Making a game review show.

I'm in the pre-production stage of making a video game review show. I may expand to include reviews of peripherals and anime as well but for now, it's just video games. It will be about 5-10 minutes long per episode and cover one specific game.

I'm sort of stuck as for a review formula though. I was thinking of making it a good review/bad review thing where one person gives all of good things and says it's a good game. The other anchor will say all the bad things about it and give it a poor review. Then they can bicker back and forth about it.

I'm just not sure how well something like that would work out and want some opinions. So, against my better judgement, I'll ask 4chan.

What do you think, 4chan?

Positive reviews > Negative reviews.

Will this be downloadable in video format, or will it be the super future technology which was discovered in alien ruins on Mars last week -- video podcasting?

DISCLAIMER: VIDEO PODCAST IS NOT A DOWNLOADABLE VIDEO IT IS A REVOLUTION AND COMPLETELY NEW ONE COULD NOT HAVE DONE SO TWO YEARS AGO THEN IT WOULD JUST HAVE BEEN A DOWNLOADABLE VIDEO WHICH IS NOT A PODCAST UREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>2
Holy shit wtf!

It will probably just be a downloadable video or I'll stick it on youtube or something.

The point of the positive review vs. negative review is just a more interesting way to talk about the pros and cons of a title.

I'd review it with enough knowledge of the genre to sound intelligent, but at the same time try to judge the game as seperate without being dragged down by other game reviews.  I'd also list expectations, features, and general rants at the game industry.  Not just words and opinions, actual insight and wit that keeps people back.  As long as you don't patronize the audience.  I don't know who gave that Cartoon Network robot the authority to review games.

>>4

Well, I'm an RPG buff and I was thinking of reviewing Dragon Quest 8 for my first show. I've played and beaten over 40 different RPGs from start to finish, maybe even pushing into the 50s now. I've played many good ones, and not so good ones.

One of the things I've noticed about Dragon Quest 8, is that it has a lot of features that, depending on the person, will either enhance it, or detract from it.

An example, the British Voice Acting. As far as english VA is concerned, it's pretty good if you ask me but there's plenty of people who really hate the accent and even some who can't understand what's being said with it.

Similar things can be said about the battle system. It's the same old Dragon Quest battle system at it's core but for ages, it's been a love/hate relationship. It's slow paced and requires critical thinking in order to defeat the monsters. A lot of people just want to "get on with it."

There is also Akira Toriyama's character designs. I like his designs and style but a lot of people critisize his art style or simply don't like it. Then there's all the people, "LOLZ SUPER SAIYAN GOKU LOLZ!"

The idea is to bring both of these sides to the table, give examples and let the viewer make the final decision for themselves with some advice on each side.

I'm just not sure exactly how I would present this type of idea, or if it's even a good idea at all. If someone has a better idea of presenting this, I'd like to read it.

Just what you described.  Only you don't have to present both sides fairly.  You can just say your view is law like a professional movie critic.  Or http://psx.ign.com/mail/

I like the idea of showcasting those who liked the game against those who didn't. Argument, however, is not necessary. As long as you don't put the words of the commentators out of context, people can judge for themselves - the reviewers can be as opinionated as they want - speaking from their heart, which is important.

The most basic way to pull it off over the internet, would be to have players speak their comment into audio files, then put it together with trailers of the games or video scenes that you captured yourself. If others are willing to invest more time and have the appropriate hardware, they can create demos or videos with fraps which demonstrates what they're commenting about the game. They should however not put video and audio stream together - the balancing is your job. The more time *you* are willing to invest, the more video/audio material you can encourage them to create - such as keeping the microphone on while playing the game. Emotional speech allows to get a better feel of how the player related to the game.

You can ask your fans to submit their audio files & captures, which means you'll have more and more choice to put together a balanced view of the game. In the amount of featured players, you have to find a balance between having all sides somewhat represented and viewers getting a feel for the invididual reviewers perspective.

What I don't want to see is creators showing off, wanting to look cool on camera. You suck, i hate you, show me the game! Also, i don't want to see demo dramatizations with cheap video effects and super-annoying music played on top of it, such as is the case with lots of world of warcraft movies. I want to hear the game as it sounds when you play it. I want to hear about the game mechanics, about what makes this game special, about what you haven't seen anywhere before.

Gags & witty remarks are great in theory, but X-Play goes over the top when for a dramatic review they obfuscate how they decided on their rating. Anyway, i don't think it's really necessary - listening to gamers who care about a game creates its own tension.

>>7

That's an awesome idea! I can get people to comment themselves through MP3 audio files which they could send me. I wouldn't ask anyone to send me any video files though. They are either large or look like crap. I have my own equipment and know-how for capturing high quality video game footage.

When I go to broadcast this out, I will want the highest quality footage available to me and it's easier to just do it myself.

This also allieviates the nessicity of having to get together two extra people for each show. Another problem with this production is a set. My apartment space and light isn't suitable for a quality production. I could overlay video game footage with commentary that people send me over the 'net instead.

While this would make it easier to a point, a new issue that arises is how I would get these audio files from people in the first place? I mean, I could make a post on 4chan or GameFAQs forums or something but despite the popularity, I doubt a lot of people are going to reply, much less intelligently.

A related issue is also with quality control. Most people only have a headset mic for teamspeak and in most cases, the quality provided from these is quite poor.

=/

Any further ideas?

Stick it in her pooper.  Her pooper being "a good idea", and "Stick it in" is of course a reference to that famous movie, "Hey, that sounds like".  "." means battletoads.

>>8
One of the best gaming related videos I ever saw, was the end of a plain WoW fraps recording of some 40-man dungeon by an experienced guild with corresponding teamspeak. The sound quality wasn't awesome, there was no directing - it's simply the exitement of the players that made the thing watchable.
 You will not be able to achieve television quality in the first show - if that's all you'd settle for, you will never get started. Do one yourself, asking in forums will get you *some* reply. When you demonstrate you got the stuff to produce something worthwhile, other people will participate. If the recording quality wasn't so good, people will try to make it better next time, if the commentators didn't know what they were talking about, others will think "hey, I can do better than that". It's not so much about what it is in the beginning, but more about what it could be.

The problem with recording your own videos, is that you'll have to be able to play that game yourself. The video quality is not *all* that crucial, since you'll be putting the thing on youtube or something, not high-def television.

>>10

Video quality is more important than you would think. I want to add this to my portfolio of high quality projects when I go to look for work in the field. I already know I won't get the show "right" in the first episode or two as I iron out bugs, but showing that I put serious effort into this will allow people to take me more seriously.

As I said, in most cases, I'll only be reviewing things that I already own or have easy access to.

I've decided that I'm going to do my first show with just me and a friend of mine but in the audio only style. Then I only need 1 extra person whom I hang out with a lot anyways. I'll see about getting people to respond to forums with their opinions about the game and we will raise them during the show ourselves.

At the end of the show, we will preview the next show and ask people to send audio comments on it. Once this gets out, people will send us the audio files and we can use them for the following show.

I personally think this is the best way to introduce this, get a following and continue making episodes.

As more things become available to me (IE hosts and a set) the disembodied voices of my friend and I could be replaced with real people in a professional setting. I'd still retain the style and format of the show. I'd just replace the disembodied voices with some footage of real people instead. Might even be us, if I could get him to agree to go infront of camera for me. I think it would make for a really big and interesting episode, if not a little gimmicky but as it is, the entire show is gimmicky.

Also, it may not be high-def but this stuff may get aired on my schools closed circuit television station.

Any more opinions 4chan?

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