The other unfortunate part is that i’m not sure GVG is doing so well.
Recently, I keep seeing posts from Derrick, Jon, etc on Twitter trying to branch out to other avenues to financially sustain themselves.
While this is great for them, and I wish them the best in their journey, (seriously, Jon could make a fantastic VA)
I also wish they didn’t have to do that.
YouTube is actively punishing long form, meaningful content while at the same time promoting lazy cashgrab AI-produced shorts.
It’s so fucking sad.
This kind of stuff will just reinforce Andre’s thoughts that he is making the right decision and short-length content that isn’t worthwhile will continue to be pumped from the GameXplain factory because Google encourages it.
The bolded might be true but also consider just how many fucking gaming YouTube channels there are doing the same thing these days. Absolute market oversaturation. I'm sure what's happening to GVG is happening to a lot of other channels. Look what happened to Easy Allies in the span of a year. And that was thought to be one of the tentpole channels!
Kit and Krysta just put out a video about their 2024 plans and they're talking about videos they're going to make and they're gunna start doing spoilercasts and news shows and I really feel like that's going to be too much for them, and it gets away from the reason why people find them interesting. Why do we need a 40th channel to do a spoiler show? There is no more room for this.
Regarding Jake and the discussion above, when looking for ANY job, among the many things you consider about a job, you must consider why the position is available in the first place. My very abridged point from my first post in this thread was I don't know why you even apply to GameXplain in 2023 or 2022 or whenever. The writing was on the wall. Especially in an entertainment content industry. It was always demanding and it never payed well.
I’m guessing we’re cut from two different clothes, because I’m not sure I find that all that toxic unless you assume that Andre was lying about the financial concerns. I mean, what had transpired prior to this conversation? Did Derrick demand more money and express displeasure with the hours? It’s fair that Derrick complained about those factors, but I also don’t see why it’s unfair for Andre addresses them from the perspective of the business.
The point about being “loyal” is the only thing that gives me any major cause for concern. I think playing that card and not keeping things objective (i.e. these are the requirements of the job and/or I can’t pay you more because of certain issues) is not cool since there was obviously more of a real relationship amongst these guys. If it comes off as it’s written, then that leans on the douchey side of things IMO.
And no doubt the entire situation sucked for Derrick and the timing obviously put him in a bind, but you can’t really blame your employer for that. If the owner is being unreasonable, then you need to proactively look for other job options before you find yourself in this situation. I am going through a similar situation right now in terms of job satisfaction and have no one to blame but myself for not have started looking sooner for a job with better work/life balance.
I'm going through a similar situation to the bolded. and personal responsibility is for sure a part of it, but it isn't the whole part.
As a personal anecdote, I worked for my brother-in-law for nearly 10 years. it wasn't a content creation job but it was a client-based video editing job for a wedding videography company, so similar workload. The pay was fine in the beginning (I started the job when I was 21 out of school) but over the first few years it became more and more unsustainable. To the point where I'd have to film the events in addition to editing them to make ends meet, and since the events were weddings, it ate into my weekends. I learned after a while that everybody in my industry got paid more than me. By like 3-4x. So any feeling of being overworked always starts with being underpaid. That's where the toxicity starts, make no mistake. BUT. That happened to me year 4-5. I fought for a raise that wound up being well below what I was asking for. I stuck with the company because things started to get better but it all ricocheted back a year later. That should've been my moment to leave and I didn't. And he was family; someone I thought would look out for me. It took my sister divorcing him to finally distance myself from this and the fact that the writing was so clearly on the wall and I didn't leave earlier, means it became my responsibility after a while. Didn't have to start that way to end that way.
I don't say this to give much credence to Andre's side of the story, but to your point, ultimately it SHOULD reflect poorly on Andre and the company as a whole, because the buck did ultimately start with him. But it won't, so long as people continue to go to work there despite everyone's issues being pretty straightforward and in line with each other. To which I agree with you; Jake should've done his research.
A post of yours got flagged for "whataboutism" and I really feel like that's an unfair reduction of the conversation. Idk about the rest of the world but the US job market is maybe the most hostile and unsteady it ever has been. All different sects of private industry are moving out of step with government regulation and it seems like no one can get a handle on it. It's the fucking wild west out here. There is a good, truly universal lesson to take from all of this; one I wish wasn't the case, but
everybody needs to stay vigilant. Do your due diligence and look into the company you're applying for. Especially in the content creation world. That industry is exploding and no one can see the future of it at the moment. Jake's situation was tragic but avoidable. Don't let it get that far!
The good thing is Jake left that environment which he probably should've left earlier. He's clearly due for better things.
