PJ's 2017/2018 reflections and plans

Hey everybody!  I wanted to take a few moments to reflect back on 2017, as much as it sucked, and look ahead to 2018.  This might be a long post, but I'm not sure.  I apologize in advance, maybe!


tl;dr: 2017 sucked and was riddled with tech failure and negativity.  I accomplished far less than I wanted to and just felt awful for most of the year.  I'm hoping for far less of all of that in 2018.

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So, 2017 was really awful for me.  My new PC, which I was relying on for several events I had planned, arrived broken thanks to UPS's negligence.  It took them over 6 months (and a lawyer) to finally agree to the inspection and reimburse me for the cost of the PC.  During that entire stretch, I wasn't able to repair it in case they needed to inspect it, and I wasn't able to do anything I had planned.  This put me behind on my stream plans by over half a year, and really killed my mindset.

To make up for lost time, I went into super-focused mode on the Bionic Commando speedruns and it really hurt the atmosphere that I really like for my channel.  I was too negative and serious about my runs, and while the results for those runs were good, it was bad for my stream and my viewers.

I became aware of this and switched to other, more fun games again.  Things were good for about a month and then all my equipment started breaking.  The tech failures and negativity just kept spiraling out of control.  As of right now, my SNES can't be used with the OSSC, my CRT is failing, both my component splitter and switcher are dead, and my arcade setup is barely working...and that is after repairs.

In all, I just felt really unproductive in 2017, both in regards to my runs and my stream growth.  Of the 5-6 events I had planned to do, I did one of them.  While I'm really happy about where my stream is right now, and incredibly humbled by all the generosity that continues to keep me floating, I feel guilty about not doing more special things for my viewers.

For completion's sake, here is a list of the runs I improved/finished in 2017:

ActRaiser 2, difficulty 202: 1:09:28
Batman Forever any% (Robin): 40:15
Battletoads Arcade (Pimple, hardest settings, 1cc): 38:53
Battletoads Arcade (Rash, hardest settings, 1cc): 38:25
Bionic Commando Arcade (any%, hardest settings, 1cc): 5:43
Bionic Commando (NES, US) any%: 14:13
Bionic Commando (NES, J) any%: 14:50
Bionic Commando (GB) any%: 24:15
Bionic Commando: Elite Forces (girl) any%: 33:12
BCR any% (PC, no barrier skip): 19:27
BCR 100% (PC): 36:14
BCR2 any%: 54:34
Марио 4: 9:01
Solstice any%: 5:44

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So, what will change in 2018?  I want to make sure that the stream is enjoyable/fun above all else.  When I'm having fun I play better anyways, so good speedruns should just naturally follow.  I want to bring the atmosphere in my stream back to the one that people originally followed me for.  Besides that general goal, I have several other things I'm hoping to accomplish/work on:


-Get back into my gym routine and get in better shape.  I had a really good stretch going for a little over a month.  I was down 15 pounds and felt great.  Then everything started breaking and my gym time was replaced with "try to put out the fires" time, and stress eating/drinking were very real.  Hopefully the equipment situation calms down and I can get back into a routine.

-Get the website content finished and launch it finally.  There have been a LOT of problems here, but many of them have been resolved.

-More collaborations with friends and other streamers!  I had several of these lined up, and they all fell through due to tech difficulties and equipment issues.  Let's fix that next year.

-Soviet Saturday: The Return!  I still have about 22 new bootlegs to play through, with more possibly on the way in the future.

-Make comprehensive, well-organized, and easily-digestible tutorials for Bionic Commando and ActRaiser 2.  I'd really like to start pushing out some informative videos for some of my less-popular games to help people understand and appreciate them.

-Experience the Genesis library.  I have a flash cart now, and I've played a total of maybe 6 Genesis games.  I really want to play some more Genesis games and really see what is out there.  Maybe I can finally learn to appreciate this console (or at the very least, give it fair criticism instead of being unnecessarily harsh).

-Launch Teespring store with all the shirts and merchandise I've been planning on for the past few months.

-New speed projects: Dragon View (any%, any% Grand Memory Clobber, 100%), Brain Lord (any%, all dungeons), and Mega Man 3!  I'm particularly excited to work on Mega Man 3; I haven't run a game that had established competition like that, so it'll be fun to play a game without necessarily being obsessed with having the best time.

-Old speed projects: Bionic Commando NES (US any% sub-14, US 100% sub-21, J any% sub-13:30, J 100%), ActRaiser 2 (easy, hard, difficulty 202 improvements).  I love these games and am REALLY motivated to work on them right now.  I just need my equipment to work again and we're good to go.

-Stop being obsessed with stream metrics/growth and focus more on just creating a fun atmosphere for viewers.

-Stay positive!

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Sorry for the lengthy reflections, but this was a particularly rough year for me and I'm hopeful for better things in the future!

Thank you SO MUCH to everybody who continued to support me through all of my struggles in 2017!  I cannot thank you all enough.  I always feel like I don't deserve the generosity and the opportunity that has been granted to me, but this year in particular I felt particularly bad about it.  It means the world to me that I can continue to do this for a living, and it all thanks to you!  <3

Here's hoping for a fun and rewarding 2018!  ^_^