JosephAnderson

Next video, Early Viewing, Q&A, and Streams

Added 2018-02-24 23:54:36 +0000 UTC

Hey everyone! I'll try to be brief.

First off: the Q&A stream has been postponed until next weekend because of a doctor's appointment for both of our boys. I've updated the Q&A post with the new info and time. It's next Saturday. We thought about pushing it forward to tonight instead but we don't think that'll work. We got short notice for the appointment and would prefer not to do the same to you.

Secondly, there should be a video sometime next week. It's not the 2017 Review video I had planned for next because now I'm so deep into Persona 5 that I think I should finish it before I look back at the whole year. I think it'll earn a place in 2017's top ten games. I think that makes sense. Maybe I should knock out a playthrough of Horizon first too so I played all the big ones that interested me.

The next video will mark the first that will be released without Early Viewing. I looked for solutions to keep it going but unfortunately there aren't any that can be safely done since there are lots of email addresses to manage. YouTube's private system for adding accounts was also starting to break after adding hundreds to the Odyssey video last time. It's unfortunate but there's no workaround that I know of. If this changes, I will reinstate the Early Viewing.

If anyone has any ideas for potential new pledge rewards then please let me know. The one dollar tier does have some more value than it originally did now with Discord roles, Discord Patreon chat, and the voting to play stream games, but Early Viewing was a good one. I'm sorry that I couldn't make it work.

Speaking of streams I know that some people are upset that I seem to be doing that so much. I'm still putting many hours into video work. I think the issue that people have with it stems from how that work is invisible until the video is released. It can appear like all I'm doing is streaming. One thing I'd like to say is that I am a video game critic and because of that I have to play a lot of games. If I wasn't streaming them, I would have to play these games anyway. I've gotten a great amount of "research" benefit out of playing so many titles I otherwise wouldn't have had time for yet. Especially Terraria and Undertale. It's also embarrassing that I haven't played some big games like Doom 2016 or any Persona game until now. To be critical of myself, there are some other big gaps in my experience I need to fill.

Essentially I'm trying to say that I would be doing all of this anyway, no matter what order the games are in or when I got around to playing them. Streaming them, and subsequently making so much more content, should really be a big positive. Twitch also doesn't make nearly as much money as ad revenue on YouTube, which itself is far behind Patreon pledges here. The streams help to avoid being dependent on just these sources but it's not a big enough draw all on its own.

I just hope that people understand that it isn't taking up all of my time. I think how well the Odyssey video turned out proves that but I still worry. Big videos take a lot of effort both for production and recovery time afterwards--not to mention dealing with the ever increasing response to many releases. The main thing that has slowed everything down lately has been our children getting older and demanding a LOT more time and energy. But that's not your problem and I shouldn't be complaining.

That's it! The next video should only be a minor surprise. I wasn't going to do it yet but I decided to focus on something that just came out to see how it goes, and the writing went well. Hope you like it.