Gaming Content... Why do I even bother?

[TheDutchTexan]

I think some of you know I mainly do car related stuff and shared almost that without fail on the previous OPPO, and will continue to do that on this site. The gaming stuff? Never really takes off because I am definitely not the hyper character behind the camera that most people want to see. (If you are into gaming content you'll probably know about DashieXP for instance).

To answer the question in the subject line: I bother with it because it keeps things fresh. I get so tired of editing car content I just want an out. Something else to edit. Shooting car content? Best thing. Editing? Kill me now... However, editing gaming content is still intensive. Takes probably 5 hours to do with next to no rewards in the terms of views and comments, let alone getting people to subscribe to the darn channel to make it to 100 subscribers.. It kind of reminds me how my car channel got started. I was super happy if I got to 10 views. That bar moved to 100 and then 1000. Now I consider every video that does not make it to 1K views the first month a complete failure. Looking at my feed I've been uploading duds lately. Car shows never get to 1K anymore and even car reviews struggle. I mean, no one likes R32 GTR's or 1000whp ZL1's anymore? It's probably the backdrop in my reviews. It's urban, straight lines and acceleration. Then again, it could also be me. Again not fitting the young kid demographic. Ah well, as long as I have fun with it I'll keep doing it. It is frustrating though, since I know that any other YouTuber in the car world would review that car and boom... Instant 10K views before the day is out.

[EssExTee]

@TheDutchTexan I think the car review segment is just getting stupidly oversaturated. Once Doug and Harry's Garage and RCR and (ugh) Scotty Kilmer started blowing up everyone wanted to jump on that bandwagon and now there's a million channels and no-on can make themselves stand out.

[CB]

@TheDutchTexan as SXT said, there's a lot of oversaturation in the market. I did game streaming back in 2014, and I rarely had over 25 views on a stream. There's a reason why I told the kids I volunteered with that making it big was the exception, not the rule.

[2Poor_sh2Furious]

If there's oversaturation in the car review segment, isn't gaming like the most oversaturated market on the internet?

[Danny Korecki]

I feel your pain, sort of.

I make 95% car related videos. The 5% gaming stuff, like a guide to do something not many others have made videos about, sometimes I get lucky and it becomes the top of Google SEO.

My most viewed video on my channel is a freaking Pokemon video lol (at 45k views) followed by a Tony Hawk Pro Skater video lol (at 30k views). Link in my sig will point you in the direction of those videos should you care.

[Exage03040]

@essextee Reminds me of my days in Call of Duty MW2 around 2009-2010. The Hauppauge PVR released and within a year there were thousands of gamers trying to be on Machinima to make money. I used to roll with a guy who ended up with +250k subs which was quite a bit back then. We would usually pub stomp pretty damn hard. There's videos I can find with me nattering in the background.

Years before streaming... Before the whole google ad revenue kicked in too. They all used to record gameplay and do voice over commentary in post.

[TheDutchTexan]

@essextee oh yeah, that's for sure. Unless you were there early you can forget about making it. It's been a struggle for me to get to 10K subscribers and I am still 500 subscribers short of it. And that is doing car stuff since 2014. I put a stupid amount of time in it now. I am just sad YouTube won't recognize anyone when they hit 10K, only 100K people may apply. And realistically? That will never be me unless something insanely weird happens (been hoping for that, but it never came). Overall the experience is still a net positive because of people in the car scene. The moment that net positive evaporates I am gone. (hint: My body probably has to check me out, since cars will always be net positive for me).

It is also upload frequency. I only upload 1-3 times a month. Sometimes I go a month without uploading. YouTube only cares about people who post regularly. Even if their content is "vlogger" trash.

[TheDutchTexan]

@cb 100% exception. You need the help from a big YouTube or site to get exposure. Same goes for my car channel. I know a few big YouTubers know and appreciate my work. But I also know to NEVER ask for a shout-out. If they wanted to do that they would have done so already. I am "friends" with them, and my friendship does not hinge on "gimme a shoutout". Gaming? I honestly just do it to keep my head on straight. I want to do it more, but I am sure I'll get bored of it eventually.

[TheDutchTexan]

@poor_sh yup, because anyone can do it. Well, not anyone, you still need to know how to edit IMHO. But the barrier to entry is far lower than a car channel.

[EssExTee]

@poor_sh It is. Gaming definitely hit that point years ago after the likes of Pewdiepie and Game Grumps got big, but there is also much more demand for that sort of content and it's easier to find a unique gimmick to make your channel stand out.

[TheDutchTexan]

@danny-korecki I was playing with the idea of putting it on the main channel, but I decided not to for the risk of pissing people off who are only there for car stuff. So I kept it seperate. I am sure I would get a few more views if I uploaded it on the main, but that would quickly diminish as car people start to ignore future gaming uploads for the car uploads (or as I earlier stated, people just unsubscribe).

[TheDutchTexan]

@exage03040 YouTube used to be like anyone could get monetized regardless. They changed that up so you now need 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours. My car channel at the time had more subscribers, and I hit 20K watch hours easily in a year. So no worries for me. New people starting out (which my gaming channel kinda is, even though it has existed since august 2016) just don't get any traction at all. If you make it now, you are a hustler and know how to network. Me? I must admit I am neither of those.

[100percentjake]

Youtube is an absolute hell hole of trying to figure out what stupid thing the Almighty Algorithm wants to reward this month. This month I'm down 50% in almost all metrics vs last month. It's incredibly disheartening.

[Jarrett]

What you need my friend is a viral video! My brother had one that hit 300,00 views and all of his other videos went from 100 --> 10,000 views overnight. He stopped making videos a while before the 300,000 one even hit stardom, so the public interest tapered off.

[TheDutchTexan]

@100percentjake I am not down that much, but I am definitely down. On ADrevenue I know why. The elections are done and no one is spending money for Christmas so the companies aren't going to be advertising as usual either. Even if they did, their ads are no where near as "expensive" as the ads running through the political season. There is only so much content they can put ads on. Less space due to political ads means all advertisers have to pay way more per ad served. Had some good months! (still didn't make minimum wage if I take my hours into consideration so it wasn't THAT good).

[TheDutchTexan]

@jarrett been hoping for that one since 2014 when I started reviewing community cars. Hasn't happened yet! (And at this stage I doubt I will since I have years of data suggesting it won't). But one thing is for sure. If I didn't make any videos anymore I would never know what could happen!

[Exage03040]

@thedutchtexan said in Gaming Content... Why do I even bother?:

@exage03040 YouTube used to be like anyone could get monetized regardless. They changed that up so you now need 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours. My car channel at the time had more subscribers, and I hit 20K watch hours easily in a year. So no worries for me. New people starting out (which my gaming channel kinda is, even though it has existed since august 2016) just don't get any traction at all. If you make it now, you are a hustler and know how to network. Me? I must admit I am neither of those.

I'm trying to rack my brain about the ads because I was never fully involved and I never really asked my buddy about the income.
I know that YouTube seemed to partner with gaming channels rather than individual gamers for a few years. The incentive was always exposure and contract with them because pay was better through channel than ad sense at the time. At the very least they had guaranteed income and not based on the fluctuations of view count. YouTube also heavily favoured content spamming like you mentioned. It still mostly does, but some big dormant channels still get promoted with once a month videos.

The place basically runs as a lottery. One day maybe you get some video to mass views but how that happens has a significant impact for your future content. Options always seem to some sort of shock value or team up with a larger channel at this point. Organic growth is very difficult.

[TheDutchTexan]

@exage03040 organic growth is the worst really. I mean... I've seen so many people start after me, and then eclipse me inside of a year it is enough to get depressed over. And sometimes I still do just that. I compare constantly. You shouldn't do that, but you still end up doing it regardless.

Partnering with a "Network" is the devil. They actually start receiving your adrev, they take a bit off the top, and give you the rest. They claim they can get you exposure, but they never do. And when you make it on your own under a network? They are more than happy to take the credit. Most people sign a contract with networks for a year. So if you do get that viral video and your channel starts pulling hundreds of thousands of views per month? Your income is still going to that Network, and they are still skimming off the top. Networks were farming small youtubers. They did me when I was very small. They just wanted people to sign up to leach money. If you have hundreds of channels such as myself under your wing you are pulling in some decent money every month.

As far as adrev goes? It fluctuates widly. But $1-$3 per 1000 views is pretty standard. I've seen it higher than that, but also lower. My channel needs to do a factor of 10 better than it does now to really bring in some money I could play with. My goal after hitting 10K on my automotive is a classic project car. Daily driver too, no garage queen. It will replace my Passat. It's good to dream.

[pip bip]

@thedutchtexan no word of a lie, i've never been a gamer. i know absolutely nothing, never owned an Xbox or Playstation

[Taylor Martin]

Content creation is a double-edged sword. Do you want something good? Well, you can buy all the latest kit and know all the lighting tricks and blah blah blah, but if you want it to be good then sit your *ss down and edit. I used to make gaming videos and I've found that's the only way I make any content I'm proud of (videos would take anywhere between 8-12 hours, though I get so focused the time flies by).

On the contrary, if you need a video done fast, you can't really cut corners on anything other than editing (or you can hire a team of them, but that's expensive).

Becoming big, or even moderately popular in today's internet climate is impossible. At this point, I'm making very small review videos for two reasons: 1.) I like talking about cars and 2.) if done well enough, they're things I can slap on a resume and then show people. Anyone starting out will lose against the new YouTube algorithm because it's rigged to promote colorful, kid-friendly, corporate-approved, money churning videos from the start. I hate it. I hate it with a seething passion.

Also, there's a special spot in hell reserved for the executive that said "let's put two ads in a row so we make more money." And while I'm probably going down there too, it'll be good to see them there... sorry... got a little angry haha.

[BicycleBuck]

@thedutchtexan I know absolutely nothing about generating content for youtube. I've put up a couple of videos to share with friends, but that's about it.

For some reason, youtube decided I needed to know more about being successful on the tube and suggested the video below. It seemed interesting, so I watched it. Maybe it will give you some additional insight into gaming the algorithm.

[bwp240]

I thought about starting a sim racing/gaming channel since I own several games. I experimented with Twitch and YouTube streaming nothing to nobody. I learned that I am not really charismatic or interesting. Plus I have a real knack of doing awful at games when I am recording.

[Jb boin]

About the gaming videos, playing while being on the frame might be better suited for Twitch.

I personally only watch videos of stupid/crappy games/mods and sometimes review/previews of new games (or games that i might be interested in buying).

---

About the car videos, a format that doesn't seem to be quite as popular in the US (i can only think of TheSmokingTire that is a bit like that) as it is here is to have car owners present their cars and drive themselves (and sometimes the YouTuber as well) in more of a VLOG kind of video that seems more spontaneous and also requires less edit.

As luxury and very powerful cars have already been reviewed by many on Youtube, showing cars that might not be the most impressive on paper but that are unique to their owner who can explain what makes it unique to him and why he did choose this car and to do these mods.
And by being with the owner on camera, you can ask candid questions that viewers might also have.

[TheDutchTexan]

@jb-boin I add the cam because it adds to the personality I suppose. When I do review like content I often get rid of it because there is a lot of info that has to be disseminated and I can't do that live without excessive jump cuts. There I feel like it detracts from the video. Go figure.

On the car videos: I have the owner in the car always, liability reasons. I have shot one review with a friend and that was well liked. But that was because I know him, and we have good chemistry together. Some don't want to be on camera at all. Don't want to be tagged etc. Car reviews are hard enough as is, it becomes harder when there are two people in frame.