Hi everyone. First of all, as always, thank you so so much for your continued unfettered support, despite the increasingly huge gaps between uploads. Today, I wanted to talk to you all about that. Why it's been happening, what I've been doing, and what's in store for the future of my channel and your support of it. Let's list em off, shall we?
1: WHY SO LONG GAPPED: Multiple reasons. In fact, SO many reasons, it actually makes more sense for me to mention each thing after a full stop. I won't need to go into much detail - each point speaks for itself! Production quality has gone up. My standards have increased. I want to spend as much time as possible making something that'll stand alone for as long as humanly possible. Timing filming around Olly's availability. Taking a week out of my life to dedicate to filming. Waiting for deliveries on props. Waiting for permissions on filming locations. Technical problems holding me up. Upload times. I still edit everything on my own. Working on other YouTube projects (and extra 2 channels actually - possibly 3) that should hopefully see some progress in the new year. My MCN (my network that pays me ad revenue) unlinked me recently and I've been spending hours upon hours re-instating ads and monetisation MANUALLY to nearly 700 videos in my history. Constant travelling overseas and inland for other career obligations and/or opportunities. Family stuff. Other daily life things unrelated to videos getting in the way. Medical issues. Recent ADHD diagnosis, therefore being smacked around by new medication that has held me up. I could go on and on, but these are what immediately come to mind - and I'm NOT looking for sympathy or anything else of the sort. Life happens. It's just an explanation to why things appear to take longer than ever before - and I can only apologise for it. All I can promise you is that whenever I can, I AM working. It's the exact reason streaming has been abysmally empty over the last few months - work on videos took priority. Always working, me.
2: WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE: As soon as I am able, I'll jump back into streaming. Not only will I jump back into streaming, but I'll be doing it hardcore and make it my biggest focus right until the end of the year. I've got a TONNE of things I want to stream, and I want to test these new meds on streaming to see if anyone can notice a difference - and if I can notice a difference, I suppose. I'm sorry to say, the original plan of me getting 1 more video out before 2024 won't happen. It's been to insane of a year for me, and I do NOT want to rush out a video for Christmas - even with a sponsor offer. What this DOES mean though is that next year, I've got ideas that I wanted to squeeze in this year coming out of my ass. Revisits to topics from [OLD] videos redone in my brand new way, go into every single game (Japanese and Koren exclusives included) for the PS2 EyeToy that will lead into a followup to the PS1 accessories video diving into PS2 accessories, a trip I'm booking to Australia in order to get a potential finale for Bandicoot Month filmed in 2025.....there's a lot going on. I hope you cna be patient with me for the ride.
3: WHERE YOUR SUPPORT GOES: Despite my upload schedule being bugnut and streaming falling off the face of the earth, I can guarantee you that I still keep Patreon funds in a seperate account specifically for video equipment and props. You have helped pay for lighting, mics, travel to the green screen studio, renting the green screen studio, costumes, crash mats for 'stunts', every single prop you see (and replacements for ones that break - we went through 3 skeletons in the most recent video when it was falling down the stairs!), and even things like my body double I use for physical skits involving smacking a body around. That is a 6 ft tall 70kg dummy which costed over £1,200 (Nearly $2000). If anything gets too pricey then obviously my own funds start picking it up, but rest assured, THAT is where all of your support goes - alongside PC equipment, cables, capture card things - anything video-related is either covered entirely or massively assisted by your love and dedication to keeping me doing the dumb shit I do, and I can't thank you enough for it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
4: THE FUTURE OF PATREON: So, this is where things get a bit blunter. Considering how terrible this year has been for main channel uploads and streams....life is always WAY more complicated than you think it is, and I NEED to consider this when running this page. I wanted to do an absolute MINIMUM of 6 videos this year alongisde consistent streams (at least once a week), and look where we are. It doesn't matter what I plan though, life always finds a way to knock it around. I cannot 110% guarantee anything for the funds that you all so generously give, and I just can't be okay with that. I know many, if not ALL of you, will be annoyed at me saying that (again, lol), but it's truly how I feel, and I need to stop offering rewards for things I can't deliver. As time goes on, this page will become more and more of a tips jar for the main channel and streams, with benefits being things that can happen regardless of whatever happens in my year. I'll keep the discord, the credits thanks, the early uploads etc - but other little things like voting on stream topics I'm going to remove purely because it's not fair to ask you all for a thing that gives you control over what you want to see, and then suddenly it just never happens - or happens months late. I'll be updating my patreon page and details on what each pledge gives. I'm not overhauling the whole system, just changing things to be as open and transparent as possible with what I can deliver.
As always, thanks again. It really means the world to me. Don't feel beholdant to me or my videos, or obliged to stick around 'until the end' or whatever. Just you being there and watching is more than enough for me to know how grateful I am for your support - so please feel free to unpledge if this has been too flaky and will continue to be too flaky in the future. No hard feelings, no guilt, no nothing. All I want is what's fair.
Thanks for reading everyone, hope you have an amazing day, and get ready for the streams to come back!!!
- Jim/Caddy <3