Officially Freed from Maker Gen YouTube Network in 21 Days! Time to Spill the Beans on My Earnings!

In only what would seem like a devilishly long 21 days, I will be officially freed from the locked-in grasp of Maker Gen/RPM Networks. I like to briefly share with you my experience with this network, having been part of it for almost two years, and why I now no longer encourage anyone who is serious about earning money on YouTube to join.

Maker Gen as you know, is one of the many YouTube Networks available for channels to partner with, allowing channel owners to earn money from the advertising displayed on their videos. The Network splits the earnings with the channel owners, usually a specific set ratio, and the earnings will vary depending on how much the CPM (Cost-per-thousand-impressions) of the ads are.

When I initially joined Maker Gen, known back then as RPM Networks before they decided to change their name a thousand times, I was happy and satisfied. Mostly because I was finally a YouTube partner and could earn some dollars making videos. That also helped offset the cost of expensive equipment and the purchase of imported games, often costing up to hundreds of dollars.

Fast forward a year later, I was beginning to get dreary of this network. I discovered I wasn't earning as much as I could had I partnered with other networks. Their support initially was atrocious, repeatedly not responding to customer tickets and e-mails for weeks. It was bad enough that it made them notorious for being the epitome of worst support of all networks. My e-mails were ignored for weeks until they decided it was finally time to respond. Now that they supposedly revamped their support system and team, it has been better, but still not perfect.

Near the end of last November, I made the biggest mistake by accidentally deciding to continue with them for another year. You see, by the time I learned of much better networks, it was already too late to disband. This was due to their undesirable locked-in contract which forces you to stay with them for one or two years, with no way out unless you purposely commit a felony on YouTube. Their contract terms allows them to automatically renew all of their partners every year without your consignment. The only way to stop this madness was to alert them 30 days prior to the end of the contract. Good luck with that, as even after you accomplish such, they will still make you stay with them until the actual end of the contract date.

And so I sucked it up and the contract renewed for another year. Although I did positively went from a measly 60/40 revenue split to 70/30.

One of many reasons why Maker Gen isn't a good network is their less than favorable revenue split. A lot of networks nowadays offer up to 90/10, and simply getting 60 or 70 won't cut it, considering how bad their support is and the locked-in nature of their contract. You could argue that their supposedly higher CPM will offset the low ratio, but I haven't seen much confirmation that they have a higher CPM then other networks that offer higher splits.

So this November, I made the best decision to alert them 30 days prior to the end of my contract with them, and they have finally agreed to let my channel go on December 17th. Elation ensues!

So what network am I going to join now and what do I suggest people join?
I'm definitely joining Curse, Union for Gamers and so should anyone that has a channel composed of 80% or more of gaming material. The simple reason is that they offer three things that makes a great network: no lock-in (free to leave anytime), 90/10 revenue split (one of the highest ever) and great support.

If your channel isn't dominantly gaming related, I highly suggest you must go with a network that doesn't have lock-in, so you can leave anytime you please if the network does not live up to your expectations. Again, do not join Maker Gen unless you wish to feel depressed of all the money they've stolen from you for a year. This goes for Social Blade too, as joining Social Blade is the same thing as joining Maker Gen (Social Blade is just a recruiter)!

Finally, I spill the beans about my total earnings from Maker Gen! Also, some words of encouragement!
Although the contract states that I'm not allowed to publicly show my earnings, I'm going to say screw that and show you guys anyway. If they ban me from their network attempting this, I'll actually be more happy as I can leave their network even earlier.

I was with Maker Gen for approximately two years, from January 18th, 2013 to November 26th as of today. This is a screenshot of my Earnings for that date range (minus a few days) directly from YouTube: 

As you can see, it's definitely possible to earn a decent amount of money from YouTube if one is committed to it and creates daily, consistent and quality videos. For me it's even more of a surprise as I basically trapped my channel in a niche category—KOEI and hack and slash games, and still earned $13k in two years. Had I expanded to more territories, I could have earned a lot more, but I personally chose to not alienate my fanbase.

It's definitely not easy earning the amount of money shown, especially if you are just starting out. But remember that it took me a lot of hard work and I had to initially develop my channel for four years before joining a network. My channel actually started in 2008 and I grew it with quality videos until 2013, where I finally was popular enough to be noticed by a network. After joining however I was only achieving a lousy $1-$3 a day. It was only until a couple months later that after more hard work that I was finally getting out of that pathetic range, getting up to $30 a day in earnings.

Whatever you do though, do not follow in my footsteps of what I've been doing for the last couple of months—not making any videos or very few in-between.

So what gives about the lack of videos recently on my channel?
Could I be slouching? The answer is no, I've been so busy lately that I haven't found much free time to create videos, as lame as an excuse as that may be. Starting July, I ventured into a new job where I would work for myself to earn money, buying and reselling goods, doing this for nearly eight hours every day and that includes lots of traveling. By the time I come home I am already extremely exhausted and just feel like going directly to sleep after, until the next day where I have to work again. I know, sounds sad, but I'm definitely satisfied with it. I bought a new house a couple months ago and I need all the money I can make to pay mortgage on it, not even including necessities to feed and keep my family healthy. YouTube earnings alone aren't just going to cut it, especially when Maker Gen steals 30% of it every month.

However, I have decided to recently cut back on my job, spending about only four hours instead of eight, and not working every day. This should allow me to get back to making YouTube videos more often. I already have purchased the Japanese version of Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires and I may consider uploading videos of that game. It will just depend on how things go.

Anyway, that was the story I like to tell for the day. I hope it wasn't a boring read, especially to those who aren't YouTube content creators. I'll likely have some more interesting posts in the upcoming weeks. :D

Read More

YouTube January Monetization Changes - What's Actually Going to Happen

Two days ago, I wrote a post detailing a very significant YouTube change starting January that may cause a negative effect for channels that upload gameplay footage.

I would like to just clear up some misinformation on that post, as I researched a bit more on the subject. I do apologize if I sounded like I didn't know what I was talking about, as the information I brought up then was derived by merely one YouTube video and an e-mail from my network.

So here is basically what's going to happen:

For those who are not aware of the few changes to MCNs (Multi-Channel Networks) and its partners here's some highlights to what's going on:

1. MCN partners are being divided into two separate groups called an 'affiliate' or 'managed'. Larger channels will generally be put on managed and the smaller ones won't, unfortunately but solely depends on the network.
   
   MCNs will now be liable for all of their managed partners.
         
2. Instant monetization goes bye-bye for affiliate partners. Managed and those with YouTube directly are unaffected by this change.
   
   Videos will go under review much like the process AdSense partners go through, generally taking around 24 hours for approval or denial.
         
3. Affiliate partners are guaranteed YouTube Analytics' revenue access and the possibility of unlinking from your network from your Features page. Note however, the network can simply reject your request in a click of a button, or release.

Okay, so MCN partners—which are YouTube partners in a network (RPM, Fullscreen, TGN, etc.)—will be now grouped into "affiliate" or "managed". Unless your channel has multimillion views and subscribers, it will most likely fall into affiliate.

Affiliate partners now no longer receive instant monetization. Instant monetization meaning if the videos are free from copyright issues with the copyright holder. All your newly uploaded videos will now have to go through YouTube's review process to enable monetization, which can take between a few hours to a few days. How YouTube does their review nobody knows.

If you are partnered through YouTube directly with Google Adsense, or monetize videos individually as a non-partner, then this news means nothing for you. YouTube will still be doing their monetization review I mentioned above that takes hours to days for approval, unless I guess you are well established and have a track record of uploading original, approved content.

Managed partners retain their ability to instantly monetize videos after upload. I'm thinking channels such as PewDiePie will fall into managed.

Even after all this, what I said in my previous post could still be valid. That gameplay footage may no longer be able to be monetized, or that you have to work much harder for them to get monetized by incorporating things such as prolong commentaries (to get them to fall in "fair use" terms) and providing proof of commercial usage rights from the video game companies.

It's all very scary. This definitely could cause an end or at least a massive reduction in gameplay videos on YouTube, as a lot of people don't like creating content that isn't getting them paid. Most gaming channels are part of a network, as well.

I for one have already stated I will continue to upload gaming videos regardless of what happens. It's just the fact that potentially losing a source of income that helps fund creation of the videos is sad. I don't wish to greatly alter my content to counter this either.

Come January, we'll see what really happens. I'm anxious and scared at the same time!

Read More

January YouTube Partner Monetization Changes May Equal DOOM For Us!

I recently received a very upsetting e-mail from my YouTube partner network RPM Networks. If you read the message in this e-mail, it will be very clear why this change may mean the demise of a lot of channels on YouTube who are under a network. Take in particular the text colored red.

Hello, Makers! YouTube is in the process of rolling out some updates to the partnership program. Since you’re part of the RPM Network family, we want to make sure you’re equipped to go full-speed on day one! We’ve prepared a summary of upcoming changes, plus a list of instructions on how to thrive in the updated ecosystem. Lastly, we’ll give you a sneak peek into how we’ll help you grow through the end of 2013. Let’s get right to it:  

BASICS 
First, your channel is still a member of RPM Network. This means that you will continue to receive the full spectrum of benefits associated with Maker’s partner program. This includes access to Maker Max, one-on-one channel development, and your dedicated support team.  

EARNINGS 
Beginning in early January, newly-uploaded videos will occasionally go through a process called monetization review. This review is performed by YouTube, and will determine if your content is in compliance with YouTube’s current terms of use and copyright standards. Once your content has been submitted, the approval process usually takes between a few hours to a few days. This system will be based on trust-algorithm, so the more often you’re approved, the less often you will be reviewed. We’ve included a how-to at the end of this email, which includes our suggested practices. Simply follow the guide, and you should not see any interruption in your earnings. We’re also extremely happy to hear that YouTube is making earnings transparency mandatory across all networks. As the first network to offer this information to all of its creators, we’ll continue to provide access to both your YouTube estimated earnings and income earned through participation in other Maker initiatives.  

LET’S TALK 
Your Contract with Maker: YouTube is introducing a module which lets you send us feedback regarding the status of your partnership. Some people are calling this the "unpartner button”. Maker does not use this feature for communication about its contracts and this button is not a legal notice. If you have questions about your contractual relationship with us, please continue to contact us as you usually do.  

COPYRIGHT 
As always, it’s your responsibility to only upload content that you own 100% of the rights to. Do not use footage from other sources including TV, movies, trailers, music videos, etc.  

CONCLUSION 
Being partnered with Maker as an Affiliate channel doesn’t change how we work with you in any way. We will still provide you with support, help increase viewership, and find ways to grow your brand and revenue. We know there can be confusion and sometimes frustration when new features and platform changes roll out, but we’re here to help, answer any questions you might have, and figure out how to make these changes work to your advantage. Things like monetization review are designed to prevent your channel from getting arbitrary content and community strikes; the feedback module is designed to help YouTube channels who are working with unresponsive and non-transparent networks. None of the features are designed to hurt your channel or your content, and Maker is excited to work with all of our partners on each new development as they roll out.  

Guides How-to: Monetization: 
1. Begin the upload process a few days before the scheduled release 
2. Before the upload process is complete, set the video to UNLISTED 
3. You may apply for monetization through your video manager, on a per-upload basis. First, refer to YouTube’s policy on what is and is not monetizable: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/97527?hl=en&ref_topic=1115890 
If you are confident that your video is eligible for monetization, you may follow the below instructions on how to submit your content for monetization review: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/94522?hl=en&ref_topic=1115890 
4. Once monetization is approved, release your video on-schedule 
NOTE: Setting a public video back to unlisted or private will cause the video to disappear from subscriber feeds permanently, so be careful!

If you haven't gotten the clue yet, it's the way YouTube will be forcing some sort of manual review on all newly uploaded videos to confirm their eligibility for monetization. Right now the process they use is instant if you're under a network. The exception is when the actual copyright holder comes after your videos—they will place a Content ID claim and/or copyright strike and the videos will not able to earn any money through ads.

Of course, YouTube now wants to push this review to occur on all channels, including channels that are part of a network.  

What appears to be human review of videos likely means 100% more strict policies. We all know that YouTube doesn't really like gameplay videos and especially ones with no commentary. Right now as network partners, we can post gameplay without commentary, have it instantly monetized and it will fly pass the radar no problem, unless the video game company comes after us.

Even for the people who incorporates commentaries in their gameplay videos, YouTube can very likely disable monetization as well, deeming them "not original enough". In fact, it clearly states in their support guide that "Videos simply showing game play for extended periods of time may not be accepted for monetization.". Commentary or not.

In the worst case scenario, YouTube will begin to review all these gameplay videos and punish them with the inability for monetization. That means, absolutely no earnings for the content creator. With no earnings, the content creator will have less of an incentive to create content. Also, a lot of people (including myself) depend on the earnings from our videos to fund the games and capture equipment we showcase on our channel. This may then eventually lead to an utter death and withdrawal from YouTube completely.

This is bad. I don't know what to feel right now, but I will be quite sad if I lose my ability to monetize my videos. I can't say what is going to happen, but regardless of the consequences, I will try my best to continue to upload videos for you guys, so long as they don't get Content ID match and copyright strikes all over. I've been uploading videos without monetization for years until now, after all. However, the amount of videos will be definitely be cut back by a lot.

If YouTube forces us to incorporate commentaries into our gameplay videos for monetization (and not just saying stuff at the beginning and turning off the mic), I think I'll pass. I'm sure you guys don't want me spewing my mouth nonstop on every video. That's just not me and the channel you know.

Read More

Make Easy Extra Cash with SurveySavvy Surveys

I'd like to share with everyone a website I've been involved with for a long time, and one that's been helping me bring in spare extra cash that I've been splurging myself with—SurveySavvy.

Now, it's probably what you're exactly thinking. It's one of those websites that gives you money per survey you complete, right? Correct.

SurveySavvy is clearly one of the best paid survey websites I've used, and over the years I've used many, including SurveySpot, Opinion Outpost, Sendearnings, Inboxdollars and others. The amount of surveys they invite you to daily is very high (around 1-3 per day) and the amount you get paid is top notch. I usually receive surveys from anywhere from $1.00 all the way to $20.00. Depending on the incentive received, these surveys will take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour to complete.

I've gotten invited to and allowed to participate in quite a few awesome and memorable studies. Here are some of them:

Get paid $5 every month for letting SurveySavvy look at all the spam e-mail in your account.
No, it's not some horrible scam to lure you into having a evil doer steal your e-mail account and identity, it's an awesome study that helps study what kind of spam e-mail companies and individuals are sending customers and random people. The best part about this? You don't even have to do anything! It's like you're getting paid for free! I have no idea what exactly they are deciding to do with their findings, but hopefully they'll use it somehow to try to cut back on the annoying spam e-mails!

Get paid $10 every month for letting SurveySavvy take all your junk mail.
We're talking about real mail here, not electronic e-mail (you know, the physical ones that usually comes in envelopes). But this right here is a double pro. Not only are they getting rid of your junk mail for you for free, but they in addition are paying you to do so! The process is even ridiculously simple: just put all your junk mail in one of their prepaid envelopes they send you, send it off to them, and just wait for the payment check!

Get paid for eating food.
Yes, you heard me right. SurveySavvy has several studies where they'll actually send you free food samples and you get to eat them AND you get paid! How cool is that, getting paid to eat free food? Of course, you still have to take a survey giving them feedback after you've eaten the food. In the recent years, I've gotten full bloody meals from them that I could eat once and not be hungry again for the rest of the day.

Get paid for testing out physical products.
Essentially similar to the above, except instead of being edibles, these ones are physical products you use on yourself or whatever. Some of the things I've been sent are shower soaps, shaving cream and skin lotions. They almost always send you a generous amount, so it's almost the same as buying a full sized product of that kind from the store.

Can you be rich with SurveySavvy or other survey websites? Probably not, but it's not pennies either. Combined with another survey website I recommend (SurveySpot), I have made around $1,000 in a little over a year. That's quite a bit of extra money!

I guarantee you'll have a fun time taking their surveys, participating in some of their special studies mentioned above, and getting paid for it. It's also especially good to know that you're giving feedback to help improve upcoming products and other things.

If you want to join SurveySavvy and give them a shot, click on the link below to sign up. It's 100% free!
https://www.surveysavvy.com/?m=233689

This post and message are not in anyway sponsored or endorsed by SurveySavvy, OK?!

Read More

Declining a Podcast Appearance + YouTube Channel News

I like to give a large shout out to Get a Life Podcast, as they gave me a very nice invitation to become a guest on one of their episodes, which was to be dedicated to Japanese games, KOEI and Dynasty Warriors.

This episode was to include other guests and one of them I noticed was Chin Soon Sun! I was like, hey... I know that guy! That guy is awesome and loves KOEI and Dynasty Warriors games as much as I do.

Shamefully, due to personal complications, I was unable to accept their invitation. So I declined it.

Here is the e-mail message they sent me this morning:

 This is what I responded with:

You can read my response to see exactly why I didn't want to participate.

Regardless whether or not I'm on it, I'm certainly sure it'll be a very fun, informative and interesting podcast episode they'll be putting up, especially for KOEI and Dynasty Warriors fans. So I encourage you to search them up and check out them out when you have the time.

In other news, I will have to announce my next video on YouTube will not be until some time, perhaps even until September. Like I mentioned in my e-mail response to Get a Life Podcast, I am still attempting to get over my bad cold I caught around August 4th. I still sound like crap and to make matters worse, I'm starting to get muscle aches around my ribs. It's not all Hell, as it's getting better every day, but it's making it very difficult to make any videos.

I've got to say—this is the worst time possible to get sick. I wanted to do so much this month!

Read More

Got Over Cold But Lost My Voice

Good news and bad news. The good news is that I've successfully recovered from one of the worst colds I've ever had, owing all to a lot of rest, supplements and of course my miracle drink I detailed earlier.

The bad news is that I seem to have lost my voice. Well, not really lost it, but it now sounds wholly different.

Hence, I don't think I will be able to post any new videos on YouTube for at least another week, or until I obtain my full voice back. Specifically because the videos I planned on doing involved voice work.

I will still be posting on this blog with some interesting posts this week and giving out comments on YouTube, as that's pretty much the only things that I can do at the moment.

Here is what I sound like now:

Read More

The Dreaded Cold and My Miracle Drink

You might have noticed I've been pretty quiet and restless without any video activity the last week. That's purely because I unfortunately caught a dreaded cold—one of the worst ever as a matter of fact. Thus, I was barely able to get out of bed. Then, of course anything involving energy and voice usage was out of the question. I feel a lot better today. Hopefully, I will be good again by Tuesday, as I have some videos I've been itching to post on YouTube!

I like to share with you guys what has got me going the past couple of days and really helped to relieve my cold symptoms—my miracle drink! This would also work for flus.

It's actually quite an easy drink mix, as it exclusively uses natural ingredients and ones you probably already have in your home.

All you need is:

• Green tea 
• Ginger
• Lemon/lime
• Honey

Grate or thinly slice the ginger and place it in a small pot with the green tea. Wait until it boils. After, take it off the stove and put it in a cup. Add a squeeze of lemon/lime and then some honey for taste.

It also tastes great!

All of these ingredients are very high in antioxidants and vitamins. They are scientifically proven to be very effective in boosting your immune system and relieving common cold and flu symptoms, including headaches, coughs, sore throats and nose stuffiness. Because you're boosting your immune system, you can expect the cold/flu to last a shorter duration as well. This in my opinion is much better than continuously taking over-the-counter medications, as those only temporarily masks your symptoms.

So the next time you have a cold or flu, try this drink!

Read More

Upgrading My HD Capture Device Next Month

Okay, so I finally decided it's time to upgrade my HD capture device starting next month—that is, the one device that I've been using for all my YouTube videos since 2008!

Perhaps I didn't shed any light upon what I actually have been using. It's no other than the Hauppauge HD-PVR. I have the very first model of it, and I was one of the initial buyers to purchase it right when it came out.

Having gone through 5 years of model revisions and improved HD capturing technology, it was starting to feel as if my HD-PVR was falling behind the times. Although the quality was still there, I felt the ease of use was not prominent as it should be, and there were features on newer capture devices that I very much yearned for.

I especially desired a HD capture device that allowed me to capture in an uncompressed or lossless format, as opposed to forcing me to use its H.264 encoder. I always edit and re-encode my videos (never uploading the raw captured file), so once you start encoding a H.264 video with the same codec more than once, you're going to be losing a lot of quality. On the contrary, by having an uncompressed/lossless video file, I would have no worries of losing avertible quality when I edit and encode the video for YouTube.

Also, let's face it—HDMI is the way forward. Component limits your max capturing resolution to 1080i only, and you are additionally plagued to deal with analog interference, which can potentially ruin your footage.

So I decided my next HD capture device was going to be a BlackMagic Intensity Shuttle Thunderbolt.

It's perfect for my needs. It has HDMI in and out, 1080p capturing, uncompressed capturing and high bandwidth thunderbolt connection. From just looking at the technical specs and features alone, this device far outclasses any other existing consumer HD capture device on the market today. It's also priced very aggressively, at $230 new and around $260 with a thunderbolt cable.

What about more popular HD capture devices such as the HD-PVR 2 and Elgato HD Game Capture? While those are a nice upgrade to my existing HD-PVR due to them being HDMI equipped, they are more or less the same box of yesterday—forced H.264 encoding with last generation USB 2.0 connection. I don't want more of the same; I want something with unlimited potential, something the Intensity Shuttle Thunderbolt can offer.

I did briefly use an Intensity Shuttle a few months back, but it was the USB 3.0 version. My laptop unfortunately was not able to fully utilize the USB 3.0 speed, so the capture device was not fully operable. I now own a desktop that has thunderbolt connections, which is quite a lot faster than USB 3.0.

In conclusion, what does this all mean? For you as my viewers, it simply means much better video quality for my videos on YouTube. And I'm even hoping to be able to start uploading 1080p videos (although none of the games I've been recording are 1080p native). You can also expect a review here on this blog once I get it as well.

Read More

My Nuisances with RPM Networks

I joined RPM Networks via ProLax (recruiter) in late December. I have owned my YouTube channel for 5 years now and never really thought about becoming a partner and monetizing my videos. That's purely because becoming a partner was much stricter back then, and there were no such things as YouTube Networks as there are now. You had to develop 100% original content, or if your videos are solely gameplay footage, you had to had commentary on all of them. Even if all the above applies, YouTube are notorious for rejecting channels with limited reasons as to why, regardless if they have a heavy amount of subscribers and views or not.

Being the uninformed fool I am, I continue to maintain a regular old YouTube channel until finally last December. That's when I ultimately heard about YouTube Networks, and how they are pretty much accepting virtually anybody without bearing YouTube's strict requirements. Partnering with a network instead of directly with YouTube isn't different at all, depending on who you partner with. With most, you'll obtain all the partner features YouTube offers, the ability to monetize all your videos and more importantly being able to have complete creative control over your channel and its contents.

As a matter of fact, I already had a slew of networks offering me partnership in my YouTube message inbox. I read all of them, read up on their offerings and terms of service. There were a lot of good ones and ones with deceptive messages that makes you think you'll be earning huge money with them. In the end, I went with ProLax. Their message to me was simple to understand and it offered everything I wanted. Thus, I applied to them on around December 20th. I had to sign a contract that would require me to be a part of this Network for at least a year and we agreed on a 60/40 revenue split. Within a week later, I had all my partnership features and was then seeing my earnings on YouTube itself.

As it turns out, I was signed to RPM Networks and not ProLax. ProLax was just one of RPM's many recruiters such as SocialBlade. I actually should've applied through SocialBlade instead, because I would have had the bonus addition of being advertised on their website. With ProLax, I did not get anything extra besides one mention of me in their YouTube channel. Oh well…

I have to say that after being with RPM Networks for 7 months now, there has been some ups and downs. I'm earning very good consistent money with them and they pay on time, but I have to highly stress on how TERRIBLE their customer support is. One of the worst of all companies I had the displeasure of dealing with.

They don't respond to customers in a timely fashion at all. I had an issue with YouTube estimated earnings in my analytics disappearing abruptly for a few days. I sent them a message about it on the day it occurred, but they did not answer me back until a week later, when the problem was already fixed by itself. This is quite deceiving as they clearly stated all messages would be responded to in 24-48 hours. Another time I could not log into my dashboard at their website—actually, I was never able to log into it since the beginning of my partnership. I sent them a message about it on Twitter, yet they fail to ever respond to it. I had to send them another e-mail about why I couldn't log into my dashboard and a week later, I finally got an answer saying they will forward my account to get it dashboard access. It's been a few days following that and I still have no access to my dashboard. Grrr…

So in summary, if you want a good Network to join that grants you the full grid of YouTube partner features with high and unrestricted CPM, RPM Networks is great. If you want good, fast and responsive customer support, just simply stay away. And it's not just me either that are having dilemmas with their customer support, just read all the reviews of RPM Networks around on the internet.

I'm contemplating on switching to TGN (The Gamer Nation) when my contract with RPM Networks expires. However, RPM Networks may be moving me up to their supposedly much better TGS Network.  Only time well tell...

Read More

Wonderpierrot's Questions and Answers

As with all YouTubers and individuals with a following, I get an ample amount of personal questions that sometimes often gets asked frequently. Rather than continuously either ignoring the annoying ones or continuously answer the tolerable ones, I'm going to cite as much frequently asked questions and their answers that I recall in this post. Hopefully, you can gain a little more insight on who I am and what I do.

For more questions and answers goodness, part 2 is now available. Click here to read it!

Q: Where does the name wonderpierrot come from?
A: It's actually just an abrupt name that came out of my head the instant I joined YouTube. You should seriously know that I'm not consistent in usernames at all, and I pretty much embraced at least 25 different usernames on various sites and platforms. Nevertheless, I'm a bit better at sticking to one username nowadays. To the actual answer, pierrot was something I got from a Japanese rock band called PIERROT and which I thought sounded cool at the time. Wonder was basically short for wonderful. Put it together and you get wonderpierrot.

Q: Did you ever have any YouTube channels previously?
A: Yes. My first main channel was in fact completely different in content from my current channel. I also did not actually start out with KOEI games videos, but with videos circling around glitches and fun stuff found in other games. KOEI games were introduced later on, but they were also not serious gameplay videos. Eventually that channel got suspended for a reason I will not detail. However, thinking back about it now, it's actually a good thing it did as I probably could have never gotten out of the whole glitches and fun stuff extravaganza had it survived.

Q: Are you a guy or a girl?
A: Guy. I apologize to folks who thinks I'm otherwise.

Q: If you're a guy, why do you use female avatars and backgrounds and play as females most of the time?
A: As a male it's quite normal to be interested in the opposite gender. I feel to portray myself with female avatars and backgrounds as they are more aesthetically pleasing to my eyes, and I like that. The same goes with playing as female characters. It has absolutely nothing to do with anything else.
I'll also be honest and say I'm quite feminine myself, especially being Asian. I'm a slim type and often times like sporting longer hair. I guess it's just the way I am?

Q: Who is your favorite Musou character?
A: I honestly wish I had a favorite character, but unfortunately I usually don't. I simply like and play as whoever has a good moveset and as an added benefit who is also aesthetically pleasing or badass.

Q: What is your favorite Musou game?
A: Dynasty Warriors 3, 5 and 7. I don't really enjoy the Samurai Warriors series or any other series. I also have to give a big shout out to Dynasty Warriors 4, as that game was probably the most memorable to me.

Q: Are you Japanese?
A: I'm Asian, that's all I can tell you unfortunately.

Q: How long have you been playing Musou games?
A: Since the Dynasty Warriors 3 days when I saw the amazing screenshots of it in a magazine when it was just released.

Q: Why don't you ever answer my questions I post on your videos?
A: Sorry to say, but since having a lot of videos means having a lot of comments, I don't have the time to go through all of them. I usually only check a few new comments a day per video. However, I have been getting better at reading and replying to every comment lately. If you want to ask a question and want it answered, it's best you private message me or post your question on my channel instead.

Q: How did you become good at Musou games and how long did it take you?
A: It's all about passion, dedication and commitment to it. The harder you try, the more you challenge yourself, the longer you do it, the better you'll be. I didn't always start out playing games the way I do now. In fact, if you look at my earliest videos, you'll see I play them like any other casual player. When I realized the potential to be unique and different from the rest of the players on YouTube, I decided it had to be done. So I sat down with every new game, study its mechanics to the deepest possible, and try to challenge myself to deliver thrilling gameplay videos. I also have to say I got a lot of inspiration from other YouTube players when I was starting out. Those are the ones that woke me up and made me realize the true potential all these games have.

Q: Will you do anymore Monster Hunter, NFS, SoulCalibur or other types of games?
A: Probably. At current I feel my channel is much too catered to the KOEI/Musou crowd to stray away from it. In the future, I am desiring to expand my channel a bit and attempt to do other games if possible.

Q: Can I add you on PSN/Xbox Live and play with you online?
A: I don't have a PSN anymore, and I don't plan on having one anytime soon. I don't like having a Xbox Live account either as I don't play online enough to warrant Microsoft's ridiculous annually charges. Sorry.

Q: Do you still do requests?
A: Yes I do; however, I don't really guarantee them. I like to do my own stuff, and it's hard to try to cater to the random crowd, especially when you're concerned with putting out quality gameplay content. If a certain character for instance isn't catered to my gaming style, I probably won't do a video of him/her.

And that's all of the bunch for now. If you have any other questions you'd like to ask me, feel free to drop by my YouTube channel and post a message, post a comment here or send me an e-mail. Thanks for reading!

Read More