Rapid Changes

Hey guys!

Iv'e been stewing on some stuff, and this time actual stuff not just ideals, hopes, dreams and mad visions :D Seriously what I'm about to go over will come to the channel, and soon.

I'll list them real quick here and then dive into each one afterward so you know what's been going on this side of the camera.

• Short Painting videos and more of them.
• Youtube Partnership offering
• Rebranding reviews to include KOA + quote.

Okay so going in order, more painting videos! But kind of a new style, but better quality! What does that mean? Well I've been painting more than you might know (unless you are Discord in which case you've seen quite a few minis never to grace the channel). Why is this? It's simple, editing a painting video takes an insane amount of time. I'm talking anywhere from 7-12 hours of legitimate work.

Now I love painting, and absolutely love sharing them in video form with all of you, it's how I got my YouTube start after all. But that time investment is very real. Is it worth not having any other videos that week, or for two weeks just to get a painting video out? No of course not. The absolute pinnacle of running this channel, my absolute favorite thing about it is my interactions with all of you. So going a week or more without that discussion just so I can focus on a painting video is hard to do. As it stands any painting video you've seen recently on the channel has been 2 days of straight work, taking up my entire weekend.

So here I am on my lunch break from work and browsing YouTube (I watch far too much YouTube) and I come across this video (for those interested: https://youtu.be/waB00s_PMTM) that simply shows art being created. Suddenly it dawned on me that with a high enough production value (music, smooth fast forward, mostly fixed camera angle and zoom) plus the addition of a painting guideline in the description and you have a better version of my older style painting videos, the ones that I could create and publish more often.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this! I'll obviously have to work out the kinks, but I already got a new background to paint on and am excited to change my filming ever so slightly to really make these still quality, but you know...actually exist publicly. Far too often I feel YouTubers trade in their passions for views. My painting videos will never have the views of my KS videos, it's just more niche inherently to paint board game minis (and even then, watch YouTube videos on them) but I don't care. I love that niche community and always feel like it's a great sort of celebration of the hobby.

Also as a tease, the image I have on this update is of my painted Vahlrose, the next video coming up ;) I hope you like her!

Next up, YouTube Partnership. This is almost guaranteed a non-starter but I figured it's a good excuse to talk about this again, especially for those of you that are newer to my Patreon (joined after I already outlined my charter).

I recently got invited to join under a YouTube company umbrella. In case you didn't know what these companies are like: they essentially help channels become successful and make money. Even Disney has a sub-company that does this. They can do a multitude of things. The main thing they do is vouch for your ad friendlyness and partner you up with advertisers. If you've ever seen a Squarespace or NordeVPN or whatever ad portion of a video, you've seen someone most likely working with one of these companies.

Most companies don't have the time to watch a ton of every YouTuber's content and then try and pair their product up with the channel and strike a deal. Instead they go through these companies that can help them out.

These companies can optionally do more. They can actually have PR people write your about section, help you with your intros, vouch a script and more. They can assist in overall messaging, image, social media, etc.

Additionally they'll also provide more tools to handle everything from SEO tags to deep dive audience metrics.

This isn't free of course. They'll take a percentage of your profit for these services.

Now, why is this most likely a non-starter. Of course I'll check it out and do my research, but I fundamentally require absolute full control over my channel and it's content. If I was working with this company, would I be inclined to not make a video titled "CMON is EVIL!"?

Of course I'd still make the video, same as always, but I might lose the partnership. Honestly not sure how that would all work so I need to do my investigation. Also, I'm doubtful how much I'd really gain from this anyway. I wouldn't do random ads. I only ever mention a company if I actually have dealt with their product and think my opinion might be useful (for instance, in my last painting video I spoke briefly about Redgrass Game's brushes and wet palette. So a random Norde VPN or whatever isn't something I want.
Lastly, the reviews. This is the most minor change. Essentially I feel that my reviews are different enough from other YouTube board game reviews both in how they are shot and their detail level. I tend to have longer reviews and plenty of examples. But you wouldn't know that just seeing my review listed with every other channel's.

Thinking on this, my first thought was to just add the word OCD (continuing that user requested trend) or "Detailed" like what Shadowborne games used for my review on their KS page.

I like these well enough, but I felt it lacks the passion I have for board games that you can see during many of my reviews. Often I will go into rants about specific things for instance like rulebook, the minis, randomness, etc.

Angry Joe already has his Angry Rants and while I adore them, I have no desire to copy it's branding either so that eventually, finally lead me to thinking about those rants and how I tend to just say stuff in the moment. Sometimes positive, sometimes negative, all very heartfelt.

For instance, while geeking out over Arena's ability to tie puzzels, riddles, side quests, choices and more into their campaign I stated that "It's the best campaign I've ever played" in the review. I didn't plan to say that, it's just what happened to leave my lips in a stream of unfiltered passion.

That deserves to be in the title.

That's not branding though, so why not stick a "KOA" in there as well. So if I were to make the Arena review now it would be: The best campaign I've ever played! - Arena The Contest KOA Review.

So that's it. I ranted long enough in this one I'm sure. What do you think? Are you excited to see more painting videos? As always guys I consider myself incredibly lucky to be associated with you guys. I firmly believe I have he best darn community around for this hobby. Some might be larger, but non act like the family we act like. I love you all and hope that you all stay healthy, happy, and content with lots of board games and minis!