FFA Masters League
General => Suggestions => Topic started by: junkerzam on March 23, 2016, 10:01:28 am
-
hello fellow nerds,
me and fetta are plotting to do a regular podcast to discuss and analyse recent FML games, the FFA scene and basically anything that has to do with WC3 with a focus on FFA.
so, is there any interest in such a podcast? if so, would be great to get some suggestions on themes and topics to discuss or whatever else. one idea is to regularly invite different players and admins to join the podcast. but it can be anything from fetta's complex orc strategies to tleilaxu's top 10 goth bands
-
Sounds like fun! Also, you can add questions outside of FFA and stuff. We are a close community after all. We should know why Laxu ended up listening to such a horrible music! :D
-
I would definitely listen to such a thing, suggestion : one study of an ffa map.
-
Would like to hear some cool interviews too. Id listen!
-
1) recent FML games overview
2) fetta analysis on his play last round
3) whats going on at FFArena? Why mappool is so bad?
4) a minute with Dr.Jaod - new russian words we learned
5) how is soso doing? report from citadel of sadness
-
What is the expected length of a podcast? Wouldn't it be kind of hard to make good content without visuals? I know Mage's style was often to talk about a lot of things during the downtime in long FFA replays etc.
-
@Maga I agree that we should really dig in to the reasons why laxu listens to that horrible "music", but despite my curiousity I'm not sure I really wanna know. #pandorasbox
@DV I really like your idea of having a repeating topic where we dedicate 5 minutes to the recent activity of Jaod. Sometimes at work/on the subway I can start laughing out loud when I read some of his posts. Also I think gradient deserves some air time.
@Red the purpose of a podcast is not to have something on youtube that you can watch, but rather a complement to listening to music/documentaries. Something you can listen to through iTunes, soundcloud or smth when you are on a bus, on your way to smth or mb just trying to fall asleep.
This is of course going to be reflecting our personal views and we are gonna be ourselves, which means that some people might not like what they hear and this will definitely not be politically correct. Just a fun way of discussing the best computer game ever, this godforsaken community and maybe deep dives into tactics or guessing the color of tleilaxu's family caravan and tent.
The people on my draft shortlist that I'd like to bring in as guests are:
mage
mog
seksi
DV
alien (but you can't be as nice and polite as always, you're not running for governor god damnit)
maga
mog
dovekie
JAODY
(maybe even cumulo, since I really liked the jokes you threw at me for being a greedy jew. However, I don't like your accent since it reminds me of being in Arequipa where I was shitting chunky liquid for 8 days straight)
-
Yeah man great idea. Cant wait to listen to it.
-
That's a pretty cool idea
One question, do you plan to record your podcast and then post it on youtube or w/e platform, or will it be something live on twitch? (or even both)
If you want to make these podcasts on twitch i recommand having a section where people in the chat can debate with you
Also you could use the ffamasters channel which already has a big pool of followers or even createan account more official like "Back2FFA"
Well if you decide to use your main twitch account its fine too
-
Awesome idea. I presume the idea is to record it as an MP3 audio only right? Live streaming on twitch could be cool though, maybe a 5 minute ask the audience section.
Obviously you're welcome to use the FML Twitch account (and upload the audio portion on YouTube as well if you want)
100% down to special guest whenever we can get our schedules to align.
-
Me and Alien are going to cast a replay from one of the games this season, we'll do it tomorrow at 9pm EST (21 EST) so if anyone is intersted, feel free to join us :D
-
Since the podcasts wont be politically correct, I suppose I will be allowed not to be myself.
It is a good idea, really it is. Now two things strikes me :
1- very FML self centered : you mean to discuss the FFA scene, it looks like more of a discussion of the FML league according to the topic and guests pre-drafted. Also, you draft according to personal relationships, which is k but still too self centered.
2- it joins 1 in some way. You publish your great idea one day after ztsoso publishes his, overshadowing it. On w3arena, we would discuss announcements so one does not overshadow another, thats why the FFA news has been left one full week despite Neo having something else to say.
Ideas should not be concurencial but try to complete each others. I appreciated that Soso mentionned the FFA cup to be to organized in his post for example.
You could say your podcast is not concurencing his project, since its just a podcast. But you purposely or not do not mention it at all or Ztsoso's name.
I feel like your podcast would in the end be the same as the skype group chat, but being read by somebody.
I hope it wont be that, and that it will be indeed organized (when does it start??). Even if fun and corrosive, it needs to be structured and global for it to be interesting outside of the skype group.
~Ugri (trying to improve a tool that could be useful, not trying to annoy anyone)
-
You could structure it this way, if you intend let's say to do it once every two weeks :
1- FML round review : by fetta and junkerzam. You will know what to do there so moving on.
2- FFA Ladder review : with Ponty or DV or whoever reached the top 3 and wasnt there last time? You can discuss winning streaks, streams etc..
3- other events (FFA Cup from organization to conclusion, Sympo, Ztsoso showgames etc)
4- Focus on a particular game with a guest who is selected according to the News (the guy who won an awesome FML game that week, the guy who won 16 FFA Ladder games in a row, w/e you feel like). If nothing major occurs, bring back Wrectify to discuss old games or something.
Just ideas to structure this. I would defenitely listen to that and would have it promoted on all w3a related medias : it could bring along new players, if you make it interesting.
-
I like your input Ugri, good ideas where I agree on most, especially on the aspect of spreading the news so they can be digested and discussed before the next one comes. Having said this, the timing has nothing to do with outshining soso' is news. In fact, I am still trying to come up with a cunning way to sneak myself into these showmatches, without luck so far.
The whole idea of this podcast thing was something that occurred last weekend when me and junker was having a LAN at his place. Junkers idea was initially to have it centered around fml. However, I think Ugris points are valid that if we make it a fml-podcast it would be a very narrow crowd who would find it interesting. Instead we should focus on things that are interesting for fml-players, random bot-players and maybe even solo-players and players that have been absent from w3 for a decade. With all the new cool things happening with w3arena, maybe we can leverage this podcast as an embryo to the future uprising of FFA.
It could be done live as a twitch channel, but the first one would have to be recorded, so that we can edit it and make it short but great.
Since me and junker are as big noobs to podcasting as we were to FFA whe. We discovered playFFA, we will need all the feedback we could get. We will soon sort plotting the first episode, but for now I just have one question:
Would you prefer having it with or without webcam? Pros and cons. One obvious con, junker is ugly as hell so lower the quality on your monitors so they don't crack, but that goes unsaid.
-
I'd prefer a video stream so it can be viewed live on twittch. Im really looking forward into your first attempt bros.
-
Feel free to ignore any and all of this, but just jotting some ideas about how I would do it if I were going to be producing it.
Format:
I think it will help you tremendously to have a set format at least at the start. Something like
Part 1 - News and Upcoming Events
Part 2 - Recapping FML games of the week
Part 3 - Recapping FFArena ladder movement
Part 4 - Q&A. For this I would open up a thread for the week before as well as looking at Twitch chat. However, I don't think relying solely on Twitch chat is a good idea especially at first as you may not have anyone chatting.
Part 5 - Signing off. Think about what you want to say when you're signing off. Stuff like where to find the podcast (YouTube/Twitch/Podcast form), what time you'll be on next week, promote anything you want to etc.
Recording & Streaming:
I think you should look into 3 platforms for delivering it.
1) Twitch livestream (with webcams). I think this could be something cool that people can look forward to every week, and you should be able to gather a decent sized audience over time.
2) YouTube - Most people won't be able to watch live, YouTube is where you'll be able to gather most of the audience who is interested in watching a video. Just recording and editing the Twitch stream a bit should be sufficient here.
3) MP3 Podcast - This is what the idea started as, and I think this is where you have the most room for growth. Twitch and YouTube are pretty saturated and while it's an awesome idea, it's not unique. However, to the best of my knowledge no one has started putting out podcasts that can just be casually listened to in an audio only format. I might be wrong, however I would guess this will be the largest market for you guys. I know for other podcasts audio has about 5-10x the downloads that a YouTube video has views.
Misc Thoughts:
It's going to be hard, but having a standardized time is crucial. Humans are creatures of habit, and if they can come to rely on this coming out at x time every week (or two weeks) then they're more likely to continue watching/listening. This goes across the board, for live streaming, uploading to YouTube, and releasing as a podcast. Doesn't have to be the same time for all 3, but you should have a standardized time for each.
If you can pick just 1 medium to use I think audio only will be the most successful.
It may seem tempting to just wing it, but I think you'll have a lot more success at least planning out what you want to talk about. Covering dead air is tough, and a skill you'll have to learn most likely. Having fallback points to talk about will help immensely.
I don't know how much you two follow the competitive 1v1 scene, but there's room for growth to cover the entire WC3 scene if you guys are interested.
For video I think having webcams is important, otherwise there's literally no video content just audio. You could try splicing in replays, highlights etc but that's just going to create a ton of work for you.
Make sure you have good audio gear, and practice recording beforehand. It's a pain in the ass to set everything up and have the quality sound okay (voices same level, no static, etc.) Nothing is more frustrating than starting it and finding out midway through or at the end that the quality sucks and you'll have to re-do it.
Also, I hope I mentioned it before, but you guys are of course welcome to use FML's Twitch and YouTube channel to help with establishing a base if you'd like them. We won't take offense if you'd rather start from scratch either though.
Let me know if I can be of any help.
-
wow, those are splendid suggestions mage :icon_surprised:
Mage Underwood for president 2016
-
Me and janker sat down yesterday and started plotting an agenda and some content, as well as procured new, better mics so the sound quality will be as good as possible.
Hopefully we can create something during the week, so stay tuned!
-
If they do stream it, it would be nice if someone could embed the twitch window in the news so it popped up for everyone when accessing the website. Would be a lot of exposure.
-
Im just curious, are you still planning this? I would be really happy to hear the first episode.
-
yup for sure we are. first episode will be released soon, then the plan is to do it regularly
-
okay guys, thanks alot for all the input. I think we ended up not listening to anything anyone said, especially Mage's advice to secure the quality as we had to record the podcast twice.
but! it's now available in the link below. please give us any feedback u can muster up, we had a lot of fun creating this so if there is any interest for more episodes we will be sure to keep them coming!
http://podcraft3.podbean.com/
-
lol, love the militia icon as profile, and nice website design btw.
-
ok so I just listened to the first 30 minutes and it got really boring by that time. I mean, talking about your nicknames and personal life is ok, but maybe for 2 minutes not 10 or so -.-. Then u guys moved to talk about the cup, from last year and this year, but after losing half my attention during the first 10 minutes the rest just didnt interest me at all :icon_confused:.
I think Doveki does a better job when it comes to podcasts, his analysis is more useful and even talks about what he was thinking during the game, maybe bring some of that for your next podcast instead of 30 minutes of irrelevant stuff. Not saying that the event of the cup was irrelevant, but I just didn't see the usefulness of talking about it without deep analysis of one particular game.
It's like seeing Kasparov or Carlsen talk about Sinquefield cup at how well it was organized or who won by how many points, that sort of information is meaningless, we all know what happened and how it went down, what we want is for you to break it down, one particular game, and explain possible variations during the three phases of the game.
-
thanks cumu, obviously we talked way too long about the two topics we got through (intro and cup) so thats smth to work on.
not sure I understand your comparison though, dovekies videos aren't really podcasts but rather video analysis? it will be wierd to go into deep details of a specific game without video footage since most of the listeners probably will not have seen the game/games we talk about. still, I get your point.
-
facepalm mode on : it was FML FFA Cup VI not IV
I know playFFA Cup IV and V never had the honor to be in the FML hall of fame but still...
edit : oh you say nice things about me afterwards so, eh, does not matters 4th or 6th who cares?!
-
Neat, ill check this out when I get home!
-
I think you are right Junkerzam, I'm so used to watching FML youtube channel and recently what Doveki uploaded that I thought it was going to be similar to those. My bad man.
Nevertheless, I think the podcasts should be shorter, like a 15 - 20 min max commentary of what's going on and what stood out during each round, stuff like, I mean very direct and straight forward, no sugar coding :/. Idk, maybe it's just me, but I like to hear only what's needed, the important stuff.
-
hehe no worries, we were bound to miss the mark on a lot of things in this first attempt. we cut out like 40 min of more content that was even more irrelevant than what we published, it was tougher than expected to keep it simple.
-
"You'll soon be as bald as Magadansky" lol
-
Anyway, decent pod-cast, although definitely a bit too long winded. Sometimes it sounds like one of you (I think it was Fetta) is talking through a toilet.
-
Awesome, will listen when I get home. Congrats on producing the first one though!
-
Really appreciate the feedback from u guys, we're definitely going to listen to your suggestions and adapt. After all, we don't have any naive ideas about this podcast becoming big, it is just a fun way of sharing and spreading the conversations we already have, but throughout the community.
So, please continue to post anything that occur to you while listening, no matter if it is about junkerzam sounding as if he was born dug out from a cave in Isengaard, or me being a soon to be bald twat, we welcome all thoughts.
-
Nice intro music :D
Gj guys looking forward to the next one
-
I'll start this off by saying the most important bit, congratulations and well done! Actually getting content made is the hardest part, and while it wasn't perfect it was good and I definitely enjoyed it and will continue to listen to it.
Some areas of improvement.
1) Have a clear idea of what you're going to be doing going into the podcast, it seemed like you guys wandered a bit here though props for not having any dead air.
2) Find a format that works and stick with it. Since this is the first podcast I think it was good to introduce yourselves, but in the future I recommend something like the following.
Opening - Quick music clip, you guys say who you are and then say what date it is and a quick rundown of what you'll be covering today.
News - Hit the news and recent events first that way you can keep those only interested in that tuned in. If they exit after that's fine, but you don't want to lose out on folks who are only interested in the news section (see Cumulo.) I would say you should probably keep this section to around 20 mins max. Recap what's going on, give a brief overview of how matches played out, but don't go too in depth in theorycrafting or play by plays on the podcast. Keep in mind it's somewhat boring to hear two folks talk about player A did xyz while player B did abc if they can't watch it. If you to too far into the weeds I think you'll lose listeners.
What to watch for: Give listeners a brief preview (3-5mins) of what to expect over the next few weeks.
Human Interest Piece - AKA interviews. Maybe I'm the odd one out here, but I fucking love learning more about WC3 players, their backgrounds, how they got involved, what they do now, and why the hell they're still with this game. It's far and away the most interesting aspect of what this podcast could be to me, and I think you'll find that other people love learning about the players as well. I believe this is where you guys can really shine, and it's something you should add to every podcast. We certainly aren't lacking players, personalities, and admins to interview. Ideally I think these last around 20 mins maybe? All in all I suspect you'll end up around an hour per podcast which I think is reasonable.
Now, obviously it's your podcast so be sure to do what you want with it, don't let people like me dictate what is your show.
A few other odds and ends.
- Solo. I think there's a huge market to include this (B2W sharing it will get a bunch of people interested), and you could really capitalize and grow the podcast. If you don't want to that's cool, but if you do you have a very narrow window before this is known as a FFA only podcast.
- Names. Keep in mind that a lot of people (okay most) don't know your voices well. Make sure when talking to each other to use each other's name every now and then. Well Fetta, I agree or Junkerz, you're a bloody idiot. Small things like that will help folks keep track of who is who.
-Voice inflection. You both have very soothing voices which is great for a project like this, but remember to use some inflections every now and then to keep the listener hooked. Otherwise they may be listening to it in the background and discover that they've kinda lost track of what they were listening to.
-iTunes & other platforms. You need to make this available to be subscribed to on platforms like iTunes, stitcher, pocketcast, etc at some point. If you allow people the option to subscribe on their phones and autodownload it then you're taking half of the fight away of making people remember it.
Will edit in anything else I can think of, and again fantastic job! Super excited about the podcast.
-
Sup guys,
Thanks a lot for all the feedback, we had a go again and are glad to present Mage as our first guest on the podcast.
Any suggestions or feedback, keep it coming.
Episode available here:
http://podcraft3.podbean.com/
-
Great job junkerz and fetta. Very amusing to listen to :D
-
Ye this was a treat. Great job guys
-
Its not that terrible like i thought it would be
Thx fetta/junker
-
Its not that terrible like i thought it would be
This right here is what I always strive for ;)
Nice work and thanks for letting me come on the podcast guys. Looking forward to listening to it.
-
Yeah that was cool. Who was the guy Mage would suicide? I didn't quite catch it.
-
Good podcast, i liked the interview of Mage and the questions you asked him, always cool to listen to him :)
One thing i would suggest is something that Mage already talked about
"-Voice inflection. You both have very soothing voices which is great for a project like this, but remember to use some inflections every now and then to keep the listener hooked. Otherwise they may be listening to it in the background and discover that they've kinda lost track of what they were listening to."
It's kinda hard to get to talk in a way we aren't used too, but it would be a great add to the podcasts if you manage to talk in a less monotone way, like Mage does
-
Yeah a lot of people who speak English as a second language can be pretty monotone. German is interesting because half the Germans who speak English are really monotone, and the other half have HUGE range and are extremely entertaining. I would say I've heard more monotone speakers from Sweden than I have from some other European counter, but you guys weren't too monotone or anything, maybe a little bit.
I listened to about 70% of the first one, it was okay. I'll listen to the second one later. Btw if you want anyone to argue with you guys I'd love you join in.
Off topic but my wife is in Jönköping right now and will be in Stockholm all next week.
-
Only listened to the 3rd podcast but it was very entertaining. The interview with mage was nice - it's good to hear his insights as he has been very involved in FFA for so long. Also nice to hear reminiscing about old players.
As for the recap of recent games - to me it was a bit harder to follow since I hadn't watched the games. Maybe it would be interesting to focus on some important players in the recent games and discuss their playstyles or pick out interesting new strategies that have shown up.
-
Haven't listened the first one but the second episode was really good. Your podcasts quality is almost equal to the quality of Swedish Eurovision song contest production. Gj!
-
We listened to what you guys suggested after our first episode, seems like this one was better received, thanks for all the feedback.
Regarding our voices, I agree that we are both quite monotone. This is something that bugs me sometimes in my professional life when I'm having sales pitches, presentations etc. I've tried to change this, only to realise that changing something like this is harder than it might seem. However, I'll try to add a certain degree of volatility.
For next episode we will invite a new guest, so if you anyone on top of mind, just post here. Maybe dovekie can be our next guest?
We also have some ideas of a panel discussion where we invite several guests and have a debate around some of the controversial hot topics like teaming, timer etc. Another idea we have would be arranging think tanks where we can have some of the players that like to breach out and try unorthodox strats, hero combos etc.
Red, valid point about our recap. This might be irrelevant for those who don't follow FML. Or what do you guys think?
-
For next episode we will invite a new guest, so if you anyone on top of mind, just post here. Maybe dovekie can be our next guest?
We also have some ideas of a panel discussion where we invite several guests and have a debate around some of the controversial hot topics like teaming, timer etc.
great idea
-
Red, valid point about our recap. This might be irrelevant for those who don't follow FML. Or what do you guys think?
Actually, thinking about it more, I think the recap is fine, but maybe make it a bit more colorful for someone who didn't watch the games. Not quite sure how to achieve that.
As for the voice inflection thing - I don't think it's as much a problem with inflection as it is with overall energy level. You both sound a bit tired. I don't mind it that much myself, but perhaps drinking some coffee beforehand or doing some jumping jacks would help :p
-
Sup guys, new episode at http://podcraft3.podbean.com/
No interview this time, shorter episode with a recap of the semi finals and a preview for the big game.
We will try to find a more structured way to do this and implement all the nice suggestions we get, for now though we have been rly stressed on time and thought it would be better to publish a chaotic, unstructured version rather than nothing. So enjoy and hopefully we will get that interview with maga for the next one.
-
tweeted about it
-
Seems like it cuts out early at 29 minutes when you guys are still talking
-
Good point about Greatwall's potential hero choices.
-
thanks red, although it's only 34 min the last 5 were cut out for some reason. reuploaded now at the correct length
-
New episode available:
http://podcraft3.podbean.com/
This time we will keep them coming! Drop any questions if you want them answered in upcoming episodes.
-
New episode available:
http://podcraft3.podbean.com/
This time we will keep them coming! Drop any questions if you want them answered in upcoming episodes.
OMG i'm only a few seconds in and i'm already hooked. "This idiot didn't have coffee.... so we're drinking Gin and Tonic." hahahah Love it!
-
nice work guys! about time :icon_biggrin:.
-
Great. I'll check it out after I get another stockpile of kiwis.
-
Lol'd at the Dovekie comment.
-
New episode, interview with Noexxx. Thanks Noexxx for participating
http://podcraft3.podbean.com/
-
Very nice
-
New episode, interview with Noexxx. Thanks Noexxx for participating
http://podcraft3.podbean.com/
Would you mind if I put these podcasts onto the FML youtube channel? They're great!
-
not at all, please do! thanks