Thanks all for the feedback and discussion! I love the thread jack!
I do feel like the discussion is a productive one, and its helpful for those of us that do LPs.
There are certainly ways we can all improve.
@JG. I agree. Meridian has "ruined" me too. His play is so good, I'm often thinking "doh! Meridian wouldn't have done that!" ... Though he has taught me a ton and greatly improved my own play, I have quickly come to the conclusion that he is an ideal that I can only strive to attain. I also realize that I'm guaranteed enough "Ivan Moments" that I'll have things to laugh about.
When it comes to watching others like Necroscope and BattleBunny who have a much more casual approach and favor uniform weapons on the squads and zerg rush tactics, I have to reset my mentallity to not expect perfect play like Meridian's
Hm.. some scattered LP thoughts and philosophy.
-Before I ever considered doing LPs I did some analysis on what I find appealing in watch LPs. Quill18 is a perfect example, and I have been a huge fan of his for years. I think what I love most about quill (aside from the fact that he plays strategy games in genres I really enjoy) is his enthusiasm. He really enjoys what he is doing and it comes across. That is my fundamental rule for LPs. Play something you Like, and have Fun with it! Your fun will be contagious, and your audience will have fun too!
- "Make the best product you can" - my friend Rendog, gives this advice regularly. Audio cleanup was probably the biggest jump for me. Baergo told my the background whine and hiss on my first Terror from the Deep vids was very distracting and to try Audacity for noise removal. I checked yt vids on the subject and figured out how to separate my vocal track. I clean it and sweeten it (EG settings to boost the bass a bit) for every vid. I also started mixing all the background music in those series. Its very time consuming, but I loved the result. During playback, I'd often raise the volume in spots just to hear the music behind my commentary.
Its also a tricky balance to keep the music down enough so its not distracting and the commentary needs center stage any way. Thumbnails are important too, as they brand your series and show you are series about making a decent product.
- Stock intros and Outros. Viewers come to expect them and our sub concious brain automatically synchs up with them when we start to watch. It also gives viewers a chance to adjust volume, screen size etc.
- Beg borrow and steal! If you see something you like in another LP, try it out in yours. I loved the way Meridian would talk to his soldiers "Ravski? Can you come help us over here?" I hear his voice in my head when I type that.
I started doing that in my TftD series after binging on his TftD series. (Which is amazing BTW. Well worth the watch if you haven't seen it already).
- Spread the love. I like to give shoutouts to others I enjoy watching, and telling my viewers about other cool series, etc. Of course viewers love shoutouts too, so that is really cool if you can incorporate that in.
Anyway. Enough Jibber Jabber! Episode three will be out in about 1.5 hours. I'll have one M, W, F. I'm itching to get to episode Seven (I've recorded up to 6) but I have a heavy school load this week, so I'm trying to stave it off.
Cheers, Ivan
