Another annoying thing about the big KZfaq channels is that they all do the same content at the same time. GW is releasing a new version of Age of Sigmar? Well now every channel is doing a "first look" or a how to paint your army to get it ready for the table or whatever. We've lost the variety. Anyway, great thought-provoking set of videos sir. I really enjoyed them.

Listening to this now I think you have been vindicated even more. At my local game stores I have not seen any Old World stuff in stock other than rule books and it seems like they are struggling to sell GW products in general. Personally I like a lot of those old miniatures but selling them at basically fully price was a typical Games Workshop cash grab and killed my interest in it

thanks again for hanging out on my stream. I gave my comments about this issue on wargaming KZfaq in my recent painting update video

I'm into hobby for 30 years now if that change anything. Uncle Atom is here for years already. I see nothing wrong with his channel. He release games with Vince now, you can not be a fan of them but calling them not real games but just merch.. c'mon man.

Love your channel mate, hope you keep posting vids :) I subscribe to channels like yours that I like, and often block the ones which seem to be the repetitive templated merch/painting/sponsored GW promotion channels of which there seem to be hundreds. This seems to help at least. I have a small channel updated infrequently, and just stuff I'm genuinely interested in that others might also be interested in, and fine if not. Mostly Kings of War from Mantic, but also started adding historicals which have been my main focus for many years - so a couple of big 28mm Napoleonics battles, and a new Medieval army. All less popular stuff (compared to GW which dominates You Tube feeds). Even though I also do some GW stuff at times, I don't bother posting anything about it given You Tube is already saturated with that content.

I think a lot of the smaller channels decided to quit once people started figuring out you can do KZfaq as a job. Once KZfaq is your job now you need to have the sponsorships, the fancy video production, and follow what ever the latest formula is to please the algorithm. In other words, if you don't play by KZfaqs rules and do what everyone else is doing you just won't make it. I've unsubscribed from a lot of channels over the past 2 yrs because like you said, they weren't making hobby videos, they were just making advertisements.

Holy Diver has a renamed his channel "Angrytabletopnerd". His channel and yours plus a handfull of others is all I watch really. I cant stand the channels that try to insert their woke agenda into the hobby. I just want to watch battlereports or hear the latest gaming news. Keep that nonsense out of my hobby 😅

I know you are male, but the only comment I could come up with was "You go girl!" lol. Speakin the truth my friend.

Great rant. My objection to the painting channels is that they remind me of my pile of shame 😂

Putting on a pair of headphones and listening to a SWS rant whilst painting some models has become a bit of favourite pastime. I don't agree with all of your points but I share your annoyance at how a lot of channels are now about making "content" just for the purpose of meeting their monetary targets. I see chanels making videos about niche topics just so they can put out a video and get that sweet sponsorship money. Everybody seems to now be sponsored by the same small pool of companies; like Squarespace, World of Tanks/Warships, Curiosity Stream etc... I think this is the result of Facebook's (Meta) purchase of KZfaq a few years ago. Like everything in our capitalist culture, their platforms are a way to produce revenue in as many ways as possible. It went from a community of like-minded individuals to a commercial entity. I don't necessarily blame KZfaqrs for buying into this obvious Pyramid Scheme. At the end of the day "Social Influencer" and "Social Media Star" are now careers in board games like The Game of Life. It's in all our media streams, so some people must see it as a genuine career rather than an enjoyable hobby. I think if we look back on this time in 20-30 years, the phrase of the decade would be "like, share and subscribe".

I love it. I’d be really interested in purchasing. How do I go about that,

Thanks Deano for following up on the comments and clarifying your thoughts. KZfaq is a weird beast, it wants a very particular diet and regurgitates only what conforms to its internal guidelines. Algorithms and AI need to be scrutinised by us all. I for one don't want to be squeezed into its mould. Stay special mate.

There is nothing wrong with gatekeepers. We actually need more of em!

JP gotrokkits is one of Uncle atoms pals , so of course he would ride to his defense.

My little brother has this and I’m struggling how to build this to keep me occupied while he’s away😅 lost a few pieces but I’ll attempt to manage

Some of these guys you are mentioning also have a closet political agenda. Which does not belong in the hobby.

The problem is nobody has a hobby for fun anymore. If they can't make money off of it , they don't think it's worth the time.

I think what you are looking for in a channel requires a lot of commitment and time. So eventually a channel like that would have to become commercialized in order to justify the time commitment and expense. In the meantime, there are still a lot of amateur channels to check out. Just don’t expect too much for free.

Yeah it’s like my comment on your earlier video suggests. I believe the whole gist of the argument is not about the hobby it’s about influencers in the hobby community being at the top. Other niche interests have influencers and guerrilla marketing but there are still creators who are getting the most eyeballs on their vids and it just isn’t the case with our hobby unfortunately. Good luck I hope you do start up a community event that we can all rally around because that’s what it will take.

Spot on rant! I've been on KZfaq forever and doing the hobby since the 90s...but it hard for small channels like mine to get any traffic, becuase the big channels got graphics people, polished corporatized , content...the small content creator doing stuff in his hobby room sharing his latest paint job just dont get the eyeballs....so we give up

Listen, you were 100 percent spot on in my opinion

Yeah man! The hobby is full tryhards , wannabe hobby celebrities and a whole host of other types. I actually think that all this has made the hobby worse , not better. Sadly , the oldguard are just getting greyer and pushed to the side. Good for you for calling it out.

Holydiver is the reason I came over and subscribed. He shouted out the other video and found myself agreeing a lot.

Hey, Im not as involved in tabletop gaming like I used to. I have grown away from it due to GW and their treating us as sheep to be fleeced as often as possible. But I have seen the commercialization like others talk about.

A good example of what your speaking of is as follows. 10th Edition 40k is broken, rules and products (except models). Me and my crew are brand new to WH 40K 10th edition. The game since it has released was broken, unbalanced, and quite Literally all the products that we bought to play it, books, cards, etc. are obsolete due to errata and constant DAILY rules updates. They are literally releasing books announcing errata before they even hit the market/shelves. Books outdated before they are even released. Only the models remain unchanged (for the most part). Now the point, NOT ONE major KZfaq channel that pimps for Games Workshop has posted consistent outrage, with any dedicated time, how this is horrible for the hobby. It's business as usual because they don't want to bight the hand that feeds them, not caring about the war game community. We no longer play 40k 10th and now use the minis in "other" games. If your new to 40k these big channels still pimp it like it the end all to be all best game. Ridiculous.

Mark’s Game Room is a nice channel. He is a down-to-earth wargamer, even though his channel has IMHO high production values. He is all about wargaming.

my non "GW" vids get 1/5 of the views of GW vids :(

You made some really good points . There are quite a few channels out there but Obviously big sponsored channels take over the algorithms and smaller channels are getting lost and people are getting disappointed and leave or stop ...Glad you are following the channel.

I noticed that the channel like Blue Table Painting, Beasts of War* and Mini War Gaming (all game shop traders) never show up anymore in my suggestions. Back 10 years ago they were the main channels before all the new figure painting channels began. Also don't see any War Machine, Mantic, Flames or War, Infinity battle report channels appearing either. Maybe a bit unfair to Uncle Adam. He's been around since those days and did the conventions. (* know they changed their name) Although, I can't say all the Hate woke channels have done anyone in any hobby any favours. They make their living out of been enraged at the drop of a hat.

I dont think you have been looking very hard mate! There are lots out there. Sure some drop out after the initial rush but plenty still around. Not entirely sure what the point is you are trying to make tbh

I would say that I am currently experiencing the opposite, I am subscribed to a lot of wargaming hobby channels and I'm struggling to keep up with catching up on the videos that are being put out daily. I have always enjoyed watching hobby videos and I've been fortunate enough to meet a lot of these people and become friends with fellow creators through KZfaq. From my own perspective, I've been in the hobby since 1991 and set up my channel in 2018 and it's still a really small channel. These days, I'm not a prolific poster of videos due to other hobbies, real life etc but I still like to produce videos when I can and improving the quality of my videos has been just as enjoyable as painting miniatures. I find new channels on a regular basis relating to the hobby that range from a dude with a phone to others with very high production value. But I enjoy both and no channel should ever be looked down upon based upon how they choose to make their videos as they all have their own valid message.

Dude that was an epic rant! I concur with your core sentiment. It's really sad as this has happened all over youtube. I have been using this channel for 14 years and my other channel is 17 years old so I have witnessed this pretty much from the beginning. I started this channel to show people how to train their dogs with zero intention of getting any money out of it and it just got crushed by channels as you described for wargaming, many of whom don't even give correct information from experience just from what they read in a book or received in college, theoretical garbage that only works in a lab for example. You tube in general used to be so good for exactly the reasons you stated, now it's just another high production tv show with as many ads and everything. :( The saddest part is your vid won't get much exposure for the same reasons but just know there are loads of us out there that think the same.

Love the rant, an I have very similar thoughts, but I think were just getting old, us blokes who started in the 80s or 90s were now in our 40s an 50s an youtube is sort of passing us by, we caw produce the videos that the viewers who are actually on youtube want to watch, they want the big channels coz they have the overproduced filming style with crystal audio an amazing lighting, folk aint into watching blokes in their kitchen or spare room anymore like its 2012, sometimes yo have to look at what the competition is doing an say, I just caw compete so yo carry on as a hobby, just sharing what your doing like always, or you give up coz its a waste of your time that could be spent better actually enjoying your hobby. Thats why after 12 nearly 13 years of doing youtube I've basically give up, I caw compete an not enough folk want to watch the lower quality channels like mine

where have all the mini wargaming channels gone? They haven't gone anywhere. There are seemingly more than ever on KZfaq. You can't watch a video without being recommended 20 or 30 related channels these days.

I haven't finished your entire video yet, so sorry if you address this. I fundamentally agree, i see lots of channels that are superficially about wargames. Maybe even by people who play more than me/been into the hobby longer (due to virtue of their age, not necessarily proportion of their life invested into the hobby) but are not hobbyist channels, they're professional Content Creators and their platforms are a way to boost their other side projects/money making ventures. I don't really respect these people or feel that their presence adds anything to the hobby. They do everything they can to draw a target audience and funnel them back into themselves. This comes from the changes in the KZfaq format from being a hobby/side project in its inception in a to a viable business venture in the modern day. People can say that their success or popularity is good for the hobby as it brings more eyes to it, but is it really good that we now have the space that was once filled with people talking about their passions taken up by people who are doing paid promotion for corporations or simply trying to sell you some proprietary line of miniatures or paints or often even non-hobby related garbage like shirts and coffee mugs? I really don't think so. I think the convenience they provide by making a "how to play 40k" video or the 10,000th "how to paint your first miniature" video is overwhelmed by the fact that we constantly have to deal with the fact that oppurtunistic businessmen now control the face of something.

you gotta be an influencer these days, even better if you're an attractive woman. I'll admit I'm guilty of giving them attention... only to discover they are an actual hobby tourist, still in the 2 years they've been aware of wargaming they've released their own game somehow lol I prefer your channel to uncle adam, he wastes my time rambling trying to avoid saying anything slightly controversial, dude can't take a stand on any opinion he might have, its painful to listen to.

Aurora Kit.... late 50s and early 60s ... top of the mark, even in 1970 when I bought it from Aurora with a vacuformed diorama base....

I'd recommend giving Mish Mash a look, he makes some cool painting tutorials if you're interested

lol the kick starter generation :). Great video :)

Glad the algorithm served up your channel. Glad it did as I am finding yours and a lot of pages in the comments.

so many of these big, high production channels develop fan bases that turn them into alleged leaders of the wargaming community. Making mild criticism at the hobby influencers makes a lot of people on here upset, its really annoying

They all stopped being hobby fans and became 'content creators' $$$$.

Glad you are back

A number of these big channels often jump on the activist bandwagon for certain "progressive " politics and regularly inject this nonsense into the hobby ,and they pick up that crowd alot of which are not really hobbyists and just jump on the wagon for those reasons, theres a certain mould that youtube likes to promote if you don't fit that particular mould you don't get much of a look in .

My boy holy diver(angry tabletop nerd) got shadow banned hard and went over to rumble

I don't know what's happened to a lot of them, because I unsubscribed and blocked all the channels that accepted or defended the custodes lore change.

I appreciate this video. Some of the commentors didnt get it but i understand completely. The same thing has happened in the ttrpg community

I dropped Goober Brain when he posted a video in 2020 that those who play historical minature wargames, scale modelers, and history lovers are racists abd Nazis who want to repeat and correct history. Since then rumors about him have gotten worse and worse

Interesting. I've entered the hobby about 5 years ago(I'm 50 years old now). I did have a model kit channel that I regrettably deleted(Atomicdog Scale Model Freak, 3K subs). I simply fell in love with the tabletop miniature wargaming hobby cause you can play with the models/minis you have built. Ha Ha! I simply upload vids of what I like, unproffesional unboxings(lol), battle reports, and yes.. Zombicide, too! Love that game! I actually host a once a year painting challenge, nothing flashy just a way to motivate fellow hobbyist to get color on that grey mini. You all take care and have fun with the hobby.

God speed solowar gamer👻👻👻