RE: TotalBiscuit's Reddit Post -- Battling Stress As A Content Producer - General

[QUOTE]There's more to LPing than just playing games. You need to plan your release schedule, record, deal with technical issues, edit (big one), upload, deal with fan mail, maintain a social media presence, handle the financial matters, etc[/QUOTE] If it matters, I used to do let's plays. I saw some people do it some years ago and I thought to myself that I was going to play the game and talk about it in my head or alone anyways so I might as well record it too. I made videos and used the YouTube release system to get a set release schedule. I decided to spread out the content and release videos once a week. I talked about games, programs, mobile games and apps, stuff like that. I could upload several GB of unedited footage from recording using Fraps. I read literally every single comment because there wasn't much in the first place. Stuff like talk louder an general feedback was useful. I did some editing now and then but I realized I didn't have that much time to do it so I decided to do what many LPers do, record continuously and not edit as much. Have a set formula : intro, video, click out videos to previous ones. I had fun doing this but it was stressful when I had to balance school and this. I did it on my free time and as school work increased, my free time decreased. But the good news was I had so much content scheduled I didn't actually have to do anything for a good 3 months. It's easier with single player games because I'd usually play through the whole thing, record it and upload it. Have a mixture of games so one week it was minecraft, building stuff and next week it was some other game. After 6 months I had a decent amount of followers but school wasn't doing the greatest so I decided to stop playing so much games and making videos unless it was for school or work (freelance photographer and videographer here). I had 4 months of content and at the end of it, I'd be too busy with exams. I still maintained the channel, replying to comments. Update videos were always priority videos which wee uploading the day or after the update release. I knew those racked up a lot of views so I kept at it from time to time. I never really talked about life or did any live streams. I felt like it was unimportant and no one would watch my live stream. I guess I took the easier route but it wasn't really easy. Maintaining all of that footage and making sure everything is working, I've had issues with audio, corrupt files, stuff like that adds to the stress but I guess it made me better with videography and data management. It wasn't something super important like a wedding video. I haven't touched my channel in a while, I still have a backlog of videos to upload and add descriptions and tags to. I just never came back to it, I guess I got too busy with life stuff and school. If I was to start again, I'd give an update on why I haven't uploading anything in so long. My subscriber count hasn't decreased much, most people don't clean their subscriptions anyways. I'd probably do more editing and upload at a higher resolution. Maybe this summer... I've had some people message me in game asking about my YouTube channel and told them I was busy with school and couldn't find the time to work on the channel. Overall it was a fun experience, I learned a bit about YouTube, how to speak to a microphone better, edited better, learned more about video formats and codes and optimal YouTube upload settings, telling a story, interacting with social media and stuff. It was a bit stressful, it's wasn't something full time like that the others do. It was manageable but I can see how the increase on popularity, viewers and subscribers can bring in nasty comments. I've got some. I simply ignored them but still looked into why they wrote it. To have thousands of these nasty comments isn't fun. Tl;dr: I made let's play videos and it can be stressful than you think, it can make people better or hurt them.

[QUOTE=Jackald;43941722]Yeah, he doesn't exactly have a rapport with his fans...[/QUOTE] Yeah let's take a single comment which he continually beats himself up over to this day and use that to judge his entire personality. [QUOTE=Jackald;43941554]I mean shit, Game Grumps pulled in mad dosh for fuckall effort.[/QUOTE] And even they have to deal with the same bullshit. Have you seen the amount of hate they get for not knowing one little game mechanic in the youtube comments and reddit? Fuck, even look at the GG thread here on FP. It's one of the main reasons Jon left. [QUOTE=HerrWolf;43941976]How does something someone says on the internet effect you? I really don't understand that.[/QUOTE] Of course you don't. You're not the one getting hundreds of death threats per day just for being you.

[QUOTE=Jackald;43941771]Depends. Game Grumps videos weren't very heavily edited, so it's not like it requires trawling through hours of footage finding highlights, and they split their episodes into 10 minute chunks, releasing 3 per day. They could very easily play through 6 hours of footage, and then just cut it up and have footage for the next week or so, which is what they did. If you listen, sometimes Ego used to accidentally let slip when they'd recorded. Besides which, each video is monetized seperately, meaning more videos = more dosh. It's a lot harder to do it with heavy editing in the style that ABadfeeling or Criken do. Oh and believe me, searching through 18 hours of footage for a 15 minute highlight video can be really soul-crushing.[/QUOTE] I used to do highlight videos for my let's plays, took a good 2 hours looking through 10 hours of footage. Something like that. But that was just the rough edit, had to find music and did some editing related techniques such as J-cuts. In total it probably took about 5 hours per highlight video. Lots of double checking and making sure every cut was meaningful and kept the audience interested. It wasn't manageable so I took the minimal editing route. Instead of a 10 minute highlight video, I made several 20-30 minute straight recorded with minimal editing videos. Usually cut between loading screens and add some voice overs I didn't do when recording. I guess doing these highlight videos made me better at editing in general, useful for school and work. But editing is a hassle and requires a lot of time and effort to make something good.

[QUOTE=HerrWolf;43941976]Why can't he just ignore the comments? How does something someone says on the internet effect you? I really don't understand that. If you're the kind of person whose life gets thrown totally out of control because of something mean someone said to you on the internet then you need to re-evaluate your life.[/QUOTE] [quote]I've read so many people with their "advice", oh... you should get a thicker skin! You should just ignore it! Those people have no idea of the volume of it all, or how constant it is, it never stops, it's day in day out 24/7, no end in sight noise. So many people talking at once... It's death by a thousand cuts. That thick skin isn't invincible, occassionally it buckles and when it does I tend to react badly. I'm not sure you actually understand just how fucked up I am. My hair is going grey, not to mention it's falling out. Yeah, my hair is grey at 29. Great right? I'm pretty sure I have chronic health problems that have been made far worse by stress. I'm even worried one of them might be life-threatening and I'm getting really paranoid about it. I fucking eat because I'm sad or angry or whatever, I have days where what should be a dream job is something I don't even want to think about doing. I'm seriously fucked in the head and I have been for a very long time. I CANNOT stop reading feedback. I can't just leave comments. I gave my Twitter to my staff months ago to try and stop me from reading it, which actually worked surprisingly. Turning off Youtube comments was great and for a while the subreddit was small enough and friendly enough that I could actually handle dealing with it. Now I dread reading it every morning and I CAN'T STOP MYSELF. God how many times have I tried to "get better?" over the last few years? Every time it's fucking failed, every time and I hate myself for it.[/quote]

[QUOTE=Jackald;43941722]Yeah, he doesn't exactly have a rapport with his fans... [img]http://i.imgur.com/4fJtsD1.jpg[/img] personally I don't really like him because I find him a bit pretentious and obnoxious, but it sucks that he's having a rough time making his living so I wish him all the best with finding a way to make his content stress-free.[/QUOTE] I love how they just conveniently grab the worst image ever of TB.

[QUOTE=Jimesu_Evil;43942021]Yeah let's take a single comment which he continually beats himself up over to this day and use that to judge his entire personality. And even they have to deal with the same bullshit. Have you seen the amount of hate they get for not knowing one little game mechanic in the youtube comments and reddit? Fuck, even look at the GG thread here on FP. It's one of the main reasons Jon left.[/QUOTE] Not only that but they put a picture of Freddie from a professional shoot next to a random picture of TB taken on a phone in a pub. All we can say is he doesn't have a rapport with [i]that[/i] fan. :v: To be honest I've been turned off working in the game industry just by seeing the effects it's had on others. I love programming games even though I never finish them, but what's on offer as a games software engineer? Publishers messing with the requirements, the risk of being bought out and shut down, complete lack of respite at crunch time... And of course, you get people who wish ruin upon you and your colleagues, unless you're a known name in which case people tell you to kill yourself and form circlejerks over how much of a cunt you are. All because they don't like the style of your game/videos, or think you're slightly pretentious, or don't like the amount of money you (appear to) make.

[QUOTE=be;43940291]Depression is uncontrollable unhappiness, TB isn't depressed[/QUOTE] Listen to the soundcloud clip that someone posted earlier in the thread. He talks about going into therapy and how he remembers a lot of the things either he's said or he's replied to and how it affects him. You are honestly sounding like you're saying he can't be depressed because he's a minor celebrity, do you honestly think being depressed is a matter of how successful your online business is rather than an emotional state of mind and a mental illness? Someone can be successful and still be depressed, depression is not a reflection of your economic wealth, it's a state of mind. Edit: Sorry for replying to a comment on the first page, I didn't see all of the other pages. [QUOTE=Jackald;43941722]Yeah, he doesn't exactly have a rapport with his fans... [img]http://i.imgur.com/4fJtsD1.jpg[/img] personally I don't really like him because I find him a bit pretentious and obnoxious, but it sucks that he's having a rough time making his living so I wish him all the best with finding a way to make his content stress-free.[/QUOTE] I actually like TB because he's honest about what he thinks and what he does. Why should he lie to people when they try to make him play a particular game or do a particular thing and he says "No, actually I don't do that. I make my own videos and decide what I want to make videos on as well as how and when I do them." When you watch a commentator like TB you are subscribing to their particular views and opinion and in that case I'd much rather him cut the bullshit and explain what his opinion is. He can be quite rude sometimes but at least he's direct. When he participated in promotional events such as the planetside 2 thing, he explained in a video afterwards how it was an advertisement for the game, just a promotional thing and not his formal opinion on the game. Heck, he even repeats non-stop that his videos are "first impressions", not proper reviews. I don't always agree with TB, I just find his views and commentary interesting and that's the end of it.

Forgive the huge post: [QUOTE=be;43940246]Wow you're a dick...I left because I know when a thread is a circle jerk, and I know how threads go when they're occupied by a bandwagon. I'm not saying that he isn't human, I'm just saying that I don't feel bad for him at all, he has almost no right to be upset, just like any other rich/famous person. Get over yourself[/QUOTE] Go take a high school level psychology class then come back and try discussing this. You obviously have no idea whatsoever how stress works and you seem to struggle with empathy. And btw someone criticizing you does not make them a dick. Someone with as many viewers as TotalBiscuit will get thousands of negative comments per day. People naturally focus more on the negative than the positive. When something is repeated ad nauseum people tend to start believing it. So in the case of someone like TotalBiscuit comments, which are a vital part of what he does and why he does it, end up being a toxic thing that causes horrible stress. Also you should check your facts. Only the very top subscribers on Youtube make enough money to be considered anything more than middle class. The vast majority of them don't even make enough to get by on. I wouldn't classify TotalBiscuit as rich. And fame, as pointed out above, has its fair share of stress related consequences. Though if you actually bothered watching the entire video you would be aware of this already. And just because one person has it worse than another does NOT invalidate one's troubles. Just because there's some child starving in Africa does not negate the fact that another person in America struggles with crippling depression despite being well fed. [QUOTE=be;43940332]How come you guys can't argue without insulting others? And you call me a child, I just don't have the same opinion as you, Christ.[/QUOTE] I'm seriously starting to believe you're a troll account. You argue poorly then take the counterpoints of others in the worst way possible all while insulting them. You call J!nx a dick and that's okay even though he was countering what you said, carcarcargo made an argument that didn't even imply you were a child and somehow that's insulting you. [QUOTE=spekter;43940347]Kind of bullshit how he says singers/actors have no interaction or feedback. A lot of them use the same social networking that internet celebs use and to be perfectly honest you don't hear about people stalking internet celebs or trying to break into their house. Remember that guy who had planned to kidnap Bjork? I mean really the death threats are just immature kids incapable of doing anything but throwing harsh words around. I'm sure as hell not saying that the stress is easy to handle or it's not as bad as he makes out because it truly is crippling him evidently, but the threat to TB versus huge name celebrities elsewhere is a world apart.[/QUOTE] I don't think he was trying to say they have no interaction or feedback. It's just very different than what someone like TB has to deal with. TB has constant feedback due to the very nature of what he does for a living. A singer or actor will often have people who deal with their public pages for them and the ones that do handle their own public pages don't seem to get anywhere near the amounts of negative feedback as TB does from what I've personally seen. And the stalking and break-ins are a completely separate matter altogether. [QUOTE=Jackald;43941444]If he's too stressed, why not reduce his content output. He's self-employed after all. It's what I did when uni work was getting too much for me to keep up with my KH streams, and those were only done for fun, no adverts anywhere.[/QUOTE] I think it's more a question of whether he can afford to take a break or produce fewer videos for awhile. [QUOTE=Jackald;43941722]Yeah, he doesn't exactly have a rapport with his fans... [img]http://i.imgur.com/4fJtsD1.jpg[/img] personally I don't really like him because I find him a bit pretentious and obnoxious, but it sucks that he's having a rough time making his living so I wish him all the best with finding a way to make his content stress-free.[/QUOTE] In context that is a lot less dickish than it looks. And even out of context it's still honestly true if rather harsh. And even so, someone who faces as much stress as TotalBiscuit has to deal with is going to be a bit snappy at times to people who are being dickish towards him, especially when it's those dickish people who are the source of his stress in the first place. [QUOTE=HerrWolf;43941976]Why can't he just ignore the comments? How does something someone says on the internet effect you? I really don't understand that. If you're the kind of person whose life gets thrown totally out of control because of something mean someone said to you on the internet then you need to re-evaluate your life.[/QUOTE] See: [QUOTE]Someone with as many viewers as TotalBiscuit will get thousands of negative comments per day. People naturally focus more on the negative than the positive. When something is repeated ad nauseum people tend to start believing it. So in the case of someone like TotalBiscuit comments, which are a vital part of what he does and why he does it, end up being a toxic thing that causes horrible stress.[/QUOTE]

[Quote]Someone with as many viewers as TotalBiscuit will get thousands of negative comments per day. People naturally focus more on the negative than the positive. When something is repeated ad nauseum people tend to start believing it. So in the case of someone like TotalBiscuit comments, which are a vital part of what he does and why he does it, end up being a toxic thing that causes horrible stress.[/QUOTE] There's an issue with YouTube comments where it's hard to see the difference between the trolls and people with actual opinions. Trying to respond to these comments, day after day, is incredibly frustrating for anyone, but when you're also a content creator you feel as if you HAVE to respond to this type of criticism, which is what leads to the issues TB faces.

[QUOTE=Zyler;43942423]There's an issue with YouTube comments where it's hard to see the difference between the trolls and people with actual opinions. Trying to respond to these comments, day after day, is incredibly frustrating for anyone, but when you're also a content creator you feel as if you HAVE to respond to this type of criticism, which is what leads to the issues TB faces.[/QUOTE] This is an issue with any text-based communication method. Youtube is just one really obvious example because the users there tend to be so prolific when it comes to trolls. I forget the name of the law but I'd point out that law where it can be impossible to tell the difference between satire and opinion no matter how absurd. That would apply to trolls and people with differing opinions as well.

[QUOTE=Alice3173;43942454]This is an issue with any text-based communication method. Youtube is just one really obvious example because the users there tend to be so prolific when it comes to trolls. I forget the name of the law but I'd point out that law where it can be impossible to tell the difference between satire and opinion no matter how absurd. That would apply to trolls and people with differing opinions as well.[/QUOTE] Generally speaking, people have become pretty good at telling the difference between satire and serious opinions in text-based communication (most people anyway). On YouTube, this specific problem seems to come around because there's very little difference between the deliberately provoking troll comments and the genuine comments of some very stupid and very uninformed people. You literally cannot tell the difference between a troll comment and a dumb person.

[QUOTE=be;43940396]I baked out a few hours ago, and then I got insulted for having an opinion, as fucking always, you guys are disgusting, I'm done, sorry for having a different opinion on a forum[/QUOTE] sounds like you just need to grow some thicker skin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[QUOTE=be;43940264]His suffering is next to nothing compared to the suffering of others, he's at the top of the food chain so I really give no fucks[/QUOTE] Saying "that's nothing, others have it worse than you" is like saying "you can't be happy, others have it way better than you". It's the same fucking idea and it is total bullshit.

-snip quoted post unworthy of actual rebuttle- [QUOTE=be;43916536]Everything is a game! Maintaining friendships is a game, life is a game. There is a goal (even if the goal is to continue the game itself), there are strategies, there are tips & tricks...etc[/QUOTE] a few days later | | \|/ [QUOTE=be;43940396]I baked out a few hours ago, and then I got insulted for having an opinion, as fucking always, you guys are disgusting, I'm done, sorry for having a different opinion on a forum[/QUOTE] Looks like you're off your game today.

[I]"Drag famous people down to my level, maybe then I'll empathize with them."[/I]

[QUOTE=Alice3173;43942389] Someone with as many viewers as TotalBiscuit will get thousands of negative comments per day. People naturally focus more on the negative than the positive. When something is repeated ad nauseum people tend to start believing it. So in the case of someone like TotalBiscuit comments, which are a vital part of what he does and why he does it, end up being a toxic thing that causes horrible stress. [/QUOTE] Are you honestly believing the fact that most of his stress-related problems come from negative comments on the internet? We're talking about a grown-man who seems to be rather intelligent and has been doing this kind of thing for ages. I don't believe for one second that he's literally having breakdowns and shit just because some people leave behind negative commentary, I'm certain there might be different things in his life that are bothering him or he is simply not cut out for this kind of thing period. And perhaps should start looking for different means of self employment if he is unable to cope with the job at hand if his current job is interfering with his own well-being.

[QUOTE=Viper202;43943259][I]Drag famous people down to my level, maybe then I'll empathize with them.[/I][/QUOTE] Your level of what, exactly? Humanity? They're no less human than you are.

[QUOTE=Melnek;43943270]Are you honestly believing the fact that most of his stress-related problems come from negative comments on the internet? We're talking about a grown-man who seems to be rather intelligent and has been doing this kind of thing for ages. I don't believe for one second that he's literally having breakdowns and shit just because some people leave behind negative commentary, I'm certain there might be different things in his life that are bothering him or he is simply not cut out for this kind of thing period. And perhaps should start looking for different means of self employment if he is unable to cope with the job at hand if his current job is interfering with his own well-being.[/QUOTE] He is broken, no more than anyone else though. Long hours, paying attention to comments in the hope to learn something from random abuse, and the normal self-esteem and fear of rejection issues that most people have. As you say, he's been doing this for a while and it's probably just the stress has built up and he's having a bad time now. Give him a bit of time off from the bullshit and he'll probably be fine.

[QUOTE=Jimesu_Evil;43943294]Your level of what, exactly? Humanity? They're no less human than you are.[/QUOTE] I avoided putting quotations on it because it'd feel like I'm strawmanning Be but I guess the italics weren't a big enough hint.

[QUOTE=Devodiere;43943306]He is broken, no more than anyone else though. Long hours, paying attention to comments in the hope to learn something from random abuse, and the normal self-esteem and fear of rejection issues that most people have. As you say, he's been doing this for a while and it's probably just the stress has built up and he's having a bad time now. Give him a bit of time off from the bullshit and he'll probably be fine.[/QUOTE] Actually if I'm not mistaken, this is the third time something like this has happened. He's probably bipolar, but since he thinks psychologists are generally quacks and there aren't many as savvy or smart as him (this is something he actually said in a SA thread and meant it) he's probably refused to get evaluated or treated, but it does seem to be following a circular trend of "I'm the best guy for this kind of job, bringing realtalk to gamingdom", followed later by "holy shit, everything is fucking awful" a couple years later. He should probably be looking for some evaluation and therapy.

He really hit the nail on the head, especially with the whole "it's the internet" excuse thing. Just because it's over the internet doesn't mean it's okay to unabashedly be a dick to people. I hate it when hide behind that bogus excuse.

[QUOTE=Mysterious;43943623]He really hit the nail on the head, especially with the whole "it's the internet" excuse thing. Just because it's over the internet doesn't mean it's okay to unabashedly be a dick to people. I hate it when hide behind that bogus excuse.[/QUOTE] Welcome to another example of my theory of "Anything the public has access to gets ruined eventually" I don't really let people bother me on the net, though. I'll say what I want to say if people disagree, or don't like it, that's fine. If people want to lash out and call names, Okay. It's not like anyone but their parents care about what they have to say anyway, and in a lot of cases they don't, either.

[QUOTE=Jackald;43941771]Depends. Game Grumps videos weren't very heavily edited, so it's not like it requires trawling through hours of footage finding highlights, and they split their episodes into 10 minute chunks, releasing 3 per day. They could very easily play through 6 hours of footage, and then just cut it up and have footage for the next week or so, which is what they did. If you listen, sometimes Ego used to accidentally let slip when they'd recorded. Besides which, each video is monetized seperately, meaning more videos = more dosh. It's a lot harder to do it with heavy editing in the style that ABadfeeling or Criken do. Oh and believe me, searching through 18 hours of footage for a 15 minute highlight video can be really soul-crushing.[/QUOTE] I get what you're saying, and taking a break from what he's doing to do something like game grumps would probably be good for him - on paper -, but there are many issues with this; the biggest one being that TB doesn't like low quality content, he's very professional and has very high standards for what comes out on his youtube channel, and game grumps is pretty low quality.

[QUOTE=Viper202;43943311]I avoided putting quotations on it because it'd feel like I'm strawmanning Be but I guess the italics weren't a big enough hint.[/QUOTE] My bad, with people like be around it's become impossible to tell who's serious and who isn't.

Novawar is the last person to not feel bad for, he has a tiny group of viewers that follow him, he probably makes less money than a normal job doing what he does.

[QUOTE=Hugg;43941737]That comment was a reply to someone he thought was attacking him, I don't think freddie mercury said that to a fan that he thought was attacking him verbally[/QUOTE] it was in response to someone asking him to play a certain game

[QUOTE=Killuah;43943885]it was in response to someone asking him to play a certain game[/QUOTE] Who cracked a spazz when TB said no.

true

It's always been an issue on the internet. People want shit for free, but when that means free, litterally means they don't want anyone gaining from it besides themselves. If that's not possible then they get nasty, pretty quickly, I believe it does boil down to jealousy and greed at some points, one of the two would fit the majority of these asshats. These are the kind of people who don't understand how the world works. Nothing is truely free, everything comes at a cost, be it time, effort, money etc. Everything is a resource and everything costs. The only way to continue producing is to make a return on it. Not only that the costs of power, internet, food, clothes, heating as well comes ontop and most of these guys also have part time jobs to help keep afloat. It wouldn't suprise me if these are the same people who trash talk actual celebrities for the same reasons yet at the same time, they want entertainment. Sadly this'll always happen and there's truely no ways around this, it's just the mindset of these hypocritical people.

[QUOTE=Killuah;43943885]it was in response to someone asking him to play a certain game[/QUOTE] No it was a general response to every fan who felt entitled to demand what content TB put up, he made that very clear. It wasn't somebody saying "I think it would be cool if you played this game TB", it was a [I]lot[/I] of people saying that if he didn't make content they liked they would leave - as if that mattered. The video in the OP really opened my eyes on this issue, I knew youtubers have had issues with comments because they've been lightly throwing around the "youtube comments suck" around but I never realised how much it actually impacts them, more people need to go out and actually talk about this issue.