Illogically Learning To Do Gaming Videos

 Illogical conclusions about how things should be are always going to be a problem. Especially when you consider that nothing logical has happened to me in the last 14 months. As we continue with the madness that is the current world things just seem to continue to get weirder and more illogical.

For around 9 months I posted on TikTok and YouTube shorts on an extremely stable and consistent basis. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, usually around 09:00 or 15:00 which would deliver wildly different results.

Like I had a video where I genuinely did something amazing in Fortnite, taking out several people in less than a minute, to get a Victory Royale. That clip never got more than 400 views on YT shorts, and I think it didn’t break through 200 on TikTok. Understandably, I was peeved and annoyed.

The very next week though, I posted a clip of me jumping in the original Prince of Persia Sands of Time game, I barely said anything. That video somehow jumped to well over 1000 views on YouTube shorts, but still, nothing happened on TikTok.

These things are illogical to me, simply because there is no rhyme or reason to how either platform promotes the videos I am posting. This makes it more illogical that a random video I posted onto my TikTok, after months of inactivity, suddenly got well over 1000 views.

Why did it get that many views? I have no idea; all I did was ramble on for nearly a minute about why I stopped streaming and why I’ll still be posting normal videos. Only a few days later I made a video during a particularly bad time of no power here at my house, that thing has well over 5000 views now.

I have yet to figure out why, and it seems that I may never really know. Over on YouTube, the illogical things are continuing in a much more stable manner. Long-form videos are much more fun to make, and the editing work genuinely makes me feel happy.

So, naturally, the videos I make, and which are doing well make almost no sense whatsoever. As in, they have steady flows up or down, depending entirely on the whims of the internet and whatever stars are aligning.

I have almost no videos with more than 100 views, and as things have developed, my current ceiling in terms of viewers seems to be around 50-ish. I say that mostly in hopes that I can dupe the algorithm into pushing some more views towards me.

Even when posting links to these videos onto every other social media that I can think of, usually nothing much happens, even after hours. Because heck knows waiting weeks is pointless. What is even more frustrating is that after about 3 weeks the videos genuinely stop growing whatsoever.

The only thing that is really left to mumble about the illogical nature of YouTube and TikTok and every other social media is that at some point there must be a turn. Either I am forever a mediocre failure, unable to even get 100 consistent views, probably having wasted weeks of my life.

When I say that, it usually means that at some point I’d have given up, which seeing as how things are going is not going to happen. You see, from what I have seen, most people who say they failed YouTube got to about 1000 subscribers or slightly more and then tried doing less work.

What I mean is, that they stopped trying new things, stopped posting their stuff all over the place, and stopped trying to improve. That last one is rather important, I obviously watch too much YouTube, but what I have noticed is that those who plateau do so for two reasons, it can happen before 10,000 subscribers, and then again after about 100,000 subscribers.

The illogicality of why both fail is that they are plateauing for the same reason but with different circumstances. This is probably also why I have no real idea what I am talking about, mostly because I am not quite at the end of my initial growth.

Plateauing before 10,000, from what I have seen, is because you need to learn a certain type of technology and technical skill to get better. Reaching that many subscribers with your five-year-old phone, the cheapest mic from the store, and no tripod is rather normal.

In fact, from what I have heard, it is almost like a right of passage that career YouTubers must go through. Sure, MKBHD has the latest RED cameras that shoot RAW video. But if you sort by oldest first, he practically used a potato when he started.

Markiplier, one of the largest gaming YouTubers, has failed, so many times. Watch his interviews with Anthony Padilla, he’ll tell you. This YouTube channel that we all know now, is his second or third one, he’s had several others that failed miserably.

Well, he did also start when YouTube was much less than it is now. But I have learned that this is also normal. I have other older attempts that failed badly too. So, what does this have to do with plateauing? Well, if you stop trying to improve, or get a new camera, new editor, or just get into a groove you’ll stop growing.

In fact, you may just give up because you are suddenly unable to achieve what you need once you reach this plateau. What you should be doing, usually, is changing your content and improving quality.

Or at least, that’s what everyone says you should be doing.

Now, the second area where people plateau is when they get over 100,000, usually because they stop innovating and get into a rut. Think of it, how many YouTubers have you seen that seemingly just keep on doing the same thing.

Over and over again, same videos, same content, rarely actually getting out of their comfort zone. Now, if you have found your niche, like COD or Minecraft streamers, then that’s all you. VaatiVidya does lore videos about the Souls games, frankly, he does such a good job of it that I doubt he’d ever need to innovate…

And yet he does. In fact, over the last few years with Elder Scrolls, he has made changes to his channel. No longer does he just grab one or two more pieces and make a 15-minute video. Instead, he now makes hours-long videos, telling complete stories of the lore.

He innovated, despite having millions of subscribers. The illogical thing that happens after 100,000 subscribers is that you plateau when you don’t innovate, which is the same logical reason that you would plateau at 10,000 subscribers. Why is this? Simple.

No one knows how the algorithms work, but we do know that they become bored.

Making the same content day in and day out seems to bore YouTube and it will stop pushing your content to new eyes. Whether you are making short videos, long videos, or just middling videos this seems to have become a universal truth for YouTube that should never be ignored.

And this has meant that the illogical conclusion that you only need to do what you know and are good with when creating social media stuff is going to work.

The logical conclusion is that even when you get almost no views for every video you make you need to keep making more. Try new things even when you aren’t even all that sure about what your regular content is.