This time around, I have two things I want to talk about. For starters, it has been a hectic week in my Minecraft/YouTube space… and in an incredibly good way… great even. I recently reached the 100 subscriber milestone on my channel, and to recognize the moment, I whipped up a quick little video to thank my subscribers and to explain why I bother going through all of this… and not necessarily in that order.
That video went out on the 1st… and almost right away, it started outperforming any other video I have ever published. By yesterday, it had been viewed more times than any of my other videos… a couple of which had been slowly gaining views over the past few months and had reached over 1,000. That knocked the wind out of me. Seriously. I had hoped to achieve something like that at around the three year mark… but what was even more surprising to me is that it has dramatically increased my subscription count. I had 102 subscribers when the video went live on Wednesday and as I write this on Friday morning, I am at 195 subscribers.
And in a world where such nasty and awful things are being said and done, the outpouring of support and interest has truly brought some much needed sunshine. They have been universally positive and some of them are very touching and insightful. In short, I think I have finally broken the first hurdle. Am I headed to being the next Mr. Beast? Nope. Not by a long shot… nor is that even something I would want to happen. But I have finally been able to garner enough views and interactions to validate my approach and my content. And when it comes right down to it, all I have been really after is the chance to share my geekiness with some folks that might appreciate it and maybe stir up some social interaction. Period. So… all things considered, I have achieved that and I think I can maintain the momentum.
But there is still so much more to do, and where monetization was once a pie in the sky dream stretch goal… I think I can achieve it and probably… eventually… get to a point where the channel pays for the website, subscriptions, and an occasional hardware upgrade. That is in itself a pie in the sky dream stretch goal, but if I can get to that… then I would have hit my own personal little Nirvana… where I get to play around with my preferred hobby and it pays for itself… which should also dramatically reduce the spousal resistance to me enjoying my hobbies. At least I sure hope so.
And for anyone reading this that had any role in getting me here… thank you. Thank you! Thank you! Thank YOU!
The second thing I wanted to share is that I am thinking of making a big adjustment to the mod mix for Gryphon Manor. When I say “big”, I don’t mean that I am going to step away from my Steampunk(ish) theme, nor am I going to add or remove lots of mods. In this case, I am thinking about only one mod… and I am seriously considering retiring it.
Specifically, I am talking about the Immersive Engineering mod. Earlier in the project, I viewed Immersive Engineering as quite complementary to the Create mod. There was some overlap, but there were plenty of things that Immersive Engineering had that I could not get or do in Create. So I added it before the big world expansion and I have been slowly integrating Immersive Engineering content into the world.
But that was a while ago. Since then, I have found and added many Create addons and as I did so, the overlap between the two mods grew larger and larger. At this point, the two mods (including all the Create addons) almost completely overlap… and in that tiny space where they don’t overlap are the bits of Immersive Engineering that I am not a big fan of… power loss over distance, the headache of wiring… including wiring of varying voltages, and the wearing out and replacement of parts. Those are play elements that actually detract from the experience for me and yet they are pretty much all that is left of Immersive Engineering that I can’t get from Create… and as you can imagine… I don’t really want to have them in Create. I would be perfectly happy to see them go away.
And that is exactly what I am thinking about… Retiring Immersive Engineering. I have not fully committed to the idea, but I am definitely not sitting on the fence either. At this point I am thinking about the consequences for my little world if I do that… and how much work it will take to patch things up afterward.
It is certainly not earth-shattering… or even earth-shuddering… but it seems to be taking up larger and larger bits of my free thinking time, so I thought that it might be worth sharing here.
And all of that brings up a third thing that I just remembered. It is something that I have been thinking on and off about for a while now. Comments for the videos is a great way to connect and have some limited conversations… but now I think there may be room for and even a need (by me) for a more robust discussion tool. I am thinking about spinning up a Discord server for the channel where folks can sign in and we can talk about stuff… and not just the videos but wider but related stuff like the Steampunk genre, Modded Minecraft, disapproving spouses, and all that jazz.
Hmmm. Food for thought. Speaking of food for thought, it is nearly lunchtime in my locale, so I need to run off. Take care! I hope this finds you and yours in good health, good spirits, and a touch of good fortune. Cheers!