When I was younger our school made us create bookstore passwords that all began with the first letter of our first name and first four letters of our last name. Since my name is Alec Pavlik my code was Apavl. Once online gaming became a thing I tried to make Apavl my username, but it was already taken. My grandpa once opened a Custard Stand called "Pav's", so with inspiration from both Pav's and my school's code, I became known as "Apav" on the internet.
As early as I can remember I always enjoyed video games. I grew up on the PS2 and developed a natural love with action adventure games (mostly platforms). Most of the things that kept me hooked on a game was the story and unlock-able items. While the Jak and Daxter series is my favorite gaming series, Sly Cooper 3 is a perfect example of what I like in video games. Continuing story, solid gameplay and plenty of things to unlock throughout the game. I remember at 7 years old telling my cousin we should open a business where we beat games for people. It was a silly dream, however that's pretty much what gamers started doing on YouTube.
When going through the stress of bullies and homework in 6th grade, I had believed God had given me video games to keep me motivated. I would work really hard each day to just get a chance at playing the PS3 I had purchased the previous summer. As weird as this may sound, in 6th grade I believed I was being bullied for not owning an Xbox 360. Everyone at my school played Xbox, and for some odd reason I felt like all the hatred towards me was simply because all the popular kids were on Xbox Live. So until my friend Nick purchased a PS3, I played games like Medal of Honor Airborne, InFamous, MAG and Battlefield Bad Company alone whenever I wasn't doing homework.
Going back into the past, ever since 2007 I made home movies on my family’s camcorder. Making action movies had always interested me (even though I didn't like watching action movies myself). Luckily my parents didn't let me on social media until 2011, otherwise who knows how many of those embarrassing elementary videos would be on the internet by now.
Oddly enough starting YouTube originally had nothing to do with games. Actually, it had nothing to do with videos. I had heard you could download YouTube videos if you had a YouTube account... I was wrong of course, but I kept the account for awhile and my parents finally let me upload to it. They monitored my content for awhile. Most of it was just action videos because I believed I could become the next Freddiew. After the first few uploads I realized that was a ridiculous idea and just started uploading for fun. Some of my online friends had started doing gaming commentary over Call of Duty, but I didn't have a PVR and didn't like the idea of non-live commentary.
Over the next couple years I got into doing Playthroughs, and my parents even got me a PVR for Christmas. That's when I dedicated most my time to uploading 4 videos a week and doing multiple series with my cousin. As time went on I had to slow down, especially since I started spending more time on the editing portion of my videos. Not much has changed since then, however I've wanted to do more for the gaming community. There's plenty of people making gaming content on YouTube, but I always wanted to help people. That's why I had started the "First Looks" series, which showed people new games within the first day they had been released. "Oldish Game Reviews" and "Apav Tries" are also attempts at helping gamers learn about games before purchasing them. In 2016 I decided I wanted to reboot the channel, and really give the channel an image. I started reorganizing my social media and decided to change the username "Apav5" to "Apav." While I don't believe I'll ever make much money off of YouTube (at least while Google continues to completely ignore customer feedback), I do look forward to sharing gaming experiences and possibly introducing more people into the hobby, sport, community and art of gaming. I hope y'all have a laugh and maybe learn a bit. Thanks for watchin'!
