Hello and welcome to Adrianmcmastergaming.com My name is Adrian and I am 51 years old and live in a small town called Newcastle Under Lyme. Not to be confused with Newcastle Upon Tyne in the northeast of the United Kingdom. Newcastle Under Lyme is located in the North Midlands in North Staffordshire. You probably wondering what the website is about or why I mention the area where I am from. I mention it because when live streaming on YouTube people will ask where I am from who live in the United Kingdom and instantly think I am from Newcastle in the North East of the United Kingdom. We speak and sound very different with our dialect and accent. Our is called the Potteries dialect and accent and you can hear it being spoken on YouTube in a video called May un Mar Lady. Newcastle in the Northeast speak with a Geordie dialect and accent and you can read more about it on Wikipedia. The two images below show cartoons from May un Mar Lady that we have in our local newspaper called The Sentinel.
Now back to where I was with the website.
The website is more about my gaming hobby and other hobbies. I do like Photography and using WordPress websites like this one. I used to help people with fivem roleplay servers but stepped back from all of that due to how the fivem community has become. I am no longer interested in joining any fivem roleplay servers. I now just carry on with my other hobbies that I enjoy more. Learning and creating websites on Microsoft Expression Web was one of them before I started using WordPress. All of my websites run on my server using the Windows Server 2019 with Internet Information Services. The server is a Dell PowerEdge T140-MT and is powerful enough to do what I need it to do like running this website and all my other websites. It can be hard work at times to maintain and run websites. Once the websites are completed and I am happy with them they are backed up every day. The domain names are purchased from Godaddy and are redirected through Cloudflare which allows me to secure the websites using HTTPS and other services they offer all for free. I use the free package but there are premium packages for those who need them. My server also runs a private email exchange server that is used for the websites and that was difficult to set up. There is also an STMP service I use as well for all outgoing emails to be sent from my server so they do not end up in people’s junk or spam folders. Occasionally they do but that is easily resolved. If you to the About page on my Photography website you can find out how I started my photography hobby back in 1990 with a Haline Tele Flash 110 Film Camera.
I know some of you will be thinking you have not hidden the server name. The server is quite safe as long as certain ports remain closed and you do not expose your Public IP address to anyone like Hackers and DDoS attackers. I know the website information used to be easy to get hold of at one time from sites like Who Is. New E.U. Laws changed all of that so user data is protected. It can still be obtained in other areas like the Dark Web. Domain providers will charge a fortune to protect your data and for you to have an SSL Certificate. I get all of that with Cloudflare with the free package. It is also important when running a website to make sure the login pages are protected with a reCAPTCHA. To help stop bots trying to log in to your Website. I have a plugin that stops emulation from Malicious bots There is also a plugin to limit the amount of logins so if a person enters their details incorrectly after so many times they will be locked out for 12 hours and eventually blocked. I also use subdomains from Cloudflare and I run a WordPress Multisite. You can find out more about it on my AMGSites.co.uk website. There are also tutorials to help you learn all about WordPress.
Now for the how I got into gaming.
I got into modern gaming around 2015 but have played games on older computers like the Amstrad CPC 6128 I had back in 1990 and compared to the modern computer it felt like a steam engine. Then I had a Playstation 2 back in 2001. I even played games using my brother’s Atari 2600 back in the early 1980s. I am old enough to remember pong or ping pong as it was also known by some people back then. There was Space Invaders and a few other games I can vaguely remember. I remember seeing the Sega 8bit Master System that was released in 1987 and then the Sega Mega Drive in 1989. I remember them very well. There was no internet back then like we have now. There was a network for businesses and home use known as ARPANET and you can see that being used in a film called War Games which is based on a true story. The connection speeds would have been 56Kbps. Imagine that today trying to download a game from Steam. It would take a long time. The modern World Wide Web came along in 1993 and was only Dial Up so you were still limited with internet speeds and it cost 60 pence an hour or 1 pence a minute. Broadband ADSL started in 2000 in the U.K. and was much faster but not everyone could afford the monthly fees or had a telephone. Then in 2011 Fibre Optic connection came along and that revolutionized how we use the internet today with super fast downloads and upload speeds of 100 Mbps to 300 Mbps. Upload speeds of 20 Mbps to 40 Mbps meant we could start online gaming, live streams and much more. You could do online gaming with ADSL but would struggle with live streams with only 1000 Bps or 1 Mbps. Technology is changing all the time with virtual headsets for VR Gaming. The only problem with that technology is if you wear spectacles. There is not enough room and they will press on the spectacles and any person who has to wear them all the time knows what it feels like if they do not fit correctly. They will cause a lot of pressure around the nose and ears and it can be very uncomfortable and cause a lot of pain. There is the option to have specially prescribed lenses fitted in the VR headsets but it costs money to have prescribed lenses made. If the lenses inside the headset move they will alter the vision because the lenses bend light so the vision becomes undistorted. If you suffer from an eye condition I suffer with called Keratoconus then it makes things more complicated. You can look up the Keratoconus eye condition to learn and understand more about how it affects us. When wearing speticals You have to have an eye test every two years so it will soon add up with the cost of your main spectacles at £150 to £200 then another £150 or more just for VR lenses. If you like me you need spectacles for reading as well that will cost more money as well. One day technology will come along to allow people with spectacles to use VR headsets or there will be some other technology that is even better than a VR Headset.
What games do I play?
I am into Simulation games like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and Euro Truck Simulator 2. I have a few other Simulation games like car racing games like Forza Horizon 4 and Assetto Corsa. I also use the game Grand Theft Auto Five in single-player free roam only. I do not use GTA 5 online due to all the hackers who spoil it for everyone. It is not for me. I have sniper games like Sniper Elite 4 and Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2. I do occasionally use my Call of Duty® Modern Warfare® II game but that can be challenging. I also like to use city-building games like Anno 2205 which can be very challenging because whatever you do affects everything else. I do like to use Cities Skylines because that is good once you get the hang of it. I have Cities Skylines II but that was released with a lot of problems and is going to take some time to put right by the developers. I have used the game and it is lacking a lot of things Cities Skylines had and has performance problems. Hopefully, all of that will be put right in the future with more content added. I do talk about Cities Skylines II on my Reviews Page and you can read more about it on there. In my early days, I had a low-end computer that was not capable of running games because I had what I thought was a gaming computer. I did not know much about gaming computers then or how the games used utilised or the parts so would run a game it would run for a short time then crash with the Computer restarted. After a lot of research, I found out I had an underpowered Graphics Card and Processor. The Computer would become warm due to a lack of Fans inside the case. I also discovered the Power Supply was not quite enough to power everything. Once I bought a better Graphics card and Power Supply I learned the hard way. In 2016 After a lot of research and learning more about computers, I decided to build a computer that was a mid-range computer and did everything I needed it to do. I was able to run games on medium settings. Some games would run on high settings. Then in 2019, I decided to build another computer that cost more to build than the one I already had. The Computer would run most games on high and ultra settings except Flight Simulators. I could run most games on high settings when doing Live Streams on YouTube. Then in 2022, I thought to myself why not spend some money and build a proper gaming computer that will run any game using ultra setting of even flight simulators at high to ultra. It had Windows 10 Pro installed at first then I upgraded to Windows 11 Pro. The computer cost me £5200 to build and I still use the computer to the present day. You can see the computer below in the photographs. You can also see all of my recants computers on the Computer and Servers page. If you want to know what parts are inside of my computer and other equipment I have and use then head over to the System Setup Page.
Live Streams on YouTube
My first YouTube channel was McGistics and I used that name because I played Euro Truck Simulator 2 and had the name for my own Logistics Company. So used Mc from my Surname McMaster and Gistics for Logistics. The channel grew slowly and I had over 10000 subscribers and monetisation as well. I did not make much money it was less than £30. The channel had over 250 videos both live and recorded. Then one day I tried to do a live stream and my OBS software would not connect. I found out my channel had been deleted. I managed to regain access to my Google account and could see on the activity page that someone else had logged into my account. I contacted YouTube support who tried to help me get my channel and videos back. The bad news was they could get the channel back. But they could do nothing about the videos and subscribers. It took me three and a half years to get to where I was and I lost everything. I started the channel before all the restrictions came in with more than 1000 subscribers with 4000 public watch hours within 12 months to be monetized. You can imagine my frustration. I had a long rest from it all for three months then decided to start all over again. This time with a new name Adrianmcmastergaming. It was January 2020 when the channel was launched. I had all the security in place like the two-factor authentication to send a message to my phone or use a number from my authenticator app on my phone. The channel ran until April 2023. I was watching videos on my television on YouTube then I was suddenly logged out of my account. So I tried to log back in but was unable to. So I switched on my computer and tried to gain access to my Google account but I could not. I kept seeing password was wrong. I knew what the password was because I had it all written down in a book. Luckily for me I had backup codes and was able to log in to my account then I got a message about an email change. I thought to myself what the hell is going on? So I had to contact Google and YouTube Support who helped me regain access to my account after providing proof of my last email address and password with other details on the account.
Then a week later I had an email letting me know I could access my account again. I changed the email and password and stepped up security. Then I tried my YouTube channel and to my disbelief, my channel had been deleted again. I could not believe what had happened. 780 videos and 98000 subscribers gone. I contacted YouTube creator support this time who helped with everything but this time it took longer after being told I could get my videos and subscribers back only to find out three months later they could not get my videos and subscribers back. They could only get the channel back. I eventually got my channel back in June 2023 but no videos or subscribers. I had lost everything again. So I decided to take a rest for a few months and then go back to it all when I was ready. It was the first week of August 2023 when I was ready to start creating videos again and doing live streams. I had recorded three videos and edited them ready to upload them. I had a planned live stream for the second week of August 2023. I let everyone on my social media platforms know I was ready and the dates and times.
Then on the second week of August 2023, my mum was taken into hospital and I had to put everything on hold because she was very poorly with Pneumonia. My mum was my main priority because she is my mum and you only have one mum. She was age 70 and had Pneumonia the year before and recovered within a week and was out of the hospital. I visited her a few times but she was sedated and on life support. I held her hand and talked to her but not sure if she could hear me. Then on on August 22nd 2023 at 11 a.m. I had a phone call from my dad telling me we had to go to the hospital to speak to the doctor. I lived just across the road from my mum and dad so went in the car with my dad. We spoke to the doctor and were told my mum was deteriorating. We were told there was nothing more they could do to help her and that the antibiotics were not working. We were told the best thing to do was to let her go. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I and the family were by her bedside watching her slowly descend into the afterlife. It was a very sad day for us all and not one of us had a dry eye. My mum passed away at 3 o’clock on Tuesday 22nd of August 2023 age 70. We had her cremated at the local Crematorium and her ashes were scattered at the Crematorium where her mum and dad’s ashes were scattered. I still find it difficult to get over and come to terms with it to this day but every day gets a little bit better for me. She is very much missed by all the family. It’s the reason I have not done any live streams on YouTube since. I will start live streaming again when I feel the time is right for me. I do get asked when I will return. I cannot answer and give a time and date. It will be when I am ready. There might be the occasional live stream every now and again. I would like to thank everyone who showed me their support and helped me get through the difficult times.