The Sword and Laser discussion

I saw in the FAQs that The Sword and Laser Video was 'discontinued' - I was wondering if anyone knew the reason as to why?
Was it budget? Not enough views?

It's sad to see it go. I really enjoyed watching it

I believe Geek and Sundry wanted to change the type of shows they were playing. Also T & V are looking for somewhere else on the web to continue with the video shows.

There is a new S&L video interview with Robyn Schneider on youtube right now.

Tom and Veronica mentioned in yesterday's podcast that they have a new YouTube channel. I found it, watched the Robyn Schneider Google Plus interview, which will be podcast next week, I think.

http://www.youtube.com/user/thesworda...

I miss Sword and Laser's show. I hope they can get it up and running again.

I miss Lem... :(

I miss the show too, it was my favourite youtube show.

It was a good show.

Opinion:

YouTube is not a viable avenue for anyone with production costs to have a show and have success. Many have been trying to crack this lately. YouTube even has free studios for people to use to get more "pro" quality content while YouTube can continue to pay what they pay. (The algorithm that registers "views" is also awful for any video longer than a few minutes.)

I am actually a huge fan of YouTube, I love when people make something using their creativity and time and it becomes a hit and the creators gets hundreds of thousands of people to watch it. [B]That is what YouTube should be.[/B] It's also a place to build an audience from scratch. YouTube needs some competition from other places that host video with different models. I wish Geek & Sundry all the luck in the world but the YouTube grant program they were in does not seem like it worked for any of the participants.

I am pretty sure (pure speculation) Howard Stern is going to an internet pay-to-view model that will work. Just speculation on my part but I think he will crack it. Yep, people will have to pay in the future. His show will charge a nice amount but smaller shows will be able to charge a fair price.

YouTube funded Geek and Sundry. YouTube wanted a certain demographic to continue funding. If you notice, only TableTop came back for a season two on G&S. Felicia even canceled her own show. Just one of those things. News on new season coming soon.

If it's a case of cancelling and YouTube dictating the direction of geek and sundry don't think I'll keep geek and sundry on my sub list. thanks whoever linked sword and lasers new channel I've subbed to that.

Yeah whatever direction they felt they had to take G&S it's no longer for me. Tabletop is the only thing I watch now.

Rob wrote: "Yeah whatever direction they felt they had to take G&S it's no longer for me. Tabletop is the only thing I watch now."

It's a funny thing. I have a desire to like Geek and Sundry, but their content has lost its appeal. I do like me some Vaginal Fantasy (who doesn't) but that's about it. Pretty much everything G&S is running now either makes me feel out-of-touch or just too Goddamn old.

G&S Vlogs has...two good vloggers, though frankly I wish I could choose who I want to follow (Kiri Callaghan & Nika Harper) instead of having everything lumped under one channel.

As for G&S itself, I don't even find Co-optitude that entertaining anymore--the episodes are waaaay too long.

I like what some shows are doing with https://subbable.com

Kickstarter works well when you just want to do a series. But if you want an ongoing show subbable seems the better option for funding. It works in a very similar fashion for rewards too, but you can build up to the bigger ones if you want.

Yeah, I gotta agree with the others here: G&S just isn't the same anymore. At first it felt like it had something for everyone (well, everyone geeky, I guess) but ahem...maybe it's missing the sundry a bit? I dunno.

Yeah, the Sword and Laser show was way better than practically everything that is on there now.
Wouldn't something like that animated show or the Star Wars spoof be more expensive to make than Sword and Laser? Or do you have to pay authors for their interviews...

Caitlin wrote: "Yeah, the Sword and Laser show was way better than practically everything that is on there now.
Wouldn't something like that animated show or the Star Wars spoof be more expensive to make than Swo..."

I like a lot of the stuff on G&S and they're doing quite well. It's ok to like them and us both. Or not. Your choice.

Costliness was not the issue though. It is. Outlay to do sword and laser video. We had set, lighting, three camera ops. Director, sound, graphics op. PAs, technical director and talent on each shoot. Plus writing, editing and and posting to do. We never paid guests.

The issue wasn't a lack of money andI t wasn't just drawing enough people, but drawing the right mix of people for who the advertisers wanted.

That was a YouTube call not a G&S call. So don't be mad at them. We're certainly not.

And we'll have a Kickstarter for video coming out here very soon!

Ah, perhaps I'm just not the demographic that YouTube wants then.

And I'm not mad at G&S. Just sad they are going a different direction than I thought they would. Although I do like co-optitude and a couple of their vloggers

I've stopped watching.

G&S has stopped being about geeks and the sundry they like. It looks more like hipster video Cliff's Notes on various topics. Jump cut editing, a smattering of satirical commentary from grinning talking heads, and pace, pace, pace. Nerds don't really go in for that level of vapidity. It's the same format used on Saturday morning children's TV.

It was OK when that kind of work was the exception rather than the rule on G&S, but the whole thing has lost it's appeal for me. Maybe I'm not the demographic that they want either, but I suspect it's really more that YouTube has embraced a particular format that they think will appeal to their demographic and have decided to turn everything into that. Kinda of sad to watch, really.

Yea, I miss S&L on G&S and a few of the other good shows. However, the G&S Vlogs channel is pretty good, in my opinion. It certainly has a lot more variety now that G&S is almost exclusively gaming-related.

I listened to an interview with Felecia Day on the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast where she went into some of the problems with running G&S on Youtube. Seems like channel's current direction has more to do with advertiser demands than anything else...the current model, imo, isn't really sustainable for producing quality content.

Just downloaded what I hope is that interview - thanks.

I feel like G&S has taken away all the fun, but then I look at what I still watch and go, well, maybe not ALL of it....

I miss Written By a Kid.

Oh. And I HATE jump cut editing. Whenever I watch one of those vlogs (I think I've watched about four) I wonder how people can watch those without getting a headache.

Ruth wrote: "Yeah, I gotta agree with the others here: G&S just isn't the same anymore. At first it felt like it had something for everyone (well, everyone geeky, I guess) but ahem...maybe it's missing the sundry a bit? I dunno. "

That's how I feel too. It seems to be mostly about gaming now. It isn't for me anymore and that's okay.

My 9-year-old son laughs really hard at Co-Optitude so G&S has that going for them I guess. I found Geek & Sundry through Sword & Laser. (I had seen the Guild but didn't realize that Felicia Day had started a youtube channel.) I'm not much of a gamer anymore so most of the main channel's stuff doesn't appeal to me but I do like the variety of vlogs they now have.

I do worry that the future of the channel is foretold in their new Magic: The Gathering show. It feels like an advertiser has paid them to launch weekly commercials for the product under the G&S brand.

Caitlin wrote: "I'm not mad at G&S. Just sad they are going a different direction than I thought they would."

Indeed. I'm glad they are doing well, but sad I can't find much to enjoy there these days. But then, it introduced me to Sword and Laser in the first place, so I certainly still wish Felicia and everyone else involved all the best.

Written By a Kid was brilliant. And of course I loved Sword and Laser.

I haven't kept up with G&S content that much either because the email updates don't work so I don't know when there's new content. Even getting a prompt on FB is unreliable. I'd love to keep up with TableTop, Amy Dalen, and Jeff Lewis.

I loved written by a kid, sword&laser (obviously) and Patrick Rothfuss' hangout (The man's a great speaker and he chose interesting guests and subjects).

I still like Table Top, it's a well made show, but I'm not interested enough in board games to watch it regularly. I did watch every episode back when I still had a reason to go to the G&S channel every week.

The new G&S shows don't appeal to me at all. I *am* a gamer, I'm just not much of a fan of gamergeek culture I guess.

Table Top probably gets sponsorship from the game manufactures. If it doesn't, it should. I've bought half a dozen games based on watching them being played on the show. It's a terrific format for board gamers.

AndrewP wrote: "Table Top probably gets sponsorship from the game manufactures. If it doesn't, it should. I've bought half a dozen games based on watching them being played on the show. It's a terrific format for ..."

Let's see I've bought:

Forbidden Island
King of Tokyo
Tsuro
Zombie Dice

I've bought some others they played as well, but I had played those with friends so it was more of a reminder than an introduction in those cases.

I bought Zombie Dice and Ticket to Ride. My mum and I love TTR.

I've bought, Lords of Waterdeep, Ticket to Ride, and Catan because of Tabletop.

I loved G&S in the first season. The only thing that I watch there now is TableTop and Co-Optitude.

Tom wrote: "Caitlin wrote: "Yeah, the Sword and Laser show was way better than practically everything that is on there now.
Wouldn't something like that animated show or the Star Wars spoof be more expensive ..."

How do I become a PA?