Idk if having Decked Out II in the thumbnail is a good example cause that did take like two years worth of live streams to work and HermitCraft isn’t necessarily a “Let’s Play” server, rather a server designed specifically for large builds and projects 😭

It's why I've enjoyed the "Life" series so much. We're still seeing these amazing builders we've all come to know and love, but the time-limits imposed makes for much more modest, relatable (and adorable!) builds.

I’ve also been noticing this lately. Every minecraft let’s play has to be a hardcore series with huge builds. They already have to start with something big in the first episode, so they basically skip straight to the dragon then onto big projects. Makes me appreciate KZfaqrs like Etho who have really chill longer-form content where you don’t expect a ton to happen every episode.

I watch hermitcraft bc its them, not what they do

that's why i started making my own let's play mc series, where the viewer sees 99% of my gameplay. very minimal edits, no diamonds on episode 1, no crazy starter build, just playing the game as genuinely long as i want to. waxfraud inspired me to start the series (through his long form no commentary vids) but truly, back in the early 2010s i used to watch let's plays and i miss actually playing along with minecraft youtubers.

i still enjoy old-style let’s plays and appreciate creators who still makes slow-paced and low-key videos

I started to feel this way as soon as every lets play started with diamonds on episode one. The bigger builds are cool, but they've started to make me feel like my own personal builds aren't cool enough and now I just...don't play.

This is exactly why I know I can't be a Minecraft KZfaqr™, I literally don't have the energy, time, or unrestricted recording ability to make Hermitcraft-scale things -(that and im kinda rubbish at the game).- Grian's video was actually what I was thinking of, before you specifically mentioned it. And it's a shame, the game has limitless potential, so why does _everything_ have to be Mega-with-a-capital-M? And it's not just Minecraft, Film Theory did a video recently about how "biggering" is taking over ALL of the site, EVERYONE has to constantly be escalating things because everyone ELSE is and if you're not figuring on biggering, the Almighty Algorithm will "past performance is an indicator of future results" you into the bit bucket.

As a "Let's Play" creator myself, it can be overwhelming trying to keep up with the inflation of all of these mega builds in a single video trend. I got a big project going on in my world but I'm taking my time and doing it bit by bit. Kinda throwing some extra stuff in between so the series is not so much just about one singular build. Great video btw.

Soupsoup is an example of a minecraft lets play enjoyer,bro doesnt make insanely complicated builds,or anything like that,he takes his time with everything,his first episode he didnt grind like crazy like everyone does,he didnt even get diamond tools,he does build stuff,but it aint anything like you see normally.

to me this is not an issue of what viewers like or the scale of lets plays, its more about the battle between the content creators and the algorithm. yes, the clickability of a video affects its success, but this is because the algorithm favors clickability over retention. i think the state of the algorithm at the time of the height of minecraft lets play popularity caused this oversurge of views and clicks on minecraft content creators videos. this led them to chase those same numbers by making more clickable videos. i personally love casual minecraft lets plays, and there are some great content creators who focus more on the experience than on building clickable mega builds, but they dont rise to the front page as often due to the algorithm.

0:44 the house. I like to watch calm stuff.

From my personal thoughts about Let's Plays, I think making Minecraft is divided into multiple parts, you have the new players who will watch small entertaining content, you have the PVP players who watch their content, then there are Veteran Minecraft watchers who don't play as much Minecraft anymore who honestly don't want to watch the same person build another small house. Burn out can also come from building small builds and such with Grian and many other Hermits the burn out was because of playing for so many years. the big builds are tough but when you are in the zone they are very fun to build. I prefer to build exteriors just like Grian does. got no time for interior stuff. I feel the big mega builds have made Minecraft the big success it is today. It is divided by the different personalities of Minecraft weather you like the talking or building. I do like some personalities but their building speaks to me the most, you can hear in their voice if they are happy or not doing what they are doing and those are the creators I watch, and from watching Minecraft for so so many years the most fun has come from when they are building huge builds and bringing massive projects to life. there are so many examples I can give in the Hermitcraft server alone. I also don't enjoy the life series as much because I'm not a fan of killing your friends in games for fun, just my personal feelings and all the builds they build get destroyed without reason. I do accept it as a way for the creators to do something different and have different kinds of fun so that's awesome but it's not what I am gonna watch, every series I stopped watching and I still don't know who has won each series. It just got too boring for me. but that's the difference on how I have changed my interest in Minecraft as well.

I kinda just wish everyone played like they did in like, 1.4 when they just played to have fun, and used their imagination. I watched a video essay recently about how Minecraft is too goal oriented for a sandbox game. it's always about beating the game, making giant builds, etc. The hermit craft episodes I tend to like the most are the ones where they're just interacting. That's why I think the Dream SMP did so well, it was MOSTLY normal ppl having fun. Wilbur soot, tommy, George, etc. weren't spectacular at the game. And while there were people like Techo, Dream, and philza, they were greatly outnumbered. Tommy literally lived in a dirt hut for most of it! He barely had diamonds most of the time! He was having fun, without all the fancy armor, or big builds. It's just going back to that imagination aspect. People are too focused on goals to have fun. I just wish we could have those stories more often. It's more entertaining for everyone involved.

yeah its been a bit of a trend I've noticed as well. while i do love my big mega builds and cool super fast build modes, seeing so much progress in single episodes often robs the impact of it? i think etho did a really god job in his recent (ep 584) lp ep with the montage he showed gathering the items + the actual building of the storage system. i personally also just tend to prefer videos with maybe less "big" progress an more smaller things getting finished or have a focus on interactions between the hermits/ccs some of my favorite hermitcraft videos atm are iskalls uncut vault hunter videos on his vod channel and i always have such a soft spot for the old end busting streams with mumbo as well as the old streams mumbo did during season 6 of his man-made perimeter/big dig. iskall also mentioned that he plans on bringing the uncut chill hangout videos to hcs10 and some other hermit have mentioned taking things slower/focusing more on interactions than huge projects next season, so i am hopefully optimistic that well see more chill stuff next season :) (also. no episode nr in the title is such a petpeeve of mine lmao)

you used some of joel (smallishbeans) thumbnails in this video and i totally agree that he's one of the biggest culprits. his hardcore videos are really cool accomplishments but man he condenses like 24 hours of work into 30 minutes of video it's insane. my favourite videos from him are just his collab or creative challenge videos because it's him messing around

I actually really agree with this, the increased scale, standards and scope of these let's play videos is really getting out of hand and makes it very demanding for anybody who's looking forward to starting their own. The reason I adore Hermitcraft so much is it's not ''MrBeast-ificated'' and doesn't include those over the top ''i bUiLt tHe oBsErVaBle uNiVeRsE iN MiNeCrAfT HaRdCoRe.'' They do make awesome creations, but they don't shove it in your face and more importantly, don't centre their videos onto them, which is how it was and how it *SHOULD BE.* Amidst all the content milking and over the top clickbait thumbnails, Hermitcraft has retained its true original self and its decade+ old charm, it's still at its core friends playing Minecraft and doing cool things there with awesome interractions to boot. Everybody should take a lesson from them on how to make a good, thriving and long-running let's play that doesn't feel overdone and obnoxiously in your face, but I'm actually kind of glad that Hermitcraft is a one of a kind occurance on KZfaq, it makes it all the more unique and enjoyable.

When I saw this, I think on the hermitcraft Reddit, I thought that you were going to say something bad about hermitcraft, but almost everything you said I agree with

Ah yes “the great filter” a phenomenon only this time, in minecraft? Interesting we will get to a point where it will actually be impossible to progress any further and the burnout will harm us just like how our technological advancements will eventually be our doom(this is the great filter)

Tango, people are bullying Decked Out 2 again…

Hey man, would you be intetested in joining an SMP, we are looking for more content creators. Currently we have 3 people making videos.

While you have a couple ok points, hermitcraft builds and videos don't have the problems you listed. So saying Grian made less videos and putting hermitcraft bases in your thumbnail is disingenuous. Sure, they make intriguing thumbnails, and make lots of progress. But they do it over years as opposed to full nether and end transformations that you used as examples

Yeah I have a few videos on my channel, however it is beyond clear I don't take KZfaq seriously and just upload for fun or when I'm bored. But I'm so glad I'm not dependent on making Minecraft content on KZfaq for a living. I can just enjoy the game, in my free time, and not have to worry about sinking 150 hours into a video to outdo my previous video or hop on the same repetitive trends hardcore KZfaqrs do. I like to have a healthy relationship with the game and I love the fact that I can quit anytime I want and my livelihood doesn't rest on making "THE MOST EPIC IRON FARM IN HARDCORE MINECRAFT! *uses a Shulkercraft design that gets 500 iron per hour* Also, this mainly applies to most hardcore MC channels, but there is genuinely nothing unique about any of them. They all have the same monotone, "chill" personality, they all edit the exact same, they all ripped off Sandiction with the using skins as totems and their skins are all incredibly simplistic, and they all have the same boring videos over and over again. "I built X biome in Y dimension in HARDCORE MINECRAFT." "I captured every mob in HARDCORE MINECRAFT." The content is beyond boring and it's nice when you see someone who genuinely enjoys Minecraft and the process behind building their world.

I don't even need to watch whole video, I saw Decked Out in thumbnail and I'm ready to bite someone Edit: nvm, watched the whole video, while I agree, I also kind of disagree. It's 1 am I'm too lazy to make my comment sound smart so I'm gonan say 6/10 video, underrated channel, nicely wrapped up though

Bro is mad they weren't invited