Petronious YouTube Channel is 5 years old. (Patreon)

So today the channel itself has reached a nice rounded age milestone of 5 years old, and I just thought I'd type out a bit to express what I'm thinking when seeing that little "joined" date on my channel.

March 4th, 2014:

I've decided to go down the route of marking this date by the date I actually joined YouTube under this current name rather than the specific date a video first went up...
This is because depending on if I'm counting my previous (now long defunct) channel or the handful of videos I've outright gotten rid of over the years this date could have fell anywhere really.
But I just quite like the idea of seeing the date right there on my channel for all to see. That's where it started, more so the idea of what I'm currently doing rather than the date people first potentially saw my videos.

My old channel:

That's because as I said before, I have actually been around using YouTube and uploading videos for well over 12 years at this point, on a previous channel but... the whole thing was quite aimless.
I never made any videos in particular, but a random mess of anything and everything with no real focus. One week I'd make another let's play part (as everyone has done at some point) and the next week I'd attempt some kind of gaming new update, and the next I'd do a review of that weeks demo's that released on PSN.
These videos barely got any views and I kind of fell out of the idea of making videos for a while as I didn't really know what I was doing.

Wanting to do better:

The ACTUAL reason I started my current YouTube channel was to teach myself how to edit better videos. I had recently started my first proper day-job at the time, and started getting some money together to buy my own PC... which I'm still using today!
Given how aimless things were before I wanted to create some videos that had at least SOME structure to them, and starting thinking about what I should make as a semi-consistent video project for me to work on outside of my working hours...

Game Reviews:

A few months into my day-job and around a year or so after I basically gave up on my original channel I set up the new one. While I didn't actually upload anything for a while I knew what my main focus was going to be. Reviewing and discussing my opinions on video games, as that is pretty much all I know.
Throughout my life I've always been surrounded by video games as... well, I just like them.
 I've played enough of them to make decent comparisons between similar ones and most of my friends today I've met though a common interest in games so why not attempt to share my thoughts online, I figured.
I was inspired by the likes of James Rolfe as the Angry Video Game Nerd (like most people) to begin with but the real kick up the arse that made me want to begin making videos was randomly stumbling across Caddicarus.
While I still like some of his videos today, his earlier content really helped me decide to just go ahead with all of the ideas I spent best part of a year building up in my head.
I think it's because he was the first British person I saw doing this sort of thing. Everywhere else you look you've got your AVGN and your JonTron, but yeah. Seeing someone from home have a go at the thing I wanted to have a do just sort of clicked something in my head to get started!

5 Years Later:

Here we are! If there's one thing that continues to make me happy is that people have actually been following the channel and looking forward to these videos. As a project I originally started purely to teach myself how to edit better, and make more structured content I'm very happy with the way things have been going in the last few years.
The other things is the sheer amount of friends I've made through doing this.
The fact I regularly get to speak to people from all over the place and on one occasion (so far)  also lead to me travelling half way across the world to meet a whole bunch of them to at a convention!
Honestly, it's pretty crazy for me to think about as I'm not actually all that confident in myself in most things, which makes all of the above even more special.
Massive thanks to everyone for following the silly thing I've created for myself in my spare time.

The Future:

While I intend to keep making videos for as long as I can, I do have to apply a bit of common sense to the channel as making these videos is not my full-time job, nor do I ever expect it will be!
With that in mind, video production could potentially slow down if I'm forced to find another day-job... but while I still have the time and means to do it, I'll carry on with my plans for future videos.
So far for this year I have a couple of standalone videos I'd like to make (including a Patreon funded purchase), as well as jumping into a couple of game series...
And of course, getting around to the proper 5 Year Anniversary Review Project which... is still in it's early days (it's a big project for me to work on!)
Big thanks to everyone for... just sort of helping me want to do more!
(This post of free to everyone, but if you're interested in Behind the Scenes content for all major videos, consider pledging to the Petronious Patreon Page)
Cheers,
- Pete.