by 
A new chapter for Patsy & Co.: What to expect!
Hello to all the loyal fans of our stories, videos and music! Thank you for being here and joining us on this exciting journey. The last few months have been really eventful since the emotional finale of the Alenwen series in the LOTRO universe. It’s high time to give you an honest yet enthusiastic insight into what’s been happening behind the scenes, how our adventures are progressing and what exciting plans we have for the future!
Patsy Wackelwitz: An evolution full of surprises!
We have launched a brand new season in The Elder Scrolls Online universe with Patsy Wackelwitz – and what a season it is! With her quirky and wonderfully humorous approach, she immediately won many hearts. My original vision was to create short, snappy clips of no more than 10-15 minutes that were simply fun and placed less emphasis on a deep story. But that’s the miracle of creativity: six months later, Patsy Wackelwitz has unexpectedly developed into a series with an increasingly in-depth story that already fills countless script pages and ultimately brings everything together into a big whole. And you know what? It’s fantastic! Sometimes things just go their own way, and that’s a good thing.
The art of balance: story meets pure fun!
I’ve noticed that our deeper stories don’t always get the reach we’d like for the tremendous effort. The Bragos pool party trailer serves as a prime example of this : A single day of production, and it has more views than any other video we’ve ever made! Yes, pure nonsense goes down really well, and that’s absolutely fine! But for me as a storyteller, it’s difficult in the long run to only produce superficial content. A rubbish video every now and then is wonderful, but my heart simply beats for a good story in the background.
The magic behind the scenes: Time, passion & lots of work!
You know, producing a single episode of Patsy Wackelwitz is a real mammoth project that takes us weeks and countless hours of passion! It starts with writing the gripping story, continues with composing the unique music (yes, I do that myself!) and recording the impressive scenes in the game. Then comes the careful selection of the appropriate emotes, the editing of the characters with AI for perfect lip-syncing and finally the management of the voice recordings. And what’s special: We voice the majority of the characters ourselves – with a lot of passion and only minimal voice changes to give each character an individual flavour.
All of this requires immense preparation and time. And then there are the breathtaking sets that we build in the game (our housing!) to create the perfect backdrop for our filming. Sure, it’s sometimes easier in an open environment, but you know how it is: as soon as you want to shoot quietly, a troll jumps through the frame and the take is gone! That’s one of the reasons why it sometimes takes a little longer for a new episode to arrive. And let’s not forget that we’re all hard-working in real life and put our precious free time into this project that’s close to our hearts. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but you’ve caught us – we’re just having so much fun!
Patsy Wackelwitz: The future is bright – together with you!
We want to stick to our vision and are always keen to hear your feedback! Your opinions help us enormously to understand what you like and what you don’t like. My aim is to find the perfect balance between an engaging story and our favourite nonsense. For example, the episode “Wobbly Jokes” had a lot of story content and unfortunately didn’t go down so well. That’s why we will try to bring this balance to a 50/50 ratio in the future to really inspire all of you who love our series and are looking forward to it.
I’ve been doing this since 2016 – and all without any financial intention. I’ve tried so many times to find ways to be more successful, to broaden the channel or to separate music and gaming content. But it turns out time and time again that if I produce something that doesn’t correspond one hundred per cent to our main topic, the subscriptions and view numbers unfortunately drop. Sometimes that’s really demotivating. I put my heart into a piece of music and think: “Wow, that touches me deeply!” – only to realise that hardly anyone but me is interested. That’s why we’ll be focussing more on our core topic again in future.
Mastering challenges: We stay tuned!
Yes, I’ve gained a lot of new subscribers through videos like Brago’s Pool Party – that’s true! But often these are specific players (e.g. LOTRO fans or English-speaking viewers) who may then have different expectations. I know that many of those 20 new subscribers could soon be gone again. And yes, 10 years of creating niche films may not be for the masses and probably never will be. Unfortunately, the support of major game publishers such as LOTRO and ESO is no longer available. And requests to other players or influencers often came to nothing. My dream was simply to fill our project with more reach and fun, to inspire people to join in and maybe even record roles. But requests were often ignored or dismissed as “boomer rubbish”. That’s okay, it doesn’t have to be, but this attempt has failed for the time being.
The costs are rising and it doesn’t pay off. We do it all as a pure hobby, without any financial background. But recognition for what we do is, as Mr von Bodeldung would say, soul gold. That’s worth more to us than anything else! I know that there are some out there that we make happy with our content and that really fills me with joy. I just wish there were more to keep the motivation high. When I see that the last episode of Patsy Wackelwitz only has 300 views, whereas the first one had over 1000, I realise how interest is slowly waning.
A creative break: we recharge our batteries!
What do I do now? How can we do even better? Yes, I realise that I’m going through a bit of a slump at the moment, but like every year, I’m coming out of it with renewed energy. I know myself well and I know that I’ll soon pluck up my courage again and carry on full of vigour, because the fun is still there! So please don’t worry.
There will be little to no new content in the coming weeks and months. I will be concentrating on finishing the new episode 5 of Patsy Wackelwitz. After that, however, we’ll take a well-deserved, longer break. I would like to write a few exciting articles and stories on our homepage during this time. Apart from that, we’re putting everything else on hold for the time being to gather new strength and lots of fresh ideas!
Your feedback is what drives us!
One last thought on this: Yes, I shouldn’t take it too much to heart, and that’s true. But as a creator who puts so much time, passion and love into every project, you simply thrive on feedback and recognition. And when you don’t get any, you realise when you’ve had enough and that it’s good to take a break. Every like and every comment under our videos is a huge support for us! Spread the word about our stories and adventures – because your enthusiasm is contagious and can inspire others to cheer along with Patsy & Co.
What do you think about all this? Let us know what’s important to you and what kind of content you’d like to see in the future! Do you have any ideas? Your feedback is our most valuable asset and helps us to develop further.
You can reach us here and also take part: https://www.facebook.com/groups/darkbatsfantasy
or write here below:
A little bonus for you!
As an exclusive thank you for your patience and interest in this long insight, we have a special surprise for you: Listen to a brand new soundtrack that will premiere in the next episode of Patsy Wackelwitz! We hope you like it!
