YouTube Millionaires: “Sky’s The Limit” For Gamer BasicallyIDoWrk

By 12/04/2014
YouTube Millionaires: “Sky’s The Limit” For Gamer BasicallyIDoWrk

Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.

YouTube’s “Master of Disguise” has passed one million subs. BasicallyIDoWrk, a gaming channel run by a man named Marcel, owes much of its success to its signature series, in which Marcel uses a soundboard to imitate other gamers on YouTube. Beyond those videos, Marcel has plenty more content on his channel, and we chatted with him about the work he does on BasicallyIDoWrk:

Tubefilter: How does it feel to reach one million subscribers? What do you have to say to your fans?

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BasicallyIDoWrk: Hitting one million subscribers was something that I always wished would happen. You start a channel expecting to be the next big thing, idolizing the larger channels before you, but it’s one of those things that you don’t ever see hitting until you start gaining momentum and you can actually see that million light at the end of the tunnel.

For me, hitting a million was and wasn’t that big of a deal. [I’m] not saying that I’m not grateful, or wasn’t excited. I was pumped when it happened and I’m thankful for every person that watches any one of my videos. Being one of the smaller channels out of my friends, it’s kind of overshadowed, but nonetheless it’s still a huge milestone to hit. YouTube takes a lot of work and dedication but it also takes an extreme amount of luck. I just feel lucky.

TF: Where do you find the soundboards for your Master of Disguise videos? Do you test the soundboards out first before going “in character”

BW: Master of Disguise takes a lot longer than most people think. I pick someone that I think would be interesting, go to their channel, watch every video, and download the ones without background music. Then I have to re-watch them as I make the soundboard. I go through the board 2-3 times so I know exactly what I’ve got, just to get a slight plan of sentences or combos I want to use, but that’s all you’re getting out of me, a magician never reveals his tricks.

TF: Which YouTuber would you most like to feature on Master of Disguise?

BW: There are tons of YouTubers that I would like to do but the hardest part is getting close to them so that they won’t suspect…If it’s too forced, it’s too obvious, and the initial reaction when I join the lobby is my favorite. It takes a lot of patience to spring the whole shebang on them.

The most requested is definitely Evan “Vanoss” but sadly, without recordable audio on the Xbox One, the entire series has been put on hold. It will live and die as a Call of Duty series, [I’m] just hoping Microsoft gets their act together, I already have a few soundboards ready to go.

TF: When you play through games for your channels, how much do you think about the entertainment value of your commentary?

BW: Without a doubt it is brought up in discussion whether or not a game will be appealing to our audiences, but at the same time, any game can be fun if you play with the right people. It’s gotten to a certain point where we know what we can and can’t post, so I don’t worry about it too much. It’s trial and error, hop on and record, every once in a while we have the fail days where nothing comes from it.

TF: Do you get more joy out of AAA titles like Call of Duty or shoddily-made games that have inherent comic value?

BW: Generally I look for games that I can apply all of my friend’s different personalities, the more freedom the better. If a game has inherent comic value it’s not necessarily better, but it does lend a helping hand. Laughter is contagious, if a game is funny, most likely the video will be funny. It just takes off some of the pressure to be the ‘comedian.’

I do enjoy most AAA game titles, I play Call of Duty whenever I get a few hours, but sadly, without theater mode on most AAA titles (like the past two CoDs), we’ve done it all before. I can’t put a nice twist or spin into the editing. I look for a strong intro, something I can get a cinematic or unique camera angle on, which has been a huge bummer because I started my channel with CoD and want to continue to post it. TREYARCH, don’t fail me next year!

TF: For your BasicallyIRage videos, do you always go into a game knowing you will rage to it, or do you categorize videos like this mid-playthrough?

BW: I usually go for BasicallyIRage when I’m stressed, having a bad day, or I’m tired and cranky. I just look for any game that has repetitive annoying task or a more ‘difficult’ gameplay option. I’m not the hardest person to rile up, but I cheer up pretty fast too. Sometimes my brother will text me and tell a game to play that he knows will piss me off. So definitely I know in advanced it’s going to be a rage video. For the first 5-10 minutes I’m usually calm or silent and then the fails come rolling in.

TF: How would you say Twitch fits into your online video strategy?

BW: Twitch is always something that I’ve wanted to get into to, but I don’t have a daily routine so it’s hard to get into a schedule of streaming. It’s much like YouTube in a way, where it requires a decent amount of time. I do stream randomly like once a month and I would like to more, but as of right now it’s not something I can fully commit to. I plan to at least pick it up on weekends starting soon. Maybe a Saturday thing, I’m not too sure yet.

TF: What’s next for your channel? Any fun plans?

BW: I haven’t put too much thought into it. I still want to get more into the vlogging with traveling and showing what goes on more in my life outside of games. I still haven’t showed the world my ridiculous balloon animal skills, and NO I wasn’t a clown, I have a really cool idea that I’m hoping to start in 2015.

There are still tons of people that I want to collab or hang out with and the more my channel grows, those opportunities will present themselves. So I don’t really know, just going with the flow and doing what I think is the best entertaining content for my viewers. Sky’s the limit, I just wanna go up.

On Deck (channels that will soon reach one million subscribers): AlishaMarieCanal KondZillaEvanTubeHD

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