YouTube Shout Out: Aywren Sojourner

I wanted to give a shoutout to fellow blogger Aywren of Aywren's Nook for her foray into YouTube videos. She saw a need to present positive material for introverted, shy gamers to successfully navigate MMOs. As she puts it from her description:

Welcome friend! I'm an introverted, casual, Gen X gamer gal. As a long-time MMORPG player, I'm hoping to provide thoughts and support for common struggles that shy gamers like myself face in online worlds. 

You're not alone! There's more shy gamers out there than you realize! 

Let's sojourn, shall we? 

--From Aywren Sojourner's YouTube Channel 

As of writing this post Aywren has seven videos up already, and the further she's progressed I've found her presentation to be more and more clear and confident as she finds her footing. She admitted very early on that this was her first attempt at creating YouTube videos, and she's definitely a quick learner.

Admittedly, her field of expertise is in Final Fantasy XIV, which I've not played, but a lot of her advice is easily adaptable to all sorts of MMOs. 

Here's her first video to get you started.

I do have to admit that's quite a large... pirate hat there.

Best of luck, Aywren!

I'm Not a Monk, You Know, But Come On...

I sometimes wonder about the YouTube algorithm and what shows up on my YouTube front page.

For every video that appears that's from a channel I subscribed to --or one in which I've watched videos of without subscribing-- I get some suggestions that came from out of nowhere. 

Like this:

I don't play Final Fantasy VII, never have, and probably
never will. But I ain't blind, you know.

Or this:

As if you didn't know, the picture --and likely
the rain sounds-- are AI generated.

Or even this:

What I did not know was that tents that use inflatable
"tubes" as supports are apparently a thing. Not exactly
sure how that'd work, but it is a thing.

And that's not even counting the YouTube videos of women "trying on" see through clothing, which suddenly blew through my feed and then vanished after a couple of weeks. To which I had to ask just how those videos got past the YouTube "adult" filters.

I mean, I get where all of the screencaps of the videos above are similar --I am a guy, after all-- but why these videos suddenly made their appearance is beyond my understanding. But there they were, intermixed with videos about D&D, sports, woodworking, MMOs,  and other forms of gaming.

Oh well. If I don't respond to their pretty obvious clickbait, they'll go away after a few weeks. But even my oldest has been getting these sorts of videos in her feed, and she's been annoyed by them as well.