The Immediate, Gratifying Beauty of YouTube

So Dwarf Fortress just got updated...

I won't be writing a long schpeel about how much I have grown to love Dwarf Fortress over the years since I first discovered it while reading the Minecraft Wikipedia page. No, this post will be short, as it has been four days since Dwarf Fortress got its first update in over two years. I was anticipating this, of course, being someone who makes gaming videos on YouTube, you try and keep your ear out for things like this. I know DF has a big following, but not large enough to have much competition on the YouTube scene. While there are many videos already about DF, some of them being particularly good, and/or informative, I thought this would be the perfect time to start making videos on DF, as I really had been wanting too for a long time, but never felt compelled enough to do so. When I checked the Dwarf Fortress subreddit for the first time in months, actually close to a year, I found out Toady (the one and only developer) was coming close to releasing an update. As things got closer to update time, I thought making a day one video on the update as soon as it came out would be a really good idea. Hopefully, I thought, with the increase of traffic the update will create, the video traffic would increase as well, makes sense right? So when Toady did finally release 0.40.01, I knew the faster I got a video up on youtube, the better. I checked youtube to see if anyone had already got something up, and other than the famous, and awesome CaptnDuck livestreaming it, nothing had happened yet. I still had some time.

Unfortunately, I happen to be at a friends house with my PC and everything hooked up playing some Fistful of Frags (which is amazing by the way, and completely free). So after a couple of games, I packed up, drove to my house, quickly re-setup, and loaded up the fresh build of Dwarf Fortress. Not making much progress, as I seem to do most of the time, I stopped recording, edited it up (which took a decent amount of time), put the video on my phone, drove down the freeway a few exits, and finally uploaded the video underneath a strong cell tower at 4 in the morning.

Again, I expected to get a few views from the increase in interest for the game, but by the time I got back on my PC, it had 8 views. Granted, 8 might not seem like a lot, but getting a day's worth of views in under 10 minutes feels amazing. I'm not looking for pity or anything, I'm just saying it's amazing to get people watching a video you just made, as soon as you uploaded it. I guess the even crazier thing is that most, if not all the people that watched the video weren't subscribers, which means I got those 8 views from people searching YouTube for Dwarf Fortress videos. And before even a day had gone by, the video sat at over 300 views, and tonight, just over 700 views. I've put up 4 more videos as of now, with the 4th still being sent out to my subscribers. The first video has 700 views, with 40 comments, the second, 140 views, with 16 comments, the third having 57 views (in just over 24 hours) and 12 comments.

This, I must say, is amazing. Making a video for yourself, and your viewers, uploading it, and immediately getting views and feedback, is astonishing. I have never enjoyed YouTube more than these last few days, and all I can do is hope this lasts, even if only for a little while. It's a really crazy feeling, when I'm recording an episode now, I truly feel like I'm talking to my viewers, not to myself. And while I must admit these aren't the best videos I have ever produced, I really feel like making daily videos is the best way to nurture people that are newly subscribed. Consistency is key, and honestly, knowing people are going to watch my video as soon as it's up really makes me feel like recording all the time. It's just so damn compelling, to have an effect like that on people, even if it's just them typing a few words in the comments, or seeing the video get some likes, it has a profound affect on me.

I can see how people really get addicted to this kind of thing. I've heard YouTubing described as an immediate gratification type of thing before, but I've never experienced it like that, like I am now. And it is amazing.

So I just want to say thank you for all the poeple that have supported my video making endevours so far, as it really means the world to me, and I hope it shines through in the videos. Thanks for reading.