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Hi I’m 3kliksphilip and this video will cover how I reached this stage and how I make
content.
You probably watch my content because you’re interested in Counter Strike and want to know
more about the more mysterious inner workings of the game… of which there are many.
But I haven’t always done content like this.
In fact, back in 2007 I didn’t like Youtube.
But I soon realised that was an issue with the creators, rather than the platform.
Indeed, before long if I needed a tutorial I found myself going to Youtube rather than
to a written guide.
The problem was, most people were so long-winded!
They’d talk for minutes before getting onto the important stuff.
They would trip over their words, would take the important bits for granted and so on.
These bad videos really made me appreciate and respect the good ones.
So much so that I decided to make my own tutorials.
‘So what I’m going to do is to make the UHHHH the skybox slightly higher up so I can
have more…
more levels to my level.’
I’ve deleted a lot of my early videos.
Don’t worry, you aren’t missing out on much.
They were bad videos and in terrible quality, but were still shorter and more to the point
than most were.
However, it wasn’t until my ‘Water in 30 seconds’ video that I realised how far
I could push it.
My goal was to teach everything as quickly and as simply as I could.
I began rehearsing and repeating scenes to perfection to try and shave seconds off their
length.
I removed protracted terminology and replaced it with easy words.
My guides would go through several versions before I was happy with them.
Throughout college and University, I refined this style and took great pride in producing
short, clear content that would solve the problems that people were having- and were
hopefully entertaining at the same time.
I responded to every question that I was asked, even if people were rude or impatient.
At one point I was receiving hundreds of messages and gaining dozens of subscribers a day!
When I first started I’d write what different subscriber goals would mean.
I was so certain I’d never make 1,000 that I promised if I did I’d do something crazy,
like make a secret channel with weird and controversial content!
I’ve learned not to make promises, certainly not to myself.
By 2011 I peaked at just over 13,000 subscribers, but didn’t feel massively inclined to go
further.
I felt that I had helped and would be remembered by hundreds of people.
I mean, that’s what everybody wants isn’t it?
To know that even if you DIE TOMORROW that you’ll have left your mark in some way?
But things went wrong.
My mapping guides introduced a lot of people to mapping.
I saw this as a good thing, but this horde of new mappers would then make their basic
and buggy first maps and would submit these to mapping communities.
My name quickly got associated with these new maps.
Clearly, I was responsible for any maps made following my guides!
Unless it was good, in which case the mapper just got lucky.
I couldn’t take credit for those.
I was hated by a lot of mappers.
And it’s intimidating when good mappers drop by your basic mapping videos to attack
your knowledge.
But I stand by my teaching methods.
A tutorial –especially a beginner one- should make the topic easy for those wanting to learn.
It isn’t an opportunity for the teacher to show off what they know to defend themselves
from criticism.
You don’t see college professors mocking a school teacher for covering easier stuff.
Teaching is very different from knowing something and you mustn’t take your own experience
for granted.
There’s such a difference between a good mapper and a good teacher.
Long story short, mapping tutorials came with too much baggage for my liking and I grew
too large and too busy to respond to every question, many of whom were rude and unthankful.
Anyway, for reasons that Kliksphilip can explain better, after a break I started Youtube again.
I’m sure that there was room for expansion in mapping videos but I wanted to move onto
a bigger pie.
With the pie being Counter Strike, the game itself!
And as an added bonus, it didn’t require me to answer quite so many questions.
It still took me like, a year to find my feet.
Shortly after the map Overpass was first released I submitted an analysis video about it to
Reddit and was met with praise!
So I started doing more general guides to the game and they were also met with praise!
Then I started submitting shitposts and so were they!
There’s a general dislike of self-promotion on Reddit, I got away with posting quite a
bit and in more recent years others have rushed to submit my stuff first, regardless of whether
it’s relevant to CS:GO or not.
Which helps me a lot!
So thank you Reddit for your support, criticism and suggestions.
Without this my return to Youtube would have been a disaster.
I have already said what it’s like to be hated by a community and feel I owe Reddit
so much for being the opposite.
You’ve let me get away with more than most people could.
So that’s a little bit of what got me to where I am.
I’d now like to share with you my process of creating new content.
I’m going to reveal to all of the world what goes on behind the closed doors of Kliksphilip
industries.
Every video I make refines this very delicate and beautiful process, so revealing it doesn’t
mean much since it will be obsolete in like… a week’s time any way.
I’ve recently upgraded my setup, I now have a LAN party ready to go in my room!
Though I rarely use more than 2 at once.
GETTING IDEAS Whenever I get an idea, I make a text file
on my desktop describing the video.
If several days go past and I haven’t started on it, I store it away in my ideas folder
for a rainy day.
I have one for each of my channels.
A lot of the time a good idea isn’t worth a video of its own.
That clipping bug on Train, for example.
I’ve known about it for ages.
Loads of people have pointed it out but it’s not worth a video of its own, but was able
to include it in that video about stairs that I made recently.
I also trawl CS:GO’s subreddit for myths and rumours.
Some people are asking, some I think people might ask in the future.
My favourite has to be when everybody believes in misinformation, I know I’ve hit the jackpot
when I can tell everyone that they’re wrong.
I thought I managed this last Saturday when I spent all day trying to find the changes
with the tapping recoil and found NOTHING of importance!
I was close to saying it was all a trick, but obviously I talk with people, I try different
methods and I’m open to new approaches, especially if they sound silly.
MAKING THE VIDEO You’d think that I’d start with the testing,
wouldn’t you.
Especially since 3kliksphilip is all about confirming or disproving myths.
And sometimes I do!
But most of the time I start with the script.
Doing it this way ensures that my video has a structure- almost like a story- and it dictates
the style and direction the said video will take.
The downside is, I’ll probably write down stuff that’s actually wrong and misleading.
But this is a good thing!
Let me explain.
I like to think I have a good idea of how things work, and that other people have a
similar mindset.
So when it comes to getting the footage to backup what I’m saying, and it turns out
that I’m wrong, then I know that it’s a good discovery that will surprise people!
I can change the script to emphasise this.
If I test before doing the script then it’s easy to pretend that I knew everything all
along.
Even if I didn’t.
So yeah, script, audio, then get the video footage to back it up.
That’s the long bit.
The finalising stage is difficult too.
I repeatedly watch the video, then fix the mistakes, then watch it again until there’s
nothing else wrong with it.
By the end I hate my videos.
TESTING I have no special way of testing stuff that
other people don’t.
I look up forums, I look at cfg files and create custom maps to test things using my
mapping knowledge.
I know a handful of console commands that aid me and can use up to 4 different accounts
at the same time if I need to.
Which I haven’t yet.
My success comes from having the ability to ask the right questions, and the patience
to test them.
I imagine other people trying to recreate my videos and like to try and make it as difficult
for them as I can.
CONSULTING OTHER PEOPLE The idea of having a mistake in a video of
mine scares me a lot.
I could easily mislead hundreds of thousands of people!
My reputation is on the line every time I publish a new video- it would only take one
person to call out something and people would lose faith in my ability to know everything!
But I’m only human.
By the end of the project I’m more interested in starting the next than checking one that’s
PROBABLY okay.
I go through checks.
I back up what I say with visual evidence.
I speak with people who I feel know a lot about the subject matter.
I have others preview my videos for obvious mistakes before I release them.
But I will make mistakes and if I do, it’s important that I acknowledge them and fix
it as soon as possible.
But saying that, I do have a good track record and want to keep it that way.
POLISH I want my videos to be something subscribers
look forward to and that means putting in extra effort.
My favourite videos of mine are often the ones that are the weakest just before release.
I cancel the release, I fix the problems, I polish the graphics and audio and then get
to work adding silly little easter eggs and dank memes which are appreciated more than
the rest of the video’s content put together!
With my old mapping guides I’d end with some tree-related fatality.
I swear that most of the people watching my tutorials didn’t need the guide.
At the end of the day, it’s about investing an extra 10% into each video to make them
100% more entertaining.
CONTENT Of course, the down-side is that I can’t
make as much content as most people do.
My videos are hard work and I do burn myself out with them.
And a bit like with mapping, this channel is a victim of its own success.
But in a different way.
Pro teams, casters and players watch my content and I don’t want to annoy them by releasing
irrelevant stuff.
2kliksphilip now does all of the stuff that this channel used to do before it got big.
This lets 3kliksphilip focus more on the analytical content, but it does mean that I split my
time across 14 different channels.
I mean 3!
3.
But with this being my main channel I sometimes want to use it for the greater good.
Like for raising awareness about that workshop manipulation problem, for example.
And while we’re on this topic, I don’t host community maps for views or subscribers.
It gets me very few of both!
Every video I release on it cuts my channel’s subscriber growth in half.
Clearly, it’s not the content that people subscribe to me for.
But it’s something that’s only possible because of my size and I feel it’s my way
of giving something back in a way that others would want, but aren’t able to.
At the end of the day, a channel like 3kliksphilip is a juggling act.
It’s not easy to get right but for as long as you watch my content, I’ll continue to
make it.
Unless I die or something.
So there’s a little behind-the-scenes look at how I work.
Now it’s your turn Valve ;)