One thing Zedaph mentioned was that his creative process - the way he films and edits videos - is very different from the other hermits, which makes it harder for him to do collabs. I think that could be a factor - as interaction is a good way to find new viewers.
@@Wordfishtrombone It’s definitely made me love him and the other hermits 10x more! (And that’s saying plenty because I already was a committed Zedaph-viewer pre-season 9) I love the short but funny interactions this season.
His content is also kind of hard to pin down, sometimes. I've viewed past seasons of him as being one of the outliers in the group (like TFC, but more interactive). He builds, but you wouldn't say he's a "builder" necessarily. He can do redstone, but he's not a "redstoner" like you'd consider one to be. He seems to be his own dude, which is great because you need someone in the group to fill that role. He participates in other's content when he wants, but he doesn't need to. He's having fun with Minecraft on a different level than a lot of the other hermits, and other MC content creators in general. I do think it's good that he seems to be making more of an effort to bring in other hermits into his shenanigans this season. We get to see more of him in other hermit's videos, and more collaboration can only lead to more content down the road that he might otherwise have not come up with. It's a win-win for Zed.
Oh yes, deffinitely. Docm77 once spoke about the "Grian effect" and the "mumbo effect", where other Hermits usually gets a boost in views and subscribers when they do a colab with one of those two.
@@Wordfishtrombone honestly I would have never found Zed’s channel if it weren’t for his Zedvancements crossovers Edit: idk I just didn’t like the wording
Etho is actually one of the most consistent Minecraft TH-camrs out there in my opinion. Maybe not in terms of upload schedule, but in the way he makes videos. He didn't change much, he did improve in terms of quality, he improved in terms of his skills in Minecraft etc., but you can watch his first let's play and his current one and, besides these improvements in quality, it is still very much a recognizable and typical Etho video. He is a bastion of calm in the hectic, trend and algorithm chasing TH-cam landscape.
One thing about Mumbo people rarely mention is that he is very charismatic speaker - I noticed that for example when a new season of HC starts it's usually Mumbo announcing things and speaking in front of all Hermits which is basically like speaking in front of an entire classroom. Not everyone can handle such pressure. ''Mumbo for mayor'' gag is so funny and enduring because everyone subconsciously recognizes he could be a leader, if he wanted to and the fact that he doesn't want makes it even funnier.
Mmmm, not “usually Mumbo” announcing things (this season is the first I recall in 6 seasons of watching him), but I agree with your analysis of his speaking style.
Another thing with mumbo is he has redstone videos. One offs where's he's either playing around with new mechanics or showing an interesting and fun contraption. He did this for years along side hermit craft. It might be hard for people to get into a long running series and a new episode might not engage as many new viewers. But mumbo making a house builds it's self is more likely and then there's a backlog of similar videos people like his content and will be more likely to watch a longer series of his.
Mumbo jumbo hasn't got a mean bone in his body and he laughs at himself easily. He's family-friendly and he's a hard worker with regular output. I hope he hasn't burned out but if he has then I'm sure he'll do well at his next endeavor.
@@donteatmydonut There is nothing inherently special about the Brits speaking their native language and of all the UK Hermits Mumbo sounds the least British, which he himself admitted in one of his older videos.
Another reason i think etho has such a loyalty is because a lot of the time etho feels like he’s kinda watching with you. He ask for opinions in the comment section, he observes the conversation in collaborations then jumps in with a joke(almost like he’s watching along too), he always keeps the viewer in mind. I think that kind of attention to the audience makes him more relatable and feel like he’s kinda watching along with you. I think the “go get your snacks” really encapsulates it.
this is the part i love the most about etho. semi new fan, just got caught into hermitcraft as a whole (and exploring all the individual channels as well) when mumbos first walking house video popped off. etho's series was one i found so interesting because his take was always so calm and audience-inclusive. almost as if we were next to him discussing how to solve the problems
@@derserequiem agreed. i feel like etho is taking the ride with us vs putting on a show. the way he explains his thought process as he goes along, or breaks down how the things he has built actually work and why, are what make him my favorite youtuber. i also really enjoy watching hypno's videos for the same reason. just a couple of cool down to earth dudes.
I think Etho comes thru as a really genuine guy and he loves what he do, he doesn’t put out a video just to get the views but he also tries to think about what we like to see. Not to gain more views, but as he doesn’t want to bore his viewers.
Plus, he only ever encourages positive interaction. There are a few times in his history where he interacted with a viewer in a poor way, but he only ever brings out constructive comments. And of course, since they're featured, people will look at what gets featured and try to immitate it. Multiply that over a few years and the audience becomes extremely positive and heart warming.
Its interesting people mention etho. For sure agree with how he kinda just creates loyalty. I personally have always been invested in what he does, no matter what it is, he just draws you in. I have probably watched through his single player series 3 or 4 times now, each time enjoying it as much as the last. Part of him just doing what he enjoys is how it comes across to you watching it, its genuine, he pours his soul into the projects. Even when I stopped playing minecraft, I still always watched etho's new videos because it wasnt the game i was invested in, it was the way he played the game. Hes still one of the creators that is an instant click whenever i see a new video.
In all the years I've been subscribed to Etho (I believe something like 6/7), I don't think there was ever a video I didn't watch of him. My interest in playing minecraft has been going down a lot in the last few years but just his way of coming up with fun ideas makes his videos so entertaining. I agree, an Etho video is an instant click. Edit: Oh wait, the only videos I havent watched in those years were from his Pixelmon series. I guess it didn't interest me enough.
@@etoinedevries7583 I havn't regularly or been SUPER involved in Minecraft for 3-4 years, i played it for...a BREIF stint idk 2 years ago and that's been about it. Etho i think its not even just minecraft, it's him. I do tend to enjoy certain videos more, i loved when he did Ark survival, colabs are great, but also his solo stuff is amazing. He's the realest person out there.
I think Etho appears to have a cult of personality, but in reality I think it's just long term consistent loyal growth, rather than the content being focused on himself, the loyal audience has put the emphasis on him, whilst he trys to resist it. Which seems to be the opposite of a Yotube "cult of personality"
agree wholeheartedly. i've actually just recently started up his lets play for the 4th or 5th time now, and it never gets old. i think it's just his overall outlook on the game he plays. nothing is ever forced, and it never comes across as "i'm doing this for the views" like so many other youtubers often do. he comes up with an idea that interests him, and you can't help but to be sucked along on the journey with him as he walks thru the whole thing with you on screen. sharing his thoughts and reasoning as he's trying stuff is the biggest draw for me, and the thing that will always get me excited whenever a new video drops.
Longevity is a huge factor in Etho’s success, combined with the family friendly nature of his content. His comment sections are dominated by people talking about watching him in their childhoods and now starting families, and he’d mentioned previously that new ad revenue rules don’t affect him in the slightest. I’d imagine that same effect will come around for most of the other Hermits as well. Whether always intentional or not, Etho plays the player, AKA the audience, rather than the game, AKA the algorithm.
Very interesting to think about! I know some examples of very small channels with super tight-knit communities and very large channels that can't sell more than 5 pieces of merch. Creator communities are a super interesting topic
Hey mys! I think it is a little more based about the creator. Iets say like a kid youtuber - he will not have a community. A youtuber like sunnyv2 - it is not for kids, and it is for older pepole, but his interaction with viewers is 0. You know britishwirdo, or craftymasterman- they always with their community, talking, answering questions, and just being nice. I actully think you are kind of in the mid - because you have your community more closed to the general public, and open for pepole who pay, i think its creating something very cool, like a little bit smaller community, but very nice, grouped together and supporting. (No hate or something, i really like your videos)
Another thing I find really interesting about different TH-camrs is how they adopt different strategies of making revenue- some invest a month or more into a video that will probably go viral and get millions of views (high risk, high reward). Others seem to go for less produced, less high effort content that doesn't get as many views, but can be produced weekly. In the end, these two strategies could in theory mean the exact same revenue, but through very different means.
Time sensitive and serialised content usually isn't great for growth, whereas independent and timeless content will attract new audiences over time. So Mumbo, for example, has his redstone tutorials which work for new viewers at any time, whereas X has mostly HermitCraft and update videos, which either have a greater investment for new audiences or a limited window of relevance, and will result in slower growth. Time sensitive and serialised content is, on the other hand, better at maintaining an audience.
How did Grian gain so many subscribers through Hermktcraft then though? He mentioned that building tutorials didn't attract as many views as HC episodes.
@@kevintrang6447 I would mostly attribute that to the collective audience of HermitCraft being greater than any individual member's audience and by joining HermitCraft Grian exposed himself to that collective audience. But there is probably also a factor of minecraft let's plays being appealing to a larger audience in general than solo building content is.
I have been watching Etho for 10 years or so, and he's always been like an anti-youtuber. Seems like he fights against growth, never asking for likes or subs. He would probably be bigger if he did. But he still feels like he is doing youtube for him, not the viewer. You mentioned Etho doesn't do something if he doesn't feel like it, and I feel like that plays into what is entertaining about his videos. Etho seems kinda mellow, so it's entertaining to see him enjoy something or even get excited. Everything about him seems genuine and I really enjoy that. Mumbo is someone I recently started watching and something I think he has in common with Etho is that he is super smart, but down plays it. Kind of acts dumb in a way. It makes the viewer feel smarter even tho he is smarter than me. He makes you feel like you are part of his videos, so you want to keep coming back. I think a lot of hermits do this, and do it well. They downplay how good they are, makes me feel like I could easily do everything they do, if I just wanted to spend a week of my life making one building.
Your point about hermits downplaying themselves is spot on. What the hermits do in terms of building and red stone is so far beyond what 99% of Minecraft players can do, but it’s almost east to forget that when you watch their videos.
What i have always identified as what makes Etho and others so fun to watch is that: when the content creator is having fun, the audience is having fun. And what sets Etho appart is his refusal to do things that aren't fun. (He still grinds but throws it into B-roll footage and makes it fun)
@@wifflesports6638 Agreed - I was wandering around the public server of Hermitcraft 7 a couple of days ago, looking for inspiration, and it just always blows me away what a massive group of insanely talented people the hermits are. Just one of them is fantastic whenever they each do Lets Play videos and then you bring them all together on HC and it's simply stunning. Often, rather than being inspired, I just get a bit overwhelmed! >
@@catsandcrafts171 What has concerned me for awhile is that some of the Hermits doesn’t collab or aren’t even present much of the season. No, I’m not talking about Mumbo as he needed a break and might be burned out. Anyway, it leaves it to fewer hermits carrying the story/server and maybe makes their work harder. Maybe the seasons are to long and the breaks between them to short? I rather have shorter seasons and more interactions and more active hermits then a quiet server.
@@Hiznogood it's far from quiet imo, it just depends on who you watch. In regards to "story". There's a difference between the ones that actively chase or make a story and some that just create it as a byproduct but don't take it too seriously. The S8 story imo was not that enjoyable. (even though some did it great, I didn't enjoy it and some hermits said they didn't really like it either).
Some very interesting points here. Thinking about this, there seems to be a few different types of Hermits (or MC TH-camrs in general for that matter): - The "Actors". These are the ones who largely define and play out the overarching narratives throughout a Hermitcraft season, and adapt to whatever personas are needed in service of that. These roles tend to change over time, but in general you get people like Impulse, Grian, Cubfan and BDubs that seem to always be right in the middle of things. Ren is obviously heavily involved in this season's main storyline, but this hasn't been the case nearly as much in previous seasons. - The "Storytellers": These are people like Xisuma, Scar and Zed who may or may not be involved in the major narrative, but who are spending most of their time and efforts building their own stories and their own narratives for each season. As a bit of a special case I'd also put Grian here as well. In particular I'd bring up Zedaph since he was discussed in the video. He has been doing a lot more collaboration this season than in past ones (his recent episodes with Xisuma and Grian were hilarious) but he seems to be a "does not fit the narrative" type character, and mostly defines his own seasons. I also think Grian really wants to be more of a storyteller (and is moving more in that direction over seasons 8 and 9) but at this point he seems to have either by accident or by choice become Hermitcraft's designated agent provocateur and gets mixed up in the main storyline anyway. The same could also be said for Scar. - The "Builders": This is where people like Etho, Mumbo, JoeHills, Tango and ZombieCleo would go. They don't really care as much about telling a story as they are just building cool things that would basically only ever work on a server full of well known, mature players. I also think Mumbo is a good example of developing a specific character and a specific brand. He seems to work best as the "straight man" of the server, the Bud Abbott to various Lou Costellos, but most notably to Iskall and Grian. That said, it can be hard to be the one playing second fiddle, and with his audience and the expectations that come with it I can see why burnout would be a major issue. You could probably also put Doc in this category, although the story always seems to find him anyway.
Doc is the servers go to "crazy scientist". As much as Zedaph, Etho, and Mumbo can be "goofy scientists", they're not the crazy type, but Doc is. If the story escalates, he's bound to be there to escalate it with his builds. I'd say he's a combination between the builders and the actors. He loves building big projects with lots of technical stuff. But in the server stories, he's frequently involved, be it for his own goals, or to escalate or further someone else's goals through intricate or devious means. And gotta say that this hypothesis at least for Hermitcraft seems pretty spot on.
Etho is an enigma. People have been worried in the past as his subscriber growth is quite slow. But his views are so consistent, it's just like X said he has a loyal fanbase you always see comments of people who haven't touched the game in years watching Etho play Minecraft. Ultimately I think Etho just goes against the average MC youtuber, he doesn't ask for subs or likes, he doesn't create eye catching thumbnails or interesting titles. He just does his own thing.
I’d have to say that the most intriguing minecraft youtuber in the platform is probably etho, the way he rose to fame was honestly interesting and completely different than alot of the hermits right now. I honestly consider him as the pioneer of redstone creativity he was one of the first people to actually think about redstone in an out of the box way, at the time alot of people dabbled with redstone but no one had etho’s ambition with redstone and I think that was the reason why he was so famous at the time and this honestly explains why he isn’t as famous now, since people got the hang of redstone and alot of people now started to make ambitious redstone projects, entire servers started and thrived on the idea of redstone creativity. But what interests me the most about etho is how loyal his fanbase is, he hasn’t been growing alot lately and seeing through the comments most of the people who watch his videos right now are long time fans, like myself and most of them are not really interested in the game anymore, we mostly care about etho’s “rants” and his way of tackling problems that face him, he is a pretty smart individual, i’d give him that and he honestly left a really big mark on long time fans of the game.
From watching and listening to ilmango and other scicrafters I got an impression that it's not that Etho was the pioneer of redstone, but that he was the pioneer of engaging redstone. The hopper clock was well known (in the very closed redstone community) but no-one really thought it was something engaging or worth making a video about.
@@Yorick257 as far as I remember, the concept of the hopper clock was known and needed at the time, but there wasn’t a “fixed design” for it at the time people used to make different types of it. Then etho came and created the design of the hopper clock used today and shed light on it as a really ground breaking contraption in the logical redstone community. What i mean by a pioneer is that he is someone that sees potential on things that alot of people don’t and he has a tendency to have his own take on redstone whenever he gets a chance and he was one of the first few youtubers that made redstone popular I am not glorifying him but he truly had his mark on the redstone community as one of the first actualy big redstoners and he made people look at redstone in a different way
It never feels like Etho releases videos just to have something on his channel. All of them seem like something he would have done even if he never recorded.
As a diehard etho viewer I think that he does have a cult of personality, it's just that it doesn't incentivise the creation of parasocial relationships in the same way that a cult of personality might on other channels.
Jumped right on this video. You’ve put two of my three favorite hermits (Etho & Zedaph) in the thumbnail. That’s how you make a successful video (at least to the audience you want to target) lol Editing to say: your more chill approach to Minecraft and topics (as well as more quiet energy) is why I’m watching you today (as a sick person atm I can’t really handle someone screaming, so this video was a perfect one for me to listen to! :D)
@@sarasnowfly Ironically, for me, Grian isn’t in my top. I always give the example of if everyone posted all at once (kinda like they did for the ending of s8), I’d probably watch Etho, Zedaph, Tango, and Bdubs first. Even Scar. As much as I love watching Grian, I figure I can still watch the people I love watching more and see the interaction. Though I understand why so many people watch him and consider him their favorite. He’s a great entertainer.
@@taytaythehufflepuff8532 ooh i get what you mean, you can still find out a lot what grian does even when watching less popular youtubers, but it doesn't work the other way
@@justanecho_ You likely have lol I'm on there all the time (though I haven't posted in like, a solid two or three weeks, and it feels like I'm doing the fandom a disservice)
Zedaph just hasn't hit the point where the snowball really forms. If you look at his views, he has nearly as many views for his videos as he does subscribers. That is very impressive. A lot of youtubers might have a lot of subscribers, but not have nearly as many views for each video. I think Zeds time will come. He joined Hermitcraft with a little over 30k subscribers and now has nearly 10 times that many. He is just starting to roll.
To me Mumbo has a good sense of humor. His voice and way of speaking also contributes a lot to how enjoyable he is to watch. Grain has his humor and he's very mischievous which also makes him very fun to watch. Both of them also have great reactions and at a first glance it looks like they don't take anything seriously (even though the quality of the things they create show something else). What I like most about you is that you put a lot of thought into everything. You often get into philosophical discussions (or waffling as you call it) which I really enjoy. You put this more in your streams than in your videos, but it still comes across in the videos. So I think a TH-camr's personality is often the most important part. This is usually not the case for educational TH-camrs though. Anyway, keep up the good work, X ♥️
Well said, I definitely agree with you. X is the only hermit that I can continue to keep watching because he doesn't sacrifice that maturity in his content for 15 minutes of fame. That's what I love about Hermitcraft and all of its members. No matter what mood you're in there's always a hermit specifically producing videos that has the personality to match your mood.
Etho retains a really good sub to veiwer ratio at 2.43 million subs but getting about 500k veiwers a video. This is a ratio I think is often overlooked when comparing youtube videos. Not to say a channel is dead when its ratio is lower but the subs of said channel might be subbed for different reasons. Ethos fan base always shows up for basically every video. From watching Etho since before minecrack I can say he is the only youtuber that I go out of my way to watch his videos. Just something but the simple joy of life, makes his videos great to watch.
One thing I can add is that I love all the hermits but I personally don’t enjoy all hermits videos equally; therefore, I really admire more cinematic videos by people like Ren or doc but I don’t usually watch them.
For me it’s all about the person. On hermitcraft it feels like there’s one person for every mood. X - interesting building, but you make me think of stuff. Getting other places with my mind intellectually often times. Mumbo - a genius building thinker. He’s like that great teacher who can break down the complex of things to you in anfing easy way. Zed - someone who is always thinking outside of the box. That’s why sometimes it seems like he’s awkward. Like that kid in your class you think is pretty smart, but you can’t really get to know them. Those are the most to watch out. They are mostly up to great stuff. Grian. - it’s all about the fun. He’s more of a comedian than a minecrafter. That’s just his vehicle he’s most comfortable with. Not to say a great builder as well. Impulse - like his name he’s a machine. His workathic and attitude is really strong. When he’s doing stuff, he’s not messing around. Impressive how he manages to put all of his time in such a disciplined schedule. Tango - the same although I think he’s more of a visionary. He doesn’t see the game as it is. He looks behind the curtain and pulls triggers or wants to do it. Change it to his morals. Or use it to make something in it that fits that. Pearl, bdoubs, scar- what an artistic eye. You have to be really special to see the game as these three. What the others see technically they see visually. Like a house is not a box. It’s a living space. What makes it livable, or what is driving humans to say „that is beautiful“ that’s their essence Keralis- is a mix of all of the above I would say. More of the artsy lighting site Etho - is like your uncle you always feel a spark igniting when someone says he’s visiting. One of the most chill guys, focused and seasoned in every way. Gem - is great 😉 you can see the genius in her. She’s so young compared to the others but doesn’t stand back a bit. She’s a good example for young people to stand their ground Haven’t watched the others that often but love you all for what you do Thanks for bringing me back to Minecraft after some years and the wisdom and fun you give through your content. It’s like watching Anglo’s episode of Star Trek (Trekkie’s will know what I mean). Greetings from Munich.
My friend told me about this and I thought I would come and have a watch. Your right about Etho. He does things because he wants to and I can see the join he gets from interacting with the other hermits. I have noticed with the Etho community that they are just happy to have a video from him. They wait and let him get on with live and celebrate every video he puts out.
One thing i noticed after watching a ton of Hermitcraft is that the best episodes are when the content creator is having fun, because when they are having fun the viewer is having fun. And what sets Etho appart from many creators is that he prioritizes his fun over anything else. (If you check the length of his seasons S8 wasn't even double digits amd yet his base buddies & riptide base with Iskall are so memorable and amazing)
Personally, I enjoy the more relaxed and casual Minecrafters, who explain their creative process as they work -- Etho is spot on perfect for me! Too many TH-camrs seem to try too hard and it creates an awkward feel with them, perhaps because they're behaving or presenting in a way to attract a specific market... and I'm not in that market haha! ^_^ But it's all good -- different folks have different tastes, after all, so a nice wide variety of content providers is good for all of us, no matter who we enjoy watching.
I can definitely see why Etho's longevity and loyal viewership is a big factor. I just started Minecraft stuff a couple years ago, though, and i found myself immediately drawn to him. A word I'd use for him is winsome. He seems very genuine and likeable.
Personality can attract people, sure, but personality alone doesn't mean good content. It took a while for me to understand and appreciate Zed, and it all started with the HCBBS!
I started watching Etho on his last season of mindcrack, the first thing that caught my attention was his voice, but I didn't understand anything at the time because I was learning English, then I started watching his LP and I haven't stopped since, one thing I noticed is that he has a positive energy and idea, Skizzleman has already said this, he doesn't make videos by view he will definitely make a video for his followers to enjoy eating a snack, he has certainly evolved during these years, his way of communicating with other youtubers is more interesting and fun, before he was very quiet due to his shyness, but his loyalty to his fans remains the same. *I also think it's cool like you said he always has a lot of loyal viewers for his videos and especially his main series which are LPs even around the time Minecraft stopped being popular (around 2015) his loyal community was watching his videos and if you make a video and Etho is in your Thumbnail we are only here to see Etho 🤭
I feel like Etho has been very influential when it comes to the style and structure of your typical Minecraft let's play video (or at least the sort you see on Hermitcraft), I'm wondering if I have the correct interpretation of history. I feel like he popularised the whole "play for 8 hours to make a 20 minute video" style. But I feel like that's just because he was the first minecrafter I watched I'm probably wrong.
I know he said that in the beginning he made his content for people who actually knew about Minecraft, rather than trying to appeal to people who knew nothing about it. It's is why his let's play episodes he wasn't really teaching people the basics of the game and instead of going into more interesting things. During the initial hype of Minecraft on TH-cam, everyone was posting generic content about how to play the game, describing what it is, meanwhile Etho just jumped in and made actual content to stand out.
Hi xisuma :) There is one thing that I cannot understand. It is the number of subscribers that few of the Hermits have. This applies in particular to JoeHills, but also Zedaph, False, Hypno, Stress and xB. I started by watching a few videos back at the end of season 2 and up until season 6 where I got time to follow and subscribe to all the Hermits. All Hermits have really developed a lot since then, but for the aforementioned they haven't had the big breakthrough in terms of subscribers like the others. I don't know about all of Hermit's financial situations and whether they all have problems getting their finances together, without compromising or have to do without things in their daily lives due to their earnings from their work making videos for YT and live streaming on Twitch. But one thing really makes me sad to see how much JoeHills is struggling to make his finances work. I know that he doesn't care about how many subscribers he has, but I also know that he has too few subscribers to be able to earn extra from sponsors, among other things. I have observed JoeHills for a very long time, and have seen how his financial situation affects his creative work in both ups and downs, and through that maybe finding a good solution for him, but without success. Joe is an excellent, funny creator who really deserves an easier day. :)
It's really hard for me to sum up what some of the folks you mentioned to a newcomer which the exception of False. Part of coming to HC in the pandemic means it was something to connect with people, pure stay in my lane hermits don't catch me as much. I've probably watched just as much or more of Beefs Ablockalypse series as I have of his HC videos this season because making 50 million maps on your far off island isn't that exciting to me. I know some hermits dislike deep lore but even some mini-arcs like Zed's recent video where he moved tango was fun. I watched all three perspectives on the event.
@@raf4933 He’s a full time single parent, he also doesn’t have the financial resources a lot of other Hermits have in terms of added graphics/animations/music. Joe puts out quality content every video and stream he does. Does he want higher levels of success? Of course he does, but he’s also not willing to compromise on what he feels his content should be. He won’t sign the Twitch deal because it’s a bad contract, plain and simple. Joe owns being Joe, and that’s part of the Joe Hills Difference. Show up to a Dracula reading on Saturday nights, I guarantee it’s going to be a good time.
Sometime it's just about luck. I initially got into hermicraft during the first quarantine of the pandemic. before that I only knew etho from his let's play and I knew nothing about the other hermits.I didn't even realised he was part of hermicraft at first. I randomly found either mumbo or grian or iskall85. One of the three, I don't remember which was first but I want to say mumbo. (it was hermicraft season 7) and they interacted a lot with each other and few other hermits for various reasons such as scar, bdubs and docm77 which made me want to check their side too because it was interesting to me to get the all story (at least this side of the story). And that is it. I decided that 7 hermits was enough subscription, it's already a lot. And I only watch a few video here and there from the other. But I'm not following the all serie. I did temporarily subscribe to other hermit at occasion because I wanted to not miss the next episode but i usually unsubscribe after I gotten what I wanted (I use my subscription wall a lot, I rather not have to much stuff I'm not gonna watch on it) If I had started out with another hermit such as false or joe, maybe my roaster of hermit would be different. And I bet a lot of people are just like me, they start with someone and expand a little bit but don't go as far as following everyone because that's a lot
I picked up on Xisuma during the pandemic, and have continued to watch him past that for a multitude of reasons. Mainly his general play-style of mixing redstone and technical parts of the game with a nice balance of building and creativity. As a technical player myself, it's very refreshing to see someone who can confidently navigate both areas and most importantly show when things don't work, unlike a lot of creators. Seeing the failed versions of builds, contraptions and ideas and presenting them in the way Xisuma does is what attracts me the most, plus his openness to discussions on topics which are usually very censored and set-in-stone. He also likes curry so that also goes a long way :D
The biggest thing for me is how the person sounds. If I don't like their voice then I don't watch the content no matter how good it might be, ofc personality has an impact but it's mostly how someone talks that let's me stay or leave
My take on the Almighty Algorithm™ is... the fundamental problem is its _opaqueness_ with how it treats newly uploaded content. TH-cam claims that "every video stands on its own", but that is verifiably false if you view YT while logged out (so your subscriptions and video watch history don't factor in). What do you see on the homepage when logged out? Super-recent uploads... from big youtubers only, not random start-up channels. With maybe a viral, million-views-in-an-hour fluke for flavor. Prior success of a channel (watch time, views, interactions, subscribers) IS used as a predictor of future results for a freshly uploaded video. If X uploaded a near-identical video (trim off a few frames to bypass duplicate upload prevention) to both his main channel and to Xisuma Says, he would get _significantly_ more day-one impressions on the main-channel upload (even controlling for subbed vs non-subbed viewers), because YT sees the 1.8 million subscribers of the main channel as "videos here will do much more numbers" than the "mere" 106,000 on Xisuma Says. Not only does this make it extremely difficult for even established youtubers to get traction on a second channel (aside from word-of-mouthing the heck out of it on their main channel), it also makes it even more difficult for new-tubers (who don't _have_ an established audience to word-of-mouth to) to get their channels off the ground in the first place. Because until they reach a magic threshold, YT automatically thinks "this video isn't gonna do numbers because the channel's prior performance is ant-sized compared to these big name people", so it won't show the video (impressions) to that many people to begin with. On forums like /r/NewTubers, they always talk about Click-Through Rate, and how if even 5% (1 in 20 impressions) leads to a video click, it means your channel content is doing good, and that even multi-million-sub channels have a single digit CTR, just averaged over _orders of magnitude_ more impressions (and thus clicks, and thus views)... but if YT isn't giving you the impressions (showing your video on the main page, search, or related-videos sidebar) in the first place because your prior channel performance (because your channel is too new) makes YT think "why bother using up that space for it, it's not gonna do numbers anyway", how is a newtuber supposed to get their numbers up in the first place? So yes, the Algorithm _is_ biased, because it's been told "maximize view time" and has determined the optimal route to that is to only show content from well-established channels 90% of the time, and make you have to seek out smaller channels' content either by channel name directly or by overly specific search terms, never giving them the impressions needed to grow unless they somehow put out a diamond-in-the-rough viral video that spreads by sheer word of mouth, algorithmic bias be darned, until the channel crosses a specific (and closely guarded secret) threshold to be "noticed".
This is actually a really good take on this, and I think more small creators should definitely listen to this because a lot of the points you make are sort of slept on. One of my favorite points you hit at is the importance of personality. Early on, you can get an audience by just the content you have. A video can go viral or you can get views because the content is relevant and topical - but once that wave ends, what do you have to keep viewers watching? Viewers tune in because the content is interesting, but they'll stay because the creator is interesting and increases the value of already good content (at least with music or minecraft CCs). Ethos and Mumbo are both incredibly good examples of this. Ethos has made an entire community around the personality he brings and the approach he has to Minecraft, so that in an age where many consider long form "Let's play" content to be diminishing, he is still thriving. Mumbo became very populkar for something that many might consider "boring" inherently. Tutorials, flat out dumps of information to teach people about (usually) redstone. However the way he does so and the character he brings when he plays and teaches about Minecraft. So much so that he garnered a massive following almost entirely as "The redstone moustache guy".
Interesting. Thing is, Mumbo is funny to a very wide audience. I'm a middle age woman and I find him really funny (and clever as you said)... but I connected with my step kids from when they were really young because they find Mumbo and Grian hilarious too. The lads will find him funny, girls and women will find him funny, it's just a very broad appeal. There are other minecrafters who have the same appeal, and they are growing fast, but Mumbo was there first.
X i think you're channel grows because of your intelligence and your views on life in a whole, i really enjoy hearing your views on certain topics on just about anything, i find your views like my own, Very articulate i really enjoy that way of looking at things in life
I wrote my bachelors thesis about parasocial relationships and I think that is usually the key - when that is actively encouraged it usually blows up a channel...
I try to support as many Hermits as I can, but there are times where I am unable to watch their content because of my own schedule. I love the entirety of Hermitcraft and y’all deserve as much support as possible. Been a huge fan of Zedaph since The Big Base Swap in season 7 when I saw his base in Grian’s video. It was after that little arc in season 7 that I began to watch more of the hermits.
Some of the keys to success that I've noticed from other "content creators", is a willingness to do anything, and consistency in the growth phase of their career. Your content might be great, but if you don't have the typical thumbnails and you don't follow trends, you're far less likely to succeed. I've seen tons of youtubers who's content is much worse than others in their space, but because they're willing to debase themselves somewhat, they get ahead. The consistency part is absolutely vital too. Unless your content is completely unique, something like DHMIS, then people aren't going to wait forever, and they'll find someone who posts at least every week instead. You can somewhat drop this when you've "made it", as a loyal fanbase will be much more forgiving.
Etho is the only Minecraft TH-camr I've stayed with over about 10 years of watching Minecraft content. At one point he was the only one. Then I started watching your non-hermitcraft stuff. Then started watching a lot of hermitcrafters.
Etho makes me feel like he’s doing what he wants to do, more than doing what he does because he has to for income. This is for others outside of minecraft but I also enjoy watching creators who really show they love what they do. They are knowledgeable and they find ways to put a twist on it. Etho on many occasions will start from scratch and challenge himself to find a new creative way to go about something, and I find that contagious in a way
Very true words , I'm a zed viewer and I love his editing but it is different to other creators so I don't know if it can attract new audiences in the same way
@@bijosen1670 yea i get that, Grian and mumbo also have cult personality as well its not them per say but just how over excited alot of the fans get about them. like mumbo for mayor is a good example and the resistance for the same season some of the fans went after scar for the war and i was like woe calm down its fun role play no need to be serious.
I love seeing these videos and hearing Xisumas opinions on these things, I love the thought thru responses and wise words. You’re a real inspiration X!
@@_kaleido its because he doesn't have a lot of collabs. Most people know his from the collab he had with grian in S7, and every time he collabs he gets more subscribers
Personally, I find his hermitcraft videos a bit gimmicky. He always has a thing like the cave of contraptions, the lab or the zedvancements. It gets a bit repetitive sometimes and it feels a bit isolated from the rest of the server due to the limited collabs. This is just my opinion so ¯\_ʘ‿ʘ_/¯
What I think really help with Mumbo was he hit that sweet spot between the pure redstone technical community, like ilmango and gnembon and the build community
Personality plays a huge part in MCYT CC success. As do regional accents. There are several (American) Hermits that I simply cannot bear to watch because I find their broad regional accents irritating. Not going to name any names. There are a few (British) Hermits that I tolerate, but I feel they emphasis their personalities specifically for the camera. On the other hand, I cannot stand a lot of the Dream SMP CC's, as they're a bit too "shouty", but these CC's tend to be popular amongst younger audiences such as teenagers. Presentation is perhaps a bigger factor. Some Hermits have perfected their craft, from creating engaging content to the editing, but some seem to still be struggling with the latter. At least two Hermits struggle to make good editing segways, introductions, outros etc. Several others do tend to "waffle on" for much longer than is needed when explaining something. Whereas the fan favourites can simply derp about for an entire episode and still make it feel fun and engaging. There's no right or one way to create content, but some Hermits could definitely do with some tips and pointers from the bigger ones. As far as personality goes... Solidarity Gaming (Jimmy) ooen admits that he's a terrible Minecraft builder, but he just oozes personality. Scar on the other hand is one of the best builders going, with a very creative imagination, and an amazing personality, yet his subscriber count is still relatively low. Same can be said for Ren. However, I definitely feel that Redstoners tend to benefit more, as many viewers search for Redstone contraptions, so people like Xisuma, Mumbo, Impulse, Etho, Tango etc attract a lot of subs that way
Fair statement here. To echo on, I used to hate shouty folks (still don’t care for ‘em if I’m not ready for it) and if I’m not watching them, they can get on my nerves. Only recently did I grow to love Jimmy (SolidarityGaming) because as you put it, he has such a personality (I just love him so much! Like, seems like such a sweet guy and he’s so entertaining.) And with the accents, I’m the same way. They was one hermit (no longer active) who I could not watch just because they had so much energy and loudness in their voice. And with Shubble (empire member), I love her content and her storyline, but her voice peaks a lot which makes it harder to sit down and chill. I only watch Mumbo because he has such a peaceful British accent, and the same would be said for X (also I love this videos, where he takes a topic and tries to think deeply on it). At the end of the day, I’ll watch a person for their personality & humor (the fact that I’ll continually laugh while watching Tango, or Zedaph, or Bdubs means I’ll keep coming back - even Scar’s silliness keeps me watching him. Same reason I’ll watch Skizzleman and get excited for his and Impulse’s skyblock streams. I’m genuinely curious whose accent is off-putting to you, though I respect not discussing folks by name too often for the sake of not being rude.
@@guzkus1 Small in comparison to those youtubers, in what the fanbase thinks should be their size, and considering that persons growth rate (we can call Joe Hills small because in comparison he’s tiny and doesn’t grow much year by year - but considering his style and goals, I’d say he’s large for what he does. We can say Etho’s kinda in the middle - 2 million, but fairly stagnant all things considered, but consistent in his viewership. We can say Scar’s small because yeah, you’re right, we compare him to the bigger channels and what we think he should have (same size as Grian or Mumbo) and make our conclusion from that. All that said, I think someone should be called “small” when they’re below 100k, but when they’re in this space of the YT world, I can understand how we come to the conclusion that one person is small and one is large. In the scale of “what if everyone had the ability/means to watch TH-cam and they all used it” then all these folks would be tiny.)
@@taytaythehufflepuff8532 Apparently Scar is the 15400th most subscribed to channel? Like, small, but for the 37 million channels on TH-cam, he's in the top .04 percent.
Shouty and effects that seem to want to blow out my eardrums. My problem with Dream SMP is that I don't have the time to watch streams in real time and won't sub to every channel to avoid ads. It's too improv and spotty for me to follow anything as most don't post anything to YT. It's like Minecraft snapchat. HBomb and Awesamdude, I will catch if I'm around. Empires lore and Jimmy's protestations that he's not a toy really pull me in.
accent/familiarity is definitely a factor. as someone from the UK, i'm more likely to watch the british hermits. their accents offer me familiarity, i feel like i'm watching a friend having fun. however, i do also watch pretty much all the hermits content just not consistently (i'll wait until a few eps ar eout then binge). i think the only exception in that for me is scar. i don't know what it is about scar but i just love him in a way that puts him above some of the other hermits.
@@raf4933 logistically yes, but it's not as if every American is watching hermitcraft, maybe their british demographic is bigger? still, it's one factor that influences it, not a definitive point.
Personally, regional accents have mattered less to me than other things like gender or how their voice sounds in general. I'm American and for the longest time my favorite Hermit was Mumbo.
Really ? that's interesting. I'm french and I didn't watch a french minecraft youtuber in years. There is something about hearing english content In various different accent that draw me in I guess. It's funny to see that for english people it's the other way around
It's not just the information but also the ~vibes~. Somebody could have lots of good info, but if I don't want to curl up on a couch at the end of a long day and watch their video, then I don't watch the video. Etho and Mumbo both have unique, interesting vibes, "cozy" and "labrador puppy on a walk" respectively. So does Zedaph. However, Zed's vibes are more niche. Same with Joe's. But rest assured, those who fall into that niche absolutely love it!
I got hooked into HC by Mumbo, slowly started finding myself tuning into to Grian & Scar. Couldn’t really get into some of the other hermits but once I started to give them a chance I really like BDubs and Zed’s videos the most currently. Zeds sense of humour is top tier
That is how I started watching HC. I first watched Mumbo, loved it, and then started trying Scar's after my brother wanted to watch one of his videos. Onto Grian, and now I enjoy them all. Trying Etho out, and so far seems good.
I started season six with grian because my friend recommended me grian, then I suddenly jumped to nine and started doc, quit it. No I watch Etho, scar, Cleo, Grian, cub. I occasionally watch zed pearl and gem
Personality is the drive behind who I watch. I watch Scar because he's so entertaining with his delivery and style, and of course his talent is a major attractor. He's rediculessly charming. I watch Mumbo because of his clumsy and goofy approach, but also gets cool things done. Also, his video edits are very appealing. Tango is a funny dork whom is super redstone smart and I love that. Grian is a troll. But sometimes your playlist is already full of great personality and it's hard to make room for more. But I love all you Hermits.
It's kinda interesting... because up until watching this video I had no idea Etho was one of the more popular TH-camrs on Hermitcraft. I've pretty much never seen any of his videos show up in my recommended and I've had no desire to go and watch his videos or anything. I've don't hear a lot about him either (no offense to Etho or his fans). Meanwhile, I've heard of Mumbo before because of his redstone videos and his comedic personality. But I never watched any of Mumbo's videos until after I started watching Grian. And I watch Grian because my younger siblings were watching one of his Last Life/Third Life (I don't remember which) videos and I found it entertaining, especially his charismatic personality. So I started watching Grian and his Hermitcraft videos, which led me to watch Mumbo's. And once I ran out of Grian and Mumbo videos, I started watching Scar's videos because I remembered all of Grian and Mumbo's interactions with him and liked his fun personality. It's also why I watch PearlescentMoon's videos. Grian is basically why I watch Hermitcraft in the first place. Because of watching Scar's videos, I saw one of Zedaph's videos in my recommended (the one where he did the longest death message, which Scar helped with) and watched it because Scar's perspective wasn't out yet and I wanted to see what happened, and because of that I realized Zedaph was entertaining because of his charismatic/comedic personality. Now I've seen all his Hermitcraft videos and still watch them. And the reason I watch Xisuma's videos is because he makes videos about the new updates, and I saw some in my recommended. I was impressed by his level-headed and logical approach of discussing current events, which contrasted a large portion of the fanbase was angry and complaining as they often do. He's chill and one of the most understanding people in the fanbase. And because of that I started watching his Hermitcraft 9 videos.
Etho is probably the only channel where I would watch every video no matter what. I'm a very mood driven person where I change hobbies and routines whenever I feel like it. Sometimes I go months and years without playing Minecraft because either something else grabbed my interest at the time or I was simply burnt out from the game and needed a break, which would also naturally makes me stop watching Minecraft content. However, I would still watch every Etho's upload even in those times. Aside from his personality which is just naturally entertaining, I just love seeing him still enjoying the game as much as he did all those years ago and just doing whatever weird things he feels like doing. I'd say I'm pretty good at keeping up with the technical minecraft scene so I usually know the most efficient methods to do things in the game but pretty much that's all I see usually, people building the same farm designs because they know it to be the best and most efficient. Seeing Etho just trying out his silly ideas and building all of his farms and contraptions based on some goofy concept he thought might be fun is always a breath of fresh air and a joy to watch and it seems like he just knows how to make the game feel fun and enjoyable. Watching Etho videos is what eventually get me inspired to play Minecraft over and over again after every time I get burned out over the years.
One thing I love about watching Mumbo is his reaction to his own success. Be it a farm, or silly Redstone, or a build he often comes across as shocked and genuinely joyful that it worked out. That happiness has always seemed infectious to me.
I think your a gifted storyteller and you present it in unorthodox creative way compared to your peers in addition to talking about some things that you won't hear in most minecraft channels, i feel that is a big part of the reason i keep returning to your channel. Etho is kind of like one piece. You grew up with the videos for such a long time and most of the audience grew up with watching his content which is why they are still watching after all these years because there is something oddly nostalgic about it, even if what he is doing is something new. Zedaph has just been killing it with seasonal ideas that were just fun and engaging with the audience, where as mumbo... It is more about personality and humor i'd say.
Etho is like Tom Brady after he left the Pats. Like he's a legend, he will always be a legend, but now he's just doing it for fun. Regardless of his current viewership or number of subs, he will always have that status attached to his name.
I'm mostly fine with anyone's accent as long as they aren't too shouty and blow out my eardrums from their audio peaking. I want to call out the depth of pop culture music references in Keralis' videos in mentioning lyrics from songs that I love, hate, are tied to a specific memory, or just cringe at. It makes it fun to wonder what easter egg he's gonna sneak in for the oldheads watching.
Longtime Etho watcher here, 7 or 8 years or so. What drew me to Etho initially (and kept me there) was his calm personality. It's easy to find high energy channels but hard to find interesting but mellow youtubers, who you can tell are genuinely enjoying what they are doing. What kept me with his channel was partly his build style and redstone abilities, and partly his comment section: everyone was so respectful! You could tell that the community he built was a good one.
I feel the word underrated is kind of a pointless way to compare people because it's so random or luck based most of the time to get popular online. There are people who make good videos that aren't known and those who make awful videos with millions of subs so idk
I'm happy any time a creator experiences further success, but I also appreciate stable channels. Particularly with Etho, his comment section is very telling. It's genuinely interesting. There is actual feedback. If you go to the comment sections on bigger channels, it's just a mess. The viewers are clearly more mature.
personality is definitely a big push. Hermitcraft is so big because all the hermits are so creative, silly, and wacky. Imagine if it was a "normal" survival smp where everyone just makes some farms and bases, maybe interacts a few times with a joke every now and then, but it's boring to sit through the process, even if it ends up creating a beautiful world. Hermitcraft is practically made of hermit interactions, ongoing jokes and games, and wacky builds along with really good creative builds. Each hermit has a distinct yet fun personality.
I know you probably won't see this, but in case you do. I want you to know that I am so glad I found your chanel. I listened to you opinion on a lot of things since I was quite young, and I learned a lot from watching your videos. If I had watched someone else instead, they might of convinced me to be a horrible person. Thank you.
I've been watching Etho's videos for years, and he's probably the creator who got me interested in the Mindcrack server during its golden age. I've also noticed that most Canadians I watch on TH-cam are really friendly, welcoming, and down to earth. Maybe there's something about their content that fills a void and provides good wholesome entertainment, compared to the doom, gloom, and over selling nature of other channels. Some examples: Steve Wallis, Slim Potatohead, DownieLive and J.J. McCullough.
On a platform dominated by drama and "WOW, BAM, PIZZAZ" thumbnails, videos like Etho's and Xisuma's with their calm, chill videos makes it seem like you're watching your mate play the game which hits different.
grian introduced me to hermitcraft, but now I dont watch him at all. tango, bdubs, and zeds are my favorites. I think I like Tango bc hes self aware and able to make jokes about himself. Zed has the greatest PLANNED jokes, written jokes, puns, etc. and lately bdubs has done the cult of personality and found a way to "capitalize" on it. the huge smile, custom skins, talking about things outside of hermitcraft like the fanfics.
It can be a problem when you start to idolize someone. Even though I agree with you that you should focus on the ideas presented, not the person, I've still fallen into this trap myself. Initially you might be drawn to someone's ideas, but then you find yourself agreeing with them so often, that you unconsciously start to idolize them. And then when an idea is flawed, you entertain it, and don't think about it as critically as you would usually.
Technically speaking they're not optimizing for watch time and engagement, they're optimizing for revenue. That's why they put pressure on creators to have stable upload schedules. I often see posts by youtubers begging for the viewers' mercy for missing an upload: I don't even know what schedule they're on usually, because viewers have lives that don't revolve around youtube. On the other hand, it is probably very convenient for youtube the company to have consistent and predictable month-to-month ad revenue, which is why they prefer creators that stick to schedules.
I've started to realize that doing TH-cam could submit you to a kind of "Typecasting", where people will only watch you for one or two things and, if you try to branch out, people won't watch
Xisuma I remember you mentioning once that you wanted to relax and have more fun with Hermitcraft. I have a feeling your kinda like me in that I'm always thinking serious thoughts especially when I'm at work ( asst. supervisor guest relations and supervisor furniture maintenance for large world wide hotels) I sometimes would watch coworkers do silly things and I'm like gee that looks like fun but still I would just watch and remind them they need to be working. Until one day our company got a new regional manager he came to my property and said all staff to courtyard no exceptions and no one was to leave area for 15 min. Or would be fired. There he had 1000's of small water balloons ready and he said "go" it was total chaos (borrowed from Cub) I learned in those 15 min that having fun and enjoying my job got more out of me then all the serious research I ever did on how to improve things at the hotel. I just had to tell myself it's OK to laugh joke cut-up be silly and enjoy the people I'm surrounded by, don't get me wrong I'm the first person there in the morning and it's always dark when I leave but I can tell you this I have fun and now all the staff wants to work when I work and the guests request for me if they have any needs or just want to hear my newest joke. Moral of my long story is I'd like to see Xisuma cause some total chaos especially with that new king. I'd like to see Xisuma become King of Hermitcraft and have great fun while doing it. Oh I'd also like to sit by a campfire and listen to you play guitar, don't worry I wouldn't look at you so you still would have your secret identity. But this is just my opinions and thoughts and a very long story. I also will add I suffer from major depression that I medicate with diet exercise sleep and laughter. Due to allergies I can't take most medications so people who use medications prescribed by your Dr. do not stop taking your meds they will save your life if done correctly. So man in the mask I hope I have kept you engaged as well as anyone else who decided to read this and I hope everyone has a beautifully musical fun enchanting day.
This makes me think of how I didn't find Mumbo and Grian by their hermitcraft videos. With Mumbo I got recommended his "stupid things I did when I first started playing minecraft" and similar videos and I binged all of those because I could relate to that, but I didn't touch any of his redstone videos because I couldn't see myself building complicated redstone contraptions he had in his thumbnail. I stumbled on to Grian's channel from a tutorial on the mc wiki, binged a few of his tutorials and refused to watch HC until a while later when I finally got curious what that was and then ended up hooked. And only after that I found Mumbo's channel again and subscribed. So I think it is the varied content that pulls in viewers, but a series is what keeps them subscribed. The same way I regularly watched your update videos, but only after a while started following your hc series and am now still subbed because of hc even if there haven't been any update videos for a while.
The way I've always seen it is that Zedaph doesn't really have bingeable content. you watch his episodes in order, and then you stop. after ZEd's latest episode finishes. I close TH-cam. I got on to watch him, and then stopped watching until the next new thing. With people like Mumbo and Grian, etc, they grew their platforms by dispensing general content that needs no further context. One off redstone of building videos that was be viewed at any time, between new hermitcraft episodes. Variety content is better for the algorithm because it incentivises the audience to keep watching one creator for more than the length of their video.
I think mumbo succeeds because he is not only smart, but he never have let it go to his head (though you could say this about every hermit, and most minecraft players in general). he always has a way of talking like he doesn't actually knows what he is doing, despite the fact he definitely does. He is also quite skilled at editing, probably because of his filming background. even if it's mostly just clean cuts and black screens with text on them.
It's not a surprise that xisumas hermitcraft isn't bringing in loads of new people - what episode are we on, 1077 now? It's incredibly intimidating to try to start watching something that has a thousand episodes to "catch up to." Other hermits get a reset each season, which is THE opportunity for new people to start watching without feeling like they are missing out on horrifying amounts of history and information. Of course xisuma is resetting too, but the ever climbing episode count gives a sense of continuity and connection between seasons.
For me personally, I love Zedaphs creativity but I find his energy and vibes to be off-putting, I think it's fine for him and would never want that to change! I'm sure his audience loves it but for me personally it makes me only watch his videos very occasionally when he has a really interesting idea
people gathering around a personality ... there was a xisuma "costume party" on hc last month looking pretty sus isnt it? 🤣🤣🤣 edit i feel mumbo had a lot of early success because the intro and outro song by ProleteR were catchy as a fishing rod
Yeah etho's and mumbo's redstone videos really pulled me into watching them for my own minecraft adventures. Then i started branching out and watched alot more the other hermits
Good content and trending or engaging are not the same. Just like most 'memes' are trash, but they themselves are the embodiment of engaging. Memetic thoughts and ideas, the mental virus, and target of the algo.
I’m someone who’s recently taken the dive into everything Hermitcraft over the last few months. I had followed Bdubs, Etho, & you for awhile through other series and such and one day I got bored and watched Bdubs Hermitcraft video and instantly fell in love with the “cast” of other creators. Since then it’s been a steady dive into each and every member. First it was Pearl, then Scar, Cleo, Impulse, Gem, Doc,Ren etc. I try to keep up with most episodes and I do think a large part of it all is collaboration. It’s been hard to see Zed in other ppls eps and although i enjoy his, beef, & Keralis’ content I do feel it is sometimes hard for other viewers to stick with them when it feels as if they are almost isolated playing singleplayer at times. Multiplayer sells imo, Esp since the beginning of the pandemic SMPs take the forefront of MC TH-cam activity.
The HCers I watch I gravitate to are the ones that i can take away from and apply to my own gameplay, builder or redstone, personally ... but i am not a huge engager. I do watch for entertainment as well, but sometimes someone makes a shift and i can't get bahind it... I used to watch BD0 but he started just to get too silly, or RD's contrived stories i can see how it feeds engagement but, not digging it, not calling them out just examples, I am subbed to almost everyone. (i am typing as i listen) I agree, re Etho I find him to be very true to himself, he has a very relatable personality but never felt he's faking it.
I found mumbo jumbo through his red stone tutorials. From there it was a natural progression to hermit craft. From there I started watching Grian and ishkal…. Once boatem happened I started watching all boatem videos… but last life was probably the big point where I started watching everyone’s perspectives - then went back to third life, and was excited for double life - now I tend to watch hermitcraft videos from everyone - another big draw is interesting collaborations - like… pearls latest video makes me really curious to see Rens new video… but at the same time… I watched all the world water videos as well as that was such an amazing project! I really love the diversity across the hermits, and everyone brings something unique
Your recent non hermit videos have been really cool and different, not many other creators do that stuff in such a thorough way. Hermitcraft is kind of drowned out by some of the other hermits who are more active in the story line IMO.
I think a perfect example of "Cult of Personality" would definitely be JSchlatt. I can't enter a comment section on a TON of channels, primarily Twitch or commentary channels, without seeing a reference to his videos. Absolutely nuts to me that the radiohead guy has grown so much.
Hmm.. I agree to an extent if I'm understanding correctly. I think it could be broken down to how you cater your channel over all. Personality is a big thing but it can be difficult to pin down exactly what makes them successful because of the audience they attract. Catering to yourself, catering to your viewers, catering the algorithm, and catering to the quality of your videos. I feel like I'm forgetting something but each of these things encompass multiple things. Mumbo for example doesn't sound over confident but isn't soft-spoken either, he has a background in film design, and he makes a lot of fun, nonsense videos and he'll also will engage with the audience in many different ways in those videos. But that's just my opinion. I feel I'm more like Xisuma personality-wise so to me it's more refreshing to watch Mumbo, Grian, Scar or Zed. However I do like all the Hermits for one reason or another.
One thing Zedaph mentioned was that his creative process - the way he films and edits videos - is very different from the other hermits, which makes it harder for him to do collabs. I think that could be a factor - as interaction is a good way to find new viewers.
I wonder if that’s played a part in how much he’s interacted with other hermits during for his Zedvancements
@@Wordfishtrombone It’s definitely made me love him and the other hermits 10x more! (And that’s saying plenty because I already was a committed Zedaph-viewer pre-season 9) I love the short but funny interactions this season.
His content is also kind of hard to pin down, sometimes. I've viewed past seasons of him as being one of the outliers in the group (like TFC, but more interactive). He builds, but you wouldn't say he's a "builder" necessarily. He can do redstone, but he's not a "redstoner" like you'd consider one to be. He seems to be his own dude, which is great because you need someone in the group to fill that role. He participates in other's content when he wants, but he doesn't need to. He's having fun with Minecraft on a different level than a lot of the other hermits, and other MC content creators in general. I do think it's good that he seems to be making more of an effort to bring in other hermits into his shenanigans this season. We get to see more of him in other hermit's videos, and more collaboration can only lead to more content down the road that he might otherwise have not come up with. It's a win-win for Zed.
Oh yes, deffinitely. Docm77 once spoke about the "Grian effect" and the "mumbo effect", where other Hermits usually gets a boost in views and subscribers when they do a colab with one of those two.
@@Wordfishtrombone honestly I would have never found Zed’s channel if it weren’t for his Zedvancements crossovers
Edit: idk I just didn’t like the wording
Were back in action! Expect more videos from this channel moving forward :-)
Thanks for returning to this channel!
I can't wait :)
So happy to hear this!
Pogchamp, if I dare say so.
Awesome, looking forward to it!
Etho is actually one of the most consistent Minecraft TH-camrs out there in my opinion.
Maybe not in terms of upload schedule, but in the way he makes videos. He didn't change much, he did improve in terms of quality, he improved in terms of his skills in Minecraft etc., but you can watch his first let's play and his current one and, besides these improvements in quality, it is still very much a recognizable and typical Etho video.
He is a bastion of calm in the hectic, trend and algorithm chasing TH-cam landscape.
You click an Etho video, you know what you get.
...not literally, but in the same way you recognize the style of a painter you like.
Etho is Love, Etho is Life.
One thing about Mumbo people rarely mention is that he is very charismatic speaker - I noticed that for example when a new season of HC starts it's usually Mumbo announcing things and speaking in front of all Hermits which is basically like speaking in front of an entire classroom. Not everyone can handle such pressure. ''Mumbo for mayor'' gag is so funny and enduring because everyone subconsciously recognizes he could be a leader, if he wanted to and the fact that he doesn't want makes it even funnier.
Mmmm, not “usually Mumbo” announcing things (this season is the first I recall in 6 seasons of watching him), but I agree with your analysis of his speaking style.
Another thing with mumbo is he has redstone videos. One offs where's he's either playing around with new mechanics or showing an interesting and fun contraption. He did this for years along side hermit craft.
It might be hard for people to get into a long running series and a new episode might not engage as many new viewers. But mumbo making a house builds it's self is more likely and then there's a backlog of similar videos people like his content and will be more likely to watch a longer series of his.
Mumbo jumbo hasn't got a mean bone in his body and he laughs at himself easily. He's family-friendly and he's a hard worker with regular output. I hope he hasn't burned out but if he has then I'm sure he'll do well at his next endeavor.
i notice british people are tend to be charismatic speaker, its just the way they use "English"
@@donteatmydonut There is nothing inherently special about the Brits speaking their native language and of all the UK Hermits Mumbo sounds the least British, which he himself admitted in one of his older videos.
Another reason i think etho has such a loyalty is because a lot of the time etho feels like he’s kinda watching with you. He ask for opinions in the comment section, he observes the conversation in collaborations then jumps in with a joke(almost like he’s watching along too), he always keeps the viewer in mind. I think that kind of attention to the audience makes him more relatable and feel like he’s kinda watching along with you. I think the “go get your snacks” really encapsulates it.
this is the part i love the most about etho. semi new fan, just got caught into hermitcraft as a whole (and exploring all the individual channels as well) when mumbos first walking house video popped off. etho's series was one i found so interesting because his take was always so calm and audience-inclusive. almost as if we were next to him discussing how to solve the problems
@@derserequiem agreed. i feel like etho is taking the ride with us vs putting on a show. the way he explains his thought process as he goes along, or breaks down how the things he has built actually work and why, are what make him my favorite youtuber. i also really enjoy watching hypno's videos for the same reason. just a couple of cool down to earth dudes.
I think Etho comes thru as a really genuine guy and he loves what he do, he doesn’t put out a video just to get the views but he also tries to think about what we like to see. Not to gain more views, but as he doesn’t want to bore his viewers.
Plus, he only ever encourages positive interaction. There are a few times in his history where he interacted with a viewer in a poor way, but he only ever brings out constructive comments.
And of course, since they're featured, people will look at what gets featured and try to immitate it. Multiply that over a few years and the audience becomes extremely positive and heart warming.
While I agree, a lot of hermits ask for opinions in the comments and actively listens to them. So I don’t think this is specific to Etho
Its interesting people mention etho. For sure agree with how he kinda just creates loyalty. I personally have always been invested in what he does, no matter what it is, he just draws you in. I have probably watched through his single player series 3 or 4 times now, each time enjoying it as much as the last. Part of him just doing what he enjoys is how it comes across to you watching it, its genuine, he pours his soul into the projects. Even when I stopped playing minecraft, I still always watched etho's new videos because it wasnt the game i was invested in, it was the way he played the game. Hes still one of the creators that is an instant click whenever i see a new video.
In all the years I've been subscribed to Etho (I believe something like 6/7), I don't think there was ever a video I didn't watch of him. My interest in playing minecraft has been going down a lot in the last few years but just his way of coming up with fun ideas makes his videos so entertaining. I agree, an Etho video is an instant click.
Edit: Oh wait, the only videos I havent watched in those years were from his Pixelmon series. I guess it didn't interest me enough.
@@etoinedevries7583 I havn't regularly or been SUPER involved in Minecraft for 3-4 years, i played it for...a BREIF stint idk 2 years ago and that's been about it. Etho i think its not even just minecraft, it's him. I do tend to enjoy certain videos more, i loved when he did Ark survival, colabs are great, but also his solo stuff is amazing. He's the realest person out there.
Holy crap, thats alot of watch time, I've been a long time etho fan, i should totally do a lets play rewatch
I think Etho appears to have a cult of personality, but in reality I think it's just long term consistent loyal growth, rather than the content being focused on himself, the loyal audience has put the emphasis on him, whilst he trys to resist it. Which seems to be the opposite of a Yotube "cult of personality"
agree wholeheartedly. i've actually just recently started up his lets play for the 4th or 5th time now, and it never gets old. i think it's just his overall outlook on the game he plays. nothing is ever forced, and it never comes across as "i'm doing this for the views" like so many other youtubers often do. he comes up with an idea that interests him, and you can't help but to be sucked along on the journey with him as he walks thru the whole thing with you on screen. sharing his thoughts and reasoning as he's trying stuff is the biggest draw for me, and the thing that will always get me excited whenever a new video drops.
Longevity is a huge factor in Etho’s success, combined with the family friendly nature of his content. His comment sections are dominated by people talking about watching him in their childhoods and now starting families, and he’d mentioned previously that new ad revenue rules don’t affect him in the slightest. I’d imagine that same effect will come around for most of the other Hermits as well. Whether always intentional or not, Etho plays the player, AKA the audience, rather than the game, AKA the algorithm.
Very interesting to think about! I know some examples of very small channels with super tight-knit communities and very large channels that can't sell more than 5 pieces of merch. Creator communities are a super interesting topic
Mysticat 😱😱😱😱😱 you also watch x y Zuma!!!
Hey mys!
I think it is a little more based about the creator.
Iets say like a kid youtuber - he will not have a community.
A youtuber like sunnyv2 - it is not for kids, and it is for older pepole, but his interaction with viewers is 0.
You know britishwirdo, or craftymasterman- they always with their community, talking, answering questions, and just being nice.
I actully think you are kind of in the mid - because you have your community more closed to the general public, and open for pepole who pay, i think its creating something very cool, like a little bit smaller community, but very nice, grouped together and supporting.
(No hate or something, i really like your videos)
Another thing I find really interesting about different TH-camrs is how they adopt different strategies of making revenue- some invest a month or more into a video that will probably go viral and get millions of views (high risk, high reward). Others seem to go for less produced, less high effort content that doesn't get as many views, but can be produced weekly. In the end, these two strategies could in theory mean the exact same revenue, but through very different means.
Oh hey I know who you are
Time sensitive and serialised content usually isn't great for growth, whereas independent and timeless content will attract new audiences over time.
So Mumbo, for example, has his redstone tutorials which work for new viewers at any time, whereas X has mostly HermitCraft and update videos, which either have a greater investment for new audiences or a limited window of relevance, and will result in slower growth.
Time sensitive and serialised content is, on the other hand, better at maintaining an audience.
Yes!!! Love this explanation
This is a really simple and great explanation. It makes a lot of sense really
How did Grian gain so many subscribers through Hermktcraft then though? He mentioned that building tutorials didn't attract as many views as HC episodes.
@@kevintrang6447 heavily his personality and collabing with mumbo often, I would guess.
@@kevintrang6447 I would mostly attribute that to the collective audience of HermitCraft being greater than any individual member's audience and by joining HermitCraft Grian exposed himself to that collective audience.
But there is probably also a factor of minecraft let's plays being appealing to a larger audience in general than solo building content is.
I have been watching Etho for 10 years or so, and he's always been like an anti-youtuber. Seems like he fights against growth, never asking for likes or subs. He would probably be bigger if he did. But he still feels like he is doing youtube for him, not the viewer. You mentioned Etho doesn't do something if he doesn't feel like it, and I feel like that plays into what is entertaining about his videos. Etho seems kinda mellow, so it's entertaining to see him enjoy something or even get excited. Everything about him seems genuine and I really enjoy that.
Mumbo is someone I recently started watching and something I think he has in common with Etho is that he is super smart, but down plays it. Kind of acts dumb in a way. It makes the viewer feel smarter even tho he is smarter than me. He makes you feel like you are part of his videos, so you want to keep coming back. I think a lot of hermits do this, and do it well. They downplay how good they are, makes me feel like I could easily do everything they do, if I just wanted to spend a week of my life making one building.
Your point about hermits downplaying themselves is spot on. What the hermits do in terms of building and red stone is so far beyond what 99% of Minecraft players can do, but it’s almost east to forget that when you watch their videos.
What i have always identified as what makes Etho and others so fun to watch is that: when the content creator is having fun, the audience is having fun. And what sets Etho appart is his refusal to do things that aren't fun. (He still grinds but throws it into B-roll footage and makes it fun)
@@wifflesports6638 Agreed - I was wandering around the public server of Hermitcraft 7 a couple of days ago, looking for inspiration, and it just always blows me away what a massive group of insanely talented people the hermits are. Just one of them is fantastic whenever they each do Lets Play videos and then you bring them all together on HC and it's simply stunning. Often, rather than being inspired, I just get a bit overwhelmed! >
@@catsandcrafts171 What has concerned me for awhile is that some of the Hermits doesn’t collab or aren’t even present much of the season. No, I’m not talking about Mumbo as he needed a break and might be burned out. Anyway, it leaves it to fewer hermits carrying the story/server and maybe makes their work harder. Maybe the seasons are to long and the breaks between them to short? I rather have shorter seasons and more interactions and more active hermits then a quiet server.
@@Hiznogood it's far from quiet imo, it just depends on who you watch. In regards to "story". There's a difference between the ones that actively chase or make a story and some that just create it as a byproduct but don't take it too seriously.
The S8 story imo was not that enjoyable. (even though some did it great, I didn't enjoy it and some hermits said they didn't really like it either).
Some very interesting points here. Thinking about this, there seems to be a few different types of Hermits (or MC TH-camrs in general for that matter):
- The "Actors". These are the ones who largely define and play out the overarching narratives throughout a Hermitcraft season, and adapt to whatever personas are needed in service of that. These roles tend to change over time, but in general you get people like Impulse, Grian, Cubfan and BDubs that seem to always be right in the middle of things. Ren is obviously heavily involved in this season's main storyline, but this hasn't been the case nearly as much in previous seasons.
- The "Storytellers": These are people like Xisuma, Scar and Zed who may or may not be involved in the major narrative, but who are spending most of their time and efforts building their own stories and their own narratives for each season. As a bit of a special case I'd also put Grian here as well. In particular I'd bring up Zedaph since he was discussed in the video. He has been doing a lot more collaboration this season than in past ones (his recent episodes with Xisuma and Grian were hilarious) but he seems to be a "does not fit the narrative" type character, and mostly defines his own seasons. I also think Grian really wants to be more of a storyteller (and is moving more in that direction over seasons 8 and 9) but at this point he seems to have either by accident or by choice become Hermitcraft's designated agent provocateur and gets mixed up in the main storyline anyway. The same could also be said for Scar.
- The "Builders": This is where people like Etho, Mumbo, JoeHills, Tango and ZombieCleo would go. They don't really care as much about telling a story as they are just building cool things that would basically only ever work on a server full of well known, mature players.
I also think Mumbo is a good example of developing a specific character and a specific brand. He seems to work best as the "straight man" of the server, the Bud Abbott to various Lou Costellos, but most notably to Iskall and Grian. That said, it can be hard to be the one playing second fiddle, and with his audience and the expectations that come with it I can see why burnout would be a major issue. You could probably also put Doc in this category, although the story always seems to find him anyway.
Underrated comment
I really appreciate the time and thought that went into this analysis! Well said!
Doc is the servers go to "crazy scientist". As much as Zedaph, Etho, and Mumbo can be "goofy scientists", they're not the crazy type, but Doc is. If the story escalates, he's bound to be there to escalate it with his builds. I'd say he's a combination between the builders and the actors. He loves building big projects with lots of technical stuff. But in the server stories, he's frequently involved, be it for his own goals, or to escalate or further someone else's goals through intricate or devious means.
And gotta say that this hypothesis at least for Hermitcraft seems pretty spot on.
I personally put Grian in all 3 categories, though he is one of my favorites regardless. I was drawn to his building skill and prankster nature.
Very well said!
Etho is an enigma. People have been worried in the past as his subscriber growth is quite slow. But his views are so consistent, it's just like X said he has a loyal fanbase you always see comments of people who haven't touched the game in years watching Etho play Minecraft.
Ultimately I think Etho just goes against the average MC youtuber, he doesn't ask for subs or likes, he doesn't create eye catching thumbnails or interesting titles. He just does his own thing.
There's so many names that have come and gone, but Etho has always been there.
I’d have to say that the most intriguing minecraft youtuber in the platform is probably etho, the way he rose to fame was honestly interesting and completely different than alot of the hermits right now.
I honestly consider him as the pioneer of redstone creativity he was one of the first people to actually think about redstone in an out of the box way, at the time alot of people dabbled with redstone but no one had etho’s ambition with redstone and I think that was the reason why he was so famous at the time and this honestly explains why he isn’t as famous now, since people got the hang of redstone and alot of people now started to make ambitious redstone projects, entire servers started and thrived on the idea of redstone creativity.
But what interests me the most about etho is how loyal his fanbase is, he hasn’t been growing alot lately and seeing through the comments most of the people who watch his videos right now are long time fans, like myself and most of them are not really interested in the game anymore, we mostly care about etho’s “rants” and his way of tackling problems that face him, he is a pretty smart individual, i’d give him that and he honestly left a really big mark on long time fans of the game.
From watching and listening to ilmango and other scicrafters I got an impression that it's not that Etho was the pioneer of redstone, but that he was the pioneer of engaging redstone. The hopper clock was well known (in the very closed redstone community) but no-one really thought it was something engaging or worth making a video about.
@@Yorick257 as far as I remember, the concept of the hopper clock was known and needed at the time, but there wasn’t a “fixed design” for it at the time people used to make different types of it.
Then etho came and created the design of the hopper clock used today and shed light on it as a really ground breaking contraption in the logical redstone community.
What i mean by a pioneer is that he is someone that sees potential on things that alot of people don’t and he has a tendency to have his own take on redstone whenever he gets a chance and he was one of the first few youtubers that made redstone popular
I am not glorifying him but he truly had his mark on the redstone community as one of the first actualy big redstoners and he made people look at redstone in a different way
It never feels like Etho releases videos just to have something on his channel. All of them seem like something he would have done even if he never recorded.
As a diehard etho viewer I think that he does have a cult of personality, it's just that it doesn't incentivise the creation of parasocial relationships in the same way that a cult of personality might on other channels.
I think a lot of "regular" people don't get Ethos humor. Makes it better really... I love Etho
Jumped right on this video. You’ve put two of my three favorite hermits (Etho & Zedaph) in the thumbnail. That’s how you make a successful video (at least to the audience you want to target) lol
Editing to say: your more chill approach to Minecraft and topics (as well as more quiet energy) is why I’m watching you today (as a sick person atm I can’t really handle someone screaming, so this video was a perfect one for me to listen to! :D)
for me it was Etho and Mumbo
I like the uniqueness. I’m so used to people saying “Grian is my favorite” or “Mumbo is the best.” It’s about time we get some verity
@@sarasnowfly Ironically, for me, Grian isn’t in my top. I always give the example of if everyone posted all at once (kinda like they did for the ending of s8), I’d probably watch Etho, Zedaph, Tango, and Bdubs first. Even Scar. As much as I love watching Grian, I figure I can still watch the people I love watching more and see the interaction. Though I understand why so many people watch him and consider him their favorite. He’s a great entertainer.
@@taytaythehufflepuff8532 ooh i get what you mean, you can still find out a lot what grian does even when watching less popular youtubers, but it doesn't work the other way
@@justanecho_ You likely have lol
I'm on there all the time (though I haven't posted in like, a solid two or three weeks, and it feels like I'm doing the fandom a disservice)
Zedaph just hasn't hit the point where the snowball really forms. If you look at his views, he has nearly as many views for his videos as he does subscribers. That is very impressive. A lot of youtubers might have a lot of subscribers, but not have nearly as many views for each video. I think Zeds time will come. He joined Hermitcraft with a little over 30k subscribers and now has nearly 10 times that many. He is just starting to roll.
To me Mumbo has a good sense of humor. His voice and way of speaking also contributes a lot to how enjoyable he is to watch.
Grain has his humor and he's very mischievous which also makes him very fun to watch.
Both of them also have great reactions and at a first glance it looks like they don't take anything seriously (even though the quality of the things they create show something else).
What I like most about you is that you put a lot of thought into everything. You often get into philosophical discussions (or waffling as you call it) which I really enjoy. You put this more in your streams than in your videos, but it still comes across in the videos. So I think a TH-camr's personality is often the most important part. This is usually not the case for educational TH-camrs though.
Anyway, keep up the good work, X ♥️
Well said, I definitely agree with you. X is the only hermit that I can continue to keep watching because he doesn't sacrifice that maturity in his content for 15 minutes of fame. That's what I love about Hermitcraft and all of its members. No matter what mood you're in there's always a hermit specifically producing videos that has the personality to match your mood.
Etho retains a really good sub to veiwer ratio at 2.43 million subs but getting about 500k veiwers a video. This is a ratio I think is often overlooked when comparing youtube videos. Not to say a channel is dead when its ratio is lower but the subs of said channel might be subbed for different reasons. Ethos fan base always shows up for basically every video. From watching Etho since before minecrack I can say he is the only youtuber that I go out of my way to watch his videos. Just something but the simple joy of life, makes his videos great to watch.
He also gets tons of comments. I dont know much about engagement metrics, but ive heard that's a good thing
Always going out of my way to watch his videos also.
Ethos engagement is insane for a 10+ year old channel.
One thing I can add is that I love all the hermits but I personally don’t enjoy all hermits videos equally; therefore, I really admire more cinematic videos by people like Ren or doc but I don’t usually watch them.
For me it’s all about the person. On hermitcraft it feels like there’s one person for every mood.
X - interesting building, but you make me think of stuff. Getting other places with my mind intellectually often times.
Mumbo - a genius building thinker. He’s like that great teacher who can break down the complex of things to you in anfing easy way.
Zed - someone who is always thinking outside of the box. That’s why sometimes it seems like he’s awkward. Like that kid in your class you think is pretty smart, but you can’t really get to know them. Those are the most to watch out. They are mostly up to great stuff.
Grian. - it’s all about the fun. He’s more of a comedian than a minecrafter. That’s just his vehicle he’s most comfortable with. Not to say a great builder as well.
Impulse - like his name he’s a machine. His workathic and attitude is really strong. When he’s doing stuff, he’s not messing around. Impressive how he manages to put all of his time in such a disciplined schedule.
Tango - the same although I think he’s more of a visionary. He doesn’t see the game as it is. He looks behind the curtain and pulls triggers or wants to do it. Change it to his morals. Or use it to make something in it that fits that.
Pearl, bdoubs, scar- what an artistic eye. You have to be really special to see the game as these three. What the others see technically they see visually. Like a house is not a box. It’s a living space. What makes it livable, or what is driving humans to say „that is beautiful“ that’s their essence
Keralis- is a mix of all of the above I would say. More of the artsy lighting site
Etho - is like your uncle you always feel a spark igniting when someone says he’s visiting. One of the most chill guys, focused and seasoned in every way.
Gem - is great 😉 you can see the genius in her. She’s so young compared to the others but doesn’t stand back a bit. She’s a good example for young people to stand their ground
Haven’t watched the others that often but love you all for what you do
Thanks for bringing me back to Minecraft after some years and the wisdom and fun you give through your content. It’s like watching Anglo’s episode of Star Trek (Trekkie’s will know what I mean). Greetings from Munich.
wait, how old is Gem? I always thought Pearl and she are of similar age?
My friend told me about this and I thought I would come and have a watch. Your right about Etho. He does things because he wants to and I can see the join he gets from interacting with the other hermits. I have noticed with the Etho community that they are just happy to have a video from him. They wait and let him get on with live and celebrate every video he puts out.
One thing i noticed after watching a ton of Hermitcraft is that the best episodes are when the content creator is having fun, because when they are having fun the viewer is having fun.
And what sets Etho appart from many creators is that he prioritizes his fun over anything else. (If you check the length of his seasons S8 wasn't even double digits amd yet his base buddies & riptide base with Iskall are so memorable and amazing)
@@jasonreed7522having fun really is great, once the lnc hermits were just hanging out and it was great
Personally, I enjoy the more relaxed and casual Minecrafters, who explain their creative process as they work -- Etho is spot on perfect for me! Too many TH-camrs seem to try too hard and it creates an awkward feel with them, perhaps because they're behaving or presenting in a way to attract a specific market... and I'm not in that market haha! ^_^ But it's all good -- different folks have different tastes, after all, so a nice wide variety of content providers is good for all of us, no matter who we enjoy watching.
I can definitely see why Etho's longevity and loyal viewership is a big factor. I just started Minecraft stuff a couple years ago, though, and i found myself immediately drawn to him. A word I'd use for him is winsome. He seems very genuine and likeable.
Personality can attract people, sure, but personality alone doesn't mean good content. It took a while for me to understand and appreciate Zed, and it all started with the HCBBS!
I started watching Etho on his last season of mindcrack, the first thing that caught my attention was his voice, but I didn't understand anything at the time because I was learning English, then I started watching his LP and I haven't stopped since, one thing I noticed is that he has a positive energy and idea, Skizzleman has already said this, he doesn't make videos by view he will definitely make a video for his followers to enjoy eating a snack, he has certainly evolved during these years, his way of communicating with other youtubers is more interesting and fun, before he was very quiet due to his shyness, but his loyalty to his fans remains the same.
*I also think it's cool like you said he always has a lot of loyal viewers for his videos and especially his main series which are LPs even around the time Minecraft stopped being popular (around 2015) his loyal community was watching his videos and if you make a video and Etho is in your Thumbnail we are only here to see Etho 🤭
I feel like Etho has been very influential when it comes to the style and structure of your typical Minecraft let's play video (or at least the sort you see on Hermitcraft), I'm wondering if I have the correct interpretation of history. I feel like he popularised the whole "play for 8 hours to make a 20 minute video" style. But I feel like that's just because he was the first minecrafter I watched I'm probably wrong.
I know he said that in the beginning he made his content for people who actually knew about Minecraft, rather than trying to appeal to people who knew nothing about it. It's is why his let's play episodes he wasn't really teaching people the basics of the game and instead of going into more interesting things. During the initial hype of Minecraft on TH-cam, everyone was posting generic content about how to play the game, describing what it is, meanwhile Etho just jumped in and made actual content to stand out.
This guy is such a legend he put kakashi in the thumbnail talking about personality yeah dude i miss naruto already
I feel the need to make sure you’re joking
Ahh yes kakashi my favorite hermit
PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE JOKING
@@BlockedUser420 it’s always good to make sure there’s some real stupid people out there
Hi xisuma :) There is one thing that I cannot understand. It is the number of subscribers that few of the Hermits have. This applies in particular to JoeHills, but also Zedaph, False, Hypno, Stress and xB.
I started by watching a few videos back at the end of season 2 and up until season 6 where I got time to follow and subscribe to all the Hermits. All Hermits have really developed a lot since then, but for the aforementioned they haven't had the big breakthrough in terms of subscribers like the others.
I don't know about all of Hermit's financial situations and whether they all have problems getting their finances together, without compromising or have to do without things in their daily lives due to their earnings from their work making videos for YT and live streaming on Twitch. But one thing really makes me sad to see how much JoeHills is struggling to make his finances work. I know that he doesn't care about how many subscribers he has, but I also know that he has too few subscribers to be able to earn extra from sponsors, among other things. I have observed JoeHills for a very long time, and have seen how his financial situation affects his creative work in both ups and downs, and through that maybe finding a good solution for him, but without success. Joe is an excellent, funny creator who really deserves an easier day. :)
his videos suck though, they feel like something out of 2012 you gotta keep up with the times or be left behind
It's really hard for me to sum up what some of the folks you mentioned to a newcomer which the exception of False. Part of coming to HC in the pandemic means it was something to connect with people, pure stay in my lane hermits don't catch me as much. I've probably watched just as much or more of Beefs Ablockalypse series as I have of his HC videos this season because making 50 million maps on your far off island isn't that exciting to me.
I know some hermits dislike deep lore but even some mini-arcs like Zed's recent video where he moved tango was fun. I watched all three perspectives on the event.
@@raf4933 Have you ever watch his livestreams ? They are amazing. :)
@@raf4933 He’s a full time single parent, he also doesn’t have the financial resources a lot of other Hermits have in terms of added graphics/animations/music. Joe puts out quality content every video and stream he does. Does he want higher levels of success? Of course he does, but he’s also not willing to compromise on what he feels his content should be. He won’t sign the Twitch deal because it’s a bad contract, plain and simple. Joe owns being Joe, and that’s part of the Joe Hills Difference. Show up to a Dracula reading on Saturday nights, I guarantee it’s going to be a good time.
Sometime it's just about luck. I initially got into hermicraft during the first quarantine of the pandemic. before that I only knew etho from his let's play and I knew nothing about the other hermits.I didn't even realised he was part of hermicraft at first. I randomly found either mumbo or grian or iskall85. One of the three, I don't remember which was first but I want to say mumbo. (it was hermicraft season 7) and they interacted a lot with each other and few other hermits for various reasons such as scar, bdubs and docm77 which made me want to check their side too because it was interesting to me to get the all story (at least this side of the story). And that is it. I decided that 7 hermits was enough subscription, it's already a lot. And I only watch a few video here and there from the other. But I'm not following the all serie. I did temporarily subscribe to other hermit at occasion because I wanted to not miss the next episode but i usually unsubscribe after I gotten what I wanted (I use my subscription wall a lot, I rather not have to much stuff I'm not gonna watch on it)
If I had started out with another hermit such as false or joe, maybe my roaster of hermit would be different.
And I bet a lot of people are just like me, they start with someone and expand a little bit but don't go as far as following everyone because that's a lot
I picked up on Xisuma during the pandemic, and have continued to watch him past that for a multitude of reasons. Mainly his general play-style of mixing redstone and technical parts of the game with a nice balance of building and creativity. As a technical player myself, it's very refreshing to see someone who can confidently navigate both areas and most importantly show when things don't work, unlike a lot of creators. Seeing the failed versions of builds, contraptions and ideas and presenting them in the way Xisuma does is what attracts me the most, plus his openness to discussions on topics which are usually very censored and set-in-stone. He also likes curry so that also goes a long way :D
The biggest thing for me is how the person sounds. If I don't like their voice then I don't watch the content no matter how good it might be, ofc personality has an impact but it's mostly how someone talks that let's me stay or leave
My take on the Almighty Algorithm™ is... the fundamental problem is its _opaqueness_ with how it treats newly uploaded content. TH-cam claims that "every video stands on its own", but that is verifiably false if you view YT while logged out (so your subscriptions and video watch history don't factor in). What do you see on the homepage when logged out? Super-recent uploads... from big youtubers only, not random start-up channels. With maybe a viral, million-views-in-an-hour fluke for flavor. Prior success of a channel (watch time, views, interactions, subscribers) IS used as a predictor of future results for a freshly uploaded video.
If X uploaded a near-identical video (trim off a few frames to bypass duplicate upload prevention) to both his main channel and to Xisuma Says, he would get _significantly_ more day-one impressions on the main-channel upload (even controlling for subbed vs non-subbed viewers), because YT sees the 1.8 million subscribers of the main channel as "videos here will do much more numbers" than the "mere" 106,000 on Xisuma Says. Not only does this make it extremely difficult for even established youtubers to get traction on a second channel (aside from word-of-mouthing the heck out of it on their main channel), it also makes it even more difficult for new-tubers (who don't _have_ an established audience to word-of-mouth to) to get their channels off the ground in the first place. Because until they reach a magic threshold, YT automatically thinks "this video isn't gonna do numbers because the channel's prior performance is ant-sized compared to these big name people", so it won't show the video (impressions) to that many people to begin with.
On forums like /r/NewTubers, they always talk about Click-Through Rate, and how if even 5% (1 in 20 impressions) leads to a video click, it means your channel content is doing good, and that even multi-million-sub channels have a single digit CTR, just averaged over _orders of magnitude_ more impressions (and thus clicks, and thus views)... but if YT isn't giving you the impressions (showing your video on the main page, search, or related-videos sidebar) in the first place because your prior channel performance (because your channel is too new) makes YT think "why bother using up that space for it, it's not gonna do numbers anyway", how is a newtuber supposed to get their numbers up in the first place?
So yes, the Algorithm _is_ biased, because it's been told "maximize view time" and has determined the optimal route to that is to only show content from well-established channels 90% of the time, and make you have to seek out smaller channels' content either by channel name directly or by overly specific search terms, never giving them the impressions needed to grow unless they somehow put out a diamond-in-the-rough viral video that spreads by sheer word of mouth, algorithmic bias be darned, until the channel crosses a specific (and closely guarded secret) threshold to be "noticed".
This is actually a really good take on this, and I think more small creators should definitely listen to this because a lot of the points you make are sort of slept on. One of my favorite points you hit at is the importance of personality. Early on, you can get an audience by just the content you have. A video can go viral or you can get views because the content is relevant and topical - but once that wave ends, what do you have to keep viewers watching?
Viewers tune in because the content is interesting, but they'll stay because the creator is interesting and increases the value of already good content (at least with music or minecraft CCs). Ethos and Mumbo are both incredibly good examples of this.
Ethos has made an entire community around the personality he brings and the approach he has to Minecraft, so that in an age where many consider long form "Let's play" content to be diminishing, he is still thriving.
Mumbo became very populkar for something that many might consider "boring" inherently. Tutorials, flat out dumps of information to teach people about (usually) redstone. However the way he does so and the character he brings when he plays and teaches about Minecraft. So much so that he garnered a massive following almost entirely as "The redstone moustache guy".
Interesting. Thing is, Mumbo is funny to a very wide audience. I'm a middle age woman and I find him really funny (and clever as you said)... but I connected with my step kids from when they were really young because they find Mumbo and Grian hilarious too. The lads will find him funny, girls and women will find him funny, it's just a very broad appeal. There are other minecrafters who have the same appeal, and they are growing fast, but Mumbo was there first.
X i think you're channel grows because of your intelligence and your views on life in a whole, i really enjoy hearing your views on certain topics on just about anything, i find your views like my own, Very articulate i really enjoy that way of looking at things in life
I wrote my bachelors thesis about parasocial relationships and I think that is usually the key - when that is actively encouraged it usually blows up a channel...
I try to support as many Hermits as I can, but there are times where I am unable to watch their content because of my own schedule. I love the entirety of Hermitcraft and y’all deserve as much support as possible. Been a huge fan of Zedaph since The Big Base Swap in season 7 when I saw his base in Grian’s video. It was after that little arc in season 7 that I began to watch more of the hermits.
Some of the keys to success that I've noticed from other "content creators", is a willingness to do anything, and consistency in the growth phase of their career. Your content might be great, but if you don't have the typical thumbnails and you don't follow trends, you're far less likely to succeed. I've seen tons of youtubers who's content is much worse than others in their space, but because they're willing to debase themselves somewhat, they get ahead. The consistency part is absolutely vital too. Unless your content is completely unique, something like DHMIS, then people aren't going to wait forever, and they'll find someone who posts at least every week instead. You can somewhat drop this when you've "made it", as a loyal fanbase will be much more forgiving.
Etho is the only Minecraft TH-camr I've stayed with over about 10 years of watching Minecraft content. At one point he was the only one. Then I started watching your non-hermitcraft stuff. Then started watching a lot of hermitcrafters.
Etho makes me feel like he’s doing what he wants to do, more than doing what he does because he has to for income.
This is for others outside of minecraft but I also enjoy watching creators who really show they love what they do. They are knowledgeable and they find ways to put a twist on it.
Etho on many occasions will start from scratch and challenge himself to find a new creative way to go about something, and I find that contagious in a way
Very true words , I'm a zed viewer and I love his editing but it is different to other creators so I don't know if it can attract new audiences in the same way
Dream is a cult personality youtuber in my opinion.
Yeah, which is so weird to me because his personality is pretty nonexistent.
@@bijosen1670 yea i get that, Grian and mumbo also have cult personality as well its not them per say but just how over excited alot of the fans get about them.
like mumbo for mayor is a good example and the resistance for the same season some of the fans went after scar for the war and i was like woe calm down its fun role play no need to be serious.
I love seeing these videos and hearing Xisumas opinions on these things, I love the thought thru responses and wise words. You’re a real inspiration X!
Zed is quite underated
Yeah it’s confusing, he’s so entertaining :( maybe it’s because he focuses more on variety than strictly redstone/building
@@_kaleido its because he doesn't have a lot of collabs. Most people know his from the collab he had with grian in S7, and every time he collabs he gets more subscribers
@@_kaleido he mostly collabed with tango and aside from that he makes very niche content.
Personally, I find his hermitcraft videos a bit gimmicky. He always has a thing like the cave of contraptions, the lab or the zedvancements. It gets a bit repetitive sometimes and it feels a bit isolated from the rest of the server due to the limited collabs.
This is just my opinion so ¯\_ʘ‿ʘ_/¯
What I think really help with Mumbo was he hit that sweet spot between the pure redstone technical community, like ilmango and gnembon and the build community
Personality plays a huge part in MCYT CC success. As do regional accents. There are several (American) Hermits that I simply cannot bear to watch because I find their broad regional accents irritating. Not going to name any names. There are a few (British) Hermits that I tolerate, but I feel they emphasis their personalities specifically for the camera. On the other hand, I cannot stand a lot of the Dream SMP CC's, as they're a bit too "shouty", but these CC's tend to be popular amongst younger audiences such as teenagers.
Presentation is perhaps a bigger factor. Some Hermits have perfected their craft, from creating engaging content to the editing, but some seem to still be struggling with the latter. At least two Hermits struggle to make good editing segways, introductions, outros etc. Several others do tend to "waffle on" for much longer than is needed when explaining something. Whereas the fan favourites can simply derp about for an entire episode and still make it feel fun and engaging. There's no right or one way to create content, but some Hermits could definitely do with some tips and pointers from the bigger ones.
As far as personality goes... Solidarity Gaming (Jimmy) ooen admits that he's a terrible Minecraft builder, but he just oozes personality. Scar on the other hand is one of the best builders going, with a very creative imagination, and an amazing personality, yet his subscriber count is still relatively low. Same can be said for Ren. However, I definitely feel that Redstoners tend to benefit more, as many viewers search for Redstone contraptions, so people like Xisuma, Mumbo, Impulse, Etho, Tango etc attract a lot of subs that way
Fair statement here.
To echo on, I used to hate shouty folks (still don’t care for ‘em if I’m not ready for it) and if I’m not watching them, they can get on my nerves. Only recently did I grow to love Jimmy (SolidarityGaming) because as you put it, he has such a personality (I just love him so much! Like, seems like such a sweet guy and he’s so entertaining.)
And with the accents, I’m the same way. They was one hermit (no longer active) who I could not watch just because they had so much energy and loudness in their voice.
And with Shubble (empire member), I love her content and her storyline, but her voice peaks a lot which makes it harder to sit down and chill.
I only watch Mumbo because he has such a peaceful British accent, and the same would be said for X (also I love this videos, where he takes a topic and tries to think deeply on it).
At the end of the day, I’ll watch a person for their personality & humor (the fact that I’ll continually laugh while watching Tango, or Zedaph, or Bdubs means I’ll keep coming back - even Scar’s silliness keeps me watching him. Same reason I’ll watch Skizzleman and get excited for his and Impulse’s skyblock streams.
I’m genuinely curious whose accent is off-putting to you, though I respect not discussing folks by name too often for the sake of not being rude.
I like how 1.9 million subs is considered low when you have Mumbo, Grian and Dream.
@@guzkus1 Small in comparison to those youtubers, in what the fanbase thinks should be their size, and considering that persons growth rate (we can call Joe Hills small because in comparison he’s tiny and doesn’t grow much year by year - but considering his style and goals, I’d say he’s large for what he does. We can say Etho’s kinda in the middle - 2 million, but fairly stagnant all things considered, but consistent in his viewership. We can say Scar’s small because yeah, you’re right, we compare him to the bigger channels and what we think he should have (same size as Grian or Mumbo) and make our conclusion from that.
All that said, I think someone should be called “small” when they’re below 100k, but when they’re in this space of the YT world, I can understand how we come to the conclusion that one person is small and one is large.
In the scale of “what if everyone had the ability/means to watch TH-cam and they all used it” then all these folks would be tiny.)
@@taytaythehufflepuff8532 Apparently Scar is the 15400th most subscribed to channel? Like, small, but for the 37 million channels on TH-cam, he's in the top .04 percent.
Shouty and effects that seem to want to blow out my eardrums. My problem with Dream SMP is that I don't have the time to watch streams in real time and won't sub to every channel to avoid ads. It's too improv and spotty for me to follow anything as most don't post anything to YT. It's like Minecraft snapchat. HBomb and Awesamdude, I will catch if I'm around.
Empires lore and Jimmy's protestations that he's not a toy really pull me in.
accent/familiarity is definitely a factor. as someone from the UK, i'm more likely to watch the british hermits. their accents offer me familiarity, i feel like i'm watching a friend having fun. however, i do also watch pretty much all the hermits content just not consistently (i'll wait until a few eps ar eout then binge). i think the only exception in that for me is scar. i don't know what it is about scar but i just love him in a way that puts him above some of the other hermits.
I think this is 100% the case, 4 of the 5 hermits I watch are English (Xisuma, Zedaph, Grian, and Mumbo), with the exception being DocM.
if that was meaningfull though you'd expect the american hermits to be bigger simply because there are more american viewers
@@raf4933 logistically yes, but it's not as if every American is watching hermitcraft, maybe their british demographic is bigger? still, it's one factor that influences it, not a definitive point.
Personally, regional accents have mattered less to me than other things like gender or how their voice sounds in general. I'm American and for the longest time my favorite Hermit was Mumbo.
Really ? that's interesting. I'm french and I didn't watch a french minecraft youtuber in years. There is something about hearing english content In various different accent that draw me in I guess. It's funny to see that for english people it's the other way around
It's not just the information but also the ~vibes~. Somebody could have lots of good info, but if I don't want to curl up on a couch at the end of a long day and watch their video, then I don't watch the video.
Etho and Mumbo both have unique, interesting vibes, "cozy" and "labrador puppy on a walk" respectively. So does Zedaph. However, Zed's vibes are more niche. Same with Joe's. But rest assured, those who fall into that niche absolutely love it!
I got hooked into HC by Mumbo, slowly started finding myself tuning into to Grian & Scar. Couldn’t really get into some of the other hermits but once I started to give them a chance I really like BDubs and Zed’s videos the most currently. Zeds sense of humour is top tier
That is how I started watching HC. I first watched Mumbo, loved it, and then started trying Scar's after my brother wanted to watch one of his videos. Onto Grian, and now I enjoy them all. Trying Etho out, and so far seems good.
@@naomibuckingham4046 my new favourite has got to be zedaph nowadays. I find him to be the most entertaining hands down.
@@Tailored_Creations Maybe I'll watch some of his videos
I started season six with grian because my friend recommended me grian, then I suddenly jumped to nine and started doc, quit it. No I watch Etho, scar, Cleo, Grian, cub. I occasionally watch zed pearl and gem
Personality is the drive behind who I watch. I watch Scar because he's so entertaining with his delivery and style, and of course his talent is a major attractor. He's rediculessly charming.
I watch Mumbo because of his clumsy and goofy approach, but also gets cool things done. Also, his video edits are very appealing.
Tango is a funny dork whom is super redstone smart and I love that.
Grian is a troll.
But sometimes your playlist is already full of great personality and it's hard to make room for more. But I love all you Hermits.
I love Zed and especially everything he’s done this season with the Zedvancements. Previously, he didn’t upload as often or collab much
I love the zedvancements!
It's kinda interesting... because up until watching this video I had no idea Etho was one of the more popular TH-camrs on Hermitcraft. I've pretty much never seen any of his videos show up in my recommended and I've had no desire to go and watch his videos or anything. I've don't hear a lot about him either (no offense to Etho or his fans).
Meanwhile, I've heard of Mumbo before because of his redstone videos and his comedic personality. But I never watched any of Mumbo's videos until after I started watching Grian. And I watch Grian because my younger siblings were watching one of his Last Life/Third Life (I don't remember which) videos and I found it entertaining, especially his charismatic personality. So I started watching Grian and his Hermitcraft videos, which led me to watch Mumbo's.
And once I ran out of Grian and Mumbo videos, I started watching Scar's videos because I remembered all of Grian and Mumbo's interactions with him and liked his fun personality. It's also why I watch PearlescentMoon's videos. Grian is basically why I watch Hermitcraft in the first place.
Because of watching Scar's videos, I saw one of Zedaph's videos in my recommended (the one where he did the longest death message, which Scar helped with) and watched it because Scar's perspective wasn't out yet and I wanted to see what happened, and because of that I realized Zedaph was entertaining because of his charismatic/comedic personality. Now I've seen all his Hermitcraft videos and still watch them.
And the reason I watch Xisuma's videos is because he makes videos about the new updates, and I saw some in my recommended. I was impressed by his level-headed and logical approach of discussing current events, which contrasted a large portion of the fanbase was angry and complaining as they often do. He's chill and one of the most understanding people in the fanbase. And because of that I started watching his Hermitcraft 9 videos.
Etho is probably the only channel where I would watch every video no matter what. I'm a very mood driven person where I change hobbies and routines whenever I feel like it. Sometimes I go months and years without playing Minecraft because either something else grabbed my interest at the time or I was simply burnt out from the game and needed a break, which would also naturally makes me stop watching Minecraft content. However, I would still watch every Etho's upload even in those times. Aside from his personality which is just naturally entertaining, I just love seeing him still enjoying the game as much as he did all those years ago and just doing whatever weird things he feels like doing. I'd say I'm pretty good at keeping up with the technical minecraft scene so I usually know the most efficient methods to do things in the game but pretty much that's all I see usually, people building the same farm designs because they know it to be the best and most efficient. Seeing Etho just trying out his silly ideas and building all of his farms and contraptions based on some goofy concept he thought might be fun is always a breath of fresh air and a joy to watch and it seems like he just knows how to make the game feel fun and enjoyable. Watching Etho videos is what eventually get me inspired to play Minecraft over and over again after every time I get burned out over the years.
I think Xisuma can talk about anything and make me listen with genuine interest.
One thing I love about watching Mumbo is his reaction to his own success. Be it a farm, or silly Redstone, or a build he often comes across as shocked and genuinely joyful that it worked out. That happiness has always seemed infectious to me.
That's like the exact reason why I can't stand watching him lol. It began as entertaining, but it just got annoying and repetitive over time.
I think your a gifted storyteller and you present it in unorthodox creative way compared to your peers in addition to talking about some things that you won't hear in most minecraft channels, i feel that is a big part of the reason i keep returning to your channel.
Etho is kind of like one piece. You grew up with the videos for such a long time and most of the audience grew up with watching his content which is why they are still watching after all these years because there is something oddly nostalgic about it, even if what he is doing is something new.
Zedaph has just been killing it with seasonal ideas that were just fun and engaging with the audience, where as mumbo... It is more about personality and humor i'd say.
Etho is like Tom Brady after he left the Pats. Like he's a legend, he will always be a legend, but now he's just doing it for fun. Regardless of his current viewership or number of subs, he will always have that status attached to his name.
I'm mostly fine with anyone's accent as long as they aren't too shouty and blow out my eardrums from their audio peaking.
I want to call out the depth of pop culture music references in Keralis' videos in mentioning lyrics from songs that I love, hate, are tied to a specific memory, or just cringe at. It makes it fun to wonder what easter egg he's gonna sneak in for the oldheads watching.
Longtime Etho watcher here, 7 or 8 years or so. What drew me to Etho initially (and kept me there) was his calm personality. It's easy to find high energy channels but hard to find interesting but mellow youtubers, who you can tell are genuinely enjoying what they are doing.
What kept me with his channel was partly his build style and redstone abilities, and partly his comment section: everyone was so respectful! You could tell that the community he built was a good one.
I feel the word underrated is kind of a pointless way to compare people because it's so random or luck based most of the time to get popular online. There are people who make good videos that aren't known and those who make awful videos with millions of subs so idk
Only clicked this vid because I saw ethos skin on the thumbnail...
-a loyal etho fan
I feel like Etho is also the type of youtuber/creator to respect the audience’s intelligence
I watched and liked this video because Etho was in the thumbnail.
I only watch videos from 5 Hermits, and funnily enough Zedaph is one of them :)
Well, I am similar. I watch every video from Zadaph, Grian, Bdoubs and pearl. The rest I watch from time to time, like every 2nd to 3rd Video
I'm happy any time a creator experiences further success, but I also appreciate stable channels. Particularly with Etho, his comment section is very telling. It's genuinely interesting. There is actual feedback. If you go to the comment sections on bigger channels, it's just a mess. The viewers are clearly more mature.
This comment section is also very mature
personality is definitely a big push. Hermitcraft is so big because all the hermits are so creative, silly, and wacky. Imagine if it was a "normal" survival smp where everyone just makes some farms and bases, maybe interacts a few times with a joke every now and then, but it's boring to sit through the process, even if it ends up creating a beautiful world. Hermitcraft is practically made of hermit interactions, ongoing jokes and games, and wacky builds along with really good creative builds. Each hermit has a distinct yet fun personality.
And the “I built a shop to trick my enemies” type of thing
I'm really glad my comment about Zed started off this conversation/waffle in the stream and made it to YT now
I know you probably won't see this, but in case you do. I want you to know that I am so glad I found your chanel. I listened to you opinion on a lot of things since I was quite young, and I learned a lot from watching your videos. If I had watched someone else instead, they might of convinced me to be a horrible person. Thank you.
I've been watching Etho's videos for years, and he's probably the creator who got me interested in the Mindcrack server during its golden age.
I've also noticed that most Canadians I watch on TH-cam are really friendly, welcoming, and down to earth.
Maybe there's something about their content that fills a void and provides good wholesome entertainment, compared to the doom, gloom, and over selling nature of other channels.
Some examples: Steve Wallis, Slim Potatohead, DownieLive and J.J. McCullough.
On a platform dominated by drama and "WOW, BAM, PIZZAZ" thumbnails, videos like Etho's and Xisuma's with their calm, chill videos makes it seem like you're watching your mate play the game which hits different.
grian introduced me to hermitcraft, but now I dont watch him at all. tango, bdubs, and zeds are my favorites. I think I like Tango bc hes self aware and able to make jokes about himself. Zed has the greatest PLANNED jokes, written jokes, puns, etc. and lately bdubs has done the cult of personality and found a way to "capitalize" on it. the huge smile, custom skins, talking about things outside of hermitcraft like the fanfics.
It can be a problem when you start to idolize someone. Even though I agree with you that you should focus on the ideas presented, not the person, I've still fallen into this trap myself.
Initially you might be drawn to someone's ideas, but then you find yourself agreeing with them so often, that you unconsciously start to idolize them. And then when an idea is flawed, you entertain it, and don't think about it as critically as you would usually.
Technically speaking they're not optimizing for watch time and engagement, they're optimizing for revenue. That's why they put pressure on creators to have stable upload schedules. I often see posts by youtubers begging for the viewers' mercy for missing an upload: I don't even know what schedule they're on usually, because viewers have lives that don't revolve around youtube. On the other hand, it is probably very convenient for youtube the company to have consistent and predictable month-to-month ad revenue, which is why they prefer creators that stick to schedules.
I've started to realize that doing TH-cam could submit you to a kind of "Typecasting", where people will only watch you for one or two things and, if you try to branch out, people won't watch
Xisuma I remember you mentioning once that you wanted to relax and have more fun with Hermitcraft. I have a feeling your kinda like me in that I'm always thinking serious thoughts especially when I'm at work ( asst. supervisor guest relations and supervisor furniture maintenance for large world wide hotels) I sometimes would watch coworkers do silly things and I'm like gee that looks like fun but still I would just watch and remind them they need to be working. Until one day our company got a new regional manager he came to my property and said all staff to courtyard no exceptions and no one was to leave area for 15 min. Or would be fired. There he had 1000's of small water balloons ready and he said "go" it was total chaos (borrowed from Cub) I learned in those 15 min that having fun and enjoying my job got more out of me then all the serious research I ever did on how to improve things at the hotel. I just had to tell myself it's OK to laugh joke cut-up be silly and enjoy the people I'm surrounded by, don't get me wrong I'm the first person there in the morning and it's always dark when I leave but I can tell you this I have fun and now all the staff wants to work when I work and the guests request for me if they have any needs or just want to hear my newest joke. Moral of my long story is I'd like to see Xisuma cause some total chaos especially with that new king. I'd like to see Xisuma become King of Hermitcraft and have great fun while doing it. Oh I'd also like to sit by a campfire and listen to you play guitar, don't worry I wouldn't look at you so you still would have your secret identity. But this is just my opinions and thoughts and a very long story. I also will add I suffer from major depression that I medicate with diet exercise sleep and laughter. Due to allergies I can't take most medications so people who use medications prescribed by your Dr. do not stop taking your meds they will save your life if done correctly.
So man in the mask I hope I have kept you engaged as well as anyone else who decided to read this and I hope everyone has a beautifully musical fun enchanting day.
This makes me think of how I didn't find Mumbo and Grian by their hermitcraft videos. With Mumbo I got recommended his "stupid things I did when I first started playing minecraft" and similar videos and I binged all of those because I could relate to that, but I didn't touch any of his redstone videos because I couldn't see myself building complicated redstone contraptions he had in his thumbnail.
I stumbled on to Grian's channel from a tutorial on the mc wiki, binged a few of his tutorials and refused to watch HC until a while later when I finally got curious what that was and then ended up hooked. And only after that I found Mumbo's channel again and subscribed.
So I think it is the varied content that pulls in viewers, but a series is what keeps them subscribed.
The same way I regularly watched your update videos, but only after a while started following your hc series and am now still subbed because of hc even if there haven't been any update videos for a while.
I wish I caught the era of "Etho did it."
The way I've always seen it is that Zedaph doesn't really have bingeable content. you watch his episodes in order, and then you stop. after ZEd's latest episode finishes. I close TH-cam. I got on to watch him, and then stopped watching until the next new thing. With people like Mumbo and Grian, etc, they grew their platforms by dispensing general content that needs no further context. One off redstone of building videos that was be viewed at any time, between new hermitcraft episodes. Variety content is better for the algorithm because it incentivises the audience to keep watching one creator for more than the length of their video.
I think mumbo succeeds because he is not only smart, but he never have let it go to his head (though you could say this about every hermit, and most minecraft players in general). he always has a way of talking like he doesn't actually knows what he is doing, despite the fact he definitely does.
He is also quite skilled at editing, probably because of his filming background. even if it's mostly just clean cuts and black screens with text on them.
Broooo,
X would make such a good Podcaster.
Would love to see a 1on1 Podcast with X and the hermits
It's not a surprise that xisumas hermitcraft isn't bringing in loads of new people - what episode are we on, 1077 now? It's incredibly intimidating to try to start watching something that has a thousand episodes to "catch up to." Other hermits get a reset each season, which is THE opportunity for new people to start watching without feeling like they are missing out on horrifying amounts of history and information. Of course xisuma is resetting too, but the ever climbing episode count gives a sense of continuity and connection between seasons.
For me personally, I love Zedaphs creativity but I find his energy and vibes to be off-putting, I think it's fine for him and would never want that to change! I'm sure his audience loves it but for me personally it makes me only watch his videos very occasionally when he has a really interesting idea
people gathering around a personality ... there was a xisuma "costume party" on hc last month
looking pretty sus isnt it? 🤣🤣🤣
edit i feel mumbo had a lot of early success because the intro and outro song by ProleteR were catchy as a fishing rod
What personality would you say metal (as a metal head. I've seen your Metalica guitar vids) requires
Yeah etho's and mumbo's redstone videos really pulled me into watching them for my own minecraft adventures. Then i started branching out and watched alot more the other hermits
“Etho’s built a very loyal fanbase” so I’ve been watching him since I was thirteen. And that was about a decade ago. He sure has done that huh
Good content and trending or engaging are not the same.
Just like most 'memes' are trash, but they themselves are the embodiment of engaging.
Memetic thoughts and ideas, the mental virus, and target of the algo.
I’m someone who’s recently taken the dive into everything Hermitcraft over the last few months. I had followed Bdubs, Etho, & you for awhile through other series and such and one day I got bored and watched Bdubs Hermitcraft video and instantly fell in love with the “cast” of other creators. Since then it’s been a steady dive into each and every member. First it was Pearl, then Scar, Cleo, Impulse, Gem, Doc,Ren etc. I try to keep up with most episodes and I do think a large part of it all is collaboration. It’s been hard to see Zed in other ppls eps and although i enjoy his, beef, & Keralis’ content I do feel it is sometimes hard for other viewers to stick with them when it feels as if they are almost isolated playing singleplayer at times.
Multiplayer sells imo, Esp since the beginning of the pandemic SMPs take the forefront of MC TH-cam activity.
gotta say i love zedaph's content and am sure sooner or later people will get his humor :)
Don't even play Minecraft any more, but I still watch Etho videos 😀
I have always loved these type of videos! Glad they are back now :) They give me big thinks.
The HCers I watch I gravitate to are the ones that i can take away from and apply to my own gameplay, builder or redstone, personally ... but i am not a huge engager. I do watch for entertainment as well, but sometimes someone makes a shift and i can't get bahind it... I used to watch BD0 but he started just to get too silly, or RD's contrived stories i can see how it feeds engagement but, not digging it, not calling them out just examples, I am subbed to almost everyone. (i am typing as i listen) I agree, re Etho I find him to be very true to himself, he has a very relatable personality but never felt he's faking it.
I found mumbo jumbo through his red stone tutorials. From there it was a natural progression to hermit craft. From there I started watching Grian and ishkal…. Once boatem happened I started watching all boatem videos… but last life was probably the big point where I started watching everyone’s perspectives - then went back to third life, and was excited for double life - now I tend to watch hermitcraft videos from everyone - another big draw is interesting collaborations - like… pearls latest video makes me really curious to see Rens new video… but at the same time… I watched all the world water videos as well as that was such an amazing project! I really love the diversity across the hermits, and everyone brings something unique
Your recent non hermit videos have been really cool and different, not many other creators do that stuff in such a thorough way. Hermitcraft is kind of drowned out by some of the other hermits who are more active in the story line IMO.
i just realized that youtube is essentially an AI cultivated drug.
So many people out there like me who have been watching etho from the very beginning
I think a perfect example of "Cult of Personality" would definitely be JSchlatt. I can't enter a comment section on a TON of channels, primarily Twitch or commentary channels, without seeing a reference to his videos. Absolutely nuts to me that the radiohead guy has grown so much.
Hmm.. I agree to an extent if I'm understanding correctly. I think it could be broken down to how you cater your channel over all. Personality is a big thing but it can be difficult to pin down exactly what makes them successful because of the audience they attract. Catering to yourself, catering to your viewers, catering the algorithm, and catering to the quality of your videos. I feel like I'm forgetting something but each of these things encompass multiple things. Mumbo for example doesn't sound over confident but isn't soft-spoken either, he has a background in film design, and he makes a lot of fun, nonsense videos and he'll also will engage with the audience in many different ways in those videos. But that's just my opinion. I feel I'm more like Xisuma personality-wise so to me it's more refreshing to watch Mumbo, Grian, Scar or Zed. However I do like all the Hermits for one reason or another.