Dear Youtube! 2024 has been the first time for me to try making YouTube content with all of you. I loved dreaming about the destination, and I've been so happy about the first part of the journey we shared together! Every comment has been a little encounter, a way to expand my horizons and share my passion about videogames with you.
I've been learning how to edit content the best and make it as accessible as possible for you.
With a new job coming up, making content has been harder, but my passion burned brighter day by day. Whether it was a new video or a live, I couldn't stay away from the channel for too long - and this is usually the sign that what you're doing is definitely for you!
This makes me happy, because it means it's a journey I'm probably meant to walk for a long time - a road I've been feeling I can belong to. But, as of any traveling merchant, I need to decide which is the next city to visit to find new things for you to enjoy! And this led me to think.
In the end, my conclusion has been one I wouldn't have expected at the beginning of the journey: I've been trying to talk about gacha games, my favorite genre, in many ways: I started by making guides for Star Rail and Aether Gazer, I pivoted around looking for three games to main and go deep with, as a second step. This made me feel a little bit trapped, so then I broadened my horizons, and thought about making "seasons" about exploring different game genres, not only in the gacha environment. But this wasn't the answer I was looking for either, as I had to leave behind games that I was actually playing at that time, and follow a strict schedule.
So in the end, having a fixed focus wasn't working, and having a fixed schedule of exploration felt not what I needed either. So, what was it? What was the content and the format that I wanted to deliver you?
During november, due to a pretty big impact with the new job, I tried to make lives, which come more natural, to keep in touch with what I love and talk about it. The feeling of going back to the same place to meet you all personally, and talk with you during the live was making me feel good, so I came back doing it without even noticing. But still, even that felt like I was leaving something important behind.
So I stopped at this inn, this blog of mine where I am writing this script - that you are listening to by my voice on youtube - to take a moment to collect my thought, together with my cat on the desk. And I think I finally got it.
What I dream about doing - that sometimes scares me, but that makes me happy - is to talk about games in a very... "human" way, talk about the feelings they convey, and the complex aspects I find... as a gamer! As you. So... what's the format that actually makes it possible?
I ended up calling this channel "The Videogame Journal", and I felt like it had a nice ring to it. I felt like it really belonged to the channel as a name. And the reason behind this is: I love logging my adventure about the games I try, and share the page with you, so that, maybe, you can share one line, or page even! with me as well, by writing comments, or talking about games with me as a host in the channel.
I want those memories to stay! I want everyone to be able to get those fragments when they feel like they need it, or just find them on google, when google realizes they can be useful for them. And this... really doesn't work with only lives, which are for people that already are sharing a trip with me, or that I meet on the road by chance.
Memories. Feelings. Questions. Riddles. All part of an adventurer's life. But... isn't it hard? To edit a video every time a memory, idea, or just a feeling, or doubt, comes up? Is that fast enough? Is it the answer?
I remember a youtuber that only wrote notes on a notepad, for Genshin Impact news. I stayed there, with him, to understand what to do with a game that was uncharted territory for me. There was no edit to the video, just... a notepad! And I found it charming. It's what inspired me to start making videos without worries.
As such, I want to share with you what I would give you if I was on a livestream: actual gameplay that has to do with what we're talking about! Cutscenes, character arts, or even notes - whether it be figma, or a tierlist, or any other mean - to log that memory for the future. To share it, to talk about it.
I am sure I'll have plenty of fun editing complex video with much gameplay, rhythm and cinematic during the channel lifespan - which may be my own lifespan, if everything goes nicely! But, for our everyday, I want to give you "the real thing": what I actually do, the moments that actually make me jump on the chair, smile, laugh or be disappointed. I want to share with you the reasoning I do every day when I try a new game, while I play the actual game, and not feel ashamed to do that.
So then, this is my decision! A channel that logs relevant memories about videogames I meet, in the order they happen, naturally - exactly as a traveling merchant going to a new city. Why should I give up on a nice new opportunity to get new stuff that I can then bring you if it's good quality? And, at the same time, I want to show you the world that my eyes meet when playing a game or solving a riddle: not a shiny video that may be a work of art but miss the point. I want you to be by my side, and touch the rarity we've been hunting for together! To feel it, to understand it without trying to make it look prettier.
This is the future I envision for "The Videogame Journal". The way that I think I can express my passion the best, and make it the most useful for you, my dear friend traveler.
Once again, thank you for being here with me listening to this diary page. Know that much content will end up on thevideogamejournal.com, so, if you prefer just reading and seeing images across, that's the place for you!
Oh, and keep in mind you're invited as an editor too! Just contact me at my Discord handle, @neroatlas, if you have this in mind and you'd like to participate in this voyage by joining the fun of making content.
This is Nero Atlas, and this is our plan for 2025.
Oh, and it's not "signing out" anymore! This year it would rather be... "logging in"!