Hello internet welcome to game theory where today isn't so much a game
Theory as it is an episode about game theory the show [I] suppose you could [call] it a game
Theory theory man between the intro and that joke this episode is already Super meta
but null honesty I do these meta theories because if you're a gamer on YouTube
Or you watch gamers on YouTube then these things affect you the videos you watch and the creators you support anyway
even though we're only four months in 2016 has seen a ton of
Scandal on YouTube from where's the fair use to criminal allegations for top channels YouTube has seen a lot of drama in a very?
Very short amount of time here with serious issues like that floating around
It's almost a relief to see comment threads debating whether Batman V superman actually sucked
But the biggest story of all was the one that happened at the top of the year around one of Youtube's most
Subscribed most watched and most widely known channels the fine brothers. You know kids react teens react elders
React YouTubers react sentient chickens react in January they lit up the internet with one big announcement
We're excited to announce
react World A
Service meant to make it easier for people to create react style videos for a share of [that] videos revenue
And that was one big issue
But what really got people in a tizzy was their attempted trademarking of the word react this was without any exaggeration
one of the most talked about business moves any YouTube channel had ever made and if the [finebros] were hoping to inspire more people to
Create reaction videos with react world well they certainly succeeded but not in the way they expected
Criticism came in from everywhere citing everything from reaches of Fair use to abusive trademark
Law the latest and most egregious attempt for a [fat-cat]
YouTuber channel to earn more money and though three months later the drama seems to have largely
Subsided the effect still lingers with their new video showing a dislike ratio
400% higher than just a few weeks prior to the react world announcement now whether you are Joyfully watching their live
Subscription meters count backwards or simply unaware of all of this the react world controversy inspired a lot of discussion about fair use
[trademarking] and how youtube is changing? [so] why do I bring all this up?
Why do I do a video about it now?
Well, because they're all things I've wanted to address for I'll now but it's also something
I've wanted to take my time with so that all of us myself included
Could be further away from the heated emotions of a few months ago
and really look at the situation from his objective of a
Perspective as we all can because honestly there are additional points here that haven't been addressed
And I think are things that merit at least some
Discussion now if you're a longtime member of the theorist family you'll know that the path of this channel has never been about overnight
Success we've never really been that channel who stormed onto the scene and rocketed up the charts [we've] absolutely had some big hits
Especially with five nights at [Freddy's] but for the most part growing this community has been a long
Step-By-step subscriber by subscriber process people commit to this channel not because it's Trendy or cool
But because hopefully I've done my part to earn your trust by creating videos that are more often than not unique and different and interesting
I'm about to hit my five-year anniversary of creating this channel
Obviously, I've been thinking back a lot on the journey Thus far
Let me tell you operating a successful YouTube [channel] is a roller coaster of [emotions]
simultaneously the [most] rewarding and the most stressful job that you could ever have
and I'm sure you've heard stuff like that before but unless you eat sleep and breathe Youtube it's
Really hard to truly understand, so let me do my best to explain it
YouTubers exist in a dangerous position at the Mercy of pretty much everyone first off
They're at the Mercy [of] the [internet] where one wrong business decision
Poorly phrased sentence or unpopular opinion can set the rage of the masses upon them ruining careers built over years of work poof
Overnight, but we're also at the Mercy of YouTube itself a platform we don't own
I've mentioned it before in the how youtube is broken video, but it bears repeating here
Just because felix has 40 million subs and I have six and mark has 11
Oh 12 of 13, sorry doesn't mean that we get access to all of you
We're at the Mercy of YouTube systems whether or not you see our latest video is up to its
Algorithm and one change to that can have devastating impacts on channels. I've seen it with channels
I've consulted with overnight Views dropping from 10 million views a month to [3] lives
Changed in an instant [you] want to know why there's so many fewer scripted comedy videos on YouTube at this point the algorithm
And when I say lives fundamentally changed, I'm not just referring to the lives of the people that you see on screen
Most Major channels at this point have at least an editor others have tens of people's whose jobs are [dependent] on the revenue
Generated by the Views that come in every month YouTube Channels are businesses built on quicksand
Constantly shifting by people who started on this platform as kids in their bedrooms or students fresh out of college
People who really just wanted to create and express themselves not worry about
paychecks and taxes and employees and building
multi-Million Dollar media brands so that was the
[situation] and probably rings true for pretty much every big channel that you know and love at this point
But there's a new added wrinkle now
Competition let me tell you a personal story if you go back to what was my first big hit on the channel Sonic is slow
The intro includes these lines the good folks over at vSAuce3 recently took a gander at a game series
I covered in episode 5 the science of Sonic
They looked at how running faster than the speed of sound would affect Sonic's body
It's a great video except for one thing. It's wrong now. Let me give you some context this is around episode 40
I had been doing the show pretty much every week for a year
the reason I included this line in fact the reason I made this video in the first place was to stick my flag in the
Ground [dig] in my heels and claim the theorists space why because vSAuce3 had just launched three months earlier with their videos
How much would Mario coins be worth and could cloud sword be real?
Topics that hit very close to home [for] me I felt dead in the water here
I was having done a similar sort of episode every week for a [year] and with a hard-earned
[32,000] subscribers to my name and in pops the next spin-off channel of a YouTube
Behemoth three months into its lifespan with 10 times my subscriber count nearly
350,000 at the time and not only that its first game theory style videos went Super Viral getting over a million views
Yeah times have changed
But when their next big one the science of Sonic the hedgehog rolled out and covered similar topics to a video
I had done one year [earlier]
I felt like my format my style of show had been stolen
And that my channel was going to die and even if I was gonna be steamrolled
I needed to at least make a video that showed. I was here first
Am it so why am I telling you this well first because it's a story
I've never really shared with anyone other than Stephanie and quite honestly
It's fun to look back on those earlier days
but also because that
situation taught me that audience
Isn't mutually exclusive obviously the channel is still here today and going strong bigger than what was at the time our rival
What I came to learn was that just because [people] watched vSAuce3
Didn't mean that they also wouldn't watch game theory it was the way I presented
[information] and the conclusions that I reached that made me difference the two channels could cover the exact same things sometimes by complete accident
We did on the same week
But our styles and presentation ensured that the audience of one wasn't sucking away the audience of the other competition
Existed sure
But it was at a very [small] scale and since those early days lots of other theorists have popped up on YouTube
Which is great for the over-thinker community there's pretty much a style and personality for anyone's tastes, but now four years later
There are new guys on the block, and I'm not talking about Mr.. Theorists fist 24/7 working in his living room
No, I'm perfectly cool with Mr.. Theorists fist. We should probably collaborate at some point though. His screen name does feel a bit derivative
I'm talking about companies Literally TV networks news outlets heck in the last month alone the Pop culture website
Io9 and American business Magazine Forbes have all started their own theory shows don't worry
There's aren't that good so far, but let me make this clear
This is Io9 Owned by Gawker Media a [forty] five million Dollar company which also operates
Gizmodo and [Kotaku] to name a few and Forbes is a business juggernaut a company valued in the hundreds of millions
The new competitors on YouTube aren't really YouTubers
They're entities with massive money backing them with huge teams to research edit and write churning out weekly
even Daily videos without breaking a sweat
It's not about vSAuce or Mr.. Theorists fists anymore
We are literally
Competing with Hollywood and obviously this isn't just something that's happening and theorizing beauty gurus are going up against the bogue channels
Supermodels telling you whether or not to wear overalls this spring scripted comedy channels have to fight against
Buzzfeed
And who isn't Gonna watch a humorous rehash of all the legends of the hidden temple jokes we've been tossing around for years
Hashtag purple parrot pride which brings us back to the fine brothers issue for them buzzfeed
Huffington post even the [elle]
Show started running react content online in early 2015 shows like Ellen have hundreds of employees and come to YouTube after they've already
amassed four million views on TV every day
There's no way to compete with [that] right and when you're the fine brothers young business owners with over 50 employees
Depending on you for a paycheck seeing giants like that mimicking your format and threatening to undo the last five years of work
It's scary, let me make it clear here. [I'm] not taking any sides
There's still a whole page of the script left let me also make it clear that
I'm not talking about the originality of the format
I'm just saying that as a creator I can relate to the defensive NasAi could lead to a
Situation like the one they ended up in my vSAuce3 story had me feeling the same way seeing other people quote unquote
Stealing your space, but here's the [thing] that mentality is wrong the struggle of the fine brothers against eleanor
Missglamorazzi against vogue is just as imaginary as my
Struggle against vsauce three four years ago the more things change the more they stay the same youtube is still a platform
Where you vote with your view regardless of whether you're watching Jimmy Kimmel Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy stirling?
Sorry, Jim. I needed the parallel structure
There's a reason why Zoella in her bedroom gets millions of views and vogue
Supermodels and an artistic white void get tens of thousands because you choose what content you [find] most appealing?
What formats and creators you most want to spend your [time] with if Forbes is theories are better than mine or Buzzfeed's reactions are more
Reactive, I don't know then they should get your view when you think about it. You're the boss
We're your employees our job is to entertain and if we're bad at our job
we get fired replaced with a new better guy we as the creators have to figure out ways to stay fresh and
[interesting] and relevant to you as the viewer in pretty much every industry in the world competition is a good thing [for] you, the
Consumer at the store it results in better products at lower prices as companies work to earn your [business] on YouTube it means better
Funnier more interesting videos for you it encourages us to innovate stay creative and find new things for you to enjoy
[I] mean in the last five years alone these theories have gone from five minutes to 18 minutes
[that's] ridiculous
And it's because every step of the way you as a viewer have driven me to think about new games new Topics and not
Is just stay in my comfort Zone to cite a recent video by Markiplier?
Yes
YouTube is changing
Big Media is storming in and dominating the home page the types of videos that are getting popular now are much different than the Youtube
Poops from almost a decade ago YouTube is an industry now
and I know that sounds really intense and adult but it deserves a lot of credit for being an industry that literally started as a
failed
Online dating site that everyone filled with cat videos and that's not a joke by the way if you look into the site's past it
Was literally going to be a dating site? I couldn't believe it either
So here's a quote to generate interest
We just said it was a new kind of dating site we even had a slogan for it tune in hook up
we didn't have any videos so I populated our new dating site with videos of
747s taking off and landing the whole thing didn't make any sense. [we] were so desperate for some actual dating videos
We turned to Craigslist
[it's] crazy, right
[but] the solution to a changing youtube is not to shore up with what we have try to put a stake in the ground and
Hold on trademarking a word is not going to solve the problem
We live in a world where failarmy owns and actively polices videos titled people are awesome Facebook literally has the word face
Trademark Subway is working to obtain footlong and Twitter lost out on tweet to a third party [pretty] soon everything
We say will come equipped with a circled are given reddit perhaps the biggest champions of fair [use] and shared ownership of ideas
Recently got defensive about the [axe] deodorant possibly stealing one of the site's shower thoughts for an add
It sucks when people steal your content when someone mimics your idea the trademarks won't guarantee an audience
They'll just kill competition for a while
it's delaying the problem rather than
solving it the true solution is to listen to the audience to grow and evolve to meet your changing interests and
Differentiate from the competition is it scary that there's no protection or guarantee on Youtube yeah? I'm not gonna Lie it
Keeps me up every night is it scary that there's more [competition] here than ever from some of the biggest
Businesses in the world and that you might find someone whose theories you like better than mine
Absolutely, but what I've really come to appreciate in the aftermath of all the fine brothers drama
is that we can't treat youtube like our baby we have to let it evolve and we have to let
[Ourselves] as creators evolve too money doesn't equate to success on this [platform]
It's about differentiating your content with who you are what you say?
And how you say it would it be easier for me if the situation didn't work this way
Absolutely [pepe] sweet but YouTube is not just mine or John Oliver's or Mr.. Theorists fists
It doesn't belong to any single creator
My hope is that by playing my cards right and continuing to listen and talk with you guys?
I'll still be here in another five years to see how far. We've come as a community
Maybe we'll have a diamond play button by then that'd be sweet
Maybe you'll be watching all game theory episodes and [Vr] Rigs with Wario fart
Rocketing past your face wherever the journey ends up taking us just remember at the end of the day
I'm committed to you
but hey
That's just a theory [I] get now who am I kidding a meta theory?
Seriously, thank you for watching