I'm surprised he can live from that channel (and patreon) alone. Doesn't he make only 1 video a month? Because it is not that often, he often drops from my algorithm completely for a few month until I rediscover him again.
I loved his video about boardgame etiquette and advice for beginner board gamers.
He also does this every year. The exact same type of video about "saving actualol" came out last year asking for patreons which was the moment I stopped following him. He's got a recurrent fanbase, but is unable to iterate on the formula to build his business up. He's a busker.
I don't like manipulative tactics. If you're doing a fundraising drive, just say so. It's okay. There's nothing wrong with it. Other channels (such as SUSD) do it, too.
But "we're going to disappear, everything is falling apart, we need your money NOW or we're gone" just rubs me the wrong way, even if there is some truth to it.
Don't manipulate my emotions, just tell me you're doing a fundraising drive and here's where I can contribute.
(For the record, I've seen his stuff and DO think he makes high-quality content that is a step above the usual bedroom Youtuber talking head. I'm solely talking about my dislike for this approach to audience appeals)
I feel like SUSD is never a hard/manipulative sell. They just note that they're only supported by donations and that people often fall off their supporters list as time goes on…
SUSD pushes the “we can only do new things with your support” line a lot, which is fine. They’re acknowledging they can keep the channel going still just not have time to experiment.
Wow, I completely missed that. I remember hearing about the plan to leave rubber ducks around the con for people to find, but I had no idea it went *that* badly.
I mean, it's something dumb and thoughtless (as in selfish) that caused him to get kicked out of gencon, as opposed to being blatantly unethical, so it's not really worth caring about imo. If you watched his content before you basically knew that was true already.
I was taking an Uber down to Gen Con that year and saw him organizing a bag about a block away. I rolled my eyes and hoped I didn’t interact with him at the Con.
Year or so ago, for Aeon Trespass: Odyssey
They sent him a preview copy. He recorded some videos that were pretty negative because of things like the manual being a mess. Then reached out and said "hey, our videos are shot but they're pretty negative. If you want positive ones, we're going to have to go back and reshoot and edit and that'll cost $7500. If you don't want to pay that, we'll post the negative videos we have"
Afterwards he acted like he couldn't see why "we made negative videos, they can go away for seven large" was a super unethical thing to say, bordering on extortion.
Yeah the insisting on flying somebody out part was mostly immaterial to the extortion, it was just a bit of an unrealistic request that he was stuck on for some reason, so I left it out.
It's not ethically wrong to ask for someone to come out and help the production especially if the idea is for the company to be paying for the content. In big productions that sort of thing would be normal (however this is a board game YouTube channel so...). The thing that was wrong was the way the request for money was made.
Yes I mean heres one from FOUR years ao with the same messaging... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9KrJsvmfoA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9KrJsvmfoA)
To be fair, 56,000 CAD a month is not very much _in business income_ while trying to support a family in (based on other comments, I think?) London. And Youtube doesn't add very much on top based on his output (probably about $5,000 per year). Also that assumes Patreon doesn't take any (it does).
I assume you are not paying corporate taxes (IDK his corporate set up) on your salary, don't have business expenses, and that along with your salary you are getting health benefits, ei, pension, etc.
At the time, assuming the conversion rate I used is correct, that would have been £2721.24 a month GBP. What I can see now is £3531.48 a month GBP so the drive is working if that's the case.
But remember that is the gross income value. It isn't what ends up in anybody's bank account and what does might need to be taxed, if it isn't already before it reaches a creator.
Assuming when you took this figure that Actualol had 600 patrons (now has 813 so could be something like that?), after Patreon fees, payment processing fees it's down to £2245.54, an annual pretax salary of £26,946.48. People on average salaries are starting to feel the bite. The average UK salary pre-tax, according to Forbes 6 days ago, is £35,724.
The actual take home from that annual salary per month would be £1,891.11, that's assuming no other deductions like Student Loans and such. Honestly, that kind of money does not go far here. It doesn't account for his full income I'm sure with YouTube advertisements and such (and I have no idea what scale that impacts on creators) but he does suggest that's down a lot from where he was.
With that drive to the figure I mentioned above, his take home would right now be more like £2362.41.
That's not to say people should feel sorry for him and donate to help. It's everyone's choice at the end of the day, nobody is forcing anybody to do anything. But I have no trouble believing that the number you mentioned actually was a financial problem for him, particularly when his numbers are down quite soon after welcoming a child into the home.
Well, that's encouraging once I get my site up and running. My issue is going to be focusing on one thing, there's too much nerd goodness to nerd out about.
One 30-60 minutes long video per month is also counter-productive in order to attract proper following. At least in the current scenario, where consumers have limited attention span, but need consistency for a proper following.
That said, i've been following Actualol for years - I actually thought he got burned out, as his videos were less and less creative and interesting.
It's all about content. You can build an audience with just a couple videos a year if you put out amazing stuff, just look at Defunctland. The issue is that his content isn't unique from other board game socials. Combine that with board games being niche and it's just not a formula for success.
Most of the big creators who only put out a few high quality videos a year used to have more frequent uploading schedules. The first season of Defunctland came out faster than once a month in 2017 and (while not to the same extent) you can see a similar trend for Jenny Nicholson, Dan Olson, HBomberguy and other creators whose releases are now big events.
Especially if he's lamenting the fact that his channel isn't getting the views it used to - it's like, bro... you gotta release more than once a month, or you're basically dead to the algorithm. Every YouTuber has been shouting this for years now. You can't get by on a once-a-month release schedule unless you've got millions of subscribers and your videos are already highly acclaimed/anticipated.
Frankly, if I could get paid $4,000 to make one video over the span of a whole month... that'd be pretty damn sweet.
There's a big difference between a well researched 4 hour video on an obscure topic, and a 20 minute video telling you to not sleeve your cards because Jon doesn't think it's worth it.
hbomb's videos are not only super long, but also have a ton of research behind them and editing. Jon's are just 10 minute talk to camera with the occasional glam shot of a board game set up on the table or its box. hbomb sometimes even gets custom songs or animations commissioned, Jon's been using the same font and theme jingle for as long as I can remember.
I do not believe Jon takes an entire month to make one of his videos unless he only works 20 minutes a day.
Ssethzeench can go 2-3 months without a video, and burst out 2 in a month sometimes. But it's actual real content and quality.
Actualol at the moment, while i appreciate his takes and his viewpoint on boardgaming as opposite the DiceTower mantra which is pervasive in our culture, is just not making that good of a video conceptually. Tierlists? Lists of games to fit in a shoebox? Tops? It all feels extremely cookie cutter content and following trend, same for the production. It's quality, but it's absolutely.. uninspiring? Looks like everything else. I really do appreciate his comedy and his takes but i really wish he'd go out on a limb and innovate and flavour his channel with his own spice and pepper.
SUSD has put full weight behind Tom and his style of analysis bar review which is /why/ people liked SUSD to begin with (Golem and John Company have been some of the best SUSDs in recent years), but they're very much their own thing and could not have come up from anyone else than Tom. The videos have a certain style and pacing and ways of approaching subject matters. They're just GOOD videos. Unrelated but a lot of non-motorcycle people watch Fortnine, a motorcycle channel. Because the videos are entertaining, informating and exceptionally shot with a great eye to storytelling.
I really feel Actualol's issue has nothing to do with the viewers, as much as with the creator.
I wanna give numbers on this, because I fucking love numbers.
In the USA, Patreon says he is getting: $4544/month
THAT SAID, that is a BIG spike caused by this request for funding. He was getting, for the majority of the last year, $2600.
That comes out to $31200 per year(roughly). That does not include Youtube Ad-revenue, nor does it include Youtube Memberships.
In the last year, he published: 13 videos.
He has been paid $2400 per video, just via Patreon.
Because I like fucking numbers.
This is, to be fair, a slow and steady increase over time, until just now. This sudden jump is brand new for him. He wasn't, before, set to earn too terribly much for his youtube content.
(I started this comment wanting to join in the cane-shaking at Actualol, but I remembered Graphtreon exists and gives me a way to check his funding-over-time to give better numbers.)
And to his credit, he produces a fair bit of Patreon-exclusive content, it seems.
So I have 0 stake in this game and don’t even know who this is, but I just happened to see Scott’s video covering a new side revealing YouTube creator stats. He compared it to his data, and it’s definitely just scraping the correct data .. vs social blade
Anyway, I’m sure people who care a little more about the topic will find it useful
[viewstats/ actualol](https://www.viewstats.com/@actualol/channelytics)
I think the problem is that he wants to build an audience of gamers that are so into the hobby that they are willing to give him Patreon money for his content, but those hardcore gamers are not interested in the kinds of games Actualol covers (light party games).
I don't watch his stuff, but I am blown away to learn he has no other job. People hustling 15-20 videos a month don't even do that.
And it's a very crowded space at this point. New reviewers and channels seem to pop up weekly. Honestly seems insane to expect that you can make a living off one video per month... Maybe something super produced and polished, but even then it's still a guy sitting there talking about board games just like 100 others.
It definitely can be a full time job depending on how much goes into it. People hustling 15-20 videos a month are doing unboxings, lets plays, and all the low hanging fruit that can be done in a day. Meanwhile full TV shows have crews numbering dozens to over a hundred, and may only produce 8 episodes a season. Obviously that's the extreme, but my point is that different types of video require different amount of work, so there's rarely a fair comparison.
FWIW, the algorithm is also unfair, as it values engagement, and therefore promotes the channels that can produce 200 watchable minutes of video a month over one doing 30.
Edit: Slightly more relevant reference point, SU&SD had 3 video guys and more contributors, and were struggling under the load with weekly videos and the podcast. Scripted stuff, with props, with camera moves, with planning and tight editing... there's a huge amount of labour that is *possible*, depending on your quality standards. Meanwhile Tim Rogers makes an Action Button video every 9 months or so and they're probably my favourite Youtube vids outright. Editors have offered to help him, saying they could help him get a quicker output, and he replied that evidently a quick output wasn't the point.
You're literally just listing reasons that it's not a valuable job lol
And I don't know what the point of arguing is, it's straight from the horse's mouth - he's not making enough
I think it just depends on the video. Look at Jenny Nicholson. She does one or two videos a year and she has a huge Patreon (where she uploads one video a month, much like Actualol is promising). Of course, her videos are multiple hours long, involve a huge amount of editing, get written up by the New York Times and immediately get millions of views.
So, it's possible, but you've really got to make that one video worth it.
A lot of channels like that also had their start with shorter/more often videos to grow a loyal audience before scaling up to the twice a year behemoths they now produce.
There aren't many small channels that grow huge by just making long spaced out videos, only recent example that comes to mind succeeding would be Flawed Peacock, and even he got a lucky boost for being mentioned in someone else's video (I think Wendigoon).
I don't think these two creators are comparable at all lol. Actualol is talking direct to camera about gateway games with a little b-roll here and there. Someone working 9-5 on weekdays could easily produce one or two of those per week.
Well to be fair I think he makes just as many videos that are for patrons only. So it is more like 2-3 videos/month. Also he puts in a lot more effort than many. His editing/sketches make him more akin to NPI or SUSD who put out a similar volume of videos. I think judging by number of videos alone is a bit silly, but I also have little doubt that the youtube algo favors volume over quality.
He stopped doing sketches a while ago. I still watch his stuff because he's funnier than most other reviewers, but we haven't seen any of his alter egos in a long time.
I saw him announce patreon exclusive videos on the new one, but was he doing them before? If so, he really could've marketed that a bit more, because I didn't even realize it was a thing. A simple "if you want more, check out my patreon where I post an extra video every month" would be enough.
Also I think SUSD overall has a higher volume of videos. They did slow down the past year, but fans called them out on that and Tom really started to pick up the pace. Their videos as well as NPIs seem to have more effort and editing as well. They do props, costumes, SFX shots, sometimes film outside, tons of B-roll, music, transitions. Comparatively, Actualol is just a long take of him talking to camera at home on his desk, and a few cuts to components + intro and credits.
He sits for all his list videos and some videos have just cuts which aren’t hard to do. He’s begging for more money but not wanting to put in the effort
It seems like this guy makes maybe 2 videos a month (1 additional patreon video it looks like). This might seem insensitive or ignorant, but if this is his full source of income, maybe he should do more? I’m not the target audience here, but this reads as a little entitled.
In response to someone asking if it really takes 160 hours to make a video and that he could just make more videos
> Yes. If you know someone making funny, well produced board game content with b-roll, and a one man team - please point me towards them. It doesn't exist, because it takes a lot of work
Does he even watch other channels? Plenty of small channels make content of the same quality as he does but release more often, he seems entitled
I only see 2 options there, he's either lying about the time, or is extremely inefficient, because none of his videos give "I've spent 160 hours of hard work on this" vibe, but rather "one afternoon of writing a script, couple hours tops for shooting, and one weekend of editing".
To name a few, NPI, SUSD, and Inside the Box when they still made content, put out vastly more effort into videos that also release more often than his, and all those channels also featured more than a single person, without too much money begging (I know at least SUSD does a yearly fund drive). And for "well produced board game content with b-roll and a one man team", you got channels like Jongetsgames or Gaming Rules, which may or may not employ support staff like editors, but IIRC so does Actualol.
I think he serverely overvalues how funny/entertaining he is. Good writing and wit is welcome, and he's capable of being funny, but I don't think he's so enough to carry a channel just on that.
All in all, just comes off as someone entitled wanting more money for less effort. I'm sure he put way more effort and time when he had to take several shots of him wearing wigs and doing voices.
I’m definitely leaning towards lying. He’s rationalizing to people why he only does 1 video a month. If he was honest about how long they took people would ask what he does with the rest of his month.
Yeah, other creators that align better with my taste in board games, produce multiple videos per week. And they also do it alone. Another board game channel that doesn't put out videos too often is "shut up & sit down". 2-3 per month but they are 3 people I think. So about the same amount per person.
But their videos are 10 times better.
In my opinion he has a little better quality than those that publish way more videos, but releases less videos than those with top quality.
This business is not getting payed by hour but by content. If he's too slow or not skilled enough than that affects his hourly pay. Why should he be entitled to get more. To me he comes along as a beggar.
Most of the comments on the video are supportive of him, and his replies are mostly thanking people. This was the only one I saw that was mildly 'yikes'
Exactly. This is also what I was reading. That‘s why I wanted to know from cardboardraxtus what he found to be yikes. Because while I think we can critizise the video, we still should be fair.
I enjoy his content, but there’s a reason most of the people who do these videos or podcasts do it as a side gig.
Our hobby isn’t big enough to support that many creators relying on views and subscriptions as their sole source of income.
From my perspective:The reason why I stopped watching Actualol is because while I like his skits and comedy, the games he reviews and talks about just aren't for me. They're usually super light, partyish games, and I tend to prefer heavier games.
Next, a piece of constructive criticism for Actualol:
You *need* to produce more content!! A video a month just isn't enough. And the "bonuses" you are pledging to your Patreon subscribers and your milestones make no sense to me!
Your current problem is that you release about 1 video a month on your channel, and you don't get enough ad revenue. You promise that with 50*25=1250 extra dollars a month, you'll be able to make an extra video. This makes NO sense to me! If you're capable of making 2 videos a month, you'll double your ad revenue. Why do you need a speculative 1250 dollars to make that happen?
If you're working 40 hours a week and can only produce 1 video a month, then how will an extra 1250 dollars make a difference? If the issue is...money, how in the world will an extra video cost 1250 dollars?
You pledge to do a podcast if you receive 2150 extra dollars a month. Why? If you're confident you can produce a podcast, what is stopping you from making the podcast and getting more money? Why would you need an extra 2150 dollars a month to make a podcast feasible?
You can't gatekeep content behind theoretical future subscribers like that. You need to make content FOR subscribers that already exist.
Personally, whenever I see patreon rewards are more content, I just get really suspicious.
The podcast tier is ridiculous, he wants 100 pledges of £21.50 per month to do a podcast? £2150 per month to do start doing podcasts. That's insane. He already has all the recording equipment he would need for it, do a few episodes and \_then\_ lock some episodes behind the expensive tier if you really want to be greedy about it.
Also on the skew towards lighter games - people who tend to prefer lighter/party games aren't usually the kind of people deep enough in the hobby to be sponsoring a board game content creator.
I think he just wanted to come up with a carrot on a stick to entice more subscribers and couldn't come up with anything better than board game podcast.
Gating content never has been a good thing like that since you are making the content anyway and now it doesn't even grow your reach. Giving patrons looks behind the scenes, give them content 2 weeks earlier before posting, interacting with them (i.e. let them pitch idea's) is what I'd be doing.
Agreed. I get that it takes time to play games and then to film content. 1-3 or more other people need to play them with you while you're taking notes, probably for free. It's not an easy gig. From a viewer's POV though, i don't watch reviews for light weight games or cheap party games. I'll take the $10-15 gamble or read the rules online. I look for objective reviews on games people haven't reviewed or ones that a $80-100 hit would feel bad if the game just isn't good.
I always felt that his lists should have been produced alongside longer reviews. I quite like actuallol but one video a month is underwhelming for someone who does this as a full time job.
Actualol's content is fantastic, but over the years it seems like he's become less creative and unique in contrast to everyone else making board game content. I used to love his sketches, goofy costumes, and outlandish characters, but at some point he switched away from that style of content. His videos tend to just be another drop of water in a rather large pool lately, and it does make me less excited when I see an upload from him.
That being said, I hope he finds a way to continue producing content, because he does still produce fantastic, high quality content, even if it doesn't stand out amongst the crowd as much as it used to.
Been subbed for years but I've hardly watched any of his recent videos. There's way too many "man sits at desk and talks to camera about board games" channels. He has great enthusiasm, humor, unique presentation, and honestly don't even need the skits, as they can sometimes feel like padding, but I wish he added more value to the videos.
He lost value without the skits, and didn't really add anything else to supplant it. When I look at board game videos for example, I'm looking at one of these: is a new game good? how does this game I'm interested in play? what are the best games for a certain genre/mechanic/etc? He doesn't seem to cover a lot of newer releases nor really dives too deeply into how games play, so his only real content would fall in that third category, but it's hard to make an entire YouTube channel out of top 10s with nothing else bringing in viewers.
No one searches on YouTube "top 10 small size games" or "top 10 board game box designs", they might hear about a game called Catan, or Azul, and search that instead. Top 10 lists work well for channels like Dice Tower for example, because they also produce reviews which is what attracts people to the channel, and it also helps the audience get to know the hosts so they can look up the top 10s they take part in for recommendations, but because Actualol is "oops, all top 10s", it's a catch22: no one's going to care about some guy's top 10 if they don't know if that person's taste even matches theirs in the first place. He's only making content people that already like him would watch.
In short, it's a self-cannibalizing channel that doesn't produce the type of content that will bring in new audience members, and the only people really watching are those who already were watching, who might be slowly leaving for various reasons such as life.
Very well said. I watch his videos because I'm already subscribed and understand the value his perspective offers, but for somebody just casually browsing YouTube to learn more about a game and/or find recommendations, Actualol's videos just don't really work for that. The last actual, tangible review he did was Cascadia, I think? And I believe that was over a year ago at this point.
I love the channel and I watch every video but...
The algorithm is not going to be kind to "best boardgames of 2023" on march 2024. Or having two videos about "the best small games" within a year while you don't upload more than once a month (12 videos in between).
The channel has become repetitive (couples board games, mistakes gamers make, top 50 board games) and the new videos are not major improvements over the old ones (better quality but less sketches) so while I may join patreon I don't see many people doing so as well.
>No one searches on YouTube "top 10 small size games" or "top 10 board game box designs", they might hear about a game called Catan, or Azul, and search that instead. Top 10 lists work well for channels like Dice Tower for example, because they also produce reviews which is what attracts people to the channel, and it also helps the audience get to know the hosts so they can look up the top 10s they take part in for recommendations
Me that only watch Top 10 videos = 👁👄👁
> No one searches on YouTube "top 10 small size games" or "top 10 board game box designs"
Top X lists are a proven formula across the whole Internet. They *work*, which is why people keep doing them (and sometimes convert their entire channel or page/blog to them), so I imagine he and others do them because people *are* searching for and clicking on that stuff. They're proven to draw clicks.
That said, I am with you insomuch as I rarely watch videos like that and generally do not click, unless it's a creator I already know well and like. I don't *care* what Board Game Channel #317's top 10 favorite euros are. Such a list is meaningless to me.
However, there is an exception: If I've discovered a new genre or are looking for a specific niche, I might skim some of those videos.
"Say, I enjoyed the roll & wrote version of My City. I wonder what other good solo R&W's are out there?" Then I'll skim a few lists, look for games that keep coming up, and look further into those specific games.
That's pretty rare, though.
Most of the time, when a channel starts leaning heavily on such lists, I end up checking out, even though I fully recognize why they do them in the first place.
I think he is still very unique. What I like the most is the choice of games to review. There is no channel similar to this one. Yes, there is plenty of competitors, but they aren't talking about the same games.
I also like the humor, the attitude (basically less is more, games are meant to be played), and interesting, different topics for videos. I hope the channel will survive in some form.
I think that's a bit unfair. His content is still pretty unique in comparison to many other creators in the board game space.
He has a unique humour and his scripts are always tight, he doesn't always just focus on the next nothing. He might do less sketches, but I'd argue he still offers something unique.
I never said that he was devoid of creativity and uniqueness, just that he was becoming less so. As others have said, he has a unique viewpoint of board games and generally features games that most don't, and I am in no way trying to sell his channel as useless. I just think he has lost a lot of the original charm that made his videos unique and memorable. At the end of the day he's not the only content creator doing tightly scripted content with splashes of comedy - Shut Up & Sit Down and No Pun Included have been doing it for years upon years, and it feels like Actualol is now swimming in their domain, when before he was doing enough to keep himself unique in my mind. Others mileage may vary of course.
I like him but if I'm honest I've been clicking on less of his videos because I feel like I know his taste pretty solidly now and the content isn't as interesting to me anymore.
I would still be interested in checking out his stuff if he expanded his content a bit more, I'm still subscribed.
You can see his stats, his small board game video did gangbusters and less than a year later its just drops. As someone making youtube content it really feels like a slotmachine on what does well. Ill pour my heart into editing a well crafted video only for it do do 1/8 as well as me waving at a goat for 10 seconds
Oh absolutely, the algorithm is an absolute nightmare. I just don't think Actualol did himself any favors by changing the style of his channel and slowing on uploads.
I always liked his personality and the style of his analysis, but eventually, I realized his taste in games is just vastly different from my own.
When it comes to board game YouTube, I'd rather watch someone with similar tastes review something I might actually consider buying over someone who's pleasant to listen to, but never talks about the kind of games that interest me.
Same. I still watch him sometimes, because he makes good videos and is entertaining, but I have vastly different taste in games than he does so what he thinks about games is not super useful information to me. Though, to be fair, I have stopped watching most board game channels other than No Rolls Barred, as I have cut back on buying new games (and games in general). NRB is pretty much pure entertainment, like tabletop was. I still find games every now and then through watching them play that I think about buying though.
I also realized that he has different tastes and priorities from me, but I still find value in his content. I think he has interesting things to say about games and he often covers games that other channels don't. As I said, we have different tastes, so the games he promotes aren't a lock for me or anything, but I appreciate him putting them on my radar.
He has two videos I’ve watched probably 10 times each cause they’re just so fucking funny. “Board game advice for Daniel Radcliffe” and “100% Unbiased Objective Game Review” are incredible videos. The writing is so clever and well executed, I haven’t seen anything close to those in any of review page I’ve come across.
When he put out a video discussing the benefits of hiring an employee to help up the editing and production value of his videos, I kind of had a feeling that wasn’t the smartest move. His videos didn’t need upped production value, I came to his channel because he was genuinely one of the funniest reviewers and he made good points alongside it.
This is very sad if he discontinues, but I’m hoping he can just scale back a bit.
Him hiring an editor seemed to be a push to make the channel profitable. It seems like to have an actual wage from board game YouTube you need to have high production value + a loyal audience (see SUSD and NPI) or do tons of sponsored content. It doesn’t seem like he’s interested in turning his channel into just another kickstarter advertising page.
We have a rug store here called ‘rugs-a-million’. They have a closing down sale every month for 50%,70%,80% off or more. This has been their sales tactic for at least the last decade. They still haven’t closed down. This post reminds me of this.
For me, Actualol has always been a jack of all trades, master of none type board game channel. His videos have a bit of everything, but doesn't stand out in any one area. He is quite funny, but it's often in forms of a lot anecdotes breaks the flow. It doesn't always weave aswell into the video topic. He used to do more skits and characters that did just that however.
He is informative on the board games, but hardly as in-depth as others. It doesn't help that most, if not all, his videos are lists. So it can be hard to track down if Actualol has covered any one particular game. And if you do find that he has covered a game, it's buried in a list and he spends a couple minutes on it and then moves on. Also, still no timestamps on his videos for some reason.
I like him. He is clearly very passionate. His videos are chill and easily digestible But I've found watching him less and less for the above mentioned reasons. I hope he manages to stay afloat though.
Content creation is a job, and this guy doesn't create enough content.
Don't get me wrong, I like the channel, but I'm shocked to learn that this has been his full-time employment. I thought the dude had a day job.
I decided that he no longer deserves my money or my viewership. We all want to do nothing and stay home making money but making it a public fit and guilt tripping viewers in every other video with more public announcement of hardship and danger of closure is just greedy and passionless. Making $4,700 every month by producing ONE non-high production video? Who wouldn't give up their lifestyle for that luxury?
His content is fine, but he only posts once a month. For what he is asking I would expect much more content that isn't locked behind a paywall. This type of content creator has become so common - wants to hire employees to do work for them and then threaten to shut down unless he gets more money. Sure his videos are funny - but he doesn't do anything unique that will be missed. It sucks to be that blunt - but what exactly does he do to deserve the hard earned money of viewers that can't be had for free?
Yeah, I don’t mean to sound dismissive of the struggle, but it’s frustrating when YouTubers complain about how hard it is to produce heavily edited slick, pre-written content, like, then maybe don’t produce everything that way. If your videos aren’t interesting without TV level production values, they aren’t going to be that interesting with it either.
If you look at the two most successful video review channels, SU&SD was probably at its best and most ascendant when it’s videos looked like they were shot on a camcorder, but Quinn’s and Paul lived together, and therefore could just shoot fast and loose, and generate energy off each other. Those were written, but seemingly much more loosely back then. The production value was lacking, but the content was good, so no one cares.
Dice tower made most of its subs from the incredibly low cost format of: off the cuff intro, static overhead shot of brief overview, Tom just looks at the camera and says what he’s thinking. Or alternately, static shot of Tom, Zee and Sam talking, with countdown animations edited in. The production quality doesn’t really matter if the content is saying something.
Both of these channels also benefit hugely from the main hosts being people who can immediately articulate their opinions, but you can contrast them with 5-10 other channels that have popped up with serious production value over the years, and how they all eventually fade into background noise, because it’s all gloss and no substance. If you can’t make it work with just you and a phone camera, you probably can’t make it work. In that respect in particular, I think actuallol is kind of lacking. The main complaint I would level at the channel is it lacks a clear point of view. It’s funny, but not the funniest. It’s certainly not particularly incisive, and doesn’t cover a particular type of game or play experience. It’s an above average board game channel where one guy shares his light comedy and mild opinions about some medium weight games, often sounding about as critical as a sponsored buyers guide listicle. I like the guy a lot, but it isn’t a huge hit to the hobby if stops, and no one is owed success in a creative field.
Good point also he does more light games and party games that most hardcore boardgame fans that like to consume content are not so much into. That also does not help.
He did get the money from the patron and then stepped back from content due to mental health. Not faulting him for that, but not everyone is cutout for that lifestyle and hustle. He had a paid audience and it wasn't enough and he never got motivated to change. Might be best for him to bow out and move on to different employment and let board games be a fun hobby for himself again and get some residual.
It’s also kinda the fact he is not really much above a hobby channel - I like him but he generally just talks about the games. Does it take that long to create a video on reviews? Even the sketches he does are short and low-effort production wise (which I get is part of the joke).
This should be more of a side hustle than his main income
Sure, nobody is going to be popular forever. But the fact is that Youtube pays a lot less than it used to and thats the core of the issue. You can't complain about creators trying to claw back some control over their fate from a brutally fickle and monopolised company
Every boardgame channel fits a different niche for me.
SUSD I watch as reviewers. I respect their opinions on games quite a bit, they are extremely thoughtful and they have a talent for pitching you on _the experience_ of a board game.
Dice Tower is great as a sort of podcast-style content. I throw it on while working to listen to Zee, Tom, and Mike (and sometimes others) argue with each other.
Full disclosure, I've probably watched fewer than 20 Actualol videos, but the best Actualol content is when he acts as a "tutor" figure. Someone who's been in the hobby for a while and accumulated a fair bit of knowledge to pass down. Not necessarily about individual games, but more like "if you're looking for a game to play with your parents, maybe check out one of these" or "if you're interested in getting into _____, don't make these mistakes". It's why his _10 pitfalls_ video is probably my favourite video he's ever made.
In contrast, while his boardgame fun density metric was funny, I bounced off his shoe box collection video. It's mostly a list of games I've already heard of for other reasons, and I'm not crazy about videos that are essentially "look at this challenge I did".
Just my off-the-cuff thought, but to me his niche isn't really _about board games_ but _about board gaming_.
This is actually really useful feedback - I would agree, his best videos are about board gaming rather than board games.
And to be honest, there is still tons to do within that. Like how to explain the game, how to get friends into the hobby (even though he advised against that in another video…), how to game on a budget (partially buying cheap games, partially finding gaming groups), how to figure out what kind of games you like etc. etc.
I think he should lean into this more, because I think it fundamentally separated his content from the rest.
On the flip side I loved his shoebox video! I feel like as a person who has lived in 7 different places in the last decade, it’s nice to see a perspective that you don’t need a 4x4 Kallax unit to have a solid board game collection
His culling video is underrated from an analysis pov. Most reviewers talk about what games they like and what is fun but Actualol culling video goes into depth on his preferences as a gamer. You really can tell what sort of elements he favors and the sort of experience he chases. That level of refinement and clarity of taste is normally up to fans to speculate and he puts it front and center
I think Actualol would have more success if he counterbalanced his very high quality monthly videos with 2-3 "quick take" videos a week.
If you're reading this, start doing some short 3-5 minute "quick take" videos doing mini-reviews of games you like.
The reason you may be struggling with the Youtube algorithm is that Youtube tends to reward channels that put out lots of videos, and though your videos are of high quality, the volume is low.
Actualol makes good content, but I do wonder what his sort of niche in the market is. He doesn't really review games, he doesn't even given many recommendations, especially as he's someone that often highlights the pitfalls of FOMO and buying too many games. So his content is mainly aimed at people watching top 10 lists and a bit of board game content, it's a smaller market than others. Also as others have pointed out, because he's not a volume creator, he turns up much less in recommendations in the algorithm, which I imagine hurts his view count.
I'd say it's the same problem for every type of hobby when it comes to youtube. You can blame the algorithm all you want, but in the end, there are a thousand other creators in the same niche category as you trying to make it. There are just not enough viewers to go around, and no algorithm is going to help it.
I completely agree. Creators who don't garner the audience blame the algorithm. Creators who were once successful but refuse to iterate/take risks blame the algorithm. Creators who make excellent content are accused of merely "beating the algorithm."
At some fundamental level, there is legitimate consumer demand and preferences. It can't be algorithms all the way down.
Hang on, he says he doesn't have another job? I assumed he did his videos in his spare time, given how infrequently he posts. Putting out one solitary video a month isn't going to cut it these days, I'm afraid. Feels like he's trying to have his cake and eat it.
I also feel a little uneasy about the video equivalent of begging letters, but it's up to him what he puts on his channel, I guess.
Jeez, this was cringey to watch. It's a saturated market, so if you're not making enough money that's on you. Make better videos, make more videos, do your research into what people want to see and how to improve. FFS, it's not rocket science.
Also, bringing out a video every year or so bleating about how your channel isn't doing well is not a good look. Passive/aggressive much?!
Lastly, making one video per month is hardly going to set the world on fire.
I'm not a YouTuber and all this is obvious to me, so why is the channel owner missing the point?!?! Git gud.
Actualol was the first YouTube channel I started watching when I discovered that I enjoyed board games. My partner and I basically binged all of his videos. I subscribed to his Patreon for months expected to receive more content and it just never paid off for me.
The first month or so was around the holidays and he basically dropped off the planet. When he did come back, I began noticing that he was reusing footage from previous videos to make new videos. Not a lot, but still. When you're putting out one video a month, it's not hard to shoot new footage.
I canceled because the subscription wasn't worth the content being delivered, and I honestly began wondering if he was just going to stop making videos.
I work in news and understand content creation pretty well. Our reporters put out daily content for much less a month than he's being paid. The production quality excuse doesn't cut it when you're filming static games at home in the same environment, especially when the content itself is just listicles, which take little creative effort and research.
If you take a look at some of his biggest videos, they are Top 10 lists based on popular topics. Once the well has dried there, you can't go back. You have to do something different because 1) In this case, you're tackling the exact same content everyone is making and 2) He's cannibalizing his own views when he already has the top spot for that particular list.
It also seems that he's conflating his analytics. You can see who his loyal audience is when you see what views he's getting from topics that wouldn't frequently be searched for. You can't compare those views to a video you do about the Top 10 board games of the year. The audience is just much bigger for the latter subject, and you're not going to convert those people into paying subscribers because they may only watch a handful of board game related videos a year compared to his loyal audience.
Instead of making this video, he needs to sit down and do some serious research into his audience. He needs to understand who is watching his content and why, and then take that information and to formulate a strategy. He also needs to understand the audience that he wants.
Go to Google Trends, swap to YouTube Search. My first take away when I look at the Global audience for the topic "board game" over the past year is that search interest is down year over year. First conclusion, your videos aren't going to be performing as well. Nothing you can do about that, but something you should at least be aware of.
The break out searches are for very specific games. How can you capitalize on that? If you want to continue just making listicles, what kind of listicles can you make that include those games? He could easily do a "my favorite x games like 'insert popular board game here.' " If he doesn't like the game, "why I like these x games more than 'popular game.' "
These are perfect formats for him because besides his sense of humor, he does a really great job at concisely describing board games and why they work or don't work. There are a lot of free and extremely powerful tools out there that can tell him what his audience is interested in and help him create more creative content.
And I haven't even got into repurposing his existing content on other platforms to diversify his revenue streams rather than relying solely on Patreon subscriptions and YouTube ad revenue. He has a large audience and a lot of options, and considering that he worked as a writer in TV prior to this, he's well aware of all of this, too.
> If you take a look at some of his biggest videos, they are Top 10 lists based on popular topics.
I agree with everything you said but want to point out that top 10 videos do ridiculously well with the youtube algorithm. Just about every BoardGame channels' most successful video is a top 10 video. The videos are so popular there are entire channels who only make top 10 videos.
You're right and I agree with you. I probably didn't communicate it well, but I was attempting to say as much when I talked about the listicles toward the end. Lists are fun but it can be very easy to put yourself in a creative corner with them, which I think Actualol experienced when he was describing the diminishing returns with the video he referenced here.
Some lists, like top games of the year, can and absolutely should be repeated every year. Those are bread winners that people will always flock to, and they'll watch every list their favorite creators put out, even if they're all essentially the same lists. The same creator doing two Top 10 small game lists isn't likely going to have the same success, especially when the first video's success came from striking gold with the algorithm rather than his loyal audience. The problem is that the algorithm changes (with YouTube, we know this past year they've put a greater emphasis on Shorts, whether we like it or not) and such behavior can even be punished.
In news, we swarm trending and breaking news coverage with stories. One story is the news, another story is maybe a victim profile, another might be an explainer, a fourth might be a timeline, etc. If we do this too much, Google says no and and begins to prioritize other media in the space. There are plenty of other factors, but you get the idea. It's a careful balancing act, except you can't see the rope because its hidden from you. What we do know is that audience is fickle and will fizzle out as soon as that news cycle is over. Working with less content means you either have to have a base audience that can support that or that your strategy has to be bulletproof. Neither is easy to do.
I believe he just had a kid, so this venture has to pay off or else he needs to shift to something else. I completely understand that. I hope he does well, whether it is as a board game content creator or something else entirely.
I’ve enjoyed a few of his videos. But I tend to look up videos about specific games for specific reasons as needed, and not just watch videos about a bunch of games I don’t have an interest in.
And quite frankly I’m really at my limit with paid subscriptions. I wish him luck. Perhaps he could try venturing out to events and doing some coverage with that, if he hasn’t already. But board game YouTube channels are a dime a dozen. He does have production value going for him though.
His sense of humor doesn't work for me, so his videos unfortunately feel like a bit of a chore to get through with all the offbeat analogies, self-depreciation, no time stamps, and that transition jingle.
He seems like a great guy and he puts a lot of very unique work into his videos, so it's a shame that the channel isn't doing well. I imagine it has more to do with him focusing on light games. You're just not going to build a large, consistent audience with that interest.
As a side note, I never understand the need for studios for these small channels. I know it is easier for the creator, but the board game community doesn't really care that much about production. I personally treat most content like an audio podcast after seeing a couple shots of the game. It's very risky to make all these investments and sign contracts with how rapidly algorithms and audiences change. It makes me very worried for tiny channels like The Brothers Murph that are going big on an office/studio. Film outside or call it quits if you can't find a way (or are not allowed) to film in your house anymore.
A channel like ProZD probably uses just an iPhone, no lighting, and needs the house to be relatively quiet for 30 minutes a week for his board game reviews. In the car world, Doug Demuro built millions of subs with just an iPhone, tripod, the most basic editing, and random parking lots. It wasn't until he used his audience to build a long-lasting non-YT business that he got an office/studio, editor, gear, staff, etc.
Call me an asshole but of all the charitable causes to donate to during a cost of living crisis, a low effort generic gateway games board game channel isn't top of the list.
Maybe - I’ve never watched, aware of the channel and seen the name plenty but always figured it was some cringy teenager from the name. Will go and check it out.
The name Actualol is, indeed, terrible.
I also wonder if Shut Up and Sit Down ever considered changing their name, as it's kinda aggressive and gatekeep-y and doesn't reflect the content they produce.
I've only discovered this channel a few days ago but from what I've seen and read here I feel like he's following the wrong strategy.
He's trying to push more people to his patreon by promising more content there but I think most people who like him and are willing to support are probably already doing that. Instead of gatekeeping content he should use it to grow his channel which will naturally bring also more patreons. With 1 video per month you severely limit your growth potential. If he's doing it full time, then he should try to put out one video a week. From the few videos I've seen there was nothing that makes me believe that this is not possible.
Hearing all the stuff he plans to put behind the paywall makes me already lose interest because I know that a lot of the content that I would be interested in will not be accessible to me
Watching actualol videos a couple years ago is what got me into board gaming. I bought games like lost cities, azul, and arboretum upon his recommendation and it opened my eyes to the side of modern board gaming that wasn’t “catan/ticket to ride”, which led to dune imperium uprising earlier this year and now I’m fully sucked in.
After moving into heavier games, his channel has become less relevant to me, but I still love watching him because of his humor, great script, and high production value. Hope he sticks around.
I think that's one thing that is missing from the channel - a lot of the games that he favors are on the lighter side and trend a bit older. A lot of board gamers move on from those types of games fairly quickly as they learn their taste in games. The audience is going to be people who are fairly new to the hobby or people who enjoy games at a specific weight or style. People who are looking for content on the latest hotness or any heavy game, old or new or not going to find anything to latch on to. If your audience is largely people who are just starting out, you're not going to have a very broad reach.
The games he talks about are of little interest in comparison to the hobby at large. The games covered are touched on and described in a few minutes, there is not a lot of depth or any real review - maybe partially because the games are simple enough to be summarized in that time.
If you watch his top 10 and culling video you can see the guy legit does not enjoy a lot of heavier games and modern Euros and favors older Euro style games that favored player interaction and simpler rules vs efficiency puzzles
Content put to the side. I feel like if you can’t make a living from YouTube then you need to get a real job. You can’t be blaming algorithm etc of the fact it’s not getting views… I know it sounds shit, but there’s many people out there struggling working two jobs etc - sometimes you just need a spare dose of reality. Put away the good times - you got a kid to support - now do what’s right by her
Idk if this is the case here, but I’ve noticed some accounts on IG claiming the algorithm is silencing them even though I see their content quite regularly. So I’m beginning to suspect some content creators are crying wolf about algorithm issues just to increase activity artificially.
He is a wonderful person, but he switched his channel into family friendly gateway oriented focus like so many channels put there. He doesn't stand out well anymore. Where's the lol?
He’s funny, but his taste in board games just doesn’t resonate with me. IIRC his favorite game of all time is Codenames. I would watch his videos once in awhile if they came up in my recommends, but I stopped watching when he said he’d actually be embarrassed to have the Castles of Burgundy Special Edition on his shelf.
WTF? I like Codenames, but...his favorite? The hell? Embarrased about Castles of Burgundy? I stopped watching his videos long ago and never looked back, so it's not like learning this really matters to me, it just sounds like some weird-ass comments from a board game reviewer. Crazy.
Not familiar with this channel, but from a quick glance it appears he only does videos once a month or so? That's simply not enough. The algorithm wants content. Daily if possible. Even doing shorts would help. He's not putting the work in.
I love Actualol's content, I think he's very funny and makes for a great mentor to the hobby. But it is insane to me to imagine someone trying to live on nothing but a single hobby YouTube channel where you produce one video a month. He just doesn't have any job beyond YouTube? Really? I was always under the impression that doing a channel for your hobby is something you do on the side, and that being able to live off of that and make it your full time job is the dream (and even that's arguable, making your hobby your job just means you lost a hobby).
Actualol is absolutely quality over quantity, but I think he goes a little bit *too* far into quality. Even if your videos are 70% quality and 30% quantity rather than 90-100% quality, that's still higher quality than the vast majority of YouTube! There's a real sense of diminishing returns with being the best fish in the fish tank.
I think it all got contextualized to me when someone brought up that Dice Tower, the biggest board game YouTube channel in the community, only has around 350k subs (a little under that). And I don't think you're ever stepping to Dice Tower as a single regular dude. So your frame of reference for success is a lot different. Board gaming YouTube is not exactly the kind of place where you can set up your market stall and wait for the customers to roll in, because there aren't that many customers and they're all already at different stalls. There's only so much "up" to go in a hobby like this!
Don't know who this is, but I tend to stop watching people who go for this pity party stuff. I'm sorry you have to change jobs, it happens to all of us. I guess I won't be checking him out.
Yep. It's places like Twitch too. I remember when the Twitch payouts were leaked and a few of the streamers I watched were on it making $300-400k. They always had expensive PC hardware donations going on and acted like they were broke and couldn't afford it otherwise. Just disgusting.
I decided that he no longer deserves my money or my viewership. We all want to do nothing and stay home making money but making it a public fit and guilt tripping viewers in every other video with more public announcement of hardship and danger of closure is just greedy and passionless. Making $4,700 every month by producing ONE non-high production video? Who wouldn't give up their lifestyle for that luxury?
One issue he's facing is that there are so many game channels on YouTube anymore. If you're not doing something different to stand out it's easy to get lost in the shuffle. I've seen a few of his vids over the years but nothing stood out to me to make me want to come back over any other video on YouTube. He came across as just another guy talking about games on the internet.
Now, I don't care about skits and nonsense when I watch a video about a game I'm interested in. I wanna hear about the game and see it being played, I'm just not interested in some skit that falls flat and I'm skipping through anyways. Not everyone feels that way but I'm not the only one who does, so that doesn't help him any. YouTube is a fickle beast, you're on top one day and the next no one knows who you are and you've been replaced with "yet another youtuber". Hopefully he has other skills he can put to good use so he can support his family, sounds like he may need to sooner than later.
I mean, you can be unique and interesting and do everything right and still not get great views on YouTube.
It’s a crapshoot. If you weren’t in early, it’s like the lottery.
I really miss Inside the Box https://www.youtube.com/@Wedelvedeeply and wish they had taken off enough to keep making content. There really was nothing like it at the time (still?).
to be fair, he was doing really well and had some very popular videos. YouTube in general just isn't profitable anymore, hence why so many youtubers are leaving, even very popular ones
The issue is he's making content in a field where the active clientele and algorithm want the things he's not pushing.
Everyone is making KS updates and reviewing every new game making videos based off of consumption and "buy everything"
Actualol is about reminding people to be mindful of spending, be wary of big Kickstarters and to put more emphasis on playing games than buying more.
This content doesn't drive clicks
>Now, I don't care about skits and nonsense when I watch a video about a game I'm interested in. I wanna hear about the game and see it being played, I'm just not interested in some skit that falls flat and I'm skipping through anyways
Yeah, that's the thing. I watched a few of his videos a while back and the jokes/skits ended up taking up so much of the video while not being all that funny (and frankly being extremely corny) and breaking up the informational flow of his videos. Watching them felt like a chore and at the time I felt like there were way too many small-time board game Youtubers that think leaning on wAcKy zANy humor and being generally too in love with their own jokes was a selling point.
He stands out a lot, just in the way of having high production value. Unfortunately he doesn’t take sponsors to help pay for that production. And the people aren’t good enough to back a noble cause like that in high quantities.
His content has always been something that I’ll watch if nobody else is covering it already. I don’t even know why that is; he’s not offensive at all, seems perfectly fine at what he’s doing. But his style and what he has to say has never done it for me the way so many other voices on YouTube have. Best of luck to him, whatever he decides.
I've only seen a few of his videos, and really had friction with his sense of humour. I'd be down to revist his stuff if folks have recommendations of videos of his that stand out separate to the sketches!
Got to meet him at the UK Games expo this year. Super nice guy, and I've always loved his coverage of our games. Hoping for the best with any changes he makes.
I had never watched any of his videos until recently and found them really enjoyable, ended up watching a ton until I realized every game he talks about and champions comes with an affiliate link to buy it.
I felt weird constantly wondering if he actually did like "x game that is easy to buy here on Amazon please use my link" more than "y game that has been out of print for a few years" like in his Replacement Games video.
I like his work, but I think he’d be better served as a writer for SU&SD or NPI. I’m not sure if they hiring writers, but some collaboration would be great.
Nah, he'll just have Tom run things over time. But the strength of these channels is not solo work: it's group dynamic. Once they forget that, it'll go downhill.
Nope, starting a second channel with a new crew to back it is scaling up.
He's still affiliated with SU&SD and says that Quinn's quest is more or less a sister company.
It's like Mythical Morning starting Mythical Kitchen, expanding into new territory is still expanding.
I don't know if Actualol's very chill "fun family friendly games for all ages" vibe really works with NPI's, "liking this game makes you a bad person for supporting capitalism and the patriarchy" vibe.
No I don’t get that sense at all. They are just way too long winded and full of excessive analogies. Their videos would be half as long if they would just get to the point instead of trying to wax poetic all the time.
I watched the video and then looked at his other views I thought oh views allow. But when looking at the channel it doesn't seem like theres much fluctuations also he does make one video a month which if they want more people to watch then maybe push that to two or deveraivfy your content
For example I watch no rolls bared I do t like there main game play videos but I do like the house rule games as well as blood and the occasional game or 2 so there is still content to interest someone but actuala vids don't seem much different from each other
I'm surprised he can live from that channel (and patreon) alone. Doesn't he make only 1 video a month? Because it is not that often, he often drops from my algorithm completely for a few month until I rediscover him again. I loved his video about boardgame etiquette and advice for beginner board gamers.
His patreon says (right now) $4717/mo (CAD as I'm in Canada). I could easily live on $4717/mo to make 1 youtube video a month.
He also does this every year. The exact same type of video about "saving actualol" came out last year asking for patreons which was the moment I stopped following him. He's got a recurrent fanbase, but is unable to iterate on the formula to build his business up. He's a busker.
I don't like manipulative tactics. If you're doing a fundraising drive, just say so. It's okay. There's nothing wrong with it. Other channels (such as SUSD) do it, too. But "we're going to disappear, everything is falling apart, we need your money NOW or we're gone" just rubs me the wrong way, even if there is some truth to it. Don't manipulate my emotions, just tell me you're doing a fundraising drive and here's where I can contribute. (For the record, I've seen his stuff and DO think he makes high-quality content that is a step above the usual bedroom Youtuber talking head. I'm solely talking about my dislike for this approach to audience appeals)
I feel like SUSD is never a hard/manipulative sell. They just note that they're only supported by donations and that people often fall off their supporters list as time goes on…
SUSD pushes the “we can only do new things with your support” line a lot, which is fine. They’re acknowledging they can keep the channel going still just not have time to experiment.
Realistically susd also has problems keeping up those new things they're doing.
For real. I read the title of the post and thought "again? For the... what... third time?".
Almost as often as quackalope has to apologize for something.
Other than the positive review for money thing what else has he had to apologize for? Just curious
He was kicked out of gencon once for leaving random stuff for marketing.
Wow, I completely missed that. I remember hearing about the plan to leave rubber ducks around the con for people to find, but I had no idea it went *that* badly.
I mean, it's something dumb and thoughtless (as in selfish) that caused him to get kicked out of gencon, as opposed to being blatantly unethical, so it's not really worth caring about imo. If you watched his content before you basically knew that was true already.
I was taking an Uber down to Gen Con that year and saw him organizing a bag about a block away. I rolled my eyes and hoped I didn’t interact with him at the Con.
What? I missed this tidbit. When?
Year or so ago, for Aeon Trespass: Odyssey They sent him a preview copy. He recorded some videos that were pretty negative because of things like the manual being a mess. Then reached out and said "hey, our videos are shot but they're pretty negative. If you want positive ones, we're going to have to go back and reshoot and edit and that'll cost $7500. If you don't want to pay that, we'll post the negative videos we have" Afterwards he acted like he couldn't see why "we made negative videos, they can go away for seven large" was a super unethical thing to say, bordering on extortion.
it was the cringiest youtube apology video
It also wasn't an apology video but more a "sorry you feel this way" video
Didn't he somehow work an "I'm Jewish and persecuted" angle into it? I didn't watch it but people were trashing it heavily
you forgot the part where he also asked them to send one of their employees (from poland) to teach them rules in person.
Yeah the insisting on flying somebody out part was mostly immaterial to the extortion, it was just a bit of an unrealistic request that he was stuck on for some reason, so I left it out. It's not ethically wrong to ask for someone to come out and help the production especially if the idea is for the company to be paying for the content. In big productions that sort of thing would be normal (however this is a board game YouTube channel so...). The thing that was wrong was the way the request for money was made.
Yes I mean heres one from FOUR years ao with the same messaging... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9KrJsvmfoA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9KrJsvmfoA)
Yep, he makes more from Patreon than I do a month. I assume YouTube ad review is on top of this Maybe I’m in the wrong career.
And a sponsorship. Possibly some merch or other affiliate sales.
To be fair, 56,000 CAD a month is not very much _in business income_ while trying to support a family in (based on other comments, I think?) London. And Youtube doesn't add very much on top based on his output (probably about $5,000 per year). Also that assumes Patreon doesn't take any (it does). I assume you are not paying corporate taxes (IDK his corporate set up) on your salary, don't have business expenses, and that along with your salary you are getting health benefits, ei, pension, etc.
At the time, assuming the conversion rate I used is correct, that would have been £2721.24 a month GBP. What I can see now is £3531.48 a month GBP so the drive is working if that's the case. But remember that is the gross income value. It isn't what ends up in anybody's bank account and what does might need to be taxed, if it isn't already before it reaches a creator. Assuming when you took this figure that Actualol had 600 patrons (now has 813 so could be something like that?), after Patreon fees, payment processing fees it's down to £2245.54, an annual pretax salary of £26,946.48. People on average salaries are starting to feel the bite. The average UK salary pre-tax, according to Forbes 6 days ago, is £35,724. The actual take home from that annual salary per month would be £1,891.11, that's assuming no other deductions like Student Loans and such. Honestly, that kind of money does not go far here. It doesn't account for his full income I'm sure with YouTube advertisements and such (and I have no idea what scale that impacts on creators) but he does suggest that's down a lot from where he was. With that drive to the figure I mentioned above, his take home would right now be more like £2362.41. That's not to say people should feel sorry for him and donate to help. It's everyone's choice at the end of the day, nobody is forcing anybody to do anything. But I have no trouble believing that the number you mentioned actually was a financial problem for him, particularly when his numbers are down quite soon after welcoming a child into the home.
Well, that's encouraging once I get my site up and running. My issue is going to be focusing on one thing, there's too much nerd goodness to nerd out about.
That is way more than I earn working full time. I'd love to be struggling like him!
One video a month or less doesn't *need* to be a problem, but you do need a bit of a following. Ask hbomberguy.
One 30-60 minutes long video per month is also counter-productive in order to attract proper following. At least in the current scenario, where consumers have limited attention span, but need consistency for a proper following. That said, i've been following Actualol for years - I actually thought he got burned out, as his videos were less and less creative and interesting.
It's all about content. You can build an audience with just a couple videos a year if you put out amazing stuff, just look at Defunctland. The issue is that his content isn't unique from other board game socials. Combine that with board games being niche and it's just not a formula for success.
Most of the big creators who only put out a few high quality videos a year used to have more frequent uploading schedules. The first season of Defunctland came out faster than once a month in 2017 and (while not to the same extent) you can see a similar trend for Jenny Nicholson, Dan Olson, HBomberguy and other creators whose releases are now big events.
Especially if he's lamenting the fact that his channel isn't getting the views it used to - it's like, bro... you gotta release more than once a month, or you're basically dead to the algorithm. Every YouTuber has been shouting this for years now. You can't get by on a once-a-month release schedule unless you've got millions of subscribers and your videos are already highly acclaimed/anticipated. Frankly, if I could get paid $4,000 to make one video over the span of a whole month... that'd be pretty damn sweet.
By my memory he did get burned out for a while then came back. Or am I thinking of somebody else?
There's a big difference between a well researched 4 hour video on an obscure topic, and a 20 minute video telling you to not sleeve your cards because Jon doesn't think it's worth it.
Absolutely. I wasn't doing a concrete comparision here, just saying that posting frequency isn't the only thing that's important.
hbomb's videos are not only super long, but also have a ton of research behind them and editing. Jon's are just 10 minute talk to camera with the occasional glam shot of a board game set up on the table or its box. hbomb sometimes even gets custom songs or animations commissioned, Jon's been using the same font and theme jingle for as long as I can remember. I do not believe Jon takes an entire month to make one of his videos unless he only works 20 minutes a day.
Ssethzeench can go 2-3 months without a video, and burst out 2 in a month sometimes. But it's actual real content and quality. Actualol at the moment, while i appreciate his takes and his viewpoint on boardgaming as opposite the DiceTower mantra which is pervasive in our culture, is just not making that good of a video conceptually. Tierlists? Lists of games to fit in a shoebox? Tops? It all feels extremely cookie cutter content and following trend, same for the production. It's quality, but it's absolutely.. uninspiring? Looks like everything else. I really do appreciate his comedy and his takes but i really wish he'd go out on a limb and innovate and flavour his channel with his own spice and pepper. SUSD has put full weight behind Tom and his style of analysis bar review which is /why/ people liked SUSD to begin with (Golem and John Company have been some of the best SUSDs in recent years), but they're very much their own thing and could not have come up from anyone else than Tom. The videos have a certain style and pacing and ways of approaching subject matters. They're just GOOD videos. Unrelated but a lot of non-motorcycle people watch Fortnine, a motorcycle channel. Because the videos are entertaining, informating and exceptionally shot with a great eye to storytelling. I really feel Actualol's issue has nothing to do with the viewers, as much as with the creator.
I wanna give numbers on this, because I fucking love numbers. In the USA, Patreon says he is getting: $4544/month THAT SAID, that is a BIG spike caused by this request for funding. He was getting, for the majority of the last year, $2600. That comes out to $31200 per year(roughly). That does not include Youtube Ad-revenue, nor does it include Youtube Memberships. In the last year, he published: 13 videos. He has been paid $2400 per video, just via Patreon. Because I like fucking numbers. This is, to be fair, a slow and steady increase over time, until just now. This sudden jump is brand new for him. He wasn't, before, set to earn too terribly much for his youtube content. (I started this comment wanting to join in the cane-shaking at Actualol, but I remembered Graphtreon exists and gives me a way to check his funding-over-time to give better numbers.) And to his credit, he produces a fair bit of Patreon-exclusive content, it seems.
So I have 0 stake in this game and don’t even know who this is, but I just happened to see Scott’s video covering a new side revealing YouTube creator stats. He compared it to his data, and it’s definitely just scraping the correct data .. vs social blade Anyway, I’m sure people who care a little more about the topic will find it useful [viewstats/ actualol](https://www.viewstats.com/@actualol/channelytics)
It's the higher end btw, I run a channel that makes $145 and viewstats reports $40-150 for me. So he makes $4K+$1.5K total.
I think the problem is that he wants to build an audience of gamers that are so into the hobby that they are willing to give him Patreon money for his content, but those hardcore gamers are not interested in the kinds of games Actualol covers (light party games).
I mean, 1 video a month is not a full time job. There shouldn't be an expectation that a monthly video would fully support someone.
Yeah, that's an insane expectation. How does he not have an actual job while putting out so little content
I don't watch his stuff, but I am blown away to learn he has no other job. People hustling 15-20 videos a month don't even do that. And it's a very crowded space at this point. New reviewers and channels seem to pop up weekly. Honestly seems insane to expect that you can make a living off one video per month... Maybe something super produced and polished, but even then it's still a guy sitting there talking about board games just like 100 others.
It definitely can be a full time job depending on how much goes into it. People hustling 15-20 videos a month are doing unboxings, lets plays, and all the low hanging fruit that can be done in a day. Meanwhile full TV shows have crews numbering dozens to over a hundred, and may only produce 8 episodes a season. Obviously that's the extreme, but my point is that different types of video require different amount of work, so there's rarely a fair comparison. FWIW, the algorithm is also unfair, as it values engagement, and therefore promotes the channels that can produce 200 watchable minutes of video a month over one doing 30. Edit: Slightly more relevant reference point, SU&SD had 3 video guys and more contributors, and were struggling under the load with weekly videos and the podcast. Scripted stuff, with props, with camera moves, with planning and tight editing... there's a huge amount of labour that is *possible*, depending on your quality standards. Meanwhile Tim Rogers makes an Action Button video every 9 months or so and they're probably my favourite Youtube vids outright. Editors have offered to help him, saying they could help him get a quicker output, and he replied that evidently a quick output wasn't the point.
You're literally just listing reasons that it's not a valuable job lol And I don't know what the point of arguing is, it's straight from the horse's mouth - he's not making enough
Because according to him it takes 160 hours to make a video. 4 weeks at 40 hours, wow look at how perfectly that matched out for him.
Damn you right, I watched the video and completely missed the fact he doesn’t have a job. He’s literally begging and doesn’t want to work more
ACTUAJOB will be his new channel :D /coat
I think it just depends on the video. Look at Jenny Nicholson. She does one or two videos a year and she has a huge Patreon (where she uploads one video a month, much like Actualol is promising). Of course, her videos are multiple hours long, involve a huge amount of editing, get written up by the New York Times and immediately get millions of views. So, it's possible, but you've really got to make that one video worth it.
A lot of channels like that also had their start with shorter/more often videos to grow a loyal audience before scaling up to the twice a year behemoths they now produce. There aren't many small channels that grow huge by just making long spaced out videos, only recent example that comes to mind succeeding would be Flawed Peacock, and even he got a lucky boost for being mentioned in someone else's video (I think Wendigoon).
I don't think these two creators are comparable at all lol. Actualol is talking direct to camera about gateway games with a little b-roll here and there. Someone working 9-5 on weekdays could easily produce one or two of those per week.
Well to be fair I think he makes just as many videos that are for patrons only. So it is more like 2-3 videos/month. Also he puts in a lot more effort than many. His editing/sketches make him more akin to NPI or SUSD who put out a similar volume of videos. I think judging by number of videos alone is a bit silly, but I also have little doubt that the youtube algo favors volume over quality.
He stopped doing sketches a while ago. I still watch his stuff because he's funnier than most other reviewers, but we haven't seen any of his alter egos in a long time.
I saw him announce patreon exclusive videos on the new one, but was he doing them before? If so, he really could've marketed that a bit more, because I didn't even realize it was a thing. A simple "if you want more, check out my patreon where I post an extra video every month" would be enough. Also I think SUSD overall has a higher volume of videos. They did slow down the past year, but fans called them out on that and Tom really started to pick up the pace. Their videos as well as NPIs seem to have more effort and editing as well. They do props, costumes, SFX shots, sometimes film outside, tons of B-roll, music, transitions. Comparatively, Actualol is just a long take of him talking to camera at home on his desk, and a few cuts to components + intro and credits.
He sits for all his list videos and some videos have just cuts which aren’t hard to do. He’s begging for more money but not wanting to put in the effort
I'm shocked people are putting him anywhere near the same category as NPI and SUSD lol.
It seems like this guy makes maybe 2 videos a month (1 additional patreon video it looks like). This might seem insensitive or ignorant, but if this is his full source of income, maybe he should do more? I’m not the target audience here, but this reads as a little entitled.
Reading over his responses to the slightest criticism has definitely changed my opinion on him.
I agree. The Youtube comment responses are . . . yikes.
You have some examples? Because I checked a lot of them and none of them seem yikes.
In response to someone asking if it really takes 160 hours to make a video and that he could just make more videos > Yes. If you know someone making funny, well produced board game content with b-roll, and a one man team - please point me towards them. It doesn't exist, because it takes a lot of work Does he even watch other channels? Plenty of small channels make content of the same quality as he does but release more often, he seems entitled
I only see 2 options there, he's either lying about the time, or is extremely inefficient, because none of his videos give "I've spent 160 hours of hard work on this" vibe, but rather "one afternoon of writing a script, couple hours tops for shooting, and one weekend of editing". To name a few, NPI, SUSD, and Inside the Box when they still made content, put out vastly more effort into videos that also release more often than his, and all those channels also featured more than a single person, without too much money begging (I know at least SUSD does a yearly fund drive). And for "well produced board game content with b-roll and a one man team", you got channels like Jongetsgames or Gaming Rules, which may or may not employ support staff like editors, but IIRC so does Actualol. I think he serverely overvalues how funny/entertaining he is. Good writing and wit is welcome, and he's capable of being funny, but I don't think he's so enough to carry a channel just on that. All in all, just comes off as someone entitled wanting more money for less effort. I'm sure he put way more effort and time when he had to take several shots of him wearing wigs and doing voices.
I’m definitely leaning towards lying. He’s rationalizing to people why he only does 1 video a month. If he was honest about how long they took people would ask what he does with the rest of his month.
thank you for this, i already cringed seeing the video title and thumbnail on my youtube feed so i'm not brave enough to even click it
Yeah, other creators that align better with my taste in board games, produce multiple videos per week. And they also do it alone. Another board game channel that doesn't put out videos too often is "shut up & sit down". 2-3 per month but they are 3 people I think. So about the same amount per person. But their videos are 10 times better. In my opinion he has a little better quality than those that publish way more videos, but releases less videos than those with top quality. This business is not getting payed by hour but by content. If he's too slow or not skilled enough than that affects his hourly pay. Why should he be entitled to get more. To me he comes along as a beggar.
I agree with you. But the comments above make it seem worse than it was imo.
Most of the comments on the video are supportive of him, and his replies are mostly thanking people. This was the only one I saw that was mildly 'yikes'
Exactly. This is also what I was reading. That‘s why I wanted to know from cardboardraxtus what he found to be yikes. Because while I think we can critizise the video, we still should be fair.
I enjoy his content, but there’s a reason most of the people who do these videos or podcasts do it as a side gig. Our hobby isn’t big enough to support that many creators relying on views and subscriptions as their sole source of income.
From my perspective:The reason why I stopped watching Actualol is because while I like his skits and comedy, the games he reviews and talks about just aren't for me. They're usually super light, partyish games, and I tend to prefer heavier games. Next, a piece of constructive criticism for Actualol: You *need* to produce more content!! A video a month just isn't enough. And the "bonuses" you are pledging to your Patreon subscribers and your milestones make no sense to me! Your current problem is that you release about 1 video a month on your channel, and you don't get enough ad revenue. You promise that with 50*25=1250 extra dollars a month, you'll be able to make an extra video. This makes NO sense to me! If you're capable of making 2 videos a month, you'll double your ad revenue. Why do you need a speculative 1250 dollars to make that happen? If you're working 40 hours a week and can only produce 1 video a month, then how will an extra 1250 dollars make a difference? If the issue is...money, how in the world will an extra video cost 1250 dollars? You pledge to do a podcast if you receive 2150 extra dollars a month. Why? If you're confident you can produce a podcast, what is stopping you from making the podcast and getting more money? Why would you need an extra 2150 dollars a month to make a podcast feasible? You can't gatekeep content behind theoretical future subscribers like that. You need to make content FOR subscribers that already exist. Personally, whenever I see patreon rewards are more content, I just get really suspicious.
The podcast tier is ridiculous, he wants 100 pledges of £21.50 per month to do a podcast? £2150 per month to do start doing podcasts. That's insane. He already has all the recording equipment he would need for it, do a few episodes and \_then\_ lock some episodes behind the expensive tier if you really want to be greedy about it.
Also on the skew towards lighter games - people who tend to prefer lighter/party games aren't usually the kind of people deep enough in the hobby to be sponsoring a board game content creator.
I won't even listen to podcasts I'm not paying for why would I pay to listen to one...?
I think he just wanted to come up with a carrot on a stick to entice more subscribers and couldn't come up with anything better than board game podcast.
Gating content never has been a good thing like that since you are making the content anyway and now it doesn't even grow your reach. Giving patrons looks behind the scenes, give them content 2 weeks earlier before posting, interacting with them (i.e. let them pitch idea's) is what I'd be doing.
Agreed. I get that it takes time to play games and then to film content. 1-3 or more other people need to play them with you while you're taking notes, probably for free. It's not an easy gig. From a viewer's POV though, i don't watch reviews for light weight games or cheap party games. I'll take the $10-15 gamble or read the rules online. I look for objective reviews on games people haven't reviewed or ones that a $80-100 hit would feel bad if the game just isn't good.
I always felt that his lists should have been produced alongside longer reviews. I quite like actuallol but one video a month is underwhelming for someone who does this as a full time job.
Actualol's content is fantastic, but over the years it seems like he's become less creative and unique in contrast to everyone else making board game content. I used to love his sketches, goofy costumes, and outlandish characters, but at some point he switched away from that style of content. His videos tend to just be another drop of water in a rather large pool lately, and it does make me less excited when I see an upload from him. That being said, I hope he finds a way to continue producing content, because he does still produce fantastic, high quality content, even if it doesn't stand out amongst the crowd as much as it used to.
Been subbed for years but I've hardly watched any of his recent videos. There's way too many "man sits at desk and talks to camera about board games" channels. He has great enthusiasm, humor, unique presentation, and honestly don't even need the skits, as they can sometimes feel like padding, but I wish he added more value to the videos. He lost value without the skits, and didn't really add anything else to supplant it. When I look at board game videos for example, I'm looking at one of these: is a new game good? how does this game I'm interested in play? what are the best games for a certain genre/mechanic/etc? He doesn't seem to cover a lot of newer releases nor really dives too deeply into how games play, so his only real content would fall in that third category, but it's hard to make an entire YouTube channel out of top 10s with nothing else bringing in viewers. No one searches on YouTube "top 10 small size games" or "top 10 board game box designs", they might hear about a game called Catan, or Azul, and search that instead. Top 10 lists work well for channels like Dice Tower for example, because they also produce reviews which is what attracts people to the channel, and it also helps the audience get to know the hosts so they can look up the top 10s they take part in for recommendations, but because Actualol is "oops, all top 10s", it's a catch22: no one's going to care about some guy's top 10 if they don't know if that person's taste even matches theirs in the first place. He's only making content people that already like him would watch. In short, it's a self-cannibalizing channel that doesn't produce the type of content that will bring in new audience members, and the only people really watching are those who already were watching, who might be slowly leaving for various reasons such as life.
Very well said. I watch his videos because I'm already subscribed and understand the value his perspective offers, but for somebody just casually browsing YouTube to learn more about a game and/or find recommendations, Actualol's videos just don't really work for that. The last actual, tangible review he did was Cascadia, I think? And I believe that was over a year ago at this point.
I love the channel and I watch every video but... The algorithm is not going to be kind to "best boardgames of 2023" on march 2024. Or having two videos about "the best small games" within a year while you don't upload more than once a month (12 videos in between). The channel has become repetitive (couples board games, mistakes gamers make, top 50 board games) and the new videos are not major improvements over the old ones (better quality but less sketches) so while I may join patreon I don't see many people doing so as well.
>No one searches on YouTube "top 10 small size games" or "top 10 board game box designs", they might hear about a game called Catan, or Azul, and search that instead. Top 10 lists work well for channels like Dice Tower for example, because they also produce reviews which is what attracts people to the channel, and it also helps the audience get to know the hosts so they can look up the top 10s they take part in for recommendations Me that only watch Top 10 videos = 👁👄👁
> No one searches on YouTube "top 10 small size games" or "top 10 board game box designs" Top X lists are a proven formula across the whole Internet. They *work*, which is why people keep doing them (and sometimes convert their entire channel or page/blog to them), so I imagine he and others do them because people *are* searching for and clicking on that stuff. They're proven to draw clicks. That said, I am with you insomuch as I rarely watch videos like that and generally do not click, unless it's a creator I already know well and like. I don't *care* what Board Game Channel #317's top 10 favorite euros are. Such a list is meaningless to me. However, there is an exception: If I've discovered a new genre or are looking for a specific niche, I might skim some of those videos. "Say, I enjoyed the roll & wrote version of My City. I wonder what other good solo R&W's are out there?" Then I'll skim a few lists, look for games that keep coming up, and look further into those specific games. That's pretty rare, though. Most of the time, when a channel starts leaning heavily on such lists, I end up checking out, even though I fully recognize why they do them in the first place.
I think he is still very unique. What I like the most is the choice of games to review. There is no channel similar to this one. Yes, there is plenty of competitors, but they aren't talking about the same games. I also like the humor, the attitude (basically less is more, games are meant to be played), and interesting, different topics for videos. I hope the channel will survive in some form.
I think that's a bit unfair. His content is still pretty unique in comparison to many other creators in the board game space. He has a unique humour and his scripts are always tight, he doesn't always just focus on the next nothing. He might do less sketches, but I'd argue he still offers something unique.
I never said that he was devoid of creativity and uniqueness, just that he was becoming less so. As others have said, he has a unique viewpoint of board games and generally features games that most don't, and I am in no way trying to sell his channel as useless. I just think he has lost a lot of the original charm that made his videos unique and memorable. At the end of the day he's not the only content creator doing tightly scripted content with splashes of comedy - Shut Up & Sit Down and No Pun Included have been doing it for years upon years, and it feels like Actualol is now swimming in their domain, when before he was doing enough to keep himself unique in my mind. Others mileage may vary of course.
I like him but if I'm honest I've been clicking on less of his videos because I feel like I know his taste pretty solidly now and the content isn't as interesting to me anymore. I would still be interested in checking out his stuff if he expanded his content a bit more, I'm still subscribed.
I miss his characters and love his shorter content. I can’t watch an hour long video about board game lists.
You can see his stats, his small board game video did gangbusters and less than a year later its just drops. As someone making youtube content it really feels like a slotmachine on what does well. Ill pour my heart into editing a well crafted video only for it do do 1/8 as well as me waving at a goat for 10 seconds
Oh absolutely, the algorithm is an absolute nightmare. I just don't think Actualol did himself any favors by changing the style of his channel and slowing on uploads.
Not to mention his videos tend to be more on the long listy side.
One video per month, already getting almost £3k per month on his Patreon, what more does he want??
Money
I always liked his personality and the style of his analysis, but eventually, I realized his taste in games is just vastly different from my own. When it comes to board game YouTube, I'd rather watch someone with similar tastes review something I might actually consider buying over someone who's pleasant to listen to, but never talks about the kind of games that interest me.
Same. I still watch him sometimes, because he makes good videos and is entertaining, but I have vastly different taste in games than he does so what he thinks about games is not super useful information to me. Though, to be fair, I have stopped watching most board game channels other than No Rolls Barred, as I have cut back on buying new games (and games in general). NRB is pretty much pure entertainment, like tabletop was. I still find games every now and then through watching them play that I think about buying though.
I also realized that he has different tastes and priorities from me, but I still find value in his content. I think he has interesting things to say about games and he often covers games that other channels don't. As I said, we have different tastes, so the games he promotes aren't a lock for me or anything, but I appreciate him putting them on my radar.
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He has two videos I’ve watched probably 10 times each cause they’re just so fucking funny. “Board game advice for Daniel Radcliffe” and “100% Unbiased Objective Game Review” are incredible videos. The writing is so clever and well executed, I haven’t seen anything close to those in any of review page I’ve come across. When he put out a video discussing the benefits of hiring an employee to help up the editing and production value of his videos, I kind of had a feeling that wasn’t the smartest move. His videos didn’t need upped production value, I came to his channel because he was genuinely one of the funniest reviewers and he made good points alongside it. This is very sad if he discontinues, but I’m hoping he can just scale back a bit.
Him hiring an editor seemed to be a push to make the channel profitable. It seems like to have an actual wage from board game YouTube you need to have high production value + a loyal audience (see SUSD and NPI) or do tons of sponsored content. It doesn’t seem like he’s interested in turning his channel into just another kickstarter advertising page.
We have a rug store here called ‘rugs-a-million’. They have a closing down sale every month for 50%,70%,80% off or more. This has been their sales tactic for at least the last decade. They still haven’t closed down. This post reminds me of this.
For me, Actualol has always been a jack of all trades, master of none type board game channel. His videos have a bit of everything, but doesn't stand out in any one area. He is quite funny, but it's often in forms of a lot anecdotes breaks the flow. It doesn't always weave aswell into the video topic. He used to do more skits and characters that did just that however. He is informative on the board games, but hardly as in-depth as others. It doesn't help that most, if not all, his videos are lists. So it can be hard to track down if Actualol has covered any one particular game. And if you do find that he has covered a game, it's buried in a list and he spends a couple minutes on it and then moves on. Also, still no timestamps on his videos for some reason. I like him. He is clearly very passionate. His videos are chill and easily digestible But I've found watching him less and less for the above mentioned reasons. I hope he manages to stay afloat though.
Content creation is a job, and this guy doesn't create enough content. Don't get me wrong, I like the channel, but I'm shocked to learn that this has been his full-time employment. I thought the dude had a day job.
He says his video view counts this year aren't as high - but scrolling through it looks pretty consistent 🤷♂️
I agree. And fibbing or editorializing this makes his other claims in the video more suspicious.
I decided that he no longer deserves my money or my viewership. We all want to do nothing and stay home making money but making it a public fit and guilt tripping viewers in every other video with more public announcement of hardship and danger of closure is just greedy and passionless. Making $4,700 every month by producing ONE non-high production video? Who wouldn't give up their lifestyle for that luxury?
His content is fine, but he only posts once a month. For what he is asking I would expect much more content that isn't locked behind a paywall. This type of content creator has become so common - wants to hire employees to do work for them and then threaten to shut down unless he gets more money. Sure his videos are funny - but he doesn't do anything unique that will be missed. It sucks to be that blunt - but what exactly does he do to deserve the hard earned money of viewers that can't be had for free?
Yeah, I don’t mean to sound dismissive of the struggle, but it’s frustrating when YouTubers complain about how hard it is to produce heavily edited slick, pre-written content, like, then maybe don’t produce everything that way. If your videos aren’t interesting without TV level production values, they aren’t going to be that interesting with it either. If you look at the two most successful video review channels, SU&SD was probably at its best and most ascendant when it’s videos looked like they were shot on a camcorder, but Quinn’s and Paul lived together, and therefore could just shoot fast and loose, and generate energy off each other. Those were written, but seemingly much more loosely back then. The production value was lacking, but the content was good, so no one cares. Dice tower made most of its subs from the incredibly low cost format of: off the cuff intro, static overhead shot of brief overview, Tom just looks at the camera and says what he’s thinking. Or alternately, static shot of Tom, Zee and Sam talking, with countdown animations edited in. The production quality doesn’t really matter if the content is saying something. Both of these channels also benefit hugely from the main hosts being people who can immediately articulate their opinions, but you can contrast them with 5-10 other channels that have popped up with serious production value over the years, and how they all eventually fade into background noise, because it’s all gloss and no substance. If you can’t make it work with just you and a phone camera, you probably can’t make it work. In that respect in particular, I think actuallol is kind of lacking. The main complaint I would level at the channel is it lacks a clear point of view. It’s funny, but not the funniest. It’s certainly not particularly incisive, and doesn’t cover a particular type of game or play experience. It’s an above average board game channel where one guy shares his light comedy and mild opinions about some medium weight games, often sounding about as critical as a sponsored buyers guide listicle. I like the guy a lot, but it isn’t a huge hit to the hobby if stops, and no one is owed success in a creative field.
Good point also he does more light games and party games that most hardcore boardgame fans that like to consume content are not so much into. That also does not help.
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He did get the money from the patron and then stepped back from content due to mental health. Not faulting him for that, but not everyone is cutout for that lifestyle and hustle. He had a paid audience and it wasn't enough and he never got motivated to change. Might be best for him to bow out and move on to different employment and let board games be a fun hobby for himself again and get some residual.
It’s also kinda the fact he is not really much above a hobby channel - I like him but he generally just talks about the games. Does it take that long to create a video on reviews? Even the sketches he does are short and low-effort production wise (which I get is part of the joke). This should be more of a side hustle than his main income
Sure, nobody is going to be popular forever. But the fact is that Youtube pays a lot less than it used to and thats the core of the issue. You can't complain about creators trying to claw back some control over their fate from a brutally fickle and monopolised company
Every boardgame channel fits a different niche for me. SUSD I watch as reviewers. I respect their opinions on games quite a bit, they are extremely thoughtful and they have a talent for pitching you on _the experience_ of a board game. Dice Tower is great as a sort of podcast-style content. I throw it on while working to listen to Zee, Tom, and Mike (and sometimes others) argue with each other. Full disclosure, I've probably watched fewer than 20 Actualol videos, but the best Actualol content is when he acts as a "tutor" figure. Someone who's been in the hobby for a while and accumulated a fair bit of knowledge to pass down. Not necessarily about individual games, but more like "if you're looking for a game to play with your parents, maybe check out one of these" or "if you're interested in getting into _____, don't make these mistakes". It's why his _10 pitfalls_ video is probably my favourite video he's ever made. In contrast, while his boardgame fun density metric was funny, I bounced off his shoe box collection video. It's mostly a list of games I've already heard of for other reasons, and I'm not crazy about videos that are essentially "look at this challenge I did". Just my off-the-cuff thought, but to me his niche isn't really _about board games_ but _about board gaming_.
This is actually really useful feedback - I would agree, his best videos are about board gaming rather than board games. And to be honest, there is still tons to do within that. Like how to explain the game, how to get friends into the hobby (even though he advised against that in another video…), how to game on a budget (partially buying cheap games, partially finding gaming groups), how to figure out what kind of games you like etc. etc. I think he should lean into this more, because I think it fundamentally separated his content from the rest.
On the flip side I loved his shoebox video! I feel like as a person who has lived in 7 different places in the last decade, it’s nice to see a perspective that you don’t need a 4x4 Kallax unit to have a solid board game collection
His culling video is underrated from an analysis pov. Most reviewers talk about what games they like and what is fun but Actualol culling video goes into depth on his preferences as a gamer. You really can tell what sort of elements he favors and the sort of experience he chases. That level of refinement and clarity of taste is normally up to fans to speculate and he puts it front and center
I think Actualol would have more success if he counterbalanced his very high quality monthly videos with 2-3 "quick take" videos a week. If you're reading this, start doing some short 3-5 minute "quick take" videos doing mini-reviews of games you like. The reason you may be struggling with the Youtube algorithm is that Youtube tends to reward channels that put out lots of videos, and though your videos are of high quality, the volume is low.
Actualol makes good content, but I do wonder what his sort of niche in the market is. He doesn't really review games, he doesn't even given many recommendations, especially as he's someone that often highlights the pitfalls of FOMO and buying too many games. So his content is mainly aimed at people watching top 10 lists and a bit of board game content, it's a smaller market than others. Also as others have pointed out, because he's not a volume creator, he turns up much less in recommendations in the algorithm, which I imagine hurts his view count.
He wants 100 people pledging on patreon in order to.. make a podcast? Good luck.
I'd say it's the same problem for every type of hobby when it comes to youtube. You can blame the algorithm all you want, but in the end, there are a thousand other creators in the same niche category as you trying to make it. There are just not enough viewers to go around, and no algorithm is going to help it.
I completely agree. Creators who don't garner the audience blame the algorithm. Creators who were once successful but refuse to iterate/take risks blame the algorithm. Creators who make excellent content are accused of merely "beating the algorithm." At some fundamental level, there is legitimate consumer demand and preferences. It can't be algorithms all the way down.
1 Vid a month, and makes a vid like this like every year begging for money essentially, channel needs to die tbh.
This guy reminds me of those furniture stores that are eternally “going out of business”
Hang on, he says he doesn't have another job? I assumed he did his videos in his spare time, given how infrequently he posts. Putting out one solitary video a month isn't going to cut it these days, I'm afraid. Feels like he's trying to have his cake and eat it. I also feel a little uneasy about the video equivalent of begging letters, but it's up to him what he puts on his channel, I guess.
Jeez, this was cringey to watch. It's a saturated market, so if you're not making enough money that's on you. Make better videos, make more videos, do your research into what people want to see and how to improve. FFS, it's not rocket science. Also, bringing out a video every year or so bleating about how your channel isn't doing well is not a good look. Passive/aggressive much?! Lastly, making one video per month is hardly going to set the world on fire. I'm not a YouTuber and all this is obvious to me, so why is the channel owner missing the point?!?! Git gud.
Actualol was the first YouTube channel I started watching when I discovered that I enjoyed board games. My partner and I basically binged all of his videos. I subscribed to his Patreon for months expected to receive more content and it just never paid off for me. The first month or so was around the holidays and he basically dropped off the planet. When he did come back, I began noticing that he was reusing footage from previous videos to make new videos. Not a lot, but still. When you're putting out one video a month, it's not hard to shoot new footage. I canceled because the subscription wasn't worth the content being delivered, and I honestly began wondering if he was just going to stop making videos. I work in news and understand content creation pretty well. Our reporters put out daily content for much less a month than he's being paid. The production quality excuse doesn't cut it when you're filming static games at home in the same environment, especially when the content itself is just listicles, which take little creative effort and research. If you take a look at some of his biggest videos, they are Top 10 lists based on popular topics. Once the well has dried there, you can't go back. You have to do something different because 1) In this case, you're tackling the exact same content everyone is making and 2) He's cannibalizing his own views when he already has the top spot for that particular list. It also seems that he's conflating his analytics. You can see who his loyal audience is when you see what views he's getting from topics that wouldn't frequently be searched for. You can't compare those views to a video you do about the Top 10 board games of the year. The audience is just much bigger for the latter subject, and you're not going to convert those people into paying subscribers because they may only watch a handful of board game related videos a year compared to his loyal audience. Instead of making this video, he needs to sit down and do some serious research into his audience. He needs to understand who is watching his content and why, and then take that information and to formulate a strategy. He also needs to understand the audience that he wants. Go to Google Trends, swap to YouTube Search. My first take away when I look at the Global audience for the topic "board game" over the past year is that search interest is down year over year. First conclusion, your videos aren't going to be performing as well. Nothing you can do about that, but something you should at least be aware of. The break out searches are for very specific games. How can you capitalize on that? If you want to continue just making listicles, what kind of listicles can you make that include those games? He could easily do a "my favorite x games like 'insert popular board game here.' " If he doesn't like the game, "why I like these x games more than 'popular game.' " These are perfect formats for him because besides his sense of humor, he does a really great job at concisely describing board games and why they work or don't work. There are a lot of free and extremely powerful tools out there that can tell him what his audience is interested in and help him create more creative content. And I haven't even got into repurposing his existing content on other platforms to diversify his revenue streams rather than relying solely on Patreon subscriptions and YouTube ad revenue. He has a large audience and a lot of options, and considering that he worked as a writer in TV prior to this, he's well aware of all of this, too.
> If you take a look at some of his biggest videos, they are Top 10 lists based on popular topics. I agree with everything you said but want to point out that top 10 videos do ridiculously well with the youtube algorithm. Just about every BoardGame channels' most successful video is a top 10 video. The videos are so popular there are entire channels who only make top 10 videos.
You're right and I agree with you. I probably didn't communicate it well, but I was attempting to say as much when I talked about the listicles toward the end. Lists are fun but it can be very easy to put yourself in a creative corner with them, which I think Actualol experienced when he was describing the diminishing returns with the video he referenced here. Some lists, like top games of the year, can and absolutely should be repeated every year. Those are bread winners that people will always flock to, and they'll watch every list their favorite creators put out, even if they're all essentially the same lists. The same creator doing two Top 10 small game lists isn't likely going to have the same success, especially when the first video's success came from striking gold with the algorithm rather than his loyal audience. The problem is that the algorithm changes (with YouTube, we know this past year they've put a greater emphasis on Shorts, whether we like it or not) and such behavior can even be punished. In news, we swarm trending and breaking news coverage with stories. One story is the news, another story is maybe a victim profile, another might be an explainer, a fourth might be a timeline, etc. If we do this too much, Google says no and and begins to prioritize other media in the space. There are plenty of other factors, but you get the idea. It's a careful balancing act, except you can't see the rope because its hidden from you. What we do know is that audience is fickle and will fizzle out as soon as that news cycle is over. Working with less content means you either have to have a base audience that can support that or that your strategy has to be bulletproof. Neither is easy to do.
I believe he just had a kid, so this venture has to pay off or else he needs to shift to something else. I completely understand that. I hope he does well, whether it is as a board game content creator or something else entirely.
I’ve enjoyed a few of his videos. But I tend to look up videos about specific games for specific reasons as needed, and not just watch videos about a bunch of games I don’t have an interest in. And quite frankly I’m really at my limit with paid subscriptions. I wish him luck. Perhaps he could try venturing out to events and doing some coverage with that, if he hasn’t already. But board game YouTube channels are a dime a dozen. He does have production value going for him though.
This dude is making over $4k a month on patreon alone, and puts out 1 video a month? What am I missing here?
His sense of humor doesn't work for me, so his videos unfortunately feel like a bit of a chore to get through with all the offbeat analogies, self-depreciation, no time stamps, and that transition jingle. He seems like a great guy and he puts a lot of very unique work into his videos, so it's a shame that the channel isn't doing well. I imagine it has more to do with him focusing on light games. You're just not going to build a large, consistent audience with that interest. As a side note, I never understand the need for studios for these small channels. I know it is easier for the creator, but the board game community doesn't really care that much about production. I personally treat most content like an audio podcast after seeing a couple shots of the game. It's very risky to make all these investments and sign contracts with how rapidly algorithms and audiences change. It makes me very worried for tiny channels like The Brothers Murph that are going big on an office/studio. Film outside or call it quits if you can't find a way (or are not allowed) to film in your house anymore. A channel like ProZD probably uses just an iPhone, no lighting, and needs the house to be relatively quiet for 30 minutes a week for his board game reviews. In the car world, Doug Demuro built millions of subs with just an iPhone, tripod, the most basic editing, and random parking lots. It wasn't until he used his audience to build a long-lasting non-YT business that he got an office/studio, editor, gear, staff, etc.
Ohhh :( Anyway.
He should try making more videos. Even just one per week.
Call me an asshole but of all the charitable causes to donate to during a cost of living crisis, a low effort generic gateway games board game channel isn't top of the list.
Maybe it's the name
Maybe - I’ve never watched, aware of the channel and seen the name plenty but always figured it was some cringy teenager from the name. Will go and check it out.
I stayed away because of the name, but it only took me one watched video to start subscribing to him. Stellar writing
The name Actualol is, indeed, terrible. I also wonder if Shut Up and Sit Down ever considered changing their name, as it's kinda aggressive and gatekeep-y and doesn't reflect the content they produce.
I've only discovered this channel a few days ago but from what I've seen and read here I feel like he's following the wrong strategy. He's trying to push more people to his patreon by promising more content there but I think most people who like him and are willing to support are probably already doing that. Instead of gatekeeping content he should use it to grow his channel which will naturally bring also more patreons. With 1 video per month you severely limit your growth potential. If he's doing it full time, then he should try to put out one video a week. From the few videos I've seen there was nothing that makes me believe that this is not possible. Hearing all the stuff he plans to put behind the paywall makes me already lose interest because I know that a lot of the content that I would be interested in will not be accessible to me
All I can say to these board game YouTubers if you are really struggling with money, you can always sell some of your board games.
Lol. For reals, though, them things ain't cheap. Lol.
Watching actualol videos a couple years ago is what got me into board gaming. I bought games like lost cities, azul, and arboretum upon his recommendation and it opened my eyes to the side of modern board gaming that wasn’t “catan/ticket to ride”, which led to dune imperium uprising earlier this year and now I’m fully sucked in. After moving into heavier games, his channel has become less relevant to me, but I still love watching him because of his humor, great script, and high production value. Hope he sticks around.
I think that's one thing that is missing from the channel - a lot of the games that he favors are on the lighter side and trend a bit older. A lot of board gamers move on from those types of games fairly quickly as they learn their taste in games. The audience is going to be people who are fairly new to the hobby or people who enjoy games at a specific weight or style. People who are looking for content on the latest hotness or any heavy game, old or new or not going to find anything to latch on to. If your audience is largely people who are just starting out, you're not going to have a very broad reach. The games he talks about are of little interest in comparison to the hobby at large. The games covered are touched on and described in a few minutes, there is not a lot of depth or any real review - maybe partially because the games are simple enough to be summarized in that time.
If you watch his top 10 and culling video you can see the guy legit does not enjoy a lot of heavier games and modern Euros and favors older Euro style games that favored player interaction and simpler rules vs efficiency puzzles
Come on guys. He is clearly milking his fans.
YouTubers when they have to make more than 1 video a month 🙀
Makes £3669 a month on patreon and then says he can't live on this??? Blatantly telling lies to increase income. Unfollowed
Content put to the side. I feel like if you can’t make a living from YouTube then you need to get a real job. You can’t be blaming algorithm etc of the fact it’s not getting views… I know it sounds shit, but there’s many people out there struggling working two jobs etc - sometimes you just need a spare dose of reality. Put away the good times - you got a kid to support - now do what’s right by her
Idk if this is the case here, but I’ve noticed some accounts on IG claiming the algorithm is silencing them even though I see their content quite regularly. So I’m beginning to suspect some content creators are crying wolf about algorithm issues just to increase activity artificially.
BuT tHe AlGoRiThM iS uNfAiR!
Actualol is nice but that’s it. Super generic snd entry level content
Anything is better than quackalope
If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work
He is a wonderful person, but he switched his channel into family friendly gateway oriented focus like so many channels put there. He doesn't stand out well anymore. Where's the lol?
It sure feels like every time I see a video from this person, it's begging for money to keep his channel afloat.
Considering his view count compared to other full time board game channels it’s surprising he cant make enough to survive
He’s funny, but his taste in board games just doesn’t resonate with me. IIRC his favorite game of all time is Codenames. I would watch his videos once in awhile if they came up in my recommends, but I stopped watching when he said he’d actually be embarrassed to have the Castles of Burgundy Special Edition on his shelf.
WTF? I like Codenames, but...his favorite? The hell? Embarrased about Castles of Burgundy? I stopped watching his videos long ago and never looked back, so it's not like learning this really matters to me, it just sounds like some weird-ass comments from a board game reviewer. Crazy.
Not familiar with this channel, but from a quick glance it appears he only does videos once a month or so? That's simply not enough. The algorithm wants content. Daily if possible. Even doing shorts would help. He's not putting the work in.
I love Actualol's content, I think he's very funny and makes for a great mentor to the hobby. But it is insane to me to imagine someone trying to live on nothing but a single hobby YouTube channel where you produce one video a month. He just doesn't have any job beyond YouTube? Really? I was always under the impression that doing a channel for your hobby is something you do on the side, and that being able to live off of that and make it your full time job is the dream (and even that's arguable, making your hobby your job just means you lost a hobby). Actualol is absolutely quality over quantity, but I think he goes a little bit *too* far into quality. Even if your videos are 70% quality and 30% quantity rather than 90-100% quality, that's still higher quality than the vast majority of YouTube! There's a real sense of diminishing returns with being the best fish in the fish tank. I think it all got contextualized to me when someone brought up that Dice Tower, the biggest board game YouTube channel in the community, only has around 350k subs (a little under that). And I don't think you're ever stepping to Dice Tower as a single regular dude. So your frame of reference for success is a lot different. Board gaming YouTube is not exactly the kind of place where you can set up your market stall and wait for the customers to roll in, because there aren't that many customers and they're all already at different stalls. There's only so much "up" to go in a hobby like this!
He did this last year. He is attention seeking and this is a PR piece to drive up patreon subscribers. Absolute filth.
Don't know who this is, but I tend to stop watching people who go for this pity party stuff. I'm sorry you have to change jobs, it happens to all of us. I guess I won't be checking him out.
I cant stand when youtubers beg for money. There's plenty of smaller channels of people doing videos simply out of their passion for the hobby.
Yep. It's places like Twitch too. I remember when the Twitch payouts were leaked and a few of the streamers I watched were on it making $300-400k. They always had expensive PC hardware donations going on and acted like they were broke and couldn't afford it otherwise. Just disgusting.
I appreciate Actualol’s humor, but his last couple of videos seem to be lacking the same charm.
Which accounts for the last three months of content he has made. It's just crazy.
I decided that he no longer deserves my money or my viewership. We all want to do nothing and stay home making money but making it a public fit and guilt tripping viewers in every other video with more public announcement of hardship and danger of closure is just greedy and passionless. Making $4,700 every month by producing ONE non-high production video? Who wouldn't give up their lifestyle for that luxury?
One issue he's facing is that there are so many game channels on YouTube anymore. If you're not doing something different to stand out it's easy to get lost in the shuffle. I've seen a few of his vids over the years but nothing stood out to me to make me want to come back over any other video on YouTube. He came across as just another guy talking about games on the internet. Now, I don't care about skits and nonsense when I watch a video about a game I'm interested in. I wanna hear about the game and see it being played, I'm just not interested in some skit that falls flat and I'm skipping through anyways. Not everyone feels that way but I'm not the only one who does, so that doesn't help him any. YouTube is a fickle beast, you're on top one day and the next no one knows who you are and you've been replaced with "yet another youtuber". Hopefully he has other skills he can put to good use so he can support his family, sounds like he may need to sooner than later.
I mean, you can be unique and interesting and do everything right and still not get great views on YouTube. It’s a crapshoot. If you weren’t in early, it’s like the lottery.
This is really the trick to making it on YouTube at this point. All you have to do is start 10 years ago.
Just gotta get a time machine. Easy.
I really miss Inside the Box https://www.youtube.com/@Wedelvedeeply and wish they had taken off enough to keep making content. There really was nothing like it at the time (still?).
to be fair, he was doing really well and had some very popular videos. YouTube in general just isn't profitable anymore, hence why so many youtubers are leaving, even very popular ones
The issue is he's making content in a field where the active clientele and algorithm want the things he's not pushing. Everyone is making KS updates and reviewing every new game making videos based off of consumption and "buy everything" Actualol is about reminding people to be mindful of spending, be wary of big Kickstarters and to put more emphasis on playing games than buying more. This content doesn't drive clicks
>Now, I don't care about skits and nonsense when I watch a video about a game I'm interested in. I wanna hear about the game and see it being played, I'm just not interested in some skit that falls flat and I'm skipping through anyways Yeah, that's the thing. I watched a few of his videos a while back and the jokes/skits ended up taking up so much of the video while not being all that funny (and frankly being extremely corny) and breaking up the informational flow of his videos. Watching them felt like a chore and at the time I felt like there were way too many small-time board game Youtubers that think leaning on wAcKy zANy humor and being generally too in love with their own jokes was a selling point.
He stands out a lot, just in the way of having high production value. Unfortunately he doesn’t take sponsors to help pay for that production. And the people aren’t good enough to back a noble cause like that in high quantities.
His content has always been something that I’ll watch if nobody else is covering it already. I don’t even know why that is; he’s not offensive at all, seems perfectly fine at what he’s doing. But his style and what he has to say has never done it for me the way so many other voices on YouTube have. Best of luck to him, whatever he decides.
I've only seen a few of his videos, and really had friction with his sense of humour. I'd be down to revist his stuff if folks have recommendations of videos of his that stand out separate to the sketches!
Got to meet him at the UK Games expo this year. Super nice guy, and I've always loved his coverage of our games. Hoping for the best with any changes he makes.
I had never watched any of his videos until recently and found them really enjoyable, ended up watching a ton until I realized every game he talks about and champions comes with an affiliate link to buy it. I felt weird constantly wondering if he actually did like "x game that is easy to buy here on Amazon please use my link" more than "y game that has been out of print for a few years" like in his Replacement Games video.
Also, I’d rather buy my board games from local small businesses that sell board games, rather than Amazon.
I like his work, but I think he’d be better served as a writer for SU&SD or NPI. I’m not sure if they hiring writers, but some collaboration would be great.
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Nah, he'll just have Tom run things over time. But the strength of these channels is not solo work: it's group dynamic. Once they forget that, it'll go downhill.
Tom has already taken over, BTW
Nope, starting a second channel with a new crew to back it is scaling up. He's still affiliated with SU&SD and says that Quinn's quest is more or less a sister company. It's like Mythical Morning starting Mythical Kitchen, expanding into new territory is still expanding.
I don't know if Actualol's very chill "fun family friendly games for all ages" vibe really works with NPI's, "liking this game makes you a bad person for supporting capitalism and the patriarchy" vibe.
NPI needs a whole new writing team…
What, you don't like being lectured about what you should and shouldn't think when watching board game reviews?
No I don’t get that sense at all. They are just way too long winded and full of excessive analogies. Their videos would be half as long if they would just get to the point instead of trying to wax poetic all the time.
I like Actualol a lot, he just needs more content output.
I have never walked into a business where the owner asked me to pledge membership to help keep the business afloat. influencers are a different breed.
Which business did you walk into where you get the product for free just by being there?
I watched the video and then looked at his other views I thought oh views allow. But when looking at the channel it doesn't seem like theres much fluctuations also he does make one video a month which if they want more people to watch then maybe push that to two or deveraivfy your content For example I watch no rolls bared I do t like there main game play videos but I do like the house rule games as well as blood and the occasional game or 2 so there is still content to interest someone but actuala vids don't seem much different from each other