Welcome to the Bliz Blog
Hey. Been a hot second.
Welcome to my webbed sight. If you just want the TL;DR, use this footnote1 to jump to the final paragraph.
"Why do you have a website now?"
A couple reasons, but mostly because I want to write essays in text form rather than video form, as I’ve experimented with in the past, without having to host the essays somewhere else.2 Also, I want to write about TTRPGs (not exclusively, but a fair bit), and while there are a few good places on YouTube you can go to for that, really, the TTRPG discussion scene is blogs.3 I'd like to be a part of that, even if it's in a small way.
"Is that really what you’re going to call it?"
The Bliz Blog. The Blog of Bliz. Come on.
Welcome to the Bliz Blog, to the Bliz Blog
Welcome to the Bliz Blog, to the Bliz BLOG
"Does this mean you're quitting making video essays?"
Nah, I'm gonna keep making 'em. Not as much as in my hayday, but more than I have been.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed from the two years I went without posting, video essays have been occupying less and less of my brainspace lately. I’ve focused my creative output elsewhere, but I've also been finding my thoughts on media to be broad and uncomplicated nowadays; less "here's a thirty minute video on this specific character beat" and more "This movie was good/bad for what I feel are obvious reasons."4 This, coupled with life just getting busier, has led to a major drop in my output. The output of video essays specifically will remain slow. I’m just not as focused on them as I used to be.
If I was smart I would be moving on from videos entirely to focus on other things. Unfortunately for us both, I’m not.
I very much want to continue making videos, and luckily, I think the blog is going to help with that. A lot of my videos exist only as unfinished scripts that I decided weren’t worth the full video essay treatment. Now, if I write something but decide not to make a whole video out of it, I can turn it into a blog post and y’all will actually get to see it. Not to mention, though they’ll be fewer and further between, I think allowing myself to write shorter, crappier essays is gonna make it easier to actually put videos out. There's one that's been waiting around, almost finished, for like over a year that I'm excited to release (I’m gonna need everyone to tell me how proud of me they are for not scrapping it).
Here's a teaser for it, by the way:
I'd say "it makes sense in context," but that makes me sound too sane
And of course, you can bet there will be another RWBY video and another Spiderverse video if and when their next installments come out. In the meantime, if you like my video essays and are sick of having to wait for more of my words, join my mailing list, and I’ll let you know when I’ve got more to say, whether it’s about TTRPGs, anime, video games, or anything else.
"Is there even an audience for that?"
I…don’t know.
As a “YouTuber” I’ve always had a weird relationship with the idea of an audience. I started very young, and back then, I was thrilled just to publish something where everyone could see it in theory. Then people actually started showing up! It blew my mind!
Aside from a few detours, I’d like to think I didn’t stray too far from the path, continuing to make whatever I wanted instead of playing to the crowd or trying to harness the algorithm for growth. However, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t start to enjoy having followers. It’s gotten to the point that shouting into the void doesn't really hold the same appeal as it used to.
So now I'm in a weird spot. I have zero reason to believe that the people following me for my RWBY and Spiderverse stuff will be interested in my TTRPG writing. Or even in a written review of an anime, rather than a video one. I want to not care about that, to say that even one person following me is enough,5 but the desire for more dwells within me.
So I guess we’ll see how things go. I’m not relying on any of this for income, so I can do whatever I want. But if nobody’s here, actually reading the words I spend hours of my free time slaving over…I don’t know what I’ll do. Go back to making stuff for the potential of an audience, like when I was fourteen? Or just…scale it back? Slow down even more? Worry about life and larger scale projects? I want to work on larger scale projects anyway…I don’t know. I’ll figure it out. I’d love it if you were here with me while I do.
Okay enough navel gazing, what's the scoop"
TL;DR: In addition to video essays, I’m gonna write some essays as blog posts (instead of writing them as videos and then never making them). I’d love it if you were here to see them, so join my mailing list and/or follow me on social media to be notified whenever I post, and if you like what you see, share it! This is gonna be a lot of fun.
The TL;DR is the last paragraph, above.↩
So far, Medium has worked fine, but they've been making some enshittification noises, trying really hard to get me to pay them, and definitely stealing my data. Also every “popular” Medium post is about how some fuck is using AI to “enhance” their productivity, so…ehhhhh…I just wanted my own place. Welcome! Rest easy, for I would never steal your data.↩
If you’re not familiar, here are a few of my favorite TTRPG blog posts: Sam’s Three Question Taxonomy, Stop Measuring Movement, and the ICI Doctrine. Bonus round: a blog post I like that isn’t (necessarily) about TTRPGs.↩
How does one even write a critique of Everything Everywhere All at Once, aside from just pointing at it and shouting “Look at it! It’s a movie! The movie itself says what it is and does! It does this by being a movie!”↩
One person following me IS enough, make no mistake. It's just hard to think about that when I’ve had the experience of getting thousands of views before. But if you're here, I appreciate you. I hope I continue to provide you with valuable things.↩