PandaMerah along with younger brother DhyDhy created video gaming content under the name Nerd Gaming Malaysia (NGMY). Videos were uploaded on both their personal Youtube channels. They made some videos in English because Panda wanted his brother to get used to the language before entering college. (Editor’s Note: This is the second time we’ve had our gamers make videos to get better at the language! Rock on, guys!)
Two months later in October 2012, PandaMerah and classmate AlanLembu, being obsessed with Minecraft, created a modded Minecraft server. The server at the time only had 4 players, PandaMerah, AlanLembu, DhyDhy and SuddleManiac (AlanLembu’s older brother). PandaMerah back then would randomly record their gameplay for fun, edit and upload on his personal channel and some on DhyDhy’s channel. They called their Minecraft series Feed the Beast. To their surprise, their videos gained some attention and there were a handful of Minecraft players requesting them to be part of the server. So they started to recruit new players, most of them Gaming Youtubers, such as SemutHitam, ThisPirateShip, Hanifkyo, Safwangba, JamalPatonko, LinLP, HeyPian, HaimHY, AnasHazard and many more to play on their server.
On the 5th of January 2013, the series was officially changed to Modded Minecraft Malaysia. Unfortunately, many players from the previous recruitment became inactive due to work or school. Some just totally stopped playing Minecraft. There were also problems with hosting the Minecraft server. Then, PandaMerah decided to recruit more players, so he invited his vlogger friends Mizblurrity and Mr.Puterato join the series. Mizblurrity hosted the Modded Minecraft server – and from then on, MMM began to create and upload consistent content every week, gaining a lot of popularity from their younger viewers who were fans of Minecraft and Malaysian Youtubers.
The Rise of Nerd Gaming Malaysia
After realizing that the team played a bunch of other games besides Minecraft together, SemutHitam suggested that they make another channel and the team should be officially called Nerd Gaming Malaysia. DhyDhy’s personal channel was officially changed to Modded Minecraft Malaysia and would strictly focus on the Minecraft series. Nerd Gaming Malaysia’s channel would be the team’s main channel and would focus on gameplays of different types of video games, vlogs, challenge videos, and random stuff that happened involving the team.
This meant the team finally had a main channel to focus on, where we now work and discuss everything together to make our channel grow. Previously it was only PandaMerah handling all the editing and graphics but now with the help and involvement of Mizblurrity, Mr.Putera and SemutHitam in video editing and the management of both channels and other social media sites, NGMY is able to consistently create weekly contents and gain more views and are opened to other new opportunities.
In November 2015, NGMY was invited as Guest livestreamers for Cyberfusion 2015 sponsored by eSports Malaysia. In October 2016, NGMY was then chosen by Fundeavour as influencer/media to attend GameStart 2016 in Singapore and cover the event.
What motivates NGMY since the very beginning is always the bond that we have as a team. We always play games together and if not, we would just hang out on TeamSpeak voice chat and talk about our lives and random stuff. From time to time, when we have the chance, we would do meet ups and vlog about it. What also motivates us are the Nerd Gamers, our subscribers. We could not thank them enough for all the support they have shown since 2012. We love getting their feedback, and the fact that we are able to entertain them always encourages us to be better. The only way we could think of to show our appreciation and gratitude is to keep on creating quality content for them to enjoy – which has always been our number one priority.
What’s the dream? What sort of gamers do you want to be in the future, and is gaming a potential career path for you?
We don’t want to be known as a team who just have fun and play video games together. We want to be more than that. Even though we’re still a small growing channel, our dream is to one day turn Nerd Gaming Malaysia into a production company like our biggest inspirations which are Node Studios and Smosh Games. We plan to have our own studio where we do LAN parties and work together to create variety of quality gaming contents for our viewers. So, yes, hopefully one day we will make this our career path.
What do you think is the biggest problem for gamers currently, especially in the region you live in? How can we solve it?
Let’s be honest, gaming is actually a very expensive hobby. Unless you’re filthy rich, money will always be an issue no matter what kind of platform you use to play video games. Most of the people in NGMY play games on their PCs and boy, do you need cash to upgrade your equipment and buy video games! Gaming equipment and original games are not cheap, but we absolutely do not recommend using pirated versions. You might missed out on some of the game features, but most of all, you’re not supporting the game developer.
Right now the only solution we can think of is to stay in school and make sure you get a decent job with a good paycheck that would allow you to lavish yourself on your gaming needs. Some of us in NGMY have already finished our studies and have steady jobs.
For gamers who are still in school or studying, maybe you can find a part time job. It’s always rewarding when you’re finally able to buy something from your own hard work earnings. If none of these are an option for you than you can always complete all the Fundeavour quests and redeem gaming prizes there with your GP, or join all the giveaways you can find. Worst comes to worst, we could always pray that the Malaysian currency will drop making everything cheaper.
What do you think of brand involvement in gaming? Is it positive? E.g. do you think having brands support the gaming scene is important to change what people currently think about gaming being a waste of time?
If you ask Malaysian parents on what they want their children to be when they grow up, I bet none of them will say that they want their kids to be a professional gamer. Their answer would usually still be doctor, architect, engineer, teacher and all the professions that they categorise as great and useful to society.
“This is where we think brand involvement in the gaming scene, for example in eSports, can change people’s perspective towards gaming. It shows that video games can bring you some money now. It’s not always a waste of time when you have the chance to make your hobby into your profession and you can make a decent living out of it.”
Brand involvement in the gaming scene should be considered as a positive movement not only for pro gamers, streamers, and Youtubers but also for the brand itself. Undoubtedly, the best way to reach Millennials is through online marketing. Male millennials around the age of 14 to 35 are spending a record amount of time watching professional video game tournaments! However, brands should not only reach out to pro Gamers only but to streamers and youtubers as well. Gamers and fans who love watching gaming related videos will see their favourite online personalities using the sponsored product and they too will want to buy it. This is something that brands should be taking advantage of, and the brands do not necessarily have to be gaming related like Intel, Razor, BenQ, Logitech, Armaggeddon and many more.
For example, after noticing the impact of Twitch that was reported to achieve 4.5 million unique viewers in one day on August 11 2013, Nissan decided to partner with Team Curse League of Legends players for an online campaign to promote the Versa Note. (http://www.alistdaily.com/strategy/nissan-revs-into-esports/) They made a Your Door To More social video contest, encouraging gamers to create short videos for the chance to win a $1,000 Amazon gift card and have their video appear in a Nissan commercial. Team Curse pro gamers, on the other hand, used their own massive social media outreach to spread the word on this promotion virally. Both sides worked together and this resulted in a successful attempt at making the gaming industry bigger.
Red Bull, the energy drink, hosts its own eSports events around America with top players and invites fans to watch it live online. An organization as big as Red Bull getting involved in eSports could make other big organizations like them pay attention and attract other big organizations. They too will want to sponsor eSport events or anything related to gaming. This shows that pro gamers are no different from pro athletes.
The same concept applies to the people’s mindset on gaming being a waste of time, or merely just a hobby when you have free time. They need proof to see that the gaming industry is capable of achieving fame and success. For that to happen, we’ll need the help and involvement of brands. And for brands to sponsor us gamers, Streamers and Youtubers, we need them to see that we can bring them big profit.
A lot can be discussed about this topic but for now this is briefly why we think the involvement of brands in the gaming scene is a positive movement and should be encouraged.
Thank you for your time, Nerd Gaming Malaysia! We wish you all the best in scaling new heights.
This feature was written as part of a partnership with Fundeavour, a site that helps aspiring gamers around the world to get a head start on beginning their journey as content creators, streamers and eSports players. Want to be featured and share your stories with over 20,000 readers? Check out more info here or sign up with Fundeavour.com!