Breaking the fourth wall

Just to clarify, I'm absolutely fine with engaging the audience, and wouldn't consider addressing the viewer as offensive. I consider the fourth wall broken when you stop involving the viewer in your video, and start trying to rope them into your "subscribers goal" or something like that.

I never suggested engaging viewers was a bad thing, i just don't like when i'm trying to enjoy a video and suddenly i'm being aggressively marketed at without warning. I instantly feel the person cares more about 'popularity and financial success' than my enjoyment, and that feeling is the only problem i have with it.

I don't care that hollywood movies are made for teh soul purpose of taking my money, but they know better than to ask for donations during teh actual movie! :P
 
If you're doing a video, it's obvious you expect an audience of 1+, otherwise the video is pointless. I don't give any hard sell or sell at all to viewers, take the video as it is - if you want more, you know how YouTube works! ;)
 
Personally I ask that if they liked it to give it a like because a reminder isn't harmful & its at the end of the video so people can quite happily switch off then. I'd never ask for an amount, i wouldn't want too. Sometimes I remind people to subscribe if they haven't other times I leave my outro to the the talking :')
 
I am with TheBatteryChicken on this. There is nothing wrong with Calls to Action at the end of a video. But I don't want you putting ads of stuff you may be selling in the middle of the video. Wait till the end of the video to hawk your wares. I also agree with the OP that gaming videos till to be the best about not breaking the fourth wall.
 
As the consensus seems to be, I don't really mind fourth wall breaking if it's in an appropriate spot. And if the video is the person selling themselves and talking about things they care about and their life, then the meta-YouTube world is part of their life...

I dunno. I guess I just don't get too put off by it. I would be if I watched people who actively were like, "Oh hey guys, we're so close to achieving our subscriber goal for this month! Tell your friends about me! We can do it! Buy my merch!"
 
Yeah, I agree with the general theme here too. I find calls to action during the video a bit distracting, although I am guilty of the occasional "thumbs up for [something I mentioned]" note. I try to keep those at a minimum. I always do ask for likes, comments (ideally on a specific topic), and subscribes at the very end of the video, largely because all vloggers seem to do it. I am pretty sure it makes very little of a difference, but I guess it's a peer pressure thing for me! That's sort of sad, now that I think about it.
 
As a game review show (as well as movie and DVD reviews) we kinda... have to talk to the camera cause we're talking to YOU the viewers. The only time we kinda 'ignore the camera' is when we do skits that involve us talking to each other and such.
 
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