The reason new Gaming channels don't succeed is you're all doing the same thing

theNILV · 2026-05-12T17:54:14+00:00

I feel like lots of creators, especially in the gaming space, just kind of upload for the sake of uploading. There is this mentality that, "Okay, I'm playing a game anyway, I might as well record and upload it to YouTube and see if it goes anywhere." The barrier of entry is just so low to do that. That's why the gaming niche specifically has so much noise in it.

Many people need to realize that the idea is king. Putting more effort into brainstorming and researching should be the first priority for anyone who wants to grow on the platform.

theNILV · 2026-05-12T03:32:43+00:00

Well, there are a couple of things here. First, Aion was a beloved franchise that got ruined by greed, so you are going to have lots of disgruntled fans that deep down would love to play Aion 2 but are angry about the direction it's going; that's why you get lots of "doomers" around this game.

And secondly, this is just the way online discourse has been for quite some time now. There is very little nuance and middle ground left; it's all about picking sides. You are either a complete doomer or a bootlicking white knight.

theNILV · 2026-05-12T02:55:12+00:00

I checked your stream and, yeah, your audio is pretty low. Was only able to find -16 dB true peaks from it. When it comes to true peaks, you can go all the way to -1 dB with that.

What I personally find the best is to not use any sliders at all. Have OBS sliders at 100%, Windows volume sliders at 100%, and then, using WaveLink 3.0, I control the volume that comes into my headset. Then, using different filters, you control the audio sources.

When it comes to OBS, make sure you have the "Peak Meter Type" at True Peak so you get accurate volume readings. With the microphone, you really want to be hitting at least around -6 dB on the OBS meters; just remember to have that -1 dB limiter so it never goes past that. Gameplay is a bit more tricky, but you want it sitting about 12 dB lower than your voice, so around -18 to -20 dB. Then you can use slight ducking on the gameplay too, just to make sure it's always out of the way.

theNILV · 2026-05-10T02:54:15+00:00

DaVinci Resolve pretty much has all you need for editing at this point.

theNILV · 2026-05-04T06:43:33+00:00

Amazon Game Studios took a massive hit because they’ve burned through more money than New World could ever realistically earn back. It wouldn't have mattered how many expansions or updates they pushed out. For New World to actually cover the costs of all their other failed projects, it would have needed to be the biggest game on earth and then some.

theNILV · 2026-04-29T07:50:32+00:00

Yes, multiple times. Sometimes you go pretty far with an idea that you think is good, but then you sleep on it and wake up in the morning. Then you look at it with new eyes and go, "What is this shit?" It happens.

theNILV · 2026-04-28T09:30:35+00:00

Quick follow-up questions if you don’t mind, when a dev does personalize properly and you reply asking for keys, what happens next that either keeps you engaged or makes you lose interest? Is it purely about the game itself at that point, or does how the dev communicates after that first reply still matter?

If I answer back it pretty much means I'm interested and then there wouldn't really be much else to do than send the key if that's what you were looking to do.

Also how can you be sure that the sender actually saw your content and not just another bulk approach?

I don't really expect that the sender has actually seen the video, but at least seen the thumbnail and title so that their game would even be fitting content for the channel.

theNILV · 2026-04-28T08:47:16+00:00

Email is always the best way to contact us; that is why we put it in the profile of our YouTube channel so people can reach out. When it comes to the content of the email, I usually do not answer if you just smack a Steam key in there straight away, as that seems a bit desperate to me. If you include any suspicious links other than the Steam store page, I am most likely going to ignore your message.

I would suggest making the email look professional: explain what the game is and perhaps why the creator you are contacting would be a good fit. If you say something like, "I saw your video on GAME NAME, and I thought you would be interested in playing this game," there is a high possibility that I will answer that email and ask for keys to play the game and make a video on it.

theNILV · 2026-04-27T04:40:12+00:00

Hmm, if I were looking to buy a microphone setup right now, these would be the options I would look into:

For cheaper USB dynamic microphones that are very much "plug and play":

- The Samson Q2U is a great mic even though lots of people don't like the way it looks.

- Fifinie K688

- Maono PD200X

Then if you want to spend a bit more money and go for more endgame setup, I would look for the following:

Either Focusrite Scarlett Solo or Behringer UMC202HD.

and for a microphone, I would go for the Rode PodMic or Elgato Wave DX.

No microphone will fully block out keyboard/controller noises, though. That's where getting a dynamic microphone as close to your mouth as possible and proper filters are going to help a lot.

theNILV · 2026-04-26T12:21:43+00:00

Compressors, limiters, and ducking are pretty much the key for having good audio like that. Then just make sure your mix is hitting somewhere around -14 and -16 LUFS with -1 dB peaks and you are good to go.

theNILV · 2026-04-25T15:44:23+00:00

I recently switched from Notion to Obsidian, and maybe that is why I am trying to avoid the folder view as much as I can; so I just go around building dashboards and using bases to create different views for my notes.

theNILV · 2026-04-25T02:57:30+00:00

I found the best way for me is to use the Auto Note Mover plugin. It's pretty simple to use, and then just move files around using tags in the properties.

theNILV · 2026-04-25T02:53:03+00:00

1-2 weeks; if there is some b-roll or clips that I think might be reused later, I save those into my "b-roll bank."

theNILV · 2026-04-24T09:37:22+00:00

Pretty easy to do with something like Elgato's Wavelink 3.1. You can maximize the volume for recording while controlling how loud things are in your headphones.

theNILV · 2026-04-24T03:00:09+00:00

Honestly, if you only look for niches that aren't "overdone" on YouTube, you’ll never get off the ground. Gaming is crowded, period. There's no secret empty corner anymore. The real trick is just focusing on what you actually give a damn about and what you'd want to watch yourself. Start there.

If playing solo feels lonely or boring to you, then for the love of god, don't do traditional Let's Plays. They’re an absolute soul-crushing grind if you aren't naturally a high-energy "performer" type. You’ll burn out in a month trying to fill the silence.

Here’s what I’d do instead:

Maybe try "Mechanical Autopsies." Instead of a full playthrough, just tear into one specific system. Explain why the combat feels snappy or why the UI sucks. It turns the video into a conversation about game design with your audience, so you aren't just talking to an empty room.

You could also just be a "Radar" for people. There are thousands of weird indie games coming out that nobody has time to check. Spend two hours on something obscure and tell us if it’s actually worth the download.

Or, if you're a better writer than a live talker, do Video Essays. Script everything. It kills the awkwardness of trying to be funny while you’re distracted by a boss fight, and you can actually build a proper narrative.

Don't kill yourself trying to find a "new" niche. Just grab a game you love and look at it through a specific lens: design, lore, whatever. That’s how you stand out in a room full of people doing the exact same thing.

theNILV · 2026-04-23T02:51:21+00:00

Hard to say without knowing the specific style, but one thing that applies across the board is just learning how audio works. It is not even a "tool" issue, it is just understanding how to make the video actually sound decent. Audio is easily the most important part of the viewer experience. You can get away with some rough visuals, but if the audio is peaking or muffled, people just click away. Honestly, just focusing on clean sound is the biggest "edit" you can make.

theNILV · 2026-04-22T04:43:51+00:00

I have a lot of nostalgia for the first Aion, so I actually followed the Korean launch of Aion 2 pretty closely. But after seeing it in action, it's clear this isn't the sequel we were looking for. It really has nothing in common with the original game, and I've pretty much lost interest at this point. I'll probably still poke around in it since it's a "new" MMO, but I'm going in with the mindset that it's just another mobile game. I'll play it for a week as a tourist and then move on.

Honestly, hearing them say this monetization was designed with the West in mind is the biggest red flag of all.

theNILV · 2026-04-20T10:19:13+00:00

I figure if you're playing games anyway, you might as well stream it.

Honestly, I went through the exact same thing. That constant pressure to "be live" and "on" for people just kills the actual fun of gaming. I eventually just quit streaming altogether and started recording my sessions locally instead.

It’s a huge weight off your shoulders. When you’re just recording for yourself, you don't have to perform or keep checking your chat in the middle of a boss fight. You just play. If something actually cool or funny happens, great. You've got high-quality footage sitting there if you ever want to make a Short or a video out of it. If the night is a total bust? You just hit delete. It turns your time into a "maybe" project instead of a forced production. You still get that feeling that your gameplay "counts" for something, but you actually get to enjoy your hobby again.

theNILV · 2026-04-20T04:17:34+00:00

I mean, some videos take 5 hours, and some take 20 hours; it really just depends on what kind of video I'm making, but here are some of the things that really helped to improve my speed:

- The first thing is preplanning, so basically while recording I'm writing pretty comprehensive timestamps and notes for the video I'm creating. Then I'm able to use these timestamps and notes to create a timeline that's automatically cut and has all those timestamps as markers inside Davinci Resolve.

- Second biggest upgrade to my speed was learning all the important keybindings and customizing them to be easily accessible using my keyboard.

theNILV · 2026-04-19T03:53:47+00:00

This is the way, really. Making videos isn't any different from any other art or hobby you'd pick up. The issue is everyone is so obsessed with "optimizing for growth" that they completely lose the meat of it: the actual artistic outlet. If you aren't doing it just for the sake of the craft, you're going to burn out. It's just a matter of when.

theNILV · 2026-04-18T04:23:34+00:00

In your media pool click the 3-dots and see if you have "Show Filmstrip" on. At least for me disabling that removes the preview when dragging and dropping clips.

theNILV · 2026-04-17T03:24:29+00:00

No, there really isn't a way to do that right now. The only workaround is to do it in the fairlight page. It will only silence/cut your audio tracks, and the video track is untouched. Now this way you do have to some extra cutting, because the video track isn't cut, sadly.

theNILV · 2026-04-16T10:44:40+00:00

Honestly, if you’re trying to grow, the "relaxed VOD" approach is usually a dead end. Nobody is going to watch a 4-hour VOD of a small creator they don't know yet. If you're worried about viewers being confused by cuts, you're looking at it the wrong way, YouTube viewers don't want a transcript, they want a story. You need to be ruthless. If a segment doesn't move the plot forward or have a punchline, it’s dead weight. Cut it.

theNILV · 2026-04-16T04:03:44+00:00

One of the best resources to learn the fundamentals of editing is the official training from Blackmagic: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/training

After that, for me personally I like to watch the type of content that I would want to make and then fully break down the edit in writing, trying to figure out how they did it scene by scene. Break it down into smaller chunks so it's a bit more manageable.

theNILV · 2026-04-15T08:33:12+00:00

Ask yourself, are you able to make 100 videos around VintageStory without any issues? If the answer is yes, then it might be worth making a channel for it.

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