ThisAdamGuy Plays

Tell us about games you are currently playing. "Quick hit" reviews.
DaHeckIzDat
Posts: 1997
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 1:41 pm

ThisAdamGuy Plays

Postby DaHeckIzDat » March 22nd, 2017, 3:42 pm

You may have seen my other thread talking about how I was thinking about doing this. Well, I went ahead and did it! My new Let's Play channel, ThisAdamGuy Plays, is live on YouTube! There's only one episode right now. I decided to start off with a game that I'm really familiar with, so I chose Kingdom Hearts. If anyone's got a few minutes, I'd love some feedback. Link's below. Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsGczagqTWs

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scotland
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Re: ThisAdamGuy Plays

Postby scotland » March 22nd, 2017, 4:30 pm

My first thought is that you got a good voice for it. I know it was a choice (even the title is " shuttin' up now" , but its odd to go 4 minutes without hearing you speak during the intro sequence (and wow do those characters have some big Disney Goofy shoes). In general, there is a lot of silence going on. There is where having a sidekick probably helps, to add in some banter, which is harder to do alone unless you do voices or something.

There is a part around 6:45 where you "Blah blah blah I know how to play the game..." and quickly click through some stuff. I think that stuff, even if its boring, should not be clicked through.

At about the 7 minute mark, you start to fight...but no real commentary on gameplay except "Ooookay...you better run...blah blah blah [clicking through commentary boxes quickly]"

At which point I kinda gave up.

Cheers on your first upload ! Hope you continue to have fun with it.

DaHeckIzDat
Posts: 1997
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 1:41 pm

Re: ThisAdamGuy Plays

Postby DaHeckIzDat » March 22nd, 2017, 4:44 pm

Thanks! One thing I've noticed is that it's harder to perform for a nonexistent audience. I'm known as the funny guy at the office who can fire off jokes a mile a minute, but when it's just me I come down with a bad case of "Uhh, what do I say now?" I'm hoping I get better at it as I go. I've got another episode going up tomorrow, and it offered more chances to be funny so I hope it's better than this one.

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Stalvern
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Re: ThisAdamGuy Plays

Postby Stalvern » March 22nd, 2017, 8:31 pm

Do you know anyone you could do the show with? I'm not really a Let's Play fan in general, but I find it much more entertaining when two people talk to each other than when one tries to talk to me.

DaHeckIzDat
Posts: 1997
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 1:41 pm

Re: ThisAdamGuy Plays

Postby DaHeckIzDat » March 22nd, 2017, 10:45 pm

Unfortunately, no. I do know one guy I think we'd be awesome together (he even does live streams of his favorite games) but he lives on the other end of the state, so we haven't been able to get together in years.

Voor
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Re: ThisAdamGuy Plays

Postby Voor » March 23rd, 2017, 4:33 pm

I can point you in the direction of my favorite streamers, who have very different styles.

CarlSagan42--crazy, super excited
Trihex--cool and chill, talks a bunch of non gaming stuff while playing
Sinister1--relaxed
Duckfist--really serious about the technical aspects of gaming but animated at the same time.

I first watched all these guys on YouTube for Awesome Games Done Quick and now follow them on Twitch.

DaHeckIzDat
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Re: ThisAdamGuy Plays

Postby DaHeckIzDat » March 24th, 2017, 10:13 am

Here's episode 2, if anyone cares to watch. I think it's moderately better than episode 1 since I had more stuff to talk about. Episode 3 is going to better than either of these, though. I think I started getting the hang of talking and playing at the same time by then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9vKICt8-Ak

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ptdebate
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Re: ThisAdamGuy Plays

Postby ptdebate » March 24th, 2017, 2:21 pm

DaHeckIzDat wrote:Here's episode 2, if anyone cares to watch. I think it's moderately better than episode 1 since I had more stuff to talk about. Episode 3 is going to better than either of these, though. I think I started getting the hang of talking and playing at the same time by then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9vKICt8-Ak


Just out of curiosity, are you capturing from component? The image is slightly blurred as if it's being converted from analog to digital. Not a big deal at all. Just curious. One definite thing you can do, however, to improve your videos is to turn up the brightness setting on your capture device. The image is just too dark. Your mic quality is good so I wouldn't worry about that. Consider adding a face cam at some point if you're comfortable with it. It's not essential but many successful channels have them.

I would agree with others that you have a good voice for it. My recommendation on your delivery would be to try to sound a little more natural and conversational than intentionally theatrical. The more you get comfortable with it, the humor will come out naturally.

Playing while talking is not easy to master. A lot of LPers will record voice after the gameplay. Don't feel like you have to stay silent during cutscenes. Remember that this is not a video of Kingdom Hearts playing itself. This is your Let's Play of Kingdom Hearts so your commentary should stand out front and center. If viewers want to focus wholly on the game, there are plenty of commentary-free LPs out there.

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Stalvern
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Re: ThisAdamGuy Plays

Postby Stalvern » March 24th, 2017, 3:04 pm

DaHeckIzDat wrote:Here's episode 2, if anyone cares to watch. I think it's moderately better than episode 1 since I had more stuff to talk about. Episode 3 is going to better than either of these, though. I think I started getting the hang of talking and playing at the same time by then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9vKICt8-Ak

If grinding makes the rest of the game easier to play later on (and thus easier to watch), there's no rule against doing all the grinding and just editing it out of the final video. A quick crossfade is all that it takes.

One suggestion that I have is that if you're going to read the dialogue out, it's probably better to do impressions of the actual characters than random, unrelated voices. Really, though, I'd rather hear your comments on the dialogue, since it's right there in front of me already.

ptdebate wrote:Consider adding a face cam at some point if you're comfortable with it. It's not essential but many successful channels have them.

Ugh, please don't do this. It's the most obnoxious thing. Like if I want to fully appreciate the words a man on YouTube is saying about a video game, I need to see his badly lit head in the corner looking up and to the right until he remembers to mug for the camera. Nope.

ptdebate wrote:Don't feel like you have to stay silent during cutscenes. Remember that this is not a video of Kingdom Hearts playing itself.

I don't know. A lot of LPers make a point of saving their commentary for after the cutscenes just to avoid clutter and make sure everything's understandable. Mystery Science Theater 3000 worked because the heckling was carefully timed with the silence in the movies; I doubt that real-time commentary would be nearly as neat. It's fun in something like the Sonic the Hedgehog '06 LP because nobody could begin to care about those cutscenes or mind that a bunch of dorks are shouting over them, but I feel like Adam is a bit more invested than that and would like his audience to be invested too.

DaHeckIzDat
Posts: 1997
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 1:41 pm

Re: ThisAdamGuy Plays

Postby DaHeckIzDat » March 24th, 2017, 3:20 pm

Yeah, apparently PS3's have a thing that stops you from capturing from it on HD (don't ask, I don't understand it) so the only way to do it is with component cables. I hope my PS4 isn't the same way. And like I said, the story is half the reason to enjoy any RPG, so I'll do my best to let the audience watch it (and listen to it) without interuptions. Of course I make the occaisional exception ("Welp, Sora's dead!")


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