New Year’s Resolutions
Big Plans for 2014
Welcome Leftover Culturists, to the year 2014!
Every year, I’ve always tried to define one goal for the Leftover Culture Review. This year, my New Year’s Resolutions are all about trying to get the show out there. I’ve had the chance to associate with some great YouTubers (check out my first ever collaboration from Christmas) and some great networks. Because of the support, subscriber-ship has ballooned through 2013 and I want to keep that going! More guest posting through ScrewAttack, Retroware (with hopes of becoming a contributor (fingers crossed) and of course, constant contributions to the Punk Effect. Not to mention, I’ve joined 7-Bit Gaming, a group of Australian video content creators. Heaps of opportunities already in 2013 that I hope really start to help grow the show for 2014.
Some of the bigger changes to show will be some fresh branding and I want to use the familiar, time-tried-and-tested review format to answer some bigger questions. It’d be great to cover a wider range of subjects within the reviews, concerning emulation, the collecting environment (what games are more expensive and how I have justified them) and even dropping in some ‘behind-the-scenes’ material. Big plans, big resolutions and I sincerely hope 2014 is the best year yet. A big thanks to Harlen and Kenny Wootton who reached out through Facebook to offer some musical expertise. As you can probably tell by the new ‘Intro’ I’ve put together over Christmas, I am super-stoked about moving away from Public Domain and Creative Commons tracks and giving the LOCR is own hard-hitting soundtrack. (You can download Harlen & Kenny’s music from here)
I’ve got a (pretty tight) schedule in place, hopefully a spin-off show and a series of articles from new games to action figures, video games and collecting in general with plans to put together some ‘behind the scenes’ stuff (let me know what you’d be interested in seeing!).
Let’s look at the statistics
So how did 2013 go for me here at LOCR HQ? Far and away my most popular post has been the Neo Geo X Magic SD Card Adapter with something along the lines of 3,350 page views. Trailing a distant second was ‘Neo Geo X: Is it worth it?‘ with 950 page views and an older article claiming third prize, ‘5 reasons the Atari Jaguar isn’t so bad‘ with 650 page views.
Videos are still my primary focus however, and thanks to a ‘featured episode’ for videogame category on Blip in April, my Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for Sega Mega Drive got 79,400 views in 2013. Thanks to a halo effect around that episode, older episodes like my Atari Jaguar Console Review and Sengoku 1 & 2 (Neo Geo CD) were significantly propelled past my 2013 batch of episodes.
Looking at just YouTube data, another 2012 episode comes in to steal top spot; Atari Jaguar fighting series with just over 3000 views for 2013 (thanks to being a featured user submission on Retroware). At 1,600 views, Alien Resurrection on the Playstation ranks for 2nd most popular YouTube episode for 2013, followed by Double Dragon on the Atari 2600 (1500 views) and coming in fourth, Beavis & Butthead Do U for the PC with a little over 1000 views.
What’s left to say?
Overall, the Leftover Culture Review gained 586 Subscribers in 2013 (compared to the 112 I got through 2011 and 2012). That’s seriously insane growth for a web series on video game reviews, especially when growth was never a primary concern. I started the LOCR to hone everything to do with production; scripting, acting, filming, editing, distribution. I wanted to learn about my equipment, it’s limits, what I could achieve with it. I wanted to share my love of video games and maybe most of all, bring some excitement back into retro video games and learn more about them. I feel like I’ve achieved all that.
Personally, I feel like I’ve been successful in improving myself, but have I created a successful show? What does successful mean? Is it subscriber numbers? Audience retention? Can this show financially support itself with ad revenue or do I need to build up this website to support the show? Will this continue to be a labour of love? Can I take the LOCR new places?
As a closing note, 2014 is going to be a significant year with a lot of life changes (for better or for worse). I don’t normally post personal life stuff but if it’s going to impact the show, I’d rather be honest about a situation than leave fans of the show in the dark. Adding this as a last point will be a good reminder for me in 2015, when I get to look back at 2014, that I survived one hell of a year while my life changed around me. I only hope that the LOCR has changed and evolved too and maybe I can even answer my own questions and definitively say that for 2014, yes, the Leftover Culture Review is successful.
Photographing the LOCR