Podbean occasionally sends out these milestone awards and I have to admit, I do crave the adrenaline hit. Like any other high, as soon as it's over, you're really just thinking about the next, bigger one. I have really been thinking lately about whether or not to share these 'celebrations' on social media. I think here, on this blog, it's appropriate, but I am not too sure about Twitter and Insta (I did post this on Insta, but I felt kinda funny about doing it).
There's psych experiment about unequal pay that explains my hesitation. Here's the summary: 2 monkeys are paid the same pay for a little task. Cucumber slices for passing stones through cage bars to experimenters. Monkeys like cucumbers and both are observably happy with this arrangement.
Next, one monkey is paid cucumber slices and the other is paid grapes for the same task. Monkeys like cucumber slices but they LOVE grapes. Here's what happens. The grape monkey is over the moon happy. The cucumber monkey observes this and suddenly, where he was happy before, he is furious and miserable. He throws his cucumber at the researcher.
This experiment gives a lot of insight into happiness in general - forget unequal pay. It's a huge eye opener. It also explains why I am not so sure about publishing numbers too often. If other people see it, will they suddenly feel bad about their show if it is not doing as well as mine? I recently saw a podcaster post that they got 55K downloads in a year. 55K!!! Holy cucumbers, that's a lot. I'm thrilled with 10K. If I got 20K in my first year I would be in heaven. Knowing that this other show got 55K though... well it does make me feel kind of shit. I think I'd rather not know. Maybe going forward I should NOT post my results. Podcasting is a narcissistic endeavor - that's pretty hard to argue with - so I think we all want to have a big listenership. I dunno. I should just say 'Thanks for listening" and stop overthinking. Comment below with your thoughts: I'd love to hear from ya.
Congratulations Jon, Megumi and I are proud to see you come this far! You worked hard for this, and we're looking forward to many more episodes!
ReplyDeleteThanks to you both! I appreciate your friendship and support, guys.
ReplyDeleteThanks to you both! I appreciate your friendship and support, guys.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, man!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Angry-P!
ReplyDeleteHmm. Upon re-reading this, I see you were soliciting comments, and I completely ignored that to wish you sincere congratulations.
ReplyDeleteSince you asked (you did, it's right up there), here are my thoughts.
First: 10,000 downloads is awesome. At the risk of sounding pedantic, that means enough people like your stuff enough to download it a total of 10,000 times. That's pretty spectacular.
Second, how many of those people are people like me who come back for more? I'm betting it's a lot, which means we like what you're doing and want to hear more. I've said before that I think you really tapped into something special and unique. As far as I know, no one is doing what you're doing; i.e. dice-based storytelling. Sure, there are plenty of actual play podcasts out there (I listen to a lot of them), but yours is pretty unique in its mechanic.
Most important: it's really good. Just because someone has a good idea doesn't mean they can execute it well. You do.
The downloads will come as word spreads, and based on what you've done so far, continues to spread. You're a talented storyteller.
For me, your podcast a fun story coupled with some pretty nice nostalgia vibes. I can't remember the last time a fire beetle or a rock python made an appearance in any game I've been in, but I can sure remember them from basic D&D. Your combats really drive home the precarious existence of low-level PCs in an unforgiving system. It's great.
So keep doing what you're doing, and don't sweat it. 10,000 is a pretty nice number, and it's only uphill from there.
Thanks Angry - those are some pretty kind words you said! Just one thing buggin' me though... since I'm going for that nostalgic vibe, how in heck am I gonna get a shrieker into the story without blowing people's dang eardrums?
DeleteI’m waiting for the Tarantella Spider or the Living Statue, myself...
ReplyDelete