Four Things To Overthink About Before Starting A YouTube Gaming Channel.

One day, I was thinking about what cool articles I could write for GameGrin. After much deliberation, I settled on doing one on The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. A game I had never played and heard raving reviews about, so I bought an Xbox 360 and a used copy (as well as a few games to work on if the idea went well) online. Everything was coming together like a well-thought-out plan until I realised that someone had already done my idea a few years ago; looking at it made me feel like I had wasted my money. Dejected, I thought of how I could sell the stuff for a profit when I thought, “I could make my own videos, like that YouTuber I like, Caddicarus, and he made a video on how he makes videos, and I know how to make videos myself”... it went on for a bit.

After snapping back into reality, starting a YouTube channel for my now-deleted website, “Just Another Game Journalist” didn’t seem like a bad decision. I had the skills in video and audio editing, as well as script writing. How hard could it be? Got a video capture system, bought more games to diversify content, and a winning personality that everyone would love to click into. It wasn't too long before I began to ask myself….

How and Where Do I Start?

The first question I had after setting up the channel (and troubleshooting software) was how and where do I start? Do I go directly into doing what everyone wants, like a review of Spider-Man games? Or do I do something that's more bombastic, like a videogame no one’s ever heard of or something well-known that I dislike, getting that sweet, sweet nerd rage (and their clicks)? To get over the hump, I began writing down ideas for videos (including things that wouldn’t need gameplay) to see if I had enough to begin workshopping them into reality.

Interestingly, with all the stuff I wrote down and the games to choose from, I never thought about the audience or my critic persona. Not in the sense of over-dramatic acting like Nostalgia Critic, but the way I would voice my opinion. Like the old motto says, “Make a good first impression”. Without thinking about it, I just wrote the intro (once I chose the game) of the first draft.

In retrospect, it could have started with anything, and no one would have cared. How many YouTubers did you find by watching their first video? Nevertheless, I wanted mine to be big, so I chose to do Close Combat: First to Fight as I knew that its successor, Six Days in Fallujah, was going to release around the time I would probably have the video out.

How Do I Make My Work Original?

On the surface level, it appears that to make it in the YouTube Gaming sphere, you really have to stand out amongst everyone. For every JonTron, there's an oboeshoesgames (small shout-out to a channel that I like), meaning you have to compete for attention and views against the channels that have a large following and the channels you follow with the content you make. Not saying the moment you post, you’ll become famous overnight. Usually, it takes a hundred videos just to get a following; just look at people like RTgame.

From the beginning, I knew that I wouldn’t just be doing reviews but also making critical content, but honestly, I had no ******* idea what I was going to do. And even when I did, I still didn’t know how to package my review and content properly or even how to make my content different to others online. My quest to be “original” became a dilemma that halted my work.

I think to be original is to just have a personality, and it won't come to most of us immediately. I know one day when I get back into video content, that I’ll have a fanbase that will casually watch what I make. And that's where, I think, a lot of people just starting don't really understand. To have the confidence to portray who they actually are, instead of creating fake personas like a lot of the YouTubers, mincing their creative process. In short, the best advice from someone who hasn’t even uploaded his first video is: be yourself when making anything, and don’t let what other people think of you determine how you proceed.

Editing

As I said, I know how to edit videos. I learnt basic editing skills back in university, where I had to manage both visual and audio media for my assessment. To succeed in video editing (if you don’t have the money to pay someone else to do it for you) is to know how to chop and change scenes, balance, and align voiceovers on the timeline. Overall, I have the ability to create a visual narrative that makes sense and not relying on a decent script.

In one of my drafts, I started the video in a classroom with .png characters playing teacher and student as I attempted to give context to the game I was reviewing. What ended up happening was the first 15 minutes of the video was of me as a teacher explaining the events leading up to the War on Terror and the subsequent consequences that created Close Combat: First to Fight. Without exaggeration, I spent five minutes talking about why the US couldn’t find WMDs in Iraq.

I realised later that I was making the video the wrong way but I couldn’t find the exact direction I went down to make that hot mess. After a few more tries, scrapping scripts and reworking my angle on the content, I had to delete the whole idea until I knew how to fix it. I went ahead and chose another game, Scarface: The World Is Yours, which had the same fate; only I had a similar segment where I explained why the US couldn’t find WMDs in Miami.

Time

At this stage, I don’t have time to go back and reattempt making videos as I’m studying full-time. However, I’m lucky enough to have my minor in cinema studies, where I will learn how to write video essays and more; yay, for me! To be fair, I do want to continue with my YouTube channel, and I don’t think I’ll give up on trying until I have absolutely no ideas or videogames to review.

When I have the time to do the thing I want to do again, I’ll just start making the videos I want to create without caring about considering the audience’s perception. How do you like them apples, Scorsese?

While this article was a way for me to take out my complaints on my attempt to be the next JonTron (because I’m a fat guy with an ugly beard), kidding, I hope that my mistakes will help someone else wanting to go down the same road I did. I just hope that Caddicarus doesn’t read this, the moment at the start of the year wasn’t the finest display of professional writing I know I can do.