Back when we had that discussion about ways to keep regular website updates going, one of your suggestions was to sell combo DVDs. That sounds like a pretty good idea at the moment. In fact the more i thought about it, the less of a reason i had not to give it a shot.

My first idea was to compile a DVD of all my previous work from 2002-2008, then put together a second DVD collecting every SF4 TACV episode. However, it seems like a much better plan to wait until i’ve finished the entire SF4 TACV series to include every project i’ve completed thus far on one disc. Of course, that means it’ll take longer to finish and i’ll have to take a small break from SF4 when SSF4 arrives, but i think the wait will be worth it in the long-run.

If i make it a priority, i’m fairly certain i can get this thing done by Evo2k10 in early July. I can even take a bunch of copies with me to Evo for anyone who wants to pick one up in person instead of waiting for it to arrive in the mail.

Alright, so what’s this going to cost? I think $15 (plus shipping) is a fair price. Nobody can say that i haven’t been putting enough effort into this, and i couldn’t even calculate how much time i’ve sunk into making combo videos if we go all the way back to 2002. But more importantly, 95% of everything i’ve ever produced is freely available – either through sh/classic or my u2b channel. Obviously i’ll include a few small extras as a bonus for people who buy the DVD, but otherwise i’m not holding anything back from people who hate spending money.

For the record, i’m still not too comfortable with accepting donations, but at least this way people can support the site while receiving something tangible in return. And if anyone wants to give more, you can always buy a second copy and give it away as a gift to your friends.

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Is anyone interested in working on a possible Evo project? I know a lot of combo video makers, but not too many people who specialize in editing; and they’re all busy with prior commitments at the moment.

To give you an idea of the subject matter, it’s a fast-paced fighting game video but neither a combo nor glitch video. We’re looking at roughly five minutes of footage composed of well over a hundred short clips, so you’ll need to have solid video editing skills to keep it dynamic without going overboard or making it tacky. Also, part of the challenge will be dealing with a diverse range of fighting games, video codecs, resolutions, frame rates, and volume levels.

Keep in mind that the entire video must be finalized by June with at least a month to spare before Evo2k10. And we’ll need a working draft by the end of this month to give us an idea of what we’re missing, so we can fill in the blanks as soon as possible.

If this sounds intriguing/exciting, just leave a quick comment along with links to one or two of your projects to give me an idea of your style. I’ll look through every response and contact you directly. (Please don’t put your card in the hat if you’re not reasonably certain that you’ll be able to see this through to the end, or if you don’t know how to keep a secret.)

edit: In case anyone happens to be reading this and wondering what the project was – now that Evo has passed, i can proudly say it was sh/f Super Fireball Battle (premiered July 11th, 2010). Rithli did a phenomenal job editing the video and absolutely rocked the house!

That’s how much ad revenue this project generated from August 31st, 2009 to December 31st, 2009. That works out to something like five bucks a week. That is to say it would, if i hadn’t already spent twice that amount on hosting bills, domain fees, and shipping costs. Honestly i can’t say i’m surprised because i never expected this to work, but i did try my best and ended up putting in way more time than i could’ve imagined.

The list of obstacles is pretty long: everyone seems to have adblockers now, everyone’s leeching content wherever they can find it, and there’s nothing to leverage because apparently everyone considers video game material less valuable than camcorder footage of cats falling off chairs. Even within our own community, all these “news” sites have popped up to capitalize on SF4’s popularity by consolidating all website traffic (by stealing visitors from true content-producers).

Writing a good article takes all day. Creating a video takes much longer. Copy/pasting an excerpt and a link takes 20 minutes. I don’t want to take that route. If anyone has any solutions, please speak up because right now these issues seem insurmountable.

For a while i thought u2b partnership would be the answer, but they’re frustratingly unresponsive and dealing with them is proving to be a complete waste of time. My combo videos get embedded everywhere but less than 5% of viewers ever find their way back to Sonic Hurricane, and less than 1/5 of 1% bother subscribing to my channel.

Obviously i could fix this by disabling syndication so that everyone would be forced to link out to my videos (how i link out to CV Spotlights) instead of embedding them on-site. That would probably double ratings, comments, and subscriptions, but i’m sure the view count would take a huge hit. I don’t have infinite time or resources so it has to be one or the other. The problem here is, youtube offers zero guidance about which approach they want taken. So far i’ve gone with embedding for view count because at least that keeps discussion alive within our community on SRK, instead of all getting sucked into the u2b trap.

Please don’t get this twisted. This isn’t about finding a shortcut to make money. I’ve been running this website for eight years and never once tried to make a dime off it until last summer. This is about sustainability.

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It’s hard to believe that it actually happened – a thousand people subscribed to my u2b channel! It took a little over a year, but i didn’t expect it to happen at all. I’ve always announced my new releases on Shoryuken.com and i’ll always continue to do so. Since everyone knows, i didn’t think anyone would have a good excuse to subscribe.

A thousand people! That means i could take my Guile action figure to my friend’s house right now, switch on his angry head, and record a live action combo video against his Ryu figure. And one thousand people would watch it! How crazy is that?

Anyway i know it’s not a major accomplishment in the grand scheme of things and it’s certainly never been a goal for me, but it’s really cool to see it happen and i totally appreciate the support. Honestly i couldn’t decide whether or not to mention this here, but i truly am grateful and honored, and i can’t think of a reason to hide that. Thank you sirs and ma’ams.

Today youtube rejected my partnership application for the second time. The reason given the first time around was that i didn’t have enough video views or subscribers, even though i included links to dozens of my videos totaling hundreds of thousands of views, uploaded by other people without my knowledge or permission. This time, they stated that my account “does not contain sufficient original new content that represents the uniqueness of [their] community.” How ironic is it that they can’t even say “original” without being redundant?

First of all, let’s get their thinly veiled insult out of the way. How many people out there (who actually play fighting games) think my videos aren’t sufficiently original? Be honest – you’re not going to hurt my feelings. Believe me, i can take the criticism. Plus i don’t even like compliments anyway. Well?

Look, i understand youtube’s primary concern is protecting themselves from lawsuits because they’re bleeding money by the millions from copyright infringements. But we’re talking about the world’s (self-proclaimed) leading search engine. Have you looked at the quality of their search results lately? When was the last time you typed in the name of a video game and found anything worth watching on the first page? It’s nothing but reposted trailers and scrubs playing the first level for the first time!

Meanwhile i’m sinking 40+ hours into a 92-second Ken video and i’ve got youtube telling me it’s not original enough?

The highest viewed CvS2 video on youtube is quite possibly the least original combo video ever recorded for Capcom vs SNK 2. For SF4 we have insane numbers like 941,825 views for terrible, terrible opening day match videos. The combo side is an absolute embarrassment, with a day-one Ryu & Ken combovid consistently coming up on the first page of search results with 352,348 views while a much better Ryu & Ken vid made by the same people barely shows up on the third page and has only 66,115 views. That’s pathetic. And it’s the norm. I could go on citing examples for weeks because we all know good results are far less common than the garbage youtube usually turns up.

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