STAKING A CLAIM (Patreon)

Hello y'all. I had a comment posted on the Digi Letters Page this morning, which sort of hit upon some stuff that had been going on behind the scenes, and which Sanya and I have been talking about quite a bit. 

Here was the comment:

"No offense, but I'm getting a bit tired of the Biffo/Gannon videos constantly, they feel rather empty without the others. Will Octav1us and/or Larry ever be making another appearance, or have they been kicked off the show now?"

Now... I don't blame him for feeling like this. The channel is evolving, and if you tuned into Digitiser The Show expecting the Minis to continue in the same vein, then wall-to-wall Biffo and Gannon could be a shock. 

But... I also felt it was important to make a few things clear - which might've been vague - and thought I'd share my response here in case you missed it:

"All I can say, Chris, is if you're tired of me and Gannon... don't watch us. Go watch something more to your tastes instead of complaining to me, 'cause it won't make a difference. Ultimately, Digitiser2000 is MY YouTube channel - not anybody else's. I own the Digitiser brand, I co-created Digi 27 years ago, etc. etc. 

"Nobody complains about the lack of other people on Octav1us's channel, or on Larry's channel, or on Ashens' channel, or moaned at Morcambe and Wise because they didn't do enough episodes with Michael Aspel...!

"However - for reasons I don't really want to go into - I was getting concerned that there had become an expectation that was set up by Digitiser The Show that we're still all equal on the Digitiser channel in terms of the billing, and that the others were somehow entitled to appear in the Digi Minis.

"I felt everything on the channel had started to become seen as an extension of Digitiser The Show, and it's really, really important to me that I reclaim the channel as my own for me to do what I want with. 

"It's probably my fault for not being clear enough before, but I now need to create some air between what I do next and Digitiser The Show Series 1, and stake my own claim on what was mine in the first place. Your comment just makes it all the more obvious to me that why I need to do that. 

"Regardless, Digitiser the Show was always designed around Paul and I as the main hosts... me because Digi is mine and mine alone, and him because of his huge experience in front of the camera.

"It just so happened - and this isn't a knock against anybody else - we had the best chemistry on-screen. It's not something you can manufacture. 

"Larry and Octvav1us are friends, and I'm sure they will appear again (as will other people - I've got some vids with my wife coming up, Ashens is hopefully going to appear soon, hopefully Jim Sterling too at some point, and some other secret guests), but Digitiser The Show was one thing, and the Minis are another. 

"Another part of the reason there has been less of the Digi The Show hosts on there is because the more people that are involved, the more unwieldy they become to make and edit. 

"My day job is stressful enough that I don't want to do things in my spare time which also cause me stress. It's meant to be fun; I just want to set up some cameras and mics and arse around. I've no game plan for it, which is liberating; I couldn't give a fig if we're tailoring our content for views. Plus I've enough responsibilities in my life, and enough people who all need me to be there for them - three kids, three step-kids, elderly parents, a demanding job - that I need something drama and logistics-free that's just for me, and isn't a headache.

"Everyone else involved with Digitiser The Show has their own channel - Larry's and Sarah's are significantly more popular than Digitiser2000, and even Paul has Cheapshow. Again, the whole point of setting it up was that I had an outlet of my own. 

"If you and others like this incarnation less... fair enough. I'm still going to carry on doing things the way I want to do them, because otherwise there's no point. Again: it's a hobby, not a job. And if you don't like it, that's fine... but you know what to do."

And that is that, really! As always, I appreciate your support massively, but also appreciate that  there isn't quite as much written content as there once was (though I was probably overdelivering massively in the past; sometimes two or three articles a day), and that the Minis have moved away from games a bit (though we will still do games stuff in the future). So if any of you feel like what I'm doing isn't what you signed up for... I'd totally understand.

Nonetheless, your money is helping things to keep going. I recently bought Borderlands 3 and Link's Awakening for review, I invested in a third camera and tripod, a handheld gimbal camera, and some new lighting (not to mention the rubbish we look at on the channel) all thanks to you lot. It'd be impossible to do the things I do were it not for Patreon. So, thank you for sticking by me, for however long you do.

Paul