Guardian - ENVtuber 🛡️🪽

Another week, a ton more content. PLUS I get to showcase a brand new art piece this week that I am so excited for. I can't wait to see you all <3

I've seen a lot of talk about the cost of content creation and the potential financial reward (or lack thereof), but I don't often see people talk about the time commitment. So here is a rundown of how I, a small hobby content creator, spend my time. For context, I work a Monday to Friday 9-5. I stream at least 3 times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday) on Twitch, YouTube and X, release 4 short videos a week across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X and attempt to post at least daily on X. I try and intersperse social media interaction through out my work day. In the last 7 months I've gone from a CCV of 3 to butting up against a consistent double figure CCV. My shorts have gone from 10's of views to low quad figures with one semi-viral at 32k views. For available hours in the day we have the following: Mon: 5pm - 10:30pm = 5.5 hours Tue: 5pm - 10:30pm = 5.5 hours Wed: 5pm - 10:30pm = 5.5 hours Thur: 5pm - 10:30pm = 5.5 hours Fri: 5pm - 10:30pm = 5.5 hours Sat: 10am - 10:30pm = 12.5 hours Sun 10am - 10:30pm = 12.5 hours So I have roughly 52.5 hours of non-work and non-sleep hours. Tue and Thur I stream from 7pm and I get set up half an hour before so I lose 4 hours both those days. Sunday I stream from 11 until late so I lose basically 10 hours there. So that 52.5 hours becomes 34.5 hours. Sunday evening I plan the weeks content and schedule all the videos. That's another 2 hours. So Sunday is basically a write off and I'm down to 32.5 hours. The day after each stream I break down the footage from the day before. I do mark key moments but I still run over the footage again to make sure I don't miss clips. That takes about an hour per stream, so there goes another 3 hours so we're at 29.5 hours. Each short takes on average an hour to edit. So we lose another 4 hours. Yes, a 10 second video takes about an hour of rough cutting, editing, captioning, rendering, re-watching and more editing. So we're at 25.5 hours. Basically half my down time is direct content stuff. So what do I do with the remaining hours? Grinding. I tend to spend time grinding games off stream so I can focus on progression and story telling. At the moment that means back tracking in PRAGMATA to get all the power ups, same in Kingdom Hearts. I spent 6 hours the other night grinding in Monster Hunter to get geared to play with my Daughter. When I stream things like Wynrose and Valheim, I spend HOURS gathering resources, building bases and making gear for friends so when we stream I can just dive in. So there goes a bunch of hours every week. Then there is learning. I read/watch stuff from the likes of @chibidoki, @GeneralGEEGA, @EggieWeggieVT and many others. I then filter it through the lens of my own metrics, content and audience to try and improve what I'm doing. There is a LOT of looking at my metrics, retention rate, fall off rates etc to try and improve the content I create. There is no "Do this and win", you have to do the thinking yourself. Stream and content enhancements. Things like updating scenes and adding new redeems in StreamerBot. Maybe my model isn't responding well enough so I spend time re-configuring it. I spent 3 hours in the weekend redoing all my audio so I had split channels for me, discord and the game mix so my edits are cleaner (no more daughter swallowed by explosions). There is always something I can improve. Maybe some long form content. My Kingdom Hearts Rage Compilation took 15-20 hours of editing and got 34 views. But I loved it. Some of my story time video's pushed 40 hours of editing (hence I haven't had time for them). AND, on top of all this. I'm an adult, with a partner. So life admin, cleaning, groceries, hair cuts, taking my partner out, movies, trips. It doesn't leave a lot of time to just, relax. I'm always thinking of what I'm going to do next. This post I spent hours thinking about over the last few days. I do all of this for a couple of reasons: 1. To learn everything I can so I can help my content creator friends 2. To create a space for those that need it 3. For fun, because even with ALL of this stuff I do, I still enjoy it Everyone will be different in what they are doing. But this is just a glimpse into what my time commitment looks like, as a small streamer. I can't even IMAGINE the time investment for the bigger players, it really makes you appreciate what they do. Have fun out there <3 - Dad

@GoriVT Just know you have a ton of us in your corner <3

@GuardianAngelVT Thank you guardian my mind isn't settled on a path but I'll think

I've done some thinking today and I'm split on giving up editing and streaming. 60% of me wants to keep on going but the rest wants me to just hang up the mouse ya know?. Either way I'm still thinking

@KawfiiCawfee I think I finally hit too old, I don't know what I'm looking at

Oh my lawd

@sir_phobos_boa1 She does not need to be more dangerous

I think Reese would look good with a Berserk Fury~

@kiwitrashpanda Hell yeah, YouTube streaming is a great growth avenue. ESPECIALLY vertical streaming, the discoverability is so good :D

Started streaming to YouTube last night, my first ever stream there!! and i'm SO SO PROUD of myself 😭 by no means is this impressive but I now multi-stream to twitch (main platform), youtube, tiktok & X little goober raccoon be out here

I love my daughter very much, but she is so mean to me 😱. She just comes to stream to bully me.

@GoriVT You got this buddy <3

Thus begins work

@BookofVTubers @EldraEcho Biggest of hugs bud, that's a super hard decision to make and I really respect it <3

Friends, I’ve made the decesion to halt treatment, as i believe quality of life is more important than following a regimen that ultimately leads to an impasse. My best friend @EldraEcho has graciously offered to collect autographs for me at OffKai, additional details this week.

@KitsuneroVT It's the worst, waking to that hghn hghn hghn noise from somewhere in the house

I love being awoken by my cat throwing up

@MoriCorvyn @EggieWeggieVT @Greibach_VT It's all about why you do it in my opinion. It's a tough grind and if you feel like you're not heading towards your goals, you lose motiviation and quit. Content creation is a super tough gig.

@EggieWeggieVT @Greibach_VT I think I read somewhere that the average quit point for streamers overall, let alone vTubers, is about 2 years. I've managed to enjoy this for nearly 4 years now, with two of them being a rebrand to vTubing. But I'm also not a career vTuber, so maybe that is part of it.

I think the reason a lot of people graduate right after debut is not entirely because they "didn't blow up and so they quit." I'm sure that's part of it, because if they had blown up they probably wouldn't have quit. But the reality is that it takes a TON of mental energy, planning, money (in these cases anyway), and as Ludwig would put it, delusion to plan something big like that. You may be burning out before debuting the model, but you keep pushing because you've already invested so much in the debut, it becomes a sunk cost fallacy. When you finish, the burnout finally lands, and if you didn't move the needle, your body might finally just say "enough". It's much more complicated than just people being weak because they didn't blow up.

@sir_phobos_boa1 You'll get it worked out bud

I’m so sorry. Idk what’s happening, but my internet goes down for 30 mins at a time every 30 mins. And OBS is crashing every 10. I’m super sorry but this stream isn’t gonna work today until I fix whatever is happening. Sorry again…

What a STREAM!! On the positives, the new audio setup went great AND we got Raven back (mech repair bill did not like the second one). My clips will be even better now with the split audio. However between @AriaelVT getting attacked by power gremlins, SLOBs dropping one of my connections AGAIN and a mod update that made some missions a framey mess it was a little frustrating. But we fight on in this crazy content space. Pain is part of growth. Thank you so much for the raid @VelvettaLune, I always love seeing you and super appreciate you <3

@BigPapaLemonTTV I'm sorry you're feeling this way bud. Just remember there are still so many bright spots in this space, and you're one of them <3

I’m gonna be real honest, I feel that Vtubing as of right now is in a very bad state. Plagued with AI, scams, bots, most of the agencies are gone. Bullying and harassment it’s all over the place. To any new Vtubers, please be kind to one another and stay safe 🙏

@Ika_Blinky The Eagle?

Guess who just landed.

@sir_phobos_boa1 It's such an awesome model and it fits you so well

I LOVE my model <3 My Vtuber Momma did such a good job!!

🛡️Dad's Warring with the Clans🛡️[MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries] x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

@WynArctos I know, great thing about always being right 🤣

@GuardianAngelVT you also have people on your side of the debate...

Great thing about being an adult, I don't have to listen to ya'll.