What do you look for in a youtube channel??

[J.J]

Already an extensive list of suggestions here, but I'll rifle off what I can think puts me off/attracts me to a channel. Some of these are big asks, especially if you're just starting out, so just aim for what you think you can achieve!

• Know the rules inside and out - I'm fine with the odd slip-up but a lot of people come to battle reports to either learn the game or what an army can do. If you consistently do things incorrectly then it might negatively impact the way other people play the game!
• Variety - A big ask if you're not a studio with a huge pool of models to draw from, but try and play with multiple different armies to attract different players to watch. I know for a fact I'm always far more interested in seeing a faction played that I either own or want to collect! 
• Painted models and terrain - Very important from a visual standpoint and to bring new viewers in, but it also shows you care about all aspects of the game and the hobby as a whole.
• Talk about what's happening - You don't necessarily have to explain every aspect of your gameplan as you play, but try and provide some reasoning here and there for what you're doing and mention what you're doing as you do it. It keeps people in the loop who are watching while painting/assembling their own models at the same time (I do this a lot!).
• Talk about the outcome - Have a little chat at the end about how the game went, what the X factors were, your best and worst units, what you could have done differently etc. Very helpful for players wanting to improve their own game and allowing them to learn as you do.
• Enjoy it - I've been personally put off multiple channels because the host(s) are very dry in their approach and don't seem like they're having fun. I'm not saying you need to be a comedy genius or super entertaining, but keep it reasonably light hearted!

As for other types of videos, I'm not sure where to go. GW does a pretty good job at painting tutorials for people at my skill level and there are plenty of advanced ones out there too. I've not looked into lore videos but that could be an untapped source. I'd love to listen to a 10 minute video on a specific subject/god/hero/army here and there. Hope this helps!

[Gaz Taylor]

2 hours ago, Thebiggesthat said:

If you are being given free products, or invited to GW to participate in the development of the game. Would you risk being critical of said game design on an open platform, for risk of being taken off said privilege list? Miniwargaming did a very fair, but critical review of the cluster that was the Necromunda release. shortly after a tweet from the guys said they were meeting GW for closer collaboration.  The shortly after that, an apology video for the review.

 

Ah. I've not seen the video but I do know Necromunda has a few issues around editing (I think it was rushed out). Personally I think constructive criticism is okay but depends on how they were doing it. If it was being rude and critical about it because things are different, that's not good. A review should be a review, not a moaning session.

Anyway Miniwargaming is very hit and miss for me. I like some of the stuff they do, but they seem to get some stuff wrong which makes me doubt some of the stuff they are saying.

 

1 hour ago, MrCharisma said:

@Gaz Taylor cheers for the sub my good man!

No problem  

 

[Caffran101]

6 hours ago, MrCharisma said:

Really good call out. Most content platforms reward for your bringing external views onto the platform, so leveraging social networks and blogs is a great way to drive traffic. 

 

Mate... I do need to call out that TotalBiscuit has 2.2 million subscribers and has been on the platform creating content since ‘06. If I had that sub base, I wouldn’t be asking for them either. 

I’m not trying to argue with you, just trying to provide logical reasoning on why creators do something that grinds your gears. Hopefully one day you check out my content, I don’t ****** you off, and I get to that 2.2 million subs too :-)

Haha - I probably sound like a right old grump!

And yes, you are entirely right that TotalBiscuit is already sitting very pretty when it comes to subscribers and view counts.

 

On a side note - if you have any intro / outro / interlude music then please make sure that this is at a similar volume level to the rest of the video. I watched someone yesterday who practically whispered through a Witcher 3 video, and then went into some super high volume drum and bass ****** that beat my ear drums to a pulp!

[Lord Panther]

21 hours ago, Gaz Taylor said:

Ah. I've not seen the video but I do know Necromunda has a few issues around editing (I think it was rushed out). Personally I think constructive criticism is okay but depends on how they were doing it. If it was being rude and critical about it because things are different, that's not good. A review should be a review, not a moaning session.

See, I watched the review and the apology. The review was pretty rude. He apologised for being a ****** during the review and for being a ****** to his co-host, he did not retract his criticisms of the game.  He did apologise to the GW design team for the horrible stuff he said about them but that's different to sucking up to them.  You're aloud to disagree with creative decisions but don't be rude to people.  I thought the apology was completely appropriate considering the hobby is not that big and there is no room for bad blood. Showing a bit of common courtesy does not make you a shill.

Anyway, moving on.

Miniwargaming kinda intrigue me with there whole giant new facility build they are currently going through.  They are building like 6 custom studios to shoot wargame content in, along with rooms for people to stay in when they visit and a small tournament space and a hobby shop. How on earth is there a business model for that?  How do they afford it? I'm kinda jealous.

[Adasi]

interesting thread.

Had a channel for years but also had a kid 2.5 years ago and channel has now been left to rot i'm afraid. Have recently bought a new webcam and tripod setup to try and reboot the channel with video's of AoS/40k instead of me talking over still pictures.

Generally though its nigh impossible to film games at a tournament unless you're on a specifically set up table so still pictures are all you get for competetive. I do play competeively in both scenes so hoping that will suffice.

Also ventured in painting vids over the last year. Only doing "how to paint something quick that looks good" cause i know i'm not golden daemon and i'll leave that for the airbrush brigade. My lava base video was somewhat popular (by my channels standard)

 

[AthlorianStoners]

On this subject does anyone have any good AoS YouTube channels to recommend? I don’t particularly like MiniWargamimhs vids but they’re seemingly some of the more popular/higher budget.

[Kirjava13]

I don't know if "recommend" is the right word, but for some reason I quite like WargamerOnline, even though their hosts always sound extremely bored, which is normally one of my pet peeves.

[MrCharisma]

11 hours ago, AthlorianStoners said:

On this subject does anyone have any good AoS YouTube channels to recommend? I don’t particularly like MiniWargamimhs vids but they’re seemingly some of the more popular/higher budget.

Here is a list of YouTuber's I would recommend and personally find valuable for various reasons (battle reps, general discussion, painting techniques, lore, gaming)

• Vince Venturella/Warhammer Weekly
• The Honest Wargamer
• Doom & Darkness
• Paul Conti
• 2+Tough
• Tabletop Minions
• Mc1gamer
• Andy2D6
• The Mitzy and Jimbo Show
•  Miniac
• twinned coot
• Terry Pike
• Mortal Realms
• AoS Coach (me)

[stratigo]

On 3/28/2018 at 4:53 AM, Zeratul said:

My favourite is GMG beacuse it keeps you looking at the battle report, and he manages the camera very well. Plus he has some charm.

Avoid static camera views while doing battle reports, it gets boring.

 

He's charming, but unbelievably stubborn in getting rules wrong persistently to the point of insisting that everyone else is wrong.

[stratigo]

On 4/11/2018 at 7:36 AM, MrCharisma said:

I agree with you guys big time on the rules. Nothing frustrates me more on YouTube that MiniWarrGaming having the highest production value and resources behind their channel but they get many rules wrong in every video.

@Gaz Taylor cheers for the sub my good man!

You raise an interesting point on being impartial. Most people won't want to bite the hand that feeds them, and the privileges of being on the inside is a valuable asset. Is there a risk that they lose trust of their audience if they become a puppet? Yes. Will they gain more fans by being on the inside with a scoop? Yes.  

miniwargaming... uh.... I think they honestly care significantly less about AoS than 40k. They are simply less interested in the game, and it is less business valuable

[KillagoreFaceslasha]

7 hours ago, stratigo said:

miniwargaming... uh.... I think they honestly care significantly less about AoS than 40k. They are simply less interested in the game, and it is less business valuable

I am only talking about 7th edition because that was around the time that Ash left and I went out to watch him at GMG, but even in 40k they had A LOT of egregious stuff.  Stuff like Quirk having two wound lootas for a dozen games (which should have been corrected within the same game with a quick glance to the stats) or the horde of other stuff.

 

Mind you, Ash isn't a saint either, but at least he's more dinamic and entertaining than the rest.

[stratigo]

3 hours ago, KillagoreFaceslasha said:

I am only talking about 7th edition because that was around the time that Ash left and I went out to watch him at GMG, but even in 40k they had A LOT of egregious stuff.  Stuff like Quirk having two wound lootas for a dozen games (which should have been corrected within the same game with a quick glance to the stats) or the horde of other stuff.

 

Mind you, Ash isn't a saint either, but at least he's more dinamic and entertaining than the rest.

Ash does the same thing. Ash just plays so many different games that you usually only notice a handful because you don't know the rules to most of the games he plays.

 

That said, Quirk is just generally bad at rules I feel

[Lord Panther]

I think miniwargaming has stated that they are about to get into AoS in a big way, re-basing a lot of stuff. They are doing an End Times narrative series as a bit of a send of to 8th ed.

[KillagoreFaceslasha]

On 13/04/2018 at 7:37 PM, stratigo said:

Ash does the same thing. Ash just plays so many different games that you usually only notice a handful because you don't know the rules to most of the games he plays.

 

That said, Quirk is just generally bad at rules I feel

Yeah, that helps palate things, it also makes you kind of excuse him, due to sticking to soo many systems.

The two-wound-loota fellon on the other hand literally got every single rule wrong out of an army where he used only two warscrolls.

Like, how's that even possible!? It's almost like this:

 

Anyways, I am going to drop of this conversation because I think I may be getting to riled up and I don't want to be too toxic on this matter

[stratigo]

Also, I am looking for someone, anyone (not quirk) playing KO on youtube.

[Pitloze]

I think people already named the important stuff. But I really would like some more banter, some more chemistry. Too much camera time is focused on the battlefield and not enough on the players.

[Kyriakin]

For me, Vince Venturella is the best Youtuber, hand's down, and is kind of the hub for the all the other small to medium-sized channels. By that, I mean he often hosts and/or publicizes those less well-known than the usual big-hitters such as Miniwargaming (285K subs) and Tabletop Minions* (80K subs).

* Uncle Atom actually appears on the channel sometimes, IIRC.

Also, the dynamic of the positive and chipper hobbyist (i.e. Vince) and slightly less chipper and positive power-gamer (i.e. Tom Lyons) works pretty well. I mean, Vince is a solid player and Tom a decent painter, but their priorities are clearly both elsewhere.

The channel will never hit Miniwargaming-type numbers, as they don't do battle reports or touch 40K. However, a bit more polish (i.e. better recording equipment, flashy intros, etc.) should get their views and subscribers (currently 10K) up to the level that the actual content deserves.

[Spiky Norman]

11 minutes ago, Kyriakin said:

For me, Vince Venturella is the best Youtuber, hand's down, and is kind of the hub for the all the other small to medium-sized channels. By that, I mean he often hosts and/or publicizes those less well-known than the usual big-hitters such as Miniwargaming (285K subs) and Tabletop Minions* (80K subs).

* Uncle Atom actually appears on the channel sometimes, IIRC.

Also, the dynamic of the positive and chipper hobbyist (i.e. Vince) and slightly less chipper and positive power-gamer (i.e. Tom Lyons) works pretty well. I mean, Vince is a solid player and Tom a decent painter, but their priorities are clearly both elsewhere.

The channel will never hit Miniwargaming-type numbers, as they don't do battle reports or touch 40K. However, a bit more polish (i.e. better recording equipment, flashy intros, etc.) should get their views and subscribers (currently 10K) up to the level that the actual content deserves.

I can only wholeheartedly agree. :-)

If I was to pick only 1 Youtuber  in wargaming, it would be him/them. The quality of advice and discussion in both (tournament & narrative)gaming and painting is top notch, and it's actually a bit hard to find channels that have such  knowledgeable hosts*, especially spanning both of those sides of the hobby to such high levels.

 

*To contrast to an example of Tabletop Minion where Uncle Atom is a great presenter with great quality videos, but I often sit and think that he doesn't really seem to know enough about the gaming and painting side of the hobby, which is a little bit of a shame. But then it's different channels with different foci, and I'd still rate Tabletop Minion in my top 10.

[Kyriakin]

53 minutes ago, Spiky Norman said:

*To contrast to an example of Tabletop Minion where Uncle Atom is a great presenter with great quality videos, but I often sit and think that he doesn't really seem to know enough about the gaming and painting side of the hobby, which is a little bit of a shame. But then it's different channels with different foci, and I'd still rate Tabletop Minion in my top 10.

Yea, from a technical point of view (i.e. advanced painting or gaming) I don't learn much from Uncle Atom's videos, as he is, by his own admission, not an expert in either. Therefore, a lot of this content often seems to be stating the obvious, and maybe is aimed more at absolute beginners. However, as you stated, his production quality is very high, and he has a very smooth and professional presenting style.

Where Uncle Atom is in his element is with regards to the more philosophical side of things. By this I mean the "softer" topics like motivation, OCDs (e.g. gilding the lily, being a slave to perfection, being scared to "spoil" your miniatures, etc.), financial considerations, time considerations, age considerations, (etc.).

[AaronWilson]

This thread has been so useful, I really do thank you all for the answers. My first 2 videos are up and I'm still learning ALOT about video editing (I feel my second video is already way better then my first, bar some funky audio levels).

Again, a heart felt thank you to you all. 

[AthlorianStoners]

12 hours ago, AaronWIlson said:

This thread has been so useful, I really do thank you all for the answers. My first 2 videos are up and I'm still learning ALOT about video editing (I feel my second video is already way better then my first, bar some funky audio levels).

Again, a heart felt thank you to you all. 

Can you share them? I’d love to check them out