I really felt the comment "you should make content out of your warhammer". The idea of commodifying hobbies. I enjoy building things - braiding whips, chainmail, learning to smelt. And people's reaction of "you should sell that!" - No. I don't want to make these things into a business. I don't need more work. I need fun and relaxation and being able to operate at my own pace instead of others. Not everything needs to be productive.
14:22 Thank you very much for addressing that point. I always tried to live by the saying "if you make your hobby your job, you don't have to work a day in your life." But with time I found out that this is bollocks. If I turn my hobbies into jobs, what am I going to do with my free time? Recovering from all the *fun* I have all week long?
I'm a small content creator, and I had my 2nd video ever reacted to by Asmongold. So in that sense I completely understand everything you said in this video, because although it was completely insane that someone as big as Asmon had reacted to my video, I realized that as soon as his video got more views than mine did, he had made more money spending 40 minutes reacting to it than I did after over a month of scripting, editing, animating and drawing artwork for it. Luckily I saw no major increase or decrease in views or subs since he reacted to it about a week and half after the video had come out. Some kind of royalty system where a reaction video will be immediately recognized by TH-cam might be good to remedy some of this since although reaction content can be somewhat parasitic, it can also give more value to an original work through someone of certain expertise giving comment (eg. a History Professor reacting to History videos like Mr. Terry History does.) Maybe it could fork some of the ad revenue from the reactor to the original, or simply give an easy way to like and subscribe to the original channel, or a view on the reaction also counts as a view on the original, It'd be a hard system to create, but it might help stave off some of the issues react content has on TH-cam if done right.
I think you're right.. as a viewer I simply prefer watching this stuff via Asmon because of the added value/entertainment, that's my right as a viewer, but why should the original poster suffer as a result. Royalities would be fair
> Some kind of royalty system where a reaction video will be immediately recognized by TH-cam might be good to remedy some of this Good idea, but only voluntarily. You can also take the videos of people in order to criticize them. Clearly in this case you don't want to hand the money you earn to them for doing mistakes (which ranges from uninformed/bad opinions to committing fraud). Sometimes it's a mix of positive and negative opinions - how do you want to consider that? Pay half? The true problem here is that there are videos that require a lot of effort to make, which are "reacted to." There are plenty of videos which are reacted to which are NOT high effort. And how do you want to measure how much effort a given video took to make in the first place? Asmongold is so big that he can fart into his microphone and make thousand of times more money than you do (more than most people on the planet actually). So you claiming that because he earns a much higher revenue from reacting to your video than you do from your video does not mean he steals value from you, or that you are entitled to anything. It does not matter what he does, his viewer count is generally very high. Unless he "reacts" to videos of a certain TH-camr continually, which may cripple his income, there is no big problem. Because in theory thousands of TH-camrs could do these "reacts" to the same video - do you want to tax all of them, and not get money earned on the basis of the merits of the video itself, but instead by taxing TH-camrs who "react" to it? And maybe even try to market your videos to be reacted to in exchange for revenue?
Your video received views from the promotion. Had he not reacted to that video, you'd not even dare describe yourself as a content creator. That, or you're lying.
@@EnjoyCocaColaLight My video was at around 119,335 views on January 11th, the day he reacted to it and 9 days after the video came out, and its views didn't really change at a faster or slower rate compared to before.
That's why Josh reacting to others reacting to his videos is the best content to watch: you get the original content, you get questions from the reactor and answers to them from Josh. It's like a director's cut or extended edition of the original video.
Josh doesnt pause the react video and tries to talk over it which makes his react react videos trash since you usually have two people talking at the same volume
I watch original videos first out of habit. My brain cannot handle watching a reaction to a topical video before I've had my own reaction. It's like going to a book club without reading the book!
In the early days of TH-cam, reaction content was built into the website. It was called "video response" and Google had to cut the feature for the exact problem we face today. You had people who would make a dozen video responses in a day, responding to whatever was most popular to try and get subscribers. After a while it got even worse as video responses devolved further to being used to promote irrelevant videos, oftentimes being advertisements or outright scams. It was also filling their servers (which were much more limited in terms of space back then) so when TH-cam killed the feature, they also mass deleted a lot of video responses. Wish the same would happen with reaction videos tbh
This is a good take about react video, i think the best solution here like what most comment says is for youtube to add a feature that allows the one video getting reacted to gets some or most of the revenue from that react content. Asmon adds something in his react content (at least more than other reaction channel) but its basically less work than the research put in the original content, but he drives at least some traffic to the content creators that hes reacting too so probably 60/40 or 70/30 in favor for the original creator is fair but we all know that wont happen lmao, btw i saw your channel after i watch one asmon react video of your content then some of your videos got recommended to me
I hope you continue to have a healthy worklife balance. I work a normal office job and sometimes take for granted that at 4pm I shut my laptop and get to be done. However, my mom runs her own business and has similar struggles with how much to work. Purposefully taking time off for things she enjoys is important. I hope you never feel guilty about stuff like playing elden ring by yourself. You need that time.
At that point most people would just stop making react videos, since paying editors for those videos would cost more than the revenue earned. Meanwhile they would still be reacting to that TH-cam content on Twitch, where they get all the revenue for it. A royalty system solves nothing.
@@DaShikuXI I’ve seen you in multiple comments here with the most braindead takes. In your own example, if reactors stopped making react videos then the original videos would be able to be promoted and get all the views on their own.
@@moxieman2452 It wouldn;t though. Like i said the removal of react videos does not stop react content. Most big time react videos are just Twitch vods. Creators still wouldn't see anything major happen for them, while the react content continues. People want react content. They love it. That is the cold hard truth. So no matter what kind of systems you try implementing, people will flock to react content either way.
It makes me happy to see serious and clear yet respectful and fair people like josh have such a big audience on this platform. Sometimes it feels like the majority of popular/famous people are explotive and shallow, unable to see situations can be, like he said "50 shades of gray".
When someone I like has a reaction to a video I always preferred when they just referenced the main points they wanted to talk about then put the video in the description if you had already seen it or wanted more context.
Sounds like reaction content can give initial boost to a really small channel but the real clash of interests is reacting to stuff that shares audience with you. Which explains the glass ceiling effect. It almost sounds like reacting to things with little or different audience is disadvantageous since your audience could get attracted to a new thing and it is instead best (in business sense) to react to stuff that shares your audience so it has less reason to leave you.
I started filtering out react focused channels (apart from a few reacting to tv shows I am also watching) it is a pretty lazy way to create content, hadn't thought how it would also actively hurt other creators. Great points all around
when ppl "react" to a TV show they make some sort of commentary, since they can't show you the whole show lol, and I think the content is much more enjoyable this way. Altho I've encountered some creators whose idea of "XYZ explained" or "the entirety of [ ] in X minutes" is to just read the wiki summarizing the show, and I fuckin hate it. wouldn't be surprised if there are content creators making this kinda content with ChatGPT rn
I like watching musicians react to music and talk about music that they are knowledgeable about and they are passionate about it. Shwabadi a rapper has a second channel called Shwabadose where he reacts to music in his genre and I think its super fire and hes super knowedgeable about music production and writing.
I appreciate channels that react to old music. It's basically watching people fall in love with music they probably wouldn't have otherwise known about or given a chance.
It’s also largely parasocial. You don’t get those feeling from the people around you so you look online to fill that gap or scratch that itch. There’s no doubt it’s appealing, but it’s takes a long, deep think to figure out whether it’s healthy or not.
That's just a review or an impressions video though, isn't it?. A reaction video is - to me - "watch another social media content creator's stuff, comment over it or during pauses". I think if we include music reviews in with "reaction videos" that's getting to a point where the term's losing some meaning. If I listen to a music review, I'm still going to go buy the music if I really like it. If I watch a reaction video, I have zero reason to watch the original video now.
@@GuiltyKit I don’t know how many you watch, but there’s tons of entire channels built on just “reacting” to songs. It’s in every title and thumbnail. It is pretty much exactly the same as reaction videos in the context Josh is talking about.
hate that stuff. 'here i am doing this thing, but only so i can get views'. Seems like it is immediatelly biased opinion. Would you listen to this old music if you were not fishing for youtube algorythm? Probably not, so bugger off.
When I first watched a reaction video with you by asmons, I started getting recommendations for your videos. I did not get this before then. Every time I watch a reaction video, I get recommendations of the original creator.
Its more like 4-5 ever two fucking days. Thats all he does if you look at his channel... Then his 'clips' channel turns THOSE react videos into another 3-5 react CLIPS every couple days. He literally just farms react content day and night.
@@ApexLegend-gu3bp Those arent even his channels. Those were other people who were making them regardless, to make money off Asmon's stream and anything he reacted to. He just doesnt stop them because he doesnt care to waste the time trying to put out all the fires or if someone else makes money. Weird thing to complain about.
@@SomeOne-ex7hk I'm well aware of who runs the channels. And he does have SOME say in them. One is Asmongoldtv. It is run by CatDany & Daily Dose of Asmongold. Regardless, most of the content that asmon does on his stream is react content. That is just a fact... Hence, why all the videos coming out on his youtube is react content. I watch asmongold all the time and love his stuff, but this is mostly what he does nowadays.
Liked and followed. Not because of any of the reaction stuff , but because of your "middle ground" statement. Need more people like you speaking publicly.
I'm not famous nor do I need to care about getting cancelled, so here I'm going to say it for you Josh: A person who does react content as a major part of their content, is profiteering on the hard work of others with little to no effort from themselves. Simple as that.
It depends. If the reaction is a sort of debate of an idea or concept I think it holds some legitimacy because you're matching the video's points of "content" with your own. Therefore adding value. If you compare it to other reaction videos that are...quite literally, them just laughing, smiling, or staring blankly at the camera as the entire video someone else made is played in full... Yeah, that is outright profiteering.
Do you consider this true for reviewers, streamers, and let's-players whose efforts are generally easily dwarfed by the years taken to make products like movies or video games?
Really great insight into the culture of react content and streaming and life in general. The only reason I don't really watch streams or streamers is because frankly I rather just be playing games myself or talking to my small group of friends. I'll tune in here and there during some down time just to see how some streamers are doing but that's very rare so the whole bit about TH-cam vs Twitch viewer numbers totally makes sense to me. I imagine there are a lot of people like me that just rather be doing something else and when we sit down to watch a video it's because we want to watch the video and not really be tied down to a stream or have it in the background. I like to be intentful with my actions if that makes sense.
but you could be watching it live on twitch! and then you could say you were there when something cool happens!!! /s I just get so boooored of streams. I like highlights where I can actually see the good parts, instead of having to sit there for hours watching someone half ass a game while they talk to some weirdo and having to endure their sick parasocial relationship. big donors don't get me hyped, they just make me cringe, I don't wanna insult these people but it just feels... wrong to me? and when the streamer is big? oooh I hate it. "thank you for the hundo!" blah blah blah, pretend they're stoked for a min, next minute they forget about the dono, or maybe they're feeling generous and "prioritize" the cash cows for an hour or so. paying to get a joke or some message in front of an audience for some validation is just weird to me, and that's just the streamer culture. highlights is where its at. editorialized content beats live content by a mile, imho :)
There just needs to be a revenue share system. If you want to take the easy road of making reaction content, then you should only get to take middleman’s share like 5%
The thing i like the most about react content is you get to know about things you would not otherwise. For example there is this guy, Jesse's Auditorium. I get to know about the insight from a musician + free music recommendations, because of him i got to play NieR which i will always be grateful for. If one had to measure the react content that exist, 90% is cringe fuel, 5% easy content farming and 5% meaningful insight.
I think there's a large gradient of reaction content depending on not only what is being reacted to and how it's being reacted to. There's a vast majority, I think, of reactors that are just watching videos and trying to get paid to do so. However then you have people like Jessie's Auditorium who actually discuss the content they watch and give thoughtful insight to it, not to mention Jessie reacts to music and such so he isn't just stealing someone else's video though the argument could be made about the whole music thing. Asmon is usually fairly good about discussing his opinions and such during his reactions but it's kind of fifty-fifty. I tend to watch reactors not only for the same reason you do, like Jessie's Auditorium, but also in the sense of showing a friend the thing you like and wanting to see how they like it.
@@wildeyoung3943 I wish people would call videos where some insight is added something like "XYZ discusses [ Video Title ] by ABC", but of course that can't be because if you don't put the word REACT in your video the algorithm will bury your vid under hundreds of people abusing the almighty algo.
I've seen some youtubers have actual rules for reaction videos. Things like "Don't react to the latest 5 videos" and "only react to at most two videos per month" This way, you get the best of both worlds. You get extra traffic from the reactions, but they don't really take away your views.
Josh. At 15:00, there is a really important thing that the vlogbrothers taught me and I've tried to live by: "Your own joy is something you can produce."
Whats Crazy for me is, that at this point I'm getting reactions to Josh recommended all the time. I have subbed this channel and activated the bell, still I miss videos on a regular basis. I do not actually watch Reactions to Joshs content, but nearly every time I open up youtube, the algorithm suggests reactions to Joshs content to me. Never have I seen Josh himself, a channel that I watch and am subbed to, on my frontpage.
There are several interesting topics in there, I would pick out two. The react content situation/environment kind of exemplifies, I think, very nicely some economic (I guess?) principles. What I mainly heard in this video, it's the fact that you have, out of many, two kinds of people in the youtube sphere. Those who make original content by creating videos with lengthy crafty scripts, animations, recording and took effort to cut. Then there are people that put most of their effort to, in more or less creative ways and to smaller or larger extent, react to those original videos. Well that's almost exactly what the difference between a baker and a marketer or a reporter, media critic, or any administrator is. One produces, other just reacts/distributes/otherwise creates work around the product, but adds close to nothing to the product. There are many more factors and relations to account for, but this one concept seems to me to be very much real and expressing itself in many different situations and many different ways. The other interesting thing being the relationship of work and hobby. Again, many people don't get much choice what job they do, because they mainly need to earn money somehow. And then there are other people, who do what interests or entertains them for their jobs. What either of those people do not often understand about each other's situation, is that ideally, one needs a bit of both: a job that is mainly to earn them money and a personally significant hobby, that can be turned into a part-time/side job. For most people that is the healthy way. So that they can have fun with their interests in their free time and not consider it work - that's what we are mostly wired for. For some people it's inherently harder to do from either angle, but they still make sacrifices by not following the ideal way - it takes a toll on them still, even if they are inherently wired to do it a bit differently than then majority of population. Those are usually some kinds of workaholics, many kinds of scientists, probably most of doctors, if not healthcare workers more generally, or political activists. People who either cannot enjoy themselves, cannot ignore their interests and conscience, or have other issues with the ideal model.
I primarily watch anime reaction content but that is because i am alone and have 1 friend so to me its the only way I feel less lonely you might be thinking why not get more friends, my mental health is why, my anxiety is high enough to invoke panic attacks just by being near people and online my interest is like a rollercoaster, 1 day I could feel motivated enough to throw 10 hours into a game and the next day lost all interest. With that kind of volatile personality of interest I have an extremely hard time making friends, so at this point after 31 years I decided I am likely just better alone and trying to find ways to trick my self into not feeling like I am, reaction content has helped a lot with that.
There is a lot of lonely people out in the world. As long as you are not a parasocial fan there's nothing wrong with enjoying react content. It's the reactor who should be ethical in their practise.
I think every reaction video needs to have an original video link attached to it, and the OG creator would receive some revenue split. This is what makes sense in my mind tbh.
My first exposure to Josh came from Brozime's reaction to the Warframe episode of "Worst MMO Ever" and my second was the 3hr reaction to the reaction. The title was too interesting, but i only expected to stick around for 10 minutes or so. Immediately got hooked for the whole runtime.
One of the most frustrating things for me is trying to search for something specific (usually a game trailer) and I get a full list of reaction videos and nothing from the official game page. It's awful
I see reactions useful in certain situations. 1 - Short creative clips where the reactor just watches one from that creator and is in awe of the content/art/effort. This can generate interest in that creator's channel and bring in new people to see their other stuff (assuming it is in the same vein). 2 - Responding/providing a counterpoint. This is where the person has some knowledge and expertise that they are using to provide a counterpoint or more depth. It is still a reaction because the person is responding live, but the person has the expertise to provide a lot of information off the cuff. In this case the person reacting is providing a lot of value, especially if the original content is misinformation or bad faith arguments. 3 - (A bit more iffy) A big creator reacts to a very good video by a smaller creator. But this is only okay if they do so once (or a few times with many months in between). Because if they keep reacting to the content on a consistent basis, nobody will go watch the original creator. If the big creator watches once, they might get some people interested in following the small creator to see what other videos on similar topics they have. I don't consider a video a reaction if someone is going through a video point by point and responding to each point with research and proof. That person is not "reacting", they are responding to the content after having done research and thought through the original points. A reaction to me is something live, on the spot, off the cuff as they say.
I don't watch react videos to your videos, I Only watch your videos in my living room on the big screen TV and react to them on my own with no one else around to hear me except my cat who 100% couldn't care less. Then I'll watch the video again on my second monitor so that I get to pick up on things I missed while I run dungeons in FFXIV. Hopefully this brings some balance to the universe!
Interesting discussion. I'm curious to know if something changed, because the last time Josh discussed reactions, his his stance was a lot more neutral to positive on it. Also found his point about stressing about Elden Ring interesting. I tried streaming for a little bit, and one of the major nails in that coffin was the amount of stress/pressure it was applying to the activity I do to relax. Maybe there were days I was scheduled to stream, but didn't feel like it. Or just trying to be "on" and performing instead of just focusing on the game itself. Or maybe I was really getting into the game I was streaming, and I would either have to just not play it on non-streaming days so viewers didn't miss anything or I'd have to stream more often just so I could play more of that game. Ultimately, that pressure sucked a lot of the charm out of it for me.
yea, it's called the legal email address and/or report button. as a copyright holder, you can claim the revenue from the video. how else do you think a system should be implemented? do you think there should be a button that just says "gibs i think i own a bit of the video" or do we first have to establish who owns the ip? it has to be the latter, in which case, they have every right to claim the video and do whatever they like with it.
@@reecesx You cannot claim revenue on a video. It is either you send a copyright strike or not. You can only claim revenue if you are registerred with the contentid system. I know this is like a 10 month comment but I thought i'd clarify it for you :).
I don't watch this guy regularly but it really does seem like every comment/question he gets on stream has the potential to be a 12+ minute deep monologue lmao, I love it
Lots of very interesting stuff to think about here. There are many creators that I discover from Asmon reacting to them. But there are ALSO cases like with this channel where I had been watching Josh for quite some time before Asmon ever reacted. There are many many others as well that I have watched for years and then Asmon reacts to them. With those cases I would say it is 50/50 now which video I watch first now. Not intentionally but just naturally, I might see a video come up, add it to my watch later, and not get to it for a week or two, then see a react video of it and maybe watch that first. So in those cases it is definitely taking away from the creator. I intentionally try NOT to do this and at the very least try to watch both. But it does still happen. So I see both sides of this as well from a viewer's perspective.
This is actually a super interesting conversation, about "react content". Like you said, there's a lot of nuance, not really clear-cut. Considering the immense popularity of reactions, to me, it almost begs the question if youtube should use reactions as a way of promoting the original video in some way. For example, take an artist creating a song, and then another artist making a cover of that song. If someone really enjoys the cover, and spends money on it (buying it, streaming it, whatever), should some percentage of that not flow back to the original creator? Or something almost like "DLC for music", where you have a marketplace you can buy songs, but buying a cover requires buying the original first? Maybe a bridge too far, and not very practical, but it's interesting stuff to think about. As you said, reactions are ideally a symbiotic relationship -- I actually discovered your content through Zepla, I believe -- and her "reaction" was able to introduce me to a channel that I really resonate with. So it's a case that I think really benefited everyone. Maybe something as simple as having that "unspoken rule", of waiting 2+ weeks out before reacting to someone else's content, would solve some of the issues? Something I always think is kind of a shame, when big streamers or personalities "react" to other peoples' content (in youtube videos, specifically), it feels almost like a missed opportunity to actually reach out and have an actual conversation between creators. Like you and Asmon having a stream to talk about games, things like that. Either way, it's interesting hearing peoples' perspectives on that stuff.
react content seems similar to having a particular news network you prefer, it's a convergence of media we are seeing, where streamers choose to react to content and viewers acknowledge that those streamers are their source of entertainment and relevant information.
Historically Asmon will also go out of his way to silence criticism on him as well, including after he makes himself look like a dumbass on stream when responding to something, then that response won't become a video because it clearly crossed the line but he'll go out of his way to silence that criticism on his Twitch, Reddit and two TH-cam channels. The vast majority of his content nowadays is not of his own creation whatsoever, but reactions that get more views than the original. It's exactly what happened to the Animations on TH-cam years ago, when a video that takes a month to make gets %10 of the views than one dude talking about something he didn't even create at 10 times the speed. Reaction content is parasitic in nature and Fair Use is a grey area, does some guy talking about a time he went to taco bell have any relation to a review of a game? Imagine being the creator that slaved over a video to get 100k views to see some reaction by a streamer with hardly any effort or time get over a million, paying in exposure is not being paid, and that's all Asmon gives to those videos.
@@zekulir6419 this If people don't want to hear his opinion on a topic/video people wouldn't watch it. Then to react spontaneously and being entertaining at the same time takes also skill. I think there is definitely a para-social aspect to this, too. Sometimes I just don't want to watch a video alone and reaction vids give at least the illusion of that. I can understand that it could feel unfair for the original content creator.
@@kakp123 without the original content there’s nothing for the reactor to react to, so the reactor absolutely owes dues to the original content creator
I remember when DarkViperAU created a video series calling out react content. Hopefully more creators calling out parasitic reaction content, and learn to not support content creators when they participate in reactions. If a content creator makes a video/stream just reacting, please don't click on that content and consume the next thing they do that's their own.
The last part is what I think alot of people don't understand when they say "you play video games for work" Yes. But it's work. There's a big difference between playing a game for fun vs playing a game for work. I understand that, but your explanation was, I think, the best explanation of that.
I mainly use the recommendation feed and my notifications to find videos to watch. I found there are four channels I never get Notifications for, despite having them turned on. One is Sseth Tzeentach, one is the music channel Mili and the other two are Josh Strife Hayes and Josh Strife Plays. No idea why.
The exposure argument is bullshit to me. Usually the content creators that get reacted to are already on the rise by making quality content and that's the very reason reactors react to those. They wanna ride the popularity wave inflicting maximum damage to the original creator's bottom line.
There is definitely value in it since, for example, I found this channel through Asmongold's reactions that are clipped up on youtube. I think a good compromise, is that reactions should wait a couple weeks after the video is released. That way, you will get the views as people watch the video to watch the video, and then you will get a second boost when the super big content creators react to the video. Not sure if that works practically though
whenever i see a react video about a channel i that i think id like i always go to the cannel and see the rest of their stuff, subscribe and most always wind up watching their new stuff as its released before any reactions to it. its how i found you in fact. ive actually watched less asmond react content because i watch the originals first and have no need for the react content.
There are good and valuable reaction videos, they are called responses and they are edited, carefully constructed videos that use parts of the original video in order to help to reinforce an argument or present the original argument faithfully.
I tend to enjoy reaction videos but only music reactions and mostly by musicians/singers or otherwise connected to the music business. The interesting thing is the VALUE they add to the music. I can hear a good song and enjoy it and if you don't add some value except wow and omg, what's the point? Do what you do well, in your case playing games and reviewing them. You add a lot of value with what you do.
"Fuck me then, I'll just stop making them." True, and if you have to take that route I'll support you. Parasitic is an excellent word to describe the situation. That anybody can argue fair use with a straight face is disgusting. If you can't watch a movie wholesale while nodding along and monetize it why the fuck can you watch a content creator's video.
You can't watch a movie and monetize it because people have to pay to watch it. TH-cam videos are free to watch and creators only make money on its view count and how many ads they show to the audience rather than the content itself. Creators also don't have complete ownership of their videos when it's on TH-cam and are only allowed on the platform through the site's T&C and safe harbor provisions. This is why TH-cam has no incentive to take action against react videos, because in their eyes, more videos are being made which means more traffic and revenue for them. Of course, if someone uploaded pay per view content that a company has full ownership of like a movie, TH-cam would have to remove it to maintain their safe harbor provisions and avoid any legal threats from those that can affect TH-cam's bottom line. However, creators still have the power to take down videos that infringe their copyright. It's just very frowned upon by many because TH-cam's copyright system is a mess and heavily favors the one who made the claim; It's a system that can be abused very easily and it's more likely that people will see a claimed video as someone silencing critics or personally attacking someone rather than protecting their copyright. If you do want consistent revenue from people watching the videos you make, you're not going to get it from TH-cam. It's a better monetary decision to make people pay to watch your video and the most effective way I've seen creators on TH-cam do it is having early access through something like Patreon. As long as TH-cam remains a free video sharing website, reaction content is here to stay. I know that this is an unnecessarily long answer to a question that you didn't ask for, but I felt like saying it, okay.
@@anenigma8378This essay's worth of gibberish can simply be debunked with this: a person on TH-cam who makes a video that he *wants* to do well, is meant to end in it paying the creator of it as expected. Those who don't expect payment could still benefit from it. The bigger guy doesn't need the payment because he already has enough. You're throwing morale aside to justify exploitation.
@@RealMephres You think my essay is gibberish because you didn't understand it. Anyone can make their content something you have to pay for to watch; It doesn't matter if you're an individual or a large corporation. You will almost never see a reaction to a pay per view video because there's legal grounds for depriving revenue from the creator. If you just upload a video to TH-cam, you have no protection from someone else uploading your video because anyone can access it. TH-cam does not value the content itself, rather it's ability to attract people into watching ads. Whether it's a high quality video or someone's face over a high quality video, TH-cam would pay the creator for their ability to shove as many ads into people's faces. Removing low effort reaction videos does not benefit TH-cam because they could use those videos for more ad space. Let me say this just to be clear: I do NOT condone how TH-cam treats content creators and their content. I was stating that if you upload a video to TH-cam, you cannot avoid or prevent people from making reaction videos with it. If you don't want to be exploited in this manner, then don't upload everything you make onto TH-cam. If you think your content is worth paying for, then make people pay for it. Do not rely on the world to fairly compensate you for your hard work.
@@RealMephres I don't think TH-cam and those that make reaction videos are going to change their ways (barring massive copyright law reformation in the U.S.) I would like to know what you think people should do about this, because I think my ideas are reasonable. Tell me how I am wrong instead of just saying that I am.
Parasitic is truly the right word. Especially when the reactors are watching the videos immidiately when it comes out or even 1-2 days later, thinking that they aren't cannibalizing on the views and essentially stealing the creator's share from their hard work. Reaction content is the lowest effort content I've ever seen especially when it is downright abused to make "content".
Yep. And I am one of those who is probably inadvertently hurting those creators. I watch Asmon a lot so I see lots of react content. I am usually just listening in the car and I'm like, "oh! This seems like it would be interesting" not even thinking to find the original video. I just watch the one Asmon does.
I watch mostly react videos because I don't want to search the stuff, I just open my timeline and there are different people reacting to interesting things they found online
I'm gonna be honest. I found you through asmon and I probably didn't go back and rewatch the video he reacted to but I've watched literally a dozen hours of your other content since then and I feel like that's what it's meant for.
I originally watched your content, then stopped watching your content for a while because I'm human, and then I watched Asmon watching you again, and started watching you again.
He has made his position clear in the past: if you ask him not to react he won’t, but otherwise you just have to be happy with the exposure because he’s not gonna pay you anything for reacting
@@PiousSlayer the system and the viewers enable it. I don’t think anything could be controlled cross-site like if he did reactions live on Twitch stream, but for the reaction clips made into TH-cam videos, those should get claimed just like music is for record labels.
@@moxieman2452 bull....TH-cam/Alphabet 100% control revenue sharing, they don't even leave it entirely up to Advertisers who don't even get to PICK where more of their ads are played. TH-cam is no different from any other corporation that thinks a tiny handful of people deserve 10's of millions a year, and eveyone else all deserve sub 30k not even salaried
@@PiousSlayer We are all profiteers as we are all consuming this content for free to our own benefit. Asmon profits in money, we profit in enjoyment. We are no different.
It would be really nice if they made reaction content into overlays where both videos get a view because the video being reacted to would technically be playing in the reaction overlay. They could even add Pause areas where reaction creators could give their piece of mind and it would pause the video for you for syncing needs. That would've been so great for all content as well as not getting copyrighted by the original owners. I feel like that would be a win/win scenario imo
It's funny you mention warframe and brozime, to me, because I think the two off you actually have a very similar appeal, and I am one of the subs you got from his reaction. As is, I actually found asmon from him reacting to you, and I still watch all of your videos, but I will usually watch reactions as well since he adds some good stories usually.
The benefit to the original creator wrt gaining a new audience definitely exists, but I do think people need to keep in mind that once their own audience is now aware of the other creator and you've put them on their radar, things become increasingly parasitic rather than symbiotic like Josh said. So I feel like a good way of things is to a) not saturate your audience with rebroadcasting the same content when they are likely to view it on the original channel in lieu of a react video from you and b) give the original video time after its original release to reach its organic audience, in which case you are now giving it another chance in the algorithm and exposure to audiences that evidently are not already dedicated fans of the person you're reacting to. The occasional feature on the reactor's platform within these conditions I think seems fine since you're not compromising the endemic reach that that content would have already had. At that point, it becomes more like a handshake benefitting both sides again. Now there are some highly anticipated videos where I can absolutely see the benefit of a kind-of "watch party" aspect in being featured by a streamer, but that's very tricky to make work again because of the endemic reach compromise mentioned above. Maybe if the reacting people contacted the original creator ahead of time and found some kind of arrangement..? That does seem very tricky though since even with an agreed-upon rev share for example (..let's just assume people would even implement that in good faith), the video would still likely suffer in terms of the algorithm and promotion.
Agree. For example, Asmon reacted to RIOT MMO by necrit and people wanted more of those reaction, but that would be parasitic. He put the channel out there and the content and now its up to viewers to watch it. Imo the only fair reacton is just commentary after the video watched or commentary but no audio or video from original video, so basically a audio track that you play simultaniously
When I watch react content I am watching for the reactor, I think that is the case for most people. I also find out about a lot of creators because of reactors and then I watch those creators themselves. Josh is one of those I found through react content. The truth is if people don’t add something to content while reacting no one really watches them. People watch reactors because they like their personality. And if people don’t move off the reaction and watch the creator being reacted too it’s normally because their content wasn’t that engaging.
Absolutely not joking, no sarcasm, completely genuine. I found out about Asmongold through YOU. And I found you because I felt like learning more about MMOs after watching Overlord but not enjoying them myself. Your videos are great and I still love watching them even though I don't like MMOs for myself.
And this is why as soon I see anyone of these people reacting to something I just go straight away and look for the original video and watch that instead. Ive had to tell youtube several times to not send me any of Charlies reaction videos and put I am not interested on this because of that. In the end its working because I get recommended more and more of the original videos. React content will be and always will be a lazy way to steal from others no matter what. Yes you get the exposure but in the end you might have the chance to just be like 1 of a time thing or do well for a while and then just fade off because the people that are following you they are not your fans they are that persons fans that came to your video.
And the exposure is also just tiny. You can look at Josh' statistics from way back when Asmon first reacted to him. Small bump, drop in the bucket compared to his already great growth rates at that point.
Fair use laws exist though. Adding your own commentary to a video someone put out publicly is fair use. Fair use is not stealing. Commentary is one of the first fair use protections listed period.
This came up in my recommended visa and I just wanted to say the part where Josh talks about how he felt guilty the entire time he played Elden Ring? SAME. That's why I mentioned gaming with you in the past and it never came to fruition because genuinely other than like... chess.. I can't take time to actually play other games unless I'm turning it into content.
Reaction content is basically "paying in exposure". Sure, there's some merit to it, but I think most creatives would rather be...actually paid? Especially since exposure doesn't always or even often result in an actual increase to your audience comparable to the money you may have made off of the initial product, which is why the phrase is a joke in itself.
When I watch a full video reaction of another TH-camr I like to open the original video in another tab and let it play muted in the background. That way I think it gets supported
TH-cam needs to add a feature so a creator can flag content as a reaction to their content, and then the revenue can be spilt between the reactor and original creator.
Make sense. After all, they have systems in place so that some random corporation can claim footage used in a heavily-edited video and get advertising revenue from it.
I found you when one of the streamer I follow, reacted to one of your video. Unfortunately there wasn't any channel name on the video. Luckily with extensive googling and a bit of detective work I found you and have been really enjoying your content.
the Value here is affected by R.M.Pirsig's definition of Quality - your 'Value' maintains it's value (stock, goodwill, standing) by being of 'high' 'Quality' - Keep it up - great work, love your discernment.
Ive wondered about an extension or site or something that lets you take a reaction video, or at least a crop of it, and clip it on top of the original, letting you support both at once.
Some reaction vids, at least the ones I do watch so there's a bias, might as well be reply videos cause they talk more than the clip itself. For people out of the loop, they'd also get the full context of what they're replying to rather than a clip or quote that may or may not be taken out of context, though that seems to be an unintended consequence
I generally watch original if i have to watch reaction unless the reaction video is specifically made to be some meta thing on reaction videos and so itself is the thing im curious to see and learn from
I've gotten in the habit of clicking off of reactors videos to go to the main video now because the reactors usually link the video the description. I do this because I found the reactors don't actually add much. Maybe if the video is really analytical they might add a joke or two. I think Charlie AKA Critikal might add the most because usually doesn't just watch the original video in full and agree with it.
The closest to react content i watch is Kira who will go over different random news. Other than that I avoid anything react. Response content is different and I do support that
I really felt the comment "you should make content out of your warhammer". The idea of commodifying hobbies. I enjoy building things - braiding whips, chainmail, learning to smelt. And people's reaction of "you should sell that!" - No. I don't want to make these things into a business. I don't need more work. I need fun and relaxation and being able to operate at my own pace instead of others. Not everything needs to be productive.
14:22
Thank you very much for addressing that point.
I always tried to live by the saying "if you make your hobby your job, you don't have to work a day in your life."
But with time I found out that this is bollocks. If I turn my hobbies into jobs, what am I going to do with my free time? Recovering from all the *fun* I have all week long?
I'm a small content creator, and I had my 2nd video ever reacted to by Asmongold. So in that sense I completely understand everything you said in this video, because although it was completely insane that someone as big as Asmon had reacted to my video, I realized that as soon as his video got more views than mine did, he had made more money spending 40 minutes reacting to it than I did after over a month of scripting, editing, animating and drawing artwork for it. Luckily I saw no major increase or decrease in views or subs since he reacted to it about a week and half after the video had come out.
Some kind of royalty system where a reaction video will be immediately recognized by TH-cam might be good to remedy some of this since although reaction content can be somewhat parasitic, it can also give more value to an original work through someone of certain expertise giving comment (eg. a History Professor reacting to History videos like Mr. Terry History does.) Maybe it could fork some of the ad revenue from the reactor to the original, or simply give an easy way to like and subscribe to the original channel, or a view on the reaction also counts as a view on the original, It'd be a hard system to create, but it might help stave off some of the issues react content has on TH-cam if done right.
I think you're right.. as a viewer I simply prefer watching this stuff via Asmon because of the added value/entertainment, that's my right as a viewer, but why should the original poster suffer as a result. Royalities would be fair
> Some kind of royalty system where a reaction video will be immediately recognized by TH-cam might be good to remedy some of this
Good idea, but only voluntarily. You can also take the videos of people in order to criticize them. Clearly in this case you don't want to hand the money you earn to them for doing mistakes (which ranges from uninformed/bad opinions to committing fraud). Sometimes it's a mix of positive and negative opinions - how do you want to consider that? Pay half?
The true problem here is that there are videos that require a lot of effort to make, which are "reacted to." There are plenty of videos which are reacted to which are NOT high effort. And how do you want to measure how much effort a given video took to make in the first place?
Asmongold is so big that he can fart into his microphone and make thousand of times more money than you do (more than most people on the planet actually). So you claiming that because he earns a much higher revenue from reacting to your video than you do from your video does not mean he steals value from you, or that you are entitled to anything. It does not matter what he does, his viewer count is generally very high.
Unless he "reacts" to videos of a certain TH-camr continually, which may cripple his income, there is no big problem. Because in theory thousands of TH-camrs could do these "reacts" to the same video - do you want to tax all of them, and not get money earned on the basis of the merits of the video itself, but instead by taxing TH-camrs who "react" to it? And maybe even try to market your videos to be reacted to in exchange for revenue?
Your video received views from the promotion. Had he not reacted to that video, you'd not even dare describe yourself as a content creator.
That, or you're lying.
@@EnjoyCocaColaLight I hope you're getting paid for your professional impression of the internet's biggest idiot.
@@EnjoyCocaColaLight My video was at around 119,335 views on January 11th, the day he reacted to it and 9 days after the video came out, and its views didn't really change at a faster or slower rate compared to before.
That's why Josh reacting to others reacting to his videos is the best content to watch: you get the original content, you get questions from the reactor and answers to them from Josh. It's like a director's cut or extended edition of the original video.
Josh doesnt pause the react video and tries to talk over it which makes his react react videos trash since you usually have two people talking at the same volume
You're one of the best content creators out here. Nuanced opinions and excellent points every time I watch a video from you Josh.
8:33 to finish my sentance; dark viper's breakdown was really eye-opening, thankfully josh got the idea 😅
For the record, I found Josh on TH-cam and he drew me in with hundreds of quality videos.
Was waiting for a mention of Jay exci the whole clip
I watch original videos first out of habit. My brain cannot handle watching a reaction to a topical video before I've had my own reaction. It's like going to a book club without reading the book!
In the early days of TH-cam, reaction content was built into the website. It was called "video response" and Google had to cut the feature for the exact problem we face today. You had people who would make a dozen video responses in a day, responding to whatever was most popular to try and get subscribers. After a while it got even worse as video responses devolved further to being used to promote irrelevant videos, oftentimes being advertisements or outright scams. It was also filling their servers (which were much more limited in terms of space back then) so when TH-cam killed the feature, they also mass deleted a lot of video responses.
Wish the same would happen with reaction videos tbh
I didn't know that! Thank you for sharing.
I mean if anything it proves that reaction content works and is popular. Why limit the very thing people enjoy to that extent?
@@DaShikuXI People HATED reply girls. Like people used to shit on them and make parodies just to spite them.
So old. Kinda forgot about that.
I didnt know they got mass deleted, tbh im slightly dissapointed id like to find some of those cause never actually clicked on them...
I went and subbed to wicked wiz. Great videos and thank you for the heads up for a channel that i had never heard of and is right up my alley.
This is a good take about react video, i think the best solution here like what most comment says is for youtube to add a feature that allows the one video getting reacted to gets some or most of the revenue from that react content. Asmon adds something in his react content (at least more than other reaction channel) but its basically less work than the research put in the original content, but he drives at least some traffic to the content creators that hes reacting too so probably 60/40 or 70/30 in favor for the original creator is fair but we all know that wont happen lmao, btw i saw your channel after i watch one asmon react video of your content then some of your videos got recommended to me
That's a great point of view, can't wait for Asmon to react to it.
I hope you continue to have a healthy worklife balance. I work a normal office job and sometimes take for granted that at 4pm I shut my laptop and get to be done. However, my mom runs her own business and has similar struggles with how much to work. Purposefully taking time off for things she enjoys is important. I hope you never feel guilty about stuff like playing elden ring by yourself. You need that time.
TH-cam absolutely needs to implement a policy that allows creators to get a percentage of react videos.
At that point most people would just stop making react videos, since paying editors for those videos would cost more than the revenue earned. Meanwhile they would still be reacting to that TH-cam content on Twitch, where they get all the revenue for it. A royalty system solves nothing.
@@DaShikuXI well, if that was what would happen, it would solve react content. No content no problem
@@DaShikuXI I’ve seen you in multiple comments here with the most braindead takes. In your own example, if reactors stopped making react videos then the original videos would be able to be promoted and get all the views on their own.
Just like in music industry
@@moxieman2452 It wouldn;t though. Like i said the removal of react videos does not stop react content. Most big time react videos are just Twitch vods. Creators still wouldn't see anything major happen for them, while the react content continues.
People want react content. They love it. That is the cold hard truth. So no matter what kind of systems you try implementing, people will flock to react content either way.
It makes me happy to see serious and clear yet respectful and fair people like josh have such a big audience on this platform. Sometimes it feels like the majority of popular/famous people are explotive and shallow, unable to see situations can be, like he said "50 shades of gray".
When someone I like has a reaction to a video I always preferred when they just referenced the main points they wanted to talk about then put the video in the description if you had already seen it or wanted more context.
this is a great rant.
I also came over from Asmon, but I agree with everything Josh says here. ringin a lotta bells
Sounds like reaction content can give initial boost to a really small channel but the real clash of interests is reacting to stuff that shares audience with you. Which explains the glass ceiling effect. It almost sounds like reacting to things with little or different audience is disadvantageous since your audience could get attracted to a new thing and it is instead best (in business sense) to react to stuff that shares your audience so it has less reason to leave you.
I started filtering out react focused channels (apart from a few reacting to tv shows I am also watching) it is a pretty lazy way to create content, hadn't thought how it would also actively hurt other creators. Great points all around
when ppl "react" to a TV show they make some sort of commentary, since they can't show you the whole show lol, and I think the content is much more enjoyable this way. Altho I've encountered some creators whose idea of "XYZ explained" or "the entirety of [ ] in X minutes" is to just read the wiki summarizing the show, and I fuckin hate it. wouldn't be surprised if there are content creators making this kinda content with ChatGPT rn
I like watching musicians react to music and talk about music that they are knowledgeable about and they are passionate about it. Shwabadi a rapper has a second channel called Shwabadose where he reacts to music in his genre and I think its super fire and hes super knowedgeable about music production and writing.
I appreciate channels that react to old music. It's basically watching people fall in love with music they probably wouldn't have otherwise known about or given a chance.
It’s also largely parasocial. You don’t get those feeling from the people around you so you look online to fill that gap or scratch that itch. There’s no doubt it’s appealing, but it’s takes a long, deep think to figure out whether it’s healthy or not.
Gen Z reacts to Slipknot
("Old" to them)
That's just a review or an impressions video though, isn't it?. A reaction video is - to me - "watch another social media content creator's stuff, comment over it or during pauses". I think if we include music reviews in with "reaction videos" that's getting to a point where the term's losing some meaning.
If I listen to a music review, I'm still going to go buy the music if I really like it. If I watch a reaction video, I have zero reason to watch the original video now.
@@GuiltyKit I don’t know how many you watch, but there’s tons of entire channels built on just “reacting” to songs. It’s in every title and thumbnail. It is pretty much exactly the same as reaction videos in the context Josh is talking about.
hate that stuff. 'here i am doing this thing, but only so i can get views'. Seems like it is immediatelly biased opinion. Would you listen to this old music if you were not fishing for youtube algorythm? Probably not, so bugger off.
Can't wait to see someone doing the reaction of this video!
When I first watched a reaction video with you by asmons, I started getting recommendations for your videos. I did not get this before then. Every time I watch a reaction video, I get recommendations of the original creator.
Asmon making 4-5 react videos in a week? He must've taken 6 days off that week
Yea, I think Asmon once was a good content creator but not so much anymore. He's gotten way too dependent on reacts now.
Its more like 4-5 ever two fucking days. Thats all he does if you look at his channel... Then his 'clips' channel turns THOSE react videos into another 3-5 react CLIPS every couple days. He literally just farms react content day and night.
@@ApexLegend-gu3bp Those arent even his channels. Those were other people who were making them regardless, to make money off Asmon's stream and anything he reacted to. He just doesnt stop them because he doesnt care to waste the time trying to put out all the fires or if someone else makes money. Weird thing to complain about.
@@SomeOne-ex7hk I'm well aware of who runs the channels. And he does have SOME say in them. One is Asmongoldtv. It is run by CatDany & Daily Dose of Asmongold. Regardless, most of the content that asmon does on his stream is react content. That is just a fact... Hence, why all the videos coming out on his youtube is react content. I watch asmongold all the time and love his stuff, but this is mostly what he does nowadays.
@@Demonmack0 He's never been good. He was an outrage merchant in WoW ffs
Liked and followed. Not because of any of the reaction stuff , but because of your "middle ground" statement. Need more people like you speaking publicly.
FYI, this is a clip channel run by one of his fans, Visa, not JoshStrifeHayes himself.
I'm not famous nor do I need to care about getting cancelled, so here I'm going to say it for you Josh:
A person who does react content as a major part of their content, is profiteering on the hard work of others with little to no effort from themselves. Simple as that.
youre stating the obvious, why would you be cancelle-
oh right.... i ve seen a worse case
I second this statement. The motion passes.
It depends. If the reaction is a sort of debate of an idea or concept I think it holds some legitimacy because you're matching the video's points of "content" with your own. Therefore adding value. If you compare it to other reaction videos that are...quite literally, them just laughing, smiling, or staring blankly at the camera as the entire video someone else made is played in full...
Yeah, that is outright profiteering.
I miss when parasocial relationships calling out their own hypocrisy was meta, the shill life is boring
Do you consider this true for reviewers, streamers, and let's-players whose efforts are generally easily dwarfed by the years taken to make products like movies or video games?
Really great insight into the culture of react content and streaming and life in general. The only reason I don't really watch streams or streamers is because frankly I rather just be playing games myself or talking to my small group of friends. I'll tune in here and there during some down time just to see how some streamers are doing but that's very rare so the whole bit about TH-cam vs Twitch viewer numbers totally makes sense to me. I imagine there are a lot of people like me that just rather be doing something else and when we sit down to watch a video it's because we want to watch the video and not really be tied down to a stream or have it in the background. I like to be intentful with my actions if that makes sense.
but you could be watching it live on twitch! and then you could say you were there when something cool happens!!! /s
I just get so boooored of streams. I like highlights where I can actually see the good parts, instead of having to sit there for hours watching someone half ass a game while they talk to some weirdo and having to endure their sick parasocial relationship. big donors don't get me hyped, they just make me cringe, I don't wanna insult these people but it just feels... wrong to me? and when the streamer is big? oooh I hate it. "thank you for the hundo!" blah blah blah, pretend they're stoked for a min, next minute they forget about the dono, or maybe they're feeling generous and "prioritize" the cash cows for an hour or so. paying to get a joke or some message in front of an audience for some validation is just weird to me, and that's just the streamer culture.
highlights is where its at. editorialized content beats live content by a mile, imho :)
This is right on point Josh!!
There just needs to be a revenue share system. If you want to take the easy road of making reaction content, then you should only get to take middleman’s share like 5%
The thing i like the most about react content is you get to know about things you would not otherwise. For example there is this guy, Jesse's Auditorium. I get to know about the insight from a musician + free music recommendations, because of him i got to play NieR which i will always be grateful for. If one had to measure the react content that exist, 90% is cringe fuel, 5% easy content farming and 5% meaningful insight.
I think there's a large gradient of reaction content depending on not only what is being reacted to and how it's being reacted to. There's a vast majority, I think, of reactors that are just watching videos and trying to get paid to do so. However then you have people like Jessie's Auditorium who actually discuss the content they watch and give thoughtful insight to it, not to mention Jessie reacts to music and such so he isn't just stealing someone else's video though the argument could be made about the whole music thing. Asmon is usually fairly good about discussing his opinions and such during his reactions but it's kind of fifty-fifty. I tend to watch reactors not only for the same reason you do, like Jessie's Auditorium, but also in the sense of showing a friend the thing you like and wanting to see how they like it.
@@wildeyoung3943 I wish people would call videos where some insight is added something like "XYZ discusses [ Video Title ] by ABC", but of course that can't be because if you don't put the word REACT in your video the algorithm will bury your vid under hundreds of people abusing the almighty algo.
But you have to admit that Josh´s reaction content is just great. The 3 hour reaction to 15 minute videos is just a blast.
I've seen some youtubers have actual rules for reaction videos. Things like "Don't react to the latest 5 videos" and "only react to at most two videos per month"
This way, you get the best of both worlds. You get extra traffic from the reactions, but they don't really take away your views.
Josh. At 15:00, there is a really important thing that the vlogbrothers taught me and I've tried to live by: "Your own joy is something you can produce."
Whats Crazy for me is, that at this point I'm getting reactions to Josh recommended all the time.
I have subbed this channel and activated the bell, still I miss videos on a regular basis. I do not actually watch Reactions to Joshs content, but nearly every time I open up youtube, the algorithm suggests reactions to Joshs content to me. Never have I seen Josh himself, a channel that I watch and am subbed to, on my frontpage.
Never change, your values are what makes you genuine
There are several interesting topics in there, I would pick out two.
The react content situation/environment kind of exemplifies, I think, very nicely some economic (I guess?) principles. What I mainly heard in this video, it's the fact that you have, out of many, two kinds of people in the youtube sphere. Those who make original content by creating videos with lengthy crafty scripts, animations, recording and took effort to cut. Then there are people that put most of their effort to, in more or less creative ways and to smaller or larger extent, react to those original videos. Well that's almost exactly what the difference between a baker and a marketer or a reporter, media critic, or any administrator is. One produces, other just reacts/distributes/otherwise creates work around the product, but adds close to nothing to the product. There are many more factors and relations to account for, but this one concept seems to me to be very much real and expressing itself in many different situations and many different ways.
The other interesting thing being the relationship of work and hobby. Again, many people don't get much choice what job they do, because they mainly need to earn money somehow. And then there are other people, who do what interests or entertains them for their jobs. What either of those people do not often understand about each other's situation, is that ideally, one needs a bit of both: a job that is mainly to earn them money and a personally significant hobby, that can be turned into a part-time/side job. For most people that is the healthy way. So that they can have fun with their interests in their free time and not consider it work - that's what we are mostly wired for. For some people it's inherently harder to do from either angle, but they still make sacrifices by not following the ideal way - it takes a toll on them still, even if they are inherently wired to do it a bit differently than then majority of population. Those are usually some kinds of workaholics, many kinds of scientists, probably most of doctors, if not healthcare workers more generally, or political activists. People who either cannot enjoy themselves, cannot ignore their interests and conscience, or have other issues with the ideal model.
I primarily watch anime reaction content but that is because i am alone and have 1 friend so to me its the only way I feel less lonely you might be thinking why not get more friends, my mental health is why, my anxiety is high enough to invoke panic attacks just by being near people and online my interest is like a rollercoaster, 1 day I could feel motivated enough to throw 10 hours into a game and the next day lost all interest. With that kind of volatile personality of interest I have an extremely hard time making friends, so at this point after 31 years I decided I am likely just better alone and trying to find ways to trick my self into not feeling like I am, reaction content has helped a lot with that.
There is a lot of lonely people out in the world. As long as you are not a parasocial fan there's nothing wrong with enjoying react content. It's the reactor who should be ethical in their practise.
I think every reaction video needs to have an original video link attached to it, and the OG creator would receive some revenue split. This is what makes sense in my mind tbh.
Can't wait to watch Asmon react to this!
Hey !!! I discovered you through Asmon !!! Ive been binging your videos ever since !
Hey Josh! Found out about you because of Asmon, now I watch your videos during my lunch break. Cheers!
My first exposure to Josh came from Brozime's reaction to the Warframe episode of "Worst MMO Ever" and my second was the 3hr reaction to the reaction. The title was too interesting, but i only expected to stick around for 10 minutes or so. Immediately got hooked for the whole runtime.
One of the most frustrating things for me is trying to search for something specific (usually a game trailer) and I get a full list of reaction videos and nothing from the official game page. It's awful
I see reactions useful in certain situations. 1 - Short creative clips where the reactor just watches one from that creator and is in awe of the content/art/effort. This can generate interest in that creator's channel and bring in new people to see their other stuff (assuming it is in the same vein). 2 - Responding/providing a counterpoint. This is where the person has some knowledge and expertise that they are using to provide a counterpoint or more depth. It is still a reaction because the person is responding live, but the person has the expertise to provide a lot of information off the cuff. In this case the person reacting is providing a lot of value, especially if the original content is misinformation or bad faith arguments. 3 - (A bit more iffy) A big creator reacts to a very good video by a smaller creator. But this is only okay if they do so once (or a few times with many months in between). Because if they keep reacting to the content on a consistent basis, nobody will go watch the original creator. If the big creator watches once, they might get some people interested in following the small creator to see what other videos on similar topics they have.
I don't consider a video a reaction if someone is going through a video point by point and responding to each point with research and proof. That person is not "reacting", they are responding to the content after having done research and thought through the original points. A reaction to me is something live, on the spot, off the cuff as they say.
Wise words, Josh. There's far too much content cannibalism occurring these days and it's all to the detriment of original content creators.
I don't watch react videos to your videos, I Only watch your videos in my living room on the big screen TV and react to them on my own with no one else around to hear me except my cat who 100% couldn't care less. Then I'll watch the video again on my second monitor so that I get to pick up on things I missed while I run dungeons in FFXIV. Hopefully this brings some balance to the universe!
Interesting discussion. I'm curious to know if something changed, because the last time Josh discussed reactions, his his stance was a lot more neutral to positive on it.
Also found his point about stressing about Elden Ring interesting. I tried streaming for a little bit, and one of the major nails in that coffin was the amount of stress/pressure it was applying to the activity I do to relax. Maybe there were days I was scheduled to stream, but didn't feel like it. Or just trying to be "on" and performing instead of just focusing on the game itself. Or maybe I was really getting into the game I was streaming, and I would either have to just not play it on non-streaming days so viewers didn't miss anything or I'd have to stream more often just so I could play more of that game. Ultimately, that pressure sucked a lot of the charm out of it for me.
This is why youtube should implement a way to split the revenue from the react-video with the original creator.
yea, it's called the legal email address and/or report button. as a copyright holder, you can claim the revenue from the video. how else do you think a system should be implemented? do you think there should be a button that just says "gibs i think i own a bit of the video" or do we first have to establish who owns the ip? it has to be the latter, in which case, they have every right to claim the video and do whatever they like with it.
@@reecesx You cannot claim revenue on a video. It is either you send a copyright strike or not. You can only claim revenue if you are registerred with the contentid system. I know this is like a 10 month comment but I thought i'd clarify it for you :).
I don't watch this guy regularly but it really does seem like every comment/question he gets on stream has the potential to be a 12+ minute deep monologue lmao, I love it
Lots of very interesting stuff to think about here.
There are many creators that I discover from Asmon reacting to them.
But there are ALSO cases like with this channel where I had been watching Josh for quite some time before Asmon ever reacted.
There are many many others as well that I have watched for years and then Asmon reacts to them.
With those cases I would say it is 50/50 now which video I watch first now.
Not intentionally but just naturally, I might see a video come up, add it to my watch later, and not get to it for a week or two, then see a react video of it and maybe watch that first.
So in those cases it is definitely taking away from the creator.
I intentionally try NOT to do this and at the very least try to watch both.
But it does still happen.
So I see both sides of this as well from a viewer's perspective.
This is actually a super interesting conversation, about "react content". Like you said, there's a lot of nuance, not really clear-cut.
Considering the immense popularity of reactions, to me, it almost begs the question if youtube should use reactions as a way of promoting the original video in some way.
For example, take an artist creating a song, and then another artist making a cover of that song. If someone really enjoys the cover, and spends money on it (buying it, streaming it, whatever), should some percentage of that not flow back to the original creator? Or something almost like "DLC for music", where you have a marketplace you can buy songs, but buying a cover requires buying the original first?
Maybe a bridge too far, and not very practical, but it's interesting stuff to think about. As you said, reactions are ideally a symbiotic relationship -- I actually discovered your content through Zepla, I believe -- and her "reaction" was able to introduce me to a channel that I really resonate with. So it's a case that I think really benefited everyone.
Maybe something as simple as having that "unspoken rule", of waiting 2+ weeks out before reacting to someone else's content, would solve some of the issues? Something I always think is kind of a shame, when big streamers or personalities "react" to other peoples' content (in youtube videos, specifically), it feels almost like a missed opportunity to actually reach out and have an actual conversation between creators. Like you and Asmon having a stream to talk about games, things like that.
Either way, it's interesting hearing peoples' perspectives on that stuff.
react content seems similar to having a particular news network you prefer, it's a convergence of media we are seeing, where streamers choose to react to content and viewers acknowledge that those streamers are their source of entertainment and relevant information.
Historically, If you ask Asmon not to react, he respects it.
Unless the video is an attack on him.
Which he'll reacts to at the slightest mention of him.
Historically Asmon will also go out of his way to silence criticism on him as well, including after he makes himself look like a dumbass on stream when responding to something, then that response won't become a video because it clearly crossed the line but he'll go out of his way to silence that criticism on his Twitch, Reddit and two TH-cam channels. The vast majority of his content nowadays is not of his own creation whatsoever, but reactions that get more views than the original. It's exactly what happened to the Animations on TH-cam years ago, when a video that takes a month to make gets %10 of the views than one dude talking about something he didn't even create at 10 times the speed. Reaction content is parasitic in nature and Fair Use is a grey area, does some guy talking about a time he went to taco bell have any relation to a review of a game? Imagine being the creator that slaved over a video to get 100k views to see some reaction by a streamer with hardly any effort or time get over a million, paying in exposure is not being paid, and that's all Asmon gives to those videos.
@@AardvarkPaysOff There is a reason people watch that type of content. It provides value to the end user. Nothing else matters.
@@zekulir6419 this
If people don't want to hear his opinion on a topic/video people wouldn't watch it. Then to react spontaneously and being entertaining at the same time takes also skill.
I think there is definitely a para-social aspect to this, too. Sometimes I just don't want to watch a video alone and reaction vids give at least the illusion of that.
I can understand that it could feel unfair for the original content creator.
@@kakp123 without the original content there’s nothing for the reactor to react to, so the reactor absolutely owes dues to the original content creator
I remember when DarkViperAU created a video series calling out react content. Hopefully more creators calling out parasitic reaction content, and learn to not support content creators when they participate in reactions. If a content creator makes a video/stream just reacting, please don't click on that content and consume the next thing they do that's their own.
The playlist: th-cam.com/play/PLAnJ4ZuTYaeGv4WIexP9C5LAuMEnMkG-Q.html
@@musaran2 thanks for giving people reference
The last part is what I think alot of people don't understand when they say "you play video games for work"
Yes. But it's work.
There's a big difference between playing a game for fun vs playing a game for work.
I understand that, but your explanation was, I think, the best explanation of that.
I mainly use the recommendation feed and my notifications to find videos to watch. I found there are four channels I never get Notifications for, despite having them turned on.
One is Sseth Tzeentach, one is the music channel Mili and the other two are Josh Strife Hayes and Josh Strife Plays. No idea why.
I love how hes talking about this while basically AFKing as people play OSRS for him
The exposure argument is bullshit to me. Usually the content creators that get reacted to are already on the rise by making quality content and that's the very reason reactors react to those. They wanna ride the popularity wave inflicting maximum damage to the original creator's bottom line.
There is definitely value in it since, for example, I found this channel through Asmongold's reactions that are clipped up on youtube.
I think a good compromise, is that reactions should wait a couple weeks after the video is released. That way, you will get the views as people watch the video to watch the video, and then you will get a second boost when the super big content creators react to the video. Not sure if that works practically though
whenever i see a react video about a channel i that i think id like i always go to the cannel and see the rest of their stuff, subscribe and most always wind up watching their new stuff as its released before any reactions to it. its how i found you in fact. ive actually watched less asmond react content because i watch the originals first and have no need for the react content.
I'm so happy that your video appears first for me, then Asmongold and then your video again after 2 months
This man hit the idea of dialectics right on the nose 🤙🏻
Reminds me of the late 2000's TH-cam exploit that created "Reply Girls"
AYYY A WICKED WIZ SHOUT OUT !!! omfg he is hilarious and his videos are phenomenal
There are good and valuable reaction videos, they are called responses and they are edited, carefully constructed videos that use parts of the original video in order to help to reinforce an argument or present the original argument faithfully.
Everyone knows the best content is when a "creator" finds something they agree with, then posts a video of them just pointing at the actual video.
Can't wait for the react to this
I tend to enjoy reaction videos but only music reactions and mostly by musicians/singers or otherwise connected to the music business. The interesting thing is the VALUE they add to the music. I can hear a good song and enjoy it and if you don't add some value except wow and omg, what's the point?
Do what you do well, in your case playing games and reviewing them. You add a lot of value with what you do.
"Fuck me then, I'll just stop making them." True, and if you have to take that route I'll support you. Parasitic is an excellent word to describe the situation. That anybody can argue fair use with a straight face is disgusting. If you can't watch a movie wholesale while nodding along and monetize it why the fuck can you watch a content creator's video.
You can't watch a movie and monetize it because people have to pay to watch it. TH-cam videos are free to watch and creators only make money on its view count and how many ads they show to the audience rather than the content itself. Creators also don't have complete ownership of their videos when it's on TH-cam and are only allowed on the platform through the site's T&C and safe harbor provisions.
This is why TH-cam has no incentive to take action against react videos, because in their eyes, more videos are being made which means more traffic and revenue for them. Of course, if someone uploaded pay per view content that a company has full ownership of like a movie, TH-cam would have to remove it to maintain their safe harbor provisions and avoid any legal threats from those that can affect TH-cam's bottom line.
However, creators still have the power to take down videos that infringe their copyright. It's just very frowned upon by many because TH-cam's copyright system is a mess and heavily favors the one who made the claim; It's a system that can be abused very easily and it's more likely that people will see a claimed video as someone silencing critics or personally attacking someone rather than protecting their copyright.
If you do want consistent revenue from people watching the videos you make, you're not going to get it from TH-cam. It's a better monetary decision to make people pay to watch your video and the most effective way I've seen creators on TH-cam do it is having early access through something like Patreon. As long as TH-cam remains a free video sharing website, reaction content is here to stay.
I know that this is an unnecessarily long answer to a question that you didn't ask for, but I felt like saying it, okay.
@@anenigma8378This essay's worth of gibberish can simply be debunked with this: a person on TH-cam who makes a video that he *wants* to do well, is meant to end in it paying the creator of it as expected. Those who don't expect payment could still benefit from it. The bigger guy doesn't need the payment because he already has enough. You're throwing morale aside to justify exploitation.
@@RealMephres You think my essay is gibberish because you didn't understand it.
Anyone can make their content something you have to pay for to watch; It doesn't matter if you're an individual or a large corporation. You will almost never see a reaction to a pay per view video because there's legal grounds for depriving revenue from the creator. If you just upload a video to TH-cam, you have no protection from someone else uploading your video because anyone can access it.
TH-cam does not value the content itself, rather it's ability to attract people into watching ads. Whether it's a high quality video or someone's face over a high quality video, TH-cam would pay the creator for their ability to shove as many ads into people's faces. Removing low effort reaction videos does not benefit TH-cam because they could use those videos for more ad space.
Let me say this just to be clear: I do NOT condone how TH-cam treats content creators and their content. I was stating that if you upload a video to TH-cam, you cannot avoid or prevent people from making reaction videos with it. If you don't want to be exploited in this manner, then don't upload everything you make onto TH-cam. If you think your content is worth paying for, then make people pay for it. Do not rely on the world to fairly compensate you for your hard work.
@@anenigma8378 This is the worst argument for neoliberalism, probably ever.
@@RealMephres I don't think TH-cam and those that make reaction videos are going to change their ways (barring massive copyright law reformation in the U.S.) I would like to know what you think people should do about this, because I think my ideas are reasonable. Tell me how I am wrong instead of just saying that I am.
I avoid react channels because I'm not interested in having somebody constantly pause a video to interject their opinion.
Talk deep together with Callum by bringing the podcast back!!
Very good video josh.
I understand his views. Tbh Josh doing the odd reaction on some good videos would be pretty good as he has good discussions and ideas.
That last part is so true, i also make some videos, it got to a point where i see a game that i wont be making content, i dont play it.
Parasitic is truly the right word.
Especially when the reactors are watching the videos immidiately when it comes out or even 1-2 days later, thinking that they aren't cannibalizing on the views and essentially stealing the creator's share from their hard work.
Reaction content is the lowest effort content I've ever seen especially when it is downright abused to make "content".
Also so many don't even add anything to it by "reacting". Like many will be silent for a long time, maybe say a tiny bit, and that's it.
Asmon, and Moistcritikal be all like that
But if that was true no one would watch react content. People would just go to the original video instead.
Yep. And I am one of those who is probably inadvertently hurting those creators. I watch Asmon a lot so I see lots of react content. I am usually just listening in the car and I'm like, "oh! This seems like it would be interesting" not even thinking to find the original video. I just watch the one Asmon does.
@@SquaredbyX so I'm guessing you've never heard of a parasocial relationship?
i was one of the few who found josh through the warframe reaction vid :D
I watch mostly react videos because I don't want to search the stuff, I just open my timeline and there are different people reacting to interesting things they found online
I'm gonna be honest. I found you through asmon and I probably didn't go back and rewatch the video he reacted to but I've watched literally a dozen hours of your other content since then and I feel like that's what it's meant for.
I originally watched your content, then stopped watching your content for a while because I'm human, and then I watched Asmon watching you again, and started watching you again.
Okay but I actually wanna see baldo react to this one I think it’d be the start of an important conversation
He has made his position clear in the past: if you ask him not to react he won’t, but otherwise you just have to be happy with the exposure because he’s not gonna pay you anything for reacting
@@moxieman2452
Which is kinda fucked, he is essentially a profiteer and gets paid millions for it.
@@PiousSlayer the system and the viewers enable it. I don’t think anything could be controlled cross-site like if he did reactions live on Twitch stream, but for the reaction clips made into TH-cam videos, those should get claimed just like music is for record labels.
@@moxieman2452 bull....TH-cam/Alphabet 100% control revenue sharing, they don't even leave it entirely up to Advertisers who don't even get to PICK where more of their ads are played. TH-cam is no different from any other corporation that thinks a tiny handful of people deserve 10's of millions a year, and eveyone else all deserve sub 30k not even salaried
@@PiousSlayer We are all profiteers as we are all consuming this content for free to our own benefit. Asmon profits in money, we profit in enjoyment. We are no different.
It would be really nice if they made reaction content into overlays where both videos get a view because the video being reacted to would technically be playing in the reaction overlay. They could even add Pause areas where reaction creators could give their piece of mind and it would pause the video for you for syncing needs. That would've been so great for all content as well as not getting copyrighted by the original owners. I feel like that would be a win/win scenario imo
It's funny you mention warframe and brozime, to me, because I think the two off you actually have a very similar appeal, and I am one of the subs you got from his reaction. As is, I actually found asmon from him reacting to you, and I still watch all of your videos, but I will usually watch reactions as well since he adds some good stories usually.
The benefit to the original creator wrt gaining a new audience definitely exists, but I do think people need to keep in mind that once their own audience is now aware of the other creator and you've put them on their radar, things become increasingly parasitic rather than symbiotic like Josh said.
So I feel like a good way of things is to a) not saturate your audience with rebroadcasting the same content when they are likely to view it on the original channel in lieu of a react video from you and b) give the original video time after its original release to reach its organic audience, in which case you are now giving it another chance in the algorithm and exposure to audiences that evidently are not already dedicated fans of the person you're reacting to.
The occasional feature on the reactor's platform within these conditions I think seems fine since you're not compromising the endemic reach that that content would have already had. At that point, it becomes more like a handshake benefitting both sides again.
Now there are some highly anticipated videos where I can absolutely see the benefit of a kind-of "watch party" aspect in being featured by a streamer, but that's very tricky to make work again because of the endemic reach compromise mentioned above. Maybe if the reacting people contacted the original creator ahead of time and found some kind of arrangement..? That does seem very tricky though since even with an agreed-upon rev share for example (..let's just assume people would even implement that in good faith), the video would still likely suffer in terms of the algorithm and promotion.
Agree. For example, Asmon reacted to RIOT MMO by necrit and people wanted more of those reaction, but that would be parasitic. He put the channel out there and the content and now its up to viewers to watch it. Imo the only fair reacton is just commentary after the video watched or commentary but no audio or video from original video, so basically a audio track that you play simultaniously
When I watch react content I am watching for the reactor, I think that is the case for most people. I also find out about a lot of creators because of reactors and then I watch those creators themselves. Josh is one of those I found through react content.
The truth is if people don’t add something to content while reacting no one really watches them. People watch reactors because they like their personality. And if people don’t move off the reaction and watch the creator being reacted too it’s normally because their content wasn’t that engaging.
It's funny that I actually stumbled upon Asmon thanks to Josh.
Absolutely not joking, no sarcasm, completely genuine. I found out about Asmongold through YOU. And I found you because I felt like learning more about MMOs after watching Overlord but not enjoying them myself. Your videos are great and I still love watching them even though I don't like MMOs for myself.
And this is why as soon I see anyone of these people reacting to something I just go straight away and look for the original video and watch that instead. Ive had to tell youtube several times to not send me any of Charlies reaction videos and put I am not interested on this because of that. In the end its working because I get recommended more and more of the original videos.
React content will be and always will be a lazy way to steal from others no matter what. Yes you get the exposure but in the end you might have the chance to just be like 1 of a time thing or do well for a while and then just fade off because the people that are following you they are not your fans they are that persons fans that came to your video.
And the exposure is also just tiny. You can look at Josh' statistics from way back when Asmon first reacted to him. Small bump, drop in the bucket compared to his already great growth rates at that point.
Fair use laws exist though. Adding your own commentary to a video someone put out publicly is fair use. Fair use is not stealing. Commentary is one of the first fair use protections listed period.
This came up in my recommended visa and I just wanted to say the part where Josh talks about how he felt guilty the entire time he played Elden Ring? SAME. That's why I mentioned gaming with you in the past and it never came to fruition because genuinely other than like... chess.. I can't take time to actually play other games unless I'm turning it into content.
7:04 I'll keep that in mind if I want to do one. thanks !
Reaction content is basically "paying in exposure". Sure, there's some merit to it, but I think most creatives would rather be...actually paid? Especially since exposure doesn't always or even often result in an actual increase to your audience comparable to the money you may have made off of the initial product, which is why the phrase is a joke in itself.
When I watch a full video reaction of another TH-camr I like to open the original video in another tab and let it play muted in the background. That way I think it gets supported
TH-cam needs to add a feature so a creator can flag content as a reaction to their content, and then the revenue can be spilt between the reactor and original creator.
Make sense. After all, they have systems in place so that some random corporation can claim footage used in a heavily-edited video and get advertising revenue from it.
No
That would be nice
If TH-cam cared about their content creators that aren’t cash cows
TH-cam has that already it's a content Id claim
I found you when one of the streamer I follow, reacted to one of your video. Unfortunately there wasn't any channel name on the video. Luckily with extensive googling and a bit of detective work I found you and have been really enjoying your content.
the Value here is affected by R.M.Pirsig's definition of Quality - your 'Value' maintains it's value (stock, goodwill, standing) by being of 'high' 'Quality' - Keep it up - great work, love your discernment.
Ive wondered about an extension or site or something that lets you take a reaction video, or at least a crop of it, and clip it on top of the original, letting you support both at once.
Some reaction vids, at least the ones I do watch so there's a bias, might as well be reply videos cause they talk more than the clip itself.
For people out of the loop, they'd also get the full context of what they're replying to rather than a clip or quote that may or may not be taken out of context, though that seems to be an unintended consequence
I generally watch original if i have to watch reaction unless the reaction video is specifically made to be some meta thing on reaction videos and so itself is the thing im curious to see and learn from
I've gotten in the habit of clicking off of reactors videos to go to the main video now because the reactors usually link the video the description. I do this because I found the reactors don't actually add much. Maybe if the video is really analytical they might add a joke or two. I think Charlie AKA Critikal might add the most because usually doesn't just watch the original video in full and agree with it.
The closest to react content i watch is Kira who will go over different random news. Other than that I avoid anything react. Response content is different and I do support that