Channel Update #39 (Sep/Oct)

Another month, another video… which is something I haven’t been able to say for a while. Don’t get used to it though as I’m about to go to Japan for a little over 2 weeks, in what is the first real holiday I’ll have been on since starting this youtube channel. So that should be nice, and it’s overdue, but it will also mean that whatever the next video is won’t be especially quick as I won’t start it until November. Still at least there is a video finished before I leave and this time it took pretty much exactly as long as I expected and felt like far less work. I guess that’s one advantage of working on excessively long videos for months; going back to normal length suddenly feels short. As for the video itself, it’s about space exploration, which might be a weird topic so I guess I’ll spend this update explaining that decision.

After playing Starfield I wasn’t feeling a dedicated Starfield video as I felt the game was pretty average. Not remarkably bad, nor remarkably good, and fairly in line with what I expected from Bethesda following Fallout 4 (although I did prefer it over Fallout 4 thanks to the setting feeling a little fresher). I do think Starfield is a more mixed experience, with higher highs (faction questlines mostly) but also more obvious flaws. I also think those flaws are obvious enough that making a long youtube video talking about them didn’t feel all that necessary, and that youtube videos complaining about Starfield would probably be plentiful long before I had finished something.

In fact perhaps the most noteworthy thing about Starfield to me seemed the intensity with which some people disliked it. Maybe I’m just getting older, but I do feel that the internet (and as a result a big part of modern culture) is just trending more and more towards negativity. In the world of content creation, negativity is a great driver for engagement, and engagement is a great driver for success, and this has been known for a while. However as this is so well known, I’d expect there to come a point where there is so much negativity online that we see a push back as the market for negativity becomes saturated and people get bored of it. As far as I can tell though this isn’t happening, and people gravitate towards negativity more than ever, particularly in the area I pay most attention to: gaming. 

2023 has seemed a pretty good year for games but conversations and media coverage still seem to be dominated by the negatives. Bad games like Gollum, Redfall or Forspoken seem to get so much more attention than they deserve (while good games still struggle to get noticed in the attention economy). While games like Hogwarts Legacy, Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 16 or Starfield seem to generate more controversy than they deserve (even if there are some controversial elements to these games).

Anyway this seems to be the direction the internet is going (and has been going for a while) but I’m still not sure it’s a particularly beneficial trend or that I want to contribute to it more than necessary. Which is not to say that I don’t want to ever be negative or critical anymore, it’s just that if that is going to be the focus of a video then I’d rather be ‘punching up’ because there are so many people ready and eager to punch down that I don’t think joining in is necessary or creatively fulfilling. Hence after playing Starfield, and noticing there is a huge amount of negativity already, and having a fairly mild response to the game, I decided to take what seemed like the single most important/controversial/interesting aspect of the game, space exploration, and try to make a video about that. The end result is up on youtube.

The hardest part was probably working out how to cover a broad topic like this in detail, in a realistic time frame. But I did some research, played some games (but not every game), and drew on past experience of creating similar videos to try to find a nice balance. My impending trip to Japan might have also played a role in forcing me to keep my ambitions in check, but regardless I think things turned out alright. I don’t think this is my best video or anything, but I do think the decision to follow this approach was the right one. There’ll be time for negative or single game videos in the future, I’m sure, but I don’t want to go that approach unless my heart is truly in it.

Anyway that’s it from me for a while. The next video will probably either be Baldur’s Gate related or more Final Fantasy, but that’s something I’ll decide once I’m back from Japan and it could be something else entirely. The next update will probably be in 5-6 weeks and I’ll let you know what I’m working on then.

And if anyone is curious about my trip… it’s my second time going to Japan. I’m visiting Tokyo, then traveling north through Tohoku, visiting each prefecture, and ending the trip in Hokkaido. There will be lots of eating, hiking and sightseeing, but particularly eating. Autumn colors should be just coming in. The Yen is weak. And I’m pretty excited. See you on the other side.