Channel Update #43 – the big one

Hello,

I hope everyone’s year is off to a good start. This is an update about future videos and my plans for 2024, but as always when I make an update like this, keep in mind that plans do change.

Before that though I will say that the last video has produced an… interesting range of responses. Some things said in response are not true, and aren’t exactly difficult to prove or verify, but mostly I haven’t been paying too much attention to it all. I have tried to take what I can from reasonable feedback, but other things I just ignore. I mean it’s not like I would want to create a follow up video - defending someone who deserves to be defended and doesn’t have a platform feels worthwhile, but dragging out drama does not – so I don’t feel it’s worth dwelling on too much.

Anyway, future videos. I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate(s) these past weeks, with the intention of making a video, but I’ve also been planning a video on the history of rpgs for a while now, and I think that history video might be worth making first and that this is the right time for it. The problem with that is that there’s a certain amount of cross over between the two videos (the most interesting thing about bg3 to me is how is fits into the genre as a whole and what it seems to represent), so I think the best thing to do is make the history of rpgs video first, and then see how much else I feel there is to say on the baldurs gate series and how best to cover it afterwards. Therefore the plan is next video will be ‘the entire history of rpgs’(which is in the research stage at the moment with the hope that the video will be finished by the end of Feb), and then probably something baldurs gate immediately after.

After this it’s difficult to predict any precise order, but some of the bigger topics I would like to cover over the next year or so include:

-a video on romance in video games (which is a more interesting topic than people think… I hope)

-the big 40k video mentioned before

-a video on game remakes and related issues

-a GTA series retrospective that is finished some time before GTA6 comes out

I do think there’s a good chance I will make some kind of second channel video at some point in the future, but nothing is actively planned on that front because after that channel was completely deleted I don’t think it’s worth investing much time into. It’s basically lots of risk for little reward. Still if there’s ever anything I really want to talk about that doesn’t fit on the main channel (that doesn’t seem like it would be overly time consuming) then I probably would try to do something.

Finally, on making videos in 2023…. I think I had a pretty good year! It was easily the strangest year of video creation since I began on youtube – taking a break from the main channel to make second channel videos, then having the politics video get age restricted, then putting all my time and energy into the ‘entire history of games’ megaproject only for it to initially do really bad and then later get demonetized, all while the second channel got unexpectedly nuked, and then making another insanely time consuming video straight after with final fantasy.

Overall though… I did have fun. And while I certainly wouldn’t mind a bit less additional stress when it comes to making videos, I do feel I need to admit, now that some time has passed, that I look back at my time working on both the entire history of games video and the final fantasy video with immense fondness. I know I complained a lot over the last year about making videos, but that’s because sometimes it is hard, and sometimes I do work a lot of hours. But I hope you all know that I am grateful I have this opportunity and that despite all my complaints, I do love making videos. And that is never more obvious to me then when some time has passed and I can look back at those difficult times and remember all the positives that came with them as well.

I feel genuinely nostalgic for the time I spent researching and writing the entire history of games video. I did all the writing in one go, day after day, no real breaks or distractions, all while listening to all my favorite video game music to create a playlist that I would use to find background music for the actual video. And now when I go back to that playlist and listen to it, I really do feel a deep sense of nostalgia for that time.

(here is the playlist if anyone wants to check it out by the way https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbRLZ0pcMpqm1zSAgOojjNqr0akqeCjVL- I wasn’t planning to share it but I feel I should after mentioning it; it’s a good playlist! Shame it’s not ordered very well)

And as for the Final Fantasy video… there was no video I wanted to make as much since I started this channel as that one. I dreamed about making that video (literally, I literally remember having dreams about making it), and playing all the mainline Final Fantasy games back to back was such a special experience for me. It is exactly the type of thing I don’t think I would ever have got to do if it wasn’t for doing this all as a job, and I am so glad I got to experience those games that way.

So thank you - for supporting me, for sticking by me, for allowing me to try the second channel experiment, for putting up with my complaining, for the direct messages that I always feel I reply inadequately too – thank you... and I hope you enjoy future videos. I will try to enjoy making them!