“[There are] content creators [who] play a game
for thirty minutes, and that’s what they upload. They
don’t do anything with it and they’ll get ten times
more views than we will, but we put a ton of work into
[ours]. I almost equate it to like decorating a birthday
cake for a dog sometimes. We almost overwork it, but
at the end of the day you have a really good product...
even though the dog is just gonna eat it!”
Schnur is quick to emphasize he’s not “dissing”
other gaming channels and respects what they’re
able to do. For Neebs Gaming, however, this is what
works for them. It’s also is a major factor in how they
choose the games to build content around.
“We don’t go with what’s popular,” he adds when
asked about how the group picks titles. “We just
keep an eye out for open-world games. Games where
you can build, or you can manipulate the world, or
just have fun. If we can [make] a
narrative while also having fun,
then you’re going to get something
good out of us.”
Open world games like ARK:
Survival Evolved, Conan Exiles,
and even Minecraft form the brunt
of their content. They’ve dabbled
in more linear games before,
however, “God of War is a good ex-
ample. It’s an amazing game that
had such a fantastic story, score,
everything was perfect about that
game. And we just played it...It’s
like a ‘Let’s Play.’
“[Those videos] do fine but it’s
not the content we like to sink our
teeth into, because we can’t con-
trol a lot of it. Once we can control
things (camera, story) then we’re
like kids in a candy store.”
Regardless of the game, Schnur
and the team know their own per-
sonalities are what keeps viewers
tuned in. As such, they don’t change
characters depending on the
game they’re playing. “We’ve been
working together for so long, our
personalities—I guess the charac-
ters’ personalities—which are just
very heightened versions of us as
real people, interact the same way.
We argue the same way and we do
things wrong the same way.”MAKING IT WORK
When discussing the logistics of
crafting videos, the process isn’t
dissimilar from making any other
kind of video content. “It’s funny
because people think that it’s
scripted, but it’s just us improv-ing
the situations and reacting....We’re
not that good at playing theseNEEBS GAMING
COMEDY, COMMUNITY AND SURVIVAL
Some of Neebs Gaming’s best storylines come from
ARK: Survival Evolved. How could dinosaur wran-
gling not be entertaining?