Author: Pedro Domínguez

This week, the arrest of Matteo Messina Denaro, the head of Cosa Nostra, was confirmed. The Sicilian mafia boss, who was 60 years old, was on the run for 30 years and was finally arrested in a private clinic in Palermo (Sicily), where he went to treat his colon cancer.

Despite what it may seem today, the mafia is still very present in many parts of the world. Something that Sammy Gravano, the former number two of the Gambino family, one of the most famous in New York City and right-hand man of boss Michael Franzese, spreads and shares on YouTube.

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A “Snitch” With Many Stories To Tell

Salvatore Gravano, his real name, and nicknamed among his own as “Sammy the bull”, is one of those people who has a lot to tell. And “a lot” would be short. With 77 years behind him, the former underboss of the New York mafia uses the great reach that Youtube gives him to narrate many of his experiences with the Gambino family, in which he was second in command.

The content creator dedicates his Youtube channel to talk about experiences as varied as the kidnapping and subsequent murder of John Simone, aka Johnny Keys, who was one of the best-known gangsters in Philadelphia. “I give him a bear hug and the van door is flung open and some guys run out”he says, his voice cracking.

His success on the video platform led him to create a podcast in which he narrates his life and his experiences in the mafia family. By name “Our Thing”“our thing”, a possible reference to the name of the Sicilian mafia), the ex-gangster narrates his adventures in a series of chapters directed by James Carroll, and with music and sound by composer Angelo Palazzo.

The former mobster served as a confidant for the FBI in the 90s, a time when US federal laws became implacable with all those people belonging to criminal organizations. Despite being a “informer” of the Aited States Justice, his collaboration did not free him from jail, where he was until 2017.

A couple of years after his release from prison, host Patrick Bet-David interviewed the former mobster on his Youtube channel, Valuetainment, where he asked about his life in the New York mob. Seeing the success of the video, which has accumulated 17 million views to date, the former number two in the Gambino family decided to create his own channel on Youtube, where he currently has 529.000 subscribers.

The Success of The “Mafia Youtubers”

Gravano’s case is not unique. Whether on channels specialized in interviews with prominent people such as Valuetainment or on their own, many ex-mafiosi from different parts of the world (who also collaborated to a greater or lesser extent with Justice) use Youtube to spread their stories and make users of the platform are participants in them.

Names like Mikey Scars, John Alite, Bobby Luisi or Anthony Arillotta, former members and leaders of different mafia families, accumulate thousands of subscribers on a platform where they narrate the crimes committed by themselves or their “brothers” as if they were grandparents telling their grandchildren about their lives.

But they all have to be very careful what they say and how they say it. Youtube has very strict regulations on sensitive content (which have gotten worse in recent months), and content creators must mark their videos as “Only for adults”, or measure/censor some of their words if they don’t want Youtube to demonetize them.

Because of these complexities, Gravano’s Youtube revenue doesn’t come solely from advertising. The current content creator takes advantage of the dissemination of his videos to create a brand image (which is later used to conduct interviews with third parties), to request donations in his live streams through Youtube functions and to share his Patreon, where he gives different privileges to its patrons in exchange for a monthly payment ranging from €350 to €1650.

Whether you are a Spotify user or not, we are sure that at some point, you have heard about this popular app. For those who don’t know it, Spotify is to music what Netflix is to series (when it doesn’t cancel them). That is, a streaming service where you can listen to thousands and thousands of songs (depending always on the region where you are located), either by paying a monthly subscription or for free, but with ads.

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Its success has been overwhelming throughout the world, so much so that in recent years it has decided to increase its catalog, including new types of audio-based products such as audiobooks and podcasts. Even so, the company does not capitalize on this success, and its shares have fallen drastically in price in recent years. What is this about?

An investment of many zeros

The business world is based on investing and making a return on investment. Something that, although it may seem simple, hides great complexities, especially when we talk about large numbers and a turbulent socioeconomic context like the one we are experiencing after the pandemic.

In the case of Spotify, the crux of the matter is precisely in its latest big bet: podcasts. In its quest to be the number 1 podcast app in the world and not rely so heavily on paid subscription revenue, the company has invested tens of millions of dollars to hire big names like host Joe Rogan, Former US President Barack Obama or the Kardashians.

Since they began their adventures in the field of podcasts, and to this day, the value of Spotify’s shares has fallen by 70%. A problem, however, that Spotify itself downplayed in its latest results presentation: “2022 will be the peak in terms of the negative impact of our investments on gross margins, and we expect podcasting gross margin to become profitable in the next year or two and climb significantly thereafter,” he said Paul Vogel, its financial director.

Will the accounts work out?

Despite the difficulty in recovering an investment valued at 1.000 million dollars, Spotify has everything going for it. The company recorded an increase in monthly active users, exceeding 456 million in 2022. Of this total, 195 million would be users who pay for the subscription, and the rest users who enjoy the app for free, generating income for the company through the advertising they listen to.

Will Spotify’s prediction come true? Will it start to recover in 2023?

Minecraft is a video game whose success continues to be overwhelming, despite the years that have passed, and which continues to enjoy a huge community of players who spend dozens of hours chopping cubes and placing cubes. The Mojang video game (owned by Microsoft) has been a sensation among younger users for years, reaching even those who don’t usually play video games frequently, and it’s something that youtubers and streamers were quick to appreciate.

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Every few months, at least one great Minecraft series takes place on the Spanish-speaking community on Twitch, where the game is still more alive than ever thanks to its fun challenges, colorful rules and completely custom mods. This is the case of Elitecraft, Karmaland, Squid Game or Tortilla Land. Now, from the hand of AuronPlay, comes the new “Minecraft Extreme”, which promises to be the next big hit on Twitch.

More than sixty familiar faces from Twitch

The title of the series itself is already quite clear with its premise: Extreme Minecraft will be a competition between a good group of streamers where the only objective they will have is not to die. A game mode that was popularized by the streamer ElRichMC with his Permadeath series, and which also had many well-known streamers, many of them with hundreds of hours invested in Minecraft.

Its premiere will be this same Tuesday, January 17, but the exact time is still unknown (knowing Auron, he may announce it on the same day it starts). It can be seen on any Twitch channel of the participants, and will last three weeks at the most. If there is no winner by then, a final event will decide who wins.

And let it not be said that Auron has not put all the meat on the grill. The winner of the competition will take home the diploma that accompanies these lines (in a very beautiful jpg), so a fierce fight can be expected from the 64 players, who will be the following:

• 8cho
• Aleiv
• AriGameplays
• Aroyitt
• AuronPlay
• Axozer
• Biyin
• Breifr9
• Carola
• Cristinini
• Ded
• Deqiuv
• DessT3
• Edurne
• Elisawaves
• ElMariana
• ElPerita
• Focus
• Folagor
• Genesis
• Goes
• HitBoxKing
• Ibai
• Imantado
• Jacky
• Jcorko
• Jokki
• Josecristo
• Josepo
• JuanSGuarnizo
• Kajal
• Karchez
• Komanche
• Luh
• Markilokuras
• Mayichi
• MissAndie
• MissaSinfonia
• Mixwell
• Nexxuz
• Nia
• NilOjeda
• Noni
• OllieGamerz
• Pato
• Perxitaa
• Polispol
• Quackity
• Reborn
• Ricoy
• Rioboo
• Robleis
• Roier
• Rubius
• Shadoune
• Spreen
• Stratus
• Tanizen
• TheGrefg
• Vicens
• Violeta
• Viruzz
• Volcano
• Zorman

It won’t be easy, things as they are

Participating streamers will not be playing the Minecraft we all know and love. It will be a slightly modified version where events will be organized every week that will test the players (carried out by the server administrators) and where a series of rules will be implemented that will make life impossible for streamers.

The rules will be the following:

• Players will only have three lives and when they lose all of them they will be banned from the server.
• There’s no way they can revive.
• When they die, a tomb will appear with all their loot (which others can loot).
• Over time, the administration of the server will complicate things for the participants.
• PvP will always be enabled, although more experienced players will not be able to abuse less experienced ones.
• Streamers will not be able to play if they are not live.
• You can steal chests from other players and also destroy their houses.
• Players will have to enter at least once every 48 hours, except when the ESLAND prizes take place.
• Streamers will be able to play as long as they want, with no limits. Of course, the more a player plays, the more he will be harmed in the game.
• Illegal methods may not be used to enter other players’ homes.
• Groups of up to four people are allowed, but their composition will be limited (there cannot be a group of four experts, for example).
• Each house will have four turrets maximum.
• Players are required to use shaders in their games.
• There are no immortality totems.
• Mines and explosives of any kind are disabled.
• The use of Discord will be prohibited, and only the in-game voice chat can be used.

It’s here, it’s here. One Piece Odyssey, the new son of the franchise created by Eiichirō Oda, is already on the market, and thousands of fans around the world are currently devouring it.

As we recently commented, one of the big doubts we had with this game is whether it will have really met expectations or, on the contrary, it has been the new disappointment of the One Piece brand in the world of video games. Do you want to know if it finally turned out well? We tell you what the specialized critics thought.

A very fun game, although with its drawbacks

Let’s start from a good base: the game is fun. The media that have tried it agree that they have had a great time playing it, and also point out the enormous work done in graphics, art design and in the (Japanese) voices of the characters, brought to us by the actors and actresses original dubbing. Yes, we know what you are thinking: “Buuuut…?”.

While reviewers agree that the game (whose story could be completed in about 20 hours) has very good core elements, they also agree on another aspect that exploration lovers tend not to like too much: the game is very passive.

MeriStation talks about “empty and hallway scenes”, while Vandal says that it is “one of the most linear RPGs you have ever played”. An aspect that, although some may like it, may not feel “natural” coming from a One Piece video game.

Moving on to the gameplay mechanics, there is almost a consensus that this is a classic RPG. Some even mention that it could be “too much”. Gamereactor points out that we are faced with typical quests, typical enemy grinding and typical combat system, much like Dragon Quest, but that, unfortunately, “it doesn’t bring any additional or fresh elements to the formula”.

So… How’s it going?

If you’re a fan of video game notes, One Piece Odyssey has earned a metascore of 76 on Metacritic, which puts it in a good position as one of the best One Piece games to date.

Despite its flaws (which are very subjective), most of the media agree that it has very solid bases, that the fans who play it will have a great time and that they will feel inside the One Piece universe. It may not be quite that great One Piece game that everyone expected, but it’s not a disappointment either, and it has the necessary ingredients to live a unique adventure.