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Simming On YouTube: Content Focus

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CONTENT FOCUS

Being a simmer on YouTube opens up an array of possible video ideas. Among the most popular are Let’s Plays, Create A Sim, Speed Builds and Challenges. These different kinds of sims related content all come with their own pros and cons and it is in this post that I am going to break down and outline these! We will look at which videos tend to haul in the most viewers, which content is the least time consuming and easiest to upload and of course which content tends to be the most popular and maintains the strongest following.

LET’S PLAYS:

Let’s plays are the foundation to many sims related channels in the community. If you are unfamiliar with what a let’s play is, it is the act of recording ones self playing a video game with a running commentary throughout. This is different to a ‘walkthrough’ of a game which is more like a guide helping players complete missions, collect achievements and essentially complete a game in its entirety. Lets plays in the simming community are extremely popular and an excellent opportunity for you to be original and create something unique to you that nobody else has. They are not an essential component for a successful channel but i’d definitely say they are one of the most popular types of videos viewed by audiences. Here are my three top tips for starting and maintaining a good let’s play:

TIP #1: CONSISTENCY:

If you happen to decide that lets playing is something you would like to do on your channel it is important to ensure you can be timely with your uploads. Audiences do not want to wait weeks in between parts, not only will they go elsewhere to find a more regularly uploaded series, but they are likely to forget what happened in previous parts rendering any upcoming parts pointless!

TIP #2: PLANNING:

Planning out your let’s play before you jump straight in will ensure you have eventful and entertaining things to do during your game play. Starting a brand new sims let’s play with no concept or idea of what its going to be about or what you are going to be doing makes for very difficult commentary on the spot. Especially if you are sat there umming and erring about what to do next! Enter each part with some idea of what you want to achieve.

TIP #3: QUALITY:

Your videos need to be up to standard. People are going to instantly click away if you are recording at the incorrect screen resolution for YouTube or they cant hear your voice over the game sound. Make sure your game play is smooth, some lag can be expected but try to avoid constant lag. Full screen (720p or 1080p) recording and clear enthusiastic voice over are essential tips for a good quality video.

Here are a few examples of my past and present lets play’s!

CREATE A SIM:

Create A Sim videos are a great ‘one off’ video as I like to call them. If you want to haul in some views this kind of content is the one for you! Anyone can watch without the drawback of falling behind like with let’s plays. Audiences can be put off watching if they haven’t watched from the beginning which is why the very first part always tends to have the highest view count with a gradual decline as it progresses on. Videos involving the Create A Sim feature of The Sims can be one of many, such as

  • Custom Content Finds
  • Custom Content Shopping
  • Tags
  • Challenges
  • Collaborations
  • Themed

All of these kinds of Create A Sim video are extremely popular and some YouTubers base their entire channel on these kinds of videos and maintain a very strong following! Not only this but the time and effort it takes to create these kinds of videos is considerably less than let’s plays. Creating a sim can take anywhere from five to fifteen minutes and can be sped up during the editing process to create a short snappy video that anyone can enjoy. A lot of your subscribers may be extremely busy with school, work, family or even their own channels and might not have the time to sit down for twenty five minutes and watch a let’s play part. Create a sims are much shorter usually around three to five minutes giving people the opportunity to watch if they can spare a few minutes without the long time commitment.

SPEED BUILDS:

The final type of sims content I am going to cover today is speed builds! Another popular kind of video simmers on YouTube like to feature on their channels. Much like with CAS, a lot of simmers use these types of videos as a foundation for their content, focusing mostly or even entirely on building. Not only do speed builds enable you to be creative with your skills, you can collaborate with friends, partake in building challenges and even have them featured in other peoples lets play’s for their sims to use! If you are unfamiliar with what a typical speed build entails, it is the process of recording yourself build something in build mode of the game, speeding it up during editing, usually to some music or secondary voice over. I have noticed audiences prefer to listen to voice over as opposed to music, but if you are strapped for time you can find some non copyright music and have that playing in the background instead. I sometimes even do both and have the music playing very quietly under my voice! It gives you an opportunity to talk for a longer period of time about random things or updates that your subscribers might want to know.

That is all for now! I hope this gave you a decent insight into some of the most popular simming content and most importantly helped some of you decide which content to feature on your own channels! Happy simming and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask!

About the author

Minikin

Hello everyone! I am Dominique, otherwise known as LittleMissSimmer. I create Let's Plays on Youtube of all my favourite games (mainly The Sims of course!) I love to share stories and game play, as well as info on all the latest updates and releases.

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