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The World of YouTube Content Creation! A Conversation with I Don't Have a Nose!
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In this episode, Satsunami is joined by Michael from the channel I Don't Have a Nose to discuss all things content creation on YouTube. What does it mean to be a YouTuber in 2025? Has the stigma of being a YouTuber changed or is it still prevalent? And what fanbases has Michael insulted with his hot gaming takes?! All this and more in this episode of Chatsunami!
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Appearance
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Chatsunami.
00:00:16
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Chatsunami.
Challenges of Content Creation: Gaming Focus
00:00:21
Speaker
My name's Satsunami and joining me today is none other than the YouTuber extraordinaire himself. It is Michael from the channel I Don't Have a Nose.
00:00:30
Speaker
His words, not mine. Michael, welcome to Chatsunami. Hello, thank you for having me. Yeah, how are you doing today? I'm good, thank you. I'm a bit tired. I've just finished a video, but no, I'm good. I'm fine. Nothing too stressful at the moment now that video's out of the way. Depending on when this goes out, I can't actually reveal what that video is. You can be like an exclusive to know about it. of Of course, when you actually do wind up putting this out there, it will no longer be exclusive. But so I'm doing a SpongeBob game, Battle for Bikini Bottom, on PS2. Oh, okay. classic yeah yeah it was very highly requested and it took me a while i really enjoyed it though spoiler but yeah no i've been working on that for like the last it's probably been over a month because i paused to do a christmas episode on christmas day and it's taken forever but i think we're finally there or at very least on the on the home stretch put it that way yeah i have to say see so when it comes to video editing and i mean for you especially because you do a lot of
00:01:25
Speaker
gaming reviews and things like that so i'm very conscious that you have to of course play through the game get all the footage i remember i started making a video this was ages ago and then ended up giving up halfway through and just made it into an audio only episode because i had to play through the game. i had about six hours worth of footage. i had to spice it together, plus all the other footage. I was like, you know what? Maybe I should just be a podcaster instead. no, I can believe that. Yeah, it can be a chore getting all the footage. I mean, I like to try and... Well, I like to at least attempt...
00:02:00
Speaker
to basically 100% the game. For a lot of these licensed games, they're fortunately quite short. Not all the time, but, you know, usually they are. And yeah, I like to try and cover it as thoroughly as possible, unless I think I'm pretty convinced there's not going to be a big reward at the end. And if it's just not worth getting frustrated over it, I won't bother. But generally speaking, I like to try. it varies from game to game how long it actually takes to record it and people like request them as though you know it took 20 minutes to watch the video that must be how long it took to make you know but there they take a while i do want to cover longer games in future because you know things such as kingdom hearts have been requested in the past But they're so lengthy. The games themselves are really long to actually record it all, edit it, put it together. I want to do it at some point, challenge myself, but I'm going to be basically in my room, locked away in the dark, staring at a screen for months on end if I do Kingdom Hearts. But so one day, you never know. But yeah, it can really vary. It really varies.
00:02:57
Speaker
Out of curiosity, is that the longest game that someone's requested for you to cover? I'm not sure. It might be, you know. Well, Kingdom Hearts 2 is even longer. But okay, it's not as long as Kingdom Hearts, but another one that they keep mentioning is Taken the Power of Juju, which is not too long, but it's lengthier than some of the licensed games I've done. I started recording that a while ago. I forget what was replaced by. I needed a video at a certain point. I think it was when I had a collaboration video and I wound up just scrapping that one or shelving it for some time. And I am intending to go back to it, but I'll have to start all over again because I can't remember what happened It's been so long. Generally, though, people seem to ask for like movie games, cartoon games, movie tie-ins, that kind of thing. And usually because there are varying quality because they're often rushed out to be released alongside the film. So sometimes they're a bit slapdash and sometimes they get more criticism than is necessary, think, than they actually deserve. But yeah, I am kind of trying to branch out and go for like more, you know, mainstream games outside of movies. But yeah, It's going to take me forever to do Kingdom Hearts. I wanted to cover Okami at some point as well, but that, again, I love the game, but it takes me, what, 30-something hours to complete it just playing it. So, you know, I don't even know got that much space on my laptop for a game that long. Maybe one day when I can muster the energy. I'll probably be away from YouTube for some time when I'm recording these, so...
00:04:17
Speaker
Because the thing is as well, when you're playing these games to research them, and I do exactly the same thing. See, when you go away for ah podcast episode and someone says, oh, you should play this game, that game, and we do a lot of themed months as well. Like, we are planning, hopefully, if all goes to plan, touch wood, later on in the year, we're going to be doing Bioshock and Resident Evil month.
00:04:41
Speaker
But the thing about it is I tend to get quite lost in a lot of these games, especially with Resident Evil. I don't know why I started because I've gone down the rabbit hole. I'm scaring myself silly. And the next game that I've got to play is 7 and 8, which I've been told is the scariest of the series. So I'm not looking forward
Nostalgia and Gaming Evolution
00:05:00
Speaker
to that. But the thing is, what I don't think a lot of people understand when you're creating content, whether it's reviews or Let's Plays or deep dive analysis for them, is that everybody plays these games in a different way. So it's like, I'll look up a walkthrough and it'll be like, oh, this game's only three hours. That's fine. I play it and I'm five or six hours in and I'm only halfway through the game. How do they do this? Yeah. Yeah. It's only easy when you know how. yeah But yeah, I'm the same.
00:05:30
Speaker
i mean, the first time I played Okami, I spent so much time just wandering around exploring things. I like to explore and yeah I wasted so much time. I wound up spending a good 80 hours on my original playthrough of the game when it wasn't at all necessary. That's like double the length that it's supposed to be.
00:05:45
Speaker
But yeah, I was just wandering away from main plot and just fooling around. but I've clocked so as many hours on Skyrim, I think. i haven't played that for a long time now, but all I used to do in that was wander off. Someone would tell me, it's this urgent quest I've got to do, and then I'd just swan off and just... I just dont want to go pick some flowers and, you know, kill a mammoth.
00:06:04
Speaker
But what I don't like to do when I'm recording these games is look at walkthroughs if I can help it. Because if it comes to it where I've just been stuck for so long, I'm recording stuff and it's wasted footage, I will have to do it. And I did have to do it once. Well, actually, well, I did it for the one SpongeBob game. I used it once I walked through for this one as well, just for one very brief part.
00:06:24
Speaker
And when I actually found out what I was getting stuck on, it was so ridiculously... i wouldn't say it was obvious, but, you know, you kind of kick yourself afterwards and just kind of think, I wish I hadn't looked that up now. I've ruined the game for myself. But it's not always very um self-explanatory. One thing that was brought up fairly recently with one of my friends I was talking to was an instance in Disney's Hercules. There's this boss fight against Nessus the Centaur. And all you have to do is jump on his back, you know, to defeat him and ride him like a horse. I remember I kept trying it when I was little. I just couldn't seem to grasp that you're only meant to do it when he turns around. This is the thing though, you get told stuff like, all you have to do is jump on his back. It's easy. i remember some kid mocking me saying, oh, you were stuck on that level. That's really easy. It just makes me feel really stupid. But I fumble at like the weirdest things, a really tough puzzle I can handle. And then it's just something really stupidly simple. And I often my problem is I overthink it. Whenever I'm playing a game, I just, decide I can't think what to do here. Then I'll look it up eventually and I'll be like, oh, for God's sake. It's so obvious. It was staring me in the face. But yeah, generally I don't like to look at walkthroughs. I like to try and work it out for myself. And let's face it, a lot of these movie games were intended for kids.
00:07:29
Speaker
So if I can't work it out, that's a problem really. It varies from game to game. I don't very often use walkthroughs. Like say, if it comes to it, I have to because at the end of the day, need to get a video out. that's the priority really i mean that is fair enough though because you want a unique experience you don't want to be following that step for step from the way another person is playing it and i have to say the way some people play these video games is just absolutely insane it's like they go from point a to b to c to d and then you're just like how the heck did you do that and then you try it you go to a to d to b and you're like okay i've done something completely wrong here Yeah, yeah. I could never be a speedrunner. Never. Never in a million years. No. I mean, I can have good days and bad days with games, but I'm not that good. I'd say I'm quite an average gamer, really. mean, well, I really call myself a gamer, particularly. I play a lot of games. but I'm not the type person to display all the new stuff that comes out.
00:08:23
Speaker
I have certain favorites that i just revisit all the time. I mean, I suppose I'm a gamer, but I'm not a prolific gamer, put it that way. I've got, like a say, set favorites, personal likes that I just keep returning to all the time, even though i've played them a million times before. I mean, as someone who bought a Steam Deck and then immediately installed Sonic Adventure 2, I can sympathize.
00:08:42
Speaker
Yeah. See, the thing is as well, a lot of people say it's all about nostalgia. And I think the one reason why the channel's done pretty decently well in more recent times is because of nostalgia. But actually revisiting these old games or even visiting for the first time, they're actually not bad games overall. Some of them are. Some of them are dreadful. But I mean, you know, I don't always think it's a nostalgia thing. I think, yeah, okay, over time, stuff like graphics have majorly improved. But the actual gameplay itself, I'm quite old fashioned really anyway. I like a good puzzle game.
00:09:12
Speaker
They're actually the worst to record though, because obviously if you get stuck on it, you're just walking around aimlessly for hours on air not knowing what you're doing. But graphics don't really mean a great deal to me, particularly. Yeah, it's quite interesting. The particular games that you have focused on, because I've got a list of them up here, you know, the tie-in games. And I'm laughing at some of them because I do recognise them. Like the robots game. Oh yeah. There's the WALL-E game as well. Futurama one. That was a blast from the past.
00:09:42
Speaker
When I saw you had covered the Easter eggs and things from that, I was like, oh my gosh. I cannot believe I nearly we forgot about that. You know, you've got all of these. And I do see what you mean. it was a very unique period of gaming that I don't think we quite get nowadays. No. They've tried to, though, in recent times. there There is a company... outright games that are like a more recent company and they tend to do licensed games they did an ice age game think it was last year it was released or the year before i can't remember but either way it wasn't actually as good as a ps2 ice age game at least uh it was decent it was it was decent it wasn't awful it wasn't anything special though i think that was a problem when you have a resurgence in these licensed games you you'd want them to be good quality You know, it's it's kind of pleasing to see if the games are actually worth it. But yeah, these days we don't see a lot of them. I do know that Battle for Bikini Bottom was remade, rehydrated, released last year.
00:10:39
Speaker
And I've not actually played rehydrated, but looking at it, the original game looks better to me. I don't know. It just, it looks quite smooth, rehydrated. It looks a bit too glossy, if that makes any sense. But yeah, I also think, well, did it really need a remake? Well, people enjoyed it. So, you know, obviously if it's selling well, then it's all about the profit at the end of the day.
00:10:59
Speaker
I've also been meaning to get my hands on Epic Mickey because I never actually played Epic Mickey and I've heard it's a decent game, but it was only ever on the Wii. And now they've just released a remake of it for PlayStation. So I can now actually play it. But It's kind of both a good and a bad thing that these games have been kind of phased out. It depends which ones you focus on. There are some great games actually that were licensed cartoon based games, movie games, but some of them are absolutely dreadful, which is why they earn themselves like, you know, something of a reputation. I mean, one of the worst ones I've covered on my channel is the M&M's game. Oh God, yeah. Yeah, no.
00:11:32
Speaker
Like i said in the review, though, it's like I get this ironic joy from watching bad movies. So it was kind of like that. The game wasn't... Okay, no, the game was awful. It was absolutely horrendous. But it wasn't to the point where I couldn't bear to play it. It wasn't like it was really boring. It was interesting. Maybe not in a good way, but it was interesting. I do think, unfortunately, they do get very much maligned and all tarred with the same brush, though. Dickers half-dick. to say with these particular games they don't really put their a-game into them no pun intended there but usually you see the covers and
Personal Gaming Preferences and Frustrations
00:12:10
Speaker
that is a pet peeve of mine same with you know with a book series when the film or tv show comes out for it and they replace the cover with
00:12:20
Speaker
a screenshot from that particular show or movie and they're like, oh, this is your favourite thing from the TV. And it's like, well, that's all fair and good, but want to read the book. I don't want this actor or actress looking at my face while reading it. And it's the same with a lot of these licensed games where... They've just got these quite lazy covers in a way. And I feel as if, you know, ironically enough, don't judge a book by its cover because some of them are genuinely really good, as you said. But you just get some of them when you look at the cover and you think... They look cheap. Yeah, exactly. mean, the one off the top of my head I remember playing when I was younger was a series of unfortunate events.
00:12:58
Speaker
Oh yeah, I've never actually played that one, but that has been requested before. Do you know, I remember enjoying it at the time, blasted through it, and I remember the worst bit when you get to the third bit the game where it's, I think it's the third book of the series, that's where it takes place, you have to do this shooting gallery with peppermints. And I remember, although I was relatively good at shooting games and things, I was really bad at this. because they kept popping up and going back down again. You had the villains popping up going, ra and I'm like, oh, no, I'm never going to get this. I just have PTSD flashbacks of that particular moment. I'm like, I don't want to go back to Lake Lacrimose. I don't want to go back.
00:13:39
Speaker
ah I'm dreadful with shooter games. I'm awful. You will never see me playing a shooter game on my channel. Never. No. Any first-person shooter especially. No way in hell. I'm dreadful at it. Everything has to be like third-person. I can't actually... No. Oh, no. It depends what it is. I mentioned earlier I played Skyrim. That's fine. But, yeah, generally any kind of Call of Duty game as well, i would would you'd never catch me playing that. Never.
00:14:03
Speaker
It's just not my thing. It's too real as well. I like fantasy. Yeah. I like to take my mind off things and it's a bit too gritty. Well, on the plus side, they have moved away from the grittiness. Or, well, it's quite a bit an oxymoron with Call of Duty. Nowadays, when they say, okay, for this game, we're going to have a campaign that's gritty, it's dark, it's real. And then they put zombies in it. You're like, okay, yeah that's a bit weird. And then you look at the store and it's like, oh, look, here's this person who has a farting unicorn and they're going to blow you up. And person with the rainbows coming out you're like, this is not the same Call of Duty I remember growing up with. Is that actually a thing? No, I'm not even... For legal reasons, this is not a joke.
00:14:45
Speaker
Yeah, there's an operator that you can buy, or rather the skin that you can buy for the operator. i don't know, I think it's a female skin with the really bright neon leggings and the big unicorn horn on top of the hat and then the finishers, this stuffed unicorn that comes down and farts rainbows all over the place. What on earth?
00:15:07
Speaker
so yes See, even saying that out loud, I genuinely thought the worst was when they had Nicki Minaj and the Terminator and Rambo at one point. It's like they had all of these characters. I've never heard all those three characters in the same sentence before. yeah Exactly! Nikki would not, I sure the hell. What was really bizarre was they had a Warhammer 40k crossover, and it is so weird seeing Call of Duty. You would think they would match, because obviously they're both based in warfare and whatnot, but when you've got a normal looking guy dressed in the power armour for Space Marines, and you look and you think, this is like Wish.com's this isn't this isn't it oh it's just it's utterly baffling the other one that they've done recently is think they did a crossover with squid game oh okay yeah in a way i could kind of see if they just had you know the guards who have the i want to say pink but could be red you know the jumpsuits and they've got the masks on and they usually carry a guns in the show so you think okay that makes sense and then you got the guys in the tracksuits who take part in the games you think okay you
00:16:13
Speaker
Maybe. And then they brought in, you know, the doll, the one that turns her head and says a green light, red light. And they're like, oh, interesting. That just sounds like they're trying to just cotton on to a trend. it feels a very Fortnite-esque.
00:16:28
Speaker
Yeah, it feels kind of tacky. No, that doesn't sound anything like the games I knew. Not not at all all. See, that is the funny thing when he brought up about FPS games, because I feel as if, well, I say PS, but the shooter genre in general, first person, third person, there is such a wide variety of them, and especially nowadays, it's like you get ones that are a lot more light-hearted. There's one, I think it's called Hypercharged, I could be wrong in the name, where you play as toy soldiers or action figures fighting against one another. But then, as you said, on the flip side, you've got the slightly realistic, until you get to multiplayer, as I said, for Call of Duty, you've got your battlefields, you've got your, well, you used to have your Gears of War and your Halo. God, I'm old.
00:17:15
Speaker
Looking back at these, we're like, oh, those were the pinnacles. Yeah, it's just that it's strange how diverse they are. So much so that, as you were saying there, that they do slip their way into other genres of gaming. As you said, like Skyrim, where you have to fire the bow and arrow and whatnot, or even some very strange games.
00:17:34
Speaker
Because i was looking through your videos earlier, and one of the games that actually stood out, and you're probably not going to guess which one I'm going to target, The Rugrats game?
00:17:54
Speaker
look back at my own videos unless i have a favorite that i think went really well and it becomes you know but i distinctly remember that particular review i considered it to be one of my worst Simply because, what I'll be honest, I don't actually remember much of the review. i just know it was ill when I made it.
00:18:12
Speaker
And I personally thought you could tell. and One of my friends told me it was fine, but I mean, you know, you're you're your worst critic. yeah so But I just didn't like it at all. That's one of the few I don't think of ever revisited. But the game itself was amazing. it was decent i didn't really get the same love that everyone else had for it i think part of it was a nostalgia thing though they did actually capture the feel of being a baby that's that came out really weird yeah babies with the tank controls yeah yeah resident evil style going i remember when i first played it i was tommy pickles yeah and i just instantly ran into a window
00:18:53
Speaker
and i couldn't turn around i thought the camera was diabolical and i just kept running around and bumping into things and to be honest that is what it's like being a baby we've all been there yeah yeah it's realistic no it's just the only reason i brought it up in relation to shooter games was always remember that one level where think you have to go to the fridge and get milk or something like that but you have like flashlight or something with the ghosts yeah i remember that yeah freaky is it well back then freaky sorry i just want to point that out before anyone goes google with this and saying was gonna say if you found out scary you've got no chance with resident evil yeah oh no i'm still traumatized by the remake Because I remember one of the worst, and I don't know if you've played this one, but one of the worst games I remember playing growing up was the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone game. Oh, you know, funnily enough, I've actually, I have got that. I've not actually played much of it. Basically, it was actually bought for me several years ago review. And so many people have requested it. And I've obviously, mean, it's Harry Potter, of course.
00:20:01
Speaker
I've never been a big Harry Potter fan at all. I know I'll be vilified for saying that because they're very passionate about Harry Potter, but I played a good portion of the game. i can just picture him saying Flippendo in my head.
00:20:13
Speaker
That actually unlocks a memory for me. See, when I was in primary school and Harry Potter was everywhere, even when we did English class, we had, you know, those close readings you used to do where you would read a passage and then you had to analyse it ah and answer questions. questions on it yeah yeah and i remember we had one called boy under the stairs legally distancing themselves from annabod and i remember one boy he sat there and he answered it in two minutes and then he put his pen down and then the teacher got quite angry and she was like why have you done this so quickly have have you done this as he's you know some genius no no he turned around he said no i've seen the film one
00:20:53
Speaker
So then she had to turn around and say, has anybody else been answering these because they've seen the film? Nobody put their hand up, but everybody was doing exactly the same thing. It was hilarious. But the other one I remember was in music class, we had to do a... want to say this in the nicest way possible because it was primary school music class. You had to do music and it had to be interpretive. So one of ours was some scene for Harry Potter and I don't know why school was so obsessed with Harry Potter, but anyway, they had, I think it was like, you know, the beater for the Gawkinspiel and they would just go along it. And so it would do the, and then there was just one person with, you know, the egg that they always gave you if they had no other instrument, just shaking it. And there was just this yelling one in the background, Flapendo!
00:21:42
Speaker
That was a whole contribution to it, just, you Flapendo! Oh, it was hilarious. And again, it was from that game, because as far as I remember, it's not in the movies, but when I say it's the worst game ever, I don't mean as in it was a bad game to play. Well, again, Replay pending, of course, but I always remember I didn't like the game because the first half of the game, absolutely loved. I thought, this is whimsical, it's realistic. Aha, look at PS1 Hagrid.
00:22:11
Speaker
And you get to particular bit where you have to go down to the dungeons because Malfoy is a you-know-what, so you have to go and retrieve something. And you have to sneak into a room where a troll is sleeping. Now, apparently what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to levitate this cage and put it on a pile of hay so it doesn't wake them up. I didn't know this.
00:22:31
Speaker
but so Every time I was waking up the troll, I was absolutely terrified. So I ran out the door every time. And then one day I thought, you know what? Suck it up. Be brave, Satsu. And then ran in screaming. I grabbed the key. I ran away, ran up the stairs out the dungeon. And then there were three more trolls waiting for me. So I turned the game off, never played it again.
Revisiting Classic Games: Challenges and Charms
00:22:51
Speaker
I was too spooked. Obviously going back to it would be completely different but honestly I think you're right. There is a certain level of nostalgia for these games and especially I was just laughing when you were talking about Rugrats as well and those controls because do you feel as if the PS1 was and for obvious reasons because analog controls were relatively new at that point with the N64, the Playstation 1 and so on but do you feel as if it's quite difficult going back to those games where tank control mortal reign supreme as it were i would say so see i'd never played until i think it three years ago it doesn't feel that long ago actually but i reviewed the original tomb raider i'd actually never played it all the way through i'd only played chunks of it and bits and pieces and i thought you know what i want to review it you know i'd so play it from beginning to end and it takes some getting used to because yeah she definitely controls like a tank Especially painful in the PAL version of the game because she runs really slowly. I don't know why that is. In the NTSC version, the American version, she runs perfectly fine at top speed. But as over here, for some reason, she's just really slow when she runs. But you get used to it. Obviously, you kind of have to force yourself to get used to it.
00:24:03
Speaker
But generally speaking, I do think they take a lot of getting used to. One thing I find with it, especially with these old games, is bad cameras. I loathe the camera. To be fair, with these SpongeBob games, the camera's not been bad at all. I've not had a single issue with the camera. But there are some. One in particular that I hated the camera. who is actually from the makers of Tomb Raider. They did a game called Herdy Gerdy and they call it a farming simulator, which sounds really boring, but it's not. I don't think so. Anyway, it's more like a puzzle. You've got to herd at these creatures. And I think the game itself is fantastic. It's ruined by the camera because obviously when you're herding these creatures, you need to see them.
00:24:41
Speaker
Oh, obviously. But the camera will like zoom back so far and get stuck in a tree or something. And it's, oh, it's it's a nightmare. That was one of the worst cases of a camera. Especially the early ones, a really early, say, PS1 and even early PS2 games, where instead of the analog stick to control the camera, they had L2 and R2, like the shoulder buttons.
00:24:59
Speaker
And I just think, wow, it just feels so janky. But generally, a lot of the games are alright. A lot of the games are easily accessible, I would say. but some of them, you really feel they're quite dated. Like, I've personally felt that Rugrats was quite dated. Someone was very passionate about the Rugrats on my channel. remember they posted this really acerbic comment, basically in full praise of the game, saying, like, I don't understand this. I'm like, okay.
00:25:24
Speaker
but Why are you so passionate about this? yeah Why do you care? Why do you care that I don't care? Pickle fan one, if you're listening to this, apologies. I have to say, i have to say one thing. Fortunately, the vast majority of comments I do get on my channel are largely positive. And, you know, they're actually very, very nice. Obviously, you're not going to agree with everything I say. Oh, no, yeah. But I mean, they're generally very nice about it. It's just every now and again, i will get somebody who's extremely passionate about the most obscure game. You're the one fan of that game then, you know? Like Eldorado as well. I remember years ago, i reviewed the Road to Eldorado game, which I thought was pretty terrible. And I still think it's, but I think it's a neat idea that they had for the game, but I didn't think it was executed very well at all. And then this one person commented on the channel and basically shot me down and listed their reasons as to why this game is actually fantastic. And I just don't understand. I'm like, I really don't care.
00:26:16
Speaker
You could say things like Tomb Raider are quite dated, you know, especially with like the tank controls. But at the same time, i don't think the game itself is actually all that dated. I mean, it is dated. Graphically, it's dated. And her deaths are hilarious. cut off screams when she falls and then just splat on the floor. It's hilarious. But generally speaking, in terms of the level design and everything and the puzzles, I still think it's a very, very playable game.
00:26:41
Speaker
You know, as soon as you get used to it, it's just a bit of a learning curve, really. I do like, with these older games, one thing that I do love about them is there's so much variety. Even my favorite games on PS1, are all so different. I've just mentioned Tomb Raider, but Abe's Odyssey and, well, the Oddworld games, and they're totally different from a lot of the bigger games of the time. I know it wasn't really a kid's game as such, but I remember at the time in the 90s, there was obviously Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, that kind of thing. I'd never played a Final Fantasy game, have to say. Never gotten into Final Fantasy. Which is another reason, actually, why I'm a bit apprehensive reviewing Kingdom Hearts, because obviously I don't really get all of the Final Fantasy references. So I do get very worried about that. If people comment negatively on videos like Rugrats, you know someone's going to do it on their Kingdom Hearts. Generally, i think they're initially difficult to get into, gameplay-wise, a lot of these older games. They're a lot more restrictive. and they have their own learning curves. But once you get past that, it's fine. I think a lot of the time, the actual games themselves are like the positive traits of these games are actually forgotten about because of things like jangy controls.
00:27:47
Speaker
You know, people would turn their nose up at something just because it's got a hideous camera. Well, actually, Hurdy Gurdy was an an amazing game. Otherwise, it's just massively let down by its camera. So I think they're still very playable. I just think it's, like I say, a learning curve, really. And obviously, people aren't willing to go back in time, I suppose. I've got a friend who I remember discussing this exact thing with him about, you know, older games that he enjoyed in the past. And he pretty much said that he doesn't really do that anymore. and you know he'll obviously play newer games and things like that or indie games that interest him but in terms of the ones that captured his nostalgia and whatnot unless it's like a safe bet to go back there's a certain cut off period that he will not go past because they're just so outdated in comparison to what we have nowadays something interesting you were saying there is that it is quite funny how no matter what game you do review as you said you'll always get that one passionate fan but I think One of the things that's really important, and it is something you definitely do throughout your videos, is to at least have an open mind and contextualise these games.
Critiquing and Reviewing Games
00:28:54
Speaker
To say, well, these have tank controls or the animations are janky, but this was kind of common for this particular era of gaming. If you had that kind of thing nowadays and it was taken, you know, 100% serious, you'd be like, wait, what?
00:29:08
Speaker
It's a bit like comparing Deadly Premonition, which I have to say is one of my favourite Yeah.
00:29:22
Speaker
actively expecting to hate a game and yeah because of that they want to i mean there's particular groups which you know ah won't name names but particular whites players youtubers and the like that will go into a game will purposely play it bad and then say, oh, this is the worst game ever, this is terrible. See, in your particular sphere of content creation, because I know you'll be more exposed to this than me, but do you see a lot of other game reviewers and things the half that have that kind of mindset that they purposely play games bad and then they try to go the quote-unquote angry video game nerd route?
00:29:58
Speaker
Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm not going to name names, but i mean, there are some channels out there where I understand why they do it, because one, to basically mis-sell this old game as something awful, it just, it gets views, you know, it's clickbait basically. But I do find that there are many channels out there that will literally just play the opening levels of a game and just stop. And they won't do like a thorough review of it. They'll just be laughing about it. Oh, this is terrible without actually giving the game a chance. And the thing is, I mean, you know, in a sense, I mean, that they're going to be doing videos the right way, I suppose, because, I mean, they're getting the views they don't have to do anymore, you know. But I mean, I like to cover mine very thoroughly. And even when it's a terrible game. I do like to try and find something positive in it. It's not always possible. One game that was requested a while ago but I have played, but I've never got round to actually covering for obvious reasons is Barbie Explorer. It's not good.
00:30:52
Speaker
It's really's really not a good game. And it's it's actually painful. It's absolutely painful. i Worse, I would say, than the M&M's game. And that's really saying something. Ouch. Yes, yeah. Because on my channel, I like to cover things thoroughly. Obviously, I'm going to have to play that game from beginning to end.
00:31:09
Speaker
Yeah, I don't see that happening just yet. Every time I've played it, though, the one thing that's always killed me is Barbie's jump. I can't make her jump in a straight line. It's actually painful. Watching it looks easier than it actually is because controlling her is just and it's insane. it's like She's like a much worse version of Lara Croft.
00:31:26
Speaker
Much worse. I can't jump diagonally. And it's really annoying when there's like a platform that's diagonally. adjacent to you. of can't ah keep jumping forward into the pit and dying over and over again. And you think with 50 plus lives I'd be alright, but no, she just keeps dying and dying and dying. It would be painful recording that game. Maybe one day.
00:31:45
Speaker
But yeah, no, I do understand why certain channels do that while they just play the start of a game. I'm going to say it's a bit lazy. I mean, I remember watching review video of somebody I actually used to watch a fair bit. I don't anymore. Not because I went off them particularly, but Once I started making my own videos about games, the content I watch on YouTube is totally different. I don't watch anything that's what I do basically anymore. I used to years ago, but i remember watching this one particular review by this guy and he covered a game I was very familiar with. and reviewed it based on simply the opening levels. He said he got so far and the disc broke, or you know, there was scuff marks or something on a disc and couldn't go any further. If that was me, I would actually go to the effort of getting another copy of the game so I could actually play the thing in full. But he didn't, he just reviewed the game based on what he played so far. I you can't really do that. doesn't actually take everything into consideration. But, I mean, no disrespect to him or anything. he's got a hell of a lot more followers than I have but yeah no I did think that was quite lazy. I understand why they do it though like I say because it's all very time consuming but it is quite lazy. What I don't understand is when you'll get certain people who will put these types of videos out there that i call lazy and it will for some reason the algorithm will push it in your face and they'll get loads of views and subscribers from it and then my channel has been very much a slow burn possibly because the time it's taken to do some of these but Just playing the full game, writing a script, recording it, editing it, takes a lot of time. And I will say this, usually I would have been recording a game while I was working on this SpongeBob one. And in that sense, I'm actually a little behind at the moment because I've basically been focusing all of my time on SpongeBob
The Art of Content Creation: Editing and Quality
00:33:27
Speaker
lately. So yeah, I do know what I want to cover next. I'm wanting to cover next PS1 game I cover. I think I want to do Small Soldiers, which is written interesting because you mentioned Toy Army Men earlier. I mean, it's my choice. yeah I can't really do anything slapdash.
00:33:40
Speaker
I'm not like that. If I set myself a goal, I'll do something and I'll just keep finding things to do. Well, why don't I do this? Why don't I do that? Can I get 100%? Is there anything else to know about it? Do my research, find out any facts or stuff about like voice actors and the production behind it, that kind of thing. There's always something. And when I'm editing a video as well, I get so annoyed with myself because I'm incredibly nitpicky. Just the slightest... Oh, with this last video, Just trying to get re-recorded lines match up with the original audio. It was a nightmare. Because I'm assuming you might understand this as well, being as a podcaster. But I don't know if it's the same kind of thing. But in my videos, I record with this mic that I'm using now. And it in the exact same way. But when I come to do re-recordings... For some reason, there's often something off about the intonation. Maybe I'm further away from the mic or something.
00:34:31
Speaker
There's something about it where it doesn't match with the original recording, and it's so frustrating. The amount of times I've recorded the same lines over and over again for this video, it's been insane. This has got to be one of the worst videos for re-recordings. It's been an absolute nightmare. I've loved the game. I'm sick of the video. I'm glad to be putting it out there. Yeah, funny you mention that, because I've had that a couple of times where I've either mispronounced something or I've skipped something out, so I think, okay, I've got add and it fu so tries bla in. splicing other bits.
00:35:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:12
Speaker
and oh just trying put end if it sounds like really unnatural or just rerecord that that my go i have had that so many times and that always sounds like
00:35:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know the episodes with Camp Krusty where they're watching the video and they're talking about Mr. Black, so it's like Krusty saying, I want you to treat Mr. Black. With the same respect, you would treat me. You know, that kind of thing. That's what it sounds like when I listen back to it. People are like,
00:35:43
Speaker
It's fine, you barely notice. You notice this more than anyone. Oh, you can definitely. I remember I did a review for, I think it was for, you know, the 60th anniversary specials for Doctor Who?
00:35:56
Speaker
Yeah. And I was talking about Shuti Gatwa. The reason i'm putting so much emphasis there is because for some reason, my mic decided to drop the T. So I was calling them Shuti Gatwa. and i was like okay that's wrong how am gonna get around this so i tried looking for t's and those kind of sounds to slap it the middle and it just it just sounded horrible and i was like okay i'm just gonna re-record that bit and then just slap on the top and it's annoying because usually if i do a solo episode then i'll have a script and i'll follow it to the letter but for these three i was experimenting i was young i was foolish and
00:36:34
Speaker
I decided, you know what, let's try it off the cuff, you know, just random thoughts. And I think it's the only few times where I've done that. Never again. ah Because I had to go back and try and make it sound natural. But again, it was like, and I think that Shutaigar was very good. And I was like, oh no, it sounds so obvious. And it sounds as if I don't know how to say his name when it was the mic that wasn't picking up. No, no, I know how to say his name, please. Don't come after me, Oofians, please. So no, I am 100% with you. And I do think that it's something that, as you were saying before, that a lot of viewers, you know, they consume our content <unk> so fast in comparison us to how long it takes us to work on them. because editing this podcast it takes me oh a good half a day at least and it's just because i'm a perfectionist i'm trying to pick out all of the ums the butts and you know like the repetition and things all the background noise trying to make it as seamless and perfect as possible and i know there's some people there i think i was moaning to you before about this that they'll put out their podcast or they'll put out a video or something and it's unedited and Again, see if it's your first video or something, you can give them a bit slack, but if they go the DSP route, where it's just they slab everything up, it's like, oh yeah, just every single video is unedited, and it's not a Twitch VOD or streaming VOD, it's just completely raw, unfiltered, you get to hear the lovely static noise in the background. Have you ever come across those videos as well? that's the age Well, I was just going to say when he mentioned editing audio. Yeah, like you say, people do consume our media very, very quickly as if it's live. You know, they'll just listen to it, watch it. And like I say, if the video is 20 minutes long, I think that's how long it takes. Not everyone, obviously.
00:38:26
Speaker
but I mean, there are some people who seem to think that way. And with my videos, I do a similar thing. I edit my audio first in Audacity. So I'll play the game, record it all, write the script, which is usually about four pages. i think the recent ones have been more like six or seven, though. They've been really lengthy. Then I'll record audio and video piece separately. You know, like like piece to camera. Most of the audio is done in one take, apart from the bits that I need to redo. But yeah, I edit in a Audacity and then I'll put it into the movie editor. And overall, the process depends on the length of the video, obviously, but generally it seems to take about three weeks because after editing audio, editing video, well, no, I'll edit the video piece as well separately, first of all, then put it into the main video altogether with the game footage, then add like titles and credits at the end. Oh, music, adding music to a video is so painful. This last one. but How much are you moaning about this SpongeBob video? You think I absolutely hate it. I actually, I have to say, I'm proud of the episode. I'm happy with it. But oh my God, there was so much about it that was so frustrating. Adding the music was crazy. I basically, when I talk about certain levels in the game, I usually like to use the music from that level when I'm talking about it. It's very subtle, very quiet in the background. Stuff that people probably wouldn't even notice. I remember the one time one of my friends told me, didn't even know I actually put music in my videos. Part of me died inside. was like, really? Okay. Either find the music elsewhere, download it, or most often I'll actually record it myself as part of the gameplay. Basically trying to get the music to match up. Because, you know, when I show a clip and it includes a game audio, obviously part of the music is playing in the background. So I have to get the music to just marry up with the clip. Otherwise it just sounds really off. It sounds out of place, like a record skipping. So I had to match up the music all the way through this video exactly with the music in the clips. And I know i probably sound insane because nobody cares. Nobody cares. But it's attention to detail. And like I say, I give myself more work than is necessary, I think. But this is why it's taken so long to do this video. But yeah, three weeks.
00:40:29
Speaker
Three weeks overall. This one's been about four weeks, actually, but we're including Christmas as well. So it's probably about the same. I mean, to be fair, the passion, even if we don't notice it consciously, subconsciously, I'm sure there's people going, ah I hear music in the background. Hopefully someone can hear it.
00:40:46
Speaker
ah No, you're completely right though. When you're really passionate about what you do, you really want to pick at it until it's as perfect as it can be. Exactly. think it was something you and I were talking about before we came on as well, but you're completely right, it is that idea that you want to put out the best thing possible. Because, and it's something that I feel as if a lot of people who are just starting content creation don't really understand.
00:41:14
Speaker
that they'll come into it, they'll think, ah, it's easy, I'll just slap the video up, I'll just talk over it, that'll be fine. But to actually have the same kind of high production value that a lot of these videos have, I mean, I think personally your editing style was absolutely fantastic. And again, I'm not just saying that because you're here. I genuinely do appreciate it. I think the humour lands, the cuts away, and then back to you, back to the game. i think it's just pays so well. Whereas...
00:41:42
Speaker
In comparison, I have seen a lot of other creators that they'll just slap the game up. It's not really got anything to do with what they're talking about. You know, it's just random nonsense on the screen, as it were. And then it's like, yeah, thought game was okay. Five out of ten. And you're like, oh, oh. But I feel as if a lot of people look at this particular hobby and hopefully profession one day, but, you know, they look at this and they say, oh, it's easy. You just play a game and talk about it for a couple of minutes as if it's an easy thing. Do you get that personally from, I mean, I can't imagine, honestly, you're such a lovely person. I can't imagine you having many detractors other than Pickles Fan 1 from The Rugrats and Miguel and Julio Stan from The Rugrats 1. do you have that? Very rarely. Obviously, with the channel gradually getting a little bigger over time, know, you're obviously going to attract more negativity, obviously. Yeah. But generally speaking, no, I don't tend to get much.
00:42:40
Speaker
Sometimes I do. i know a few years ago, i used to have a follower, somebody who subscribed to me. They would request long lists of games and i covered a fair few of them. But every time I came out with a video, which was one of their requests, I swear they wouldn't even watch the video. They were just, they're just comments and just, say, oh great, now do these ones and you just send like a long list again. and like, do you know how long this took to make? yeah know And I do think some people do think that way. They do think that, oh, it doesn't take long. But yeah, about making sure things are of a certain quality, I like to try and make sure they are.
00:43:12
Speaker
And what i find is, if there is just the slightest mistake or blip in the video, When I look back at the video, that's all I'll think about. Like, I know that largely the video will be well-received, people like it, and even if it could be like the most popular video on my channel, the one thing I'll remember is the audio hiccup that I missed. It's like, if there's this one small thing about the video that I just didn't quite get right, and there's one of them. i actually, I hate, well, hate's a strong word. I dislike this review that I did two years ago, Looney Tunes at me arsenal video, and it To be honest with you, it's probably not that bad. The only reason I don't like it though is simply because I made a mistake in it. I mentioned there wasn't a training level in it, like a tutorial, and there actually is. Since then, I've just thought, oh my god, I got something wrong. That video is instantly awful. I can't ever revisit it. And it's done really well for views and people, they're full of nothing but nice comments. It's just I look back on it and just think, no, I didn't pull my weight with that. I just look back on it very negatively. I guess it's that's what my brain's like though. It's just really annoying. But...
00:44:14
Speaker
As I say earlier, you know, you are your worst critic. So yeah, I'm reviewing myself now. I'm reviewing my own reviews, which is really weird. That is one of the worst things to do, see as a content creator. And you'll definitely know yourself there, as you were saying, that when you look at your older stuff in particular, because, and I committed a severe taboo with your channel, and I apologize in advance, but I watched your very first video. Oh no. I know, I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm so sorry. It's like podcasting. You never listen to the first episode. You always work your way back if you're brave and enough. It was just like a walkthrough for a Futurama Easter egg, I think. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember. Yeah.
00:44:55
Speaker
But then the video after it was a review on the Casper game, I think, for the PlayStation 1. And I have to say, i know you'll probably have on a very different opinion, but I genuinely enjoyed that. I was watching it thinking, i wonder what the difference is between your new videos and your old videos, but I still thought it held up.
00:45:13
Speaker
Oh, I don't appreciate it. Oh yeah, but no, I know exactly what you mean, by the way. Just purely because i have a vivid memory of one of my friends and fellow streamer, Robotic Battlesoaster. I remember I was talking to him he was saying, oh, I'm doing some housework today and look what I'm listening to. and they sent me a screenshot my own podcast.
00:45:33
Speaker
I thought, oh, that's brilliant. And then I looked closer to that screenshot and it was episode one, season one. I was like, no, no, no.
00:45:43
Speaker
It's like, you're the he's banging the door going, no, no, they can't do anything. It was like that. I was like, oh, no, please, for the love of God. Because something that I find interesting is that, say when you continue as a content creator and, you know, you get better, you get better at editing, you get better at the format and trying different things. Do you prefer to keep your old content up as indicator of how far you've come That's the thing, yeah. There are some early ones that I really strongly detest.
00:46:18
Speaker
I mean, yeah I will say, from what I remember, though, I've not actually watched it in years. From what I remember, because that Casper one was a test run, really. It was like a pilot, yeah I suppose. And then it was the following year, I actually decided to start the proper review series, if you like. but The first one of that was A Bug's Life. And that video is worse than the pilot. It's worse than the Casper video. To be honest, that's why I actually decided to re-review A Bug's Life last year.
00:46:44
Speaker
It wasn't a review as such. It was why I considered it to be, you know, one of the best movie tie-ins, which is basically, it it is basically a review. I couldn't stand to have that old video on A Bug's Life be my only video on A Bug's Life because it's so awful. The camera's jumping all the time. There's not even a shot of me in the video. It's all audio. And I just sound so bored. I've just got no enthusiasm in my voice whatsoever. I just sound not even mellow. I just genuinely sound bored. But I'd say that first batch of videos I did, the first 10 reviews, I very, very rarely look back on them. There are one or two that I think stick out as being, okay, this is my style. This is like, I can see starting to develop a voice, if you like, in some of these, like the Aladdin one and Were-Rabbit, Curse the Were-Rabbit. But
00:47:32
Speaker
Those early ones, generally, I don't revisit very often. But, as you say, I keep them there because it does show progression and if I was happy to upload them at one point, then at some point I was proud of them in some way. So,
Transition from Streaming to Podcasting
00:47:44
Speaker
yeah. I'd like to think I've vastly improved though since then. I'm flat that you said you liked the Casper one though. But yeah, no, won't be revisiting that probably ever again. i't See, that is completely fair, because even when I look back at Season 1 of Chatsunami, we talked about our experiences. My very good friend Martin McAllister and I, we were talking about our experience with Dungeons & Dragons, and for maybe bar a handful of episodes in Season 1, there was about 50 of them. I just want to point that out. But for the first 50 episodes, most of them were done live on Twitch.
00:48:20
Speaker
So there was a completely different dynamic there where we were talking, were wee bit nervous and had to kind of go back and forth and then we had to check the chat and everything. And don't get me wrong, I always made sure that the episode came first before we talked to the chat at the very end so I could cut that out because as bad as it sounds, you know. I don't want to talk to them, but I wanted the guests and the interviews and things. I wanted that to come first before we actually started talking to people and bringing that whole element in. And I think definitely in hindsight that worked better, but... You can tell our voices were completely different back then. And I mean, you've definitely, I don't want to age you here either, but you've definitely been doing this longer than I have.
00:49:07
Speaker
Because I was going to ask you at the beginning, I was wondering if this was a product of COVID, was it pre-COVID and the lockdowns? Is it 2015? I right in saying that you started this? I think that Futurama video might be from 2015. I probably started with them that Casper pilot was 2016. I think it was November 2016. But the actual this series, if you like, that I'm still doing started in January 2017. I basically say I've been doing these since 2017. So yeah, for the last... Oh my God, I feel old. oh um Yeah, seven years. oh my God. Wow. That's incredible. Wait, hang on. Bear with me.
00:49:43
Speaker
that's Okay, take your time. Eight years? It's been eight years now. Oh, my God. Wow. No, that can't be right. I was going to say, welcome to the club, I feel old. I can't believe it. Wow. That terrible Bugs Life video has been up for eight years. Oh, my God. No point removing it now, is there? Oh, dear. That's a reality check. Oh, my God. Chat tsunami. Come for the casual chat. Stay for the egg existential crisis, you know.
00:50:11
Speaker
I apologise about that. You're feeling great now. Yeah, thanks. I have to say, when I think back to when I started the podcast, I streamed before I began the podcast.
00:50:22
Speaker
I feel as if my life now has been split into pre-COVID and post-COVID. Post-COVID, of course, being during the lockdowns and everything. And basically my life is a podcast.
00:50:33
Speaker
Whereas, yeah, had before that, I have to admit, I did try the odd one or two YouTube videos. And I never put my face out there, but i'm not going to lie. They were awful. I'm not even saying that as a, oh, I'm sure someone else would be able to salvage something out of. it i genuinely mean the editing was terrible the sound there was a lot of white noise in the background and i think one of the worst things and it's something that i have gotten better at don't get me wrong but i still have a long way to go with it is c reading off a script yeah i don't know how you feel about this but i felt at the very beginning when i was reading off a script that i thought okay i sound very natural i sound fine and then you listen and you sound like the terminator
00:51:18
Speaker
Yeah. yeah' It's like hearing your voice in a recording, any kind of recording. Thing is, obviously doing it so long you get used to it. And now these days I don't have an issue at all with like recording my voice. But yeah, I sounded super mellow when I first started. And I have to say though, I still struggle with, well, see most often I'll do a scripted video. Almost all my videos are scripted unless it's like a Q&A video or something. And while I say I have difficulty doing live talking because I feel like there's a lot of stuttering, but I'm generally much better with a script. I'm much better just pulling my ideas there and reading it aloud rather than doing it off the bat. Much better. But yeah, I think my delivery has just kind of naturally evolved over time. It's not too much different than it was a few years ago. i think I used to talk a bit too quickly. There are some videos in retrospect I do love from that kind of era from, again, pre-COVID 2018, 2019.
00:52:10
Speaker
And I was very enthusiastic about some games in particular. And I loved some of those videos at the time. Whenever I look back at them, though, I do think I spoke far too quickly. Sounds like I'm trying to garble, get as much in 15 minutes as possible. I wouldn't say I've mellowed, but my diction's a little better, I like to think. I hope so. yeah hope there's improvement. Yeah, no, I used to talk way too quickly, far too quickly. It's definitely such a good practice, see, for if you're doing public speaking and you think, oh yeah, I speak fine in public, and then you listen back yourself and you're like, okay, i could work on this, I could work on this, I could work on that. that yeah it is such good practice and as well for me personally the confidence that you get out of it as well being able to construct your ideas put them across and be able to try and make them sound animated as it were do you do this as well where you're rehearsing a script or a video or whatever and you think oh i sound really good just now this is amazing i sound like the best youtuber or content creator ever and then when you actually record it it's like good evening today we are going to be doing this and you're like oh no oh no a lot of times when i record it i feel like at the time it sounds fine it's when i look back at things and suddenly i realize oh this wasn't nearly as good as i remembered it to be i think i look back on certain videos like rose tinted glasses but It varies. I will say it's tough to sound enthusiastic sometimes when the game itself is really bland. You mentioned robots earlier actually. I have to say the thing is with these games, if a game is really good or really bad, then that's great. I can get material out of it. I can talk about it. When the game is just so middle of the road, like, robots is not really a bad game. It's just kind of there. And it's not poorly made. It's one of those where you just don't know what to say about it. It's like, I'm going to give it just three stars. It's good. And it's very, very difficult to just get any kind of enthusiasm mustered over this game because it's just robots. It wasn't awful.
00:54:12
Speaker
It was just couldn't get into it. just couldn't. I just didn't really care for it. And it can get difficult to sound enthused. But I mean, i try. don't try to. It's weird because it depends how it goes, really. There are some times when I'm recording a script and sometimes I can record it, like i say, in one go, barely any problems at all. I will edit it in Audacity afterwards either way. But there are some times when I just keep fumbling over the same parts over and over. and And for some reason, my mouth has just decided not to make words that day. And it's just, it's excruciating because I just think, oh God, this is going to take me a while in Audacity afterwards. So, you know, it it does happen. I trip over my own words all
Personal Growth and Content Creation Journey
00:54:51
Speaker
the time. So yeah, I think it's a case of having good days and bad days. And you've to take the good with the bad.
00:54:55
Speaker
And this is why I don't know that I'd be very good at live presentations, like presenting work. I've thought about it. before I went for a radio job a few years ago, never got it, but I did think to myself, I really don't know how I'd be on live radio. I mean, I inadvertently swore when I was doing karaoke once, so I mean, I don't think that'd be well received on the radio, but yeah, I'm much better with a script, much better. And I like to think my delivery has improved in recent years. As saying before, i did Twitch streaming and things, that was such an uphill struggle because you don't really expect it to be so difficult to put yourself out there. yeah And I feel as if the more you do these content creations, endeavors you think right okay i'm getting more confident and it's easier to do it when you do it that way but as a radio host which is weird it sounds exactly the same as something like twitch streaming but obviously with twitch streaming you set your own pace it's a lot more relaxed i don't think i could go up against the big hitters of bbc radio or sdv or whatever and be like yeah i'm of course, I can do this, no problem. It's definitely one of those things you look and you think, you know that old meme of, yeah, I'm built differently.
00:56:11
Speaker
It's like, yeah, I can do this. And then you do and you're like, yeah, maybe not. I would love to be on a radio show or something as the guest. I just want to emphasise not as the host. I've never had any experience in that and I'd never get into the million years. But it's interesting seeing how the skills that you have now can transfer over to that. See, I've thought myself about going for more radio jobs, presenting work, even video editing roles. But at the same time, it's a bit of an issue, really, because I just I don't want the channel to die out. Yeah. And I just think in my job, I'm doing what I'm doing in my spare time. I'm not going to have the passion for it anymore, you know, and that's kind of a concern. I say that, but, you know, currently I'm just working on videos pretty much 24 seven at the moment. Well, I've not run out of steam yet. So you never know. I do worry about my eyesight, though, because I'm staring at screens all the time and I don't sleep well I've thought about going for like presenting roles as I say i've I've never actually branched out and done it though I've thought about going for presenting work but I've only ever had retail and office jobs in the past so I do think maybe it's time I actually try and get myself out there more really because I mean the thing is I do want to maintain the channel for as long as possible and I do miss it when I was in office work full-time job I could barely make any time for videos and that's evident from all the videos throughout 2022 23 think They were very sporadic and I did really severely miss doing it because I just didn't have the time for it. You know i was releasing a video every few months and it was just ridiculous. Like a 20 minute video every three, four months.
00:57:43
Speaker
It was horrible. And i'm I'm glad to be back, but obviously I don't know how long it's going to continue for. So I'm just kind of, I'm embracing it while it's here. Oh no, absolutely. Because it is just so easy to get burned out by something that you do enjoy, especially if you're doing it 24, well not 24 seven, but you know what I mean. You're doing that you're quite a lot. You think initially, oh, it's a great idea. Yeah, it's going to be fun. And then when you actually deep dive into it, you're like, yeah, that's interesting.
00:58:09
Speaker
It's getting there. It doesn't help when you get people, obviously, for me personally, I don't get this as much either. But when you hear people through the internet saying things like, oh, that's a particularly easy hobby profession, whatever. If you treat it as a hobby, don't get me wrong, obviously there's not as much stress on it, but if you want to get traction and keep up a consistency, whether it's weekly, monthly, or bimonthly, it's just it's quite hard to keep that up, you know? And I can see why so many people get burned out, because the amount of... content creators, streamers, YouTubers as well that I've seen, and I don't think this is going to happen to you because you are really putting out some amazing content, but the amount of them that I've seen, especially during and COVID, and that was a very different time, but they did it for a good while, and then all of a sudden they just dropped it because, for whatever personal reason, whether they were just burned out or it was getting a bit much, and you know, it's quite interesting is the wrong word because I don't want to sound very morbid there to be like oh it's interesting to see them fail no no no but it's quite interesting to see that other side of it that it is quite hard to work to be able to not only push ourselves as content creators but you know also see where we can go with that as you were saying you want to go into presenting and things like that and genuinely I think you would be great at that job you definitely will have the skills for it for sure and as I said it's all transferable you can slap it on the CV just like Yeah.
Platform Dynamics: YouTube and TikTok
00:59:41
Speaker
Look at my channel. Just don't look at a bug's life and we'll be fine. The trouble is, though, when you say, you know, I'm a YouTuber or something like that. Yeah. It's instantly dismissed. I understand why people think that way, because there are a lot of wannabe influencers, that kind of thing. You know, I hate TikTok with a passion. I've never used TikTok. I'm never getting TikTok in my life. Still, I've maintained that I'm not going to get TikTok.
01:00:03
Speaker
ah The thing is, my friend uploaded a TikTok video a few years ago now, and all it was was just a recording of the TV. It was just, she was watching a Shrek movie, and she put some filter on it, and... Her video got millions of views. She did get money from it as well. She was paid earning revenue. I was horrified because I was I forget what video I'd done at the time, but it had got a fraction of a fraction of the attention that her video got and she didn't have to make any effort whatsoever. Just recorded Shrek on the TV and just put a filter on it, put it out there. You know, i did ask the other day, i did like a poll on my channel asking, obviously the last few videos have been very time consuming because they're half an hour or more. And I just asked, do you prefer when I do shorter videos? Do you like a 20 minute video or half an hour or more? And the people who voted, the winning answer was 30 minutes or more. So it looks like long form videos are here to stay for a while, but they are very time consuming. And this is actually one reason as well why I've cut them up. I advertise them in like YouTube shorts. I just show clips of them in shorts and that really works. I often get more views for the shorts than I do for the main reviews. And I think it's partly to do with people's attention spans.
01:01:12
Speaker
And it's just quick and easy to absorb, I suppose. One thing I will say about YouTube, though, is that this has been an issue that's been prevalent for years. And it's worse now than ever before, where YouTube will promote regularity over quality content, which is obviously an issue. Because if your videos are more frequent, then chances are the quality is not there. You know, if you're releasing a video every single day, then you're literally just recording and slapping it out there and it's not really fair on content creators who actually put their time and effort into things to make things. YouTube always seem to miss the point really. It always feels like it's upper management of, ah well, of everywhere, of every employer. They never know what they're doing.
01:01:54
Speaker
Just don't really understand the little people down below who are struggling. But no, YouTube, it's very rare that my video will actually hit the algorithm and actually be forced into people's faces. It happens with really random videos though. really bizarrely out of the blue ones. For some reason, I know the AntBully video I did last year was really popular out of nowhere. I don't know why. I didn't realize AntBully was so beloved.
01:02:17
Speaker
ah Popular, yeah. But yeah, no, YouTube has always had that problem. And it it doesn't, it's it's not lucrative. So I can understand why people are leaving the platform. So many people are leaving the platform now In fact, it's got to the point where YouTube, the way I see it, is pretty much unrecognizable now compared to how it was 10 years ago. Like the people I was subscribed to, i rarely see their videos. I rarely see anything that I'm interested in anymore. There's a lot of, i don't know what you call it. It's like churned out manufactured content. content farms. Yeah. Yeah, and everything you see in Trending always looks so fake.
01:02:52
Speaker
It feels very soulless at the moment, to be honest. I mean, there's still some good channels out there, but they feel very few and far between because there's so much else out there that's just terrible. And that's, again, though, why being called a YouTuber is kind of maligned because, you know, people only see the negative stuff. I'm a YouTuber, yeah. It doesn't actually mean I just play the game and just stick it out there. But, yeah, it's it's always been an issue with YouTube and the fact that they seem to promote the wrong stuff. Oh, 100%. All the time. All the time.
01:03:20
Speaker
ah hundred percent for that it seems to be as you were saying before a significant shift towards short form content yeah you have techk talk which i totally agree with you i have techk to for the podcast and unfortunately because after i've edited these episodes i don't really have much time for, and I really should put time aside to make clips and things.
01:03:44
Speaker
So what I end up doing is whenever I put clips out, they never really land or they never really get popular, which is annoying because i always try to manually put in, granted I should find an app on it but i always try to put in you know captions and things so it's got a bigger reach and the ones i do it takes ages to do them for little returns so nine times out of ten i'll just put a lot of let's just say a podcasting memes and things up there just easy content to get attention now would you believe and this is gonna make you smile i know this but Would you believe that I had a video on TikTok and they brought this up before that got over a million views, right?
01:04:23
Speaker
And you might think, oh, what video was that? Was that a clip of the show? Was it a podcast meme? Was it something? Do you remember that meme that was going around about that show, The Boys, years ago? Have you seen The Boys? Sorry. I've not, no, no. So there's a scene of a particular character who is a parody of the superhero, the Flash, and he basically runs through somebody and kills them. And, you know, it's like a very tragic scene that sets the events of the show. And this isn't a major spoiler. It sets the events of the show into motion, but... People were doing this trend where they were taking clips of shows and there would be somebody standing there and then something would sweep across and would hit them off of the frame and then the boys logo would pop up and would be a catchy song. It was a really low effort meme, but it was a meme nonetheless. So one of the ones I did, just honestly, I was not hoping for this to take off or anything. I just thought, okay, this will be pretty funny, was clip of the Kung Fu Panda film. And there's like a freeze frame where one of the characters is trying to eat a steamed bun and then another character, it's like a blink and you miss it moment, goes across the screen and you can see him for a split second looking at the screen and smiling. And, you know, I put the music in, I put the meme in, so I thought, right, okay, that's kind of a funny thing. And, you know, I put it up and thought nothing of it. So imagine my shock when that's the only thing of that done.
01:05:52
Speaker
it's got where there's a million views for a meme on kung fu panda i've not even got a watermark for the podcast that's the thing that's why i hate tiktok because you never know what's gonna take off and the things that take off are so damn stupid yeah it's always the most random stuff that takes off oh it is have no idea why and it's the same with YouTube as well maybe not as egregious as TikTok but YouTube I am with you there the amount of particular videos if they're not the usual very dangerous videos or you know the ones that I mean that it's podcasts especially which always ticks me off and they're always coming away with the most controversial views known to man and they're just spouting it and they get millions of views for it and all of the other ones and I'm not comparing myself on their level but you get the other ones and even other content creators that I remember again as you were saying 10 years ago you would get people trying to be creative on the platform they would try and say okay we're gonna do it this way we're gonna do it that way to create content now it's very this is the second time i've brought them up this season but it's almost like the mr beastification of youtube where everything has to be flashy it has to be over the top it has to be jingling the keys as it were in front of people yeah otherwise you're gonna lag behind and i'm gonna be honest i don't know about you but i can't bring myself to do that No, it feels very soulless. And there's a lot of talk about Mr. Beast lately. and do You know, there were allegations that came out and then suddenly he seems to have this deal with Amazon. He's got his own TV show. And I just thought, how did that even happen? i don't know how they have so many views either. Because i just look at these thumbnails and just think, it looks like trash. Yeah. It looks like trash TV. And like you say, it's very glossy and it's so manufactured. And yet, weirdly, I don't know anybody who watches that kind of stuff. I don't understand how... Who are these millions of people who are watching him? I don't know who these people are. We're calling you out just now. We're calling all you out listening. If you're a Mr. Beast fan, speak up now. the comments.
01:08:01
Speaker
I've probably angered somebody else now. Oh, no, it's fine. I'll get the flack for this one. It's okay. The first one's free. I've ticked off the Rugrats fan, the Eldorado fan. and Yeah, now the Mr. Beast fans are coming after me as well. you look at the Venn diagram, it's probably just a circle.
01:08:20
Speaker
That's the same guy. There's one guy who's constantly pissed off with everything I say. Again, there have been people who have criticized them, rightfully so, and there's other particular YouTubers that he's teamed up with that again have done abhorrent things, but then it's kind of been washed under the bridge, as it were, because, oh, they've got a multi-million deal with this company and nobody cares anymore. It feels very, and I don't want to sound very happy when I say this, but it feels very corporate nowadays. Yes, yeah, it does. Yeah, if you want to make it big on YouTube, and I remember back in the Smosh days and Shmo Yoho, if they're still going about, all of the old YouTubers, the ones that haven't been cancelled by now, I just want to point that out. But you know, back then, if you wanted to make it big, I remember that they had to sign up to, I think, think it was can't remember the official term but it was kind of like a distribution company especially for gaming you had machinima for like that john c graham who did rb and the chief you had red versus blue which was getting published through it i think i want to say i could be wrong was the hidden block as well wasn't that a gaming one i'm sure yeah there was normal boots as well but can't remember if they were mission But yeah, no, it was a different time, of course, because you didn't expect to make money off of YouTube or by any means make a career.
01:09:47
Speaker
But I think nowadays that you've got this, and again, this could be a whole episode in itself, but you've got this whole culture now all young people watching these particularly problematic figures, which honestly, wouldn't name one of them, but pick one out the hat. Yeah.
01:10:01
Speaker
as it were, because there's hundreds of them nowadays. They're looking at this, they want to emulate that behaviour, and then when you see them on the news, you're causing mischief and just harassing people, etc. As you said, you're not going to look at a YouTuber as a respected profession, even with, oh god, with the Mr. Beast thing and his very soulless expression, even when he smiles. Usually I don't comment on people's when they smile or whatever, but there's something creepy about that smile. It's very cold and unnatural. Yeah. It doesn't seem organic, does it? I've seen a lot of comments on it myself, and I quite agree that his eyes don't smile. That's it. Like, his mouth is smiling and nothing else's is yeah dead. It's like he's gritting his teeth.
01:10:41
Speaker
ah Yeah, it's quite unsettling. yeah Yeah, when that's the face at YouTube nowadays, that these companies backing them as, oh look, these are the ones that you should be following. And you're like, and no.
01:10:54
Speaker
It's like, it's okay. I'll stick to the old school ones. Thank you. It does feel like there's very little organic YouTube channels. that I mean, there's probably a lot, but they don't get pushed yeah by the algorithm. So, I mean, you say that to make it big now, well, it's all about money. And I guess that's true. i mean, the equipment I use is very, very basic, really. I've had this same microphone since... It would have been since the yeah Casper Pilot in 2016. Wow. So I've literally just got a mic and my camera.
01:11:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's very basic. It's not even like a high-end camera. You can tell in my videos it's not ultra HD or anything, which I'm glad about because, you know, you don't see all the wrinkles. Yeah. I've thought about upgrading very soon, but I'm not remotely technically minded at all. I've got no idea what I'm looking for. But, you know, it does the job but and nobody's complained yet. So carry on doing it and hoping for the best. And if one of my videos gains traction again, then great. But yeah, it's a minefield out there currently on YouTube. It's very empty. But my recommendations that come up are bizarre, actually. I don't understand their algorithm for suggesting recommended content. I get the most random stuff come up.
01:11:57
Speaker
But It's a search function for me that I think has been absolutely nerfed. I have no idea why they thought the first three or four videos, okay, that's related to your search. And then the rest of them are just random recommendations. And it's like... well if i wanted those recommendations then you know i would stay in the home page the trending page it's like no no do you want to watch this gaming video about this and that and it's like no no no i want to watch a video about i don't know podcasting or want to watch one about red pandas and it's like if i hear what you're saying but would you like this clip of a very misogynistic person talking into a microphone it's like no i
01:12:35
Speaker
would not 110 i would not why are you pushing this youtube that's the thing if you've searched for something in particular as well why would they suggest something else is totally different oh i don't get it it is absolutely bizarre honestly all i can say is i hope it gets better in the future hopefully you never know it's touchwood with youtube they have their peaks and valleys they have the golden ages and then it slumps down to their youtube rewinds in which They've never done since 2019, want to say, or whenever the last one Will Smith was at us. They lost touch, I
Community and Channel Growth
01:13:10
Speaker
think. yeah The last one I remember was very negatively received. I can't quite remember why. I think because the people they included in it were just unknowns or people that that people didn't think they should be in the video. I can't quite remember now, but I remember there was a lot of talk about it at the time. Like I say, it just feels like, as with most employers, I think the upper management are just completely clueless as to what people really want but i mean as long as there's still love for smaller creators out there i like the following i have yeah i've got a very loyal following i think whenever i have a premiere i'll get the same regulars turn up every time and the live chat will often be very lively and that's one of the reasons why i love to do it because you know everyone congregates comes together even though we don't see each other we don't really know each other we're from all over the place all over the world it's actually quite amazing like when i actually stop and think about it i just think This has just been made by me in my room with a mic and a camera. You know, I've got people in the US all over the world watching. There's this guy from Poland, I think, who regularly comments as well. It's amazing. It's amazing what you can do. It's nice that I get the audience that I do get. I think if people like something, word does spread and it gains traction. But yeah, I can't compete with the likes of you know Mr. Beast. Not that I'd want to particularly. So hopefully I'll be able to maintain it for years to come. Honestly, I feel as if that's the perfect footnote for this episode. It's just a sweet note to end on, but yeah, you're completely right. It is amazing people you meet on your content creation journey, and especially when it comes to making videos, or even if it's audio only or whatever. It is great seeing your bunch of regulars, as you say, commenting and being so supportive, and it's something that you never really think about when you go into and then you see these amazing people when you think,
01:14:58
Speaker
Wow. Even though, as you were saying, they're all over the world, that they're all joined together watching your video. And honestly, is such a great thing to see. It is. And it is so great seeing that you've fostered this community. And other than, obviously, the one detractor, clearly.
01:15:16
Speaker
it's masquerading under different aliases clearly it is so great to see your channel flourish and I genuinely the only thing that I don't like about your channel is the fact that it doesn't have more subscribers it's grown quite a bit over the last I'd say the last year or so I've got comments like that before I don't mean that in like a conceited way but I mean it's always been very nice that people always say the channel is so underrated part of me does think but how do I not be underrated you know But yeah, no, it is very nice. So I've had several people basically call me out as being one of their favorite YouTube channels, which is really amazing when it's literally just me here. yeah And it's really very flattering.
01:15:59
Speaker
But yeah, it's weird thinking that I do actually have, you know, a small, well, fairly large now number of fans around the world. It's really, really surreal. actually to think about because when I make these things obviously it's very insular it's just me in my room and yeah like I say every time we have a premiere and live chat I love it every single time and everyone always has a good time so yeah hoping to carry on for as long as possible before we wrap up I have one more question okay other than to ask the lovely Pandalurys listening at home where to find your content but I've got one other important question here and that's about the name of your channel yeah okay I was gonna ask it at the beginning but
01:16:37
Speaker
I feel I said I have before we end the episode. This often comes up and I have to say the story behind it is actually, unfortunately, nowhere near as interesting as probably like to think. It's actually really quite a dull story. Because basically, about oh over 10 years ago, i started a blog, an animation blog, and I needed a mascot for it, a caricature. And this stick guy was meant to be like a caricature of myself at the time. And... The only thing I needed otherwise was a name for the blog. And I just thought, well, this guy looks like me, except he doesn't have a nose. So I literally just named the blog I don't have a nose. Over time, the blog eventually got kind of phased out. It lasted for several years. But I did a post about video games that did surprisingly well. They mostly, most my posts were about animation, but kind of veered off. and talked about animation games, you know, like Disney games, that kind of thing.
01:17:31
Speaker
And because of that, I decided to branch out and extend it to a YouTube channel. Over time, obviously, it's evolved and just it is now just the YouTube channel. The blog is still out there, but I haven't used it in about four years now. But that's basically how it came to be. The name was simply I Don't Have a Nose because of the caricature of me.
01:17:50
Speaker
And he didn't have a nose. And that was literally the only reason. But the name has stuck. Basically, I'm stuck with it whether I like it or not. I mean, I can change it, but no. It's unique, at least you can put it that way. But that's all it is. And the amount of comments I've had from people saying, do you lie, you have a nose. And I'm like, yeah, I know. In the beginning, it was also excruciating because I realized, oh, have I made a mistake here? Because when I started on YouTube, whenever you search for I don't have a nose, my videos would always be recommended alongside videos of people tragically born without noses.
01:18:18
Speaker
And it was just like, hmm. Yeah, maybe this wasn't such a good idea, but these days I'm easier to find, thankfully. So yeah, but that's all it is. That's the story behind it. Not too interesting, I'm afraid. I do indeed have a nose. Yes, I've seen the video proof of it. I mean, i did pass it to our handy dandy researchers at Chatsunami, and unfortunately they can't determine whether the nose has been AI generated or not. But, you know, we're still working on that now.
01:18:46
Speaker
I'll never tell. Yeah, as you tap your nose. Yeah, my non-existent nose. Yeah.
Closing and Gratitude
01:18:51
Speaker
On that note, Michael, thank you so much for coming on tonight and A, discussing your channel and B, most importantly, just sharing your passion with the lovely listeners at home. No, thank you. Thank you for having me. It's been been good. I've enjoyed it. And before we wrap up, where can these, as I said, lovely, lovely listeners at home find your content? It's just on YouTube and just type I don't have a nose. Otherwise, you can actually, I've got some other other links as well. You can follow me on Instagram. It's just Instagram.com slash I don't have a nose and Facebook.com slash I don't have a nose. And there's also my Patreon, which is patreon.com slash idon'thavenose. All very easy to follow. I do also have a Twitter, but I very rarely advertise it these days because I'll be honest, I rarely use it. I really should change the yeah ah URL. I think idon'thavenose was taken or something when I first started it and it's got a very obscure name. So I've kind of phased out promoting the Twitter page. I will still promote my videos on there, but yeah I won't really give that a mention. But yeah, Instagram, Facebook and Patreon, those are the links. And otherwise, it's just idon'thavenose on YouTube. As I was saying before, definitely go check out that channel or if you can. Obviously, listen to the end of this episode first and then go away and watch the videos because honestly, you won't be disappointed. is an absolutely fantastic channel. I feel like ah you're like a propaganda video. It's like, so please do your part. Maybe one day we can raise the money to buy Don't Have a Nose, a nose.
01:20:16
Speaker
One do. But no, definitely go check out that channel. is absolutely fantastic. And yeah, if you want to listen to more content from ourselves, then you can indeed listen to us on our website, chatsanami.com, as well as all good podcast apps.
01:20:30
Speaker
I also want to thank our amazing Pandalorian patrons, RoboticBattleToaster, Sonya, Ghostie, and Cryptic1991. Thank you so, so much for supporting the show. You guys are absolutely amazing. But if you would like exclusive content behind the scenes, early access, as well as tips on how to hide your nose, clearly. For legal reasons, that last one is a joke. then you can indeed check us out at our Patreon page, patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami. This podcast is also a proud member of the Podpack Collective. For more information, check us out on Twitter slash X at Podpack Collect.
01:21:07
Speaker
But until next time, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.