Man do I know who you are absolutely not but Mesa 777 you are the personality of the dream team and you are the reason I watch your videos btw yeah I'm subbed to mark and jack but I'm still subbed to old creators that I watch views dip year over year and still enjoy the person behind the screen you keep being awesome keep being you
It's weird that the meta has gone back to single game content. As for Mr Beastification, I've noticed that. I've been here a bit longer than you. I saw when single game content creators got big. One of my favorite StarCraft game castors was HuskyStarCraft. Huskey deleted his main channel to be another Logan Paul.
I could be wrong but I feel like a shift is happening. More people are getting fed up with the painfully attention grabbing content and gravitating to more slow paced, personality driven stuff. People are watching hours long videos with barely any editing. I'm hoping this shift continues and we strike a healthy balance between fast paced topic videos and slower personality videos.
one of those that i know of, is MainlybadassHero a simple, not overly edited Horro games channel that makes long videos, doesnt talk alot, shows all the endings of the game (if it has) and gives some honest opnions at the end plus he has a narrator voice that fits the gameplay that said, trying to find other channels that make horror videos, it's hard to not find one that tries to put memes and other edits during the vid that kills the horror...
The thing i miss the most about the old UA-cam is the sense of community where it actually felt like everyone on the platform was supporting each other
Yeah. But now, all you see is either death threats or if you’re lucky, just toxicity, both of which comes from many factors such as bad parenting/tough life situations and or ignorance.. and many other things.
This I think was big for UA-cam back then. It felt like a neighborhood for creators. If Mark made unus annus back then, regardless if Mark heavily advertised it on his main channel, their first explosion of views on a video would have sent it to the trending tab (back when people cared about it when it showed actual trending videos and not curated garbage decided by UA-cam) and the entire community of UA-cam would have seen the video. Then it would have collected it's own audience outside of Mark's main channel and would keep doing well that way as well. UA-cam divided the platform so much now, it's just a database of people to just throw videos into rather than a community that supported each other and anyone could join in with their own unique channel. Now creators have to commercialize their channels to get the algorithm working for them and it kills genuine creativity. One thing I hear is "how hard" it was to make it on UA-cam back in the day, but I really don't think every person should be able to make it, some just don't bring something to the table enough to work. I disagree with the idea that higher quality videos are more present today than back then. There was "garbage" on UA-cam that were just people fucking around. Now that garbage is in the form of people trying to pass it off as content to make money off it, it doesn't matter that it has editing and 1080p 60fps on it.
@@crazyd4ve875 Yeah. I absolutely abhor those Shorts, it makes me sick the more I looked at them, so I try to avoid viewing them, but wholesome shorts of people helping animals, or people of science giving actual scientific facts or insects being shown and explained and these sort of stuff I don’t mind watching, in fact I love it, but that AI shi, no, that is a red line Unhinged or people trolling people and harming them in other Shorts is also included, I hope you never see that shi, but I also ask that you report it if you were to see it, it can be really disturbing.
Mark still does as he has always been doing. He of course evolves into other things that interest him as time goes on, but he has stayed the same. The only significant changes he’s done is stepping away from videos (either on purpose or accident) to work on bigger projects. Once he’s done with his project, same old lovable gaming videos we all love. Mark is a person that is very hard to replicate, and he only does what interests him. He be a cool big muscular man.
THIS! What I also tried to mean in the comments. He still has his audience, just that he prioritizes his friends and fam a lot more nowadays (and many projects), he's got his own adventures to settle for as of this time. Sure his audience build up nowadays may be a bit slow, but it was never gone, UA-cam just wants to say so ☠️
@@ChaseyBoyJones nobody stays the same but old mark when he did prophunt etc and now are verry different he looks tired when used to smile be optimistic and loud, he can still be like that sometimes but its rarely
Mark is super similar to how he used to be but I miss him constantly making mascots and alter egos like tiny box tim and the king of the squirrels mark also had a phase where he did virtually only live action content but I've always stuck with Mark he's always been a staple for me fs
UA-cam's algorithm is fucked. I can watch over 100 Markiplier videos but won't get any recommended videos from him, i have to wait for my notifications to tell me. I watch 1 random ass video, suddenly i get recommended their entire video library and i'm not even subbed to them.
I agree! It's really difficult to find what you want to watch on the for you page nowadays. Like honestly, it takes longer to find a video you're interested in than actually watching it.
This applies to music on UA-cam too. I can listen to a bunch of happy hardcore, but UA-cam just recommends music that has nothing to do with what I listen to on here. It's like the algorithm sees what you like to watch/listen to and just decides "nope, your choice is wrong, watch/listen to this instead".
FACTS, I’ve stopped getting Markiplier stuff suggested to me for years! Now I’m getting lame dumb LP and KSI crap on my feed. Olden UA-cam was the golden UA-cam as for everything else, something so good isn’t meant to last.
@@CrazyKevin22 Yup, the entire entertainment industry. Look at games, movies, etc. Things went from being passions projects and things done by people who loved what they do to...whatever it is today. As soon as a bunch of corporate leeches caught wiff of the potential for income everything slowly shifted to become the same cookie cutter attention retention machine. I belive Bo Burnham said something along the lines "We used to colonize lands because that's where the money was. Now they realized that they can colonize human attention and colonize every minute of your ilfe."
@@CrazyKevin22 The endless abundance of digtal spaces made them fundamentally incompatible with capitalism, which relies on limitations to trade with. And so they subverted and remade the Internet in their image. Corproations have once again publically become anti-human and oppressive both in both real-life and in the digital expanse. Not that they weren't before, but now they know how to exploit us efficiently and get away with it.
replace the last sentence with "exploiting kids" because most of the yt rev goes from the ads that are clicked on by dopamine starved kids and toddlers who can't read or write alright but for real tho it has to be illegal right? like that sounds illegal? that's probably illegal
The Mr. Beastification really hit hard. I noticed a lot of the channels I loved for their content and personality now just make tier lists or I did EVERY blank type videos. The personality is there but it feels more corporate than ever and thus I find myself clicking less on those channels because it is not the content I want or like but what youtube wants them to make. Like others I have been gravitating more towards those creators still prioritizing themselves over the meta (primarily streamers uploading minimally edited or well edited playthroughs of games to youtube). If I want information on a topic I will go find that, but those creators I support add their twist to it to elevate it past just a simple upload. Keep up the work Mesome, only by rejecting the beastification can we return to markiplier
Mr. Beast was not the issue, he just understood how to massively profit over what the new UA-cam Meta was. If anything this always loops back to YT and Google wanting to optimize to death user retention.
@theshellderinslowbrostail5422 oh I agree, I simply meant how a lot of channels started following a similar trend of escalation in much the same way of his videos, going from unique content to the same generic meta-following trends. Some creators even from their own unique editing styles to emulating his complete with using the same font for subtitles. He isn't the problem, just the originator and most successful face of the current meta (being the top channel beating out major corporations). I know a lot are just trying to survive in the ever changing market, and google/yt are fueling the race to the bottom
One of my favorite creators under the original single game content model was HuskyStarCraft. Dude deleted his main channel, ghosted us, and became another Logan Paul or wannabe Justin Bieber. I thought I was going crazy when I heard his voice a few years later on my son's TV, at least until a few years later I watched a video on deleted YT channels, and my son confirmed he used to watch the new channel. What was crazy was his old channel was not just still earning ad revenue from classic matches, he had 2 music parody videos that had large budgets. While the videos were about units that are not just no longer the meta, but now considered weak, it still would have gained revenue. One of the PFPs I use actually came from his website's forum. A guy was doing art for free, and I asked him for a simple piece. Not this one of course. I got this one from my Bungie account back during the Halo 3 era.
@@theshellderinslowbrostail5422 Mr Beast was the issue though. The current meta absolutely skyrocketed into what it is right now and you can argue Mr Beast had a hand in creating it. And knowing what we know now about Mr Beast it's no surprise that he, along with many others that have followed his example have either started out fake and corporate, or they became fake and corporate. Cause that's the inspiration for why they do the content that they do. They've completely lost the "you" in youtube, everything is about money, over the top personalities and production value, hours and hours of work for you to only see a chaotic 10 minute fragment of it. Jacksepticeye wasn't just talking out of his ass when he said that Mr Beast ruined youtube. Look at how many older creators are no longer making videos or if they do make videos it's only occasionally. And those videos don't get nearly the amount of viewers as they used to.
Markiplier earned my loyalty by force of his personality. In a world where celebrities, both online and offline, are constantly being revealed as predators, bigots, or otherwise awful individuals with dark secrets; Markiplier has always seemed genuine. An actually good guy who has made mistakes, but owned up to them and actually worked to be better than he was. I'm proud of how far he has come, now working on his own film projects and using his success to help others. I believe that Markiplier has the intelligence and social media acumen to make it work regardless when he started. Sure, his view to subscriber ratio has gone down - but I think too many people put way too much stock on that viewer count, especially on Twitch. Most people don't think about just how many people 50 viewers is, could you imagine having 50 people sitting behind you in your living room - just watching you play and talk? What about 1000? 10,000? Perhaps by a social media monetary measurement, 1000 viewers isn't a lot - but the idea of having even 100 people just chilling with me, watching me play is mind boggling. Could you imagine having 311,000 people sitting in an auditorium, just listening to you recite your video essay? That is a LOT of attention for a single individual to command at once.
nah mark showed unless its super popular to support someone he wont lift a finger like when he refused to stop his audience from harassing and threatening Scott Cawthon and his wife even game theory matt pat did more than mark did
I love how you said that most of the people here probably don't know you. This is the first video from you I've seen so that is funnily accurate. I saw Mark in the thumbnail and was curious, especially since I once wanted to try to build a UA-cam channel, but was too shy. Now that I'm older and able to talk on a video, I realize I'm too late.
Samesies! This is also my first time watching this content creator. I loved the video, so I subscribed, and liked. Glad I came across this video to find out about him.
Literaly the first video i have ever seen of markiplier and whoever this dude is. It was in my suggestions after shook up my algorith with a playlist i made to shock my suggests.
This year I've been finding a few smaller channels who I watch specifically for the personality. I think that meta is slowly coming back we just have to look for it harder than back in the day
You could say the same for a lot of the popular internet communities from the past. They didn't die out, but the internet grew much faster than they would and got drowned out. They are no longer prominent. But they survived.
What's sad is going through you subbed channels and finding someone who used to post all the time, and you loved watching them, but finding out they haven't posted in years and most likely will never come back I dare people to go on a nostalgia trip of their subbed to channels
You see, i do something different. I sub to channels that I find that haven't uploaded/posted anything in an amount of time that's unusual for them to see if they ever upload again. None of them have, but good social experiment.
In the past year I've had about a dozen or two creators that I've been subbed to for years and years that hadn't uploaded anything in five years to over a decade suddenly upload something only to vanish again. Some of them have actually been somewhat active, but only on the community posts side(which UA-cam is *absolutely terrible* at promoting) or have chosen to purposely not have their newer content show up in the subscription feed. But even then, I still occasionally think of some of the creators that used to upload regularly but are now silent and wonder what they're up to. Have they died? Did they move on to college/a new career? Did they start a family? I may never learn, but I'll probably still be sitting here waiting for the day when they decide to return.
i can only think of one right now, but im sure there are a few more that i used to watch that never upload anymore due to youtube basically telling them "no, youre not allowed to be successful on this platform" whybeare...
The very first Let's Player I ever subbed to was ScottishDuck17. Every so often I go back and rewatch some of his LPs for a nostalgia trip. If I recall correctly, RayWilliamJohnson was the first person I ever subbed to... Heck I remember when he celebrated becoming number 1 on UA-cam way back when.
or going back and seeing that their content has shifted so much it barely resembles what got you interested in the first place, if at all. Honestly I'd argue that's worse, at least if they never upload again your image of the person behind the content remains the same
I still recall when i found Mark during his Slender: The Arrival video. I think he only had around 10k subs at it was wild to see him grow. It certainly feels sad knowing that trends are a requirement to be successful but i still go back to Mark for who he is, a funny and great guy just wanting to provide some entertainment.
I found Mark back when he was playing the scp containment breach let's play and by God that man had like 5k or 7k subs. His amnesia playthrough was the one that really shot him to stardom and beyond. And honestly he's one of the few on UA-cam I think actually deserve it
@@havochaos9790 I found Mark during his original slender play through so roughly 5000 subs. it was mad to see how quickly he grew and he deserves every bit of it. love his distractible podcast and keep upto dat with it regularly.
I think I got recommended him back when he had about 100-200k subs. Seeing him realize that he would never have the relationship he had with the fans he had actually hurt. The dude had gotten too big. That's why if I ever see him I'm gunna just treat him like a regular dude, and when I walk away, I'll just say "tell Wade I said he was right" and leave him wondering.
The worst part about this is not only have I noticed it, but it definitely helped to contribute to the death of smaller and larger creators alike. larger creators found that what they loved doing didn't work anymore, and chose to stop or faded into obscurity. smaller creators tried to do this and realized too late that this isn't the UA-cam we have anymore.
So very true, but also remember the creators who strive to never give up. Those who persevere dispite the odds not being completely in their favors. I'm one of those channels myself, and I'll be damned if I give up to run away. I think of it like this.. I'm creative, and good at what I do so... Being I enjoy this as a labor of love, and not simply to make money I tend to enjoy myself more. I don't care at all what others think I should make content about, I do what I personally enjoy myself. Logically there are countless others on this platform as content viewers who also happen to like the same things I do, and have passions for my same interests. Those are the people I hope find my channel, and tag along for the ride. That is who I am doing this for, besides just my own self.
@hedwigon6951 I've been a follower of StephenPlays for over a decade, almost two weeks ago he released a "channel update video" in which he was given the advice that what he's been doing for over a decade, all the work he's been doing finally has to change or he'll be crushed by the system. He mentioned in the past year between UA-cam, Twitch, and Patreon, the cost of producing UA-cam videos basically broke even. After over a DECADE of content creation, he now has to find new ways to make the content that brings him joy. Because the algorithm refuses to keep his work in the recommended feed. This man and his crew have been producing daily content the entire time. Because the algorithm demanded daily inputs. That stopped working at some point. He split his channels because the algorithm demanded it. Despite being subscribed, unless I search for a specific series, neither the lets plays from "plays" or the VODs from "VOD" ever show up. And when they do, its only the exact series and videos I've been watching. (Example: I use the "Stephen and Mal play Chulip" series to sleep. The entire Playlist ends up in my recommended, or I can find the first handful of episodes or the episodes of the factory, (around 15-18) as they line up with when I wake up, so they want me to go back and "finish" those episodes.) Meanwhile, his vlogs that get uploaded somewhat consistently but not perfectly on a schedule often end up in the recommended randomly. And I don't watch the vlogs often. I'll wait for the next one if there's a "life event" like when their cat got sick, because even though it was probably weeks back, I did want the update. If this is what the algorithm has come to, it's broken.
I remember when youtubers used to be actual personalities and now they’re all screaming, over exaggerated emotions, 500 sound effects every millisecond and flashy transitions that just feels like they are catering to people with the attention span of a goldfish with dementia
I think it makes sense to be a streamer and be energetic, and have big reactions, look at ishowspeed, he is “new” and most people clown on him for being too extreme but the ppl who say that don’t actually watches his streams and instead look at tik tok clips of him being excessive. But his streams are actually super entertaining and it’s because of speed not the games he plays. I’ll watch his streams no matter how long they are, I watch a lot of other streamers too but they are not as entertaining as speed and I’ve found that the streamers/ UA-camrs that are the chillest personality wise are usually the ones who put in all the dumbass editing.
Also if you are watching a streamer, you want to also experience some emotions as well, you don’t want to watch a guy who stops talking for 20 seconds at a time and has a monotone voice you can barley hear with little to no personality or commentary would you?
I'm also an avid Markiplier fan. Been following him since his FNAF days. I use to see his stuff all the time. It's gotten to a point where half the time I have to manually search for his content. Same with many others I have subbed to. It's one of the reasons why I am glad I can just browse the subscription section. This video came from a well informed and insightful place. New sub from me. (:
Mark is also uploading a LOT less than he was at his peak output, since nowadays he's more focused on other projects. He's done the hard yards, now he's set up to explore things he Wants to do and doesn't have to play YT's game to make it through
When I watch any Creator do a playthrough I absolutely love it when they have the number of the episode on the thumbnail itself it's so much easier to keep track of woods when you're watching and there's a lot less clickbait that way as well
And PLAYLISTS. Playlists are so important for a multi-video playthrough it's unreal. Though I'd very much prefer the whole game to be in a single video o matter how long like RTGame does it
@@agent7176 you can always stop watching and play it again whenever with the video starting from where you stopped. It's how I usually watch Hardleg Joe's Master Duel Ladder Climbs, RT's "Let's play all of", among other things. Even if you stop and watch other stuff for a while, it's still saved when you come back to the video. The main differences between those longplays and episodic vids are that 1) you don't have to wait for the next episode, 2) the editing is usually better since they really gotta pack in what's important and fun, 3) viewers don't lose interest while waiting for the next instalment
I kind of agree with both of y'all on that I don't mind going back to a video that's real long makes it convenient cuz it's just one video to deal with but at the same time if I'm trying to follow along in the playthrough it's a lot better to have a playlist of multiple videos lot easier to find what I was looking for
The sad thing is, I feel like UA-cam sees the og UA-camrs like Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, Vanossgaming, SMG4, DanTDM, Vinesauce Vinny and other ogs as replaceable by Bad/Elsagate users like Lankybox, SSSniperWolf and Logan Paul, because unlike the og youtubers, users like these three are only interested in one thing; drawing in views from kids through any scummy means necessary to get monetization, which in turn makes youtube money, which is why you see og's getting in trouble for doing things that are'nt even remotely bad or wrong (like swearing), yet you see users like Logan Paul still getting views and money despite all the shit he has done.
I can only recall one of my og youtube subs is still uploading and that is Good mythical morning. Other than that the subbox i pretty much dead from my other og subscriptions.
Both SSSniperwolf and Logan Paul has done disgusting and illegal things that goes to show how scummy UA-cam really is. They can break the rules as long as they give money. That includes just horrible illegal things
I love that you used Mark for this example. He’s been my favourite UA-camr for 7 years now and has become sort of a safe space/comfort person - it sort of makes me sad for the next gen because I don’t know if they’re gonna have something like that, even if it’s “just through a screen”.
Just to clarify, CoopMoe noted, it’s a “Backronym”-that is, it was already a word on its own (indicating “change”) but was used after-the-fact as an acronym for M.E.T.A. (Most Effective Tactic Available).
Right... it's not what it stands for at all. That's just what folks decided it stands for after it was already widely used to describe the current trend that transcends the defined behavior/expectations for something.
@@MisterNightfish yes and no. Meta is in and of itself a word/prefix meaning self-referential. Think metamorphosis: osis - process + morph - changing of structure + meta - of the self = the process of an entity changing its state like a caterpillar to a butterfly. So with the term metagame it's the game in reference to the game or the strategies placed on top of the core gameplay of the game itself. It then became shorthand to refer to the metagame simply as the "meta" which in turn led to the introduction of the backronym "most effective tactic available"
It wasn't lol. It was a video sharing site well before Google bought it, and was facing eventual bankruptcy from people sharing family guy and daily show clips because the company wasn't big enough to fight the labels and studios over copyright.
It was planned to be a dating site but they changed it after a week after it launched. After that, it was a video sharing site even before Google bought it
No wonder why UA-cam is boring these days. I love Mark, Jack, Pewds, Smosh, etc. There are only a handfull that I watch since the algorithm is trash. A good personality UA-camr that I discover a few years ago is a channel called Smitty(The milkbag). He has good editing but his videos are funny and engaging. The same as Mark but just with a little bit more editing like what lixian is doing to marks channel.
@@stalwartnerd lixian is great, but as every person they are subject to a few occurences that people don't like. There was a while where they used awful subtitles for a dark series and it just did not mesh well. Can't remember if it was black subtitles or white subtitles. Probably GTF0.
The lower levels of editing is part of why if started watching game channels like The Librarian and Manlybadasshero. Their personality is why they are who I primarily watch.
I get that this video is focussed on gaming creators, but when you zoom out to the entirety of youtube it explains the situation. Back in the day, personality was what mattered - and as someone who watched gaming creators over ten years ago, they pretty much just waffled on about whatever. Nowadays you have specialized creators who often are experts in their subject, and i think that's a good thing overall. "Slop" is a problem nowadays, but the amout of knowledgable, quality content is also insanely high, and i appreciate that.
Cause today's creators only upload for US, they stopped doing it for themselves. The You was meant for the camera on the creator, now it's for the camera on the audience that will always change and so they change, Mark started his channel and never stopped creating content for himself and what he loves to do and he has never changed, he has just evolved himself to be better and better everyday but he is still Mark still to this day
@@twilightparanormalresearch186 I think for me, UA-cam started become corporate in early 2014. when google employees Susan wojcicki. Become CEO of UA-cam, thing become down turn in UA-cam over years.
Oh no, someone has the algorithm distilled down to perfection- half of his channel is about manipulating youtube, the other half is about manipulating game mechanics and a few other things- basically just manipulating automated systems. I present you with: The Spiffing Brit- this dude knows how to tweak the balls off the algorithm.
He does some serious research into his algorithm breaking, too. I remember his "slow this video down to watch it" video where he talks about the way he dived into how watch time is actually recorded and thinking about how he's thinking through the algorithm more than YT engineers who make the thing are. Which is scary on a few levels, tbh.
You've hit the nail on the head of why I'm not as happy with UA-cam's recommended videos anymore, I've been trying to figure that out for a while. My viewing is based on a mix of both, if it's a creator I know and if the topic is interesting. When I see videos now, the personality of the creators is gone. It's all about how much money they've spent, how big the video is, and big moments. I loved UA-cam as it was a community based platform. I feel like ever since they got rid of the "Broadcast Yourself" slogan, it's become like TV. Don't get me wrong, there are some great personalities on TV, but some things just feel acted on UA-cam now. The video ads don't help either. I still remember the days of no video ads, the worst thing were only the small pop-up ads. Great video man. Also that 4th wall break about how people would probably find this video was really cool. P.S I care about who you are. I hope you're doing well.
I remembered the good old days of UA-cam Markiplier, PopularMMOs, JonTron, PewDiePie, Chuggaaconroy, NintendoCaprisun, UberHaxorNova, ImmortalHD, SuperMarioLogan, Stampy, Roosterteeth, Vanoss, YamiMash, ManlyBadassHero, SlimKirby, Tobuscus, Luigikid, Dorkly, PeanutButterGamer, The Diamond Minecart, JohneAwesome, SirLionHeart, MunchingOrange, HuskyMudkips, MinecraftUniverse, Smosh, Sundy, and more.
This hit me in all the nostalgic feels. I remember growing up and watching the creators, like you said for them and a bit for the niche. But it was nice when a creator said "Hey new game today" and it meant that a new channel wasn't needed for that. I kinda hope for that return because it means people won't have to separate every single thing into diff channels, it can come back to their main.
I would love it for people to stop putting any different content onto one of five different channels. I feel like it would just make more sense to just keep it all in the same place, have it all reach your whole audience. That way, you won't need to plug different channels and people can just... decide if they want to watch your different genre of content or skip over it whil they wait for another video on the content they like.
@@OkamiLyra If people only watch certain videos and not others, youtube will think you’re not a big fan, and stop recommend. It’s why users make multiple channels for varying categories
Wow, I guess I never fully realized UA-cam as a whole had made this shift from personality to content focused. Now that I’ve watched this video I can’t unsee the concept in all of my recommendations.
What got me to watch this video was an interaction at work where none of my 20-25 year old coworkers knew of Markiplier at all. I'm 27 and i felt like a fossil, a deep wave of sad nostalgia washed over me.
Unus Annus kinda reminds me of Jared Leto and what he did with 30 Seconds to Mars. The reason a lot of people well over a decade later only started figuring out that that was his bad and was the main singer was intentional. He wanted the band to stand on it's own legs and not be associated with because he's an actor. Sure he appeared in the music videos, but in the early 2000s most singers didn't appear in their video aside from when it cut to them playing instruments, so most didn't question it.
Thats actually so interesting to know cause I knew about 30 Seconds to Mars back in 2011 when I was nine and didn’t know Jared Leto acted until Suicide Squad came out. I seriously thought it was a singer from a famous band deciding to start acting
@@Alex_in_Wonderland111 have I got the movie recommendation for you. If you want to watch one of the most dread inducing realistic drama with Jared Leto as one of the leads. Watch Requiem for a Dream. You probably know the song but didn’t know where it is from/popularized by. If you aren’t thoroughly disturbed by the potential for darkness out of a normal existence from this movie than you are probably a sociopath lol
UA-cam isn't friendly for new creators at all even. Its like gambling to get the draw. While there is hard work going into each video, your handwork means maybe .5% of getting successful - and can be nothing should you fall between the cracks.
I kinda thought that's what this video was going to be about. I feel for newer youtubers, and I really regret not getting into back when it first started, heck I regret every day not doing it, but I feel like how I'm sure everyone that wants to start youtube feels. I'm not interested in it for the money, I think it would be fun for the community.
A person I watch called Neurotic Goose got hit with this phenomenon recently. He has well edited videos with a focus on lot of information and good humor, and he just kinda blew up in popularity out of literally nowhere. As far as he can tell there was no direct cause he just managed to retain most of the viewership he gained after his exposure by the algorithm. I found him on purpose sort of, as I was actively looking up what he was covering a bit before he started really taking off, which at the time was Gregtech.
yeah. and im so grateful for the newer & lesser known channels that youtube has shown me because some of them are my favorite creators. it also wouldnt have introduced me to my favorite game if they didnt push a newer/smaller creator
Here's Squidward and some of the other crew channels with similar titles have managed to gain a sum of million subscribers within a year or nearly 2 years while some of the other channels are not far behind however are newer that have started almost a year or less have almost 1 million subs or a decent plentiful of hundred thousands of subs within less than a year.
Annoying Orange gaming channel have fallen behind since the creators of Annoying Orange stopped bothering with lets play content for almost a year now.
I’ll be 32 in November. I’ve been working 9-5’s since I was 16…worked my ass off and gotten NOWHERE. Then, I see all these people making more than my girlfriend and I make in a month COMBINED, and they aren’t even huge creators. I’ve wanted to try to make videos on UA-cam for a while now, but I have no idea what I’m doing, and the older I get, the more afraid I am that I wont find an audience. I’m not trying to be the next Markiplier, I just want to make a decent living doing something I ENJOY, rather than wasting my life away working jobs that go nowhere, no matter how hard I work. I respect anyone that makes a living doing UA-cam.
If you want to feel like your time and effort is worth something, learn a skill. Eventually these content creators will fade, mess up and get canceled, or lose all their money. They will then have no skills and be dregs to society and you can take advantage of that.
Firstly I recommend keeping your main job. UA-cam is not something most people can live off of unless their channel is big enough. Starting off I'd recommend working on topics you enjoy and want to talk about or show if it's something like playing games or showing off a skill. Make and edit UA-cam videos as side projects and just post whenever you feel the video is ready or good enough. People with similar tastes will eventually find your content and may stay if they like you enough. Not doing anything will never give you the opportunity to grow a community. Lots of creators get lucky but the main thing is what you want to start up from. Many channels rise due to abusing METAs, others are very consistent with uploads and following their niche and remaining popular channels could be from high quality content that uploads once a few months. Some people learn valuable skills and simply talk about their actual jobs on UA-cam and they still get massive followings. Don't be afraid about "having no idea what you're doing" almost everyone starts off the same way so you're not alone. UA-cam's been around for a long time now so you can look at content creator's oldest videos and see where they started off from.
I'd reccommend just random tf2 casual antics for a starting point. I've noticed the algorithm has been giving attention to many small channels doing that and they should be easy to record.
1. Keep your day job 2. Find what you are passionate about or at least interested in. 3. Just hit record. 4. Be genuine. Don't chase the trends if it isn't something that interests you. Viewers are smart and will figure it out.
Yup, I'm often one to feel nostalgic for old youtube. The weird thing is, I rarely see small people trying to make it on here. Almost every small youtube channel on here is just some medium-sized twitch streamer's VODs. I would love to support other small youtubers such as myself.
I've never seen Mark, but I have observed similar and wondered a few times if a few creators I know still tried other topics. I know at least a few that won't, but clearly could, and it's just sad. And all the genuinely creative people who got bumped off the platform (usually niche music artists) due to these changes and their slow production timelines.
Mark being a precursor to zanny hit me like a truck Never made the connection between the two Now i know why they are amongst my top 5 favorite creators
11:50 I absolutely agree with you. Content can be as well produced as it possibly can be, be if the person behind it isn’t interesting, I’m not going to watch the video.
I appreciate the way you approached this topic. Yes, there's sadness and nostalgia in seeing things change, especially since I agree - things did feel more personal and community-driven a couple of years back. And finding spaces like that on youtube these days feels harder. But there's no guilt, no bitterness, just it is what it is. Time waits for no one and things change. Very insightful video, thank you
While I may have never heard of you or your channel before, this was a really good analysis video and I'm glad the algorithm recommended it to me. Well done.
To be fair, clickbait has pretty much always existed on youtube nearly the whole time. I know I'm old and was there watching 😂 I remember when Philly D kept getting on people's nerves by posting women in bikinis as his thumbnails to completely unrelated videos
I seriously thought when you said "Bless your faces" you were gonna reference another old UA-cam veteran and follow up with "If you sneezed during this video, then bless you"
I've been going back and watching the older video for vanoss, wildcat, and the rest. Their video back then was just them having fun in games they enjoyed. When you compare their newest videos with their older ones you can hear the difference in their voices. The amount of enthusiasm they had back then was a vibe
I dont watch any of the old makers I used too. Now I just watch long format theories, documentaries, talks, or game studies. I'll say the amount of people like yourself putting well thought out scripts is beautiful. Thank you.
As someone who LOVES and generally rewatches his older series (from dust my beloved) I'll probably agree it was a perfect storm of all the above. We grew up, new kids want their things, coporatism sunk its dirty little hooks into every crevice thus creating a new META, the internet exploded in volume, etc. Its easy to have rose-tinted glasses about the past, but unfortunately those days are gone. Like you said higher quantity and quality is better to the viewer, but its also a higher and less intimate bar. I think thats why streaming got so popular, we want a connection with the people we're watching, but topic focused content is simply too effective and efficient. Its all business with withered personality now. Its... well to put it bluntly, its sad.
I was genuinely thinking about Mr.Fruit while watching this video, got surprised when he got mentioned. How I started watching him was funnely enough, from Among Us, his character sticked with me just like Markpiler (Figured out its cause both have ADHD like me)
I was in a similar boat as to what was mentioned in the video, I started watching him in his early days becuase I started playing destiny, and he was making destiny videos. While I don't watch all his stuff anymore, I still see a video here or there. But it is sad to see that he's fallen on rough times
Honestly this is a fantastic video! I've used UA-cam off and on for eons now and I've never took much time to think about how it's changed over the years.
I have been watching UA-cam videos since 2007 on a regular basis... and what you have said completely resonates with me. I mainly follow people based on personality rather than just their content, but sometimes the content brings me in.
I definitely never grew out of youtube and the way I would watch it. Sure, now and then I'll search a topic I like to see if there's anyone new to watch, but I like to live off my subscriber feed. People aren't uploading as many good videos anymore but the few who do will always have my support.
Good video, TDT. I will admit that am one of those viewers who watches you because you make Spicy Clips videos, and I initially had no interest in watching this video, but I saw you changed the title of the video to something more general, and to a topic that's trending a bit now. Plus, seeing you had 235k+ views (when I watched it) made me go, "Oh wow, he must've got an influx." I think pretty much everyone can agree with you that personalities aren't really prioritized anymore, mainly due to the fact that UA-cam has just grown so so much. But in all honesty, I get it. Back in the early days of UA-cam, before I even knew what it was, I can't imagine people were ANYWHERE near as concerned about stuff like copyright and swearing. I think it's obvious that UA-cam has definitely changed, for better or for worse. It's not just us, it's them as well. But back to personalities. I also get why they aren't really the frontrunner for the algorithms, because... how they heck do you make an algorithm that at least semi-accurately tracks someone's personality? No amount of math equations is gonna sum up (virtual) human interactions. We are MORE than that. We are social creatures, and I think the Covidemic has shown us that virtual interaction just isn't a suitable replacement, and likely never was meant to be. We NEED the social aspect in our relationships, because without it... who the heck are we? Our judgements ultimately rely on the people around us. I believe UA-cam is (in at least some respect) doing what they can to alleviate the problem at hand, but the metrics that they CAN track like watch time, viewer retention, etc. all fall short of the personality of a creator, and probably due to no fault of UA-cam's own. As I said, a human relationship, even one that involves something like a creator and their viewers, can't just be summed up by a crap ton of math equations. There's something INHERENT in human interaction, even virtual human interaction, despite the latter obviously being ultimately inferior. Part of me wonders if some problem like this was inevitable in UA-cam's history, that this is a consequence that's being reaped from all that's been sowed beforehand. I am NOT an avid UA-camr, and haven't even gotten close, but I still do sometimes fantasize about what it would be like to run a channel. I'm just saying that so I don't come off like I'm some expert on all this. I am not. But even experts don't know everything, and the common folk have their own share in things as well. Apologies for the long comment, but this is something I felt I wanted to spend time on to talk about, even if this gets buried deep into the abyss of comments left to rot.
In my *opinion, Markiplier is topic focused now, but doesn’t limit himself with his topic. When I go to his channel, all I see are horror games. While these videos are fun, I wish he would play more silly or unique indie games.
I gotta say, in a way I kind of grew up with THIS channel. Went from a comfort watch of stupid build and spicy clips and now we're here. I'm glad you're stickin' with it, Mesome, I look forward to watching more.
Bruh that BL vs BL2 comparison I have a channel I used to watch back when I was yunger these two goffballs playing a few random games. Minecraft, Terrarier Borderlands. so on. the production on these vidoes were nonexistent the videos that got uploaded was more or less the raw take maybe with a cut here and there if one of them had to go afk. terrible audio quality and 720p max but I loved every second of it, because it was them. sadly they stopped making contet about 12 years ago, but I still find myself to this day going back every once in a while watching some of their stuff particularly the old uploads, just to relive that same feeling of joy. and even though Im' sad they stopped making videos, I think it's a good thing, because I wouldn't have wanted them to experience the current way that you have to make videos for them to do well. "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain"
I remember the first channel I got into was Game Theory, and while I liked the science based content, I was there for MatPat, and while his older videos were a little cringey and and the boob video was weird, I think it added to them. By the time Austin from ShoddyCast joined, Austin couldn't even say "Goddamn Terrifying" anymore.
Love that you put Seananners as one of the logos for the content creators. To this day I rewatch all his Garry's Mods videos repeatedly. I would say confidently at least 20-25 of the views on each video has been me just rewatching it again and again. Love that he's back with content but I miss the face cam because the smile and laugh gets you every time.
It hit hard when you said, "an artist." That is exactly what it is... AN art for those who care and enjoy the videos for the effort that went into making it... Not mindless scrolling. A short movie to escape reality. Not a reel or video that gets views for possibly a 60 clip somewhere among the masterpiece.
UA-cam back in the late 2000s and early 2010s was peak. Same with the whole internet at that time. Nothing beat people making good content for the fun of it with no chasing the algorithm and trends constantly. That's not to say there were no trends but more often than not a lot of people just made stuff cause they enjoyed it rather than catering to the algorithm to generate clicks.
The unique sign-off at the end of the video is a curious artifact from the "fan army" days of content creation. Cool, a bit anachronistic, and interesting.
im ginna be honest with you, META doesn mean that, its a backronym. META, like in metaphysics, has a distinct meaning as in "selfreferential" and stuff, you know, "metagame" yeah honestly i cant explain its exact meaning with words either, its a "you know it when you see it" situation (at least with my bad english skills) i just want to dispel the myth that meta is an acronym
UA-cam needs to start creating sub-channels. Channels within channels for people who post variety. People can sub to just the type of content they want to see.
I can't recall how many hours I spent re-watching his videos' just so I could get a chuckle out of my day, or just to help me sleep on restless nights, those are some of the days I miss the most. I probably will continue watching him even though his uploads have been fewer and fewer, I just can't really get into other youtubers whether they do the same content or not. Marks personality, during a horror game is just one of the best.
Small channels especially have to use some level of clickbait as not enough people can be there for their personality to keep the channel growing without clickbait.
Im a huge fan of a channel called Neebs Gaming. They were the guys who created the Battlefield friends series and Mob squad series on Machinima back in the day. In the early days it felt like it was no problem for them to get 500k views after maybe a week but now they get between 100k to 250k normally. They are still very much themselves but i feel like some people who were Battlefield fans watched them, but once they moved away from Battlefield i feel like some people stop watching them. Now they normally do multiple different survival games like 7 days to die.
This reminded me of the mxed feelings I experienced when Rooster Teeth finally shut down after decades. I had long since moved past their content, and didn't even recognize most of the new cast, but it still felt like learning of a close friend's death.
Have you ever thought that those who are on the top of youtube dictate the algorithm? Probably indirectly, but the algorithm learns from them. Their channels have the biggest "weights" in the algorithm's accuracy training. Think about it... billions of views, millions of hours of content, learning from all of those people who watch these large channels. If they make a change in their content, how long before the algorithm changes with them?
If by some miracle any of the legends mentioned in this video sees this: thank you
i think ur best content are video essays. Really enjoyable and thorough. Keep up the good work
get markiplier on spicy clips you wont
Hey. Good video.
Man do I know who you are absolutely not but Mesa 777 you are the personality of the dream team and you are the reason I watch your videos btw yeah I'm subbed to mark and jack but I'm still subbed to old creators that I watch views dip year over year and still enjoy the person behind the screen you keep being awesome keep being you
It's weird that the meta has gone back to single game content. As for Mr Beastification, I've noticed that. I've been here a bit longer than you. I saw when single game content creators got big. One of my favorite StarCraft game castors was HuskyStarCraft. Huskey deleted his main channel to be another Logan Paul.
It's just "Tube", you can't be you anymore.
Mark has always been so genuine. His rise from the lowest in his life is a story everyone should hear.
@@Pudding404 mark was always a goofy and loveable guy but now he still a goofy and loveable guy but with majestic hair and buffer muscles🤣
@@Pudding404 AItube.
@@goblyn445 His Chadness transcended his personality and affected his physicality to fit him.
Google has earned the NaziTube achievement I wonder how they feel after ruining the site with communism.
CorporaTube
I could be wrong but I feel like a shift is happening. More people are getting fed up with the painfully attention grabbing content and gravitating to more slow paced, personality driven stuff. People are watching hours long videos with barely any editing. I'm hoping this shift continues and we strike a healthy balance between fast paced topic videos and slower personality videos.
I'm noticing that too. I just hope it's not the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon and I'm getting my hopes up.
Memento Mori 🖤 🤍
@@kittyraptor_ your noticeing nothing its not happening. that is never comeing back genz destroyed it completely.
@@MauseDays Not with that attitude. LOL
@@MauseDays It's foolish to talk in absolute's.
TBH I feel like the personality-driven, low-editing, gameplay-focused content creator is still alive and well in the streaming sector
I recently got into watching streamers and you are exactly right. The only one I like right now is zavalr.
one of those that i know of, is MainlybadassHero
a simple, not overly edited Horro games channel that makes long videos, doesnt talk alot, shows all the endings of the game (if it has) and gives some honest opnions at the end
plus he has a narrator voice that fits the gameplay
that said, trying to find other channels that make horror videos, it's hard to not find one that tries to put memes and other edits during the vid that kills the horror...
And there are still plenty. Even if they are more neich.
@@Epicmonk117 Was agreeing with you until I read "streaming" and then I threw up
WHERE ARE THEY???? (outside of manly)
The thing i miss the most about the old UA-cam is the sense of community where it actually felt like everyone on the platform was supporting each other
Yeah. But now, all you see is either death threats or if you’re lucky, just toxicity, both of which comes from many factors such as bad parenting/tough life situations and or ignorance.. and many other things.
@ it’s such a sad reality to look at now.
This I think was big for UA-cam back then. It felt like a neighborhood for creators. If Mark made unus annus back then, regardless if Mark heavily advertised it on his main channel, their first explosion of views on a video would have sent it to the trending tab (back when people cared about it when it showed actual trending videos and not curated garbage decided by UA-cam) and the entire community of UA-cam would have seen the video. Then it would have collected it's own audience outside of Mark's main channel and would keep doing well that way as well.
UA-cam divided the platform so much now, it's just a database of people to just throw videos into rather than a community that supported each other and anyone could join in with their own unique channel. Now creators have to commercialize their channels to get the algorithm working for them and it kills genuine creativity.
One thing I hear is "how hard" it was to make it on UA-cam back in the day, but I really don't think every person should be able to make it, some just don't bring something to the table enough to work. I disagree with the idea that higher quality videos are more present today than back then. There was "garbage" on UA-cam that were just people fucking around. Now that garbage is in the form of people trying to pass it off as content to make money off it, it doesn't matter that it has editing and 1080p 60fps on it.
@@AdhvaithSane that and AI-generated shorts slop lol
@@crazyd4ve875
Yeah. I absolutely abhor those Shorts, it makes me sick the more I looked at them, so I try to avoid viewing them, but wholesome shorts of people helping animals, or people of science giving actual scientific facts or insects being shown and explained and these sort of stuff I don’t mind watching, in fact I love it, but that AI shi, no, that is a red line Unhinged or people trolling people and harming them in other Shorts is also included, I hope you never see that shi, but I also ask that you report it if you were to see it, it can be really disturbing.
Mark still does as he has always been doing. He of course evolves into other things that interest him as time goes on, but he has stayed the same. The only significant changes he’s done is stepping away from videos (either on purpose or accident) to work on bigger projects. Once he’s done with his project, same old lovable gaming videos we all love. Mark is a person that is very hard to replicate, and he only does what interests him. He be a cool big muscular man.
THIS! What I also tried to mean in the comments. He still has his audience, just that he prioritizes his friends and fam a lot more nowadays (and many projects), he's got his own adventures to settle for as of this time.
Sure his audience build up nowadays may be a bit slow, but it was never gone, UA-cam just wants to say so ☠️
@@ChaseyBoyJones nobody stays the same but old mark when he did prophunt etc and now are verry different he looks tired when used to smile be optimistic and loud, he can still be like that sometimes but its rarely
Mark is super similar to how he used to be but I miss him constantly making mascots and alter egos like tiny box tim and the king of the squirrels mark also had a phase where he did virtually only live action content but I've always stuck with Mark he's always been a staple for me fs
@@wierdersnow116
Thanks for reminding me of "Markiplier makes".
UA-cam's algorithm is fucked. I can watch over 100 Markiplier videos but won't get any recommended videos from him, i have to wait for my notifications to tell me. I watch 1 random ass video, suddenly i get recommended their entire video library and i'm not even subbed to them.
I agree! It's really difficult to find what you want to watch on the for you page nowadays. Like honestly, it takes longer to find a video you're interested in than actually watching it.
i always go to the subscription at first. i have done that al the way back in 2009 then you only see those
SAME! I literally have to go on his channel to see if anything pops up
This applies to music on UA-cam too.
I can listen to a bunch of happy hardcore, but UA-cam just recommends music that has nothing to do with what I listen to on here. It's like the algorithm sees what you like to watch/listen to and just decides "nope, your choice is wrong, watch/listen to this instead".
FACTS, I’ve stopped getting Markiplier stuff suggested to me for years! Now I’m getting lame dumb LP and KSI crap on my feed. Olden UA-cam was the golden UA-cam as for everything else, something so good isn’t meant to last.
Essentially youtube went from being optimized for entertainment to being optimized for revenue generation
That’s pretty much what’s happening to the internet for the past 10+ years
@@CrazyKevin22 Yup, the entire entertainment industry. Look at games, movies, etc. Things went from being passions projects and things done by people who loved what they do to...whatever it is today. As soon as a bunch of corporate leeches caught wiff of the potential for income everything slowly shifted to become the same cookie cutter attention retention machine.
I belive Bo Burnham said something along the lines "We used to colonize lands because that's where the money was. Now they realized that they can colonize human attention and colonize every minute of your ilfe."
@@CrazyKevin22 thats what happens when entertainment costs money to make
@@CrazyKevin22 The endless abundance of digtal spaces made them fundamentally incompatible with capitalism, which relies on limitations to trade with. And so they subverted and remade the Internet in their image. Corproations have once again publically become anti-human and oppressive both in both real-life and in the digital expanse. Not that they weren't before, but now they know how to exploit us efficiently and get away with it.
replace the last sentence with "exploiting kids"
because most of the yt rev goes from the ads that are clicked on by dopamine starved kids and toddlers who can't read or write
alright but for real tho it has to be illegal right? like that sounds illegal? that's probably illegal
The Mr. Beastification really hit hard. I noticed a lot of the channels I loved for their content and personality now just make tier lists or I did EVERY blank type videos. The personality is there but it feels more corporate than ever and thus I find myself clicking less on those channels because it is not the content I want or like but what youtube wants them to make. Like others I have been gravitating more towards those creators still prioritizing themselves over the meta (primarily streamers uploading minimally edited or well edited playthroughs of games to youtube). If I want information on a topic I will go find that, but those creators I support add their twist to it to elevate it past just a simple upload.
Keep up the work Mesome, only by rejecting the beastification can we return to markiplier
Mr. Beast was not the issue, he just understood how to massively profit over what the new UA-cam Meta was.
If anything this always loops back to YT and Google wanting to optimize to death user retention.
@theshellderinslowbrostail5422 oh I agree, I simply meant how a lot of channels started following a similar trend of escalation in much the same way of his videos, going from unique content to the same generic meta-following trends. Some creators even from their own unique editing styles to emulating his complete with using the same font for subtitles. He isn't the problem, just the originator and most successful face of the current meta (being the top channel beating out major corporations).
I know a lot are just trying to survive in the ever changing market, and google/yt are fueling the race to the bottom
One of my favorite creators under the original single game content model was HuskyStarCraft. Dude deleted his main channel, ghosted us, and became another Logan Paul or wannabe Justin Bieber. I thought I was going crazy when I heard his voice a few years later on my son's TV, at least until a few years later I watched a video on deleted YT channels, and my son confirmed he used to watch the new channel.
What was crazy was his old channel was not just still earning ad revenue from classic matches, he had 2 music parody videos that had large budgets. While the videos were about units that are not just no longer the meta, but now considered weak, it still would have gained revenue.
One of the PFPs I use actually came from his website's forum. A guy was doing art for free, and I asked him for a simple piece. Not this one of course. I got this one from my Bungie account back during the Halo 3 era.
like jack say, he didn't make UA-cam better, well he didn't say it tho but we know it as a truth
@@theshellderinslowbrostail5422 Mr Beast was the issue though. The current meta absolutely skyrocketed into what it is right now and you can argue Mr Beast had a hand in creating it. And knowing what we know now about Mr Beast it's no surprise that he, along with many others that have followed his example have either started out fake and corporate, or they became fake and corporate. Cause that's the inspiration for why they do the content that they do. They've completely lost the "you" in youtube, everything is about money, over the top personalities and production value, hours and hours of work for you to only see a chaotic 10 minute fragment of it. Jacksepticeye wasn't just talking out of his ass when he said that Mr Beast ruined youtube. Look at how many older creators are no longer making videos or if they do make videos it's only occasionally. And those videos don't get nearly the amount of viewers as they used to.
Markiplier earned my loyalty by force of his personality. In a world where celebrities, both online and offline, are constantly being revealed as predators, bigots, or otherwise awful individuals with dark secrets; Markiplier has always seemed genuine. An actually good guy who has made mistakes, but owned up to them and actually worked to be better than he was. I'm proud of how far he has come, now working on his own film projects and using his success to help others.
I believe that Markiplier has the intelligence and social media acumen to make it work regardless when he started. Sure, his view to subscriber ratio has gone down - but I think too many people put way too much stock on that viewer count, especially on Twitch.
Most people don't think about just how many people 50 viewers is, could you imagine having 50 people sitting behind you in your living room - just watching you play and talk? What about 1000? 10,000? Perhaps by a social media monetary measurement, 1000 viewers isn't a lot - but the idea of having even 100 people just chilling with me, watching me play is mind boggling.
Could you imagine having 311,000 people sitting in an auditorium, just listening to you recite your video essay? That is a LOT of attention for a single individual to command at once.
nah mark showed unless its super popular to support someone he wont lift a finger like when he refused to stop his audience from harassing and threatening Scott Cawthon and his wife even game theory matt pat did more than mark did
I love how you said that most of the people here probably don't know you. This is the first video from you I've seen so that is funnily accurate. I saw Mark in the thumbnail and was curious, especially since I once wanted to try to build a UA-cam channel, but was too shy. Now that I'm older and able to talk on a video, I realize I'm too late.
Samesies! This is also my first time watching this content creator. I loved the video, so I subscribed, and liked. Glad I came across this video to find out about him.
Literaly the first video i have ever seen of markiplier and whoever this dude is. It was in my suggestions after shook up my algorith with a playlist i made to shock my suggests.
This year I've been finding a few smaller channels who I watch specifically for the personality. I think that meta is slowly coming back we just have to look for it harder than back in the day
You could say the same for a lot of the popular internet communities from the past. They didn't die out, but the internet grew much faster than they would and got drowned out. They are no longer prominent. But they survived.
I have kind of seen this too, I hope that continues! it'd be nice for that to return
@@SsoupTime any suggestions?
It was, but the bot content is taking over.
@@tenwhoeverKage. Dude does a lot of survival games, with a few sims on the side
I also watch FedoOnTv shorts and PirateSoftware.
What's sad is going through you subbed channels and finding someone who used to post all the time, and you loved watching them, but finding out they haven't posted in years and most likely will never come back I dare people to go on a nostalgia trip of their subbed to channels
You see, i do something different. I sub to channels that I find that haven't uploaded/posted anything in an amount of time that's unusual for them to see if they ever upload again. None of them have, but good social experiment.
In the past year I've had about a dozen or two creators that I've been subbed to for years and years that hadn't uploaded anything in five years to over a decade suddenly upload something only to vanish again. Some of them have actually been somewhat active, but only on the community posts side(which UA-cam is *absolutely terrible* at promoting) or have chosen to purposely not have their newer content show up in the subscription feed. But even then, I still occasionally think of some of the creators that used to upload regularly but are now silent and wonder what they're up to. Have they died? Did they move on to college/a new career? Did they start a family? I may never learn, but I'll probably still be sitting here waiting for the day when they decide to return.
i can only think of one right now, but im sure there are a few more that i used to watch that never upload anymore due to youtube basically telling them "no, youre not allowed to be successful on this platform"
whybeare...
The very first Let's Player I ever subbed to was ScottishDuck17. Every so often I go back and rewatch some of his LPs for a nostalgia trip.
If I recall correctly, RayWilliamJohnson was the first person I ever subbed to... Heck I remember when he celebrated becoming number 1 on UA-cam way back when.
or going back and seeing that their content has shifted so much it barely resembles what got you interested in the first place, if at all. Honestly I'd argue that's worse, at least if they never upload again your image of the person behind the content remains the same
I still recall when i found Mark during his Slender: The Arrival video. I think he only had around 10k subs at it was wild to see him grow. It certainly feels sad knowing that trends are a requirement to be successful but i still go back to Mark for who he is, a funny and great guy just wanting to provide some entertainment.
I found Mark back when he was playing the scp containment breach let's play and by God that man had like 5k or 7k subs. His amnesia playthrough was the one that really shot him to stardom and beyond. And honestly he's one of the few on UA-cam I think actually deserve it
@@havochaos9790 I found Mark during his original slender play through so roughly 5000 subs. it was mad to see how quickly he grew and he deserves every bit of it. love his distractible podcast and keep upto dat with it regularly.
I think I got recommended him back when he had about 100-200k subs. Seeing him realize that he would never have the relationship he had with the fans he had actually hurt.
The dude had gotten too big. That's why if I ever see him I'm gunna just treat him like a regular dude, and when I walk away, I'll just say "tell Wade I said he was right" and leave him wondering.
@@grifthegray6244 i honestly for about me but it was sometime before he played amnesia
@@LegendStormcrow "Tell Wade I said he was right". Lmao that would live in his head for days.
The worst part about this is not only have I noticed it, but it definitely helped to contribute to the death of smaller and larger creators alike. larger creators found that what they loved doing didn't work anymore, and chose to stop or faded into obscurity. smaller creators tried to do this and realized too late that this isn't the UA-cam we have anymore.
So very true, but also remember the creators who strive to never give up. Those who persevere dispite the odds not being completely in their favors. I'm one of those channels myself, and I'll be damned if I give up to run away. I think of it like this.. I'm creative, and good at what I do so... Being I enjoy this as a labor of love, and not simply to make money I tend to enjoy myself more. I don't care at all what others think I should make content about, I do what I personally enjoy myself. Logically there are countless others on this platform as content viewers who also happen to like the same things I do, and have passions for my same interests. Those are the people I hope find my channel, and tag along for the ride. That is who I am doing this for, besides just my own self.
@hedwigon6951 I've been a follower of StephenPlays for over a decade, almost two weeks ago he released a "channel update video" in which he was given the advice that what he's been doing for over a decade, all the work he's been doing finally has to change or he'll be crushed by the system. He mentioned in the past year between UA-cam, Twitch, and Patreon, the cost of producing UA-cam videos basically broke even.
After over a DECADE of content creation, he now has to find new ways to make the content that brings him joy. Because the algorithm refuses to keep his work in the recommended feed.
This man and his crew have been producing daily content the entire time. Because the algorithm demanded daily inputs. That stopped working at some point. He split his channels because the algorithm demanded it. Despite being subscribed, unless I search for a specific series, neither the lets plays from "plays" or the VODs from "VOD" ever show up. And when they do, its only the exact series and videos I've been watching. (Example: I use the "Stephen and Mal play Chulip" series to sleep. The entire Playlist ends up in my recommended, or I can find the first handful of episodes or the episodes of the factory, (around 15-18) as they line up with when I wake up, so they want me to go back and "finish" those episodes.) Meanwhile, his vlogs that get uploaded somewhat consistently but not perfectly on a schedule often end up in the recommended randomly. And I don't watch the vlogs often. I'll wait for the next one if there's a "life event" like when their cat got sick, because even though it was probably weeks back, I did want the update.
If this is what the algorithm has come to, it's broken.
I remember when youtubers used to be actual personalities and now they’re all screaming, over exaggerated emotions, 500 sound effects every millisecond and flashy transitions that just feels like they are catering to people with the attention span of a goldfish with dementia
Ironically Mark was high octane when he was young. He has since turned into a chill 'old' man.
I think it makes sense to be a streamer and be energetic, and have big reactions, look at ishowspeed, he is “new” and most people clown on him for being too extreme but the ppl who say that don’t actually watches his streams and instead look at tik tok clips of him being excessive. But his streams are actually super entertaining and it’s because of speed not the games he plays. I’ll watch his streams no matter how long they are, I watch a lot of other streamers too but they are not as entertaining as speed and I’ve found that the streamers/ UA-camrs that are the chillest personality wise are usually the ones who put in all the dumbass editing.
Also if you are watching a streamer, you want to also experience some emotions as well, you don’t want to watch a guy who stops talking for 20 seconds at a time and has a monotone voice you can barley hear with little to no personality or commentary would you?
I'm also an avid Markiplier fan. Been following him since his FNAF days. I use to see his stuff all the time. It's gotten to a point where half the time I have to manually search for his content. Same with many others I have subbed to. It's one of the reasons why I am glad I can just browse the subscription section.
This video came from a well informed and insightful place. New sub from me. (:
Mark is also uploading a LOT less than he was at his peak output, since nowadays he's more focused on other projects. He's done the hard yards, now he's set up to explore things he Wants to do and doesn't have to play YT's game to make it through
Wish he would revisit SCP again.
Thought he might when he did that unity remake thing but chill mark would be interesting to watch playthrough that.
@@mothichorror446 Yeas I noticed that too, which is why I also try my best to join the member only streams.
Been following him since amnesia and drunk Minecraft
When I watch any Creator do a playthrough I absolutely love it when they have the number of the episode on the thumbnail itself it's so much easier to keep track of woods when you're watching and there's a lot less clickbait that way as well
And PLAYLISTS. Playlists are so important for a multi-video playthrough it's unreal. Though I'd very much prefer the whole game to be in a single video o matter how long like RTGame does it
@@HazeEmryPutting the ENTIRE game in one video for longer games is a bit tough to watch when you're busy though.
@@agent7176 you can always stop watching and play it again whenever with the video starting from where you stopped. It's how I usually watch Hardleg Joe's Master Duel Ladder Climbs, RT's "Let's play all of", among other things. Even if you stop and watch other stuff for a while, it's still saved when you come back to the video. The main differences between those longplays and episodic vids are that 1) you don't have to wait for the next episode, 2) the editing is usually better since they really gotta pack in what's important and fun, 3) viewers don't lose interest while waiting for the next instalment
I kind of agree with both of y'all on that I don't mind going back to a video that's real long makes it convenient cuz it's just one video to deal with but at the same time if I'm trying to follow along in the playthrough it's a lot better to have a playlist of multiple videos lot easier to find what I was looking for
@@atacstringer8573 that's why you have chapters IN the longplay.
The sad thing is, I feel like UA-cam sees the og UA-camrs like Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, Vanossgaming, SMG4, DanTDM, Vinesauce Vinny and other ogs as replaceable by Bad/Elsagate users like Lankybox, SSSniperWolf and Logan Paul, because unlike the og youtubers, users like these three are only interested in one thing; drawing in views from kids through any scummy means necessary to get monetization, which in turn makes youtube money, which is why you see og's getting in trouble for doing things that are'nt even remotely bad or wrong (like swearing), yet you see users like Logan Paul still getting views and money despite all the shit he has done.
@fujizetttheultra.941 SMG4's changes quite a bit, though, and it's more than just not being a kid anymore that's changed.
I can only recall one of my og youtube subs is still uploading and that is Good mythical morning. Other than that the subbox i pretty much dead from my other og subscriptions.
SSSniperwolf and Logan were around back then too
the algortithm is now run on hatred and run by PDFiles there is no hope
Both SSSniperwolf and Logan Paul has done disgusting and illegal things that goes to show how scummy UA-cam really is. They can break the rules as long as they give money. That includes just horrible illegal things
I love that you used Mark for this example. He’s been my favourite UA-camr for 7 years now and has become sort of a safe space/comfort person - it sort of makes me sad for the next gen because I don’t know if they’re gonna have something like that, even if it’s “just through a screen”.
Mark is one of the rare YT channels which I have the notifications turned on. So excited for his movie to come out!!
Wow, i actually never knew what META stood for before this, went wide eyed for a sec fr
It's a backronym
Just to clarify, CoopMoe noted, it’s a “Backronym”-that is, it was already a word on its own (indicating “change”) but was used after-the-fact as an acronym for M.E.T.A. (Most Effective Tactic Available).
Right... it's not what it stands for at all. That's just what folks decided it stands for after it was already widely used to describe the current trend that transcends the defined behavior/expectations for something.
It used to be short for "metagame" and then people put the acronym to it retroactively.
@@MisterNightfish yes and no. Meta is in and of itself a word/prefix meaning self-referential. Think metamorphosis: osis - process + morph - changing of structure + meta - of the self = the process of an entity changing its state like a caterpillar to a butterfly.
So with the term metagame it's the game in reference to the game or the strategies placed on top of the core gameplay of the game itself. It then became shorthand to refer to the metagame simply as the "meta" which in turn led to the introduction of the backronym "most effective tactic available"
I had no ideea it was a dating site. The hell...
Great vid dude!
me neither that was wild
@@Buttersnatcher no wonder some creators talk to kids
Wait until you see all the 20v1s
It wasn't lol. It was a video sharing site well before Google bought it, and was facing eventual bankruptcy from people sharing family guy and daily show clips because the company wasn't big enough to fight the labels and studios over copyright.
It was planned to be a dating site but they changed it after a week after it launched. After that, it was a video sharing site even before Google bought it
No wonder why UA-cam is boring these days. I love Mark, Jack, Pewds, Smosh, etc. There are only a handfull that I watch since the algorithm is trash. A good personality UA-camr that I discover a few years ago is a channel called Smitty(The milkbag). He has good editing but his videos are funny and engaging. The same as Mark but just with a little bit more editing like what lixian is doing to marks channel.
I think Lixian was a great addition.
@@BladeCrew Smii7y is so funny, i find myself watching his vods and stay untill the end even though there's no editing at all :')
I've been enjoying watching Cartoonz playing with Delirious, Dead Squirrel, and Kyle lately
@@stalwartnerd lixian is great, but as every person they are subject to a few occurences that people don't like.
There was a while where they used awful subtitles for a dark series and it just did not mesh well. Can't remember if it was black subtitles or white subtitles.
Probably GTF0.
I suggest watching TheRussianBadger as his channel gives me a close enough vibe to Markiplier and Smii7y
The lower levels of editing is part of why if started watching game channels like The Librarian and Manlybadasshero. Their personality is why they are who I primarily watch.
Actually just stumbled upon The Librarian myself the other day trying to find an In Sound Mind playthrough. Pretty good so far.
yeah I started watching The Librarian when he did his og 'haunted' gmod maps series
I get that this video is focussed on gaming creators, but when you zoom out to the entirety of youtube it explains the situation.
Back in the day, personality was what mattered - and as someone who watched gaming creators over ten years ago, they pretty much just waffled on about whatever.
Nowadays you have specialized creators who often are experts in their subject, and i think that's a good thing overall. "Slop" is a problem nowadays, but the amout of knowledgable, quality content is also insanely high, and i appreciate that.
This perfectly encapsulates my current feelings on UA-cam...u know, every year the "you" in UA-cam feels like it's less and less relevant...
@@ex4star course because it’s all corporatized now
True 😢
Cause today's creators only upload for US, they stopped doing it for themselves. The You was meant for the camera on the creator, now it's for the camera on the audience that will always change and so they change, Mark started his channel and never stopped creating content for himself and what he loves to do and he has never changed, he has just evolved himself to be better and better everyday but he is still Mark still to this day
@@twilightparanormalresearch186 I think for me, UA-cam started become corporate in early 2014. when google employees Susan wojcicki. Become CEO of UA-cam, thing become down turn in UA-cam over years.
Oh no, someone has the algorithm distilled down to perfection- half of his channel is about manipulating youtube, the other half is about manipulating game mechanics and a few other things- basically just manipulating automated systems. I present you with: The Spiffing Brit- this dude knows how to tweak the balls off the algorithm.
Fair point. Viewing his channel, his views are about 20-25% of his subscriber count on every video
Well of course he knows the UA-cam algorithm, he has the power of Yorkshire Tea Gold rushing through his veins.
He does some serious research into his algorithm breaking, too. I remember his "slow this video down to watch it" video where he talks about the way he dived into how watch time is actually recorded and thinking about how he's thinking through the algorithm more than YT engineers who make the thing are.
Which is scary on a few levels, tbh.
@@Xantheleiwow🤔 that's really interesting
@@Chaos_God_of_Fate I'm glad to see the Church of Spiff spread ever further.
You've hit the nail on the head of why I'm not as happy with UA-cam's recommended videos anymore, I've been trying to figure that out for a while. My viewing is based on a mix of both, if it's a creator I know and if the topic is interesting. When I see videos now, the personality of the creators is gone. It's all about how much money they've spent, how big the video is, and big moments. I loved UA-cam as it was a community based platform. I feel like ever since they got rid of the "Broadcast Yourself" slogan, it's become like TV. Don't get me wrong, there are some great personalities on TV, but some things just feel acted on UA-cam now. The video ads don't help either. I still remember the days of no video ads, the worst thing were only the small pop-up ads. Great video man. Also that 4th wall break about how people would probably find this video was really cool.
P.S I care about who you are. I hope you're doing well.
I remembered the good old days of UA-cam
Markiplier, PopularMMOs, JonTron, PewDiePie, Chuggaaconroy, NintendoCaprisun, UberHaxorNova, ImmortalHD, SuperMarioLogan, Stampy, Roosterteeth, Vanoss, YamiMash, ManlyBadassHero, SlimKirby, Tobuscus, Luigikid, Dorkly, PeanutButterGamer, The Diamond Minecart, JohneAwesome, SirLionHeart, MunchingOrange, HuskyMudkips, MinecraftUniverse, Smosh, Sundy, and more.
0:10 no way! Keanu Reaves!
@@NotPeacemaker lmao
Yeah, didn't expect to see Shadow The Hedgehog here 😂
Post twist! Mark is actually Reaves biological twin brother
*wheeezzee*
This hit me in all the nostalgic feels. I remember growing up and watching the creators, like you said for them and a bit for the niche. But it was nice when a creator said "Hey new game today" and it meant that a new channel wasn't needed for that. I kinda hope for that return because it means people won't have to separate every single thing into diff channels, it can come back to their main.
I would love it for people to stop putting any different content onto one of five different channels. I feel like it would just make more sense to just keep it all in the same place, have it all reach your whole audience. That way, you won't need to plug different channels and people can just... decide if they want to watch your different genre of content or skip over it whil they wait for another video on the content they like.
@@OkamiLyra If people only watch certain videos and not others, youtube will think you’re not a big fan, and stop recommend. It’s why users make multiple channels for varying categories
Wow, I guess I never fully realized UA-cam as a whole had made this shift from personality to content focused. Now that I’ve watched this video I can’t unsee the concept in all of my recommendations.
What got me to watch this video was an interaction at work where none of my 20-25 year old coworkers knew of Markiplier at all. I'm 27 and i felt like a fossil, a deep wave of sad nostalgia washed over me.
You just need to get lucky with the algorithm. I've found tons of great "old-youtube-style" creators
Unus Annus kinda reminds me of Jared Leto and what he did with 30 Seconds to Mars. The reason a lot of people well over a decade later only started figuring out that that was his bad and was the main singer was intentional. He wanted the band to stand on it's own legs and not be associated with because he's an actor. Sure he appeared in the music videos, but in the early 2000s most singers didn't appear in their video aside from when it cut to them playing instruments, so most didn't question it.
Thats actually so interesting to know cause I knew about 30 Seconds to Mars back in 2011 when I was nine and didn’t know Jared Leto acted until Suicide Squad came out. I seriously thought it was a singer from a famous band deciding to start acting
@@Alex_in_Wonderland111 have I got the movie recommendation for you. If you want to watch one of the most dread inducing realistic drama with Jared Leto as one of the leads. Watch Requiem for a Dream. You probably know the song but didn’t know where it is from/popularized by. If you aren’t thoroughly disturbed by the potential for darkness out of a normal existence from this movie than you are probably a sociopath lol
UA-cam isn't friendly for new creators at all even. Its like gambling to get the draw. While there is hard work going into each video, your handwork means maybe .5% of getting successful - and can be nothing should you fall between the cracks.
I kinda thought that's what this video was going to be about. I feel for newer youtubers, and I really regret not getting into back when it first started, heck I regret every day not doing it, but I feel like how I'm sure everyone that wants to start youtube feels. I'm not interested in it for the money, I think it would be fun for the community.
A person I watch called Neurotic Goose got hit with this phenomenon recently. He has well edited videos with a focus on lot of information and good humor, and he just kinda blew up in popularity out of literally nowhere. As far as he can tell there was no direct cause he just managed to retain most of the viewership he gained after his exposure by the algorithm.
I found him on purpose sort of, as I was actively looking up what he was covering a bit before he started really taking off, which at the time was Gregtech.
yeah. and im so grateful for the newer & lesser known channels that youtube has shown me because some of them are my favorite creators. it also wouldnt have introduced me to my favorite game if they didnt push a newer/smaller creator
Here's Squidward and some of the other crew channels with similar titles have managed to gain a sum of million subscribers within a year or nearly 2 years while some of the other channels are not far behind however are newer that have started almost a year or less have almost 1 million subs or a decent plentiful of hundred thousands of subs within less than a year.
Annoying Orange gaming channel have fallen behind since the creators of Annoying Orange stopped bothering with lets play content for almost a year now.
I’ll be 32 in November. I’ve been working 9-5’s since I was 16…worked my ass off and gotten NOWHERE. Then, I see all these people making more than my girlfriend and I make in a month COMBINED, and they aren’t even huge creators. I’ve wanted to try to make videos on UA-cam for a while now, but I have no idea what I’m doing, and the older I get, the more afraid I am that I wont find an audience. I’m not trying to be the next Markiplier, I just want to make a decent living doing something I ENJOY, rather than wasting my life away working jobs that go nowhere, no matter how hard I work. I respect anyone that makes a living doing UA-cam.
If you want to feel like your time and effort is worth something, learn a skill. Eventually these content creators will fade, mess up and get canceled, or lose all their money. They will then have no skills and be dregs to society and you can take advantage of that.
Firstly I recommend keeping your main job. UA-cam is not something most people can live off of unless their channel is big enough.
Starting off I'd recommend working on topics you enjoy and want to talk about or show if it's something like playing games or showing off a skill. Make and edit UA-cam videos as side projects and just post whenever you feel the video is ready or good enough. People with similar tastes will eventually find your content and may stay if they like you enough. Not doing anything will never give you the opportunity to grow a community.
Lots of creators get lucky but the main thing is what you want to start up from. Many channels rise due to abusing METAs, others are very consistent with uploads and following their niche and remaining popular channels could be from high quality content that uploads once a few months. Some people learn valuable skills and simply talk about their actual jobs on UA-cam and they still get massive followings.
Don't be afraid about "having no idea what you're doing" almost everyone starts off the same way so you're not alone. UA-cam's been around for a long time now so you can look at content creator's oldest videos and see where they started off from.
I'd reccommend just random tf2 casual antics for a starting point. I've noticed the algorithm has been giving attention to many small channels doing that and they should be easy to record.
1. Keep your day job
2. Find what you are passionate about or at least interested in.
3. Just hit record.
4. Be genuine. Don't chase the trends if it isn't something that interests you. Viewers are smart and will figure it out.
Its never too late. I hit a thousand views on a video last month after not posting for a few years. Am very happy!
Oh the irony of this video being recommended to me by the algorithm.
same...right under a rare markiplier video too :)))
I completely agree with you that youtube has changed. (but changes must happen in the algorithm.)
I was not expecting a video about markiplier and the state of youtube from TDT, and i also did NOT expect it to go this hard. Wow!
Your personality really shines on these essay type videos
Lately I'm just jumping from small channel to small channel. Everybody has so much quality that I just can't follow a single one.
Yup, I'm often one to feel nostalgic for old youtube. The weird thing is, I rarely see small people trying to make it on here. Almost every small youtube channel on here is just some medium-sized twitch streamer's VODs. I would love to support other small youtubers such as myself.
I've never seen Mark, but I have observed similar and wondered a few times if a few creators I know still tried other topics. I know at least a few that won't, but clearly could, and it's just sad. And all the genuinely creative people who got bumped off the platform (usually niche music artists) due to these changes and their slow production timelines.
12:55 Zanny mentioned!
Zan clan rise up.
Mark being a precursor to zanny hit me like a truck
Never made the connection between the two
Now i know why they are amongst my top 5 favorite creators
11:50 I absolutely agree with you. Content can be as well produced as it possibly can be, be if the person behind it isn’t interesting, I’m not going to watch the video.
I appreciate the way you approached this topic. Yes, there's sadness and nostalgia in seeing things change, especially since I agree - things did feel more personal and community-driven a couple of years back. And finding spaces like that on youtube these days feels harder.
But there's no guilt, no bitterness, just it is what it is. Time waits for no one and things change.
Very insightful video, thank you
While I may have never heard of you or your channel before, this was a really good analysis video and I'm glad the algorithm recommended it to me. Well done.
manly badass hero is a prime example of an old style creator in the modern era gaining fame.
To be fair, clickbait has pretty much always existed on youtube nearly the whole time. I know I'm old and was there watching 😂 I remember when Philly D kept getting on people's nerves by posting women in bikinis as his thumbnails to completely unrelated videos
The Reaction Girls back in the day, I nearly forgot about that stuff man.
I seriously thought when you said "Bless your faces" you were gonna reference another old UA-cam veteran and follow up with "If you sneezed during this video, then bless you"
outro of redness then whiteness then darkness
I feel depressed that he turned out the way he is now… I loved him when I was a child
@@CaedusDeorum what happened to him?
I've been going back and watching the older video for vanoss, wildcat, and the rest. Their video back then was just them having fun in games they enjoyed. When you compare their newest videos with their older ones you can hear the difference in their voices. The amount of enthusiasm they had back then was a vibe
3:16 ... wait... *keeps going*... hold on... i know this video!! That's my Markiplier Out of Context video!!!
I dont watch any of the old makers I used too. Now I just watch long format theories, documentaries, talks, or game studies. I'll say the amount of people like yourself putting well thought out scripts is beautiful. Thank you.
Subbed. Because I'm 47 and personality still matters to me. Thanks for the great insights.
As someone who LOVES and generally rewatches his older series (from dust my beloved) I'll probably agree it was a perfect storm of all the above. We grew up, new kids want their things, coporatism sunk its dirty little hooks into every crevice thus creating a new META, the internet exploded in volume, etc. Its easy to have rose-tinted glasses about the past, but unfortunately those days are gone. Like you said higher quantity and quality is better to the viewer, but its also a higher and less intimate bar. I think thats why streaming got so popular, we want a connection with the people we're watching, but topic focused content is simply too effective and efficient. Its all business with withered personality now. Its... well to put it bluntly, its sad.
I was genuinely thinking about Mr.Fruit while watching this video, got surprised when he got mentioned.
How I started watching him was funnely enough, from Among Us, his character sticked with me just like Markpiler (Figured out its cause both have ADHD like me)
I was in a similar boat as to what was mentioned in the video, I started watching him in his early days becuase I started playing destiny, and he was making destiny videos. While I don't watch all his stuff anymore, I still see a video here or there. But it is sad to see that he's fallen on rough times
Mr fruit started on the og wave of destiny 1 creators and built his channel on montages and the dream team.
same
5:28 Oook, you got me... Subscribed
You're right, idk who you are. But the title attracted me more than seeing Mark. Keep doing you. You're doing it well
Honestly this is a fantastic video! I've used UA-cam off and on for eons now and I've never took much time to think about how it's changed over the years.
I have been watching UA-cam videos since 2007 on a regular basis... and what you have said completely resonates with me. I mainly follow people based on personality rather than just their content, but sometimes the content brings me in.
I definitely never grew out of youtube and the way I would watch it. Sure, now and then I'll search a topic I like to see if there's anyone new to watch, but I like to live off my subscriber feed. People aren't uploading as many good videos anymore but the few who do will always have my support.
@@GIRGHGH Same
Good video, TDT. I will admit that am one of those viewers who watches you because you make Spicy Clips videos, and I initially had no interest in watching this video, but I saw you changed the title of the video to something more general, and to a topic that's trending a bit now. Plus, seeing you had 235k+ views (when I watched it) made me go, "Oh wow, he must've got an influx."
I think pretty much everyone can agree with you that personalities aren't really prioritized anymore, mainly due to the fact that UA-cam has just grown so so much. But in all honesty, I get it. Back in the early days of UA-cam, before I even knew what it was, I can't imagine people were ANYWHERE near as concerned about stuff like copyright and swearing. I think it's obvious that UA-cam has definitely changed, for better or for worse. It's not just us, it's them as well.
But back to personalities. I also get why they aren't really the frontrunner for the algorithms, because... how they heck do you make an algorithm that at least semi-accurately tracks someone's personality? No amount of math equations is gonna sum up (virtual) human interactions. We are MORE than that. We are social creatures, and I think the Covidemic has shown us that virtual interaction just isn't a suitable replacement, and likely never was meant to be. We NEED the social aspect in our relationships, because without it... who the heck are we? Our judgements ultimately rely on the people around us.
I believe UA-cam is (in at least some respect) doing what they can to alleviate the problem at hand, but the metrics that they CAN track like watch time, viewer retention, etc. all fall short of the personality of a creator, and probably due to no fault of UA-cam's own. As I said, a human relationship, even one that involves something like a creator and their viewers, can't just be summed up by a crap ton of math equations. There's something INHERENT in human interaction, even virtual human interaction, despite the latter obviously being ultimately inferior. Part of me wonders if some problem like this was inevitable in UA-cam's history, that this is a consequence that's being reaped from all that's been sowed beforehand.
I am NOT an avid UA-camr, and haven't even gotten close, but I still do sometimes fantasize about what it would be like to run a channel. I'm just saying that so I don't come off like I'm some expert on all this. I am not. But even experts don't know everything, and the common folk have their own share in things as well.
Apologies for the long comment, but this is something I felt I wanted to spend time on to talk about, even if this gets buried deep into the abyss of comments left to rot.
Interesting points and well said
Read the whole text. That was a good and interesting point of view.
In my *opinion, Markiplier is topic focused now, but doesn’t limit himself with his topic.
When I go to his channel, all I see are horror games. While these videos are fun, I wish he would play more silly or unique indie games.
I gotta say, in a way I kind of grew up with THIS channel. Went from a comfort watch of stupid build and spicy clips and now we're here. I'm glad you're stickin' with it, Mesome, I look forward to watching more.
Bruh that BL vs BL2 comparison
I have a channel I used to watch back when I was yunger these two goffballs playing a few random games. Minecraft, Terrarier Borderlands. so on. the production on these vidoes were nonexistent the videos that got uploaded was more or less the raw take maybe with a cut here and there if one of them had to go afk. terrible audio quality and 720p max but I loved every second of it, because it was them. sadly they stopped making contet about 12 years ago, but I still find myself to this day going back every once in a while watching some of their stuff particularly the old uploads, just to relive that same feeling of joy. and even though Im' sad they stopped making videos, I think it's a good thing, because I wouldn't have wanted them to experience the current way that you have to make videos for them to do well. "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain"
Great essay, thanks. Sips was the first creator that I really connected with and I feel the same 'parting of ways' as you've described.
I remember the first channel I got into was Game Theory, and while I liked the science based content, I was there for MatPat, and while his older videos were a little cringey and and the boob video was weird, I think it added to them. By the time Austin from ShoddyCast joined, Austin couldn't even say "Goddamn Terrifying" anymore.
Love that you put Seananners as one of the logos for the content creators. To this day I rewatch all his Garry's Mods videos repeatedly. I would say confidently at least 20-25 of the views on each video has been me just rewatching it again and again.
Love that he's back with content but I miss the face cam because the smile and laugh gets you every time.
It hit hard when you said, "an artist." That is exactly what it is... AN art for those who care and enjoy the videos for the effort that went into making it... Not mindless scrolling. A short movie to escape reality. Not a reel or video that gets views for possibly a 60 clip somewhere among the masterpiece.
Btw, this was a fantastic format. I'd watch more videos on stuff like this. It kinda reminds me of Super Eyepatch Wolf.
Meta isn't an acronym, it's short for metagame, ie, the "game within the game", the optimization of strategies.
I like the acronym better
Yeah... "Metagame" isn't very clear and don't explain much at all.
I had to do a double-take when I saw this in my recommendations. It was definitely unexpected but welcomed, and I'm glad I watched!
Nice vid broski. Just earned urself a new sub
UA-cam back in the late 2000s and early 2010s was peak. Same with the whole internet at that time. Nothing beat people making good content for the fun of it with no chasing the algorithm and trends constantly. That's not to say there were no trends but more often than not a lot of people just made stuff cause they enjoyed it rather than catering to the algorithm to generate clicks.
I like the turn your channel has taken, TDT. Let’s see where this leads.
To be fair, Mark's video did change around the time he said he no longer enjoy playing games anymore. And it showed.
i think the biggest problem is, youtube wants too much, and dont give quality any room to be in that
The unique sign-off at the end of the video is a curious artifact from the "fan army" days of content creation. Cool, a bit anachronistic, and interesting.
The Minecraft theme running in the background bring me back to my childhood
I like this video essay style, your voice keeps me engaged! I'd love to see more of these!
im ginna be honest with you, META doesn mean that, its a backronym.
META, like in metaphysics, has a distinct meaning as in "selfreferential" and stuff, you know, "metagame"
yeah honestly i cant explain its exact meaning with words either, its a "you know it when you see it" situation (at least with my bad english skills)
i just want to dispel the myth that meta is an acronym
UA-cam needs to start creating sub-channels. Channels within channels for people who post variety. People can sub to just the type of content they want to see.
Thank you!!! Yes!!
12:00 There's also more creators than ever now, so that's also a factor since there is more stuff than ever to watch.
I do miss those old days with The Creatures, Yogscast, pewdiepie, Markerplie, ect
I love that minecraft music is heavily relied on in the production. Good choice.
Becoming a big UA-camr or streamer is 90% luck and 10% skill
I am a d2 fan and warlock blink enthusiasts. Outside of all of that, I have become a really big fan of your content.Great video as always.
I can't recall how many hours I spent re-watching his videos' just so I could get a chuckle out of my day, or just to help me sleep on restless nights, those are some of the days I miss the most. I probably will continue watching him even though his uploads have been fewer and fewer, I just can't really get into other youtubers whether they do the same content or not. Marks personality, during a horror game is just one of the best.
Especially the part of Mark fanbase who thought tiny boxed Tim was a forever hit and wanted Markiplier to stay stagnant all his life
Small channels especially have to use some level of clickbait as not enough people can be there for their personality to keep the channel growing without clickbait.
Dude, I got so excited when you mentioned Mr. Fruit. I love his content so much
Markiplier's viewer count is actually better than like 90% of big creators today. His viewer count is consistently over 2 million.
Im a huge fan of a channel called Neebs Gaming. They were the guys who created the Battlefield friends series and Mob squad series on Machinima back in the day. In the early days it felt like it was no problem for them to get 500k views after maybe a week but now they get between 100k to 250k normally. They are still very much themselves but i feel like some people who were Battlefield fans watched them, but once they moved away from Battlefield i feel like some people stop watching them. Now they normally do multiple different survival games like 7 days to die.
This reminded me of the mxed feelings I experienced when Rooster Teeth finally shut down after decades. I had long since moved past their content, and didn't even recognize most of the new cast, but it still felt like learning of a close friend's death.
I remember the old UA-cam tv box logo on the iPods.
I love Mr.Fruit so much
y'know this takes me back YOUR old wolf pack pvp videos. Loved those, kinda wish they'd make a comeback
Have you ever thought that those who are on the top of youtube dictate the algorithm? Probably indirectly, but the algorithm learns from them. Their channels have the biggest "weights" in the algorithm's accuracy training. Think about it... billions of views, millions of hours of content, learning from all of those people who watch these large channels. If they make a change in their content, how long before the algorithm changes with them?
your circling back to the point is absolutely poetic, great video essay for sure my guy!