A Clearer Picture

There seems to be some confusion regarding my choice to back away, and the motivations behind it. If ya’ll don’t mind, i’d like to explain my perspective one last time in depth.

I started making combo videos eight years ago and maintained a steady pace of 2-3 articles and 3-4 combovids per year for a long time. Anyone who’s ever made a decent combo video will tell you that it’s mentally and physically exhausting, especially towards the end of the process when you can see the finish line and all you want to do is get it over with.

Back in those days, i used to take three to six month breaks to recover between each project. That rhythm was more or less sustainable. From 2002-2008, i never had a single ad banner on my website and never made a single dime from Sonic Hurricane or any of my videos. And obviously it cost money to host them because this was before u2b existed.

Last year i decided to try a different approach. I installed this wordpress platform and began writing weekly technical and strategy articles, capturing weekly screenshots, and a lot more along those lines. I even borrowed a friend’s PS3 and started making SF4 combovids and preparing custom challenges every two weeks.

I thought if i went all-in with creating original content on a regular weekly basis, i could reach my arbitrary goal of earning minimum wage on the hours i invest here. That would enable me to continue treating it as sort of a part-time job for as long as people enjoyed my work. I gave myself six months to reach that objective.

It’s been fifteen months. Literally every minute of my free time has gone into this experiment, at a rate of 5-7 hours per day – more when i’m working on a video. So far it’s earning me barely $1 a day, most of which i’ve handed over to web hosts and the post office.

A lot of people are saying that i shouldn’t expect to make money because this is a hobby and it’s just video games. Well, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s exhausting. The fucked up sleep “schedule” i’ve been keeping since starting weekly updates is physically draining. In fact, i haven’t had a real break since 2006, when i started working on my Evo Guile video.

All that said, i would be perfectly happy producing undervalued content for the love of the community. Not at this pace of course, but i’m sure i could still be productive. Except now there’s no such thing as creating content purely for the community, because certain websites instantly convert it into profit for themselves, without giving anything back. It sucks all the joy out of what used to feel like a noble thing.

No, none of this is shocking or surprising. This always happens when any underground activity touches the mainstream spotlight. A lot of new people show up and appreciate it for what it is, but you also get a few “businessmen” who try to undermine what was already built there.

There will always be people who try to profit from others’ work whenever there’s a profit to be made, just as there will always be people who put on a nice suit and try to become the face of the community. I’m sorry but no amount of “it’s just business” or “that’s just how the internet works” is going to magically make it acceptable.

You have to understand, these “news sites” didn’t get famous by doing things we never thought of. They got famous doing things the rest of us were too considerate to do. It’s no accident that the most profitable site is the one that takes the most and gives back the least.

My only advice is, try to figure out whose primary goal is to help the scene and who’s in it for themselves. A lot of us have been serving the community for many years, without any hope of financial support whatsoever. Simply put – either you take care of content producers or the content stream dies. Taking care of the middlemen doesn’t help/count/matter.

In any case, i’ve done all i could and my goal still isn’t within reach. If it was going to work, it would’ve happened already. After fifteen months, i have conclusive proof that my six-month experiment has failed. (Obtaining it wasn’t cheap either.)

“One more month” is a pretty good way to fuck up my life beyond repair. I’ve got a lot of ground to make up as it is, just to get back to where i was fifteen months ago. I’ll be okay no matter what happens, but it’s just not feasible to continue.

So that’s the situation, and i’m okay with stepping away. It was worth a shot and i gave it my best, so i don’t have regrets. And i got to cross a lot of things off my to-do list, like writing about footsies and getting namedropped in a StarCraft article without playing StarCraft. It’s too bad it didn’t work out but then again i knew it was a long shot.

63 thoughts on “A Clearer Picture

  1. Maj Post author

    And for the last time, i don’t have a problem with eventhubs making money.

    I have a problem with eventhubs making money off my content while i don’t.

    And i have serious problems with a number of their policies, as well as the many shortcuts and underhanded tactics that took them to the top. I don’t see how i can make this any clearer, so i’m done trying.

  2. Pokey86

    I know, i’ve taken that in to consideration… There’s no need to re-explain yourself. (As i agree with you that EH are not playing fair)

  3. fenris

    I know I’m just a whisper in the wind on this but all your work is amazing and it sucks so hard to see these thralls stand up for the very thing that would bring the community crashing down if it meant an extra couple bucks and then going so far as to condem you for calling out eh on their practices and wanting what should be yours. I mean I don’t think that there is anybody that helped me get into the community more than you did, your footsies hand book and strategy articles have made me a much better player, your combo vids opened my mind to what’s possible in fighting games and your interviews with pros have helped me work up to entering tournaments. It makes me so angry to see these people support this pox all the while hurting one the pillars of the community

    I hope you arent gone for good

  4. Smorgasboard

    Wow, way to get me wrong on everything I said and then accusing me of saying things I’ve never said.

    I made my points but you insist on calling me an EventHubs defender although I’ve completely left that site after reading your article. Believe what you want but your continued use of false accusations instead of constructive debate are what truly condemned you in my eye.

    I know you don’t care but I wrote my post as warning for others who read your article and not for you. Of course, I had to post it here.

  5. jamheald

    I really do dislike EH, I remember when you were doing the ssf4 first month and losing sleep getting the videos out and somebody on EH commented on one of the episodes that it was the second time he’d seen you using the fei long infinite in a video and therefore you were boring and uninventive. All the best and I will really look forward to any future articles on SRK and vids on your YouTube if this site does not make it.

  6. heinrad

    Sad to hear about this turn of events.

    I’ve followed a few links to the website a couple of times, but i’ve never found anything on that site that has made me want to deviate from the usual SRK/SH sites. I find it hard to believe that anyone can advocate a site like that to be better than those it obtains its content from.

    Good luck for the future Maj.

    P.S. I wonder, if all of the sites that EHubs leeches its information has to close down due to lack of traffic, what is going to happen? Surely the owner of the site has to realise this?

  7. zero

    That site is doing business. It drains traffic and earn bucks. I do not like these stealing “news” sites. But I have to admit I might not even know sonichurricane.com without it. I have been checking sonichurricane.com daily since the first time I saw your video on “that site”. And I have almost read every article and seen every screenshot in archive. It is a really fantastic site about capcom fighting games.

    Your 15 months(and also the eight year long) hard working does not prove to be a financial success. But we all love it. It’s a great fortune for sf fans.

  8. trplem19

    what a whiney little bitch you are… i swear who the hell cares dont make videos others will, eventhubs is just easier to use because its all on one website vs. going on a billion. if you are not happy then leave… if someone serves you shit dont complain just dont eat it. Yes srk has done alot in the PAST years but thats it eventhubs is better layed out and much easier to use with daily updates… your updates consist of bitching and crying while eventhubs is putting in work… idk why everyone is trying to kiss your ass and feet when you spent more time writing you two dollar “i give up” letters grow some balls fight fire with fire steal shit from eventhubs who cares, this website i use to visit daily here and there but all the sudden you stop posting and you post this crap dude grow the hell up, you sounding like a lil bitch right now… DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT

  9. dandro

    hey maj, just wanted to say that i’ve followed your work for a while and loved it. i thought it was amazing when they gave you a gold stick at evo. your evo combo vids, technical guides, and everything have been amazing. it’s very sad to see this happen, but i understand where you’re coming from.
    i wish you the best of luck for the future, and i hope someday you’ll be back with full force and get the respect (and revenue) you deserve.

  10. gutabo

    Holy…

    There’s still people defending eventhubs? Ok, simple question with a not so simple answer:
    Why would they “credit” this site as “Sonic Hurricane” without a link instead of sonichurricane.com with a clickable link? Because they just don’t want to give credit to anyone, and they want people to stay on their site so they can make more money.
    Finally, it seems like all EH fans have reading “problems”, to say the least.

    PS: This was a longer post but I saw no point on posting a WoT that only some people would read.

Leave a Reply