SilentEllipsis

I never thought this would be necessary, but given the state of content creation overall, here's my personal Gen AI policy: Nope.

I don't use LLMs or Generative AI tools at all. The only interaction I have with Gen AI tools is stuff getting pushed into my face without my consent all the time.

For me, this isn't even a big moral stand - I just don't have any desire to use these tools. The entire reason I started a YouTube Channel was to give myself a creative outlet, and I actually enjoy the entire inefficient, quirky creative process I follow, from writing scripts, to recording, to collecting footage, to editing the whole thing together. I don't want to offload my creative process. I don't want to make things easier for myself. I intentionally choose to play difficult games because that makes them interesting, and I intentionally choose to make videos that require a ton of work because that's more satisfying.

Of course the big trade off here is that I can't pump out content quickly. Once I started monetizing my channel I did feel the pressure of needing to continually release content, and there are whole weeks that pass when I'm thinking about how to word a script that I know could have been spent making a lower-effort video. But that is a trade off I've always been making, and I believe that I make better content that I can be proud of when I give myself time and let ideas bake and coalesce in my own quirky, personal way.

And of course there are bigger issues to grapple with about Generative AI, like the fact that we all became convinced to call it "AI" in the first place when it's a deeply misleading term, the fact that it uses enormous resources that could be better spent on other things, or the fact that we're all being basically forced to help train new models. Honestly, I hate the current state of things. I do also suspect that some genuinely useful tools will eventually emerge from all of this, but the current state of this technology is deeply irrational and is causing real harm that is avoidable.

I can't solve any of that right now, but I can make it clear to any of my viewers that wondered, especially after other high-profile cases on YouTube, what my own AI Policy is. I'm just going to keep making things the hard way, and hope that if I make things I feel good about, others will appreciate them. Maybe that will result in me getting lost in a flood of slop, but I'm focused on the thing I can control, which is me.

As I write this, I have a half-written Silksong lore video script in my other tab, and it's taking me way longer to write than I expected. And right now, that feels just fine.

2 months ago | [YT] | 426

SilentEllipsis

The Grand Unified Theory has been viewed a half-million times as of today, which is a number I'm having trouble wrapping my head around. Sincerely thank you to everyone new and old who has engaged with my videos - this is pretty cool.

I'm currently working on a Silksong script (or two), and threw my hat in the ring to get into the Duskbloods network test, so those are things to keep an eye out for. There are plenty things yet to come, but this feels like a meaningful milestone to me.

2 months ago | [YT] | 293

SilentEllipsis

Coming soon: a Hades 2 video! This is a slight pivot, so if you have any interest, do please watch this one early to give the algorithm a kickstart. It's probably coming tomorrow, and there are several other scripts I'm actively working on to catch up on discussing games that have come out in the last year or so.

I appreciate you all, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on this one!

5 months ago | [YT] | 76

SilentEllipsis

Welp, the algorithm has spoken. I posted the new dragon video with several thumbnails, and one of them was much more colorful than the others.

Nonetheless, the actual metrics showed that the reasonable thumbnail had better traction - probably because it actually matches the tone of the video, so that's now what's visible to all viewers.

To some extent I'm impressed that you all weren't more swayed by a wild thumbnail, but I know that this thumbnail also had a lot of fans, so it's available for posterity here: www.patreon.com/posts/wild-thumbnails-152982833?ut…

I actually spent way longer than you would guess experimenting with different ways to super-impose rainbows on images, so I'm glad that it got some appreciation.

If you haven't watched the new video yet, I promise that it's more than just clickbait, but making one bait thumbnail was mandatory.

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7 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 195

SilentEllipsis

Two things: firstly, thank you to everyone for engaging with the Grand Unified Theory Remaster. I was really uncertain if the effort I was putting into it would be worthwhile, but it clearly has allowed the ideas to reach a new audience.

Secondly, next up is The Lost Dragon God, and this one is going to be a doozy. The script is done, but I do keep going back and tweaking it, and it'll probably be a few weeks until there's a finished video. But it's coming.

9 months ago | [YT] | 400

SilentEllipsis

The Great Video is nearly upon us. The Complete Grand Unified Theory is coming in at over 3 hours, and that means that a lot of the final-check steps take a long time, but it should be ready to release tonight or tomorrow. I encourage you to give it a watch even if you've already seen the whole GUT, both because it looks real nice now and because early engagement will really help with the algorithm, and there are still viewers who will be encountering it for the very first time.

After this, as promised, I will be making an Ancient Dragons episode that will be all new, mind-blowing connections and analysis that you haven't heard anywhere else (unless you're on my Discord and chatted with me about the core outline).

After that, I have a proper plethora of ideas for further content. I'm happy to get feedback here and will probably post polls on my Patreon, but at the end of the day it might come down to raw inspiration.

Thanks, and expect content to drop soon.

9 months ago | [YT] | 281

SilentEllipsis

The Grand Unified Theory is back, baby! I'm coming back to a series of topics I didn't address in my previous Elden Ring videos and frequently asked questions addressed in the form of GUT Check.

The full script is much longer than I expected, so I'm going to break it down into three medium-sized episodes: Missed Connections, Answered Questions, and The Point. Each episode will include brand new lore insights and connections that I haven't brought up anywhere else.

I'm also going to release a remastered version of the Grand Unified Theory as one master video shortly after completing GUT Check. Removing distracting audio quirks from the first episode, touching up minor visuals, and re-rendering the whole series at 60 fps with updated codecs should make for a better overall experience.

Editing is underway, and with the three-episode plan I should be able to release them in relatively quick succession. Fingers crossed that goes smoothly and we have a fully remastered experience around the first anniversary of this channel's start.

Wish me luck.

11 months ago | [YT] | 268

SilentEllipsis

Content is coming! My computer issues have been resolved (enough) and I am almost done editing my next video on Diegetic Death.

This will feature Souls games in the context of larger video game history, and it's a bit of an experiment in terms of structure and scope, so keep an eye out for it and give it the ole algorithm-massaging engagement.

The plan is to be back to full production power after this, so expect even more stuff coming down the pipeline.

1 year ago | [YT] | 70

SilentEllipsis

Announcements and Tribulations: So I was planning to announce that editing is underway for a new video on Diegetic Death, but instead my computer bricked itself today. Obviously that means delays.

But since I can't just post a video, I will use the power of text. I have in fact been continuing to work on things, including:

1. Several people have asked me to start a Discord channel, so I'm going to go ahead and set that up, largely for people to discuss Elden Ring lore and expand on ideas (or debate each other about the ending of Clair Obscur), but also to give you all a way to influence me into making videos you'd be interested in.

2. I have a sound designer friend who has offered to help me with audio stuff, and among other things is helping me turn some of my content into a podcast, starting with the Grand Unified Theory episodes.

3. Since I'm updating audio anyway, I'm also going to remaster the visuals for the GUT and release a combined master Grand Unified Theory video with cleaner visuals and audio. Assuming my main computer gets fixed.

4. I'm at the editing stage for my Diegetic Death video, which takes a big-picture view of death and failure mechanics in games, and particularly on the influence that Demon's Souls had on game narratives.

5. I'm also writing GUT Check, which address common questions and extra details I had to cut from my Grand Unified Theory episodes, which I'm hoping to release alongside the remastered complete GUT.

6. I'm planning to actually start a Patreon soon, and have been coming up with some unusual cool rewards for subscribing that are more interesting than early video access, including a full playable metroidvania game I made.

And I have even more ideas coalescing. Perhaps I'm being punished for my hubris and for trying to do too much at once. Maybe I'll just drown my sorrows in Silksong for a few days until my main editing computer is back online. In the meantime, if you want a free invite to that discord before it becomes cool, email me at silentellipsisyt@gmail.com

And let me know if you have any ideas for things I should do while my main computer is busy respawning.

1 year ago | [YT] | 76

SilentEllipsis

So it turns out I have a lot to say about Nightreign...

But first, thanks to everyone who engaged with my Clair Obscur Ending video, and welcome to everyone who just discovered my channel. My next video will be on Elden Ring: Nightreign, and then I will (finally) do a video on a larger aspect of narrative game design that I've had in mind for a while. I feel reassured that I can afford to branch out a bit and do a variety of videos.

Of course, I finished my whole Nightreign script and started editing just in time for other prominent channels to post their lore videos, so now I have homework - watching them all just to make sure I'm aware of the state of the Loretuber community. Either way, that video is well under way and hopefully will be ready sometime next week.

Oh, and if you're wondering, I'm playing Nightreign on Playstation, and generally just match with randos, so if you're on the same system there's a chance I'll run into you there.

1 year ago | [YT] | 92