Minor NSFW warning, there were about 3 utterences of "Oh shit" in this video.
I decided today to produce a quick pilot episode of a web-series I had brewing in my head for a little while.
You see, I got pretty fed up of being the victim of constant votekicks in Dungeon Finder often for stupid reasons, so I decided why not do a show about it? Then I thought of a good name off the top of my head, "pug ugly." I used this name because Pugs are short for pick-up groups, bad pick-up groups are ugly, and the term "pug ugly" is a common term for describing a very ugly person.
This show mainly focuses on analysis and exploration of terrible pug groups. Luckily today, it only took me one single queuing on the dungeon finder to actually find a sub-par group.
Please note that:
I uploaded in 480p because internet connections here in Britain generally suck as far as upload speeds go.
My speech was sorta delayed because this is my first real time doing spoken commentary.
I may have taken the wrong approach in this video. I'm more self-critical than actually ripping into members of my group. I also rarely curse in this example. I also didn't really focus much on humour or humourous BM.
I mainly did this as a test because I felt like something would hold me back from successfully pulling this off (i.e. my accent, my poor internet connection and whatnot.)
The Bandicam watermark is there because I am using the free version of that software becuase it's not THAT restrictive compared to the free version of Fraps and has more features (It's actually really good, probably better than Fraps even, and the full version is priced at only around $2 more)
I may continue the series depending on if I get good or constructive feedback from the community that I can possibly work on. This is where I ask the TL community:
Do you like the idea of a web series that not necessarily names and shames those who perform badly in pugs but highlights how bad groups are while adding constructive criticism on their play?
Am I taking the right approach here? One word of feedback I received was "You're too manner, you should be cursing more." Basically, be more like say..... the AVGN.
Are there any other things good/bad about this pilot?
If you want to make this a series, you need to bring out some personality and passion. I found it very dull and uninteresting despite empathizing with bad pugs
On December 28 2011 10:22 EscPlan9 wrote: If you want to make this a series, you need to bring out some personality and passion. I found it very dull and uninteresting despite empathizing with bad pugs
i like that you keep getting votekicked for letting the tank die (or at least expecting to)
you should be able to keep him alive through all pulls with 0 cc.. you might need to cast FoL... you say you don't want to cast FoL so you can conserve mana, but there's no point if your tank dies
On December 28 2011 10:41 LaSt)ChAnCe wrote: i like that you keep getting votekicked for letting the tank die (or at least expecting to)
you should be able to keep him alive through all pulls with 0 cc.. you might need to cast FoL... you say you don't want to cast FoL so you can conserve mana, but there's no point if your tank dies
You could have easily won both of those engagements for your team. I usually heal as discipline priest and tank as warrior.
You need to be aware that paladins have an interrupt. Also consider getting some better gear asap or just play ret, having an undergeared healer who can't really spam fol really slows down and messes up a standard pug (your gear seems really far behind for this current patch and I'm surprised that fight took anymore than 45 seconds).
As a pug and pvp healer I have to say that mana conservation is second to being able to pump out the big heals when they are needed.
Edit: As for the video I agree with above poster. You put no emotion or emphasis in your video. You just talk calm and monotonously. You seem almost sarcastic but you speak so unenthusiastically it is hard to pick up on any emotion.
On December 28 2011 11:12 whatwhatanut wrote: You could have easily won both of those engagements for your team. I usually heal as discipline priest and tank as warrior.
You need to be aware that paladins have an interrupt. Also consider getting some better gear asap or just play ret, having an undergeared healer who can't really spam fol really slows down and messes up a standard pug (your gear seems really far behind for this current patch and I'm surprised that fight took anymore than 45 seconds).
As a pug and pvp healer I have to say that mana conservation is second to being able to pump out the big heals when they are needed.
Edit: As for the video I agree with above poster. You put no emotion or emphasis in your video. You just talk calm and monotonously. You seem almost sarcastic but you speak so unenthusiastically it is hard to pick up on any emotion.
The fight took ages because (and I've even seen group members bitch about this) the DPS was atrociously low.
The fight took ages because (and I've even seen group members bitch about this) the DPS was atrociously low.
that is precisely incorrect the fight took ages because there was no one interrupting or dispelling lifeblooms on the boss. 1 of which you could have helped with.
I think it's a good idea, but it would be cool to put more emphasis on what the group is doing wrong, not what you are doing...
Saying "Oh, I'm healing, I'm healing, I'm healing, I'm healing, we wiped, I think there was no CC" isn't very exciting.
Possibly recording, and then watching/doing a voice-over while taking time to look at what other players are doing rather than focusing on yourself as you would be when you are playing, would be a better way to do things.
This would also allow you to pick/highlight the really really bad pugs which would make things much more entertaining.
(note: To make this really entertaining you would have to have great knowledge and insight in to every single spec and know exactly what they should be doing in every single fight.)
Okay, I think I got enough criticism for one day. Thanks for it all and feel free to leave some more. I gathered several main points about my live commentary from feedback I got from people on the TL IRC, this blog post and on /r/wow on Reddit:
My commentary is not very good and needs major improvement. There's nothing entertaining, funny or informative about it. As the last post said, I seem to be repeating a lot of stuff like "I'm healing, I'm healing, I'm healing, and a wipe" sort of stuff. My original aim was for something unscripted sorta like a livestream that isn't a livestream, just me getting audio direct from the recording and not doing any sort of post-production. However, I think I'm gonna try and show more of a persona in the next video. And I might record slightly more scripted commentary after I obtain the footage I need (as in record it after getting the video footage) becuase clearly the unscripted stuff isn't really working well for me and I find it easier to talk about what I have in front of me as opposed to "live" commentary.
My play/gear wasn't that good. All valid points. I was working on that as you all commented on this. I read some links people have sent me and began to make amendements to my gear (such as optimal gemming, enchants and whatnot) and playstyle (such as being less afraid to use my emergency heals, jumping around like a lunatic less. I just had 3 successful HCs.
I may need to stray a little less from the "Pugs are shit" theme and focus more on the "What's wrong with WoW" sort of stuff. I would still point out shitty pugs but focus it more on general WoW criticism. (for example, I'd probably go on a large rant nitpicking over Blizzard's shoddy, constantly changing design policies, particularly with Wrath, Cata and Mists of Pandaria changes.)
My mic sucks and audio quality blows ass. It would cost a tonne to improve this point.
Thing is, I feel like I'm sorta struggling with the persona side of things. In reality, I am very opinionated about WoW although I am quite hesitant to show this off (By opinionated, I mean I have very strong opinions about how the game should be and how you should play it correctly.) I don't have much going on the humour side of things apart from the fact that I can verbally insult, tell WoW "horror stories" during runs and show an occasionally bad-mannered attitude, totally unlike the manner, monotone, passive attitude you saw in this video.
Am I thinking about this the wrong way? I want to create something that people would watch, not be viewed as some whiny little annoying bitch by anybody that watches my videos. I know some people do get notoriety from being trolls but the question is how does one do this in an entertaining and not an outright annoying way?
The fight took ages because (and I've even seen group members bitch about this) the DPS was atrociously low.
that is precisely incorrect the fight took ages because there was no one interrupting or dispelling lifeblooms on the boss. 1 of which you could have helped with.
I thought you were on about the trash pull that people wiped on.
On December 28 2011 13:34 Clbull wrote: I thought you were on about the trash pull that people wiped on.
Nah that trash pull was kinda doomed, if I was in group i wouldnt let that go on with no cc if my stats were as bad as yours. People getting over zealous in hcs i guess cause of deathwing raid and such.
EPT
