Wait, what? I thought you wanted to make YouTube your primary source of income!
Yes, I know what I said. I admittedly thought I had such an innovative idea with my Hytale training regimen in Minecraft which has too many rules like no taking damage but...yeah, YouTube is NOT a meritocracy at all. I shoulda realized it from the beginning. Let me explain what changed my mind.
The Ruthless AI Purge
Not gonna lie, I've been using X (formerly Twitter) more often recently to check on Hytale-related posts. But they're not the only type of content I see.
Recently, I've been seeing more posts of YouTubers who were protesting on X because their channels were unexpectedly terminated by the recently rolled out AI moderators. In typical Google fashion, they staunchly refuse to explain specific reasons with evidence even after human review and stand by the AI's decision; like, where's the spam? The offensive content?
This instantly annihilated the main revenue streams of some YouTubers who used the platform to make a living: to fund their studios and employees, feed their families, and such.
Apparently, this purge is triggered by spam bots that comment nonsense on videos (e.g. generic thank-yous; Japanese-language comments on an English video unrelated to Japan; A Minecraft Movie-related comments on videos completely unrelated to Minecraft) and immediately block the YouTubers afterward so they go under the radar. But the AI moderators essentially believe the YouTubers are farming artificial engagement, hence the financial death sentence. (Self-reminder: Cite sources)
I don't know what the fudge these bot proliferators gain from destroying people's livelihoods like this but...I guess some people just do things For the Evulz; evil with no rhyme or reason. Evil purely for its own sake.
We're far from the golden age of YouTube when creators like DanTDM, Markiplier, and especially PewDiePie were at the height of their popularity. Anyone who's not big or well-known enough essentially has a target on their backs.
Good thing I already have a somewhat more stable job than English teaching. This means that even if my YouTube channel gets purged, I will objectively have little to lose. The trick is to remove emotional attachment to ad revenue (and sponsorships if I somehow get lucky enough to have them) and manage my budget as if I didn't have a YouTube channel at all even if I get 100,000 subscribers by some sheer miracle. This will ensure I remain calm in the face of a Thanos snap.
Hard Work Hardly Works
I see some YouTubers complain about how sometimes, their high-effort, heavily edited videos get very few views but somehow, their low-effort ones go viral. This is what I mean by YouTube not being meritocratic: effort does not necessarily translate to results. This makes the YouTubers feel like they're wasting time doing all that editing for nothing.
So I watched Early Exit's video advising the viewer to "stop editing YouTube videos" (or at least do it minimally) and I think he has a point. While I don't relate to the whole overstimulation part of hyper-editing since I'm resistant to that (some autistic people are hyposensitive like me instead of hypersensitive; this is why I can "tank" loud noises and physical attacks IRL) and still appreciate, for example, the Sellsword Arts crew as characters, I keep running into content saying overstimulation is making people dumber; i.e. they will not settle for anything less than instant, low-effort, and high-dopamine gratification, hence the overdependence on AI for gathering information, addiction to "brainrot" content like Skibidi Toilet, lack of coherence, nuance, and prose in BookTok novels, etc.
And to be blunt, I'm lazy to learn and do video editing. I only know the very basics like adding jump cuts and fades, combining media like music and sound effects, and adding images and text. Not to mention all the nitty-gritty work needed to ensure everything is positioned precisely as intended. The project then culminates in a long rendering process that's about as bad if not worse on a PC's components than running a graphically demanding video game.
As such, I will go light on editing (if any). This aligns with my other strategic goal of making my team members and I memorable characters while fighting back against the brainrot epidemic and saving me a ton of time and effort.
Building an audience is tough, man.
Even if I somehow get past the AI radar, there's still the titanic challenge of getting views and subscribers. To be eligible for monetization via ads, a YouTube channel must possess 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 hours of watch time on long form videos in 365 days or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days.
Granted, I'm unaware of the full picture of how easy or difficult it is to achieve those milestones, especially since there are conflicting third-party sources on the number of channels with over 1,000 subscribers (they range from 7% to 9%), but when I was recording my training regimen in Minecraft, I acquired a total of...30 subscribers. (I cringe at those now 'cause I was trying too hard to be "lively" when I didn't feel like it and I spouted incoherent nonsense or went off-track in my missions and tactics.)
Combined with my allocation of time to my full-time job, especially since I sometimes have to deal with emergencies on the weekends, I will have little time to work on videos, especially consistently, then handle housework later.
It doesn't help that interest in Hytale in the Philippines is very low as of writing. I've only seen two posts across Reddit that were related to both Hytale and the Philippines and neither got much engagement. Almost everybody and their mother from my experience in physical interactions is either a Mobile Legends player or a non-gamer and I don't like competitive multiplayer.
Yes, I know online marketing is a thing but there's already a lot of competition in the Hytale market thanks to YouTubers who started their careers around the time when the trailer dropped.
Therefore, I will not chase subscribers or views in my YouTube videos. I will record when I simply feel like it.
This does not mean I will sacrifice quality. Remember that I am combating brainrot by keeping editing to a minimum. (I still have a teacher's spirit which aspires for people to become smarter.) Instead, I will mainly use my gameplay and personality to entertain my audience.
With that being said...
How will you make your Hytale videos?
Just like my training regimen, my Hytale videos will primarily be just me playing and reacting to in-game events like the good ol' golden age of YouTube when gameplay videos were long and episodic kinda like TV shows. It aligns well with me being autistic since I get hyperfixated while gaming.
What I will do differently from my training regimen are the following (disregard any previous blog posts of mine that are inconsistent with these...and yes, I know they're tactical, not strategic):
- I will publish my first Hytale gameplay video on either January 17 (Saturday) or 18 (Sunday), 2026. Essentially, I will play blindly with just a few simple self-imposed rules.
- If Hytale has a tutorial, achievement tree, or similar system that provides a "recommended" progression path, I will prioritize that. Using Minecraft as an example, I'd punch wood, make a pickaxe, gather stone, smelt iron, you get the idea. If no such "guide" exists, I'll try to copy Minecraft's path.
- Regarding mob combat, I will not fight much—just enough to explain the basics of combat to a viewer who may be seeing Hytale combat for the first time. I aim to achieve the following combat goals:
- Kill 3 skeletons or similar weak mooks
- Use the signature moves (i.e. ultimates) of 2 different weapon types once each
- If possible, I may record just the gameplay footage without commentary after work (I sleep in the office so I can't disturb my coworkers with my loud reactions) but when I get home on the weekends, I'll edit the footage with cuts and my commentary.
- I will no longer impose a ton of rules on myself. My ex-girlfriend Alevius and my Singaporean friend Glacie were fine with me playing on Easy mode in Minecraft and after discussing with YoSquid, he doesn't mind either. Plus, I aim to have a balanced playthrough that maximizes the potential of Exploration Mode: combat, construction, cozy living, exploration (duh), social interaction, and whatnot. Playing at a difficulty harder than "normal" might defeat that purpose and just make me stressed as fudge.
- I will emphasize our personalities. I will take advantage of opportunities that genuinely bring out the best in me and my team. For example, we all love pranks so we can essentially turn our playthroughs into a comedy show. (I still remember when I was teasing Alevius by insisting on eating rotten flesh because I'm a fictional "Bear Grylls wannabe". She retaliated by filling my whole bedroom with roast chicken. Glacie, a simp of Kafka from Honkai: Star Rail, also sent us Kafka-related paraphernalia like cobwebs.)
I am also considering making combat guide videos, especially PvE-related ones, since I'm an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight who's also The Strategist, thus further showing my personality while informing my audience. I was also inspired by Genshin Impact guide videos.
Single-player playthroughs other than my first playthrough, if they won't be part of an episodic series with a story, will be more about personal commentary similar to my blog posts and a tiny bit like Early Exit and Philosophical Gamer. I may, for example, comment on real-life social issues, discuss a mental dilemma, or just get my emotions off my chest. I dunno.
For the gameplay itself, I might play adventure maps, practice fighting, experiment with mods I think are fun, or just go "random bullshit go". (I know Alevius sees me as Kaveh, an architect from Genshin Impact, but I just don't like Creative Mode as much and prefer Exploration Mode 'cause I like the challenge of allocating resources.)
What about Shorts?
OK, I admit I'm mainly adding this because of my mom.
I'm honestly not a fan of Shorts because I'm simply more comfortable with long-form content in general. As you can see, I write a lot. I similarly prefer to watch long YouTube videos.
If I do make Shorts, it'll probably be sparingly and focused on summaries of combat mechanics or personal reactions to certain Hytale features.
I will not make gameplay highlights because they'll involve a lot of editing and deciding which parts of a long-form video will make the cut. If I opt to do no cuts, there will be significantly more boring parts which defeat the purpose of a Short being a summary that cuts out the fluff.
