Last chance to know everything you need (for this channel)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ม.ค. 2025
- The cheapest I can give on Patreon is ending! Lock in $1 for everything forever before the price increase: / gamerzakh - Minimum 4 videos a month plus more. Price is going up this weekend BUT if you're already at $1 and you stay at $1 NO price increase for you. Thank you!
13 years on TH-cam... people still call me 'kid' because apparently I'm an ageless city-building vampire. Anyway check out the Patreon: / gamerzakh We got goals to hit and I want to make it worth your while! Thank you!
1. This is my 13th year of TH-cam
2. The last 4 years was moving across the world
3. Patreon has been overhauled, last chance for $1: / gamerzakh
4. I made the most list videos ever in a year
5. Live streams on second channel: @GamerZakhXL
6. 2025 city-building channel goals!
12 million views
250K subs
Build a Patreon community
Double Patreon revenue
And the action plan for those 4 goals are:
a) Create perpetual city-building videos (like this one • These Are The 8 Greate... )
b) Focus the entire channel on city-building (10 of 12 recent videos for the same audience)
c) 2 public posts on Patreon a month to provide free value
d) Make real content on Patreon and promote it once a month on TH-cam
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![Base Building RTS To Defend Against Swarms | IDUN [AD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YO75Lo7kqSc/mqdefault.jpg)
![Base Building RTS To Defend Against Swarms | IDUN [AD]](/img/tr.png)
13 years on TH-cam... people still call me 'kid' because apparently I'm an ageless city-building vampire. Anyway check out the Patreon: www.patreon.com/GamerZakh We got goals to hit and I want to make it worth your while! Thank you!
1. This is my 13th year of TH-cam
2. The last 4 years was moving across the world
3. Patreon has been overhauled, last chance for $1: www.patreon.com/GamerZakh
4. I made the most list videos ever in a year
5. Live streams on second channel: www.youtube.com/@GamerZakhXL
6. 2025 city-building channel goals!
- 12 million views
- 250K subs
- Build a Patreon community
- Double Patreon revenue
And the action plan for those 4 goals are:
a) Create perpetual city-building videos (like this one th-cam.com/video/XmOqfDcic4Q/w-d-xo.html )
b) Focus the entire channel on city-building (10 of 12 recent videos for the same audience)
c) 2 public posts on Patreon a month to provide free value
d) Make real content on Patreon and promote it once a month on TH-cam
cheers from viking lands for another 13 years! also that background/foreground made me for a moment have morrowind seydanen tariff office flash backs , and the glorious feeling of another world with magic ripe to venture forth into ^^ nice choice!
and living in the ilands of Albion at least you should have plenty access to tea & decent beer to keep warm ;)
I don't know about Ageless City-Building Vampire, you do look more or less the same so maybe that has something to do with it. But if they called you a Not Feeding The Populace Soon Enough City-Building Vampire, now THAT is much more accurate! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣To 13 more years of not feeding digitally created people! 😉😉
As a fellow Malaysian, i am happy for you. Keep it up!. You're always my sifu (teacher) of Caesar 3!
Hey thank you so much for the support and kind words! That's so nice of you.
Good luck with your 2025 action plan!
Thank you!
love the content Zakh Please keep em up.:)
Thank you so much!
Heck yeah we're building way more cities! It's how I discovered your channel and learned to appreciate that content, definitely glad we're getting some more :)
I like your chill vibe and good taste in games.
Thanks for being around Zakh.
Quick idea for city building, you could do Sierra Saturday/Sunday where you upload one a video of one of the Sierra city builder games on that day, giving people something to look forward to and also a callback to main series on this channel. Also an opportunity to finish Poseidon lol
I’m sure there could also be some experiments with Emperor custom campaigns as well.
Congrats on 13 years. Here's to 13 more 🍻
Thank you!
that is the coziest greenscreen background I have ever seen :D
Creative I’ll add
Thanks
Hey thank you so much for the support, that's so kind of you!
I do, I do like city builders!! Congrats on 13 years! Hard to believe you started as a 3 year old! (ha!)
Lol I've been wondering when people will stop thinking I'm a child and turns out still not yet. Thank you!
@GamerZakh take it for as long as possible, lol. Celebrate good genes!
Been watching you ever since I searched Caesar 3 on youtube like 10 years ago, and your name came up. Love your commentary and gameplays of pretty much any game you cover!
Hey thank you so much! That's really kind of you to say.
GamerZakh, been following you for 7 years but subscribed a few years ago. This channel is my go to for city building. I also loved your old videos covering old city building games (caesas2 Caesar 2 and lords of the realm2). You have the personality and you set the scenarios of which that suits best when creating content about city building games. It's a lot of work while you also balance work and life. You deserve an amazing 2025 year and wish you continued success. I will continue to follow your journey!
Hey thank you so much for the kind words! I really appreciate it. All the best to you too in the new year.
Very happy to hear there will be more city builders this year, looking forward to it!
Having moved to and from Argentina, and my wife going through the UK visa process etc, I understand your situation. Impressive that you've continued creating at such a rate, keep it up bud
Thank you! Yeah it's a big headache whatever the situation haha.
Thank you for all the amazing videos! I hope you’ll continue for a long time!
There is one thing I do miss, and that's the GamerEncounters intro songs-they always had such a wonderful 8-bit vibe! ❤
Happy new year to you Zakh ! Looks like you had tough times with the paperwork, moving ain't easy 😅
It takes a lot of courage and strength in all aspects to go through all this, and i want to say : Congratulations ! 🎉
Wish you all the best 🙏
Cheers from France !
Thank you so much, happy new year!
I moved to Thailand 10 years ago, i understand your position.
In the end, the home is where the heart is rings true. Ive found the transition very manageable
Happy new year and congrats for 13th years. Good luck in 2025!
Thank you Zakh! I'm currently going through your old Pharaoh LP again. I wish there were more ancient Egypt city builders.
I've gone in for the $1 (or £1.20 in the UK due to tax etc :) ), you were the first channel I ever subscribed to on TH-cam, been watching your videos since the first C3 playthrough all those years ago, since then I've got married and have a son. £1.20 is the least I can do to show my appreciation after all these years of content, thanks Zakh!
Hey thank you so much, that's so kind of you! Congrats on all the achievements too!
Congrats on 13yrs. and Good luck with the goals. I've always enjoyed your videos even when I didn't care for the game... Your sense of humor and approach to things makes them fun to watch. I'm happy about the city building idea. I first started watching you when I found your Pharoah playthrough. You've made me a fan of city building games. Wishing you the best and looking forward to more of your content. PS. Were you able to get your kitties to your new location?
Thank you! We haven't managed to get the cats here yet, there's a lot of planning and organisation to do still to get them moved safely.
Much success in the New Year! 🎉
Thanks you too!
Keep going bro ^^
Thank you!
Nice update. Knew you’d had this channel for a while but 13 years is a nice milestone. My focus is Civ (1 to 6 plus 7 coming up) which I’ve played from the beginning. I hadn’t watched much of your content for a couple of years as you don’t do much on that game these days although I really liked your retro play of the older Civ games (4, 3 and 2 and maybe even 1) you did earlier in 2024 - I think around the time they officially announced Civ 7. Those were cool and reminded me why I got hooked on Civ in the first place. Civ 7 is making some major changes (as did Civ 4, 5 &6) [side note: loved your video on new release “Civ haters” - that was absolutely on point!] - are you planning on doing more Civ 7 content in 2025?
Thanks! Yes I am planning Civ 7 content, maybe with a bit more of a 'city' focus to line up with my overall city-building focus for the channel, but Civ 7 has plenty that fits in that regard.
I specifically seek out and watch your list videos over any other creator's. I've learned of some of my favorite games thanks to your efforts.
I'm glad you find them so useful, thank you!
I consistently rewatch the seirra games. Youre voice is so comforting.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy it.
I didn't know you had a second channel. At first I didn't find it in the description because I'm blind, so I went to your profile. There the channel wasn't listed. Just a reminder to mention it there. I wish you the best of luck in 2025. I'm going to watch your Stronghold Campaign missions while eating dinner later ;)
Been a fan since 2018 bro.. Keep it up
Thank you!
Thanks for bringing me back to the Impressions Games citybuilders i played as a kid but forgot when i grew up. Also looking for more citybuilders that you review and try out and your personal recommendations.
Appreciate your content for years. Keep it up g
Thank you!
Hey Zakh. Congrats on 13 years and you're right, it's very hard to find any creator going this long, which is why what you do is even more important! To keep the memory of impression games strong. I agree on let's play being pretty much an outdated format on YT these day.
I'm interested to know why you don't just stream on your main channel? How do you think it impacts your main channel? Been thinking about this myself and can't seem to find a clear answer on this. If you've been creating video content. How will beginning to stream impact the channel?
Hey sorry missed your question! Generally, people subscribe to channels for 1 thing. Anything outside of that 1 thing is going to be a video they skip or just a reminder that they should unsubscribe. So I've been pretty all over the place with this channel and live streams would be just one more thing people didn't subscribe for. Because I didn't build this channel on live streams, none of my subscribers here subbed for live streams. Doing them now would need to be very focused on topic, but the channel itself hasn't been focused, so it'd just make things even messier.
Also, the second channel needs watch time over the year to maintain partner status. As that's a backup channel, I want to keep it alive and running the streams there keeps the annual watch hours up.
Until the main channel is properly focused, I should not be adding anything completely new from before.
@@GamerZakh Ah makes sense. You are sort of refocusing this channel a bit so you don't want livestreams to muddle things up about what this channel is about. Got it.
I'll definitely be following your channel's journey this year ( as always) and hope you'll hit your goals. All the best Zakh and have a great year!
@@FragsofWar Honestly, if I were to go back to 2011 and restart my channel, it's what I should've been doing since the beginning haha. Picking 1 topic and building around just that 1 topic is a much better way to grow.
All the best to you too this year!
I don't really care about lists. I like the long videos and playthroughs. Patreon is not an option for me because I watch on my TV and there is still no Patreon app for Android TV.
Yeah that is annoying, I wish they expanded the app a bit more.
Hey Zakh, hope things been going well so far. When you say things change drastically for the last 10 years, I think it's more than that. For the duration of nearly 3 decades, everything changes too much and too fast. Videos now have to resemble some blockbuster action-movies with explosions and neon lights flashing 24/7. The domain or should I say safehaven for those that seek calm, introspective, knowledgeable and simple gameplay is shrinking. I wasn't recommended one of your videos for nearly a whole year until this one. It is alarming as at some point, the YT algorithm suggested a video of a good channel but it was a farewell YT video of the creators. Hope that you found various platforms and albeit a reasonable number of them to have both the environment and community that was of the early days of YT and Internet as a whole. Best wishes from here.
Thank you! Generally speaking, media and content creation is always changing, so you have to change with the times or the channel just dies out. Those big old channels that are either not getting views or stopped completely, they didn't change or didn't want to change. I'm okay with changing, but it means some content I want to make which some want to watch can't be made anymore, hence the Patreon to make that content viable again.
Don't forget to like and subscribe!! ❤❤❤ Congrats on the 13 years!!
Haha thanks! For years I haven't been asking people to subscribe, but just asking really does work.
Good luck with 2025
Thank you, you too!
Sound plan! I personally really enjoy the Sim City series on Patreon.
Hey, are those new glasses? Or is it just that I've gotten so used to seeing you without glasses that I don't remember them anymore? XD
Anyway, I'm happy I locked in that 1 dollar tier for myself. So far I've been enjoying your content there!
Not new glasses, well I changed to these about a year ago but this is what I was wearing before trying contacts. Glasses still okay here because no lighting changes, I can control the glare. Thank you so much for the support too!
@@GamerZakh My pleasure! ^^7 I guess I just forgot about these glasses then. They look good in any case!
I was wondering.. Have you considered recording your live streams from GamerZakhXL and just releasing them to that channel unedited? That way if people miss a live stream (or, like me, aren't really into that sort of thing), they can still enjoy the content you've made at their own pace.
@@Apophis324 I do that sometimes, when I'm not making a video of it on the main channel. I just haven't been streaming enough to do that often.
@@GamerZakh I see. Okay, well.. I'll just be looking forward to the content that's more permanent then! Still plenty of that coming up in the year :)
Woah I never knew you were also in the UK xd I've literally been watching your videos for the past 12 years and now I understand why the shawl in necessary because of how cold it gets here xd
Haha if you go through my videos, the shawl showed up for my first winter.
Congrats ! on 13.
Thank you!
What is it like to be constantly on the move?
I will do that as well.
How do you define city building? :^)
Good luck
I'm not here for 13 years, but some. I probably came here when I started to play Pharaoh again and struggled. So probably the first video I watched was the City Building doctor on that game. And stayed for the relaxed content delivery. I'm not big on watching Let's Plays as my time is very much limited and prefer to play myself. As a german growing up playing The Settlers 2 I watched that and it was journey between laugh and being infuriated when you stubbornly tried to get over the mountain in mission 3, without realizing that there is a much easier way and its not even needed (plus I suspect its a trap by the designers at Blue Byte back than - not a good idea though).
Something that has bother my lately on the channel is the overuse of the word "Remaster". I think its good to showcase community mods that make games easier to run and play these days, might increase the quality of some graphics and quality of life additions (I'm torn on mods that increase complexity and/or difficulty, as they can be a double edge sword). But not everything qualifies as a remaster - at least in my book. Words have meanings, if we use them for everthing, diluting the meaning, they literally become meaningless. I guess its because the general overuse of the word in the industry and therefore it might work better on TH-cam. Still I don't like it.
btw. Zeus - Master of Olympus has its 25th Anniverary later this year - any chance to get back to that? Might be a selfish request, as its my personal favorite of the series.
If at any point you are thinking of doing something else, consider going into teaching. You have a very clear way of communicating an idea or a concept. In the mean time, keep doing what you are doing. Thanks for the insights :)
Well you clocked that well because I was a teacher haha. Taught in a school for a good few years. Thank you for the kind words!
@@GamerZakh Great to hear. I did some language teaching myself, but never went pro. I think I could pick it up, if the need arises or I should feel like it. I love explaining my work to interns, for example.
Like the list videos, but full playthroughs/walkthroughs are what I'm here for, personally. Love city building, but expand into some Strat, 4x, Tower Def etc.. Would be good :)
Same full playthroughs/walkthroughs are what I'm here for. I've been watching him since 2016 but I can go months over the last couple years without bothering to watch much of anything because of the lack of playthroughs.
It's sad playthroughs don't work since I do like them. When you say that for list videos 4x and strategy game will be included. Will that apply to the regular content as well? Or rather will there be a few videos here and there between the new focused content, with 4x games and the like?
Right now I'm somewhat in a 4x high with the upcoming release of Civilization VII :D
Generally the quantity of content here on TH-cam will remain the same, just the topic will be focused. So for example when I'd normally maybe do a Civ 7 playthrough, I instead do a specific thing with cities and town building in Civ 7.
Will you be returning to Zeus abd urs expansion Poseidon: god of Atlantis.
Yes the plan is to finish Poseidon this year.
What do you mean exactly by, "Won't work on TH-cam"?
I regularly watch the channel [www.youtube.com/@ChristopherOdd] and he does let's plays all the time. I'm curious as to you experience and the behind the scenes TH-cam mechanics behind what you're saying.
I can get into it if you want, most people don't want every detail, but basically. You regularly watch ChristopherOdd, most people don't. Note, that channel has 577K subs. That's almost 3X my subscriber count. But almost all their videos cap out around 14K views and many just about reach 9-10K views. That's only about 1.5-2.4% of their subscribers actually watching those videos, or roughly 98% of the subscribers not watching. That's about what I get (around 3-5K views) when I make let's play videos. Generally, less than 3% of viewers care about any specific let's play series.
If you check that channel's most popular videos, in their 28 most watched videos they're all 5 years or older except like 2 which are just approaching 5 years old. Their top 5 videos are 7-11 years old. This is a channel that got to where they are by hitting the algorithm right 5-10 years ago, but that approach doesn't work anymore because TH-cam has changed and viewer preferences too. Although they reached a big high, if nothing changes they will be on a gradual decline which you can see began a few years ago and continues. They used to get 2-3 million views a month easy. Through 2024 it was 1.8-2.2 mil. And the past 2 months has dropped to 1.6 mil. In 3 years, their viewcount has halved.
I have watched channels like this. In the video I refer to 'big old channels' that aren't active anymore, I watched them go down this exact path. They keep doing the same thing that made them big and over time it just works less and less to the point where they either don't bother or can't continue.
ohh , morrowind sttlement building! dam that tie in exactly with what i always wished i could do once becoming a hallu merchant aka , actually engage with the morrowind settlements economy and their populations in a ''administrator'' way aka need x manpower , defend agenst the raiders & daedra cultists that gets tempted by yhe egg mine wealth etc ^^
naturally with studies of necromancy on the side , not to upset the locals but ehm , those returned willingly makes foes even aedra & daedra's fears
6:26 can you go into more detail why Let's Plays don't work?
Yeah generally speaking, if you look at any normal let's play video, only 3% or less of a channel's subscribers would watch it. You typically want at minimum 5% watching and a decent amount would be 10%. Let's plays repeatedly tell TH-cam that you make content that 97%+ of your audience doesn't care about, which suppresses the videos. Also there is an implied promise with let's plays that you will finish the game, but when a let's play begins to underperform, the creator is mentally stuck between continuing to make something almost no one is watching or breaking that implied promise and ending the run, disappointing the few people who actually watched it. It's very discouraging.
Because 97% or more of people don't care about any specific let's play, each upload of a video in a series clutters your subscriber's feeds. This encourages them to unsubscribe, further hurting the channel in the algorithm.
5-10 years ago let's plays still regularly worked, so you will find huge channels that grew from that time who continue to make let's plays today because that's what made them famous. Time changes not just the algorithm but viewer preferences too and if you look at these channels' stats, they often show a gradual decline over the past years. It may still look like they're successful but it's typically the case where if the channel is getting 1.5 million views a month today, they used to be getting 3 million views a month a few years ago.
I have watched channels go down this path countless times now and I am continuing to watch many go down this path today. It's either the channel changes what they make or they continue into smaller viewership and stagnated subscriber count. Then in many cases, the creator realises they don't make a living anymore and have to retire from content creation.
which part of the UK? good luck with your relocation. where did you live before?
Don't want to get too specific, but in England. Was in Malaysia before since I was born.
Like a jelly in a mold. xD
It was the best I could think of at the time aha
You should make a tutorial video of how to immigrate to the UK as a content creator! That would make a good patreon video lmao
Haha well it's a bit weird, because you can't immigrate to the UK as a 'content creator'. You have to find another path to get a visa. Spoke to a lawyer about it, although the UK recognises content creation as a job there is no visa that can be given for being a content creator, no matter how big you are.
@@GamerZakh Even more of a reason to make a detailed video about your experience then!
Well, probably better off jumping on a boat in France and coming over illegally, that's no joke. You will get a free hotel, free house and lots of money and will be allowed to stay permanently.
@@megmucklebones7538 Refugee status is not granted to just anyone to stay in the UK. The hotel stay isn't what refugees want either, they're stuck there until the government processes them (allow stay or deported). They can't join the workforce or live a life until they're processed. So you can't be a content creator if you're stuck in refugee housing waiting to be processed.
Didn't know about you coming to the UK, Zakh. But I remember you mentioning that your mum was English. Anyway, welcome! I'm sure you'll be a great asset to the UK. All the best for 2025.
He has a striking resemblance to Anuc Attitawan
UK meetup when?
you heard him people! everyone has to make at least 3 more sock puppet accounts to increase the phase of subscriber counts for the channel ;) failure to comply will lead to your favorite city builder game being bought up and drmed to always online and riddled with microtransactions ^^
Haha TH-cam is good at detecting that stuff now, it's not like the old days. I'll keep trying to do the best I can do.
@@GamerZakh fear not zakh! the legion training program is improving to!
hehe , but aye , i still recall back when it first started to sort stuff like that these days their V.I algorithms to sort that stuff is as ruthless like the automatic support of corpos abusing dmca claim system is brutally enforced
still , do hoppe for a good year for ya concerning the tube
Personally I really don't care about (any) TOP or LIST videos...sadly it seems like I'm in the minority. So if it works for you so be it. And I didn't know about your XL Account. But it doesn't seem like it's very active, though. Like...where are all those Caesar Streams for example? I don't like it.
Stream vods aren't left public for all of them. It's usually live and gone for that channel. Every time I stream on Twitch, I'm also live on that second channel. Caesar streams incoming in 2025.
@@GamerZakh but why? Why not leaving the stream vods public? I love those long vods and I thought it's your stream-channel after all...thanks. Checking out your PoE videos now..
@@asbestinuS Because all kinds of things can cause issues on TH-cam particularly. I might accidentally reveal something I didn't want revealed, and would have to edit the stream to remove it. Or there are copyright issues, much more common on TH-cam than Twitch. I can put it like this, I have never gotten a platform strike anywhere except TH-cam. It feels way too risky just blasting out whatever on TH-cam without checking it properly first. And in most cases, the stream is cut to a main channel video and I'd prefer to present that rather than the raw stream. And if the question is shouldn't I properly check and edit things everywhere? The answer is yes, but I already can't keep up with all the work I'm supposed to be doing.
@@GamerZakh Ok I understand that. Thank you for your expanation! Then I'm just hoping for more stream-like content, maybe on patreon :)
What u mean this is not KingCriss 2nd channel....
HNY! Paetron activated. XD
That's really kind of you thank you, happy new year!
Yeah real life is no fun and has no achievements.
I need a HMRC play button or something lol