Hello. I know it’s been a minute, but thank you for watching the video! A combination of this video being a GIANT pain in the ass to research as well as getting covid (that’s why my voice sounds a bit messed up towards the end of the video) meant this one took a while. If you get something out of it, maybe consider supporting me on patreon, its one tier, its one dollar, and it does so much to help me keep a stable income, meaning I can put time into big weird videos like this: www.patreon.com/Supereyepatchwolf That said I think im probably going to go back to 30 minute videos about dumb media I like for a little bit, this video kicked my butt. I really appreciate the patience in waiting for this guys, I hope you enjoy. Im going to eat some burgers and watch Riverdale.

"There is nothing wrong with you if other people don't pay attention to your art. That art is for you. That is enough. I promise." -Super Eyepatch Wolf

An influencer course might be the only piece of content where the phrase: "Who is this person? I've never even heard of them." is a valid piece of criticism

the irony being this video was a better "how to be a youtuber" course than anything else I've seen

I like how Super Eyepatch Wolf's "Leslie" influencer character is more tolerable than the actual people he's making the video about lol

Lesly is the real deal! Don’t believe him? I’m the guy whose daughter he killed!

youtube: removes dislike button for "creators' mental health" also youtube: creates the perfect system to ruin creators' mental health and refuses to stop forcing you to look at it

"If it works, why doesn't it work?" Is such an amazing quote that could be used for so many of these kinds of things.

36:58 those spiderman pregnant elsa youtube kids videos prolly came the closest to the algorithmic hack anyone ever has

"BoJack. You've just been nominated for an Oscar. How do you feel?" "I feel... I feel... ... the same."

I really want to develop a "Theory of the video essay" after videos like this. This was a masterpiece of what the video essay is as an art form. There's so many elements to what makes a good essay that are inate, but I also am fascinated with structure and writing style, editing style, performance and delivery. The irony is that while you can't really reproduce this type of content, when you've been watching as many video essays for as long as I have, I do think there are things to learn almost like you would learn about any artform.

Just found you. Never considered being a KZfaqr, but on this journey I went through all the emotions with you. But finished film school with debilitating panic attacks, hating everything I made after my initial attempts. Tried to get everything right and failed miserably. A blank page gives me anxiety now. And that’s WITHOUT the analytics. I’d just perish if I had to obey the algorithm. This last bit you said about making art for ME… thank you for that, really.

Plane mansions are the hallmark of next level business savvy. They can’t tax you if your house is flying over international waters.

I remember hearing along time ago that Chuggaaconroy was being interviewed about what advice do you give to new KZfaqrs that only have 100 to 200 subscribers and his response went something along the lines of "Imagine 100 or 200 people in real life watching your videos. How cool is that!" Which always got me thinking. Imagine a room full of 100 to 200 people, that came specifically to watch what you made when you uploaded it. That's like a high school basketball court full of people that are there to watch something you made. That's fucking cool

People understood this shit back in the 18th century. "If you want to get rich during a gold rush you don't mine gold, you sell pickaxes". Sure, the miner who strike gold gets incredibly rich, good for him, but for most people the real money is in selling stuff to those that hopes to become the next big thing. These courses are just the digital version of that old age common sense.

"If you need an AI to tell you what video to make next, I think you really need to think if you should be making videos at all" -SEW. Aged like fine wine.

It's really a stark contrast here: Influencers tell you to make slop, cheaply mass-produced videos that you have no interest in simply to fill a quota and try to hit on trends. Those videos pull maybe a couple thousand views on a good day. Super Eyepatch Wolf makes well-research videos about topics he deeply cares about, and there is rarely a video (outside the "favorite things" series) that doesn't pull at least a million views. I think the lesson here is self-explanatory. There is of course a lot of luck involved here because some of those people that make slop make it big, and SEW says himself that he got extremely lucky with how things worked out. But I am also sure that SEW is very proud of his videos, while the slop those creators ask you to create will never be of any value to anybody.

Super “John” Eyepatch Wolf is just one of those channels that can destroy your understanding of something for nearly two hours, and you’re excited for every minute of it.

“As per usual, Jake Paul displays all the flailing enthusiasm of a muppet that’s just dropped some acid and minted its first NFT” That’s so bizarrely specific and I kind of love it. I want someone to animate that exact scenario.

Small creator lifehack: calculate your view count via broadway theatre venue. The largest theatre On Broadway houses roughly 2,000 patrons, so I can look at a video that "didn't do well" and instead consider that numbers wise, it pulled the equivelant of 4 sold out broadway performances. Considering the average venue is only around 500 seats, that's a lot more.

That final section on criticisms towards your art hit disturbingly close to home. As a growing (semi-popular) twitter artist, there's a lot of beauty and humility that I feel with the affection and love my art receives. I've been improving every year, every month to perfect my craft. But, even with the legions of adoring followers, there will always be that one comment that stung and stuck with me like glue. A previous long-time commissioner and follower of my work, whom gave me heaps of praise and even looked up to the art I made back in 2019, told me one day in early 2020 "I don't like your style anymore, this is the last commission I'm getting from you." And I have never heard from them since. Despite the fact that I was actually improving, and I think I'm lightspeed ahead of the work I used to make and the numbers even show for it, that single comment will always put the fear of judgment and self doubt within me. Words are fucking scary, man. The fact that any real human can have an opinion and say it to you because you're perceived as some anonymous, astronomical entity, is absolutely terrifying.

*The thing nobody ever seems to mention about social media types:* They're often already rich - or at least middle class - and thus have the money and time to 'invest' at the outset. They're good looking too which is frankly, half the battle.

A good rule of thumb is that if a ‘hack’ financially benefits you with little drawbacks, it doesn’t work. Because if it did, people would shut up about it.

I can't think of a better representation of the lie of meritocracy than social media and content creation. The idea that talented, valuable people are rewarded and anyone who doesn't make it is less than those who do. It's not true though, some of the most talented artists will never make it, but if they love what they do, they won't have to.

I love it when I'm only 50 minutes into the video and Eyepatch Wolf has already had like three shouty breakdowns. Could watch your shit for hours on end, my guy.

The scene in Blue Period, where the main character is laying on the floor, crying, saying, "just because you love something, doesn't mean it is easy," has always stuck with me. It's beautiful because despite feeling like that, he still gets up and continues to do the thing he loves, despite it hurting him too. You have to love the thing you do, or else you'll just be miserable.

I don't know if anybody will read this. But after watching this entire video, I really wanted to share my own story regarding the whole "becoming a KZfaqr" spiel. Actually made a whole video about this all a few months ago too. Detailing my own journey. I've been making videos on KZfaq for at least a good 10 years at this point (14 if you count my older channels). I started when I was 11 years old. I've always had a love for video editing and creating art and such. For a good chunk of that time (till 2016) I mostly just dabbled in niche communities so my channel wasn't all that big. Around the end of 2016 I gave the animated storytime video format a go. I really enjoyed sharing my stories, so I kept it up. I managed to build up a nice dedicated and small following of about 10K people. Then in 2018 I had my first (and only) viral video. It quickly amassed a good 600K views and after a week or so even broke the 1M mark. My storytime videos up till that point usually got around 5K views, so this was massive to me. I even, just like SuperEypatchWolf mentioned, had some of my idols/big names comment on my videos, telling me they enjoyed my stuff!! It felt really surreal. The video in question was one where I showed off some old Sonic fanart I had drawn during my early teens, with my storytime character adding some commentary. As the video went viral I did notice a huge influx of younger viewers/commenters, particularly kids who were massive Sonic fans. Constantly asking me when part 2 was gonna come out. I could have capitalised on the success of that Sonic video, but I never really had any plans on making a follow up video for it. There wasn't really much else to talk about. Neither did I see myself as wanting to become a "Sonic" channel. So I didn't. I didn't want to trap myself into that sort of content, as Sonic wasn't something I was passionate about. So I just moved onto the next topic I wanted to talk about. As a result, the huge subscriber boost I got from that viral video didn't really amount to any long term viewers. Soon my viewcounts were back to what I had before, despite now having well over 60K subs. All the new people were just there for more Sonic content. Or more content that they (12 year olds) could relate to. Meanwhile my main demographic was people around my age (early 20s), who could relate to my experiences and stories (stories about college, internships, etc.). Over the years, my subcount kept climbing, while my viewership kept on falling and falling. In 2020 I had another small "viral" video that made it up to 200K views. And once again, this video drew in a big crowd. A crowd that once again wasn't interested in any videos I posted after said viral video. And were just there for me to make another video about [topic x]. In early 2021 I actually managed to surpass 100K subscribers, but it just felt so... Off. Yes 100K is a very big milestone and it was surreal receiving that play button, but if that number does not reflect the "success" of your channel at all, is it really something to be proud of? It's all just empty numbers. If I could delete all of those "dead subs", I'd do it in a heartbeat. For a long time I thought it was my fault. The fact that people weren't watching my videos, despite having such a large subcount, it must have been my fault. "My videos probably weren't good enough", I told myself. "I had a viral video before, so I must be able to do it again". Luckily after a lot of reflecting I managed to snap out of that mindset but it plagued me for a good while. Chipping away at my mental health. What I think happened is that KZfaq has permanently lumped my channel into the "Sonic channel for kids" category (despite me labelling my channel as not for kids, and despite me actively not making content that would indicate I'm a Sonic channel) because of that one viral Sonic video, thus only really recommending my videos to that demographic. Of course that demographic is not going to relate or understand any of the topics I talk about. So KZfaq will see that as: _Hey we recommend your content to the appropriate audience, yet they're not watching your content. Therefore your content is not worthwhile recommending further._ Unfortunately there's just not much I can do about t hat. You're at the mercy of the algorithm. I'm 25 years old now and I'm at a point where my new videos on average get about 2K to 5K views, with a small pool of dedicated fans still commenting and watching my conent. In recent times I've been trying to come to terms with the fact that KZfaq might indeed never work out and that the performance of my channel is not within my control. So I've started looking into other avenues, that can bring me similar amounts of happiness that I get from making KZfaq videos. No longer solely relying on KZfaq. It hurts, as it has become a part of my identity. But in the end, I don't have control over what happens to my channel. And I don't want my choices and path in life to be dictated by something I have no control over. If anyone read this entire thing, thank you very much!! 😊😊

I show this video to people who tell me they want to be youtubers. This is one of the best videos on KZfaq. I'm nearing the top of 1 million subscriber mountain. Let's see how it goes

my yt was on autoplay and i woke up in the middle of night with this introduction and i genuinely thought a disembodied voice (or god) was talking to me fun fact: i am Brazilian and only notice the voice was speaking english when i was already fully awake

I’m a Japanese content creator for a niche genre, not a KZfaqr. I don’t even plan to become one. But recently I was experiencing a situation quite similar to the animation story. Though I am confident that I’m still making content that I love and care about, the numbers started to get the better of me and started giving me anxiety every time I present new content to my audience worrying if I would meet their expectations. But your video reminded me why I was doing this to begin with. It wasn’t for the views or money, I just wanted to share my passion with people who like the same genre as me. That fact was supposed to be obvious, but somehow social media made me forget about that over time. Thank you for reminding me that I am the most happy when I do what I love, regardless of the numbers. I know sometimes it gets overwhelming but I hope you can keep finding happiness from what you’re doing. Arigatou & Ganbatte!(ありがとう&がんばって！)

The irony is that this video is a better way to teach people how to 'get big' as a content creator than any of these paid-for scam courses. Excellent video, my dude. You're a real one.

I'm late to the SEW party, but... I just want to say how profoundly helpful this has been. Reclaiming the joy of creation from the toxic grindset culture is a struggle, and this advice is real and wholesome. Thank you for it.

I have fallen into that trap of losing sight of my original goal on KZfaq, and that was creating animations that not only myself would enjoy but others as well. As I ascended to 10k, 20k and 30k the feelings of joy and ephoria were intoxicating; that feeling of so many people loving your content more than you expected. When my subs began to purge and my average view count dropped it set me into a state of panic and I started trying to push content out trying to figure out what people liked and when that didn't work I stopped looking at KZfaq for days to weeks until finally I stopped looking at the analytics, although I still saw the disheartening view counts it was nowhere near as painful as looking at the data in depth. Now that I've lost 5kish subs and gone now to low numbers it allowed me to refocus back into what my original endeavors were, now I'm back to animating what I enjoy regardless of the reception. It was truly a humbling phase in my KZfaq career. I never recommend anyone to do KZfaq as a career. It is far too unstable and stressful. KZfaq is and will always be my past time hobby with passive income. However I will say the silver lining to KZfaq is that I got to connect with many other creators in my niche and become good friends with them and use their talents to create something I never could achieve on my own, and that's huge.

My neighbours kid wants to be a KZfaqr and I think I’ll show him this video. You described both the gig and the absolute luck it takes to be one better than I ever could 😅

The first time I ever heard that metaphor about KZfaq being like "throwing a message in a bottle into a sea composed entirely of messages in bottles," Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw was saying it and it was 2007. Even fifteen years ago, your chances of making it here were *already* that slim.

The ending made me realise something. I love writing and sharing silly fanfic ideas on Ao3 but I also like to write stories I have no intention of sharing. Those are for me and I don't regret a single one.

Man...this hit way too close to home. I wanted for years to make this my job, but the passion started dying when the push for money began. Despite having what should be my dream job, I miss making art for the enjoyment of making it.

"Content creator" is such a sickening and sinister phrase. It doesn't describe what people want to do, it describes what the algorithm wants from them. People who genuinely want to create have some specific thing in mind, some idea they wish to bring out into the world. It's not always well-defined, but it's never just "content". "Content" is the algorithm's term, the only word generic enough to describe aspirational art, casual goofing, and procedurally generated Finger Family clones. As long as you're feeding something into it - binding some fraction of your personhood to its engagement metrics - it doesn't have to care about the details.

The "slot machine" approach to youtube success does make a lot of sense.... specifically from the perspective of someone making an online course about how to succeed on youtube. Sure, the actual odds that any individual student will succeed are vanishingly small, but nearly 100% of people it does work for will credit that course for their success, meaning you get more testimonials and more suck- uh... "success stories waiting to happen" signing up from that new creator's audience. it's really not unlike a Casino in that sense. Very few of your customers will actually come out on top, but everyone who walks in thinks they'll be the one.

1:06:52 Oh my gosh, as soon as I heard that I was immediately searching up why they were a bad person, or any sort of evidence relating to them not being likeable, until I unpaused and realized it was a joke. 🤦‍♂

"Ethically Steal" is one hell of a thing I wasn't ready to hear. My brain literally stopped processing information after that and had to pause. Excellent stuff here mate. Love your videos.

As an English professor, I'm thinking about having my students watch this video and write an essay on this topic. Thank you for your vulnerability and imparting such an important lesson.

Fun fact: that isn't hair dye that he's wearing, making this video just took fifty years out of his life. Appreciate the dedication to your craft, Mr. Eyepatch!

1:28:30 yeah, i REALLY feel for this guy. I am going through the exact same thing right now. I love animating, but the animation industry is scary and I’m just not skilled enough for it. I’ve had videos go “viral” I had a video get 8 MILLION views, and i thought i was set, but no one sticks around. Now I struggle to hit 200 views, it feels BAD…

this video is… honestly just what i needed. i’ve been tempted by these kinds of courses, logically knowing that they were bullshit but still hoping i’d find some secret to success. when really… i just need to create because i have the desire to. fuck the analytics, the number chasing, all of it. i’m tearing up after this but i really needed to hear it. thank you so much.

There’s a classic finance book called “where are the customers yachts?” The title refers to a story about a visitor to Wall Street who admired the yachts of the bankers and brokers. He naively asks “where are the customers yachts?” Which of course none could afford despite dutifully following the advice of their brokers and bankers. Financial influencers like Graham Stephen follow a similar job description to the bankers of making money off of their customers rather than actually making their customers money.

"I have 4 wives and 17 husbands. None of them even know about each other!" Sounds like the plot of some soap opera or a trashy reality tv show.

This is one of my favorite videos I’ve ever watched on KZfaq. So poignant, yet oddly cathartic to my own thoughts on creative endeavors. Stumbled upon this from a münecat video and I am glad I watched it. Also seeing Folding Ideas, among other larger creators, as well as the smaller creators being interviewed about KZfaq was a great addition. The ending lines you finished with are perfect. Cheers and thank you.

The obsession with analytic goals, checking numbers, and the lack of satisfaction when reaching numerical goals overlaps with my experience with weight loss and eating disordered behaviours. Very well done, and thank you for the realistic protrayal of being a content creator towards the end. I think it ties into other obssessions, and the people who promote potentially positive things (creating videos, losing excess weight, exercise, eating well, etc.) in a way that makes them obssessive, ritualistic, and potentially harmful to your mental/physical health.

"I have 4 wives and 17 husbands none of them even know each other" Ngl that line made me burst into laughter and made my day

2 hour Eyepatch Wolf on a Sunday. Thank you for this meal we are about to recieve.

after almost 8 years here... the start of the final third cuts deep for small channels

Even though this video is made over a year ago it completely made my entire day. Watching it from beginning to end after just feeling overwhelmed change my entire perspective in a positive way. Thank you for spending all the time to make this video because I think it's something that needed to be said and done for all of us small channels that want to understand how yo overcome our own mental struggles. The end was amazing and inspirational.

As a failed content creator that put 3 years into the content machine but never made it and ultimately just deleted everything just to escape the stress and emotional harm, this video helps me process a lot of that and feel like I wasn't alone.

As someone who completely devoted themselves to Let's Playing for four years non-stop, it was a miserable time. Scheduling my entire life around upload times and trending games, equipment upgrades, juggling social time between family, friends, relationships, doing an audio engineering course AND recording up to 5 videos a day *AND* finding time to sleep (about 3hrs a night), it was an absolute nightmare and I will never return to it again. I only gained 4,000 subscribers in 4 years. That's 1000 subs a year, compared to some channels getting that DAILY! I remember once I let a Lets Play video render overnight and I woke up to a bluescreen saying the video failed to render. The anxiety of that not uploading on time was more emotionally painful than my girlfriend breaking up with me. When the video was finally successfully uploaded, it maxed out at 12 views. And all it cost me was my mental health and my relationship. Eventually I stopped and now I just upload whenever I want, far far far less stressful. 🙂 Chasing numbers is complete misery. Make what brings you joy and share THAT. ⭐

I honestly don't know how anyone can do this job without going crazy. Creating such personal content week after week, drowning in analytics, the toxic nature of internet fandoms...it just seems so unpleasant even if you blow up.

Honestly, this video really hits hard as an independent freelance artist. I've thought about going into youtube or twitch for art or games just for fun, just because I've had the thought of "Hey, this could be good for a job!" But I've always known it's not all what it seems to be, because I accidentally had a post that went way out of control exactly one time. And this really does capture both the addictive way the numbers go up feeling is, and how it feels dealing with people who you don't even know who... hate you for reasons that you both are super aware of, and that are completely unfounded. I still think about it sometimes, but I have very solidly decided that I never want to be viral. I only ever would want it to be a fun thing... but it's not really my choice, in all reality.

The best piece of advice I was given when it comes to content creation is, "Make something because YOU want it to exist so much that you don't want to imagine a world without it." It sounds dumb, but damn does it work! Holy shit dude... In the last 3rd of the video where you talk about the evolution of becoming a content creator... God... It was so perfectly made... All true.

Literally turned the concept of youtube into cosmic "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream"-esque horror. Amazing video, 10/10

God that ending, just everything about this video is so raw and personal and inspiring. Thank you for the time and energy you spent putting this video together. Can't appreciate it enough.

Thank you for making this video. it's really sickening how youtube analytics conditions you to feel addicted to checking how your videos are performing.

I love the creators like you and Markiplier who look around where they are and are just “I have no clue how i got here.” It’s honest. So much of “making it” on the internet is luck, perseverance and talent is involved obviously but luck is a HUGE factor.

as an animator raised on the internet, i've already accepted failure. i've watched children be boosted to dangerous degrees. being exposed to things like SA, burnout, depression, harrassment/d0xxing,,,everything. ive also watched my friends get some cool jobs and create some amazing things. i always wanted to be that "young and talented" animator on youtube/newgrounds. but its terrifying how the internet chews you up and spits you out. it all seems so possible when its all so fake. this is a nice video shedding some light on the dangerous addictive nature of internet fame. thank you for sharing it with us.

This video reached me at exactly the right time. I just recorded a video about how I’m changing my content to more reflect what I want to do. I spent my weekend not editing it because the burnout of making daily videos that I don’t even like to sometimes no views has got me in the deepest funk I’ve been in my entire adult life. This gave me the push to make content for me, not the crappy MLM that is social media

Dude, you literally changed how I view the channels i love to watch and changed my view on content creation. Ive been wanting to give it a try and i hope the excitement i got from this video lasts me till i finish my first project. Thanks Super Eyepatch Wolf, youre the best👍

"Take a deep breath and give up. Don't take advice from people like me who had gone very lucky. Taylor Swift telling you to follow your dreams is like a lottery winner saying, "Liquidize your assets, buy powerball tickets. It works!"." - bo burnham

My great granfather was a painter and he hasn't sold any of his paitings. My family still has these and i asked myself a question why he kept going. Now i realised that he was and is a true chad because he just did what he loved

I love 2 hour long videos! The work eyepatch put into this is very appreciated!

As someone who is aspiring to start their channel, this has been an eye opener. Thank you for sharing your story, and its help me evaluate what I can do for myself.

I've recently taken up some responsibilities for my family's small business, specifically with regards to social media and a focus on Instagram. Because the follower count isn't raising, my aunt's terrified that we'll have to close the shop because she's been so convinced by other creators in our industry that social media growth is the only avenue for success. And it's really baffling to see that pressure being put on just average people. Content creation and capitalism are destroying people.

I'm not an KZfaqr, but I'm an author. After many years of dreaming about getting my first book published, I've just signed a contract with a small publisher. Though I'm really happy with it, it's weird how much I still feel like there's something missing. We are conditioned to never be satisfied, and to be always comparing ourselves with others. There's always going to be another goal, another milestone to reach. And the same applies to Instagram, Twitter and KZfaq. Social media made us addicted to validation.

29:48 puchhi explaining how to obtain heaven

hi sam here from South Africa .Being 50 im not a big social media person ,but have been through a hell of a lot in the last few years.Iiv lost my entire family and have found myself in a lot of new situations and have revalued all that i have known before . Thank you so much for your honest view to the you tube thing as i have been thinking about starting a post about what im going through and how im coping and dealing with what i find laid in frount of me to get on and get the shit on with things . I value your advice and words on how to build a chanale. im not realy looking for a job out of this i have my wn small buisness in wellness. i just want to help anyone that finds themselves in a similar situation and mabey let them know theyr not alone and mabey to feel like im not alone. Again thank you for your honest content and advice . sorry for shit spelling .thanx .Sam

Damn this was a really good video, I used to obsess over analytics as well but really being successful on youtube is different for everyone on here. Everybody has different amounts of persistence, strategy, and luck. You really can only go into this expecting nothing in return, that's how I started at least. It only worked out for me because I was one of the very first in my niche and have continued to be very consistent for a decade

It’s actually insane how KZfaq is designed to make you feel inadequate at all levels of popularity. There were multiple times were I felt great pressure to post weekly-sometimes even daily-only to stop and realize “This isn’t my job. I made no money doing this. No one is actually interested in these videos. Why am I so stressed about wether I upload or not?”

So glad I watched this! Refreshing, sincere, open and honest- loved how it was summarised at the end! Do ‘IT’ for you! Do what you enjoy making, and what are naturally gifted with and enjoy sharing YOUR art!

at 1:40:00 this reminds me of recent events of Jocat deciding to leave social media after the amount of unfounded abuse hes been receiving

"Just do what algorithm tells" is such a joyful answer to hear for people who seek youtube only for easy money with abosutely zero effort just like they've heard about it from others.

One thing that John didn't mention talking about the streaming is that he has a pre established audience. If those techniques didn't work for him they certainly won't for you or me

I'm entering the indie animation and illustration industry. Watched from start to finish. All I can say is thank you for your efforts and sharing your experience :)

It's silly how much this helped me, I decided to listen to it randomly tonight. I wanted to draw tonight, and over the course of this video you reminded me why I love doing art. Not even to show to people though I do enjoy showing it to people. I do art just for fun, for me, it's why i keep all my old art up on every account because at one point I was proud of it like I'm proud of what I make now. Thank you for reminding me that attention isn't everything, and maybe I'll never get the skills to be great, and even if I do maybe I'll never get the recognition but that's okay, because I love my art. I love it as it is.

The part about the kids blaming themselves when it doesn't work out should not be underestimated; having been diagnosed with autism at age 5 and having undiagnosed ADHD, pretty much everyone has always expected me to be able to do the things that most people can do in order to live a "normal" life, but I simply can't, and until I realized I had ADHD at age 33 I kept blaming myself, actually believing that I was just a lazy good-for-nothing loser, despite my ability to dominate in academic settings... "I can do it, and therefore YOU can do it!" is a powerful and extremely misguided gaslighting that does no one any good whatsoever, except for people like Jake Paul who cash in on it of course...

About a month or so ago, I was lucky enough to meet Eyeptach Wolf in person at MCM London. Super chill guy, had a good talk about Manwha, but I remember mentioning how he's one of my inspirations for starting to write blogs, and how I've been struggling with motivation to write due to lack of any meaningful comments or discussions spawning from them. I know it's a dying/dead form of discussion, but my lack of confidence in getting a YT channel up means that it feels like my primary way of expressing my views in fiction (I have friends but they're more into the VS debates side of things. Nothing against them, but it's difficult to grab their attention on thematic dissections, ya know?) He mentioned he was working on this video, and seeing it come to fruition is a little surreal. Still, I also very distinctly remember him mentioning something to the effect of what this video was saying. That part at the end with how the art should be for ourselves really reminded me of what I talked to him about, as well as what I asked Trash Taste at the same con. Fuck the views or responses, if I enjoy making it then who gives a shit? To be honest, I haven't started any writing since then, but I just wanna say thanks for the shot in the arm. I know this comment is probably going to get buried, and it probably reeks of borderline parasocial shlock, but I just want to say, cheers for the message. I'll try and write something soon, be it buried, shit or otherwise.

how did you make me sit through a 2 hr video about a topic i wasn't even interested in? you make amazing videos and this video has recontextualised my own view of KZfaq. I think your passion for each topic you talk about is infectious.

You have inspired me so much, I started doing this partly because of you and one of my latest additions didnt do so well, your part at the end about "its ok if no one is watching because that art is for you" genuinely made me feel better. Thank you, and as someone who does this and wants to get to your level one day, I dont see you as "status quo to be dismantled" but rather, the kind of artist I aspire to be. Keep making videos man, I genuinely love your stuff and I hope I can inspire someone one day half as much as you have inspired me.

I was skeptical at first, but despite being a real live talking tiger he had a lot of good points to make

It's weird seeing people pushing this as a moneymaking venture. Like teaching an artistic craft is fairly typical, but usually it's to teach you to enjoy it and use it to express yourself. I've never seen a music teacher who says they're going to share the secrets to headlining Glastonbury or getting a platinum album or something, but that's what these courses are doing.

Damn...that 2nd half hit home close. I'm playing in diy hardcore/Metal band that tried to professionalize and make it in the industry. Overusing Spotify artists checking metrics. Thank you for sharing!

As an audience member, I try to keep in mind that you are just a person who works hard on their videos and loves to share their opinions. It can be really easy to think you're some enigmatic consciousness, totally separate from the real world, but that's a dangerous fallacy. I appreciate everything you upload and the reason is your attitude and clear passion about what you're talking about. It's the number one thing I look for in a creator, even if it's not my favorite thing, because I know it's going to be interesting anyway. I'm both glad to be living in a time where this exists and saddened that it can be so hurtful.

In the German KZfaq community we have a word for this obsession with analytics. We call it "Zahlenkrankheit" wich translates directly to Numbersickness and its so true because it is a sickness

As a self published author, that last line struck a chord with me as a human that writes books that nobody reads

Wow. Have been loving your content since you blew up. I don't know why I decided to skip this one. I never truly realized the stress and psychology behind content creation. Honestly, I just love the passion you put into you content. It really shows and it makes me happy you can enjoy this great career. The Final Gamer doesn't listen to the haters.

Thanks Eyepatch. This video really helped reconnect my love for drawing again as I used to worry what others would think. Now I’m creating art the way I want it to be.

Long story short: for most people, youtube has to be a part time job. Not only is maintaining a channel stressful, but having to rely solely on a channel for your entire income can be corrosive to your mental health.

I originally wanted to make weird, short films. This around the rise of streaming. They did so bad I decided to try and become a variety streamer. It was miserable. This made me realize I need to stop trying to play the game. I'm going to just make the stuff I want to make.

You've really done something remarkable here. This is more than a video about "content" creation. It's a video about creativity. As a would-be "creative type" myself, I find the closing remarks particularly resonant. If I only feel motivated to create by the promise of validation, whether fiscal or otherwise, then I shouldn't be creating. If the fear of rejection is keeping me from creating, then it's time to reassess so that I can again. Thank you.

"That art is for you. That is enough. I promise." I have revisited this video so, so many times because I love your narrative style and I love how soothing your voice is and I love just how much you put into these, research wise, makeup/costume wise, just... phenomenal reporting and all around delivery. But that line. That final fucking line. I only recently added visual art to my list of "hope to be good at this someday" list (I'm a writer first, but I want to grow as a storyteller so art as well!) And... I never realized how much that line would hit me. As a writer I never felt it much because well, writing is more natural and rote to me now. But drawing. That's new. That's fresh. That's uncharted territory for me. So when a piece doesn't do well, or I don't feel like my lines are good or my art style sucks or whatever... I feel so tempted to say "nope, not for me, I gave it a try, oh well!" Throw my hands up and quit. But today I re-listened to this for... I wanna say the seventh time? And that final line was a gunshot straight through my busy morning, right into my earbuds, and somehow - from my EARS - a direct hit to the heart. I legitimately felt my heart tense and tears welling in the grocery supermarket and I... I had to resist crying as best I could. Thank you.

I immediately respect a youtuber more when they blur the kids in family vlog footage. Good on you, man.

Super eye patch wolfs "villain speeches" about how hes gonna infiltrate the youtubers courses, get to the top and destroy them from the inside out. Just perfect. 10/10.

The final segment with the animation was peak. Thank you for making this video, it is truly full of great insights.