I want to give an update. When people I like online stop posting for a long period I get a little bit worried that they’ve disappeared, so I don’t want to create that in others. This is kind of a blog so I’ve included the gist of it.
TL;DR: Videos are on the back burner right now because my life is really good and I’m taking time to enjoy it. I’ll get back to working on RS more consistently in time.
There have been long gaps between videos before, but that was always due to trouble with putting the next video together, or because it was a massive project. Neither the FM video, or the TWEWY video are like that. I love both scripts so far, and I have tons of fun working with them. But I haven’t been focused as much on RS this past year. Since the Klonoa video, I have stopped spending as much time online because my life has become incredible. I’ve reached some significant milestones in the past two years that have changed my outlook in a fundamental way. I’ve never been healthier, my body is stronger than it’s ever been, and my diet has shifted completely to home-cooked, wholesome meals. Professionally, I’m thriving in software development, making more money than I ever could have dreamed of. I wake up every morning next to a woman who has supported me and loved me since we were teenagers. I have a sense of peace at every moment, like my body is constantly able to relax. I don’t understand why I have any of this shit, I have never deserved it, so I just want to enjoy myself in the moment and spend it with the people I hold so dear.
I consider RS to be one of the coolest things I’ve worked on, it’s such a great feeling to get to write and make these videos with my closest friends, and it’s so cool to me how much people enjoy them. I think I need to find new motivation for them though. RS was always driven from this place of unrest towards how internet videos were changing because of monetization and the growing internet population. I have a very clear idea of how videos should be. Look up any let’s play from 2011 and before (Ex. “Let’s play Super Mario 64 before:2011”) You’ll find tons of videos from people with terrible microphones, some of them pointing cameras at their TV. Their commentary is all improvised, and it’s usually clumsy. They try their best to be informative, but stumble over themselves, or they try to make a joke that doesn’t really land. I love these guys, maybe some of them had delusions of getting popular, but for the most part, they did videos for fun. People were just enjoying the novelty of being able to record themselves playing a game, and I think monetization really corrupted things. I was fed up with how it was affecting content in 2015, so by this point, now that recommendation algorithms have matured, I can’t stand it at all. I liked when I used to have to look for somebody talking about something I liked, and stumble upon a great channel with 200 subs. Channels are now so formulated and sanitized, all for the purpose of trying to optimize their chances at getting their video seen by one new person. Sure, there are people making simple content like in 2011, but there is always this goal now of eventually monetizing, or growing your channel, it is insanely rare to find somebody creating videos out of pure enjoyment for the act of making something, and I don’t think the modern internet is an environment that allows for the same freedom of expression that existed back then.
The internet population has doubled in the past decade, which has completely changed everything about it. The culture on the internet used to be more diverse, but has now completely homogenized. People used to be more open through anonymity, but nowadays worry about their online prestige as if it was a real reputation. This kills the ability to be daring and experimental, instead, everybody is extremely on-edge, and this extends to the videos being made. People can’t make an innocent joke without doing some bit afterwards to be preemptively deprecating towards themselves because they don’t want to stick their chest out and risk having somebody make fun of them for a genuine attempt at anything. Even channels I watch that used to have more edge and bite to them all seem to be in a competition for who can make the most dry and boring video possible on really fun games.
When working on RS, we always noticed and went against these things, trying to be as anti-growth as possible, especially after the THUG video got some initial attention. On several instances, we’ve let Youtube pick the thumbnail instead of creating a custom one. Titles for RS vids are meant to be as uninteresting as possible. We put crude jokes near the beginning of most videos to get people to stop watching who think it’s serious. The raunchy and insensitive jokes themselves serve a purpose of discouraging Youtube from promoting the videos as much. I think I used to want to show people the joy of making videos when you detach yourself from caring about internet popularity and monetization, but I now think that even time is a problem. All social media sites have the goal of keeping people on them as long as possible, and I don’t want to contribute to that by making extremely long videos. I’m not sure what will happen after we finish the TWEWY review, but if we keep going, I’d like to keep RS videos under 40 minutes or so. I’d want to focus on making things more dense and entertaining, instead of just trying to be comprehensive. I want to make really fun videos that encourage people to actually engage with things. If you talk about something and your enthusiasm rubs off on the audience, that’s great, even if it’s just getting them to watch a TV show or play some game. At this point, any time not spent on social media is time well spent.
I’ll be back on the horse again sometime soon, and when I stream in the future, there will always be some updates on the prestream so you guys aren’t in the dark. I’m very grateful for how warm and kind the audience of RS is, and I want to repay you all with more great videos in the future. Take things easy!
