Hey Guys,

Like most of you, I was infected with the videogames virus as a child. Since my childhood was some time ago, the games I grew up with can be considered as retro games.

Some time ago, I published a blog post in which I wanted to play my Top 100 GameBoy games. Unfortunately, life got in the way, and the list took a backseat. However, I didn't forget about my idea.

That's why a few weeks ago, I finally started recording my evening gaming sessions and began working on a back catalog that I can now upload bit by bit in the coming weeks.

3Speak Uploads Only

This brings me to my main concern: the adoption of our in-house apps, specifically the adoption of @threespeak, Hive's own video platform. In my opinion, it is used far too little by both content creators and users.

Personally, I enjoy reading game reviews and occasionally clicking on the links in the articles. Often, I only see a snippet of the gameplay and become curious about how the actual gameplay looks, but I'm disappointed when I get redirected to YouTube.

However, if I'm honest, I rarely go directly to Threespeak. Perhaps it's due to usability or the somewhat inadequate search function, or maybe it's because there is simply not enough content that interests me. Part of the issue is also my own convenience and inertia, as I have been accustomed to searching video content on YouTube for many years.

As I mentioned earlier, I spend a lot of time on YouTube, both for gaming content and various other hobbies and interests. However, as a Hive user, I would prefer to stay on #Hive when consuming content. We have a unique opportunity to make our ecosystem larger and more relevant to the outside world before mass adoption hits.
But achieving that will become more difficult and takes much longer with every video that is not uploaded and or watched on #Threespeak (or #3Speak) instead of YouTube.

Reaching Critical Mass

I wondered what each of us could do to give Threespeak (or 3Speak? I see different spellings in different places beginning with the account name) a little push.

I came to the conclusion that we should start with ourselves. I admit, I am one of those people who spend each day daydreaming about the "riches" that Hive generates in our collective dream world for content creators. I constantly think about how I can become more productive and efficient in my workflow to write more articles or what I can do to expand my reach.

I firmly believe that, at some point, we will need a concerted, blockchain-wide effort to push toward mass adoption, but that moment has probably not arrived yet.

But when could that moment be reached, and how can we all contribute to making it happen sooner?

Starting from my own ambitions, I am clearly an underperformer and want to change that finally. I want to contribute to increasing the visibility and sheer volume of Hive content (video, blogging).

Starting with the video of my first walkthrough (Super Mario Land/Game Boy), I am trying to create a catalog that not only Hive users can browse at any time but eventually also other users searching for a walkthrough of a specific retro game. Whether Threespeak's search engine is sufficient for this right now remains to be seen. The developers will undoubtedly continue to work to deliver the best product over time, so that the search and overall usability will resemble that of YouTube. We just need to fill our video platform. And perhaps make more and better Hashtags. That is what I personally can improve on.

Comparison With Early YouTube

I still remember the early days of YouTube (2005 and 2007 were wild times), when the first users uploaded small, incoherent, sometimes illegal, funny, disgusting, sad, crazy, unbelievable and sometimes even boring videos, and at the beginning, you knew each individual "content creator." The word didn't exist back then of course, and I can't remember every detail, but one thing I remember vividly and that was that at some point, the sheer volume of videos became so enormous that as a user, you had to differentiate whom you follow.

The developers had to strive to keep up with the changes and progress generated by everyday Users and constantly implemented new features and algorithms that were suitable and effective for the platform's growth until 2015.

The increasing censorship from 2014/15 onwards probably led many of you to look for alternatives. For example, I became aware of crypto through this censorship on YouTube before coming into contact with #Hive.

Today's YouTube algorithm serves only to censor critical voices and amplify selected and propped-up creators and mainstream media. The niche categories are still interesting, but anything remotely related to politics (even in the gaming and entertainment sector, you can't complain about woke products without fearing the banhammer) gets affected. Large channels are shadowbanned, receive strikes, lose sponsorships due to pressure, or are outright deleted.

YouTube censorship (not to mention other social media platforms) has an unintended consequence and a huge opportunity for emerging competitors, including 3Speak and Hive as a whole.

But we have a few problems. On one hand, our dilemma is the lack of visibility for creators. However, this could also be an advantage if individual video creators can capture the attention of the existing user base.

I honestly understand the consideration to upload regularly, especially when you think about the fact that videos can take several hours to create/voice/edit/upload it, and being rewarded with just 0.01 cents can be disheartening.

Moreover, as Hive is still primarily seen as a blogging platform, it becomes challenging to attract an audience for video content. People might simply scroll past the post in their feed, and you end up remaining invisible. We haven't reached the point where 3Speak is the first choice for both content creators and viewers, but we need to pick up the pace and make some active decisions to move in the right direction.

Possible Solutions and a Call-to-Action for Community-Leaders

When I'm looking for tips for a game that I finish, I search on YouTube. This is just one example, and I'm sure many other Hivians do the same. Almost everyone will daily search on YouTube, and only a few will find their way to 3Speak.

But we want to change that. However, to achieve this, we need a critical mass of content, and in my opinion, we also need incentives to encourage people to upload videos.

The concerted action could involve Community Leaders urging their communities to upload videos related to specific niches and encourage mutual commenting and upvoting.

Prizes could be offered both across communities and within each individual community, based on engagement, the number of videos, video comments, etc. Quality of the videos could also be considered, though at this stage, I don't want to focus on quality. The main problem is that we need more content on the platform.

On the side of the 3Speak operators (if I remember correctly, among them are @theycallmedan and @eddiespino), they could work with different community leaders each week to plan thematic weeks and promote them in advance. This way, interested users could prepare and pre-produce videos for the specific themes.

#Hive-Gaming (List videos, gaming reviews, walkthroughs, tips, and tricks, etc.) would be perfect for this, as well as our entertainment and media communities #CineTV and #Movies&TVShows (gossip videos about celebrities, reviews of old and new series/movies, industry talk).

#LeoFinance is another community whose theme (finance, wealth building, etc.) could be wonderfully presented in both short and longer videos.

It's a shame that videos without accompanying articles perform much worse on Hive. This was one of the main things I noticed during my cursory research, and it might discourage many video creators from producing more videos. Why is that?

We are less than a year away from the Bitcoin halving, which is about the time frame when an increasingly larger audience will pay attention to the crypto industry. This will also attract more attention to smaller blockchains, and at that point, we should be prepared and in the best position to welcome and retain a large number of new users. Retaining users is currently Hive's biggest weakness.

Let's see what's possible in a year. Perhaps other players will join and exclusively upload their gaming sessions on 3Speak. If we, as a community, fill our video platform and hopefully use it as viewers and rewarding curators, there will eventually be a similar effect to what YouTube had. People will automatically search for content here instead of switching to another platform.

But we need to start this process ourselves. No big YouTube creator will come here and bring their back catalog. We'll have to produce that volume of videos ourselves.

My Contribution to 3Speak

Long story short, I want to start with myself and let actions follow my words.

Since I joined Hive (I received my two-year badge a few days ago, yeah), I have tried to engage in various communities. I have many interests and enjoy exploring them.

I will continue to do so, but now I am trying to narrow my focus and expand the video game genre on 3Speak.

I will initially concentrate on walkthroughs of retro games, starting with GameBoy games and other consoles from the 80s and 90s. This should keep me busy for a long time.

Moreover, these walkthroughs can generate additional content, such as tips and tricks and listicles covering all aspects of the games. I always enjoy seeing such content on YouTube, where it garners the most views in the gaming category. It is considered #evergreen #content and that is what we need.

At the same time, I am actively planning to watch and comment on at least five videos on 3Speak daily. Even if I don't watch the whole video, leaving a comment gives the creator a good feeling.

Those were my two cents on this important matter.
What do you think?
Have I gone too far or not far enough with my thoughts?
What have I overlooked?
What additional suggestions would you propose?