Youtube Lurkers: what do you want?

[ilDuderoni]

Seeing as we're in the PC gaming section, you can assume I am heading in the gaming direction.

Maybe I should start from the beginning.

 

Without revealing too much about my personal life, you may assume that the past year I have spent most of my daytime watching Youtube. I can deny now however that it's because of unemployment.

 

Initially, I started following the Let's Player "Northernlion". Who became notorious for Showcasing and playing primarily Indy Games. I liked what he did so I subscribed, enjoyed his content. Some lengthy timespan later, and soon enough I was following both "Criken2" and "TotalHalibut" as my main sources of Youtube Gaming goodness. (amongst others)

Inevitably, I became inspired myself.

 

At the same time, Steam became more and more of a considerable source of games. Anyone who's on Steam will know about their crazy sales. Reasons behind this is irrelevant to this topic.

Having finally come to trust Paypal somewhat, I've been spending vast sums of money buying games on Steam.

 

Do the math

Lots of games + inspired by Youtube gaming channels = "Ingenious" idea?

 

I turned somewhat impulsive at that point, as I have been unconsciously gathering the tools a Let's Player would require. Literaly.

Headset with a decent microphone, Fraps, even the Roxio Gamecap system to let me send video footage from xBox to PC. I've yet to look for a proper editing program but the topic on SomethingAwful has been a great help and my guide on good software.

 

 

So here I am. In total, I have made 6 experimental vids of 3 games.

• First game made me realize that, despite my proper grasp of the english language in writing, my accent is simply atrocious. And not "Robbaz" funny, either.
  I'm Flemish, that's Belgium. Our poor Engrish accent is just not funny in my eyes/ears.
  Yes, it was quite confronting. Especially when you've spent months listening to the well versed TotalHalibut. (the man's a genius, just putting that out there)
  
• Second one was mainly testing with Steam Voice talk, whereas the first one was me getting accustomed to Fraps itself.
  
• Third one was in Dutch, and my friend said after watching it that I am apparantly not fit to do Let's Playing in the style of Northernlion, and suggested I pursued it in the direction like Criken2. A fair point.

 

So, I have all these games, I have pretty much the required equipment to make Youtube content of reasonable quality (visually at least...).

Personally, I am not sure. And therefor I am turning to you.

 

 

Let's face it. Let's Playing is abundant on Youtube, and I am simply not sure anymore what content the gaming community wants. I know half the challenge is to find out what suits one best, but I believe a push in the back could send me in the right direction.

 

So here's the question: What would YOU like to see more of on Youtube? What style of Gaming vids would you enjoy having more of?

Think I should just stick with my horrible English accent and find out if YOU find it funny? (I wouldn't mind the humiliation. I'm taking that one for the team. Team Comedy)

What is it that you would find worthwhile to watch?

 

On a bottom note. I won't promise I will take these ideas in their literal sense. I am turning to you, the community, to help me gain inspiration.

If you think I'm a lazy bum to ask someone else to do something for me, consider your opinion well noted beforehand and move along silently. Thank you.

Ideas that in some way involve the Nexus are welcome too. I, quite frankly, have no idea what such an idea would be. But then again, I've been suffering a burn-out for a few weeks now. (personal life related)

 

I simply want to make something useful out of my vast collection, really. Something other people can enjoy.

[Vagrant0]

Generally the best Let's Play series that I've seen are ones which have all of the following to a reasonable degree:

 

* The person playing genuinely enjoys what they are playing

 

* The person playing is of reasonably adept skill at the game but is still getting better as they go

 

* The person playing occasionally explains what they are doing, what techniques they're using, and what their thoughts are while playing.

 

* Makes good use of video time (cutting out things that viewers have already seen a few times)

- If you're standing there staring at an inventory for more than 20 seconds, it's probably a good idea to get to something new or meaningful or just cutting the video until you're done.

- If you're running around a town, or base just preparing supplies it can really drag on over time as this usually involves sorting inventories, talking to the same NPCs repeatedly, organizing, double checking, and 40 minutes later you're ready to do something but the episode ended 10 minutes ago.

- If you're going back over areas that you've already been that don't have anything new present, there isn't much being missed in cutting.

- Just be sure to start recording as soon as something happens, or record it all and just cut out or fast forward through repetitious parts.

- DO NOT use these periods as a time to slip in cheats, glitches, or other trickery. If you changed equipment around, got anything new, ect you should mention how/why as soon as you start up again.

 

* Keeps a good running commentary or consistent discussion while playing, or playing with friends to make things more fun and make jokes. Nothing is worse than dead-air or only the sound of breathing/clicking.

[dthumb]

Would it be weird if I said the most enjoyable 'Lets Play' series for me is the exact opposite of what Vagrant0 is looking for?

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBThUMHK948

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVFHQsWPMhU

 

 

Sure I look for well edited, good commentary vids when looking for a new game to buy. But gems like those mentioned above are the most memorable IMO.

[hoofhearted4]

i agree with Vagrent. i watch a lot of Walkthrough via GameFrontDotCom on YouTube. however they are more accurately described as play throughs, as i see a walk through holding my hand telling me where to go etc. while they do have videos showing how to get this and that, their actual walk throughs are them playing the game without going online and reading what to do (unless a commenter tells them and they read it) and as such are more like play throughs and could be compared to a Lets Play series. they often play together (there are 3 of them) when there is multiplayer or something (such as MineCraft and Diablo 3 and many other things) or just all sit and talk to you (the viewer) as one person plays. they all get along great, and since they often talk to viewers and play with viewers and stuff live, when they talk, you feel like they are talking with you, sitting with them, plus they use a webcam sometimes, so you see them as they play, giving you a sense of presence. they do many things Vagrant describe such as FF through slow parts, when they are running or something. often skipping inventory time and whatnot. the funniest part is when they FF, the voices and stuff go into "chipmunk mode" so even when your watching 5 or more minutes (and a couple times a full video upon request) of video in FF chipmunk mode, its actually very funny. you still hear what they are saying, and still the sound effects of the game, but in the voice of Alvin, and its actually quite entertaining in itself :P

 

an actual Lets Play i watched was for MineCraft by someone named Aethyal. someone who was good at it, but was playing a day per episode, which was roughly 10-15 minutes, with the occasional 2 day (30 minute) episode upon request from viewers. this was before i was into MC, so it was great to see him play day by day. learn as he went. see things progress (he was building a rather large house for the majority) seeing him explore. all great stuff. unfortunately he stopped it a little after 40 days or so i think, because of personal/free time in real life becoming sparse.

Edited June 16, 2012 by hoofhearted4

[ilDuderoni]

Wow, these tips are great!

 

Indeed, I once made a Let's Play of QUBE and actually was not enjoying it. It didn't get any popularity whatsoever at all, even if it was just a tryout.

The way I enjoy my games the most (that is, if I have to speak) is to be completely ridiculous about it. I was once voicing while playing Amnesia, and though my friend isn't one to audibly laugh, I got the idea he was starting to lose it too from hilarity. Sadly, this was all done in dutch. I have very low esteem of my English speech skills.

 

If I don't speak, I resort to doing more ridiculous things. We all know how much we like to let Adam Jensen punch someone after they've offended him. I wouldn't do that literally, but you get the idea. If I make my vids sketch-ey, I will absolutely do some cutting.

I've also noticed that, if I am in a chatty mood befitting a Let's Play, I can only keep that up for about three hours maximum.

 

I think I've made somewhat of a temporary decision now. I still have Dead Space 1 and 2 untouched by my hands. Preserved just for putting something of them on Youtube. I will try to put it in English (I assume nowadays every kind of cussing is internationally understandable anyways...) and most definitely put some sort of subtitles.

 

Thank you everyone for these great tips! If anyone has any more, feel free to keep'm coming.

My channel name is simply RJtheShadow. But for now, you'll only find a damned-old vid on it regarding playing online with an old game. I used to have more, but one was littered with copyrighted music (before I knew Youtube had a big peeve with that), it was regarding having your own music in Oblivion. Something I've now made a Nexus Wiki page for (for Fallout, but it's more or less the same).

 

Good sirs, you are all gentlemen and scholars.

[Vagrant0]

I have very low esteem of my English speech skills.

Everyone tends to have low esteem of their speaking skills. Even when it's your native language.

 

For me, the main reason why I never really went anywhere with a LP is because the videos were taking up several gigs of harddrive space for only an hour of recording, which then needed to be trimmed, sped up, and re-encoded, then uploaded. A process that just ends up being too much of a pain in the ass, and takes too long for substandard quality. I've considered streaming, but I have way too much crap on my desktop and tend to have an irregular schedule, so not too sure about that either.

[ilDuderoni]

Everyone tends to have low esteem of their speaking skills. Even when it's your native language.

I tend to say I am my own biggest critic. :rolleyes:

I'll see. I really will. So far, I've never really let anyone criticize my English accent so far. The few times I showed my vids, they were in dutch.

 

I think I just need to quit being a scaredy cat, do one in English and take the commentary like a champ.

 

For me, the main reason why I never really went anywhere with a LP is because the videos were taking up several gigs of harddrive space for only an hour of recording, which then needed to be trimmed, sped up, and re-encoded, then uploaded. A process that just ends up being too much of a pain in the ass, and takes too long for substandard quality. I've considered streaming, but I have way too much crap on my desktop and tend to have an irregular schedule, so not too sure about that either.

 

That's another blessing I am grateful for. I had access to two External Harddrives. Frankly, one broke down somewhat, corrupting much of my precious files.

That, at the same time, helped me to become less attached to my files (and save the really important ones on dropbox)

 

Now, I have a 2TB external drive where I save most of my big files. Including raw footage.

But yes, my first few recordings on 1280x720 were quite the shocker. I think I reached about 3GB with fifteen minutes of unprocessed footage. Imagine many Let's Players doing this on a daily basis, maybe even more than once!

 

As for working the actual stuff... As much a critic I am to myself, I am also a bit of a perfectionist. I take actual satisfaction and pride with a vid that I've edited completely up to snuff. I hope that drive will be strong enough.

 

I do not plan to be a frequent uploader. I would rather take a direction of quality and good footage on an irregular basis. I know that means that my fanbase (if any!) will be less big because of that, but the greatest hint I got from most of the Channels I follow is: It's gotta stay fun - don't make it a job.