Creator Spotlight - Spammals

In our latest Creator Spotlight we have a pirate who’s seen not one, but two Shrouded Ghosts: the amazing Spammals! We asked him some questions about his Voyages across the seas so far, and what experiences those travels have brought him.

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[Q]: What was your introduction to the world of games?

[A]: My first experience with gaming was back in the ’90s with the legendary Nintendo Game Boy! After that I would go on to become something of a Nintendo kid, growing up with the SNES and later the N64. Throughout the years I played the majority of games developed by Rare: Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye, Blast Corps, Banjo-Kazooie, the list goes on and on. Little did I know that in the future I would be sailing the Sea of Thieves as a Partner! Truly a dream come true!

[Q]: How did you become part of the Sea of Thieves community?

[A]: When I started producing videos in Sea of Thieves I had already been doing YouTube for some years, and while I did have my own audience I found it hard to reach the SoT community. But I never stopped trying! Over time I made some great friends on the seas, most notably Heal Please Heal, Captain Falcore and KaidaWrath. We’d get up to such amazing adventures together and in my opinion these went on to be some of the best videos I’d ever make. I truly feel it was the power of our friendships, and the sheer amount of joy and fun we were having together, that finally made my videos reach the wider community. The rest is history!

[Q]: How did creating content become your ‘thing’?

[A]: I’ve always wanted to entertain people and for a long time I tried to do so with music. This was before the Internet was so widely available and before YouTube was even a thing! As the years passed by, the music industry changed and I became more dissatisfied with what I was doing. Alongside music I had always been a gamer, but none of my friends cared for the games I liked. I felt alone and wanted other people’s thoughts and opinions so I turned to YouTube and watched some people doing Let’s Plays. They instantly blew me away! Through their face cams I could see their reactions and through their commentary I could hear their thoughts about the game. As I sat there watching I thought to myself “I love this, I can totally do this!”

Using the audio skills I’d learned during my time in music, I dived in and gave it my all! Naturally my first videos were total trash but I always pushed myself to do better, to be better. Against the odds I was able to grow to a point where gaming became a job for me. To this day I continue to push myself, striving to be the best entertainer I can be.

[Q]: How do you decide what kind of content to create?

[A]: When it comes to creating videos for Sea of Thieves, my main goal is to simply have a great time. Anything beyond that is out of my control! You can leave dock thinking to yourself “Today, I’m going to do X” but in reality the sea doesn’t care what you want and will chuck the unexpected right in your face. This is what makes Sea of Thieves so unique and fun, you truly never know what is going to happen once you set sail. So long as you embrace the adventure you can truly have some amazing experiences, and hopefully an exciting video to go with it!

[Q]: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced while creating content?

[A]: From a content creation point of view the main challenge is how many hours go into creating a video. There’s no such thing as ‘quick’ on the Sea of Thieves! For example, a recent video I published (‘The Entire Server Came For Us’ with KaidaWrath) took eight hours to film and about a week to edit. We started the day simply wanting to do some Forts, but the seas had other plans and we had non-stop PvP the entire time. With so much going on it really was difficult to crawl through all the footage and present the content in a way that made sense, didn't break the flow and was enjoyable to watch. Ultimately, I was beyond happy with the final video and it made all the work worthwhile. Going forwards, my goal is to get more efficient and faster at editing Sea of Thieves content. Especially the thumbnails! I really struggle with them.

[Q]: What different channels do you have?

[A]: I've only ever had the one YouTube channel, and for the live streams I use Twitch.

[Q]: What’s been your most memorable Sea of Thieves moment so far?

[A]: My first year on the seas, I didn’t like PvP – however, as we headed towards the Anniversary Update, my desire grew. It was during the first Gold & Glory Weekend that I was on a Brigantine hunting around Wanderer’s Refuge when we spotted a Galleon crew digging on the island. We closed in for the kill, they dropped sails and a chase ensued. They were ahead of us across our starboard bow out of cannon range. We were hot on them for what felt like an eternity until the mistake was made. They turned to starboard, swinging just into range of our cannons.

Me and crewmate Axel fired out, landing directly ahead of them. We got a ladder on each side of the Galleon and boarded at the same time. On deck we saw more treasure than we had ever previously seen, all laid out ready for screenshots! The anchor went down and we started to wipe the crew, preventing them from repairing while our third crewmate Monkey fired ball after ball into their hull. This was the first heist I had even done and the first time I’d really survived for such a long time fighting on deck. I can still see it now, the ship sunk and falling into the abyss below, despawning and replaced by a starfield of sparkling light. The chests floating up to the surface, creating a field of gold. It was simply amazing! Nowadays we encounter more treasure and have more epic fights, but I will always remember how this felt to me at the time. Remember, it’s not about the gold, it’s about the glory!

[Q]: What do you enjoy most about the game now, and what are you looking forward to in future?

[A]: This might sound clichéd, but in all honesty the thing I enjoy most about the game is getting to spend time with my friends. Me and Falcore sail together religiously every Friday and always have so much fun, I also spend a lot of time with KaidaWrath and as you may know she’s completely crazy! Between them I get to play with my friends Axel and Eloise along with a number of other people. It’s the experiences we share together on the seas that mean so much to me. As for the future, I just look forward to making more friends and creating even more experiences.

[Q]: What’s something you’re particularly proud of accomplishing in gaming?

[A]: I’m not sure what stands out as my proudest accomplishment in gaming, but over the years there have been plenty of things I’ve been proud to take part in or contribute towards. One example was back when I joined forces with Captain Falcore, Heal Please Heal and RiceNPeaRoy to raise money for SpecialEffect. This was my first major charity drive and it was a massive success. It felt so amazing to be able to help people in need with the power of gaming.

[Q]: How did you come up with your channel name?

[A]: Long story told fast, I was in a band in the early ’90s that had a website forum. No-one talked there so I would post all the time to make it feel alive in case someone did come along. My name was Spam. Later, I started to play World of Warcraft but Spam was a banned name so I became SpamUK. However, people would call me Spa-muk which I didn’t like. One day a friend, being playful, called me a Spammals and it instantly stuck. From that day on I have been a Spammals!

[Q]: What advice would you give to a new content creator?

[A]: There’s a quote from the movie Field of Dreams I held close to my heart back at the very beginning: “If you build it, they will come”. To explain, I still remember a time when my videos would get 0 views but it never got me down. In my head, I had the mentality of commentating during the videos as if I was talking to the world even though in reality no-one was watching. In time, if I was lucky, people might find me, and when they did my older videos would be ready to entertain them. So long as you’re fuelled by passion, giving your everything to all that you do, people will notice it and hopefully support you going forwards.

Additionally, to quote Kurt Cobain: “I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I’m not”. Never feel you can’t be yourself, or feel you have to be like other people. Believe me when I say there are so many people out there looking for someone exactly like you. It might take some time for them to find you but when they do, and they see how honest and passionate you are, they will stay.

[Q]: What’s one thing you would advise a content creator not to do?

[A]: In all honesty I would really advise avoiding drama and conflict. By not bringing that negativity into your world I promise you’ll have a lot more fun, and so will your viewers!

[Q]: Could you give us one more random fact about yourself?

[A]: I have a major passion for history, especially nautical history. I used to work digitally archiving artifacts for museums across the world. I saw some amazing things in my time! I also have my own private collection of White Star Line memorabilia – they were the shipping line that owned the ill-fated Titanic.

That’s all for today’s Creator Spotlight. Thank you to Spammals for letting us delve into his life as both a creator and a Sea of Thieves fan! We’re off to look into those Shrouded Ghost claims…

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