Thank You and What's Next?

THANK YOU

Hello everyone old and new. Wanted to say a massive thanks for the recent uptick in support. In the old days I would DM every new Patreon personally saying thank you and now I cant keep track. I will not complain about this problem. 

I don't want to get too deep into any boring money stuff (that is obviously not your guys problem) but spending four weeks on one video is not exactly the way to make big Youtube bucks so thanks for being Patreons, especially during this time.

More Than Mythbusters

The reception to the Zombies series has been surprisingly positive and also motivational. Me and Jamison have known for years now that Defend The House needs something else that isn't Mythbusters. Mythbusters is our tried and true format, our OG classic and I couldn't imagine ever not doing it but, it has continued to be a thorn in our side when it comes to consistency and we have maybe lacked some confidence in the idea that another completely different series could be as successful.

For the last few years we have been trying to find the perfect balance for DTH. The balance between making good content but also appeasing the Youtube algorithmic gods as much as possible. Part of that appeasing is always tied to consistent uploads. In 2019 we agreed to not let the channel go dormant again and to make sure content was flowing no matter what. We have kept to that (for the most part). The problem was, content in every game is finite within the context of Mythbusters. We pushed on regardless, scraping by with whatever bottom of the barrel interactions we could muster and what ends up happening, is the videos just get a bit more shit as time goes on during a games life cycle. The balance tips.

It's been tricky getting it right. Being completely honest, over the last 3 or so years, me and Jamison have probably been prioritizing the algorithm side a little more than the quality side. To give ourselves credit I would say not by a huge margin. I still think we make high quality stuff but we understand that making good videos is unfortunately not enough in this online climate anymore, you have to play the game and these two boomers have decided it time to figure out how to do that. Especially when there is two people who need to be supported full time to make this vision a reality. 

Tipping The Scales

We came to the agreement that we are ready to tip the scales back in the other direction. Quality needs to come back to the forefront but we still also need to be consistent (to some degree). As I mentioned this can't happen with the Mythbuster limitation, hence Silly Season and then shortly after, the Zombies series. 

When I started making Zombies, I didn't think it would do well, again we lacked confidence in making anything outside of Mythbusters but it actually has done well. The views aren't earthshattering but they're extremely respectable and better than any Mythbuster video from the last 6 months. More than that, the feedback has been more positive than anything we've seen in Mythbusters in years. While we know consistency is important on Youtube, maybe in the end, quality does trump all.

I didn't quite think my the very first thing I tried for Silly Season would instantly be a main staple of the channel that goes the distance but here we are. Just in case it wasn't clear, Zombies is here to stay, perpetually. We will stay the course and finish every zombies map across the next few years. By my estimates this may take until late 2024 or into 2025 and by this time, the new Black Ops will be here and you guys know what that means. Once we are caught up, the zombies continues with every new release. Unless the series dies off and everyone hates it but I'll do my best to make the series worthwhile.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is we have both grown tired of editing the old cookie cutter Mythbuster format. It's been very cut and dry for years, its become thoughtless, impersonal and lacking in creativity. Zombies has accomplished a few things, first of all its secured me a consistent non-Mythbuster project for the next few years, it's encouraged me that high quality does pay off and lastly, it's just made editing fun and interesting again. 

Zombies is the first taste of the quality bar I want Defend The House to be at for every video I make but currently, I think the Zombie videos are better than the Mythbuster videos so...

Future of Mythbusters

Next up for me is Modern Warfare 2 Mythbusters (and not long after Warzone 2.0) and it is my intent to make those videos the biggest and best out of any Mythbuster series so far. With the Zombie videos backing up my upload schedule, I will be more comfortable spending more time on each Vol. of MW2 Mythbusters.

I can't quite say what my final intent is for the form of those videos, me and Jamsion are still brainstorming currently as he works on Overwatch 2 Mythbusters. One quick thing I will mention is me and Jamison have agreed to edit our own videos how we see fit and how we enjoy. We both like editing and making videos but we also have different tastes in those things too. I would imagine mine and Jamison Mythbuster videos start to look and feel different from each others and I personally think that's interesting and will end up making both of us happier from a creative stand point.

Anyway, I wont know what my own new form of Mythbusters looks like until it starts to take form but I think Zombies has changed what I want to make forever honestly. I like longer form content, big journeys, weird un-conventual editing and making videos that people refresh their subscription feeds for. 

All I know right now is that there will be more Myths per video, before it was regimented to 5-6 per video, I want to aim for maybe around double that and I want the editing to be more varied and interesting. I have also dedicated myself to actually playing the game I am covering. Everyone figured out that I wasn't actually a MW/Warzone player back in the previous series. They could tell from my shitty loadouts. We make do but we were always behind on community knowledge and were heavily reliant on our Discord chaps and reddit to lend us a hand. We're going to do our best to dive into the pits ourselves and actually be hands on players this time. It can only help in the end.

We also accept that the format we started so many years ago is no longer exclusively ours anymore. Mythbusters is done by many channels now. Which is just how the internet works and we'd never try to police that. We used to try and rat race against these other channels. Get videos done first, get the myths done first, claim the finds as our own etc. We won't be doing that anymore. The internet is just too fast now, game communities are massive, information spreads like wildfire and most of the time, we wont be first to showcase stuff, that's just how it is now. What we can do though, is unequivocally make our version the best there is, not by a bit, but by an absolute landslide. So that's what we'll do.

- Joe

• Oh and Patreons will get priority over recording sessions in MW2.