Whatever Happened to... Lightning Round?

(Okay sorry this post took so long, I'm actually re-writing it because Patreon apparently ate it the first time!) So, I'm changing Lightning Round. Or getting rid of it? Or something. Basically, I'm turning the wheel and gently steering my channel in a more focused direction. I've been having second thoughts about this specific show format for a little while (You can probably tell, as Lightning Round has gotten progressively weirder), but really started re-thinking things after my Talos Principle episode. There were some comments on that video that were fairly critical (not that they were without merit), and it really made me start considering where I wanted to take my channel. Along comes Rosemary West's House of Fortunes. Ultimately the game isn't too fascinating, but it was quirky enough for me to want to talk about it. The script was too long for LR, though, and too short for an Original. If I cut the script down to fit LR, it would be all facts, no funny. If I stretched it to a "full length" Original, I'd drive the game into the ground. The script I'd written was still solid, though, so I was like what the fuck, why did I put a time limit on myself? Add in the fact that Lightning Round videos generally don't cater to re-watching, and a fair amount of subscribers weren't interested in them anyway, and you have the three strikes that took out Lightning Round. Well, "take out" is a bit strong, but I'm not planning on it being a key component to my channel, anymore. If I feel particularly inspired, there's nothing stopping me from making them, but as for now I think I want to try to move beyond it. Initially I was going to re-claim the light blue branding for these shorter videos, but the more I thought about it, the less I liked that idea. Some fans are already dodging the blue labels, and it's represented that format since 2012. Plus, even though they're shorter, these "new format" videos are in the same style as my Originals, so why not label them as such? Currently, that's the plan. No matter if it's 5 minutes or 20 minutes, if it's in my Original style, I'm going to file it under Originals, it just makes sense. As far as Patreon goes, I'm still only going to charge for the full length ones, obviously. SOOOO that's kind of where my mind is right now. The past month or so has been interesting with regards to how I feel about my content and where I want to go from here. I'm used to getting inspiration for individual videos, but recently started getting really inspired with regards to my channel as a whole. That's pretty much the driving force between some of the recent changes you've been seeing/will see... a random gust of inspiration! It's nice to have, for sure, and I'm excited to see where it takes me. Thank you all for continuing to supporting my channel, and I hope you guys like where I'm headed! I've got a lot of fun things planned for this year.