I’ve used camtasia before. Maybe I could just start recording my league games (obviously tell my opponent that I am doing it). These would have to be verrrry slow games because I would probably do a turn and make a video each weekend. Lots of voice over explaining what’s going on. I would also like to set up the table game and maybe for each episode show what it looks like at the beginning and end of the turn. That’s a lot of work but it would be educational for sure.
I’ll look into what infrastructure I would need to do this.
The trick to making it good and watchable is light dialogue - just the highlights, less than 5 minutes, conclusion shown.
Basically top 10 moves of the game and bam result
Some sort of a Let’s play video??
If you’re trying to draw more players in, you might want to consider making a “How To” video first. Start by showing them on your computer screen where to go to register and how to download the necessary software and whatever else is involved to get playing their first game. Then show them how the controls work. How to move, how to roll dice, how to scramble, etc. Basically take them through all of the steps of playing a game right through to the end. After that when you make your game videos you can tell them if they want to play, all they have to do is click on the link that you provided that will take them to the “How To” video that will show them how to get started.
Remember that they may not already be a member of this site and may not even know that it exists, so don’t forget to show them how to sign up here first and then lead them to the game. Down the road you can make some of the videos that we discussed in Toronto to teach them the finer points of how to play the game successfully.
OK I think I have assembled all the things I need to do this:
triplea software
a phone that shoots good video
a big table and good lighting
a copy of Global 1940 (and Anniversary which arrived today :-) )
camtasia software (there might be better/cheaper but I have used this before for screen capture and editing)
a fast computer with a fancy video card for video rendering
a half decent microphone for voiceover
beers
I think a good format might be:
1 video per round
no more than 10 minutes per video
show triplea history
show physical board at start and end of the round
minimal voiceover
links in the description to the league forum, to this particular game, and to garg’s KISS guide
Maybe do several games that show some standard axis openers
After you make you video and you’re satisfied with it, it will be helpful for you to compress the file into an MP-4 before you try to upload it to YouTube. It will take forever if you try to upload a MOV file. I use a program called Handbreake to compress the file.
Here is a step by step that I use;
1. Film the video segments
2. Upload the files to my computer
3. Put the segments into iMovie and stitch together segments and edit if necessary
4. Save the video onto my desktop
5. Drag the video into Handbreake and compress into MP-4
6. Upload MP-4 file to my YouTube channel
7. While video is uploading, label the video and put in any other info, links, etc.
8. Select a thumbnail from the internet and upload it to my computer desktop. Select the thumbnail with the Custom Thumbnail function on the video info
9. Publish video when it’s finished uploading
10. Finish drinking the beer and watch the video to make sure it turned out right
You can pm me for my phone number if you need a more detailed explanation.
OK so far I was able to record some screen video of triplea, some phone video of my cat, put the clips together, added a nifty transition, recorded a voice over, auto-levelled and noise reduced the audio, and saved it as MP4 at 720p. I think that’s all I need. Going to practice this and make a prototype.
I watched two videos about Carriers operation.
Very interesting to start with a real board.
But, I cannot catch what was the specific lesson to learn from each about how to better use Fgs and Carrier.
In one video, I heard that 1 Carrier was able to bring 4 planes into battle.
Plainly stated, without details, it is against the rule.
So, I have to think about what you meant.
I have to infere that you were probably talking about exchanging two ground planes to land on carrier and 2 carrier-based to land on Australia.
Not clear though, more explanations needed.
Saying more and repeating things is better than being too laconic in such tutorial video.
Also, make a video about how to access to AA.org and get Triple A, then find a player, etc.
Just show relevant forum thread and OP, at least.
Even me, don’t know how to settle a game and make the PBEMail process begin and flow.
Baron, thanks for checking out the videos!
These are meant to be examples of complex moves. They may be obvious to some people but others may learn some insight by thinking about the moves rather than having the details explained to them. For example, the idea that you can use 1 carrier to get 4 fighters into a battle by being the launchpad for 2 fighters and the landing pad for 2 other fighters is something that a lot of people do not grasp. Likewise, using multinational carrier/plane combinations to expand movement and landing opportunities is also not well understood my many. A lot of people learn more effectively by actively thinking about something rather than being lectured to, so I will demonstrate some moves from real games but not lecture. Youtube is an informal context anyway, and no one wants a lecture.
The Anniversary video is an introductory one that shows you where to get the software etc that you need to play online.
Maybe I’m too much bias about tactics.
I like to talk and learned more and when reading, and more watching about them, I love to ear and enjoy all little details to see if I miss something about the general idea so I can learned more in-depth lessons.
In the specific case we are talking, I knew the principles of switching ground based and carrier based aircrafts. What, I was asking myself was: is this he talking about or it is something more specific?
And without details, I cannot tell for sure.
Nonetheless, this tactic is a really good choice to show and help people improve the use of Carrier.
Also, you are right about not telling all the details of moves for a given battle.
But still, I think that focusing to the one specific moves help everyone without being a full lesson.
In the videos we are talking, it would have been probably took 30 to 60 seconds at most.
Thanks Baron. I will keep it in mind for the new videos I make
Having thought about this I think our problem is not attracting new members but rather retaining them. We have many thousands of members but a tiny proportion of them current. If this is true then efforts to attract new members will achieve far more after we have improved our ability to keep them.
D jensen will have the data to tell us whether this is correct.
Without that data I would say that new members are drawn here by the forum being a repository for extras such as FAQs and playing aids and an informal opportunity for newbies to interact with more experienced players seeking advice and guidance.
So what might retain the interest of those new members we currently lose?
One example would be to try harder to attract them into the League, which is rather daunting if efforts are not made to draw new players in.
Definitely having solid getting started videos would be great.
A few other points:
It never hurts to offer
FREE BEER
Is the arrival of balanced mode creating a barrier / fracturing the community?
I’ve been sticking to second edition in order to keep the option to play table top / stay true to the official version.
I think Omega is right. Its hard enough for someone to try playing online, then they see this new bunch of rules and stuff called balance mod. It makes a barrier
I was wondering where all the new members are going to?
I mean, they sign up here and only 5% of the new members post in here on any of these threads.
Where are they going to? Do they only play online? Is the community different then here?
Is BM a barrier?
No. If that would be the case, then any new A&A game would be a barrier starting from the oldest Edition to the Brand new ones.
Omega you should try.
Lots of people still play OOB.
If we get balanced mode tuned just right, I could ask Larry for an “unofficially” commentary, and maybe have it considered 3rd edition cannon. But that’s besides the point.
Maybe we should start checking each day who’s newly registered and reaching out to them with PMs every time to plug them in to whatever part of our community they are interested in?
yea always try and make a point of being cool to someone with a legit question who is a new conscript as opposed to belittling them for their ignorance (of which there aren’t that many that do that). Think most people are pretty helpful.
