I became homeless last week. Wrote the rest of my screenplay today. And now I'm living in a youth shelter and putting myself back together. Thank you for the inspiration and love Matt. You dont know me. But you helped me! Love you brother.
That rack you see being assembled in the first 30 seconds isn't "real" it's just a bunch of modules I thought would be fun to film doing their thing. soundcloud.com/matt-colville/tracks
Matt: *Speaking profound truths on art and the human condition* Also Matt: "I prefer physical knobs" My brain: "You're a physical knob" Please send help.
I relate to this so much. I worked for a veterinarian 10 years ago and he got me on the verbal tic/meme of introducing the phrase of "you're a (word just said)." It's as much a curse as self-awareness is.
Omg thank you for this, Matt. UK medic here, specialising in mental health. I recommend creativity every day. It's powerful to be able to say 'i wrote this song' or 'i cooked this meal' or even 'i knitted this sweater'. It empowers us in a world that we are otherwise powerless to affect. Know that you help others, thousands of miles away. Junior doctors here no longer have time for D&D any more, but your musings always bring me a smile
"We know, and we know we know." Thats gonna stick with me as I go to bed. Thank you for articulating something I've been aware of, but couldn't describe until now. Its the awareness of my awareness that informs a lot of my disposition. Also, I really enjoyed this video. I will definitely watch again tomorrow and continue working on my own art. Thank you for inspiring me to create. :)
Humans are too fragile and physical for how intellectually advanced they became. They were meant to be good enough to chase antelopes and fight off tigers; now they have tools to hunt down every single antelope and tiger in the world should there be a need to, but every action hurts more because you are aware of it. And you'll be aware of it for far longer, because instead of just surviving long enough to leave the next of kin and perishing, you'll live four times as long and have enough time to think about it. ...hopefully you will. Because when it comes to, a sharpened stick is as effective as it used to be.
Let's do it. We're always concerned with what's urgent, and we put off what is important. Whatever it is your project, let 2023 be the year it finally gets made. I recently started drawing the comic book I've had in my heart for years. The script has been ready for a while. Now it's the time to make it come true.
You have no idea the depth of the pitch dark place you pulled me out of because of this video. Seriously, this video is going into the playlist that I watch when I feel like the world would be better without me. I spent the rest of this evening after watching this video reading my old poetry and writing new poetry and sending it to my sister. Thank you Matt. You never cease to inspire me.
This is the most beautiful video I've ever seen on UA-cam. Thank you, Matt. The rise of AI-art is scaring a lot of artists. Finding this video feels like the discovery of a pond in the desert. Fresh water against the scary times. We press on. We make art.
Mr. Colville, your art helps to make a dark, scary world a little less dark, and a little less scary, for at least this one person. Thank you for everything you do.
Hearing Matt Colville talk about Four Tet gave me world-void. As an electronic musician, I appreciate hearing Matt talk about what it means to him, and what it might mean to others.
This is a very nice video, and if I am understanding it correctly a very clever way to talk about a thing while saying something else (which is by itself important and inspirational). I wish you and MCDM all the best in the coming months and we at least can look forward to seeing how the seeds will grow after the coming fire.
I'm usually here for D&D but man this was a good one. It can be tough to remember in this day and age that it's important to do/create things for their own sake. Not because it's profitable or efficient or anything else. Once again Matt coming in with an amazing video!
Wow, there are few videos, lectures, recordings out there that are so succinct and accurate. You were able to take a lot of thoughts and concepts I've had at different points in my life and pool them together so harmoniously, and it's exactly what I needed at this point in time. From the bottom of my heart, this random guy on the internet just wants to say thank you. I can think more clearly on some topics that have been bothering me, and that's huge.
You forgot to mention a very important form of Art that you make. These videos, all your videos, they are a form of art and one that matters deeply to many people. Videos like this are why I enjoy watching and listening to your content Matt, the introspection, the deep thought, it inspires me to make my own art. So thank you Mr Colville, and I hope you're doing okay
This helped me a lot. I'm sure it's helped a lot of people, this is hardly an original comment on a video like this, but I just wanted to thank you. This helped me.
I can't help but watch this in context with everything that's happening so I just wanted to say: you, Matt, have been an invaluable addition to mine and my players art over the years. I hope you are doing well and I wish the best for all this storm to pass safely.
I saw this video on release... and every week or so... i come back and listen again. It's wild how you can change someone's life in just 5 minutes. Thank you, Matt.
I kinda skipped this video when it dropped. Not because I wasn't interested in it or anything I just wasn't in the headspace for it. I still wasn't when I listened to it now I was kind of having a weird episode. But this sort of philosophical existential kind of dialogue helped ground me. I usually just listen to the Running the Game videos to prepare myself for DnD, and even in this case it helped. So thanks for this Matt. It was just nice.
I needed this this morning!.. been struggling with the world recently, but art is so important to me. So thank you Colville! Reminds me of reading the Birth of Tragedy and reading that Nietzsche said “[it is art] through which life is made both possible and worth living.” I needed to read that then and I needed to be reminded today
During COVID, I got into learning simple programming for creating games. That was one of the most anxious and scary periods of my life, and I began to teach myself to make art. Mostly it was just learning how to replicate existing games like Frogger or a crane game, but I would also noodle away at a couple of projects that deliberately felt lonely and hollow. One was a game about flying a spaceship into an infinite space, where you could just fly in any direction forever and never find anything except more stars. Another was a Yume Nikki-esque dreamscape about my own personal experiences and traumas, abstracted with small cubes. That second one was especially important for me because I wanted to know that if somebody else picked up that game and played it, they would have no idea what was even happening. I just needed an outlet for my fears and anxieties in a way that only made sense to me.
4:28 I know Matt wrote Priest and Thief when he felt creatively stifled and he has had plenty of creative stimulation in the past several years, but dammit I still want to see this book series continue! When I finished Priest for the first time several years ago, I was hooked. I'm just hoping that the series gets a conclusion and doesn't forever sit in limbo like the Game of Thrones novels.
This feels like one of those videos I will be coming back to again and again over the years as a comforting reminder when I feel crushed as an artist. Your videos on D&D may have been what drew me in originally, but it's the ones like this that reach into my heart. Thanks Matt.
I'm always impressed when Matt is able to plainly articulate thoughts I've had for decades, but have never been able to put into words. "Cursed by consciousness" is a hell of a phrase to sum up some of the worse aspects of anxiety.
I adore this kind of video Matt. I'm only twenty, but I was sixteen when I found your videos. I wanted to create art before then, but I realised that I wanted to _be_ and artist and to _lead a creative life_ as you say after listening to you. I've learned that lesson over and over again, and I've also learned what _kind_ of artist I want to be from many other people as well. But it really did start with finding you at the perfect time in my teenage upbringing, right when my inspiration was starting to rise, but my direction was lacking. Thank you, earnestly and deeply, thank you.
It's strange how we get meaning from things in our life when we need it most. I just had my first child a month ago and I'm... struggling, to say the least. I can't pinpoint any one thing you said in this video that helped me with this time in my life, but it's in there somewhere. Thank you for what you do and your dedication to the people that look up to you.
I'm not sure this was the best video to watch while waking up, but wow. Five minutes for complete graduate courses on Audio, Art, and Psycology along with an ad so cleanly included that you barely realize it's an ad. Excelent video Matt. I think I'm going to have to watch this again once I wake up. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year, Matt and Everyone.
Hey Matt, just saying that you've been a tremendous inspiration for how I run my games, and my philosophy on running games. You've helped me a lot during my years of trouble. Thanks for that.
This is my favorite video you've ever made. So fucking powerful, man. You've given me clarity on things that would take to long to explain here but thank you. I'll see you on stream.
This is exactly why I love you Matt! Creativity and art aren't hobbies, they are ways of being. Without this video I could sense this attitude in you from your DM vids. Thank you for being a force of passion and creativity!!!
Your streams are one of the reasons I got into modular, and it kinda changed my life after other kinds of art art became difficult due to life stuff. Art is so important. So glad you made this.
I've been making art recently, and it's exactly your attitude, articulated clearly here but mentioned many times in the past, that prompted me. We need good art now more than ever. Our ancestors gave us important discoveries and even more important questions, and it is our duty to continue that tradition. Come hellish heat or increasingly high water, we will leave a collective legacy.
I don't know why but this video brought me to the verge of tears. I have never in my life heard a more perfectly concise....and artful way of describing why we make art, and it was moving. Thank you.
Been watching since sub-1,000 viewers and have to say, this may just be about my favorite video of yours, Matt. At the intersection of place and time where self-aware stardust find themselves just smart enough to seek fleeting moments of happiness , you brought one such moment of that to me. Thank you.
I don't comment on youtube videos much, but this video made me cry. I've enjoyed your content for years and your Running the Game series has helped me DM immensely, but independently I've begun writing songs and getting into voice acting. This video spoke to me on a level I wasn't expecting when I clicked on it. It spoke to that breathless feeling of creating something with harmony, of that feeling of simply being in harmony with something or someone else. Thank you for this, it was poetic in ways I have trouble describing. Thanks for all your content as well.
Thank you Matt on the reflection of “why art”. Your enjoyment of the tactile experience is spot on with me, as I choose to stick with physical paper, pencil, pen and paint. Thanks for giving what I feel words and shape.
Hey a reminder that you have helped alot of people as well, your videos got me through working through the pandemic at jobs sites where people weren't taking things seriously, ide mask up and pop in my earbuds, while running wires through walls, and it'd be you and one other (seth skorkowsky) that'd get me through the day without cracking from stress. Your videos aren't just about dnd or fantasy, they are about viewing the world as a place of wonder (sometimes terror) and drawing inspiration from it. I just want to let you know that even though you have no idea who I am what you do puts a smile on a lot of people's faces, and I appreciate that your Channel is you and not what ever is chic at the moment. As a guy born in 1996, I feel more at home listening to your tales then amongst my own generation. Tldr thx for making me smile, laugh, and cry
I find it difficult to give appropriate thanks to inspiration so freely given, so perfectly articulated. You are a fantastic human Mr. Colville. Thank you.
College has been kicking my butt in the home stretch and rarely leaves me with time to create outside of breaks. I cook my own meals, I run RPGs for my friends when I can, I design and make tools for use around the house when I can afford it. All of these are creative, but still I need occasional reminders that creating art -- the hard work of breaking off a piece of myself and sharing it with the world in some way -- makes me feel alive. Makes me feel like more than a complex chemical cascade. Thank you, Matt.
"We make art, we do it to survive". This holds so much truth for me during the last couple of years, and I expect that it will continue to. Thank you Matt, this video came at the perfect time, this holiday season right before the new year. Hell and high water comes for me and many others at the start of 2023, but we will always have art.
As with many of your videos, Matt, you put fitting words to things I can only feel but not describe. Thanks for helping me understand my own mind a little better!
Thank you Matt. This video means a lot, it struck a chord in me that I didn't realise was even there. I hope it finds other people who needed to hear it, just like I did.
I had noodled around on VCV Rack a while back, and this inspired me to open it back up again. Everything was right where I left it, muted. Unmuting the forgotten contraption, I was assailed by celestial voices I had misplaced in time. There is something of the eternal in rediscovering the ephemeral. Distilling time to a moment, the vastness of experience feels more real. Thank you.
i haven't been watching the vods of the streams for about half a year now i reckon, and this felt like a very warm blanket draped around me. you help a lot, matt. thank you so much.
I didn't catch this video when it came out despite having enjoyed Matt's work for years. I stumbled on it tonight when I really needed it. Coincidentally, I downloaded VCV Rack a few weeks ago and got really into it, but dropped it last week due to a pet-related emergency I've been dealing with (the cat's fine now, but we had a scare). This is a good reminder to get back at it.
matt, you have a special gift for words and speech that never fails to get me thinking. thank you for all you do, thank you for reminding me what my purpose this year and this life is: to create and to love
This video has changed my life, and I cannot express my thanks for that enough. I had no idea you were into modular! But that got me hooked into the video, and I had no clue how much I needed to hear the messages here. I've spent most of my life believing others and (worse) myself that I'm not creative or "arty" in any way. I'd freeze when pressed to create and eventually stopped trying. But I'd been working to change that mindset slowly for the past few months. Discovered modular, and bought myself a Behringer Crave as an entry point. But this video gave me the kick up the backside I needed to finally start making and sharing something! The joy it's bought me already is incredible. From the bottom of my heart, Thank You.
You've taught me a lot about DND, but you've taught me even more important things about life. You were the reason I decided to stop chasing things I didn't want and to believe in my art instead. I don't know where that's going to take me, but I think it'll be worth it. Thanks Matt.
What an incredible video and lucky to have listened to it at a time of need. A snap shock to my senses. To embrace individuality. To think differently. To feel differently. And to be filled with joy by partaking in a simple pleasures. Thank you Matt Colville for sharing with your audience. Life is experiences.
I love all your videos, Matt. I've DMed since high school (20 years now) but I still watch and rewatch all of your videos. This is a hobby I can see myself really getting into.
Over half a decade ago, my oldest friends and I reconnected and decided to start our own D&D campaign, like we had enjoyed as kids. I began scouring UA-cam for advice that could help me to improve my skills as a D&M, and came across this channel. Matt's advice was clearly rooted in his experience and love for the game. I consumed and put into practice all of it that I could. I credit this for the two continuous years of weekly gaming that followed. Two full campaigns with the same 5 five players. One evening, I saw that Matt was hosting a live stream. I don't engage much with live streams, but I saw an opportunity to pick Matt's brain in real time, and took it. I joined the stream, already in progress, to find Matt sitting before a console of hypnotic blinking lights. My speakers reverberated with Vangelis-esque rumbles and wails. Any gaming questions I had were instantly forgotten. I NEEDED to understand what I was seeing and hearing. "What's that?" Asked the audience. "The Time Rider" answered Mr. Colville. The audience: " What does it do?" Matt, through a mischievous smile: "It rides time." He then proceeded to explain the patch, how he had engineered this beautiful, self generating music into existence, and how it had been a journey of discovery, rather than an act of conscious creation. I was hooked. In the intervening years, I have gone through tumultuous psychological ups and downs, but there are two consistent bright spots that keep me afloat. One is tabletop gaming with my friends, and the other is synthesis. Last week, I recorded the first piece of music that I feel genuinely proud of in my entire life. The meaning that I find in this practice is literally life sustaining. Today, I watched this video twice, and cried happy tears. Well done, Mr. Colville, and my thanks to you.
Legitimately, art has been my mental health outlet. For me, recently, this has taken the form of Warhammer40k. Building little plastic armies and painting them has been incredibly soothing in a time where, I'll be honest, my hope for the future being bright is at an all-time low. So, I run D&D, I write (badly), and I paint plastic crack. • D&D gives me fun social time. • Writing gives me pure creative freedom. • Warhammer oddly enough, gives me mental peace. It turns my brain off...and for me, that is needed. Love the video Matt. I hope we're all here next year, breathing a sigh of relief; I really do.
Art as a way to survive and thrive is a mindset I am slowly returning to. To add to the Conversation, consumption of Art is the first and most accessible way of creating, as Matthew said, your consciousness is working while you consume. So don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t been able to create, write, compose, draw or build, you have been gathering ideas to unleash once you find the time to create again. I believe this video will be my last of the year, these thoughts shall be my companions for 2023 and beyond. Thank you Matthew, have a great year and I hope to see you soon.
Ty Matt. I'm a serial hobbiest and I love and feel so alive when I've got an idea I just can't put away. When a new concept for a game or story comes up, it really is the best feeling in the world.
Matt, I've been down this thought path SO many times over the last two years, and I thank you for putting it into words. I can not express how much your channel, your videos, and your presence on the internet in general have changed and helped me. I will create and continue to do so because I am the only one who can fulfill my vision. We all need to see our dreams through. ❤❤❤❤
I can't tell you how much I needed this. I came back to the RPG hobby after a 25 year break. I suffered a head injury last December and could no longer remember how any of my synthesizers worked. I've spent my adult life playing in bands and all of my musical knowledge disappeared overnight. I knew that I needed to do 'something' creative or go mad, so I started playing D&D online. The community has been incredibly friendly, understanding, and supportive, but I can't tell you how much I miss being able to play music. It's a journey in progress, but man I miss composing and playing live.
D&D is not the same as music, but it can be a pretty powerful creative outlet, and it can lead to all kinds of other creativity. Probably my success as a writer, to whatever extent I am successful, is mostly due to my experience as a dungeon master.
I want to say thank you for this video. I've always struggled with existential dread, but it has been particularly bad in the last few years because of learning more about the climate crisis. I keep getting in a rut of feeling powerless and without hope. Making art has helped me tremendously - including playing D&D with my friends, a thing I do in large part because of your videos. So I come back to this video every few weeks, maybe several times a day when I'm struggling. I find its message and emotion powerful: I'm not alone, and I can do things to help myself. Thank you
I feel like I needed to hear this. To know that you can craft something that others will uniquely experience would set in motion potent change in the world, that is probably what keeps everyone sane.
This was intensely deep despite it's short length but I think that added all the more punch. Thank you again for a massively insightful video Matt. You always make me feel like heard and understood with the way you put things.
This is a cool thing you made Matt. I like how you articulated the idea that art matters at 3:05. I remember mulling some thoughts on art some time ago and finding your words in an older video compelling. They were something like: "The point of art is to make someone go: "Huh, neat!" ". Coolest idea ever and something I genuinely take to heart. The things I have made with that in mind are those I am the proudest of. Keep making neat things Matt. Thanks for the vids, and patching looks cool!
This really helped me put a finger on why I like reading so much. There's more room for me to make a book my own than there is in a movie or TV show. Thanks Matt, I'm gonna be thinking about this for a long time
"I refuse to say consuming it" Oh god thanks for saying that, I feel less like a grumpy weirdo-- because for the longest time the modern parlance "consuming media" has driven me insane. It actually makes me feel gross to say
Creative pursuits and sharing the discoveries with the world is one of the many reasons I choose to live. I've loved your content for many years Matt, thank you
I have studied music my entire life and I love how you capsuled the experience so nicely - I love your videos/UA-cam - please just keep being your honest-self on here, you kick so much ASS!!!
Oh hey! That version of The Two Towers is the same kind as the set my mother gave me when I was young. I was curious about "the cool books" on her shelf, and she figured I was old enough to enjoy them. That set, from The Hobbit through Return of the King, really helped to kickstart my love of fantasy and literature. And I guess, in the way that art makes us think about things, Tolkien's books changed my mind for the better. As an adult now, I love DMing, it's my outlet after a hard work week. I get to come up with my own fantasy worlds and scenarios, and figure out how to create awesome experiences for my players to enjoy. That ability to express myself, and make something cool that makes even just a few people happy, is both satisfying and empowering. Your videos have been part of that too. Thanks for being awesome, and for being part of our shared hobby mindspace. You and the MCDM folks have given me more tools to create with, and different perspectives on creating. May the stars shine bright upon you and yours!
Thank you, Mr. Colville. Art is the only thing that keeps me on the material plane, and what you do is part of that art. Thank you for this video. Thank you for everything.
I typically don't click on your non-D&D videos unless I'm super interested in the topic but I'm so happy I decided to click on this one. Definitely a well worded and much appreciated message
My inciting incident with art was your first kickstarter where I went all in on the dragons. I had never really created art before, didn't understand it, didn't want to (for a variety of foolish reasons). A few years later, and I no longer think of myself as a [corporate career title here], but as an artist with a corporate side-hustle that pays the bills while I improve my craft. I get it now. I love art. I love creating it. Thank you for being the catalyst I needed. You'll never know how much I needed it, and how thankful I am.
Thank you Matt, that was inspiring. And thank you for all the work you do on this channel and with MCDM in general. A few years ago I found your channel, and it inspired me to finally give DMing a try. Now I don't know what I would do if I didn't have that outlet for creativity. Pursuing that creative outlet also dovetailed into wanting to spend more time working on other creative outlets like drawing that I had told myself a long time ago I would never be able to improve or be good at. Thank you Matt. As melodramatic as it sounds, your channel really was the catalyst for me finding my own art.
Thank you Matt! I recently started drawing my own fantasy world after doubting my art skills for most of my life. A lot of the time I think I'm creating something useless but you're right I do it to survive and its what makes me human. Thank you for inspiring me to begin this journey.
Enjoyed this a lot, thank you. I often get so busy and stressed that I find it hard to make something new, but whenever I come back to it, I do always feel better about myself and the world.
Sometimes it seems like art and creativity are the only things that give me hope for the future of humanity. Thank you for your thoughtful insights and consistent quality content. I may not always agree, but you always make me think more deeply about it. Here's to a million subs in 23! Happy New Year, everyone!
I like to listen to some music, work on my game stuff, and just chill. I spend hours doing this. It is my happy place; my flow. Pure imagination, lots of connections to...everything. Not sure if it's art or not, but it sparks joy. Happy new year to you, Mr. Colville.
LETS GO PLATS
A comment by Jeremy in Matt's channel..! Now that's interesting.
@@inconnu4876 RIGHT??? 2 of my all time favs
My world's have collided!!
I became homeless last week. Wrote the rest of my screenplay today. And now I'm living in a youth shelter and putting myself back together.
Thank you for the inspiration and love Matt. You dont know me. But you helped me! Love you brother.
"And surely the future shall be better for thee than the past."
I don't know you either, but keep it Henry. You got this. Only one way to go from the bottom.
How are you Henry? Do you have a more stable place to live?
I hope this post is outdated. But I wish you all the best none the less!
Henry! where ever you are in the world, know that people are thinking about you and hoping for your dream.
Thanks for this, Matt, I really did need a reminder that I’m happiest when creating.
Same
"The world outside seems insane, unfixable, and deeply anti-human." What a vibe. This whole rant is just- Chefs kiss.
That rack you see being assembled in the first 30 seconds isn't "real" it's just a bunch of modules I thought would be fun to film doing their thing.
soundcloud.com/matt-colville/tracks
I still looks cool!
Isn't that a form of art in and of itself?
@@novanIV you're goddamn right it is
I LOVE this preview of the MCDM Operator / Bard ! Thank you. Have a killer 2023 ahead 🥂
@@imissnewspapers All pretenders to State Azure’s Throne
Matt: *Speaking profound truths on art and the human condition*
Also Matt: "I prefer physical knobs"
My brain: "You're a physical knob"
Please send help.
If you makes you feel any better, this is literally what my brain did as well.
Nice to meet another "You're a (insert randomly heard word here)."
I relate to this so much. I worked for a veterinarian 10 years ago and he got me on the verbal tic/meme of introducing the phrase of "you're a (word just said)." It's as much a curse as self-awareness is.
Omg thank you for this, Matt. UK medic here, specialising in mental health. I recommend creativity every day. It's powerful to be able to say 'i wrote this song' or 'i cooked this meal' or even 'i knitted this sweater'. It empowers us in a world that we are otherwise powerless to affect. Know that you help others, thousands of miles away. Junior doctors here no longer have time for D&D any more, but your musings always bring me a smile
"We know, and we know we know."
Thats gonna stick with me as I go to bed. Thank you for articulating something I've been aware of, but couldn't describe until now. Its the awareness of my awareness that informs a lot of my disposition.
Also, I really enjoyed this video. I will definitely watch again tomorrow and continue working on my own art. Thank you for inspiring me to create. :)
Humans are too fragile and physical for how intellectually advanced they became. They were meant to be good enough to chase antelopes and fight off tigers; now they have tools to hunt down every single antelope and tiger in the world should there be a need to, but every action hurts more because you are aware of it. And you'll be aware of it for far longer, because instead of just surviving long enough to leave the next of kin and perishing, you'll live four times as long and have enough time to think about it.
...hopefully you will. Because when it comes to, a sharpened stick is as effective as it used to be.
"You make art, you do it to survive."
Im going to make that [thing] I have been putting off.
Let's do it. We're always concerned with what's urgent, and we put off what is important.
Whatever it is your project, let 2023 be the year it finally gets made.
I recently started drawing the comic book I've had in my heart for years. The script has been ready for a while. Now it's the time to make it come true.
You have no idea the depth of the pitch dark place you pulled me out of because of this video. Seriously, this video is going into the playlist that I watch when I feel like the world would be better without me.
I spent the rest of this evening after watching this video reading my old poetry and writing new poetry and sending it to my sister. Thank you Matt. You never cease to inspire me.
This is the most beautiful video I've ever seen on UA-cam. Thank you, Matt.
The rise of AI-art is scaring a lot of artists. Finding this video feels like the discovery of a pond in the desert. Fresh water against the scary times.
We press on.
We make art.
Mr. Colville, your art helps to make a dark, scary world a little less dark, and a little less scary, for at least this one person.
Thank you for everything you do.
Hearing Matt Colville talk about Four Tet gave me world-void. As an electronic musician, I appreciate hearing Matt talk about what it means to him, and what it might mean to others.
This video came in at just the right time for me. Thanks, Matt. You are a river to your people.
This is a very nice video, and if I am understanding it correctly a very clever way to talk about a thing while saying something else (which is by itself important and inspirational). I wish you and MCDM all the best in the coming months and we at least can look forward to seeing how the seeds will grow after the coming fire.
I'm usually here for D&D but man this was a good one.
It can be tough to remember in this day and age that it's important to do/create things for their own sake. Not because it's profitable or efficient or anything else.
Once again Matt coming in with an amazing video!
Wow, there are few videos, lectures, recordings out there that are so succinct and accurate. You were able to take a lot of thoughts and concepts I've had at different points in my life and pool them together so harmoniously, and it's exactly what I needed at this point in time. From the bottom of my heart, this random guy on the internet just wants to say thank you. I can think more clearly on some topics that have been bothering me, and that's huge.
You forgot to mention a very important form of Art that you make. These videos, all your videos, they are a form of art and one that matters deeply to many people. Videos like this are why I enjoy watching and listening to your content Matt, the introspection, the deep thought, it inspires me to make my own art. So thank you Mr Colville, and I hope you're doing okay
This helped me a lot.
I'm sure it's helped a lot of people, this is hardly an original comment on a video like this, but I just wanted to thank you. This helped me.
I can't help but watch this in context with everything that's happening so I just wanted to say: you, Matt, have been an invaluable addition to mine and my players art over the years. I hope you are doing well and I wish the best for all this storm to pass safely.
I saw this video on release... and every week or so... i come back and listen again.
It's wild how you can change someone's life in just 5 minutes.
Thank you, Matt.
Same. this video is fully responsible for me getting up & finally making art this year
Jeezus H Christ! This is good. This is sooo good. Thank you so much, Matt, this is something we ALL need to be reminded of.
I kinda skipped this video when it dropped. Not because I wasn't interested in it or anything I just wasn't in the headspace for it. I still wasn't when I listened to it now I was kind of having a weird episode. But this sort of philosophical existential kind of dialogue helped ground me. I usually just listen to the Running the Game videos to prepare myself for DnD, and even in this case it helped. So thanks for this Matt. It was just nice.
I needed this this morning!.. been struggling with the world recently, but art is so important to me. So thank you Colville! Reminds me of reading the Birth of Tragedy and reading that Nietzsche said “[it is art] through which life is made both possible and worth living.” I needed to read that then and I needed to be reminded today
During COVID, I got into learning simple programming for creating games. That was one of the most anxious and scary periods of my life, and I began to teach myself to make art.
Mostly it was just learning how to replicate existing games like Frogger or a crane game, but I would also noodle away at a couple of projects that deliberately felt lonely and hollow. One was a game about flying a spaceship into an infinite space, where you could just fly in any direction forever and never find anything except more stars. Another was a Yume Nikki-esque dreamscape about my own personal experiences and traumas, abstracted with small cubes.
That second one was especially important for me because I wanted to know that if somebody else picked up that game and played it, they would have no idea what was even happening. I just needed an outlet for my fears and anxieties in a way that only made sense to me.
This is some seriously good coded language. Thanks for the message matt. Hope to see your RPG content soon.
4:28 I know Matt wrote Priest and Thief when he felt creatively stifled and he has had plenty of creative stimulation in the past several years, but dammit I still want to see this book series continue! When I finished Priest for the first time several years ago, I was hooked. I'm just hoping that the series gets a conclusion and doesn't forever sit in limbo like the Game of Thrones novels.
This feels like one of those videos I will be coming back to again and again over the years as a comforting reminder when I feel crushed as an artist. Your videos on D&D may have been what drew me in originally, but it's the ones like this that reach into my heart. Thanks Matt.
I'm always impressed when Matt is able to plainly articulate thoughts I've had for decades, but have never been able to put into words. "Cursed by consciousness" is a hell of a phrase to sum up some of the worse aspects of anxiety.
This really inspired me, as a sound artist, as a dm, as a person. Thank you.
I adore this kind of video Matt. I'm only twenty, but I was sixteen when I found your videos. I wanted to create art before then, but I realised that I wanted to _be_ and artist and to _lead a creative life_ as you say after listening to you. I've learned that lesson over and over again, and I've also learned what _kind_ of artist I want to be from many other people as well. But it really did start with finding you at the perfect time in my teenage upbringing, right when my inspiration was starting to rise, but my direction was lacking. Thank you, earnestly and deeply, thank you.
noodling on my collection of guitars, amps, and synths has definitely given me countless hours of reprieve from existential dread.
This resonates so much different now.
What can I say... We will never stop creating.
It's strange how we get meaning from things in our life when we need it most. I just had my first child a month ago and I'm... struggling, to say the least. I can't pinpoint any one thing you said in this video that helped me with this time in my life, but it's in there somewhere. Thank you for what you do and your dedication to the people that look up to you.
This gives me hardcore John Green vlogbrothers video essay vibes, which is a huge compliment. I love this type of content, Matt. Keep it up!
I'm not sure this was the best video to watch while waking up, but wow. Five minutes for complete graduate courses on Audio, Art, and Psycology along with an ad so cleanly included that you barely realize it's an ad. Excelent video Matt. I think I'm going to have to watch this again once I wake up. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year, Matt and Everyone.
Now that is some Sage Advice. Thank you, Matt.
Hey Matt, just saying that you've been a tremendous inspiration for how I run my games, and my philosophy on running games. You've helped me a lot during my years of trouble. Thanks for that.
This is my favorite video you've ever made. So fucking powerful, man. You've given me clarity on things that would take to long to explain here but thank you. I'll see you on stream.
This is exactly why I love you Matt! Creativity and art aren't hobbies, they are ways of being. Without this video I could sense this attitude in you from your DM vids. Thank you for being a force of passion and creativity!!!
Your streams are one of the reasons I got into modular, and it kinda changed my life after other kinds of art art became difficult due to life stuff. Art is so important. So glad you made this.
I've been making art recently, and it's exactly your attitude, articulated clearly here but mentioned many times in the past, that prompted me. We need good art now more than ever. Our ancestors gave us important discoveries and even more important questions, and it is our duty to continue that tradition. Come hellish heat or increasingly high water, we will leave a collective legacy.
I don't know why but this video brought me to the verge of tears. I have never in my life heard a more perfectly concise....and artful way of describing why we make art, and it was moving. Thank you.
Just wanted to say, thank you, Matt.
Thank YOU! :D
Been watching since sub-1,000 viewers and have to say, this may just be about my favorite video of yours, Matt. At the intersection of place and time where self-aware stardust find themselves just smart enough to seek fleeting moments of happiness , you brought one such moment of that to me. Thank you.
I don't comment on youtube videos much, but this video made me cry. I've enjoyed your content for years and your Running the Game series has helped me DM immensely, but independently I've begun writing songs and getting into voice acting. This video spoke to me on a level I wasn't expecting when I clicked on it. It spoke to that breathless feeling of creating something with harmony, of that feeling of simply being in harmony with something or someone else. Thank you for this, it was poetic in ways I have trouble describing. Thanks for all your content as well.
There are so many great videos in this channel, but this is my absolute favourite. Thank you, Matthew Colville
Thank you Matt on the reflection of “why art”.
Your enjoyment of the tactile experience is spot on with me, as I choose to stick with physical paper, pencil, pen and paint.
Thanks for giving what I feel words and shape.
Hey a reminder that you have helped alot of people as well, your videos got me through working through the pandemic at jobs sites where people weren't taking things seriously, ide mask up and pop in my earbuds, while running wires through walls, and it'd be you and one other (seth skorkowsky) that'd get me through the day without cracking from stress. Your videos aren't just about dnd or fantasy, they are about viewing the world as a place of wonder (sometimes terror) and drawing inspiration from it. I just want to let you know that even though you have no idea who I am what you do puts a smile on a lot of people's faces, and I appreciate that your Channel is you and not what ever is chic at the moment. As a guy born in 1996, I feel more at home listening to your tales then amongst my own generation.
Tldr thx for making me smile, laugh, and cry
I find it difficult to give appropriate thanks to inspiration so freely given, so perfectly articulated. You are a fantastic human Mr. Colville. Thank you.
College has been kicking my butt in the home stretch and rarely leaves me with time to create outside of breaks. I cook my own meals, I run RPGs for my friends when I can, I design and make tools for use around the house when I can afford it. All of these are creative, but still I need occasional reminders that creating art -- the hard work of breaking off a piece of myself and sharing it with the world in some way -- makes me feel alive. Makes me feel like more than a complex chemical cascade.
Thank you, Matt.
As someone working myself out of a depression, this is infinitely comforting to hear. Thank you Matt.
"We make art, we do it to survive". This holds so much truth for me during the last couple of years, and I expect that it will continue to. Thank you Matt, this video came at the perfect time, this holiday season right before the new year. Hell and high water comes for me and many others at the start of 2023, but we will always have art.
As with many of your videos, Matt, you put fitting words to things I can only feel but not describe.
Thanks for helping me understand my own mind a little better!
I needed this. WE needed this. Thank you for speaking your truth, Matt. Thank you for making and living your art. Thank you for existing.
Thank you Matt. This video means a lot, it struck a chord in me that I didn't realise was even there. I hope it finds other people who needed to hear it, just like I did.
I had noodled around on VCV Rack a while back, and this inspired me to open it back up again. Everything was right where I left it, muted. Unmuting the forgotten contraption, I was assailed by celestial voices I had misplaced in time. There is something of the eternal in rediscovering the ephemeral. Distilling time to a moment, the vastness of experience feels more real. Thank you.
i haven't been watching the vods of the streams for about half a year now i reckon, and this felt like a very warm blanket draped around me. you help a lot, matt. thank you so much.
I didn't catch this video when it came out despite having enjoyed Matt's work for years. I stumbled on it tonight when I really needed it.
Coincidentally, I downloaded VCV Rack a few weeks ago and got really into it, but dropped it last week due to a pet-related emergency I've been dealing with (the cat's fine now, but we had a scare). This is a good reminder to get back at it.
You are a beautiful inspiration on my life Matt. Thank you so much for existing and being a constant stream of interesting concepts and good vibes.
matt, you have a special gift for words and speech that never fails to get me thinking. thank you for all you do, thank you for reminding me what my purpose this year and this life is: to create and to love
This is the 4th time I've come back to rewatch this video to help me process some of my negative emotions. Thank you, Mr. Colville.
This video has changed my life, and I cannot express my thanks for that enough.
I had no idea you were into modular! But that got me hooked into the video, and I had no clue how much I needed to hear the messages here. I've spent most of my life believing others and (worse) myself that I'm not creative or "arty" in any way. I'd freeze when pressed to create and eventually stopped trying.
But I'd been working to change that mindset slowly for the past few months. Discovered modular, and bought myself a Behringer Crave as an entry point. But this video gave me the kick up the backside I needed to finally start making and sharing something! The joy it's bought me already is incredible.
From the bottom of my heart, Thank You.
You've taught me a lot about DND, but you've taught me even more important things about life. You were the reason I decided to stop chasing things I didn't want and to believe in my art instead. I don't know where that's going to take me, but I think it'll be worth it. Thanks Matt.
What an incredible video and lucky to have listened to it at a time of need. A snap shock to my senses. To embrace individuality. To think differently. To feel differently. And to be filled with joy by partaking in a simple pleasures. Thank you Matt Colville for sharing with your audience. Life is experiences.
I love all your videos, Matt. I've DMed since high school (20 years now) but I still watch and rewatch all of your videos. This is a hobby I can see myself really getting into.
Over half a decade ago, my oldest friends and I reconnected and decided to start our own D&D campaign, like we had enjoyed as kids. I began scouring UA-cam for advice that could help me to improve my skills as a D&M, and came across this channel.
Matt's advice was clearly rooted in his experience and love for the game. I consumed and put into practice all of it that I could. I credit this for the two continuous years of weekly gaming that followed. Two full campaigns with the same 5 five players.
One evening, I saw that Matt was hosting a live stream. I don't engage much with live streams, but I saw an opportunity to pick Matt's brain in real time, and took it. I joined the stream, already in progress, to find Matt sitting before a console of hypnotic blinking lights. My speakers reverberated with Vangelis-esque rumbles and wails.
Any gaming questions I had were instantly forgotten. I NEEDED to understand what I was seeing and hearing.
"What's that?" Asked the audience.
"The Time Rider" answered Mr. Colville.
The audience: " What does it do?"
Matt, through a mischievous smile: "It rides time."
He then proceeded to explain the patch, how he had engineered this beautiful, self generating music into existence, and how it had been a journey of discovery, rather than an act of conscious creation.
I was hooked.
In the intervening years, I have gone through tumultuous psychological ups and downs, but there are two consistent bright spots that keep me afloat. One is tabletop gaming with my friends, and the other is synthesis. Last week, I recorded the first piece of music that I feel genuinely proud of in my entire life. The meaning that I find in this practice is literally life sustaining.
Today, I watched this video twice, and cried happy tears. Well done, Mr. Colville, and my thanks to you.
Legitimately, art has been my mental health outlet. For me, recently, this has taken the form of Warhammer40k. Building little plastic armies and painting them has been incredibly soothing in a time where, I'll be honest, my hope for the future being bright is at an all-time low. So, I run D&D, I write (badly), and I paint plastic crack.
• D&D gives me fun social time.
• Writing gives me pure creative freedom.
• Warhammer oddly enough, gives me mental peace. It turns my brain off...and for me, that is needed.
Love the video Matt. I hope we're all here next year, breathing a sigh of relief; I really do.
Art as a way to survive and thrive is a mindset I am slowly returning to.
To add to the Conversation, consumption of Art is the first and most accessible way of creating, as Matthew said, your consciousness is working while you consume.
So don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t been able to create, write, compose, draw or build, you have been gathering ideas to unleash once you find the time to create again.
I believe this video will be my last of the year, these thoughts shall be my companions for 2023 and beyond.
Thank you Matthew, have a great year and I hope to see you soon.
Ty Matt. I'm a serial hobbiest and I love and feel so alive when I've got an idea I just can't put away. When a new concept for a game or story comes up, it really is the best feeling in the world.
Wow Matt. Thanks, This really means something to me.
Matt, I've been down this thought path SO many times over the last two years, and I thank you for putting it into words. I can not express how much your channel, your videos, and your presence on the internet in general have changed and helped me. I will create and continue to do so because I am the only one who can fulfill my vision. We all need to see our dreams through. ❤❤❤❤
I can't tell you how much I needed this. I came back to the RPG hobby after a 25 year break. I suffered a head injury last December and could no longer remember how any of my synthesizers worked. I've spent my adult life playing in bands and all of my musical knowledge disappeared overnight. I knew that I needed to do 'something' creative or go mad, so I started playing D&D online. The community has been incredibly friendly, understanding, and supportive, but I can't tell you how much I miss being able to play music. It's a journey in progress, but man I miss composing and playing live.
D&D is not the same as music, but it can be a pretty powerful creative outlet, and it can lead to all kinds of other creativity. Probably my success as a writer, to whatever extent I am successful, is mostly due to my experience as a dungeon master.
I want to say thank you for this video. I've always struggled with existential dread, but it has been particularly bad in the last few years because of learning more about the climate crisis. I keep getting in a rut of feeling powerless and without hope. Making art has helped me tremendously - including playing D&D with my friends, a thing I do in large part because of your videos.
So I come back to this video every few weeks, maybe several times a day when I'm struggling. I find its message and emotion powerful: I'm not alone, and I can do things to help myself. Thank you
I feel like I needed to hear this.
To know that you can craft something that others will uniquely experience would set in motion potent change in the world, that is probably what keeps everyone sane.
This was intensely deep despite it's short length but I think that added all the more punch. Thank you again for a massively insightful video Matt. You always make me feel like heard and understood with the way you put things.
This is a cool thing you made Matt.
I like how you articulated the idea that art matters at 3:05. I remember mulling some thoughts on art some time ago and finding your words in an older video compelling. They were something like: "The point of art is to make someone go: "Huh, neat!" ". Coolest idea ever and something I genuinely take to heart. The things I have made with that in mind are those I am the proudest of. Keep making neat things Matt. Thanks for the vids, and patching looks cool!
This really helped me put a finger on why I like reading so much. There's more room for me to make a book my own than there is in a movie or TV show. Thanks Matt, I'm gonna be thinking about this for a long time
This feels like a John Green video. Great stuff!
"I refuse to say consuming it"
Oh god thanks for saying that, I feel less like a grumpy weirdo-- because for the longest time the modern parlance "consuming media" has driven me insane. It actually makes me feel gross to say
"You make art. You do it to survive." Aaand instant tears. Needed to be heard.
Creative pursuits and sharing the discoveries with the world is one of the many reasons I choose to live. I've loved your content for many years Matt, thank you
I've needed to hear these words for a long time. Thank you Matt, for the inspiration to keep creating
Watching this on New Year's Day was a real blessing. Thanks Matt.
I have studied music my entire life and I love how you capsuled the experience so nicely - I love your videos/UA-cam - please just keep being your honest-self on here, you kick so much ASS!!!
Oh hey! That version of The Two Towers is the same kind as the set my mother gave me when I was young. I was curious about "the cool books" on her shelf, and she figured I was old enough to enjoy them. That set, from The Hobbit through Return of the King, really helped to kickstart my love of fantasy and literature. And I guess, in the way that art makes us think about things, Tolkien's books changed my mind for the better. As an adult now, I love DMing, it's my outlet after a hard work week. I get to come up with my own fantasy worlds and scenarios, and figure out how to create awesome experiences for my players to enjoy. That ability to express myself, and make something cool that makes even just a few people happy, is both satisfying and empowering.
Your videos have been part of that too. Thanks for being awesome, and for being part of our shared hobby mindspace. You and the MCDM folks have given me more tools to create with, and different perspectives on creating. May the stars shine bright upon you and yours!
Thank you, Mr. Colville. Art is the only thing that keeps me on the material plane, and what you do is part of that art. Thank you for this video. Thank you for everything.
Best stuff I've heard in a while.. in a long while. And it made me smile.
Thank you.
life is too short to wallow in sadness when there is so much joy to be found. Being able to find it, means you should probably go looking.
Needed this today. Thank you.
I typically don't click on your non-D&D videos unless I'm super interested in the topic but I'm so happy I decided to click on this one. Definitely a well worded and much appreciated message
My inciting incident with art was your first kickstarter where I went all in on the dragons. I had never really created art before, didn't understand it, didn't want to (for a variety of foolish reasons). A few years later, and I no longer think of myself as a [corporate career title here], but as an artist with a corporate side-hustle that pays the bills while I improve my craft. I get it now. I love art. I love creating it. Thank you for being the catalyst I needed. You'll never know how much I needed it, and how thankful I am.
Thank you Matt, that was inspiring. And thank you for all the work you do on this channel and with MCDM in general. A few years ago I found your channel, and it inspired me to finally give DMing a try. Now I don't know what I would do if I didn't have that outlet for creativity. Pursuing that creative outlet also dovetailed into wanting to spend more time working on other creative outlets like drawing that I had told myself a long time ago I would never be able to improve or be good at. Thank you Matt. As melodramatic as it sounds, your channel really was the catalyst for me finding my own art.
Thank you Matt for helping me remember why I love creating.
Thank you Matt! I recently started drawing my own fantasy world after doubting my art skills for most of my life. A lot of the time I think I'm creating something useless but you're right I do it to survive and its what makes me human. Thank you for inspiring me to begin this journey.
Hypnotic, comforting, cosmic. Thanks for this video! I loved every second of it.
Enjoyed this a lot, thank you. I often get so busy and stressed that I find it hard to make something new, but whenever I come back to it, I do always feel better about myself and the world.
Casually drops my favorite video of 2022 right at the end...
Thanks Matt
Sometimes it seems like art and creativity are the only things that give me hope for the future of humanity. Thank you for your thoughtful insights and consistent quality content. I may not always agree, but you always make me think more deeply about it. Here's to a million subs in 23!
Happy New Year, everyone!
I like to listen to some music, work on my game stuff, and just chill. I spend hours doing this. It is my happy place; my flow. Pure imagination, lots of connections to...everything. Not sure if it's art or not, but it sparks joy. Happy new year to you, Mr. Colville.