Selected Genre Series [SGS]

I think this might be the shortest entry yet in my series of entries about my YouTube series. My smallest, and least viewed series:

Selected Genre Series [SGS]

Status: Ongoing - MAKE A SUGGESTION PEOPLE

This is the first and only series I've ever come up with that has been purely dictated by my audience. It was an experiment, to say the least, and almost no one wanted to join in on the fun. One of the things that helps bolster your audience's confidence, and helps you to build a sense of community with them is allowing them to participate in your content. I decided that one of the best ways to do that, was to let people choose exactly what they wanted to see. Thus, the Selected Genre Series was born! 

I was trying to come up with a somewhat catchy name for it, and while I was writing down a bunch of them, I started to think up what their acronyms would end up being. SGS was definitely the best of the ones I came up with, purely based on the fact that Akuma/Gouki (豪鬼) from Street Fighter's ultimate attack shares the same acronym. For those of you not in on the loop, his ultimate ability is called the "Raging Demon" in English, but in Japan it's the Shun Goku Satsu (瞬獄殺 -- or translated as "Instant Hell Murder"). I went with this because I felt as though since I started as, and still am primarily a channel for fighting games, that people might stumble across the series every once in a while while searching for one of the most popular Street Fighter characters of all time. Unfortunately, it didn't really work in my favor. 
Anyway, the way that this series works is actually pretty simple. Since I have SO many games, I wanted people to let me show them something fun from my vast archives. You give me a genre of game, and I give you a video showcasing a game in my collection that I think either not enough people know about, or that I find to be really fun/special! The only person to actually suggest anything is my friend Cam, the leader of Team Rushdown.
His first suggestion was platformer, and for that, I decided I would film my very first game for the Sega Genesis, Mystic Defender. 

Even though this was the absolute first game I ever got for my Genesis, I have NEVER beaten it. Really, I've never gotten past the same stage. I miss the difficulty and the playstyle of these older platformers, where the only way to win was basically to memorize everything that was going to happen, and then figure out a way around it. Man... Speaking of incomplete games on the Genesis, that's basically my entire collection. hahahahhahaa. This is one of a few times I used my actual camera to record footage, and as you can see, it's really not that stellar, one of the reasons I'm working towards a new camera to film things that I can't grab with the EasyCap! Sure, I could download a ROM of the game, but that's not as fun as just plugging it into my Genesis and blowing 30 times before the game actually loads, now is it?! 

The second genre that Cam picked for me was puzzle, and for that I grabbed a lesser-known puzzler on the PSN called Critter Crunch. If you've ever played Bubble Bobble/Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move, you will probably LOVE this game. On top of that, it's also ADORABLE. I just might play with Liz at some point! You can view a small sampling of Critter Crunch right here on the blog if you'd like!

Besides, who doesn't want to vomit rainbows into their children's mouths. Come on, that's love.  yeah, wat?

Anyway, anyone can contribute to this series, just give me a genre you'd like to me to showcase, and I will do just that! I suppose it would work better if people had a little more confidence in me with requests, but I mean, come on, I do get to all your requests, just... maybe years after you stop caring about YouTube. This was supposed to help build up confidence, but I guess it didn't work all that well, unfortunately. Maybe things will change for me in the future? 

As Strider Hiryu would say: 

"Who can see the future? Those who create it."

Otaku Hell

I'm sure many of you on the YouTubs have thought about doing a gaming related podcast, or episodic web show or... something of that nature. I am with you on that one! And alongside GrimJak, PianoNox, JackBauer and with a little help from The Burning Punch X it actually happened for me! 

Otaku Hell

Status: Ended - However, the status may change in the future ;)

This was our first real attempt at a show, and actually, pretty much my first attempt at getting footage with a camera and then also footage of games and mashing them up. It actually took a hell of a long time to edit properly, especially since I started doing this in Windows Movie Maker... With the constant crashing and freezes and all that jazz, it really did take a hell of a lot longer than it should have. What's funny about me saying that is that even though I just bashed the hell out of Windows Movie Maker, I still do use it from time to time. One might say I'm a glutton for punishment, in this particular case!

I guess you could also say that this was my first attempt at collaboration! I actually just realized that as I was proofreading what I had written so far. I mean, most of my videos before this involve other people, like my buddies GrimJak and co., but Otaku Hell marked the first time I collaborated with another YouTube creator, my buddy The Burning Punch X (<-- You should all go take a look at his channel). Do you see what I just did there? That's really the greatest benefit of collaboration on YouTube, and why you should consider it. For the most part, the people you would be collaborating with should, for all intents and purposes, have a somewhat similar theme, and thus have somewhat of the same audience. When you collaborate, especially when you're a smaller channel like us, you have the potential to let's call it... Cross-pollinate your audience. You can bring new people in from the other person's audience to your own channel, while giving the other person a chance to grab some new fans from your own audience. Believe me, this helps out in a big way, for both of you!

Well, now that I've made a point to show you the greatness of the idea of collaboration, lemme go back and tell you about this particular series. We tackled one basic issue. I will post right here on the blog for your enjoyment, the first episode. We tackled the issue of whether or not games have gotten harder or easier over time.

We unfortunately digressed quite a bit from our original topic, but we finished up what we had to say in the second episode, which actually led to a lot of things. However, this is where Grimjak got his unofficial, and probably most HATED nickname of all; "Eat that shit," or just ETS for short. Actually, since I became a partner with Fullscreen and was able to open a spreadshirt store, I made a shirt specifically to commemorate this occasion, and if you feel so inclined, you can check it out on the Okamigakure Spreadshirt store! Look for "The Toad." Lemme tell you, being a partner with fullscreen is really cool, so many opportunities I never woulda gotten if I just stayed by myself.  

Back on topic though, this is an issue that a lot of gamers have been talking about in recent years, what with the whole notion of hand-holding in games taking an unprecedented level in game design. I think I would say more than anything else, rather than games getting harder or easier, at this point in time it's more like the developers have started to think we as gamers are just not as mentally capable as we used to be. It's somewhat... degrading actually, when you think about it. Even casual gamers can grasp most concepts if they stare at them for a while. You don't really need to be as rude about it with your tutorials. 

In any case, one of the ways to get views and expand your channel is to talk about current events and other things related to your field that are 'hot-button' issues. Vloggers practically do this for a living, but it can help gamers too, if you talk about things that are occurring within our particular microcosm of the [media] world. While this series didn't get as far as we had hoped it would, it was still a lot of fun to do. It was also kind of a celebration of the support I got from all of you guys over the years, since I had started. Though, in retrospect I realize it's a little weird to reward support and community with something totally different than the content you generally provide, it at least gave me a little more experience with editing multiple videos together and it also taught me about voiceovers. 

Also, we released a blooper reel to celebrate my 200th subscriber-- waaaay back in 2009. Let's hope I can get to 300 before the end of this year, since I'm really giving YouTube my all, just like I used to. As of this very moment, I am at 286 subscribers. I think 300 subs is not too hard a goal to achieve in a year, and I am READY.

For your enjoyment, the Otaku Hell blooper reel.

Naruto Gekitou Ninjataisen 4/ナルト-激闘忍者対戦4 1v3s

Yes, sorry, that title is a mouthful, but this a post about the series I put up originally just to show off, back in the day. Yes, I can be kind of a dick, it happens.

1 vs 3 Matches/1対３勝負

Status: On Hold | Reasoning: I am currently ass at this game.

When I was thinking about how I was going to write this entry, to tell you about this series, I was debating on what I should put the status as. Considering I started putting up these videos waaaaay back in '06, it might be odd that I have chosen to post this as 'On Hold' instead of 'Ended' or 'Complete,' but, hear me out.

For years and years, this was my absolute favorite game of all time, there was nothing better than Naruto: Gekitou Ninjataisen 4 (ーナルトー激闘忍者対戦4) for the GameCube. To this day, at parties, we still dust off my GameCube and Freeloader and bust this puppy out. Though there are (and still continue to be in the series) quite a few issues, like... for example, how all my friends refer to being "Naruto'd" when we're playing a game-- i.e. facing the wrong way and whiffing or dying because of it, it's still one of the most fun fighting game series you can get your hands on. The controls are simple, though less simple since they added all the motion controls and the handseals... But I digress, it's an easy game to pick up and play, but it takes quite a while to master. We happen to like this one best, probably because of the roster, it's got just about every single character you could want. Many of whom never appeared in an American Clash of Ninja (CoN is the English title of the series, though the actual name, when translated is something akin to "Furious Ninja War") game. Characters like the Sound Four for example.

Playing this game just about every day after school with friends helped me to get away from the sadness and stuff I was feeling at home, so it just felt right to spend as much time as possible working on it. I got to be pretty decent at it, to be able to fight off three enemies at once, with just about every character. I decided recently that I'd like to go back and finish it off, with the EasyCap, instead of my broken USB webcam taped to the door of my PC Tower recording my TV. No joke, that's how I recorded a lot of the footage I got. Also, I used a DOS microphone that I actually have on my desk right now as a backup, hahaha.

Anyway, this series was kind of just me showing off, in a game that I spent probably... the most time I have ever spent in a single game. Though I don't play anymore, I'm still at least decent. It also was a very easy branch off from MUGEN, since I had been doing my series Konoha vs the World there. It was natural to move onto something also Naruto related. I basically have Naruto, as a series, to thank for much of my popularity on YouTube. Konoha vs the World and Gekitou Ninjataisen 4 helped me connect with the community and get creative about games!

I put up 11 videos before I grew tired of the series, but I hope to one day have at least one video up for each of the characters in the game in a 1v3 setting. The characters I used so far are: Itachi, Kisame, Kimimaro, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kyuubi Naruto (One Tail), Curse Seal Level 2 Sasuke, Neji (R.I.P.), and then I have two videos of Shikamaru, showcasing both his costumes because my first video of Shikamaru in his Genin outfit had no sound, so I put up one in his Chuunin outfit to make up for it.  

I think that if I go back and finish all the missions, I will be back up to at least par, for where I was skill-wise back in the day. I actually have lost my data for this game multiple times, so it's not like I haven't put many hours into the missions already, but there are at least 200, I would say. When I stopped playing it regularly, my friend Christian, though some of you may know him as Kage Makoto, from the old Okamigakure forums (Instead of the forums, we now communicate via Facebook on the Official Okamigakure page.), got waaay better skill-wise than me. Maybe when I get back into my groove, I'll have some matches up, since it still is technically a staple at parties for my crew. I also need to go back and finish, as a request, a remade video of all the 3 man cell team attacks in the game, since my current Three Man Cell Team Attacks video is actually missing a few. 

The important thing I learned from this series in regards to videos on YouTube are how strange, yet important the metadata for your videos can be. For those that don't know, metadata in regards to YouTube refers to things like tags and annotations. Also if you didn't know, you can only have a set number of tags on each video. I still haven't actually figured out what the maximum criteria is, but I do know one thing, and that is you can actually exceed the maximum length for tags if you use more than one language. It used to be that you could add half the length of the original tags in English in a second or third language (Since I can also type in Japanese and Chinese, this has helped me). The tags on your video are also what help people to find your video through search, and also through 'recommended videos.' It's not just the Title of the video that is important, your tags matter too! 

My first YouTube Stream -- Things to know about Live Events on YouTube

So I finally made the decision that it was about time to try out the streaming *cough* I mean "live events" feature on YouTube. I applied to be a part of it, and I figured I damn well ought to try it out, eventually. If you don't mind having a headache, you can view it right here on the blog!

Normally, I spend my time streaming on Twitch.tv, but I decided that I should probably at least test and make sure I could stream on YouTube. I've spent the last couple weeks doing a little research here and there, trying to figure out how exactly you can stream on YouTube. YouTube wants you to stream with their proprietary streaming program, I believe it's called WireCast, but it only accepts one input, unless you want to pay $99. HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHA NO. 

I was looking online and I found out that you can actually use OBS to stream on YouTube, and since I use that normally, I figured that that would be my best bet. So when I was reading the tutorial for how to set up OBS to stream for YouTube, I found out that first of all, the tutorial was for an older version of OBS, that didn't have any presets for YouTube. That should have been my first clue that things were going to go awry... Anyway, now there are presets, so it's not as hard to set up. However, there are quite a few fundamental differences in how you stream on Twitch as opposed to YouTube. 

First of all, when you're going to have a Live Event on YouTube, you must first set up beforehand your Start and End time. The End time is not as important as your Start time, but the thing you need to know is that your stream is ONLY visible during the time inbetween your start and end time. You also CANNOT resume your stream if you hit "End Streaming" from the 'Live Control Room.' There's no going back. I also found out, much to my dismay, that once you hit the end stream button, YouTube basically kicks you out of the live control room and immediately acts like your stream is a regular video. Thus, you cannot see what people are saying anymore, as 'comments' on your Stream.

The Live Control Room is actually the way that you tell YouTube how and when to add ads (If you're able to), and how to start and end your stream. It also has a handy "STREAM STATUS" section. I chose to go as low a setting as possible for a decent stream, at 360p, just to make sure nothing would go wrong with frame rate. HOWEVER, choosing 360p was a problem because the moment I started to stream, my status went from GOOD to BAD. It told me, for basically the entire duration of my stream that I needed to change my height to 360, and for the life of me, I could not achieve anything to that end, no matter what I tried. However, I do not think the video quality or the framerate was ever that bad, but I haven't really had a chance to figure it out.

The Live Events feature itself had also updated since the tutorial I was looking at was added. There are now two options when streaming, using a Google+ Hangout (Which I know nothing about), or a custom encoder (<-- Choose this option if you want to use OBS or WireCast, I would imagine). I found out that once you put in the initial information for a live event, and thus 'create one' so it appears on the Live Events section of your page, you CANNOT go back and change it. I accidentally did the Google+ hangout option, and could not change it, so I had to delete the entire live event and start anew, which was very frustrating to me. There should definitely be an option to fix that large of a mistake.

Also, Stream Keys work totally differently on YouTube than Twitch. On Twitch you get a set stream key, and that allows you to broadcast at any time. From what I understand, once you create a Live Event on YouTube, you get a stream key, that changes EVERY SINGLE TIME, based on what time your event is scheduled for. That in itself is a hassle, and I'm sure a lot of people will mess that up. Supposedly the Control Room and thus most likely streaming as a whole is in beta, but there are lots of things that still need to be fixed.

When I actually got to streaming, I finally got rid of the echo completely, but there was a TERRIBLE squealing, that I could not silence, no matter what! I muted both audio input sources (My EasyCap and my Microphone), but it was still there, angry as ever. That's why I said if you can stand headaches you can watch... I have never had it that loudly or as much of an annoyance. A lot of the people that came to watch left because I could not get rid of it. On top of that, the time discrepancy between when you record and when the audience actually sees what you recorded is absolutely atrocious. I was posing questions and I would get replies 2 or more minutes after I had said anything. My girlfriend was commenting on things that happened so long ago on-screen that I had no idea what she was talking about anymore... I had originally envisioned streaming on YouTube as the perfect outlet for vlogs, since I could get audience participation and have some fun with my friends, but... With the huge lag in recording>viewing, that would make my kind of stream impossible. 

There's also the fact that streaming on YouTube is not meant to be done for long durations. Apparently, YouTube can only save the footage of a live event for up to 4 hours. After that, you won't get a copy of the video. I know plenty of people that literally stream day and night. 

All in all, I do not think the Live Events feature will be used very much by myself in the future, at least not until it comes out of beta. 

Adventures in the Negative Zone

I'm not actually going to go in the order in which I made the playlists, since some of them were compiled in a playlist long after they were actually completed. So, next up was my first real attempt at a Let's Play:

Adventures in the Negative Zone

Status: Complete

Now, when I got my EasyCap, that was the first time I ever really considered doing a Let's Play. However, as I am entirely indecisive, I couldn't decide what I wanted to play, or with who... So, we just sort of started to film exactly what we were playing. I had already beaten the Wii version of Avengers Alliance on my roommate's Wii at college, so I knew the next section of the game was somewhat self-contained, and I decided that that would be a good test of whether or not Let's Plays/walkthroughs would be a good idea. At the time, I hadn't considered adding my voice or video to the video, I was just trying to see if I could get the EasyCap to play as a sustained video.
I was also having issues that I still have to this day with it, but I have since realized that there will always be somewhat of an issue with video quality when you are splitting the video portion (The yellow wire of the RCA cables) into multiple inputs. I also have a somewhat on/off again issue where the video file for the EasyCap has this annoying squealing noise. It's mostly been worked out since then though. 

Double-Time (Or, more commonly known as D-T, but has since taken to JB for JackBauer -- who you can find on Twitch.tv) joined me for this series, and it's really the first time I ever thought of doing multiplayer  LPs as well. The videos themselves are of varying qualities because I was trying to test the outputs from ULead. This series also marked the first time I would ever add text to a video, which would definitely come to help me out later. We actually did die a couple of times in the video, and with that I realized that you don't necessarily need to be a perfect player for people to watch your stuff.

I guess you could say that for all the testing the waters I did with this series, it turned out okay. Up until quite recently, actually, I've had people ask if I'd ever do a whole LP of Ultimate Alliance 2. While I don't think I would at this point in time, I have actually considered the idea. I played through Ultimate Alliance 1 and 2 on the Wii, and then I went out and bought X-Men Legends I & II but I haven't actually beaten/played through either of those either. Maybe after I play them I'll go back to Ultimate Alliance and give them another shot. I do miss Psylocke, after all!
While the videos in this series have a nominal amount of views, the video with the most in the series happens to be the one where Iron-Man from one of the cutscenes is the thumbnail. That would be Adventures in the Negative Zone 2: 

Okay, so to add onto the point I made about custom thumbnails in my post about Konoha vs the World, I mean, it also helps if the thumbnail in general can grab someone's attention, regardless of how professional it looks. Iron-Man from the cutscene really looks nothing like the in-game graphics, so I'm sure it piqued someone's interest. For the most part, when YouTube chooses an image for thumbnails, it sort of... changes them in some slight way, like, there's a zoom effect, and generally speaking, it's a little more pixelated than that frame actually is in the video, probably due to the zoom effect. I just happened to get lucky with a cutscene appearing in one of those preselected thumbnails.
I also found out that it can be quite difficult figuring out where and when you want to break up footage. What I've found to be most useful is to break it up where a break naturally occurs, so it doesn't lose the audience. Let's be real, nobody likes cliffhangers. 

It's also better, when you don't have a steady following, to keep things short and sweet, since people that are only viewing your page/profile for a short period of time need to get all they can get in one sitting. Something I should have learned from this playlist is that it's relatively small, but the views are mostly in the same range (not counting AitNZ2 and AitNZ4, which have a lot more views than the rest), meaning that at least some people watched it the whole way through. 

Speaking of those two having more views than the rest, since I became a partner with Fullscreen, I've gained access to applications that can track what people are searching for when they find your videos, and I just might track those two videos and see how they are being found far more than the rest of the series. Tags  REALLY do help guys, so don't neglect them! 
I think for a new LPer, or someone new to YouTube without a significant following, it might be best if you kept the games you're playing through to a maximum of 10-15 videos. Now, I'm not saying that you ABSOLUTELY, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES CANNOT EXCEED THIS NUMBER- but it might be in your best interest. 
ALSO ALSO ALSO, if you're trying to keep your content coming, remember that it's actually significantly better if you are to grab A METRIC BUTT-TON of footage in one sitting, and then edit it down for upload at a later date, than it is to just grab exactly what you need in one go... That's something I've spent almost my entire tenure on YouTube figuring out...

Konoha vs the World

Hey everyone! I'm back, and I wanted to share with you something new that I'll be starting, to get people who haven't been with me a while up to speed on the series that I put out on YouTube. So, I figure I might as well start with pretty much the first thing I did on YouTube:

Konoha vs the World/木の葉対ザーワールド

Status: Ended | Reasoning: Loss of Interest

The very first series I started on YouTube was actually just an outward showing of my undying love and adoration for the ninja series Naruto (ナルト) by Masashi Kishimoto. As of right now, there are 17 rounds [Read: videos] in total, but I do not plan on adding any more to the series. I put the reasoning up as loss of interest, but there are also other factors for me not continuing with the series. 

One of the major factors is that I do not keep up with what's totally new in MUGEN like I used to. This has a lot to do with Elecbyte coming back and the subsequent additions/edits to the engine that have been going on. If you know me in any capacity, you'll know that I pretty much hate change, so... The whole moving on thing has to be totally wonderful for me to be on board (What they did to Soul Calibur V, with the changing of guard impacts and adding in the equivalent of hypers, for example, totally has made me swear off the series as a whole). I have decided recently though, that once I finish filling up my current normal-size MUGEN, I might actually move onto 1.0, but that's quite a bit down the road. There's also the fact that I have since separated my MUGEN into regular size characters (and characters that were intended to be played with regular size characters, like Iggy from JoJo's and Kobun, the Servbot with a Sentinel Stand, a la JoJo's) and then a separate MUGEN just for chibis. This takes away a lot of what made Konoha vs the World interesting, and also it splits the teams up and their enemies. I also don't really collect any more chibi characters, so what I've got, is what I've got, and the majority of new Naruto characters being released are chibis. 

In any case, the series started pre-Time Skip, and I originally had three teams. In each episode I would have a four man squad of Konoha ninja, and I would fight a random squad of four characters from my MUGEN. If a Konoha ninja was defeated, they would move to the back of the squad for the next video. If you want to see what it was like at the beginning, here is Round 1. For some reason, I cannot find Round 1 in the search results, thus I cannot post it on the blog itself. 

For the first Seven videos, the formula remained exactly the same, three teams against enemies. The teams are as follows:

• Team 1: LEE_COSPLAY from MUGENChina [Most likely authored by Misamu], Naruto by Drowin, Shikamaru_COSPLAY from MUGENChina [Most likely authored by Misamu], Kiba_COSPLAY [Most likely authored by Misamu]

This team appeared in Rounds 1, 4, 7 and 11.

• Team 2:  Sakura by Cyanide, Chouji_COSPLAY + Hinata_COSPLAY, + Neji_COSPLAY from MUGENChina [Author is most likely Misamu]

This team appeared in Rounds 2, 5, 9 and 12.

• Team 3: Tenten_COSPLAY + Ino_COSPLAY + Sarutobi_COSPLAY from MUGENChina [Author is most likely Misamu], Sasuke by Cyanide

This team appeared in Rounds 3, 6, 10 and 13.

• Team 4: Shino_COSPLAY + Sakura_COSPLAY + Naruto_COSPLAY + SASUKE_COSPLAY from MUGENChina [Author is most likely Misamu]

This team appeared in Rounds 8 and 14.

With Round 8 I tried to change things up by adding a new team. However, there was an enormous break as I ventured off onto different things on YouTube between Rounds 14 and 15. I tried to bring back the magic by incorporating themes from the actual series, like the timeskip and characters dying, but technical issues and stuff got in my way. However, the teams were remade to reflect the changes and they became:

• Post-Timeskip Team 1:  Naruto_COSPLAY + SASUKE_COSPLAY + Shino_COSPLAY + Sakura_COSPLAY from MUGENChina [Author is most likely Misamu]

This team appeared in Round 15.

• Post-Timeskip Team 2: ino_COSPLAY from MUGENChina [Author is most likely Misamu], Chuunin Shikamaru by jordz187, Chouji_COSPLAY + Temari_COSPLAY from MUGENChina [Author is most likely Misamu] 

This team appeared in Round 16.

• Post-Timeskip Team 3: NEJI_COSPLAY from MUGENChina [Author is most likely Misamu], LEE by hyuga, tenten_COSPLAY from MUGENChina [Author is most likely Misamu], Sakura by Cyanide 

This team appeared in Round 17.

And, with 17, I just kind of stopped caring. That, and I wasn't into MUGEN as much anymore, technical difficulties and all that jazz too, reared their ugly heads, so I just kinda gave up. 
The things to note from this series are that recently I went back and made custom images for each of the videos, using actual sprites I ripped through fighter factory, and when I didn't have the characters anymore, I took screenshots of the video and tried my best to extract the sprites that I needed. For some reason, when you're working on YouTube, if you have a custom thumbnail, as opposed to an image that was preselected by YouTube itself, the chances are increased that someone will stop and watch your video. You would think that if people knew what they were in for, they'd be more likely to click it, but that's just not true. There's also the fact that a lot of these videos are from my total noob era where I had the STUPID watermark from my unregistered screen recorder up there. I mean, I have more recently had the same problem, but that's only 'cuz of even MORE technical difficulties. In the beginning though, I was just new. The original series of videos, say... 1-13 or so are also INCREDIBLY LOUD, so be aware of the fact that they will probably [Read: DEFINITELY] blow your eardrums out if you've got headphones on. This is also the series I really realized how helpful annotations could be, and really, I began playing around with them because of it. While not a 'pro' (Can you even be a pro at putting up annotations?), I've certainly become much more well-versed in their uses because of Konoha vs the World. This is also one of the only series I have where you can actually get a glimpse of the custom themes/stages I have selected for characters in my MUGEN, since I am using an arcade mode as opposed to watch mode.
Also, out of NOWHERE quite recently, I got hit with an audio copyright claim on Round 14, and it has had no sound since then. 
There is only one particular video in this series that is anything special, though I have never been able to figure out why, and that's Round 10: 

For some reason, for years and years, Round 10 was my most watched video (As of this very moment, it has 46, 639 views), and to this day, I still have no idea why. Maybe it's because of the Lee vs Sasuke rivalry or something... Combined with Mai Shiranui's boobies or... I dunno what. It's also possibly got the most annoyingly grating theme of any video in the series, which I find kind of funny. The theme that plays in this video is the one I have set for Mai Shiranui in my MUGEN, "You Want To Pet Me, Right...?" from the .Hack//Dusk OST. I believe it was Ouka's theme. Since Mai is the anchor of the opposing team, the level and theme I have set for her played.  

Stuff I'm working towards

So, with all this stuff seemingly going my way, I've decided that there's definitely room for improvement, especially in regards to my tech and all the rest of that good stuff! So, I decided to make a post about what I'm going to be working towards acquiring in the future. 
The first thing on this list was going to be an HDMI-DVI cable, so that I could use my projector on my PC, and thus work off two monitors at once. In the few times I've streamed from my new PC, since I'm using my old, tiny monitor, it has actually been pretty difficult for me to look at OBS' status, look at the chat box, and play too. Thanks to Grim (as usual, for he is moneybags Grim), this is now possible. Although I have to say removing the poster from the wall above my bed has left my room looking kind of bare... Perhaps it's high time I finally put up those posters I got from NYCC '13, huh? 

In terms of the true list

• RAM Upgrade

So, I've noticed recently that although my current PC stats are faaaaar greater than my laptop's (laptop is 2GB DDR2 of RAM and my GPU is at 256MB DDR3, while my pc is 8GB DDR3 and 4GB DDR3), there's still a bit of slowdown when i'm filming. A lot moreso when I'm streaming. Thus, I think it's in my best interest if I want to continue to work here to grab a RAM upgrade. Especially since the Windows 8 apps are always constantly running and it's really hard to actually get them to stfu.

• HD Capture Card

There are plenty of people out there that I've run into that make fun of my videos for being not HD quality. I'm currently using an EasyCap which I snagged for <$5 TOTAL. You can't expect that much from it, but I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the quality I get for games that weren't meant to be in HD. But, I'm currently looking for an alternative for PS3 games, that were actually intended to be in HD. I'm actually leaning towards the El Gato and AVerMedia Live Gamer Portable. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I'm definitely open. I forget what PianoNox uses, but I believe it's one of the AVerMedia devices. WellSeeYouLater, who also happens to be one of the admins of the Okamigakure facebook page is also in the market for such a device, so any help in these matters anyone could send our way would be great.

• Camera/Camcorder

If you've been following me for a while, you'll know that I used to record my videos that dealt with console gaming with webcams, or in the case of my few Genesis videos, I used my camera, which actually was a hand-me-down from TethrinBlaze (THANKS BUDDY!). I'd like to move on to some kind of HD camcorder, preferably that I could grab on the cheap, but will give me somewhat decent quality. My friends over on the channel bn137 have a pretty decent setup, so I might actually question them about what they use to record. You might be wondering something like... "You just said you were gonna get an HD capture card, why do you need a camera to record?" Well, the answer to that is simple, I would love to keep expanding my horizons, and continue to provide some sort of diverse content, and some games I just wouldn't be able to capture with a capture card, like those I have on my Genesis.

• New Microphone

This one is sort of a maybe at this point. I got a really decent mic, which is what I've been using most recently also from Tethrinblaze, aaaand a good friend of mine also gave me one of the Marvel 7 Series Turtle Beach headsets, so I think I actually don't need anything new, I just have to learn to use what I have already somewhat better... (Yes, I know there's been a hell of an echo on a lot of videos I got through OBS, I'mma fix it.... someday!) 

Now, if you're super polite, or just extremely helpful, you might be like, oh, that's neat, I hope you get to all of these goals! I was originally going to start this by saying something like "If you can find it in your heart to support me..." but it's actually unnecessary. Whether you know it or not, you're actually supporting me right here and now just by visiting my blog. The ads I have on the right are actually linked up to my AdSense account, so you are technically supporting me just by stopping by every once in a while, and for that I am extremely thankful! The same is true for just watching my videos every now and then on my YouTube Channel! I'll get paid for being a partner when my ads are viewed/clicked! To that end, any suggestions or requests you may have could also be beneficial to me! (You can refer to my Backloggery if you wanna give me a suggestion I can complete pretty soon after you give it to me!)
There are other ways to support though, some of which may not even be that difficult/have you go out of your way at all. One of those is my Amazon Associates ID. If you use that link to get to Amazon, without any additional charge to you, I will get a portion of the profit of your sale! So you can help me out while you do whatever you wanted to do! Also, the Amazon search here on my blog is tied to my Associates ID, so if you happen to buy something using that search, I'll also get a portion of the profits! 
In addition to that, you can support me via buying stuff from my eBay store or my newly-opened Spreadshirt shop! That's all stuff you could possibly do, while not necessary, it'd be nice, and any and all of that I am deeply appreciative of!
Lastly, if you've got a little excess you wouldn't mind sending my way, you can donate to me via PayPal, there's a button waaaaay at the bottom of my blog and also ones on the About Page of my YouTube Channel and on my Twitch Channel.
I'm still in awe of everything you guys have done for me already, and I just wanted you to know that it's because of you guys that I'm still doing anything at all. 

  

Partnership!

About... probably well, two years ago now, I got a random message from a partnership network (Zoomin.tv Games if you're wondering) on YouTube. At the time, I didn't really know what was going on with that... So I did some research, learned about the networks, and decided to resolve myself to get somewhat serious, at least clean my channel up, and when I was ready, I would reply/apply to some partnership networks. 

That's when I actually started being proactive. I actually began to care about my videos, and where they could take me. I'm actually still trying to clean up all of my videos, but I'm almost there. I never put tags on my videos before, or proper descriptions/the rest of the metadata, so I've had to go through all my videos and fix them up, which has been a hassle, but it certainly has paid off in the long run, I suppose!
Anyway, fast forward to last month, I check my e-mail in the morning via daily routine, and I have a message from a talent scout for fullscreen, and I'm all I dunno this group. To be fair, I had no idea who Zoomin.tv was either. I had pretty much exclusively looked into gaming partnerships up until this point. But Fullscreen is basically the biggest network on the YouTubs, and I was like WOW, they actually found me and think I have potential? That's actually kind of amazing. As of the 7th, I became a partner! 

Now, you might be asking things like "What does that mean?" Well, actually, there are lots of benefits to joining a network, as opposed to simply partnering with YouTube. First of all, you get help and support. You also get access to better paying ads. Fullscreen has a whole suite of tools available to creators to use to improve their channels too! Also, there's promotion and a community that I can link up with too. 

Really though, what I want to say with this post is thank you. Thank you to everyone that's supported me, and still continues to support me. It really does mean a lot to me, probably more than most of you that simply know Kage_Okami could ever hope to fathom. 

I'm gonna do my best to make all of you proud!