How ish created the Perfect Minecraft Civilization

I just love it when people notice what I do with music! haha great video sir 👍👍

In my opinion, the thing that makes Ish’s videos better than the others is the climax. Instead of forcing a war at the end that all players knew would happen, Ish allowed the players to do what they want, resulting in a much more organic climax and then a more emotional ending.

One of the greatest parts about Ish's videos are how the villains feel... natural.
Case in point, with the video you used as Ish's example, Elanuelo felt like a genuine character first, a villain second.
He had his own ideals as to how his kingdom should be handled, ideals viewers can somewhat resonate with. But its through equally genuine turns of events that you see Elanuelo's character begin to turn for the worse, & you see him begin to do increasingly unhinged things in order to protect his ideals, without him stopping to realize what he's doing for them.
In contrast, most "villains" in other people's civilizations videos stem from some form of 'Bwaah, I lost the election phase, so rather than respect that people don't like my leadership style, I'm gonna utterly derail our team's chances of winning for my own benefit." A lot of them boil down to "[Candidate Who Didn't Win X], teamed up with {Random Player Y], waltzed up to [Team Leader Z], assassinated them in broad daylight, & somehow the people just... accepted them as the new leader of their group." No suspicion, no repercussion, nothing. That feels way more scripted, especially when its been done to death by this point.

In my opinion it works the best because every player literally can make themselves the main character. You can lead a powerful nation or try to destroy one. Its great to be a part of.

I think one of the most incredible things Ish manages to do, which he first did in his Prison video and hasn't really done to the same extent since, is he uses god damn leitmotifs by use of the stems Epidemic Sounds provides you with use of specific sounds. In certain places during the prison video, certain melodies or instrumentals from specific songs are used to signal certain ideas or characters, such as the warden, and when the climax of those stories arise, he uses the full song which he took that stem from, which is absolutely insane. I don't think I've ever seen a youtuber soundtrack quite like that.

I think another key thing that not many people talk about is how ish balances player enjoyment during the event and quality of the outcome. Almost every other civ event owner forces players to go down the standard path like you said and ish doesnt. Sometimes its messy but ish does a good job picking and choosing what to include to make a good story as well as adding sometimes false details to make a messy plot more complete.

People hate this part of it but I actually love how symbolic it is.
Ish interferes with the plot sometimes(most notably the desert arc) to make a better plot. Thing is, the players can make their own videos of their experiences.
This is like with real life, where history is told by the Victors, where they make themselves seem like the good guys and in the complete right. Whereas someone on the losing side will be biased too, but they know what went on from their POV.
I just find that to be beautiful and bittersweet.

Since Minecraft itself doesn't have a set objective (unless if you count freeing the end) I also think its a wise choice by ish to not require players to complete any set tasks. It keeps the Minecraft's original charm while adding on his own spin to it.

I’d actually consider Igblons space civilization video as the perfect example that civ youtubers should take inspiration from.

I think another very important thing to note that makes ish simply better, is his way ability to structure his stories. If you watched some of his analysis streams you would know that some events were put out of order, and some lines/scenes were rerecorded or slightly altered. These slight changes make his videos way more interesting to watch, as it changes the feeling of a bunch of people play a game together to a well thought out movie. He is able to take events that happened in his experiment and turn them into a well written story.

I personally think that other civ videos aren't that bad (hell, I even like SpeedSilver's videos). It's just that Ish's amazing talent in storytelling and suspense is what make his videos stand out the rest, and it's something that everyone can agree on.

Ish is basically just a passive observer watching the world unfold. The fact he doesn't do anything special is what makes it so great, because it feels _real._ When I watch the videos, I see a lot of similarities with how things unfold in the real world. It's unpredictable and *_anything_* could happen next, to the point that it feels like I'm watching real history. Almost every other "experiment" just feels rigged and you can basically see how things would pan out from the start, but ish's are something I always look forward to because of how unique they end up being.

I was in a civilisation event and it lasted about an hour before a team learned that they could build over the barriers separating civilisations and killed everyone.

i always love how in Ish's videos the conflicts are caused by people being people and just trying to survive and fulfill their ideolgies. So much more entertaining and natural than the other ones who make forced conflicts that make it feel like its a Hypixel minigame on a large scale

Adding to this, although Ish's upload schedule certainly doesn't need to be as slow as it is, this does add to the experience of each upload.
Some Minecraft Civ creators churn out videos so quickly that their novelty wears off just as fast, raising the risk of audience burnout.
By contrast, Ish is pretty good at building a steady hype train for his videos, such that each upload becomes a MOMENTOUS occasion.

It was pretty annoying when I randomly got back into Minecraft and stumbled upon civilization videos, naturally MagicGum and Ish were the first that I was recommended as they were the most popular, but man trying to find good Civilization vids after that has been hard... Like the video says, it's always a gimmick and an objective that creates a predictable pattern in these videos, but I still think about Ish's Prison video and the moment when the guy jumped off.
Isn't it crazy? I hardly remember the context but that moment alone is burned into my memory because of how POWERFUL it was.

As a writer is easy to recognize how Ish uses the "show not tell" aspect masterfully

I'd say Ish's civilization simulation videos feel like... civilization simulation videos. As in, the focus is seeing how a mini-civilization would develop in a virtual world. Most civilization simulation videos, in contrast, feel more like a cheap reality show with all of the random challenges and quests

I laughed a little bit when you said that ish’s experiments will always be different because in state it was a running joke that season 2 was just season 1 with 1000 players because the snow island was tyrannical, plains island almost killed each other but missed that by a slim margin, 2 main desert factions, (basically) a civil war in the jungle island, everyone ended up ganging up on snow, and the snow leader fell from a high place. I just thought that was funny. Anyways, great video! I loved it a lot

I agree, ish did something I really respect, he actually simulated civilization. In all other videos it was last man standing, and constant war, but ish let it play out, there were times of peace, and small conflicts, and in the 1000 people one, it all lead up to a world war. The great aculon war wasn’t even force apon the players (unless it was scripted, but even then it would be great story writing) by some weird event the admins planned, but by natural cuases

Ish does it better in making a civilization video. I was in his 1000 MASSIVE civilization video and he did very amazing in creating a spectacular story of us playing in the event.

Great video man! Not only just looking into Ish and his style, but also music choices and the comparing and contrasting of other Civ YTers. A great video indeed. Keep it up mate!

I feel like a problem with a lot of civilizations is that the youtuber makes themselves the main character of the video, giving them screentime that they may not always deserve.

I genuinely cannot get over how cool and detailed your analysis skills are... they're unironically what I feel like English teachers are looking for in students LOL
The way you compared Silver's and Ish's storytelling, how Ish rises the tension in a more of a "show, don't tell" way is something I definitely feel like a lot of KRplus is missing nowadays... It's like to understand a story, people think we need to be spoon fed, but it isn't really the case, as apparent by how effective that one scene from Ish (which I've never even seen before) and how it literally had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen.
And THANK YOU for mentioning sound design... I believe it's the 1 most underrated aspect of a video
(just as a note, if you used any music that was Creative Commons, which I think I heard in the intro, you might want to credit the people who made it, if not necessarily the specific song, just cuz of future copyright claims ;))
Hats off to you man, I'm looking forward to what else you make :)

To this day I STILL get goosebumps from that final battle 9:07
I'm glad someone decided to show these civilation-tubers what a real "World War" looks like

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Edit: Sorry for shitting on the vending machine anime everyone

Glad that I've finally had this GEM of a video show up on my recommended! While Ish was editing his Season 2 video, I would be in a call with him sometimes due to him needing me to re-do a line for better audio quality. He would show me the parts he was working on. When I watched the scene of my death, with the cinematography, and music slowly dying out to leave just a slow heart beat..... wow. This guy's on another level. Happy to have worked with him/to work with him in the future! Great video Chunky :)

Editing is often taken for granted in KRplus videos.
But Ish's editing (I mean like, actually putting everything together, not just effects and transitions) is legit incredible to see in a KRplus video.
It feels professional somewhat, like a movie or documentary. The whole story is told In a cohesive yet completely different way that you would not see anywhere else.
It's like if youtube Minecraft challenges were sophisticated entertainment something that would be paid to see.
Maybe he has experiences on editing for shows or film or has an interest on it. Bc OUGHH it's so good

I agree with the story stuff, ish's video's are set up great, Magic Gum had a great idea, but Ish's storytelling put him above and beyond him. For the other youtubers however, i don't think just better storytelling would save their videos, nearly every single non ish and magic gum civilisation video i've watched seems pretty much just like a few groups duking it out until the end, and the only way to make it slightly more different and interesting is to change the scenario's environment so they have another video.
They completely lack any correlation to the word civilisation pretty much, Ish and Magic Gums videos have that, my only complaint regarding their videos is how they spread the players out so that they continue to be in smaller groups, rather then forcing them into smaller areas with less resources, so having a civilisation that works effectively becomes neccesary, albeit trying not to fall into the trap of directly telling the players what to do.
Good video 👍

I was in Ish's latest civilization event (the 1000 players, the one with Aculon) and it was great to play! We all did our own thing, Ish didn't tell us what to do, it was everyone's choice.
I joined Aculon in the beginning because there were some people in the Ish discord server talking about it and I was unvited; no one made me join

I remember that civilization video for season 2 started during last summer in like, 2022. I actually ended up joining the Aculon Empire then during the first few days but stopped participating bc of time constraints that I had to deal with. But honestly, the wait was absolutely entirely worth it - it took a whole /year/ for the video to finally come out, and it honestly deserves every view that it gets.

With other civ KRplusrs, it's clear that while there is some wiggle room, they want the participants to do the motions and run down the path they've laid out.
Ish gives everyone much more freedom, which leads to character who feel so much more real.

I remember watching ish's 1000 player civilization and I literally SOBBED at it, it was so well made it was actually amazing

Not a bad video, pretty solid comparison :o

i LOVED every players character arc. everyone was so spread out in every video and became so memorable! and when i see those player’s users in other ppls videos i can’t help but smile and think “omg it’s --!!”

I think IGBLON has the best 100 player video ever. Like no shity scripted events, no goofy ah variables just pure chaos and memes that overwhelm your brain every 5 seconds. IGBLON video is the only 100 player videi that I have rewatched since this trend has started.

Very debatable in many ways, but everyone has their preferences so it's impossible to argue lmao

The youtubers that have a bad upload schedule always make the best videos.

Quality video! I already can see that your channel will grow if you keep this up

i think the main thing that makes Ish's videos like what you said is that there's no competition it's all down to the players to make the choices

What’s cool about ish, is that he uses the story that is seen in the experiment, and then really makes you feel as if you were part of it, he also uses music to create this effect.

Something else that I think is worth mentioning about ish's videos is the quality of the cinematography. He uses SO MANY camera angles and dynamic viewpoints that transforms his videos from watching a Minecraft let's play recounting to watching a proper drama and story.
(For example, the jungle meeting with the trap floor. The frequent switching of perspectives makes the viewers feel stressed as dialogue escalates, while he still manages to get some a lot of fantastic angles of the sand trap, all of which happened in a few seconds of real-world time!)

Ish’s Minecraft civilization videos were my first introduction to the genre and it’s like eating the best cake in the world before having even tried cake before. I’ve since watched other Minecraft civilization challenges from a number of other content creators, and although they’re great in their own right, they do have a clear and discernible formula that takes away from the storytelling that Ish always nails in his own challenges (for the reasons you stated in the vid). Seriously, the way the man let’s players organically build their own stories and then weaves those stories into an epic, cinematic masterpiece with emotional beats and epic climaxes is on another level. Every challenge is well worth the wait

I think one of the best aspect of ish's videos is the players. They add the emotion and drama, they also adds the entertainment of the video. Ish is a genius.

I never realized the amount of detail that ish puts into the music selection. Great video, subscribed and can't wait to see the next one!

For me, i just loved the consideration they put into choosing the shots for the video. The small things like details in the background, choosing the right sequence and using symbolism or imagery to get an emotion across. What really hit me was the short scene of the couple who got married and officially honored by AFreakingTurkey, only for the wife to mourn over the husbands grave in the graveyard.

What I love about what makes his so unique and Investing compared to others is, it’s not about Winning, it’s about creating A Story, history, a civilization as the title is meant to be.
The way the story is told and shown makes it feel more like a Oscar Worthy Movie based on history instead of another Mr Beast challenge

I’ve never heard of this genre of Minecraft content before but just seeing you talk about it makes it seem so cool. I’ve been looking for civilization content for a little bit now not knowing what it was called but I think now I have the perfect KRplus channel to start watching :D

It's perfect with ish!
My notible things is that the goal isn't the script of the story but let the player decide the story how it ended

Atleast Ish's upload schedule isn't as messed up as MagicGum's.

Love this! You explained your points really well, in detail & this video has that high quality feeling. Keep it up!

As a history/government stuff buff i like how Ish doesnt take away the story by not explaining how the government is, or atleast what TYPE of government it is. Ive seen videos where nations are FORCED to elect someone and to me its like "Well what if someone wants to forge a dictatorship or something". This is a side effect of having no clear objective, the players decide there world. They arent in preset teams, they can divide themselves, kinda like how nations or cultures do. Also i for one hate the gimmick minecraft civ, to me its like 100 days where when u add gimmicks the video looses some of its original appeal. Magicgum and a few others handle it well by not making things too insane. Thats just ny opinion tho.

I think an important argument for ish is also the wording of his narration and the voice over in general.
Especially in comparison to SpeedSilver, one can notice the more dynamic and intersting tone of voice that ish uses, whereas SpeedSilver speaks so monotonous, that the suspension is additionally dampened.
And then also the wording. I have noticed, that in many civ videos, when a group for example comes up with a plan and you just listened in to their conversation, many narrators repeat the same exact information that was clear from the convo you just heard. Ish doesn't do that. Maybe from time to time there is a short summary, but usually it is only later on, as a reminder what that group was talking about before we switched to another group.
And overall the wording is precise and adding suspension, as shown in this vid here.

About Ish's narration and that example, he also mentioned the trap earlier for those paying close attention, and all the feet shots made you think about it more and more until you felt so satisfied you figured it out 0.02 seconds before the trap was pulled (My experience. Now hoping for a sequel)

ishs video make me cry on how they are so good, the prison event was the best video by ish so far

I personally don't care that much about civilization videos in Minecraft, I vaguely remember seeing like 2 of them and don't even remember whose it was or what it was about, but I still nonetheless really enjoyed this video because how well you managed to put out all your points (And of course the big words you used, using specific terminology in the right way is a surefire way to earn my respect at least). Ish does really seem like a good creator, even if I've never seen his videos, and especially the civilizations one.

The battle of The Iron Torch with Until the World ends playing in the background was in my opinion the greatest piece of Minecraft cinematography ever made

An amazing video! From the editing to the script, everything was so good!

Ish’s videos seem like an actual realistic version of how a civilization would grow and interact with

I always wanted to witness a truly dynamic civilization styled event in Minecraft where players had diplomacy and created their own kingdoms and story and Ish came in and delivered on that perfectly surprising everyone.
Just pure awesome narration *everything felt natural, nothing was forced or heavily scripted it really did feel like you were in that world as if it was real!* plus the music was definitely key with how well it was implemented. But bravo sir very well made video sure hope your channel gets more subscribers this is very underrated!

i have never heard of either of you before this video but this was a fascinating watch! the use of suspense and music is just a great way to tell a story, even if you weren't doing a civilization video.

I watched lot of civillization videos and i can say that Ish's videos were the best. There was something different in those videos. I think for me the most memorable moment from your videos was when desert nation's rebel leader jumped off the clock tower when his assasination attempt failed.

Ish's ability to create a narrative and detailed storytelling makes his videos feel like a tv series you'd watch over the weekend

I remember after watching all of ish's videos, i tried to find other civilization videos to watch, but every single other non-ish video made be bored and usually led me to click off the vid within the first minute. The high-quality presentation of his vids along with his storytelling and narration make it special. His prison video still remains my favourite minecraft video to date.

DAAANG the song being used twice to unconsciously make the viewer feel a certain familiar emotion is pretty DAMN close to into and across the spiderverse sound design and that is a HUGE compliment..that’s crazy

Great video! I loved the detail

Dude honestly I wish I saw this sooner damn my vacation lol but this is an amazing video you mentioned some amazing points about ish's videos and it's fun to see it. Ofc no hate to the other civ event hosts but the 1000 players event will always hold a dear place in my heart and there's a good reason for it lol Can't wait to see future videos! 👍

This is really accurate, and hopefully the creativity, what you said, does continue.

Ish and ShadowMech are hands down my favorite. Both do amazing with music, story, and cinematics period.

Minecraft Civ videos are a tightrope most content creators can't walk. From setting up the internal infrastructure to run an event that can handle ~1000 players while properly moderating and keeping track/recording the in-game roleplay/combat for a prolonged amount of time is nuts. While the videos will always do well, it's the sort of niche that has to be driven by passion rather than a monetary goal. Because the second a creator crosses the line is the same second player engagement becomes second to money.
I genuinely believe the Civ niche could utilize Objectives in a narrative focused way or benefit from a shorter time frame if done right. But as it stands, a lot of the other civ creators are more focused on pumping out glorified battle royales. One creator in particular (I forget whom) fully paywalled the chance of getting into his Civ experiments and it was such a put off for me.
Ish and a few others have nailed a really cool formula of videos that I'd love to see expanded on in the future, but it's a shame that it's such a game of chance when watching new civ videos on if they'll be enjoyable or not.
(If anyone actually reads this, save for Magicgum & Ish any recommendations?)

This video is Awesome! It points out the issues that I've even noticed myself with other civ vids. I recently recorded a rp civ vid (that I have yet to edit) that fits more of the criteria that you stated but there's a few things I did during it that I could definitely improve on my next one. However I whole-heartedly agree that doing civ events with players, letting them formulate their own story that you can work with as the creator to tell is the right way to go. Regardless, Genuinely going to save this vid for later!

Ish just has something about him that really gets me invested in the story. It’s like reading a really good book. It keeps you coming back for more.
Ive watched Ish’s civilization videos many times and yet I never get bored of it.
Ish truly knows how to captivate his audience.

To be fair I think the video by MagicGum “500 players colonize earth” has an interesting gimmick while also being mainly focused on story.

In all honesty, I only watch Ish's civ videos now, and this is why. Honestly some of the few youtube videos I would consider rewatching. Glad I'm not the only one who sees his quality!

Great data analysis, keep on going!

amazing video dude keep it up!

i think what contributed to ish's success is that the long wait between videos made his videos like a novelty of sort, not like sword or other creators which churn out civilization or 100 player videos every few or so weeks; plus all of his civilization videos are with pure vanilla, not with mods or anything, just plain survival with some changes with the map using world edit, which def made the experience not a absolute total culture shock

"They all happened on players terms, not on ish's terms"
Yeah.... about that.....

I just finished Ish’s newest video, gotta say 9/10 story, and I love the beginning of the peace then chaos at the end of his.

One thing that makes ish stand out that is he gives players freedom with no objective they have the freedom to do anything,all of the others go "Last team standing wins" it became so repetitive, i hope we see more content like ish's in the future.

6:50 to be fair, you always know the outcome of every fight because Silver always wins (or at least makes it to top 10) in all of his videos

amazing video love the comparison with anime I think its unique and good editing keep it up

Great video, keep up the good work!

amazing high quality video, i don't believe you have under 1k subs, you deserve more attention.

Something I've noticed is that ish's biggest civilization video feels similar to the Chinese story structure, 起承轉合 (qi cheng zhuan he), or beginning rise, gathering, turning crescendo, and wrapping-up. Combine this with the political intrigue and you basically just made the perfect story for me.

you deserve a lot more subscribers keep making content like this and you will blow up

Amazing video. Love the video essays on such a great creator!

ish's videos are just- amazing. They're so intense and it's amazing seeing what people can do by just playing in the same server for long enough. I cried while watching 1000 player civilization.

Bro called out sunnyv2 in 56 seconds of the video

what a chad! Great Analysis. Would be interested to see more of that stuff

Great video, another point that needs to be considered is that there is no admin intervention, no special event, or forced segregation of teams. It allows for a more organic video which, especially compared to the more scripted videos out there, makes Ishs videos more popular.

For the last part, its not only for Ish who must gets more creativity in the future, but its the people who were aspired to do civilization videos AND the old ones who fell off due to repetitiveness.

I LOVE Minecraft civilization videos, more people should definitely take ish's approach, or atleast an inspiration.

Great video! I think you are right on the money with most of what you said. You could've given more examples, but you got your point across. Hopefully civ YTers will improve.

I noticed when watching the battle of aculon that the first line of the song was one of the lines in wazzock’s final speech, making that line preface two important characters deaths , both characters being murderer bent on ruling the world

This was very informative ❤

Great underrated channel
Lets boost you to oblivion!
(I also loved ish's civilization videos)

The one i love Ish videos is he's a great story teller and made every happening in the game entertaining, also his editing in transitions, effects, music adds up and made the event dramatic

I remember Ish being one of the members of SSundee's faction back in the day

ive watched many civilization videos, but honestly i was only ever invested in ish's series, nice to see im not the only one