Q&A: Wonderful World of MC Gamer

Weighing in at over 72,000 subscribers and wearing a bright orange suit, we have MC Gamer. For those of you who might not know, MC Gamer is one of my favorite YouTube personalities and does a wide variety of let’s plays. From classic Nintendo games to Minecraft – he is always entertaining and if nothing else, after watching just one of his videos – you’ll be able to see he is never dull either.

I got the chance to ask MC Gamer a few questions about his success – and here is what he had to say:

What made you want to start playing Minecraft?

Well, it was during the summer of 2010 that I saw my one friend playing the game on our TinyChat conversation. I don’t remember much about it, but he was building this HUUUGE tower. A few weeks later, the game had its “Free Weekend” because Notch broke the servers or something silly like that. My friend Silver and I both got it, he began to make elaborate temples, and I made this castle. I played in peaceful mode for the majority of those first few months. It was really great those first moments.

What do you think is the element (or elements) that separates the average guy putting up videos and the guy that become really successful with it?

I would have to say there is skill involved, but there is a lot of luck involved too, some really amazing people don’t get the attention they deserve. Truly funny, hilarious people that just haven’t gotten the lucky draw, a video that gets tweeted by someone, just something small. However, there is a skill level too. You’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t upgrade past your dinky two dollar microphone, if you don’t collaborate with people that you haven’t talked to before, if you don’t enjoy making your videos and improving your commentary. So, put most simply, drive yourself to do better, and stay consistent, and pray for lightning to strike! Who knows!

Have you ever worried about waking up one day and thinking, “I am really bored with this whole YouTube thing”? What keeps you motivated to keep going?

I don’t want to say it is daily that I feel like “Ugh, I don’t want to make videos today”. It is just humanity, somedays, you are sad, sometimes you are mad, somedays you are lazy! When I make videos, I am always chipper, and very excited to be doing what I am, but many times I have to stop, look in the mirror and say, “If I make a video now, it will be horrible.” That is important to remember for any Let’s Player, if you aren’t having fun, neither is the audience. When you are in “the mood” go crazy and bulk record tons of stuff until your mood breaks! As for quitting YouTube forever… Haven’t ever thought about that, although I do think quitting YouTube in favor of full time livestreaming would be really cool, but it just isn’t feasible for me right now.

What has been the most rewarding experience you’ve had, thanks your decently sized YouTube fame?

Fame? That’s a strange thing to think about. I kind of am a bit skeptical about my ‘fame’. I get fan mail, emails, messages and all this stuff, but it still isn’t real to me that there are really people out there that care about what I have to say. I’m just a guy talking into a microphone in my eyes, haha. I have to say the most rewarding experience isn’t from YouTube, but from my Zeldathon charity marathons. The fact we have given over $100,000 to charities, and people’s lives are changed thanks to me and my team of nerds just blows my mind. That’s my favorite thing that has happened from me being an internet entertainer, more people donating to Zeldathon and helping the world.

Who are some of your biggest YouTube inspirations?

Let’s Player wise, NintendoCapriSun, he went from being a regular guy working in a donut factory everyday to being a full-time YouTuber who does what he loves and touches the lives of everyone that watches his videos. He helped me through a rough time in my life, and I don’t think he realized that he was the reason I first started making Let’s Plays.

However, I started YouTube because of other reasons. Before LPing, I wanted to make short video sketches and films with friends. This was majorly due to the fan-film “Legend of Link”. It was made by a group of college aged kids who just made all these costumes, a hilarious script and just went to work with a rather crappy camera. I remember sitting on my living room floor, stealing my neighbor’s WiFi to watch the movie on my newly purchased Nintendo Wii and laughing hysterically at the movie, I wanted to be like them and make other people laugh. I think it is amazing that I actually got to that point, so huge thank yous have to go out to anybody who even gave my videos a chance, I know not everyone can like everyone else, so anyone who is a fan is really special to me.

I want to thank MC Gamer for taking the time out of his day to answer a few of my questions. Let me know what you thought of the interview or if there are any other YouTube/Minecraft people you’d like to see me question! You can learn more about MC Gamer on his official website and go make sure you are subscribed to his YouTube channel!

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