The quality of YouTube content for TTRPG is quite bad.
I don't approve of the whole 'fixed that for you' thing, but doesn't this sentence work fine without "for TTRPG?"
It's not just D&D YouTubers complaining about the platform's algorithm changes. I'm inclined to think that there's something to the algorithm complaint and that's why the clickbaitiness has increased even for channels with generally decent, level-headed information.
This used to annoy me until Professor DM did a great rebuttal video, walking through details on how Youtube algorithms force click-bait titles/thumbnails if you want your videos to show up in peoples' feeds. Watching that video made me angry but not at him.
I respect the player even though I hate the game he's playing. If you give him a pass on using clickbait titles and mouth-agape video thumbnails as part of "what it takes to survive on Youtube", then his actual video content will generally be reasonable and nuanced.
For me, the thing is: the excuse doesn't matter.
There was a non-gaming YouTube channel (Professor of Rock, in case anyone cares) that I used to love. He took an artist, album, or song and did actual deep-dive historical context analysis for it (and often a more amateur but still engaging technical analysis). I guess it was popular enough (or the guy bold and charming enough) that he sometimes even got the musicians to do interviews with him. It was great.
Then, the algorithm changed, and he changed with it. All the episodes started being the same length (regardless of the amount of content he had prepared). What song was being discussed started to end up being revealed after the first cutaway commercial. Intro thumbnails started being a bunch of explosive all-caps text. Video titles started being things like "It Became ILLEGAL not to ROCK-OUT to This SONG!
I understand the reasons. He stated outright in the comments section that he was adapting to the YT algorithm, and that if he didn't, he couldn't continue to do this as his full-time job, and put all the research time and effort he did into the subject matter. None of that changes that his modern incarnation is, to me, positively unwatchable.
YouTube seems to be actively trying to accelerate its own enshittification*. The decision to stick with the YT format when it is actively moving the profitable strategy to the lowest common denominator is a choice. One does not need to do so.
*real term, mods, not trying to get around swear filters
Does it stink that one might have to change platforms to continue to provide content worth viewing? Yes. Does it suck to have to keep fighting (harder and harder as time goes on, as you get older and tired-er) just to keep even? Yes, but there I'm talking about life in general, not being a content-creator. We all know change is inevitable. I've had to change whole careers multiple times in my life.
More to the point, if I (the proverbial YT content creator) choose not to change platforms and instead trend towards the YT lowest common denominator, my audience is under no obligation to follow me down that road. Most of us have rich tapestries of interests and more things we want to do than we have time and energy to do them. The only reason we chose TTRPG commentary YT videos in the first place was the reward/effort ratio was higher than other options. If that metric changes, I for one am very quick to remember that I have a long list of books on my nightstand, and all the good excuses the content creators have for why they are doing what they are doing do not play into that decision.
