Video Game High School was one of the first of its kind. As a web series, it set a new standard for content creation on YouTube. It wasn’t just quality work, but it was coupled with a serialized story told using top quality visual effects.

Without even knowing the real impact that VGHS would have, Freddie Wong’s fans donated over $250,000 to Rocketjump to fund season one. They’d later set a Kickstarter record with season 2 for $800,000 for the highest backed webseries. It has gone on to earn tens of millions of views on YouTube, sold thousands of DVDs and Blu Ray and can be found on Netflix.

As Video Game High School has always been designed to be a trilogy, Freddie Wong and Matt Arnold have launched an IndieGoGo campaign to fund the final chapter in the VGHS saga. As season 2 had some Empire moments with certain characters leaving and others changing sides, his fanbase is clamouring for the final season.

To get it out before the end of the year, Freddie and his team will start shooting on March 1st. This shooting schedule will also allow them to be the first product completed that is shot in full 48 fps in 4K. It is a pretty momentous feat for all the tech and visual effects nerds out there.

More than 18,000 online video fans and creators are expected to flood the Anaheim Convention Center for the fifth annual VidCon June 26-28, 2014. YouTube will once again be the title sponsor of the event.

“VidCon is simply about and for people who love online video,” said Hank Green, creator and cofounder of VidCon. “The media landscape is rapidly changing, as is the way we communicate with one another, and we have created a single event that brings together everything and everybody connected to online video.”

Many of online video’s most recognizable personalities have already been confirmed for VidCon 2014 including: Charles & Alli Trippy, Charlie McDonnell, Freddie Wong, Grace Helbig, Hank & John Green, Hannah Hart, iJustine, Philip DeFranco, Toby Turner, Ze Frank, Jack & Finn Harries, Tyler Oakley, The Gregory Brothers, Wheezy Waiter, Dane Boedigheimer (The Annoying Orange), The Fine Brothers, Rhett & Link, Shay Carl, Zoella, Tanya Burr, Jim Chapman, Marcus Butler, Caspar Lee and Troye Sivan.

YouTube has more than its fair share of short form series. It also has heaps and heaps of video game content. But with the exception of a few standouts like Freddie Wong’s Video Game High School, there aren’t many great examples of gaming and short form series together.

Someone trying to change that is Petros L. Ioannou and his series My Life as a Video Game. Funded by a Kickstarter that raised $32,000, My Life as a Video Game will be a 9 episode first season that explores what happens when gamer Don DeWitt, played by Petros, gets too into the game and is pulled in to a world where games are real life.

Exploring multiple gaming genres, Don finds Kera Althorn (Jennifer Polansky) and is guided by the MENU System (Brent Black, better known on YouTube as BrentalFloss) through this pixel infused world. FPS, side scrolling beat ’em up and space combat all look to be fair game in this epic launched on Petros’ YouTube channel LeonUnity. You can head there now to check out the first two episodes of My Life as a Video Game or check them out after the jump.

Only five days after hitting the web, the Vlogumentary trailer is approaching 800,000 views. The documentary about video blogging is directed by Corey Vidal, and executive produced by Shay Carl. The two veteran vloggers released the trailer during a main stage presentation at last week’s VidCon 2013 to thunderous applause and plenty of tears.

Vlogumentary, which was previously titled I’m Vlogging Here, looks to be a poignant and honest portrayal of the impact of web video. The film explores the beginnings of many of the most popular YouTube channels as well as the art of vlogging.

Prominent YouTubers such as John and Hank Green (Vlogbrothers), Grace Helbig (Daily Grace), Toby Turner (Tobuscus) and many more are featured alongside dozens of lesser-known vloggers. Vlogumentary is set to release later this year.

Take a look after the break.

YouTube’s favorite gal pals are making a movie. Hannah Hart (MyHarto), Grace Helbig (DailyGrace), and Mamrie Hart (You Deserve a Drink) will star in Camp Takota as announced at VidCon 2013.

Inspired in part by Mamrie Hart’s experience working at a summer camp, the plot of the film is pretty simple: Helbig is a twentysomething who finds herself returning to her old summer camp to work. There she runs into two old friends, played by Hart and Hart. Hijinks, humor, and booze are sure to ensue if the ladies’ history holds true.

The first trailer for Camp Takota released at VidCon 2013 and mainly consists of a lot of flubbed lines and laughter, much to the delight of fans. A booth at the convention let attendees sign up for camp, get a friendship bracelet and take their camp picture.

Camp Takota will be made available exclusively on pay-to-view platform, Chill.com.

Most of the Monday Freeview games focus on things that fall into the “Free to Play” model so even though they are free to the point of entry, there is a money-making plan behind them. This one, however, is a little bit different.

This week’s Freeview is sending you to YouTube, to a very specific video. Based off the viral hit they had with “Freestyle Bane“, the Auralnauts have been able to do something new and exciting with the YouTube system to create a fully functional and interactive soundboard for the parody character.

With use of creative timing and production, the Auralnauts were able to max out the number of annotations in a YouTube video (which is 378 so you know for future reference) to create a fully functional soundboard with three full pages of sound files to put in to the freestyle. The video starts off with Bane commanding the DJ to “drop a beat” where the viewer gets to click on a few different background beats. These open up to a new window that plays the audio only video as a background track. After that, head back to the main video and start freestyling to your heart’s content.

In a show of the strength of the online video community, it has been announced that YouTube will be a title sponsor of the online video conference, VidCon, for the next two years. The 2013 VidCon is expected to have more than 10,000 online video professionals, content creators and fans in attendance.

Since the event’s inception in 2010, YouTube has been a supporter and sponsor. While the specifics of their title sponsorship will be released closer to the event, it’s clear that the decision will give YouTube a strong presence both this year and in 2014.

“YouTube has been a long-term supporter of VidCon, and is, of course, the biggest company in online video,” said Hank Green, creator and cofounder of VidCon. “We’re thrilled to have them as our title sponsor for the next two years and are grateful for their continued support of our efforts to create a compelling and productive experience for VidCon attendees.”

Noted as “the largest industry conference and fan extravaganza in the world for online video” VidCon is set for August 1-3, 2013, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA. Industry Day, which is geared toward professionals and the online video business, will be on August 1.

When people think of Bethesda right now, two things come to mind. Fallout and the Elder Scrolls. So when a video surfaced today on Vine from Bethesda Softworks featuring a spinning LP and barbed wire, it isn’t an unfair assumption to think it may be related to Fallout. After speculation quickly popped online about The Moonlight Trio and George Shackley LP as well as the flashes of Johann Sebastian Bach (who was featured on the Fallout 3 soundtrack) and Air on the G String from the gaming press, Bethesda VP of marketing and PR Pete Hines replied on his Twitter account that this wasn’t the case.

Obviously this isn’t a new Oblivion since the online title is already announced an on its way. But what could it be? The first option is Project Zwei, which is a survival horror game being published by Bethesda under the development of Resident Evil designer Shinji Mikami.

Brad Bell and Jane Espenson are a dynamite duo. The team has created the winning Web series, Husbands, which was recently picked up by the CW’s online content branch, CW Digital Studio.

In case you’re not familiar, Husbands follows a gay actor (Bell) and a gay baseball player (Sean Hemeon) who wake up in Vegas married. Despite having only known each other for six weeks the two decide to go for it and that means dealing with moving in together, petty fights, cute make ups, and public scrutiny (and then some).

Not only will fans get to see existing episodes via CW but the network is also funding new episodes. Bell and Espenson, who also created Husbands: The Comic with Dark Horse, are excited to continue exploring the still very much newlywed relationship of baseball superstar Brady and outgoing actor Cheeks.

How do you measure a year? Don’t worry, I’m not about to break out into song. But my answer does involve at least three of the hottest songs of the year. It also includes a dancing zebra, a man skydiving from space, some gamers and probably close to 1,000,000 calories. In just one day, YouTube.com’s year in review video has garnered more than 17,000,000 views (a number that will most likely be obsolete by the time this post even goes live). But the video isn’t just a compilation video or highlight reel.

Take a peek below at the cast of YouTube celebrities brought together for this remix rewind of all of their top viewed trending videos. With over billion of views between the stars of the video (over 980,000,000 for PSY’s “Gangam Style” alone), some of these people who may not have ever graced a movie screen have become more recognizable than some television or big screen actors.

Some of these people featured have found themselves on TV because of their YouTube fame including iJustine who appeared in the Call of Duty: Black Ops II “Surprise” trailer.

Real life costumed heroes. It sounds like something that could never actually happen. People running around in tights, boots and masks and trying to make the world a better place just seems so fantastic that it couldn’t become a reality. But recently, there has been a trend of people doing just that. Though they don’t have super powers, these people go out trying to do what they can to make a difference in the world. And who better to guide these fledgling heroes than the man who helped create some of the world’s most iconic fictional heroes, Stan Lee.

Starting next Thursday on Stan Lee’s World of Heroes YouTube network, Stan Lee will be launching his newest project Stan Lee’s Academy of Heroes (say what you will about the man but he sure knows how to brand himself). Stan will take a group of these real life hero wannabes and help train them to become the heroes they envision themselves to be. These aren’t cosplayers. These are people going out and actually doing things to try and help those around them. Along with guest trainers like David Hasselhoff, Stan and his team will help heroes work with their strengths and overcome their weaknesses in order to find one worthy of joining Stan Lee’s World of Heroes.

One of the great things about Kickstarter is that varied levels game design that come forth from its plethora of projects. While some games are simple iOS titles that can be funded for less than a year’s tuition at a prestigious university, others are incredibly ambitious projects that a publisher might not yet have the faith in backing yet. A perfect example of that is Planetary Annihilation.

When you look at the Kickstarter trailer below for Planetary Annihilation, you’ll see this isn’t like just any other RTS. From the team that brought Total Annihilation and Monday Night Combat, Uber Entertainment Inc realized that the RTS genre isn’t one that publishers were flocking towards but knew that there are still hardcore fans who want more than just the few big budget titles that are currently on shelves.

One thing that stood out to them was that even though a lot of futuristic RTS games took place in space, they were scaled down battles with a focus on a few small units of characters. Planetary Annihilation will have players traveling through planets, on to moons, into asteroid belts and even destroying planets