One thing I've noticed over the course of the last few years — running MoeGamer, doing YouTube, running this Patreon — is that the hardest part of self-promotion is doing it to people you know directly. The people you are, in theory at least, closest to.
There are two parts to this. The first is definitely a "me" problem, which is that I feel way more self-conscious asking close friends and particularly family to check out my stuff than I do promoting it to strangers or acquaintances on the Internet. I'm not sure why this is, as I'm genuinely proud of what I do… but I guess it just feels like I don't want to "bother" them or something. This is, of course, stupid, because I know my family in particular supports me and what I do… I just… I don't know, really. Sometimes it feels oddly difficult to say "hey, did you know I've done over 210 videos on old Atari stuff, at least some of which you might be interested in?"
The second part… is a little less easy to deal with and understand. I'm growing increasingly frustrated with the people who are supposedly my closest friends having absolutely nothing to say when I share something I've worked on with them — and I don't share just any old thing, mind you; I share things that I know they'll be interested in. I even dedicated an Atari A to Z video to one of my friends, because it was on the subject of a game we'd both talked about a lot in the past. But… nothing. Not even a "sure, I'll give that a watch later" acknowledgement — even if they had no intention of giving it a watch later.
I don't really know why this is, and I don't want to express my frustration at them because I'm not sure it'll really achieve anything. It'd just be nice to have a bit of acknowledgement from the people who are supposedly closest to me, y'know?
Still, I can at least take heart from the fact that even if the people I've known for 20+ years appear to take no interest in the things I'm most passionate about and proud of, at least I've made some great new friends by doing this. And those people are kind enough to enjoy what I do, have interesting conversations with me and share my joy in creating stuff. So thank you to those of you who I have gotten to know a bit better over the course of the last few years — you are very much appreciated, believe me.
Anyway, enough Sunday night maudlin nonsense; I better get to bed. Back to the ol' grindstone tomorrow, fun fun fun. Still, I think I'm getting near the end of Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, so hopefully I should be able to wrap that up in the next couple of days. Something to look forward to!
Enjoy what's left of your weekend, and I'll speak to you all soon.
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