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I'm considering a LP of Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game and I'd like to ask for the opinion of the experts on a couple things. 1) This is kinda close to a CYOA, although it is more open ended than a regular CYOA; what's the consensus on update schedule for this kind of LPs? 2) This game makes extensive use of an external website (a fake CSI database that you can enter information into and that provides automation needed for the game); it looks like this:  It can be accessed by several people using the same username/pwd. I was considering having the players do most of the paperwork - since quite often entering some info gives you a chance to discover new stuff. Would providing the user/pwd info in a separate discord be "safe" enough? You can't really see any personal details (not even the email that was used to create the account), but someone up to no good could mess with the game if they really want to.
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Oct 27, 2021 13:00
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I would say it doesn't sit right with me that you'd be sorting people into those who went into the Discord and those who can't participate fully. I think you'd be better off screenshotting the relevant parts. Also, do you have the LA expansion? EDIT: you may want to find some kind of online corkboard simulator, too.
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Oct 27, 2021 14:04
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Tevery Best posted:I would say it doesn't sit right with me that you'd be sorting people into those who went into the Discord and those who can't participate fully. I think you'd be better off screenshotting the relevant parts. The discord would mostly be to provide the details to log into the Antares database - the discussion would happen itt. I'm only playing with the base game. The players handling the database themselves would come with a clause: whoever unlocks new stuff would have to divulge it itt; this is mostly for 2 reasons: - reduce admin time on my end, since something this open ended would otherwise be a nightmare to LP; if I was the only one handling the database, I would IE: have to provide potential signature matches or go down every single clickable path/enter new elements into the database if they become unlocked during another part of the investigation. - This would also rob the players of a significant part of the experience. It's true that only one player can be the one to "unlock" items in the database, but it would then be available for everyone to browse. Tevery Best posted:EDIT: you may want to find some kind of online corkboard simulator, too. I would like to keep most of the game itt, both for people reading but not playing and for archival reasons. That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Oct 27, 2021 |
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Oct 27, 2021 14:12
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Fedule posted:Character count is character count. Word uses a meaning of character count that isn't actually what character count means (it excludes space characters, tabs, and returns and the like), because it assumes you're an author and not a forums database. More technical text editors like Notepad++ will tell you the literal character count. This is a super useful trick to learn for someone interesting into starting an LP. How's Notepad++ compare to Atom?
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Oct 28, 2021 04:16
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TitusGroen posted:This is a super useful trick to learn for someone interesting into starting an LP. How's Notepad++ compare to Atom? I use atom for work and notepad++ for home use and Atom seems to be more flexible/powerful with all the plugins. That said, I mostly use Np++ for editing lua/JSON stuff for Tabletop Simulator, so maybe it has the same functionality and I just never needed them  It is way more easy/lightweight to just download and start using, though.
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Oct 28, 2021 08:18
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That Italian Guy posted:I use atom for work and notepad++ for home use and Atom seems to be more flexible/powerful with all the plugins. That said, I mostly use Np++ for editing lua/JSON stuff for Tabletop Simulator, so maybe it has the same functionality and I just never needed them I installed N++ and I enjoy how quick it is in comparison to Atom. I think for quick text editing and writing, it might be my go to unless I need formatting.
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Oct 29, 2021 07:16
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I just noticed that the op still links to the old separate recommendation and request threads that are long since closed. I can't believe it took this long for someone to point it out. Maybe I'm the only person who ever read the op. E: It links to the correct thread further down but doesn't in the Do/Don't section. IGgy IGsen fucked around with this message at 10:07 on Nov 1, 2021 |
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Nov 1, 2021 10:02
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IGgy IGsen posted:I just noticed that the op still links to the old separate recommendation and request threads that are long since closed. I read this in young Christopher Walken's voice
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Nov 1, 2021 10:26
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Leal posted:I read this in young Christopher Walken's voice Oh no! My involuntary avatar seems to fulfill its purpose. I've been thoroughly owned by this mystery avatar buyer.
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Nov 1, 2021 10:34
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Inadequately posted:It's not particularly difficult to set up character sprites for dialogue once you have all the pictures/sprites, transcribing the dialogue is probably the more tedious bit (though that's not strictly necessary in itself either, depending on the type of LP you're doing). Just upload the character sprites to an image hosting site (https://lpix.org/ tends to be the commonly used one for screenshot LPs around here), copy their image links to another document, then once you're done writing an update Ctrl-F to replace e.g. "Mike:" with the image link to Mike's face. nightelf_37 posted:Uhh, please step-by-step it for me? I was recommended to head over here in regards to learning how to set up character sprites for SSLPs. Help?
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Nov 3, 2021 06:12
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Simply put, you just crop the sprite sheet down to just the sprite you want to use as a portrait (basically any image editing program can be used for this, even MSPaint, but I personally recommend either Irfanview or GIMP), save it as a separate file, then upload that file to LPix and use IMG BBcode to link to it in your posts. I'll go a bit more into it if you need once I'm not posting from my phone at work, but it's not that hard once you know what you're doing.
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Nov 3, 2021 06:24
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nightelf_37 posted:I was recommended to head over here in regards to learning how to set up character sprites for SSLPs. Help? This is less of a ‘character sprite’ guide and more of a general ‘screenshot LP’ guide, but since you’re completely new to it, it might be best to start from the beginning. Let’s use a snippet of Megaman Battle Network 3’s opening as an example. To start off, you’re going to need: - A word processor (Notepad or Microsoft Word is fine) - An image editor (Irfanview is recommended, and it works as a screenshotting tool as well) - An account on a picture hosting site (the commonly used one around here for LPs is Lpix.org) - Rightload with the LPix plugin. Not strictly necessary, but certainly helps when uploading a lot of pictures in one go. - The game you plan to LP Once you’ve got all that ready, begin playing your game, recording your gameplay and writing your commentary. There’s no hard and fast rule to how to do that – some people like writing as they play, some people like taking brief notes and writing a full update later, some people record the whole thing as a video and screenshot the relevant parts later, some people just screenshot liberally. It’s all up to you. Generally speaking, regardless of which method you use, you should end up with a text update like this:  And a bunch of screenshots from the game.  These screenshots were taken via VBA’s inbuilt screenshotter. They’re a little sharper than external screenshots, but as you can see they’re a bit small by default.  We can upsize them with Irfanview. We’ll add them to the batch converter….  …and upsize them to about 225%.  The upscaled size is a little better, as you can see.  Now we need to crop the character sprites (that’s where the sprite sheet you found for SRW J comes in, since you don’t need to do that from the screenshots like I’m doing). We’ll crop Lan’s head, and shrink it down by about 50%.  Then once we’ve acquired all the talking heads we need, it’s just a matter of paring it down to the screenshots we’re going to actually use for the update.  We now toss them onto Rightload, and upload them to an LPix folder.   Once they’re uploaded, Rightload will spit out a bunch of URLs for image links. We’ll add the [img] tag so they’ll show up as images on SA, and copy them to another document so we don’t lose them.  After that, it’s just a matter of replacing all the placeholders and dialogue tags with the images you uploaded. You can try this utility someone linked for that, though I like doing it manually to make sure I didn’t miss anything out myself.  Once you’re done with all that, the update should look like this. Now to test it out, we’ll toss it onto the SSLP Test Poster to make sure nothing’s broken.  Give it a once-over for broken images, spelling mistakes, etc. and if everything looks good, you can go ahead and post it as an update.
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Nov 3, 2021 08:13
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Inadequately posted:…and upsize them to about 225%.  Please do not. Pixel art (so to put it simply, any game that does not use 3d models) needs to be resized in stages of even 100%s or it will become awful and distorted. (Look at his left ear in the resized image for one thing - it sticks out twice as far as the right because that pixel is drawn out wider than the other.) Also, you should definitely use png, not jpg, for images like this. Jpg compression leaves ugly noise in the image and it is quite noticeable with such art styles. It's better for photos/more photo-like graphics which already have greatly varying colours so the noise doesn't stick out as much.  Here's a properly resized 200% png. It's nice and clean and only 18kb. You could go 300% if you want  but anything in between is doing the game a disservice.
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Nov 3, 2021 20:17
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Okay, I decided I will be SSLPing Advance Wars Alpha. Here's a test page for the intro and for the first update (separated by ----------------). https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=159908 What needs fixing?
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Nov 7, 2021 04:29
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it looks like poo poo. also stop posting in LP
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Nov 7, 2021 12:20
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nightelf_37 posted:Okay, I decided I will be SSLPing Advance Wars Alpha. Having read through it... Put simply, I don't think this is salvageable in its current state. There's weird [hr] codes everywhere which don't appear to be phbb compatible, the icons for the COs are definitely too big and need to be sized down to something like 100x100 or below (probably below), and the actual text... I can understand that you clearly have seen cosmicPostman's works, and they're very good. However, it's really hard to capture that same sort of "character-acting while I talk about the game" that he does, and it doesn't look like you've done it here. Posts don't exist in a vacuum, and given that your introduction to the forums was... let's go with 'suboptimal,' going for any sort of writing trick like that is going to come off as much less charming. If I were to make a couple recommendations... -Carefully consider what you want to LP. Have a plan and a workflow going in (I recommend using recording software to actually record the footage, then screenshot from it using VLC and shift+s to save screenshots—this avoids awkward day transitions like you ran into since you can try as many times as you need) -Think over how you want to show the game off. The really good LPs can provide insightful comments about how things work behind the curtain, or explain why a challenge is difficult, or provide some funny banter. Again, yours just seemed like you were trying to do a my dude but not really understanding what made it work. Copying established LPers can work, but you have to figure out why what they do works and apply that to your writing. -No matter what, remember that currently you're currently infamous as the guy who requested an LP of pokemon girls hunter. That is a pretty impossible thing to try and overcome, and it's never going to happen if you keep making comments about some lady's giant clowntits. At present, even if you do go through with making a new LP, the odds are very high that it's going to get dogpiled by people aiming to dunk on you for being the pokemon amputee doll fetish guy. I don't know that that can ever be overcome without waiting several months and registering an entirely new account with a different name, but if you insist on trying it may be a good idea to lurk longer and try and figure out the rules and culture of the Let's Play subforum before embarking on a project like this. I'm not saying don't try. I'm just saying... maybe strongly think about the actions you have taken, and the perception that others have formed of you based on them, and... y'know. Also how to make a good LP about a game that won't make you come off as some weird creep.
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Nov 7, 2021 14:36
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If I can offer more constructive criticism, I think that it's going to help you a lot if you do a video recording of your gameplay so you can just cherry-pick frames from it. I noticed multiple times when you mentioned having trouble with getting the right shot for things, and pulling screenshots from a video would make it easier. Also, the forums don't do the kind of tags you're using, so your formatting isn't going to work the way you want. The web browser version should have a link that says "use bbcode" so you can see what options are available. As for the commentary itself, I'm not really getting any insights into why you chose this hack in particular. It feels like a pretty vanilla story with custom art assets, and there's not much more going for it. I'm not even sure if you like it or not, since your commentary is fairly matter-of-fact and doesn't offer any critical points to compare by. I think with any romhack, there's gotta be a hook of some kind in order to make it worth looking at. I'm just looking for the reason why I should care about it. You're most likely going to be the only one who's played it on the forum, so you've got to explain why it's worth our time.
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Nov 7, 2021 14:38
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nightelf_37 posted:man those are quite the knockers. No one else is that endowed (until perhaps Nell in Re-Boot Camp). And her skin is a tad dark, huh. Yikeseroo!
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Nov 7, 2021 16:56
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Nah, op. Don't listen to these people and  It'll be fine. You'll be the cool rebellious guy pushing the envelope with your focus on rating everyone's tits and... skin color. Big oof.
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Nov 7, 2021 17:56
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I for one think it's cool this rom hack replaced the charming young Andy with some frosted tips PUA dingus. Real Chad.
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Nov 7, 2021 18:18
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:Yikeseroo! Yikeseroo indeed  Moving away from... that, I've been working on some stuff for a SSLP of Death Road to Canada and was hoping to get a look over on it's formatting to see if it seems alright and if I've missed anything. https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=159916 I've not got a lot going on for me right now, so I think I can handle the shorter updates this would entail alongside the LP I'm already running. Didn't even take me that long to get the workflow stuff set up for it, let alone the updates themselves. Left 4 Bread fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Nov 7, 2021 |
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Nov 7, 2021 22:39
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Odd Wilson posted:Moving away from... that, I've been working on some stuff for a SSLP of Death Road to Canada and was hoping to get a look over on it's formatting to see if it seems alright and if I've missed anything. Looks pretty good. Just two things I noticed: the order of the updates in the table of contents appears to be reversed. Update 0 should come before the character creator tutorial. And there's a misplaced apostrophe in the spoiler warning "dont' be a dink and spoil anything" should be "don't be a dink and spoil anything".
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Nov 7, 2021 23:33
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nine-gear crow posted:Looks pretty good. Just two things I noticed: the order of the updates in the table of contents appears to be reversed. Update 0 should come before the character creator tutorial. And there's a misplaced apostrophe in the spoiler warning "dont' be a dink and spoil anything" should be "don't be a dink and spoil anything". Thanks for catching that- I've got it fixed! My proofreading usually takes care of these kinds of slip ups, but they're gonna get through every once in a while. If that's all, I think I'll it
Left 4 Bread fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Nov 8, 2021 |
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Nov 7, 2021 23:52
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Waffleman_ posted:I for one think it's cool this rom hack replaced the charming young Andy with some frosted tips PUA dingus. Real Chad. he looks like serious sam but an incel
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Nov 7, 2021 23:59
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IGgy IGsen posted:I just noticed that the op still links to the old separate recommendation and request threads that are long since closed.  don't make me repeat myself this is very important.The future of LP hinges on this. I just had ten whiskies. Sally, probate me for drunkposting. Everyone else: let Sally do it. You don't have what it takes to do the deed. E: The thing with the ten whiskies is a shoot. I don't even know how I'm still typing coherently. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Nov 8, 2021 02:32
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Nobody's got faster probation fingers than me  (also I fixed the OP link)
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Nov 8, 2021 03:23
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Nov 8, 2021 03:46
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Danaru posted:Nobody's got faster probation fingers than me The leadership LP needs.
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Nov 8, 2021 06:08
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Huh. Guess I'm not cut out for SSLPs after all.  Simply playing them isn't enough, I have to be informative as heck, too.
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Nov 8, 2021 08:54
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That's your takeaway from the responses?
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Nov 8, 2021 08:58
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kirbysuperstar posted:That's your takeaway from the responses? I mean, I'm clearly not good at this, and all the justifiably derisive comments is not good for my self-esteem. Additionally, my original purpose of recommending a Let's Play is to cover something that hasn't been done by anyone else in the SA forums. Hmm... I think I finally have an idea. Magic Scroll Tactics! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovkXbL0pMRI Oh, wait. This should go to the LP Req Room, right?
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Nov 8, 2021 09:05
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You need to have something to draw readers. Extensive knowledge of the game helps - Orange Fluffy Sheep generally breaks games in half until they bleed and beg for mercy, for example. Being actually funny helps, and a lot of LPs go that way. Having a way to let the audience participate helps - covski's LP of rock paper scissors (yes, just normal-rear end RPS; they took pictures of their hands) where there were two threads, one for team "Lefty" and one for team "Righty" and they voted on which sign to make is legendary on these forums specifically because of the audience interaction (check nine-gear crow's rap sheet). Having insightful commentary on the game's plot helps. Having "insider knowledge" helps; circlmastr once did an LP of Detroit: Become Human with the voice actress who played the female lead (IIRC) on co-commentary. And sometimes you have a grand artistic vision and turn an LP of Gamecube Animal Crossing into a narrative psychological horror story like Chewbot did. Generally you combine more than one of these aspects, but an LP can be successful on one alone. My suggestion is lurk more, read more SSLPs, and try to think about what they did and why they did it as you read. What makes this LP interesting? is the question you need to be asking yourself. And TBH the more recent the better, because some older LPs have jokes that we as a forum have outgrown by this point and won't go over well. And most of all, don't LP a game to be LPing a game, LP a game because it's a game you treasure and want to show off to the world. Or because it's a game you hate and have a burning need to show off why it's bad - but that's much harder to make interesting. Either way, don't choose the game, let the game choose you.
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Nov 8, 2021 09:20
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Commander Keene posted:You need to have something to draw readers. Extensive knowledge of the game helps - Orange Fluffy Sheep generally breaks games in half until they bleed and beg for mercy, for example. Being actually funny helps, and a lot of LPs go that way. Having a way to let the audience participate helps - covski's LP of rock paper scissors (yes, just normal-rear end RPS; they took pictures of their hands) where there were two threads, one for team "Lefty" and one for team "Righty" and they voted on which sign to make is legendary on these forums specifically because of the audience interaction (check nine-gear crow's rap sheet). Having insightful commentary on the game's plot helps. Having "insider knowledge" helps; circlmastr once did an LP of Detroit: Become Human with the voice actress who played the female lead (IIRC) on co-commentary. And sometimes you have a grand artistic vision and turn an LP of Gamecube Animal Crossing into a narrative psychological horror story like Chewbot did. Generally you combine more than one of these aspects, but an LP can be successful on one alone. Telling that the thing I'm highlighted for is Rock Paper Scissors and not my work on stuff like, say, White Knight Chronicles, Ace Combat, or Killzone.
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Nov 8, 2021 09:37
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Commander Keene posted:(a bunch of stuff) Additionally, I'd like to add one more thing, that I'd like to be as clear about as possible. The reason the forum currently considers you dubious is that your initial suggestion was of a game that can be described as creepy, in a 'go to jail for sex offenses' sort of way. This, plus your later suggestions of other 'edgy' games, has gotten people thinking ill of you. Before you move forward on a game, think very carefully about whether the game would be too horny, perverted, edgy, or otherwise unsuitable for (say) a PG-13 viewing audience at worst. Otherwise, you risk people refusing to engage with you or take you seriously.
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Nov 8, 2021 09:38
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Commander Keene posted:
Yeah, that really wasn't why I wanted to SSLP at all. The only game I can think of that captures that feeling is Iji by Daniel Remar (and maybe draw comparisons between it and Undertale since both indie games have a protagonist whose moral standing depends on your kill count), but that's better suited for a VLP given it's a platform shooter, and I think someone's already done one here. Yes, the last one's no reason against doing it, but... 
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Nov 8, 2021 10:07
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The advice of 'LP a game that you're interested in' is really more for you (though the reader can certainly pick up if the LPer has nothing particularly inspired or interesting to say about the game). Doing an LP of any kind is a fair amount of work, and unless you're really invested in the game it can be hard to keep going all the way, particularly if there aren't a lot of responses. If you don't really care for the game you're presenting, there's not much that you're going to be able to say about it that will hook anyone either. From your responses so far, it seems like you're really invested into trying to be accepted by the community via showing off a game that people will love, and that's not really how things work. The screenshot LPs that make it big tend to be the ones that people have put in a lot of effort to show off what they love (or occasionally, hate) about the game, in a manner that even people who don't particularly care about the game or have only a passing knowledge can enjoy. Additionally, interest checks like the type you've been doing are against the rules in either thread (and no, "hey is anyone interested in this game because if you are I'll LP it" isn't enough to skirt around the rules), it's just that no one has been coming down on you for that because there's so much else to comment on. If you really are committed to showing off a game, make a test post like you did for Advance Wars Alpha and post it here, and don't immediately be discouraged by criticism of any sort. You should definitely run your ideas by a mod first though, because it's pretty clear you have no idea what's appropriate for this place.
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Nov 8, 2021 10:23
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nightelf_37 posted:I mean, I'm clearly not good at this, and all the justifiably derisive comments is not good for my self-esteem. Additionally, my original purpose of recommending a Let's Play is to cover something that hasn't been done by anyone else in the SA forums. The best suggestion that people have already offered is to lurk more and read more LP's. If you're looking to start your own, the best way that you could probably go about it is to start small and build up the experience or to start with a game that you have a passion for. You don't have to be super knowledgeable about the game if it's something that you have a passion for. There have been LP's on here with mature content and there's a popular one going on right now that has mature themes. Mature isn't a problem as such, it's more about the context of it and how it's handled. I get that the Advanced Wars Alpha LP was meant to be written in some kind of chad characterization but was the line pointing out someones "knockers" and how dark their skin colour really necessary? I get that you're willing to learn and passionate about LP's, but you probably need to take a step back, read a bunch of LP's and get comfortable with people's writing styles. Start writing your own until you get comfortable with it yourself and are able to develop your own style. Then come back in with a fresh mind and with a game that you're passionate about showing off to people. There have been plenty of LP's done in a unique theme and that's not discouraged as long as it's done well, American Pie edge-lord humour right off the bat probably isn't the best of starts. We've had similar individuals who were extremely keen but their reputation took a nosedive very quickly and they flew that plane right until it hit the ground in glorious flames. R.I.P. Richard Gamingo and wesflarger.
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Nov 8, 2021 10:57
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Still can't believe that he is RichardGaminGone 
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Nov 8, 2021 11:00
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Yeah, I've actually been reading a lot of SSLPs in LP Archive. I clearly need to read a lot more and sink a lot more dedication into learning how these tick. It'll probably take a really long time before I get back to this. TBH, cosmicPostman (Advance Wars featuring my dude) and TeeQueue (LobCorp and Library of Ruina) were my main reasons to sign up and get involved with seeing the goons comment. That and for a brief time, un-register users were unable to see any posts from this site. I also confess that I'm a troper. And that I use these LPs as sources for the trope pages. (darn SA for no arrow icons I'm used to in TV Tropes) Umm, pls remember to bold the game name? nightelf_37 fucked around with this message at 11:33 on Nov 8, 2021 |
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Nov 8, 2021 11:23
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A hush sweeps across the sandcastle as the winds howl... the Legend of Gamingo.
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Nov 8, 2021 11:26
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