March has been a rather bad month for me. Dead computer parts, awful GPU prices, low motivation, and Fortnite gaming sessions galore. Read all about it!
57 subscribers – 13 videos – 3,650 views
Progress Since Last Update
I guess it all stems from my graphics card dying towards the beginning of the month. I’m still able to use my computer, thanks to the use of integrated graphics on my Intel CPU. But it still sucks, considering I’m trying to work on YouTube videos with a fair amount of editing. My editing program of choice, Davinci Resolve, greatly benefits from a good GPU.
And let it be known, Resolve already ran poorly before. I would often have bigger plans for fun edits in my videos, but I would be deterred because of how slow the program was as a whole.
Now I’m just running on a raw CPU from 2014.
It’s not a pleasant experience. On the bright side, at least I’m able to use my computer at all. I was worried my power supply fried everything back when I didn’t know what the problem was, but knowing the problems is with one specific component is something I guess I can be happy with.
What I’m not happy with, is the GPU market right now.
If you’ve been paying any attention to PC component prices, you’d know that quite a few parts are becoming harder to get, GPUs being the part affected the most.
An RTX 3080 is what I’m aiming to get for my new PC build. The MSRP is $700. Auctions on eBay are getting bids upwards of $2,000. I’d never spend that kind of money, so I’m basically forced to rely on MSRP restocks at Best Buy.
So yeah, sucky situation. Though I did get lucky with a PS5 back in January from Walmart. So maybe I have enough luck to get another rare piece of gaming hardware.
On a more depressing note, I’ve been into fortnite. It’s kinda fun. I’m sory.
Up-and-Coming
All that being said, my production has noticeably slowed down. In addition to editing actually being painful, I’ve just kinda lost some motivation in general. I have the audio recorded for one video and I’m actively planning out two other videos. This is kinda weird, because I usually take it just one video at a time.
If I’m honest, I don’t really like this production style. It’s nice to have something else to work on when I don’t want to edit audio, but it leads to me just never editing audio.
Two of those videos I mentioned aren’t about gaming. I don’t want to say much else in-case it doesn’t work out, but it’s something I’m definitely passionate about.
Something I’m really scared about, if I ever do get big, is that I’ll become that youtuber that does one thing. Ceave gaming became known for doing videos specifically on Mario Maker. Then he branched out and started doing videos on other Nintendo games. And I just stopped watching him at that point.
That’s not a knock against his content or anything. It’s just that’s not what I wanted to see from his channel. I wanted Mario Maker content, not content about Super Mario Sunshine or whatever. He’s a funny guy, but his new content isn’t my thing.
I guess that’s the problem isn’t it? I realize that I only liked him for his Mario Maker content, and when he branched out, I stopped watching. I just don’t want to find myself at 200k subs being pigeonholed into making videos about one game or even genre.
So hopefully, by putting out these videos about something other than gaming, I can get used to talking about film, tv, books, what have you.
As for the Final Fantasy 7 video, it hasn’t progressed much at all. I have practically 0 desire to actually play Crisis Core. But I genuinely want to put out a video talking about the compilation of FF7 before the DLC drops in June. I guess I need to think about which matters more, pushing through a handful of games I’m not interested in vs moving on to other videos.
Conclusion
The usual amount of low motivation combined with working on buying a new computer puts me in an awkward position. I could theoretically be working on videos, but as of now, I just want to watch some youtube videos about true crime or whatever.
The only video I put out this month has 27 views after 2 weeks. Kinda hard to motivate myself to work on something when it gets reception like that. I’ve been trying to be more mindful of picking topics that the algorithm might like, or rather, working topics that I’m interested in into something the algorithm would like. If I want more growth, I probably need to lean into it even more.
But I unno. These next few videos I’m working on aren’t really algorithm bait, they’re just stuff I think is neat. I just gotta find some hook to make them appealing. And hopefully I can get out of this pit.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see y’all on the flip
Preston
Update #1 – 04/03/2021
I bought all my parts except for my GPU. I sat through my first restock hell this morning and almost got a 3070, but it didn’t go through. I will keep trying and I will have graphics. Just you wait.
Update #2 – 04/15/2021
All the parts are in and computer is working. Well, except for a graphics card. Another drop happened today, and still nothing. Graphics are on my horizon, I can see it.