NukemDukem Interview

Conducted By – Adam Ames

In the face of a potential permanent channel shutdown, YouTube gaming critic, Doug Le (aka NukemDukem), discusses the events that led to his banning by YouTube, what can be done to protect content creators and much more.

First off, a bit of backstory for those unfamiliar with the situation.  A few weeks ago, Totalbiscuit was sent a false copyright claim which led to one of his WTF Is videos being taken down.  Days later, and after TB posted a video proving the claim was fraudulent, the violation was removed.  Fast forward to a week later and NukenDukem became the latest causality in this ongoing soap opera between content creators, partner networks and YouTube/Google.  The following interview was conducted via e-mail.

 

What led you to create the YouTube channel NukemDukem?

It started two years ago, when Halo Reach came out and I didn’t have an Xbox 360 since my brother took it with him to college so I was stuck with the PS3.  I love the Halo franchise and played Halo 1-3 and ODST.  Since, I couldn’t play it I decided to look up YouTube videos of the campaign.  When I searched for it and click on couple of the top videos of the campaign.  The commentators kept talking over the cut-scenes and dialog so I missed so much of the story and killed the mood for me.  I kept looking around and found a lot of the same as well as different problems with other commentaries or non-commentaries (water marks on their videos) “Let’s Plays.”  I found one a commentator that I liked and really enjoyed.

It was theRadBrad who was around 100k subscribers at the time (Now 1.6 million after 2 years has passed).  My younger sister who was in grade school would watch the videos with me and I realized how most of his commentary is not family or children friendly, which was totally fine since he’s unique to a more mature audience.  Then I kept looking and gave up.  I decided there had to be a commentator who doesn’t talk during the cut-scenes, dialog, and keep commentary family/children friendly.  This is a bit odd since I love to play a lot of new AAA games usually rated Teen and Mature and contain a lot of non-family or children content in their game, even though they contain those content I still thought that I was unique and did not have to add to it. I started my channel February 12, 2012.

 

As of 10-29-2013, you have 77,660 YouTube subscribers.  When you first began, did you ever think this many people would be interested in your opinions?

Honestly, I had no idea what to expect when I started.  I know I am very fortunate and blessed to have this many subscribers.  I have been doing this for almost two years now and many people tell me that it is very rare to get that large so quick.  Whenever I get asked how many subscribers I have I tell them and they are like “OMG YOU ARE HUGE!”  I remember thinking and the same thing when I first started talking to people who had 5,000 subscribers.  I remember exactly on my one year anniversary I was at 20,000 subscribers and I said my goal for my 2 years anniversary is to get to 100,000 subscribers, which is 5 times of what I currently had at the time.  After I made it public I was like OMG what did I just do to myself, this is impossible!  Now, that I have 78,000 subscribers and I can actually do it!

 

If you could point to a single video or series and mark that one as “putting you on the map”, which would it be?

I would say Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Walkthrough.  That was when the first of many my channel blew up and I started to get noticed.  I was only 1,000 subscribers at the time and the whole series got over 800,000 views and I was up to 8,000 subscribers within 2 weeks of posting the first video.  I saw my first big paycheck and realized that I had made more money than a year of minimum wage from the five different jobs I had.  I realized that this could become a career.

 

In its current form, how close are the content and formats to your initial vision?

Oh, what I do and produce now is almost entirely different from when I first started.  If you watch the type of videos I produce now compared to my first early series (Legend of Grimrock, Tell Tales Games the Walking Dead) it will blow your mind.  Back then I was using a $9 desktop mic, and cheap iPod head phones.  I was using the basic windows movie maker to edit and render videos.  I was solely a PC indie gamer.  After 6 months of just doing that there were some big AAA titles that I wanted to cover.  I realized that all the big YouTubers were console gamers and some big companies would delay the PC from the console launch.  I noticed that console gamers can receive the games earlier from publishers and other sources.  That’s when I was around 12,000 subscribers and 8 months into YouTube.  I decided to include console coverage and bought the equipment to cover it.  I mainly cover AAA titles now instead of my initial indie games.  I still cover indie gamers here and there if I find them to be interesting.

 

Aside from the obvious trolls and spammers, how important is it for you to communicate with your subscribers?

My subscribers are REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT TO ME!  I read every comment that gets posted, though I may not reply to them all since, I can get 100-500 comments a day.  I especially notice subscribers who  post often and who has been around for a long time since I would recognize their names by now.  Developers and Publishers sometime send me several cd-keys or copies of the games and I make sure I give them to my subscribers by doing a giveaway.  I recently started a TOP YouTube fan’s group for a selected few of my subscribers who has been around since I started and still here after almost two years.  I give them important updates and first dibs on a few cd-keys before I give it out to my other fans. Personally, I did not want to start this group since it excluded my other fans who have been around for a while as well, but since I had been attacked by haters lately I don’t know who I can trust right now since they stalk my Facebook and Twitter.  So, if I see you are subscribed for over a year and been very active commenting then you will get an invite, in case I missed you feel free to send me a private message on YouTube or Facebook.

You have recently been targeted by individuals who caused your channel to be taken down multiple times by inappropriately tagging videos as Spam along with erroneous content strikes.  Bring us up-to-date on what has transpired and your efforts to regain control.

Due to some recent issues (11/7/2013) from haters and dealing some YouTube guidelines my account got shutdown for 3 weeks, so I missed 5 major games (Lego Marvel Superheroes, Batman Arkham Origins, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, Battlefield 4, and Call of Duty Ghost) I missed out on viewers, subscribers, and income.  What is worse is that I am running a charity for children who have life threatening illness and since, my channel got shutdown the donations stop coming in.  So, I felt more upset about children dying than haters taking down my channel.

The latest information is that haters did initially target me by using the YouTube flagging system because of my descriptions had a lot of links to other websites it was considered spam to YouTube.  They removed my videos.  My network FullScreen got YouTube to restore 3 of them, but I still have 2 and when you have 2 community strikes you get suspended for two weeks.  After 1 week of me not posting anything I posted a Facebook /Twitter status thanking publishers for sending me COD Ghost within 30 minutes the haters flagged my latest video and my channel got shut down for a day.

My network sent an urgent message to YouTube to restore my channel and that’s when YouTube finally decided to see why the community strikes are going through and looked at all my videos.  So, they didn’t like my descriptions had too many links going off-site that made it look suspicious (even my charity link).  They didn’t like that I posted video game trailers, video game commercials, and video games press conferences and giving me a bunch of rules that those violated.  The tough thing is a lot I mean a lot of gaming channels post video game trailers, commercials, conferences and some are purely dedicated for them.  So, I had to swallow my pride and remove over 500 videos and deleted every single descriptions/tags on my videos (1500 videos), since I am under YouTube’s radar.

Right now my network and I are asking YouTube to remove the two community strikes so I can start live streaming again  because I am under the fear. If I get one more community strike I am shutdown for good.

 

How do you feel about the lack of response from YouTube/Google?

I am not a big fan of the process it takes to try to contact YouTube and Google right now.  Only your specific network can talk to them no other network can help you regardless of any situation no matter how unjust it is. So, it depends on how good of relationship between you and your network are and your network’s relationship with YouTube.  There is nothing I can really do but wait from the middleman (my network) tells me that YouTube tells them.

 

If you were given free rein to develop a system which protects legitimate content creators, how would you go about setting it up?

I honestly don’t know.  I know in the current system, as a content creator, I live in fear.  I know there has to be a better way to deal with copyright issues.  It would only happen if a lot of big YouTubers gather together and brainstorm a better system and have some powerful backers to present to Google.  There has to be a lot of legal issues that come along with the new system.

 

To those who are responsible for flagging your content, what would you say to them if you met in person?

Over the past feel weeks and going through many different emotions (happy I get to finally quit gaming and YouTube, into sadness, into hate and anger, and bunch of other things).  Right now I would say, I understand you may be upset with something I do, but it is not right to ruin and destroy someone’s job and income.  It is wrong to shut a channel down who is trying to raise money for children’s hospital. Many of my big fellow YouTubers told me to file a lawsuit after YouTube and my network finds out who has been abusing the system.  I am just glad it is almost all getting settled and I can start producing content to my fans again even with me being required to delete 500 videos, all descriptions, and tags.  Honestly, I think it is a very young and immature person or group of people who did it and don’t have to mental capacity to understand the bigger picture of their immoral activities.

 

If you could narrow the list down to just a few, which titles made you fall in love with video games and why?

I would say all my life I was a gamer.  It started with Atari and going from this order, Super SNES, N64, PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3. I loved playing Donkey Kong, Killer Instinct, Starfox 64, 007 Golden Eye, StarCraft, Diablo, and Counter-Strike 1.3.  When I was younger around the age 9-10, PCs were starting to become affordable and dialup internet was starting to take off.  One of my first PC games was Starcraft and Counter-Strike and that’s when I knew I was a hardcore PC gamer.  I liked consoles, but PC I could sit in my room and play forever even to this day.  Even as a professional “Let’s Player” I prefer recording on a PC.

 

What advice would you give up-and-coming YouTube personalities who are trying to break into the business?

Usually most people would give cheerful advices, but I will tell you it from my perspective and what I had to go through.  I believe this is the truth if you want to be a YouTuber or a Gaming Channel.

Know that it is not easy; it requires a lot of hard work even more than a full time job.  There are so many YouTubers in several different categories, so what makes you stand out from the rest?  It may take you awhile to grow and to even get noticed all.  You will probably lose money and won’t be partnered to be able to monetize your content for a long time.  With all that said, it is possible to make it.  Work hard, get familiar with video editing (I use Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere).  Start will smaller unknown recent games on Steam.  The competition is a lot less fierce and competitive there.  If you do non-commentary, watermark your videos but do it where its barely visible and small, but recognizable so people don’t steal your work.  If you do commentary get a good microphone.  I use Logitech G35 and Blue Snowball.

I strongly urge you not to pirate and not to use other videos or ideas people are smart and know if you do.  You can use ideas and inspiration from other people, but make it your own.  You can get in serious trouble if you do that and it seem like you stole and copied someone.  It hurts the gaming industry and the developers who worked hard on the game doesn’t get paid.  Be smart with your money and research what you want to do.  Remember, loss comes before profit.

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