An impromptu poll

Jan 21 edit after poll end: Thanks everyone for your help & the food for thought in the comments! I'm actually a little surprised by the poll results, but I absolutely do feel better now that I can see what majority opinion looks like. I'll be continuing with CCR & will make a proper update post in the next few days.

Hi all,

It's been about a day after I uploaded my first Crisis Core Reunion video and surprise surprise, once I started actually putting The Plan into action I am having some second thoughts lol.

I do this to have fun but I also want everyone watching to be happy too, except literally every choice I can think of there are downsides to and it's really tearing me apart. It's mentally draining to have a (not large, but constant) stream of people trying to sway my decision, especially the ones going "you're doing the wrong thing, this is the wrong move". TBH when I look at the CCR video comments I think this is a vocal minority that I don't need to pay that much mind to, but I do, probably because a part of me agrees: no matter how much I try to reason it out there's no getting around spoiling at least OG FF7 by playing Crisis Core. 

I looked back at the previous update posts & comments, and a lot of my decision logic back then was driven by a "oh god I gotta get to CCR as soon as it releases because that's when the most people will be interested" blah blah, but at this point I've already overshot the release date by a month so that doesn't really matter so much anymore. (There's also another portion about how SE sent me the game so I felt I needed to put it to use, but with at least 1 video done I also feel like I've fulfilled my bare minimum of obligations here.) Basically: now with the changed timing circumstances, I find myself wondering if I should rethink my choice.

I am rambling so to keep it simple: So far I've just played the first chapter of CCR - still enough time to change my mind, or reaffirm my decision. I think I'll continue to have doubts no matter what choice I unilaterally make, so I'd like to see what you guys think as a majority.

The facts:

• Devs said play CCR before Rebirth
• CCR spoils OG FF7
• I haven't played OG FF7
• Rest of FF7R trilogy will likely follow OG FF7 to some degree, meaning OG FF7 will spoil FF7R trilogy to some degree

The choices and some pros & cons for you to consider:

1) Continue as-is with CCR, then Rebirth
+ will be prepared for whatever they want to do in Rebirth requiring Crisis Core context
+ keeping new player perspective for Rebirth & forward
- will be spoiled for OG FF7

2) Put CCR on pause, play OG FF7, return to CCR, then Rebirth
+ will be prepared for whatever they want to do in Rebirth requiring Crisis Core context
+ will not be spoiled for OG FF7
+ will be caught up to the fanbase at large in terms of knowing what's old/what's changed
- lose new player perspective for Rebirth & forward
- channel impact: (temporarily) disappoint people who have already geared up for a CCR let's play, unexpectedly slotting in a longer series means taking time away from other titles

3) Put CCR on pause, go straight from Remake to Rebirth
+ will not be spoiled for OG FF7
+ keeping new player perspective for Rebirth & forward
- no context for whatever they want to do in Rebirth with Crisis Core
- if I wait until Part 3 is out, it will be like 5 years before I get back to CCR
- channel impact: disappoint people who have already geared up for a CCR let's play
(Personally I never saw this as a viable option after the devs's rec to play CCR before Rebirth, but I'll leave the choice here in case if I'm alone in this thinking)

4) No opinion - not interested in FF7
Some of you might not be interested in FF7 which is totally okay, but you might be tempted to to pick an option above that leads to me spending the least amount of time on this series. If so, pick this option instead so I can tell the difference!

This is really something I should've done before December but hindsight is 20/20. Please pick what you want to see happen on the channel, what perspective you'd like to see me going into Rebirth with, etc, without much other considerations. I know some of you are really nice and might worry about stuff like making me do something I don't actually want to do, but there really is no perfect solution here - whatever you choose, I can at least say this is something a portion of my most engaged audience actually wants to see, and I think that's what I'm really looking for.

Sorry this is a bit of a serious post! I am about to lose sleep and metaphorically tear my hair out from this whole thing tbh, I blame Square Enix for everything lol

(I'm probably looking for a very quick turn-around on this poll - probably over just the next 2-3 days.)