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No word of a lie I regret every LP I've ever done, and for some reason I keep forgetting that and saying "Nope I'm out - oh wait but I really want to show off this game."
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Apr 27, 2015 23:47
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I've tried summing up The Skippy Granola LP Experience a couple times now and each time it comes out as just a huge pile of whining and self-loathing. But now I'm full of French Toast and a mild hangover so let's talk about what I've learned. Bulletstorm Some background: I discovered the LP archive through Yahtzee's Extra Punctuation column, which led me to the SA forums, which led me to creating an account so I could continue watching LPs. I guested on a multiplayer video for Niggurath's Space Marine LP, and figured this LPing thing wasn't so hard. So I bought a FRAPS license, studied the tutorials in the old Tech Support Fort thread, and hacked together a video of Bulletstorm. I'd picked it up for the 360 when it came out and really enjoyed it, but never finished, so I figured it'd be good to LP a game I distinctly enjoyed, and wanted to finish. The LP itself was a complete hash. I didn't shop it through the sandcastle, opting instead to use the TSF to solve my myriad technical woes and AVISynth questions. I was aware at the time that Proteus was also about to launch a Bulletstorm thread of his own, which was a huge party foul on my part. However, despite the technical issues and poor quality, the thread was reasonably well received, and I was pleasantly surprised at the welcome from the subforum. This was my one and only gimmick LP. At the time I thought that successful LPs needed a gimmick, so I decided that every time I said a bad word, I'd need to suffer a thread-provided challenge. This resulted in only three videos, none of which were particularly interesting or engaging. Stacking A quirky LP continuing my tradition of poorly-balanced audio. I think the relaxed pace, charming humour, and very objective-based gameplay made this a very easy game to LP. Not a particularly remarkable effort by any means, but I think it holds up as a fairly fun watch. It's also a nicely comprehensive LP that adequately shows off the charm and personality. I could have definitely done better on the technical front, but this has the somewhat wry humour that marked my earlier LPs, back when I was shy. Rage It looks good, it's well paced, and it's the first LP I actually had co-commentators on! The thread was active, engaged, and I remember PMF kept making awesome gifs of particularly hilarious kills. Despite being a bland game, I really had fun recording it. It's a really meaty LP with plenty of content, and the filler raceday videos are clearly marked and skippable. I also got to hang out with Paragon1 a lot (super nice guy and a good poster - I regret that we lost touch), and Maxwell Adams guested in one of the episodes! It was a surprising twist to have caught the attention of someone whose videos I'd actually watched. Amerzone This was more or less a trial run to see if I liked doing screenshot LPs. The answer is no, I didn't. Amerzone was not a good game to LP, being a watered-down Myst with a poor plot and very little action. In retrospect it was a mistake to try to inject more plot and character in the game, because I am definitely no Chewbot. It was a largely disappointing experience because there was no interest in the game, very little thread activity, and no technical feedback. Given that it was mostly a bridge to the actually good Benoit Sokal games, I suppose that can be forgiven. Syberia Definitely the high point of my body of work. It shows my highest level of technical proficiency at editing, and despite getting lost a little bit I feel that it is really well paced. The Draw Mammoth for Momo contest in the thread wasn't a huge winner, and was mostly a last-ditch attempt to spur some thread participation in a relatively linear experience, however there were some pretty funny submissions and I was happy to include them in the OP. Riding high on the momentum of Syberia 1, I flowed right into Syberia 2, and I think the result is a very decent showcase of some of my sentimental favourite adventure games. I'm very excited for Syberia 3, and I am probably going to persuade myself to LP it out of completeness. Magicka I have mixed feelings about Magicka. It was a very fun experience and I was lucky to pull together a very funny team. I think I knew Gharbad from the chat in Xaiter's Binding of Isaac streams, and I was happy that Kaubocks expressed interest in joining as I was a huge fan of his Half Minute Hero LP. Krysmphoenix was I think another Sandcastle poster who knew a lot about the game and provided some technical knowledge about the game mechanics. All in all it was really smooth to record and easy to put together. However, I was a little disillusioned because of it, since it took no effort to record, but garnered a bunch of views. I suppose seeing Magicka take off while my concurrently-running Syberia LP languished quietly made me realize that there is not necessarily a correlation between effort and success in LP - what the people want is yelling, team killing, and shenanigans. Paradise Kind of a cooldown period after running two LPs at once. Paradise was a "poo poo, I might as well" since it was the last Benoit Sokal game and I'd already done all the others. I kind of regret asking Panzer to join me for such a poor game, but without her commentary I think the LP would have faltered and died around episode 5. A definite step down and honestly I'm not at all fond of it. Scribblenauts Unlimited An off-site stream series, and the thing I mostly blame for putting me "on the map" as it were. This series was what introduced me to pretty much everyone who would be in the Saints Row 3 LP, and what partially formed the LP supergroup that I would be part of for a while before leaving in a fit of dramatic pique. Ahh, LP drama and mental illness pair like fine wine and cheese. Anyway, I highly recommend that you give it a watch, because there are still some incredibly hilarious moments, including our beloved Mod Geop serenading a flying vibrating cactus. There are in-jokes a plenty, and this is honestly a sentimental reminder of a much happier time. Saints Row: The Third Following in the tradition of Magicka, I think this is the LP that I'm most well known for. At least it's the one people keep referencing. Numerous co-op partners, plenty of ridiculous moments, and missions that reliably go entirely off the rails. Saints Row is a game that mostly LPs itself - you just hit record and see what happens. I ended up taking a 6 month break in the middle of it due to burnout, and wasn't actually sure if I'd come back to it. However, some friends talked me into clearing the last few episodes and the DLC, and I think the end result is a super long and quite funny LP. There were a few episodes in there where I agreed to play with people I didn't really know and who I didn't have a lot of chemistry with, which was a very strong object lesson that it is okay to say no to people if you're not sure they'll work out. If I'm 100% honest, I'll admit I don't really like my SR3 LP. It feels cheap, like I was just coasting on funnier people and not adding a lot of value to the game. Definitely doesn't feel like it deserved to be my only gold-rated thread, and I'm slightly ashamed that I sold out so thoroughly. Sang Froid: Tales of Werewolves This right here marked the beginning of the end of my LP career. After some unpleasantness and losing touch with LP pals, I decided to get back to first principles and do a solid value-added LP of a game not many people would have played. In retrospect, it was probably a mistake. I'd spent the past couple years either unemployed or marginally employed, but about 3 episodes in I got a full time office job (still working there, btw!) which drastically cut the amount of time I was able to spend on the LP. Consequently, it became entirely too much of a hassle to record gameplay AND write history segments AND edit together pictures and music. Each episode was taking about 6-8 hours total to do and that was 6-8 hours I just did not have anymore, so I sadly had to cut it off. Redneck Rampage Here's the lesson: LP a game because you like it, not because it would make a good LP. I had high hopes of burning through the series, having some fun, and hanging with buds. What ended up happening was the game became completely unplayable, I was having a miserable time recording it, and the commentary was suffering. This LP was killed by my lack of interest in the game, lack of interest in LP in general, and a feeling that I was suffering just for sweet sweet numbers. Looking Forward It seems like every year I say "No, I quit, that's it" and then am almost immediately back, and I guess there's a certain satisfaction in producing a video and watching people enjoy it. I'm really more interested in streaming once in a while, or doing oneoff LP projects to show off interesting games. Stuff with small time commitments that show off perhaps overlooked games. Anyway, all in all I don't regret my time in LP. I think in the 3 or so years I've been doing this, I've done a lot of growing up. I've developed a much better set of social skills, and a great deal more confidence in myself as a speaker, so there has been growth. I've also hosed up an awful lot, which I regret (and for which I'm deeply sorry!) but all in all getting thrown into the goddamn crucible on this subforum has been alright. And I've got some pretty fun videos to show for it. Thanks for reading, and I hope I see y'all in whatever threads I may end up making in the future.
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May 9, 2015 20:32
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