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[TGN Army] General: What Kind of MMO Videos Do you Watch?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
We’re in a whole new world of game coverage, as video and streaming are quickly becoming the new normal for videogame coverage. Now fear not… we’re not going to abandon the writing world anytime soon. But if you haven’t noticed, we’ve really started to increase our video coverage. Our question? What kind of content do you want from our videos?
Read more of Bill Murphy's What Kind of MMO Videos Do You Watch?
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Game play videos IMO are king. Sick of CG trailers that tell nothing of the game. Also news about whats currently going on is awesome but if the report starts focusing to much on RPGs over MMOs I will quickly tune out. Maybe a news show for MMOs and one for RPGs would be best.
Dev talks are also awesome, seeing devs pour their hearts out about their project really tells me more about the game and if I want to be invested but first and foremost, game play. RipperX is awesome.
I watch 3 Gameplay videos
Hiveleader ... Too dang funny and informative
Ripper X - always good to see early access and to hear what the game is about
MMORPGFTW - Yes Bill I watch you every time you post one .. always good to hear the news of the Week that was (ok this one may not count .. but I still watch it)
I find regular game play videos .. a bit dull ..
I definitely like the videos that are short and to the point. Five to fifteen minutes seem to be the sweet spot for me. I would rather see multiple videos covering specific topics than say hour long videos covering multiple topics. It seems the longer the videos get, the more of a sense of fluff is added that is just wasting my time or stroking some guy's ego. Get to the point and be done with it.
Definitely would like to see more Q&A type videos with the devs responding to hot topics. Also more interviews with the not so high profile devs from a PR perspective, but more with the devs that are down in the trenches getting the job done. Lots of stuff explaining why things that we as gamers think are easy to do, but may not be so from a development pov. Low level programming/ art stuff, but also high level business oriented decisions stuff. And video, not just audio, that captures people's expressions.
The thing with video is it seems by the time it comes out, the content is old news, and makes it seem even more like a waste of time to watch. So, getting the video out when the content is current is the hurdle to over come. Connections need to be made so you guys can call up a dev to do a quick 5 minute video interview over the web, to cover those current and hot topics and get the answers from the horse's mouth in a timely manner. Alive at 5, kinda thing.
After all this time, I don't watch any MMO videos except reviews by anyone that isn't part of the industry.
Industry reviewers are too biased and much too likely to have been bought by the game company to give them a good review.
MMO videos don't actually present REAL graphics or game play, they present pretty little cartoons to promote their product so they are pointless to watch. They try to hype you up but then don't deliver.
I watch Hiveleader's video's if I want a humorous outlook on the nuts and bolts of a game.
Ripperx, sometimes, not always, but his video's where he turns off chat and just plays the game helps.
If I see video's with a lot of CG and cutscenes I normally just walk away from the game until I read up on it. Cutscenes instead of actual gameplay to me means that the developers or whoever is running advertising would rather baffle potential buyers with a flashy image rather than what the game actually is. Old saying, if you can't dazzle them with brilliance(Gameplay), baffle them with bullshit (Cutscenes).
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
More substance and less promo. Gameplay videos like Ripper X's are by far my favorite.
But of course, for that to happen there has to be a playable game there that the developers feel confident enough in to allow something other than their carefully selected bits to be seen and discussed.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I don't watch many game videos these days. Too many are over biased reviews or marketing hype. Avoiding pie in the sky is key.
Things that are great are dev talks about their technology, design theory, their thinking process and what is actually coded in their game. Actually coded is more meaningful than pie in the sky hype talk about potential features.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
Pking, sometimes formal PVP.
PVE is boring to watch and do, CGI is basically an appeal to emotion, gameplay videos are often of the first few levels which are often entirely different from the real experience.
Let's plays are pointless when you can just "trial" a game, any P2P MMO which doesn't have a free trial is already on my shit list.
Waiting for:
The Repopulation
Albion Online
Gameplay videos on mute.
I rarely watch gaming videos at all. The signal to noise ratio is far too low to be useful for most purposes--and much, much worse than for written articles. Far too often, they're from someone who didn't think enough of what he was going to present to polish it as you would for a published article. While that may be justified in some sense when the video doesn't really have much of a reason to exist, that also justifies not watching some random stream of consciousness stuff that never gets around to having a point.
The written word is far superior as a way to convey most information. It is much, much faster to read than to listen--and unlike radio or other pure audio forms of media, you can't properly listen to a video while looking at something else. You can also skip past text on a page if part of it isn't interesting much more easily than hop around to skip sections of a video. It's also much easier to figure out if there is anything interesting in a written article than in a video. Videos tend not to come with section headers, and I don't want to take five minutes to watch a video about nothing in particular only to reach the end and find out that the author didn't really have anything to say. If there's nothing interesting in a written article, it usually only takes a few seconds to determine that and move on.
That's not to say that all videos are bad. But don't do videos for the sake of doing videos when the entire content of the video would have been better off as text. A gameplay video at too low of a resolution to tell what is going on does not justify making a video. A video of some guy talking because he was too lazy to type up what he had to say is even worse. Even a gameplay video of random stuff where the person doesn't have anything in particular to present that day is pointless.
I watch all videos more so than reading articles.However most do not leave me with a lasting impression,most are just fabricated as an advertisement.It is near impossible to find a non biased video review as they are usually free early access handouts to media sites,fully expecting a positive review and or done by the actual game so super biased or done by a fanbois who as he narrates tells you how great everything is,even though many of the ideas to me are not good at all.
That is why i prefer watching streamers,you get a full on idea of how a game is played and what a game offers.More importantly is the selection of WHO you watch,there are many funny ,entertaining streamers out there.Watching a stream you will the cursing and anger and they will tell the frustrations of the game design as well as show us the funny moments and how the game may be fun to play.
Bottom line is a streamer almost always takes the game serious,there won't be any hidden advertising or buttering up,you get the actual game play,how it was intended and designed and get a full on idea of weather the game is for you or not.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Problem there is they are not pouring their hearts out,they are calculated in what they say to ALWAYS make sure it sounds either politically correct or to butter the game up.You can watch them do this for an hour and not once will ever say,ok this idea is maybe not so good we should work on changing it.It is because their budget and agenda is so locked in they can't waiver unless it is a cost effective waiver.
I have only seen one good Ripper video and that was on Hearthstone,i felt some passion and effort there.The rest come off as advertisements or just ass kissing even the cheapest lamest ideas."I can change my gear.oh wow this game is awesome" "I can change my face and class,this is awesome"no thanks to that type of dialogue,it is fake emotions no passion what so ever.
Hive Leader,he is old now,every review is identical trying to be quirky,funny but after a while is just old and boring.He does that quirky thing because he tries to sort of portray a lame idea but without stepping on any toes,so ya a BIASED video trying not to upset any potential advertising dollars.
I can tell when a review has real passion,Angry Joe is one of the best out there.Although i don't agree with his assessment on some ideas,i can tell he is serious and not just making a review for monetary reasons.A perfect example is he raved on and on about GW2 being the best product on the market,i hardly ever agreed with any of his ideas he said were great for gaming but i did get the feeling that he truly did believe in his ideas so i respect that.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Myself...actual gameplay videos. In that regard, I only want to see the what, where, when and why. NOT the person doing the commentary hyping or tryping the game. Just the facts. Do not want CGI or developers making claims as to want they promise. If a previewer or reviewer is making a video, I want to know up front that this is THEIR impression and that others impressions may vary.
Let's party like it is 1863!
My favorite kinds of gaming videos to watch are news videos, like weekly rap-ups/re-caps, RipperX/Hiveleader/mmoftw/LockSixTime style medium length videos on specific games or topics, or exclusive interview videos with devs and such, and podcasts. MMOBomb and MMOhut do video podcasts and news/first look videos that I really like.
The things I personally don't like watching are extremely short videos, like videos under 4 minutes, because I feel like it's not even worth clicking on, loading the page, getting through the ad, et cetera, and then immediately having to find another video to entertain me because the video I just clicked on is over so quickly and probably didn't contain much substance.
I also don't like watching long (50 min or more) sessions of mmo gameplay, because I go to specific let's player's channels to watch games simply being played, or to twitch, and mmos aren't that fun to watch honestly. Much better to play than watch. It's better if you break livestream type long-form gameplay sessions up into the most interesting bits and separate them into smaller videos (15-35 min) otherwise it gets boring to watch some guy running around in an mmo for long stretches of time where nothing really happens. Podcasts can be as long as you want, because I can do other things while listening to those.
I really enjoy RipperX's videos and do watch some of the lets play videos.
What I would love to see is coverage of boss tactics in mmo's. Short coverage of patch updates in mmo's.
And if you would be able to recruit a dedicated guild that do boss fight videos and general gaming videos that would be nice.
MMO's that would get coverage is WoW, ESO, SWTOR, TSW, GW2. That would atleast get me to watch more videos from mmorpg.com for sure.
No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin
let's play.
Really only watch Comedic stuff (hiveleader) and maybe coverage by relatively big youtubers like angryjoe.
MMO's are so stagnant the news is barely worth following, if somethings changing, I'm sure it'll make the frontpage here or the top of reddit, I'm done chasing the dragon myself.
None.
Either its done so poorly by people who think they know what they are doing or the commentary is so full of profanity it would embarass a drill seargent . I guess they do that so they can seem cool to their peers, when it really shows they have a limited vocabulary.