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| Rhys playing Football Manager 2014 - Liverpool causes an own goal, allowing Norwich to take the lead. I'll steer clear of jokes around the Canaries as I'm going down to Norfolk in a couple of months and don't want to be lynched. |
Rhys - thanks for your time today. So, how did you get into making YouTube videos?
Wow, that's a hard question to start with. I started YouTube at University where I took a degree in Computer Game Production. I spent my spare time playing video games instead of watching TV, it was my main form of entertainment. Minecraft had begun floating around my Uni class which led to me being introduced to the Yogscast and my first experience of gameplay entertainment. It just totally replaced TV with instant access content in convenient length episodes. The first full series I ever watched was Yogscast & TotalBiscuit play Magicka and I loved it so after saving up some money for basic equipment, I recorded some Magicka on my original channel months before CtrlGodDammit was formed. CtrlGodDammit was made to try from scratch with a cool...ish name meant to just be a hobby to play games over the summer and show our experiences, then over time it was just me uploading videos and I decided I wanted to upload some content proving I wasn't terrible at EVERY game I ever play. From there, Football Manager on the channel was born,
Your channel is mainly focused on sports video gaming, and one of the things that really stand out is how good your games commentary is, which is quite rare - there are a lot of "lets play" videos on YouTube, but it's the personality of the person playing the game that makes it watchable. Did it take time for you to be able to deliver such a high level of commentary or does it come natural to you?
I've always had great pride in my vocabulary and in being able to speak well, I still deny to this day that my commentary is any good but I keep being given compliments so I'm always going to be grateful. The compliments have been so amazing, I have wanted to look into how Radio Lincolnshire produces live commentary for Lincoln City football games. I definitely don't have a face for a TV pundit so I'll take a radio career any day haha. My game commentary comes naturally from years of loving Football and being tactically minded. My energy, excitement and reactions have taken time for me to get used to producing videos. It has taken me a while to get into a comfort zone and I looked into a lot of sports YouTube channels to learn about different approaches. I can only hope more people share your opinion to help the channel grow.
The videos on your channel are often quite long, in comparison to a lot of other ones, which is a refreshing change to the current fashion of shorter and shorter videos. Is this a conscious decision or do they just turn out that way?
Some decisions are conscious for example, in my Football Manager videos, I display highlights of a whole in game month so they are never going to be incredibly short. I try to aim for 25 minutes to be the very longest I make my videos unless I simply can't help it. I must admit that I would like to produce some series with shorter videos e.g. FIFA 14 as it can be produced at a faster pace so I can get excited about making the next episodes even sooner. With my Football Manager series, I am quite happy with its current format and I think the longer episodes work. Overall I would say that the length is very game dependent rather than dependent on me.
An occasional special guest of your videos appears to be your webcam. Is it truly evil? Where did you obtain it from - or did it just materialise one day wearing a dark cloak?
Considering the money invested into the webcam then I would say it is certainly evil. It does concern me the amount of times it has frozen since I've owned it. The HD quality is fantastic but I believe you are referencing to a recent vlog I tried to make where my webcam was having an particular off day. It just kept freezing and crashing so I thought hey lets go with it, I'd rather do this in one take anyways and it added some subtle comedy to an overly serious video by my standards.
And as a fan of Norwich City, how do you think the Canaries season is going?
We have been a complete embarrassment all season. We will be in the Championship next season but there's nothing I can do so I try not to let it bother me. I have wanted Chris Hughton out before the season began. He had one season in charge and so many fans were sick of his negative tactics which you can see were physically effecting the performances of the team. For 3 years of success, Norwich fans became accustomed to a never say die attitude and good attacking play with Paul Lambert as the manager. Now we go out trying to get a 0-0 draw which is humiliating. If you go out to win a game you may draw, if you go out to draw you will usually lose. I realise many readers may not be Football fans so I'll stop there.
Finally, what would you say to entice someone who is yet to discover your channel? What video would you recommend for a new discoverer of CtrlGodDammit?
I create YouTube sports video game content through role play and story building. I am in the process of creating a more entertaining trailer to the channel consisting of video highlights I have brought to the channel so far. I try to capture the viewers imagination and bring them into my gaming world. My success is down to you guys and I wouldn't be where I am or where I'm going to be if it wasn't for viewers believing in me or giving me a go. I may have mostly spoken about Football on this blog but I also intend to cover: Basketball, Driving games, Rugby, Pool and general games that I want to play to show you all my interests. I hope you all want to join me for the journey but the worst you can say is no and have a nice day.
Thanks to Rhys for his time, if you haven't already then go catch his channel now at http://www.youtube.com/ctrlgoddammit
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