Voice Posts: Josh Billy

On the internet, where millions of blogs exist finding one about eSports is surprisingly difficult.To my surprise however I managed to find one whose writing I actually enjoyed for once. Josh Billy, an aspiring eSports blogger is able to hook me into his blog. I can't believe a college graduate student living in West Virginia (when you think of eSports WV definitely doesn't come to mind), could satisfy my appetite for eSports coverage. I was expecting for a intellectual mastermind who could convey statistical data (being an engineer myself) but no, Josh Billy is successful. Being an individual involved in eSports (content provider to Team Orbit, a professional eSports franchise), Billy has the knowledge that many average people do not. Because of this fact, looking at Billy's blog gives the reader insight into the world of eSports from someone that is directly involved in it. Typically video game bloggers have a difficult time expressing their emotions about a topic. Most blogs I have encountered consist of video game reviews and announcement. It is very hard to find a particular blog that puts an emphasis on eSports. Even if they do, oftentimes i feel as though they miss the mark and just give stats for a particular match. Getting the reader's point of view is something I look for when trying to find blogs that are interesting. Excitement is generated from discussing topics that are booming (hence League of Legends). For Josh Billy in particular, the main appeal of his blog was his emotion of anger and sarcasm. Billy also provides strong character and authority in his posts.

At times in his post, I could picture his frustration with his audience. This was more clear than ever when he mentions that "I can’t hold it in any longer: the comments infuriate me."  We all have had one instance in our life when someone says something that makes us mad. Siblings for example argue with you and say something that is totally wrong and makes you upset. I can image Billy sitting at his computer desk angry at these people who he feels like is belittling the professional gamers. for some background, Billy's post is about Call of Duty players claiming tat professional gamers are trash. Billy obviously disagrees with it. Hearing the comments from gamers such as "i'ts sad I could beat half of them" make him more frustrated and annoyed. Weirdly enough though, I like that he has an emotional response to these comments. The emotional response of "did you laugh a little; I also felt a bit of anger inside" gives me hope that people in the gaming community will not blindly put up with the trolls of the eSports community. I felt a sense of   camaraderie with Billy. We both were in this together. If the people make us mad then so be it. We will not blindly brush it off, but deal with it head on. I could not tell if his emotion is what was triggering the use of ellipses in his posts though. He uses them everywhere!!! I could not go more than 5 or 6 lines without seeing one of those ... at the end of the sentence. Some examples include:

(those besides ranked play and then even....)
nerds.... nerds... nerds...

Having these reassures myself that I am indeed on the internet. It is common for people on the internet to use ellipses as a sigh of relief. I read each line out loud and sighed every time I got to a ellipses. Are these effective? I think so. I like the change-up in his voice. He doesn't just make use of periods, exclamation points, and question marks. I get the sense that he is sighing in disbelief when reading these comments and this makes the passage stand out more. It also gets back to the idea that Billy is passionate (an emotion) and I enjoy that about his writing. Bravo on Mr.Billy there.

Reader's may judge Billy and assume that his blog is just his emotional feelings with any real intelligent notion or understanding. However I felt the passion and anger being used as insightful because it opened the reader to a more engaging and heartfelt blog instead of random facts thrown in my face. The use of expletive in his case gives his sentence more passion. By mentioning working their ass off instead of simply saying they worked, Billy wants to give emphasis on the hard work and dedication professional gamers invest into their job. Keeping the emphasis on feeling and emotion, Billy uses quotation and exclamation marks in his blog. These are put in place to heighten the attention of the reader to those particular sentences. He also uses a style of listing some of the phrases that contributed to his anger during his rant on Call of Duty. By listing the problems he has with people's misinformation about the world of eSports, Billy gives himself more structure and better outlining in his blog. It does make his flow more stale because he could have included his problem with the gaming community in a simpler manner. This could be as simple of taking away the numbers in the list and addressing these things individually and relate them in some way.

As a reader I was hooked into this post with his use of sarcasm which is used to ease the tension of the topic in this case. Billy uses sarcasm as a main device to make sure that people do not think that he is over zealous when referring to gamers that say things to make him upset. An example of the sarcastic nature of his post is the use of the meme pictured below.

Billy is also able to make his blog topics informal and conversational which helps make his voice stand out more. Billy's blog about the growth of eSports titled The World of Gaming is Still Growing, addresses the future of eSports and his opinion on the growth and where it can go. Billy has me hooked on this blog topic because I relate to it when thinking about eSports myself. People into video games and professional gaming always ask the question "Will eSports be important in the future?" It's hard to answer the question, but by bringing it up, I can relate to Billy because I also think of that. Excitement is the best way to describe Billy's post about the future of eSports. He has an optimistic point of view about the subject. It gives people the idea that there is even more potential for eSports in the future.Phrasing that he use "you can play competitively to make money!" or "people literally make money off playing video games" makes me excited for the future of eSports. I see his point of view and agree with it. This article will appeal to those who like eSports. More examples include "Gaming can be a career!" The emphasis is in the exclamation points which I read proudly. I like the use of exclamation points when being energetic or excited. It makes the article pop more than if you were to just use simple periods at the end of every sentence. This is a plus in my Imaginary Book of Good Things A Blogger Does That Makes The Blog Enjoyable (slight sarcasm). 

What makes me like Billy is his ability to make his post more conversational instead of formally academic. He uses phrasing pretty decent. When I hear the term "pretty decent" the last thing I think about is formal writing. Pretty decent also comes off to me as something a friend would say to another friend. It isn't something that a complete stranger would say to someone for the first time. A sense of friendship is felt in his passage and I feel less like a stranger and more like a fellow eSports enthusiast. Billy saying "these guys sucks" makes the blog feel less stagnant. I feel more attached to material. I don't feel as though the blogger Billy is trying to grab the readers attention with obscure language. Other blogs have trouble making their blogs conversational and easy to identify with. Maybe it is the lack of unnecesarily long words or obvious sarcastic remarks that many video games blog cling to. If you haven't noticed already....  Billy's article may be unpolished (Billy using the word cringy when describing Vice's documentary made me cringe" and "pretty decent" but I still overall found it to be enjoyable. Presenting the facts which get to the point and give me a feeling of satisfaction knowing that I identify with this blogger in the realm of eSports. Being relatively new in popular culture in the United States, eSports isn't talked about much. Billy makes a case for why it should be discussed more in the the news and I commend him on this. My advice for Josh Billy is to continue to spread the word on eSports and get more people to read about it.