I wanted to greatly expand on the previous personal
questions and answers post I made—virtually my first post on this blog. So I went around and did a questions and answers session with a few of my subscribers. I also dug out a few unanswered questions I was previously asked that I didn't detail in the initial post. These are the final results; I hope you enjoy reading them!
Oh, I apologize in advance if the questions' subjects are a bit shuffled and random. I didn't know how to exactly categorize them, so I went with a slightly random shuffle.
What are your ultimate goals on YouTube?
My only goals are to have a semi-successful channel with viewers who are enjoying my videos, engaging in them and learning things from them. To also be unique and bold from the rest of the crowd is also an important goal, even if I'm participating in a rather niche category.
What is your defined gameplay style compared to others?
Let me first explain what is not my gameplay style. I don't do casual, beginner level gameplay, at least not anymore. On the other end of the spectrum, I additionally avoid doing maximized or tier based gameplay, this includes often times hardcore breaking of the game to dwindle it down to baby level difficulty.
What I do is simply thrilling, diverse, stylish and combo centric gameplay for hack n' slash games. For others, it's a mix of everything, but usually I'm all about showcasing as much skill as possible.
What inspired you to create your YouTube channel and its videos?
Video games and the ability to capture game footage and put it live on the internet. At first, it really didn't even matter if the gameplay videos were good or bad, I just felt it was so cool to be able to put my own gameplay videos on the internet.
Did you think you'd be well-known on YouTube?
Honestly, I don't think anybody in their beginnings would think they'd be well-known on YouTube, besides people who are already stars outside of YouTube. For me, it's the same. So no. I just created my channel to have some bit of fun and to experiment on how I can make or break the YouTube video quality system.
How do you feel when people idolize you?
I don't think people can idolize me, that's nonsense... but seriously, I feel very honored and happy that I'm making such an impact on individuals with my videos on YouTube.
Why don't you do more commentaries / Can you do more commentaries?
I would, but quite frankly I just don't like doing them. Especially for gameplay videos, it simply gets in the way and makes the video awkward to watch and listen to. You also have to understand that attempting to deliver great gameplay and commentary at the same time is very difficult, as the level of concentration is doubled. For me, it's just one or the other and not in-between—I pick the former than the latter.
Commentaries and voice overs are good for guides and tutorials nevertheless. I'll be continuing to do these types of videos with commentaries, as long as viewers are *gulp* tolerable with them.
What do you use to capture and edit videos for YouTube?
Why don't you head over to this
particular post, where I spill everything about this!
Do you do shout outs or cross promotions?
I currently don't do shout outs on YouTube videos nor cross promotions. However, I am running an affiliate program where I can exchange channel recommendation spots (i.e. if you place my channel in your recommended channel list, I'll return the favor by putting yours on mine). However, I won't accept channels with no videos, as there wouldn't be a point to put it as a recommended channel.
Do you have Skype, Facebook or Twitter?
I don't have Facebook. Twitter is something I've been contemplating on giving a try, but whenever I end up test driving it, it just seems to be an non-necessity for me, largely due to the amount of time you have to put into it to make it successful.
I do have Skype, but I don't give it out publicly because I don't like talking to random people on the internet unless I really know them well.
What is your favorite or best video you created on YouTube?
I would have to largely say my
Dynasty Warriors 7 - Mega Combos Compilation Vol. 2. I put nearly all my skill and tactics I learned through playing that game intensively into that video, and it quite shows how well that turned out.
What is your least favorite or worst video you created on YouTube?
Oh boy… too many. I can't put a finger on one exclusively, though. But it has got to be the earlier videos, especially the Dynasty Warriors 6: Special and Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin gameplay videos. Those were just… embarrassing!
What do you hate the most about your YouTube habits?
The fact that I never go through an entire video and check it over for errors before uploading it to YouTube and making it public. Probably has something to do with being too excited and wanting to get the video up as soon as possible. Which of course always results in me re-uploading the same video multiple times and pissing off my subscribers. If you're a subscriber, you already know the deal. Break it you say, but hey… it's a habit! Habits are deadly and indestructible!
What types of games do you like to play and are interested in?
Judging by going over my channel, you think the answer would be quite obvious right?
But nah, I play way more than what I upload to YouTube. Hack n' slash style games aren't even my favorite. I actually enjoy quite a diversity of game genres, including RPG, action RPGs, adventure, first/third person shooters and even a few sports genres.
Do you buy and play every KOEI/Musou game?
Absolutely not. There are certain games they make that don't interest me at all, for instance the ROTTK series, Fist of the North Star, random anime based Musou games, etc. Not to mention all those expansions and re-releases of games which should have content already in place with the first game.
I don't even buy and play every Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors game released, especially the portable ones.
Do you play every character, not like everyone else who avoids certain characters like Xu Zhu and always plays as Lu Bu?
Actually, yes. Playing with every character and every weapon for long periods is always an essential for me with each DW game. This is because it's the only way to know how good each character/weapon is, their versatility and overall fun factor.
Although, when you experiment with all of them long enough, you will always find some characters/weapons will be either poor gameplay wise or boring. That's just the way it is, and that's usually why you won't find players playing and liking every single character in the game.
And to put it on record, I don't do favoritism. I don't love or dislike any character. I don't even like or use Lu Bu at all. For me, it's always about how good and fun the weapon they have is, and an added bonus if they have a good character design, personality and voice. That's all.
Are you going to do any classic game videos?
In classic, I take it as older games. I actually have done a few videos of older games on my channel, but the reason I don't do them often is because of low viewership and interest. Usually when a game becomes so old, there becomes much less interest in them. I don't feel like working hard on content and in return receiving low to no viewership. That's the prominent reason why I'm always making videos of the latest games.
Do you know and understand Japanese?
Yes, I consider myself quite fluent in Japanese. Hence, the reason why I'm usually able to play the Japanese versions of games without much difficulty. I also do translation work often times, not only for my YouTube videos but for friends.
KOEI is often labeled as the cash milking cow, even to fans of the company's games. What are your thoughts?
I agree they are somewhat heading in that category. I don't mind them continuing to release Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors until the end of time, so long as each entry is strikingly different from the past, which is what they are currently achieving well. However, what they should not doing is re-releasing old games with extra content and charge premium prices for them.
You talked about channel expansion and expansion into other games besides just KOEI/Musou games. When do you think your channel may no longer be all about KOEI/Musou games?
I think KOEI/Musou games will still clearly be the bread and butter of the channel forever. Out of my 13,000 subscribers, I'd say 80-90% of them subscribed because of those videos.
This is why unfortunately for me it's rather risky to expand. If you want to expand when having such a significant amount of viewers in a certain area, you have to do it slowly.
I don't additionally wish to stray too much from KOEI/Musou games as I enjoy doing them as well as the viewers enjoy watching them. Perhaps in a few years, we can talk about it then...
Can I use your videos for my own videos?
Yes you can. I don't mind it as long as you leave credit. After all, it would be a crime otherwise.
Can I collaborate with you on a video or videos?
Maybe. I tend to like to do my own stuff solo. Collaboration involves a lot of complications that can make the process frustrating, including the constant need to contact the other party back and forth, different video quality and others.
Why don't you upload videos as often?
Numerous reasons: lack of video ideas, lack of motivation, busy personal life, no games to showcase, illnesses and laziness.
Yeah, if I don't upload videos often, then it should fall in one or more of the above categories.
My YouTube channel became so dull and unfocused at one point that I almost quit. This was after the series of Musou Orochi 2 videos, where I went 8 entire months without a single new video upload.
Nowadays, I am partnered with a great YouTube network. Hence, I'm a lot more motivated to upload more often, especially as the money helps me fund the expensive import games that literally costs $100 per game.
How did getting partnered affected your channel and videos?
See above! Getting partnered was a huge boost to my self-motivation to continue pumping out video content, mostly as I was actually earning something in return. Prior to getting partnered, I felt as if I was doing these videos at a great financial loss for nothing other than pleasing viewers and fans of the games. Some of the games I presented I didn't even like, yet I forced myself to upload content of them for the viewers and subscribers. That was hard because I had to shell out $100 every time KOEI comes out with a new Musou game.
How much do you get paid on YouTube?
Not too much or not too little either. Not in the 4 digits per month but rather the 3 digits.
Will you do a room tour or tour of your game collection?
Yes! I wanted to do one for a long time, but I will most likely be doing it via photos and text in this blog.
Any tips to other YouTubers who want to be as successful as you are?
I stress good content the utter most. If your content is uninteresting, boring, plain, bad and even been done before, you won't ever have the amount of return viewership and spreading of your works.
Even if your content is good, you will not get the amount of views you deserve unless you advertise and promote it well. That's why I wrote a post detailing the top ways you can do this.
If there is anything else you'd like to know, feel free to drop by my YouTube channel and post a message or sent me an e-mail. Thanks for reading!
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