MNC Issues:Teaching New People

No no not that but having an attached name would be nice.

I mean like recognition as in getting someone at Uber into the idea of having this happen. Sooner than later.

Last part, exactly. Voice quality would be key.

Well I guess they can always re-record the audio track. The competition would just take a bunch of the workload off with respect to planning what to say / what to show. Plus community involvement is always cool.

Or maybe they can cut together a few of the best videos in each category... I don't know, I'm just throwing out some ideas I'm not a small details kinda guy.

Well I'm the kind of person that likes to have something solid after a good deal of talk has been done.

Something that we could say was the preliminary try.

Who of us who has a good gaming rig is up to capturing some prime how-to footage over the weekend?

Define "How-To".

As far as the voice>text thing goes. I disagree. They both have their moments. Text is great for step by step and voice is great for elaboration.

A good tutorial video should have both.

How to being clips from various matches that serve as an exemplum for each main point.

SUCH AS:
-Use the Annihilator to gain an advantage
-Ejectors kill bot waves and stun players
-Use your bots as cover when taking on turrets so the next wave can make it through
-Sometimes chasing pros is not worth losing the game

I just saw a link to this thread wanting video guides. I am currently at work and haven't read over anything in this thread yet. But I just want to say that I plan on making some basic/mid-skill guides for a couple classes in a few weeks (things are really hectic now).

Guides Currently Planned
-Support
-Tank
-Overall MNC Guide (not limited to classes, general tips)

I am level 93 and mostly play Support and Tank with the 'Overtime Assassin'. The only class I never touch is Sniper but I would still do a guide for him if people wanted me to.

I have been making fps guides (and have an fps weekly Q&A show for the past 4.5 years). I record my videos live (I play while I talk) and don't do much editing because I believe raw footage is the only footage that shows true gameplay. I mostly teach low-mid level players because advanced players won't need my help anyway.

You can check out my website and videos at http://GoATFO.com

As stated before, I'll read up on what you all said and check back in. Maybe we can split the workload or collaborate or something. (I haven't done fps collaboration stuff yet)

That would be great.

Getting someone more experienced in this would be great.

I'm into having some minute long videos for basic class use and one for overall crossfire play. Some more indepth videos would be great if they were external to the game but linked to.

I'd like to get talking about the overall flow if we go the community submitted route with short class based videos for say... the support. He's a class that can do a lot with little money.

I like the idea of video tutorials, but I think the voice overs should be done by Mickey Cantor. I mean, he's only been calling this sport for three decades.

Only problem I see with that is that there are a limited amount of quotes and I'm not sure they can get the VA back.

Here are some observations on video guides:

If I just upload a Support guide to YouTube (without paying to promote it or whatever), it will probably only get a few hundred views if we are lucky. People may be able to find it by searching "Support Guide", but there is a large amount of crappy commentary videos a bunch of people made when the game first came out. The videos don't say much, and most of the people are playing Support (or whatever featured class) for the very first time :shock: . 5 years ago I was lucky to be one of the few people making video commentaries but now everybody and their mother are making them, and poorly at that (not that I make super great videos, but at least my stuff usually has a purpose beyond "Look I'm on YouTube!").

That being said, if video guides are made then there needs to be something done to promote them. A Sticky thread on the forums would be a great place to start. A news update on the Steam MNC blog would be fantastic as well!


Organize

If you guys are planning on making video guides we may want to break up the workload. We should start a thread to get better organized listing who will record what in the first post, and also planning what will be covered in each person's video if we want to have 1 great guide instead of 3 good guides. We will need to nominate a group organizer to run the thread, I can do it if you want me to but things will be pretty busy for me until June. I recommend whoever will be doing main clip compiling and editing should be in charge.


What Viewers Like

Here is what your average modern viewer wants to see:

• -Only Footage of the Player Dominating
  -Fancy Video and Sound Editing
  -The Video Uploaded First

My style of videos don't go with the major trend these days, I am saying this so you aren't surprised if people don't like my videos. For one I will record and post good or bad gameplay because both are important. Most people feel showing how to win is all you need, but I think it is also good for players to see why I may be losing (I break it down of course). Whether I dominate or lose is purely random to the game I happen to be recording in. If for some reason the footage seems useless then I will rerecord (rarely happens).

I also don't put much time into fancy editing, and I don't have game sound in my videos. As said before, I like showing all my gameplay, plus I do so many things I don't have time to spend editing videos. As for in-game sound, that is disabled because I am limited to the recording technology (and I don't do voice-overs on only my dominating matches).

As for the third point, we already missed the mark for getting an instantly popular video. That doesn't mean people won't find our guides if they search though!


My Tutorial Style

Usually I will cram all the information into the beginning of the video, then play a few matches afterwords commenting on the situations and how I'm utilizing the information said in the beginning. Since I record live the beginning gameplay won't be as good because I am focused on giving a speech, so the later footage makes up for it by providing more-focused gameplay.

I can record my guides rather quickly; all I do is compile the information and decide which order to present, then press the record button.


Modern Style

The modern trend for full-game commentaries is to record all of your matches, pick the one where you dominate the most, and talk over it.

Of course if you could get footage breaking down situations like using your bots as a shield when attacking turrets, that is the best way to demonstrate both with video and audio. My videos definitely lack this in the initial information presentation.


Side Service

One other thing I have done is Player Critiques; players send me a video of them playing and I will critique their individual gameplay and try to tell them how to improve. If you know somebody looking for that extra bit of personal help (and who can record themself), send them my way.

Critiques I have done: http://goatfo.com/main/videos/player-critiques/
Critique Submission: http://goatfo.com/main/videos/tutorials ... -critique/

I find step by step instructions to be the most helpful for teaching new players advanced techniques. Things need to be slowed down to make it easier to absorb, and editing can only do so much.

Simulated situations of common encounters with both players working towards making it easy to understand is key. Simple things such as "Katana does more damage from behind, even when not grappling, especially against bots" and "the Hurt function heals you" CAN be said during gameplay(certain points are likely to be missed), but pointing out just how effective things are isn't shown as well.

If I were to try to make a tutorial video(can't sadly), I would work with another person in the same server, put a password on it, and rotate through the classes. Add voice after the match, add some easy peasy-text over it to punctuate key points, and release the videos. The person would stand still when I asked them to, attack/charge when I asked them to, and do other things to make instructions not only easily organized with minimal editing, but easy to see.

I disagree with using actual footage in any but prime instances for the tutorials, and never anything longer than a few seconds.

There should be a basic overview of how the game works *cough*http://www.uberent.com/media/videos/monday_night_combat_xbla_pax_gameplay*cough*(updated with juice and overtime segments and you've got a solid basic guide to how the game works)
And individual guides for each class with a short overview of each weapon and skill, with a few advanced tips. A separate juice guide is most likely warranted.

Watching a tutorial is different from watching a random gameplay video. While gameplay videos can be used to show real instances in the game, they aren't noob friendly, at all. There is a reason stuff is toned down in tutorials, it's because it's easier to absorb one thing at a time. You can't get that in a normal game.

I made a thread to collect Support tips for the first video:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=9917

New tutorials would take a long time to do, as each one would probably require a different map or still be lacking.

This would be better if there was a 'save replay' function like in SCII where at the end of the game you can save a small file which allows people to view the whole game. That way players could still perform well, my framerate drops too much if I record, so I couldn't post an actual video.

A mentor system would be kind of cool. I have taught a few players who asked me how to get better, but you can only do so much to help the deathmatch sin who refuses to take advise and thinks a score of 2 - 0 - 18 - 0 is good.

I've been teaching as many newbies as I could find recently.

I was playing on Pub and enemy team had one of those "Pro Huting Assasins" with like 1.0 K/D, and low bot kills. And I wanted to be nice and i said: " Guys, you should not be pro hunting, Assasins are made for Bot killing and to deny important targets" their answer was "Lol u mad bro? Tank is meant to do this, l2p noob" the second one trolled me as well. I tryed o be nice I kept telling them (In a nice way, that Assasin is actualy a bad pro hunter and that any competent player will be a hard target for them) Then they started to troll me in tandem.
I bought lvl3 Assault charge as my answer and taunted the **** out of them. Doube RageQuit was so lovely
That about mine experience about teaching random people, yes random, cuz few people actualy added me to friend list to get some info and I helped.
I think that Adopt a noob thread is really helpful for teaching new people and I agree that video tutorials from Uber/us would be good as well

I didn't see a video when I started this game, showing someone "dominating" at a class.

Maybe that is why I play so bad now. :cry:

Everyone, quote that, it will be the only time I ever say it. Even sarcastically.

Personally, I think people could understand non-video guides if need be, and even where video guides would be convinent, I really think someone better be sure not to make it common day video garbage.

Ok. Those who are teaching new people, please stress the importance of tower defense and LEAVING THE DARN BASE WHEN IT'S OVERTIME!!

It's so frustrating to have played a great game and have it go in overtime because I'm the only person attacking the moneyball...

I would be willing to do all of the class guide videos. I had already planned on doing them in my MNC101 series anyway. Unfortunately, we're a bit late to the game. I'm certain the videos could still do some good though.

I'd like to think I can play every class in the game pretty well but I do plan to use other excellent players in the guides. I'll try to get the first one done in the next week or so. I'll be sure to let you all know what I come up with.