Board game YouTube channel Game Night Picks (GNP) has released a video in response to what it calls "misinformed attacks" made by Watch It Played's Rodney Smith recently. Smith released a report on "unethical practice in board game media ad sales on February 6", claiming that GNP's use of a YouTube advertising feature was "fraudulent" towards the channel's sponsors. GNP owner Chaz Marler says in a video released on March 3 that Smith's report contained "incomplete information" that was "designed to cast doubt on the integrity of the channel and myself".
Smith's statement shares a timeline of GNP's ad activity, starting in early 2025, when "the owner of Game Night Picks adopted a 'per view' fee structure for ads sold on their channel". Smith then says that the channel began using YouTube's promoted advertising feature between November and December - a move that apparently saw GNP's average views per video jump from 3,000 to 36,000.
Smith also shares some screenshots of GNP's performance metrics, claiming that "while a video with more views would in theory also result in more people seeing the publisher's ad, the videos Game Night Picks released using 'YouTube Advertising' resulted in ~90% of the total viewers leaving the video within the first minute".
Smith reportedly raised concerns with the channel's owner about the ethics of maintaining a per view fee for ads in December. The owner (not named, but, given his coming forward with statements, presumably Marler) apparently told Smith "discounts had been issued to some publishers" whose ad featured on promoted videos. Not satisfied that this resolved his ethical quandaries, Smith ended Watch It Played's working relationship with GNP as a result.
Marler's response video (see above) confirms the rough timeline that Smith presents, listing similar dates that videos aired and that Smith approached the GNP team. He also confirms that the data presented is from GNP's private YouTube analytics, though Marler says these are "cherry-picked examples" that were shared "without my knowledge or consent".
According to Marler, these screenshots offer "a skewed perspective on how YouTube Promotions affects viewer retention". Marler shows some data screenshots of his own, claiming that other promoted videos had retention rates between 11% and 43%. He also claims that Smith's data "was shared specifically to damage my reputation with the public and the board game publishers I work with".
Marler also claims that Smith lacks owner access to the channel's analytics, so "my accuser never had access to Game Night Pick's actual promotions data". "That is a substantial lack of information to base one's accusations on," he adds.
Marler's video doesn't directly address the overall ethics of GNP's per view fee structure, but he does say that YouTube, and its parent company Google, consider traffic driven by its YouTube Promotions features legitimate. "YouTube Promotions do not allow a channel to directly purchase video views or subscribers", he says.
He also reiterates that "all the sponsorships that ran with YouTube Promotions received proactive discounts", and dissatisfied sponsors that requested their fee be waived had their request granted. Marler says these discounts were applied before Smith approached GNP to challenge the ethics of its ad structure.
Game Night Picks has temporarily paused production in the wake of Smith's accusations. "The claims are easily proven false," Marler claims, "but the conversation both online and offline that are a result of his actions have still inflicted a lot of damage on the Game Night Picks channel and the people who work on it".
Wargamer has reached out to Watch It Played for comment on Marler's statements. This story will be updated when we receive a response.
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