Different people watching the same video, differing viewpoints.
I am on pain meds this week, so I am afraid to post, lest I say something regrettable. (I suffered an injury, but will fully recover, BTW). But since you (Matt) gave me a shout-out, I felt I owe a thank you and commentary in response. It took a while for the "shout-out" to register that you were talking about me, because believe it or not, "Rowdy Rob" isn't my real name... :-)
(P.S. In case you are wondering, "Rowdy Rob" was my old Jiu-Jitsu class nickname which sort of stuck, with everyone calling me "Rowdy" for several years. Nobody calls me "Rowdy" anymore, though, so that's why the "shout-out" missed me at first. Thank you for the kind comments in the video.)
Interesting that Mark had a problem with the hand gesturing, because I didn't even notice it the first time I watched the video. After reading Mark's comments, I rewatched the video and noticed it. Yes, you are moving your hands a lot. Mark, being a trained psychologist, might be interpreting your hand signals as relating to your deep psyche, and probably has the men in white coats coming for you. But for me, it just looked natural, and therefore unnoticeable (the first time), nothing out of the ordinary. But you may want to consider Mark's (and probably others') thoughts and adjust your hand movements accordingly if you feel it is a concern. Just because I didn't notice it doesn't mean that the other 99.9% of your viewers didn't notice it.
On the other hand (pun???), you looked very relaxed in the video, perhaps being comfortable with your "screen presence." Worrying about your hands might affect that.
The presentation was good (as always). The music threw me off at first.... ("is that the in-game music??!!?" I thought to myself at first). But it fit well with the game imagery, so it worked, particularly taking into account the ambition of it. Did Elite have it's own theme or in-game music?
Again, the commentary was excellent... perhaps your best yet. It was delivered very naturally, yet was detailed and informative. It made me want to play this game!
As for concerns about "book pimping," I am actually disappointed that there wasn't more of it! Not "more" in a time sense, but more in an "effective" sense. HOLD THOSE BOOKS UP and say "Hi, I'm Matt Barton, Professor of (whatever it is you're professor of, I forget), author of D&D and co-author of VG, read our Gamasutra articles.... etc. etc." Believe it or not, it actually adds "credibility" to your presentations, because it shows that you are an established authority figure on the subject of videogames. Nothing wrong with doing a "regular guy" video, but you are not a regular guy, you are an AUTHORITY FIGURE (This goes for Bill too). And if you're going to mention the books, it's good to actually SEE the books, to show that they are REAL books.
"Oh, I don't want to be seen as pimping our book......" Well then what the hell did you write it for if you don't want people to know about it, buy it, and read it???? I know that sounds harsh, but you wrote a book, so it's expected that you're going to want to get people to buy it. I'm just stating the obvious, right? Do it tastefully, but PIMP THE HECK OUT OF IT! You probably won't get a better chance than the present. You worked hard for your success; as long as you're not hurting other people, go for it.
What I am trying to say with all my nonsense is: mention the books, hold them up, "pimp" them for a few secs, then move on to the game commentary. Nothing excessive, just tasteful. What's the harm in that? Viewers get a game commentary, and you gain more potential customers. Seems straightforward to me, yet some might find that objectionable. I disagree with them.
As for Elite, I've never played it, but have played many of its descendants, and I love this type of game. The combination of action space battles and empire-building makes the "Elite" genre possibly my favorite type of game. I had enormous fun with modern variations, such as "Freelancer" and "Space Rangers 2." I would love to tell you all about "Space Rangers 2," but I'll save that one for another time.
I am on pain meds this week, so I am afraid to post, lest I say something regrettable. (I suffered an injury, but will fully recover, BTW). But since you (Matt) gave me a shout-out, I felt I owe a thank you and commentary in response. It took a while for the "shout-out" to register that you were talking about me, because believe it or not, "Rowdy Rob" isn't my real name... :-)
(P.S. In case you are wondering, "Rowdy Rob" was my old Jiu-Jitsu class nickname which sort of stuck, with everyone calling me "Rowdy" for several years. Nobody calls me "Rowdy" anymore, though, so that's why the "shout-out" missed me at first. Thank you for the kind comments in the video.)
Interesting that Mark had a problem with the hand gesturing, because I didn't even notice it the first time I watched the video. After reading Mark's comments, I rewatched the video and noticed it. Yes, you are moving your hands a lot. Mark, being a trained psychologist, might be interpreting your hand signals as relating to your deep psyche, and probably has the men in white coats coming for you. But for me, it just looked natural, and therefore unnoticeable (the first time), nothing out of the ordinary. But you may want to consider Mark's (and probably others') thoughts and adjust your hand movements accordingly if you feel it is a concern. Just because I didn't notice it doesn't mean that the other 99.9% of your viewers didn't notice it.
On the other hand (pun???), you looked very relaxed in the video, perhaps being comfortable with your "screen presence." Worrying about your hands might affect that.
The presentation was good (as always). The music threw me off at first.... ("is that the in-game music??!!?" I thought to myself at first). But it fit well with the game imagery, so it worked, particularly taking into account the ambition of it. Did Elite have it's own theme or in-game music?
Again, the commentary was excellent... perhaps your best yet. It was delivered very naturally, yet was detailed and informative. It made me want to play this game!
As for concerns about "book pimping," I am actually disappointed that there wasn't more of it! Not "more" in a time sense, but more in an "effective" sense. HOLD THOSE BOOKS UP and say "Hi, I'm Matt Barton, Professor of (whatever it is you're professor of, I forget), author of D&D and co-author of VG, read our Gamasutra articles.... etc. etc." Believe it or not, it actually adds "credibility" to your presentations, because it shows that you are an established authority figure on the subject of videogames. Nothing wrong with doing a "regular guy" video, but you are not a regular guy, you are an AUTHORITY FIGURE (This goes for Bill too). And if you're going to mention the books, it's good to actually SEE the books, to show that they are REAL books.
"Oh, I don't want to be seen as pimping our book......" Well then what the hell did you write it for if you don't want people to know about it, buy it, and read it???? I know that sounds harsh, but you wrote a book, so it's expected that you're going to want to get people to buy it. I'm just stating the obvious, right? Do it tastefully, but PIMP THE HECK OUT OF IT! You probably won't get a better chance than the present. You worked hard for your success; as long as you're not hurting other people, go for it.
What I am trying to say with all my nonsense is: mention the books, hold them up, "pimp" them for a few secs, then move on to the game commentary. Nothing excessive, just tasteful. What's the harm in that? Viewers get a game commentary, and you gain more potential customers. Seems straightforward to me, yet some might find that objectionable. I disagree with them.
As for Elite, I've never played it, but have played many of its descendants, and I love this type of game. The combination of action space battles and empire-building makes the "Elite" genre possibly my favorite type of game. I had enormous fun with modern variations, such as "Freelancer" and "Space Rangers 2." I would love to tell you all about "Space Rangers 2," but I'll save that one for another time.
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