Wargaming and related Media - over the curve?

For those of you who follow, thanks for reading when I post and ... Merry Christmas.

As for wargaming and related media, I'm a big consumer. Over the past three years or more we have seen a settling of blogging - people like me are here to stay as long as the platform lasts. We've also seen a birth and boom of podcasts relating to military history as well as wargaming and as well as YouTube broadcasters.

An issue for me is that I have a limited tolerance for commercialism. I am one of those people who has add blockers so I don't have to endure advertising. I also use a VPN and generally connect through Japan's access to the world wide web becasue when I listen to podcasts through Spotify (mainly but not exclusively) there are no commercials.

As an Australian I enjoy an access to media free of commercials thanks to government public broadcasting (the ABC) and growing up, my family was an ABC family - we didn't go much for the commercial popular channels. These days I do not watch TV much at all. Now in my middle-age I loath commercials which a generally unintelligent and peddling everything I neither want nor need. So what has this to do with wargaming media?

Most YouTube broadcasting for some time now have been pushing donations through Patreon which in some cases have enabled people to go full-time with their videos. Ironically, it's my observation almost all who have done so can't keep up. They just don't have the content to push out quality videos at the frequency their 'pay' demands. As a result and after waiting for a turn-around which didn't materialise, I've started unsubscribing.

At the same time as their content has degraded, the same broadcasters have been taking up sponsorships from all sorts and are now including endorsements - sometime these endorsements are quite lengthy. To me it looks like they have been digging themselves a hole they can't get out of. As you might imagine these endorsements are something I find difficult to tolerate and when it coincides with poor content, I walk.

One YouTube broadcaster whose business is wargaming scenic products and services used to deliver very useful and top quality content. This was useful to the viewer and presumably it helped him in promoting his business and services. These days; however, he has become little more than an advertiser for other companies products - either 3D printers or related 3D figure designers. I won't name anyone but I wonder if anyone has guessed who it might be. He's next to go for me in all likelihood.

Podcasters also push Patreon these days - not all of them by any stretch - which is also curious given that the content is generally just two or more middle aged wargamers like myself talking hobby nonsense. Often, they are interviewing rules writers or figure manufacturers which is fine by me but why would I be paying for their back-door advertising?

One history podcaster who I have enjoyed listening to very much specialises in Napoleonic history. He conducts a wide ranging series of academic discussions with various academic and other historians of which he is one. He has just announced movement of his podcast behind a paywall with various levels of access on a sliding monetary scale. Now he does not advertise as such but then again, just about everyone he speaks to is a published author and he does not hold back on promoting their works. This is fair enough but it's also endorsement and a form of advertising. I have bought a few books due to his podcast.

Just in case you might be thinking I am a tight-wad I do financially contribute as a sponsor to both miniature discussion forums I use and I pay my monthly fee for Spotify - which gives me add free music listening but not add free podcasts (except Japan doesn't allow this - thank goodness). If I were to move to the abovementioned Napoleonic history Patreon arrangement, then that's two paywalls I'm hurdling. On top of that, if I were to regularly contribute to all the content I listen to or watch (regardless of quality) I'd be up to hundreds of dollars a month.

Most of the hobby podcasters have 'real' jobs so I find myself asking, 'Isn't their podcasting or Youtubing just a facet of their own hobby?' They presumably decided to project their views, interests and experience to connect with the wargaming fraternity because they wanted to. If this is the case why are they asking me to fund it? I know that filming, recording, editing etc costs money - that's what most hobbies do.

Between degrading content and broadcasters monetizing their hobby/interests, I wonder if the surge in wargaming media is already experiencing the beginning of the end? I'll certainly not monetize my blogs and all I follow appear to have similarly resisted that temptation. Then again we are all relatively niche.