Article December 5th 8-man Cube Draft
- Thread starter Jason Waddell
- Start date
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Brrr.... Fierce deck Jason!
I ended up maindecking all the non-creature cards there. Went heavy on the wrath plan, and cut all the creatures below 4CMC. Certainly in Pack 1 the draft was looking like a steaming pile, but technically I was open to all five colors.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Are there replays of this?
Edit: Smart
Edit: Smart
Yeah, there are YouTube videos, maybe I should have made that more obvious.
yes
Anybody have feedback on how to make these more watchable / entertaining?
Aoret
Developer
A few points on yours Jason:
- I definitely liked the skypeless commentary more. I feel like the skype banter is more fun for us but not as good for the viewer.
- We absolutely must provide accompanying decklists for all 8 drafters. Having all 8 perspectives recorded would be ideal, but I'd be happy if we had n > 2.
- Should come up with a standardized, tidy way to package the above (Something like a liquipedia style bracket w/ links would be baller but anything works really)
- Turn on card preview like I did and make it big. Not everyone knows every card.
- Need to get you a 1080p overlay. The different between bare modo and even my quick and dirty overlay is huge IMO. I can probably hack up a 1080p version of mine, but I gotta imagine we have a better graphic designer in our ranks than myself.
- Best thing I think I can do to improve the stream at this point is start doing better in drafts/games. It doesn't matter if I have a snazzy setup when all I do is lose to you guys and beat my RL friends.
- I've been running instrumentals in the background with the theory being that it makes dead air feel less dead (i.e. when I'm tanking on some play or another). Do we like this? Do we hate this?
I'll throw something together in a variety of sizes if you can send me your files as a baseline.
Aoret
Developer
Sent (or sending... we'll see if skype comes through)
If people need help with OBS just holler. Most of it is very youtubeable though. Figuring out how to resize/move/crop camera was a little weird.
All of this guy's instrumental albums:
http://jimguthrie.bandcamp.com/album/sword-sworcery-lp-the-ballad-of-the-space-babies
Yeah, I agree on the Skype thing. It's fun to listen in to, but I can't really provide a lot of insight, because I have to work around other people talking and that sort of thing.
Card preview is a decent idea.
Not sure that having 8 decklists really makes things more "watchable". Views are way way higher on the first video (even if lower in absolute terms), than on any of the other videos, and I don't think having more decklists is really going to change that. I'll try out an overlay though, and just try to have a more polished and energetic stream.
Card preview is a decent idea.
Not sure that having 8 decklists really makes things more "watchable". Views are way way higher on the first video (even if lower in absolute terms), than on any of the other videos, and I don't think having more decklists is really going to change that. I'll try out an overlay though, and just try to have a more polished and energetic stream.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
It's not really something you can change probably, but you have a very ponderous and soothing voice. The games were a blast to watch, and you comment your lines of thoughts well, but at the same time your voice kind of lulls me to sleep 
I really liked the background music in Aorets stream, it does make everything seem just that bit more lively.
I really liked the background music in Aorets stream, it does make everything seem just that bit more lively.
It's not really something you can change probably, but you have a very ponderous and soothing voice. The games were a blast to watch, and you comment your lines of thoughts well, but at the same time your voice kind of lulls me to sleep
I really liked the background music in Aorets stream, it does make everything seem just that bit more lively.
I mean, it's something I can work on. When I do stand-up comedy I have a very different presentation style, but I don't think I've really reached my "comfort zone" with streaming yet. Hopefully over time I can make it less "boring".
Still too much fiddling with new microphones, OBS and internet malfunctions, which takes energy away from the actual game presentation.
EDIT: those quotation marks were probably unnecessary.
The videos I watched (the ones from the article) were quite enjoyable. I think you are already providing interesting content(for people interested in cube anyway) so getting better at interacting with the listeners and presenting the game is definately the way to go. Looking at popular video makers and streamers is probably a good way to improve. I for example tend to watch every lsv video just because I enjoy watching him play. I am quite sure you'll easily improve in that regard.
EDIT: When I got back into Magic 1-2 years ago I always liked watching this guy (he's doing a ton of (pauper) videos on a more amateur level but I kinda enjoyed the way he commentated the game etc.)
EDIT: When I got back into Magic 1-2 years ago I always liked watching this guy (he's doing a ton of (pauper) videos on a more amateur level but I kinda enjoyed the way he commentated the game etc.)
I probably need to replace my built-in webcam with something, and work on getting better lighting conditions for recording in my apartment.
IME, lighting will do more than a new camera will. Especially if you don't replace your camera. Er, other words, bad cameras are especially bad with bad light, but good cameras have a hard time with bad light as well.
Aoret
Developer
Watchable isn't the word I'd use. Obviously the vids are watchable without any backing content. I guess the real question is what are we trying to provide as our product here:
- If we're just providing cube draft videos, well, better people than us already do that.
- If we just want to promote riptide style cubes, then releasing vods of matches is the way to go.
- If we want to do that and provide a type of coverage that is unavailable anywhere in any form, then we need to get on top of showing the draft portion (at minimum) from all 8 perspectives, and failing that should at least provide decklists with numbered seating (which only brings us up to par with the top 8 of your local limited tournament and nothing more). This wouldn't be the content I'd put up front (game vods are still most important), but it would provide people who are interested with a way to dig deeper into the content.
I agree that looking at popular streamers is the way to go. Not sure looking at magic streamers is the way to get good at the technical side of streaming though. Watching LSV is a great way to get good at narrating thought. The guy modin linked to is entertaining (which also an important streaming skill). If you look at both of their setups though (or anyone else doing mtg), they're crap compared to what you see in league, SC2, any of the FPSes... So I'd say watch streamers in other games you care about and steal stuff from them to make your stream good. Then steal from magic streamers to make your magic content good.
I think the camera matters the absolute least of any of the above. People really shouldn't be looking at your face much during these. The camera is just one of those touches that most streams have now so you kinda have to have one. I'd put effort elsewhere for now unless you're just interested in the camera/lighting from the hobbyist side of this.
edit: and thank you to OZB and Ferret for the positive feedback. I still suspect the music choice is going to be divisive, but either way it's a huge motivation boost for me to hear that there are actually people out there who are enjoying consuming the vods of me losing games