Destiny Community: True Vanguard

I’ve previously featured the YouTuber known as TrueVanguard in my Destiny Community: Dads Got Game article. At the time, TV was already producing videos for his channel and began to gain traction among the Destiny community. Since that time, he’s aligned himself with a new clan, RESOLUTE, while maintaining his presence with the Dads of Destiny.

The move has allowed him to network with other YouTube channel hosts as well as a multitude of content distributors and developers. While TV isn’t quite ready to quit his day job, he’s at a very interesting juncture in his gaming “career”.

It’s a fascinating place to occupy as nearly everyone has access to a lot of the same tools, yet stumble to even get started. TV was kind enough to answer a few of my questions about where he’s been successful, how’s he’s approached certain opportunities, and some advice for those who wish to climb the ranks of distributing video game content.

Q: At what point did you decide to become more than just a casual gamer?

That’s a great question, I think it wasn’t necessarily a moment of clarity (or lack thereof) when it happened. I’ve always found myself being proactive about gaming, not prioritizing it over family or faith but intentionally creating time and space in my life for it. A big part of it was the social dynamics that accompany gaming.

Shooting players is more fun when you’re doing it with or against friends or friends in the making. I think I came to the point where I realized I might be able to do this and have some good come out of it about three years ago. I was playing Battlefield, CoD, and Halo: Reach and, without sounding vain, found myself topping leaderboards and dishing out advice to friends and random gamers who contacted me after matches.

The only real barrier was that in order to gain exposure you needed to invest a good amount of time and money into acquiring a legitimate capture card, video editing software, and other electronic devices that improve video and audio quality. I work for a non-profit so disposable income isn’t something I have oozing out of my ears. Luckily, next-gen console technology simplified the process, and access to some hardware at work made it possible for me to start recording, editing, and uploading quality videos.

Q: What were some of the initial steps that you took to start getting your name out there?

Sure, exposure is key to growth, undoubtedly. I’ve found that networking is the biggest thing. So number one, I found a gaming community to call home. That was Dads of Destiny. You’ve got to grow into a big fish in a little pond before you can start thinking of being any size of fish in big pond. So I found myself a small pond and started making a presence there.

Second thing I did was find the avenues where information was exchanged for the game I was creating content for: Destiny. That meant having a presence on the Bungie.net forums, Reddit, and Twitter. The last thing, and this was a big part, was getting the attention of community leaders known for their connections.

So I hooked up, after much persistence, with DoD admins, Bungie employees, and major YouTubers and streamers in the Destiny community. Having all those things work together for me put me in a rather strategic position to start promoting my gaming content without being that tool on the forums saying, “LOOK AT MY AWESOME VIDEO AND GIT GUD!”

Now I game consistently with people in a gaming clan/community called RESOLUTE, a group known for hosting major community influencers. Also, just a side note, I found it very helpful NOT to monetize videos until I had a YouTube network to call home. No one wants to watch a video from someone with 100 subscribers if they have to watch an advertisement first. And monetizing at that level with get you maybe $5/month at the expense of losing potential subs.

Q: Looking back, is there anything you wish you did or didn’t do?

I wish I had started earlier. A lot of the major YouTubers, Podcasters, news outlets, and streamers started covering Destiny content well before launch. I had to fight an uphill battle since I started putting out content a couple months after launch.

Q: How have you managed to differentiate yourself in a community that has more access to streaming than ever before?

That’s a great question. Doing a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis isn’t a bad idea, honestly. First you need to know what you’re good at and what you’re not good at and how that fits in with the needs of the community. So I identified my strength in the PvP arena, my ability to clearly talk about game dynamics, mechanics, and specific weapon strengths and weaknesses. And I also noted a lack of informative PvP content for Destiny.

A lot of YouTubers were opening packages and decrypting engrams and showing speed or solo runs of raids. But not a lot of people were taking several hours investing in a specific weapon until it was maxed out and then sharing their impressions in a clear and logical way, while also showing gameplay that reinforced their opinions. I didn’t want to be a gimmick guy or someone that posted easy content daily in order to get views. I wanted to make sure that everything I published on YouTube was something I would be proud stamping my name onto.

That meant gathering hours upon hours of gameplay, sifting through it, and prioritizing the content that best demonstrated the things I wanted to communicate. So my niche was quality PvP content that wasn’t just entertaining, but also highly informative. I wanted people to be better Crucible players having watched my videos. And people seemed to respond well to that, and still are. It’s been loads of fun. I don’t want to be a jack of all trades, but I would rather excel at one thing and become one of the most reliable sources for that one thing out there.

I’ve also tried to create interesting series that other content creators aren’t doing. That’s how I came up with the “One Man’s Trash” series. Most content creators out there are grinding their butts off for the rarest guns in the game. I figured maybe I could do something weird and kick some butt in the Crucible with blue weapons that everyone scraps along the way on their journey for shiny exotic gear.

The funny thing was that of all my videos, the One Man’s Trash series was the series that caught the attention of Bungie employees who posted links to those videos on their personal Twitter accounts. I had to laugh, because I was expecting if anything they would take note of my videos with more views like the exotic weapon and armor builds.

Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to take gaming more seriously?

First of all, find out if you have anything to contribute to the gaming community. What are your strengths? Do a SWOT analysis and figure out where your strengths lie and what you’re proficient at. You don’t even have to be amazing at the game as long as what you’re offering isn’t pro advice.

Mr. Fruit has one of the largest YouTube channels out there and he just makes people laugh. Maybe your strength is covering lore like Byf. Or maybe you’re good at communicating information rather than gameplay. You could rely on being a source of breaking news for the game, Destiny or otherwise. Then I would say go ahead and get active in the community for whatever game you’re interested in creating content for.

If you have under 500 subscribers on YouTube, don’t monetize. If you’re a streamer, try to get picked up by a network and sponsored. And lastly, start networking. Don’t be pushy, but respectfully insert yourself in the right social circles. Find the people who are the glue in the community and rub shoulders with them. They’ll start connecting you with some influential people, and that’s a good thing.