New youtube channel for commentating of BGA replays

[Name_Taken]

oh no, OP never did respond, my bad. will edit. As an example, Ceaseless has the type of "good at games" profile suitable for competitive BGA game analysis I was thinking of.

But would the videos be fun to watch? Expertise alone might not be enough. OP might not be an expert but I can tell from the first 5 seconds alone his videos are gonna be engaging and fun and he's motivated to produce something meaningful that helps other players. Your boy here might be the number one player but I've already had enough of his attitude and I ain't even heard his voice yet lol

[BananaHarambe]

I agree that OP is engaging in the videos with good "talking to camera" skills required for content creation. As long as OP makes videos on games they enjoy the content will be good.

[Name_Taken]

Hi everyone,

I'm starting a new youtube channel to share BGA replays with the public with my analysis added in. The objective of the channel is to cater to folks who already know how to play the games (although I did just do a how-to video on Pacifica) and appreciate discussion/analysis of the strategy of the game. I am trying to present it as an e-sport channel to try to differentiate from all the how-to channels that cater to new players/players learning the game. Would love some feedback on the channel from the experts over here at BGA. Are the videos entertaining? Is it boring and no one is going to watch? I enjoy making the content but it'd be great to know what you think of it as consumers of content.

Here's the link, feel free to spread it around to anyone you might think is interested. I'll try to add new content every week. Who knows, maybe the channel will go viral (although I know that's an uphill climb).

https://www.youtube.com/@CDNBoardGameReplays

ok well your thread here went BGA Forums Viral and now we're doing all the work for you so get back in here with some commentatoring on the commentatoring

[pault111]

Thanks for the feedback. You should really check out Pacifica, it is a great mid-level game. Same with Loot. I will take another look at the videos I made for up or down. I understand your perspective showing of the opponent's hand and I'll take a think on it. I think there are pros and cons to both showing the hands and not. I like the idea of showing them so that I can analyse both my play, as well as their play but I can appreciate your point about trying to predict their hand.

I am new at this and I'm going to be learning as I go.

Paul

You wrote about expert opinion and e-sport. Based on this, I would prefer to see less random games. I haven't heard about pacifica and loot and don't have enough experience in tacta, but I know up and down, dice mission, flip 7 and fliptoons, and I don't think these games can bring long-term viewers to the channel (they aren't deep enough).

I liked your tacta video and the idea of showing the hands of both players. The only thing I was missing was the sign of which hand was which. And in my opinion the game lacks a bit of analysis.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same about up and down. The screen was cut too and unevenly, and there was no analysis, as if you were mindlessly watching a movie. In addition, showing the opponent's hand in this game is not very good, as it deprives the viewer of awareness of one of the essential elements of the game - predicting the opponent's hand.

Despite my mixed reviews, I am glad that there is another channel for board games.

[pault111]

Thanks for the feedback. I like to think that I'm moderately "good at games", so hopefully I can bring those skills to bare. Ticket to Ride is a good idea, I'll work on some of those. I'm not claiming to be perfect, just a guy who wants to discuss games and spread the word to increase interest. Depending on interest I will either do more random games, or focus on the games that get the most views. I'm new at this and learning all the time. This is mostly just a hobby for me unless it happens to take off. I fully understand that this channel is very niche and probably will only have a very remote following... Or maybe I'm wrong. I guess time will tell.

I think a channel like that is a great idea, but would need to done by a player that is "good at games" that can provide accurate insight and would want to focus on the most popular strategy games on BGA like Ark, TFM, CATAN, Azul, TTR with arena settings. I don't think the smaller games have much audience.

Lots of people do this for Chess already which has a huge audience and a huge advantage with computer engines being able to review games to assist with meaningful commentary about mistakes and critical moves. Reviewing games on BGA without an "engine" will require you to be very well versed in the game to be meaningful in my opinion.

[pault111]

Thanks for the reply. My initial thought for this channel is to provide commentated gameplay with analysis that discusses the "why did they do that?" question. Perhaps I can focus a bit more on the introductory how-to part of the game for video per game, so if someone wants that they can goto that video but then future videos focus more on the strategy/analysis side? Like you said, we'll see how it works out.

I gotta say, those were really such perfectly polite ways to say "You Aren't Good Enough For This", I mean whether they are right or wrong, they deserve some credit for doing it politely lol

I haven't analyzed the analyses closely enough to judge that myself, but I want to say something that can apply either way: There is plenty of room (imo) for the right kind of niche channel somewhere in between How To and Gameplay. And this is all my opinion but I do sometimes wish there was a new channel somewhere in the middle, because there are so many How To videos that really just read the manual to the camera, and many Gameplay videos that won't be helpful to someone who also needs a little How To. But if there was a channel to bridge that gap? A quick How To and some introductory gameplay, and analyses from the pov of a new player? Before being ready for some serious strategizing? Could be an opportunity for the right new channel regardless of skill level...

[pault111]

What do you mean by "good at games" profile? Are you looking for someone who has a very high ELO or highly seeded in the arena mode?
I'm not claiming to be a pro gamers, just a guy who likes to play games. Of course I always play to win, but I don't focus on any one particular game enough to be super pro at it. I really appreciate all the feedback and replies. I take all that in and then see what I use to get better.

oh no, OP never did respond, my bad. will edit. As an example, Ceaseless has the type of "good at games" profile suitable for competitive BGA game analysis I was thinking of.

[BananaHarambe]

What do you mean by "good at games" profile? Are you looking for someone who has a very high ELO or highly seeded in the arena mode?
I'm not claiming to be a pro gamers, just a guy who likes to play games. Of course I always play to win, but I don't focus on any one particular game enough to be super pro at it. I really appreciate all the feedback and replies. I take all that in and then see what I use to get better.

oh no, OP never did respond, my bad. will edit. As an example, Ceaseless has the type of "good at games" profile suitable for competitive BGA game analysis I was thinking of.

Some players on BGA appear to be abnormally good at board games based on reviewing their profile. That means multiple games that are 500+ rated or top rated in the game depending on its distribution. These players will have high win rates in pretty much any game across the board even at fairly low play counts ( ~20). I have quite a few people like this in my friends list since they have completed at Vale of Eternity and are very good at many other games.

Some people are just built different. After 5 plays of something they will play the game better than many people will after over 100 games because they have strong analytical skills and have likely mastered similar games before. A good predictor of whether someone will become good at a new game on BGA is if they are good at other games. I imagine these people are data analysts or something similar in real life.

Not saying you need to be like this to make meaningful analysis. Someone that analytical is unlikely to be good at entertaining as well. There are limits to how deep you can analyze with your video style without boring most people to death over explaining.

[Name_Taken]

I know one person like that. Part of me still thinks he was messing with me and secretly he was already good at all these games before we met. It was surreal.

[BarnardsStar]

The analogy that keeps coming to mind is science… there are absolutely brilliant scientists out there, Nobel Prize winners, who can’t communicate their work. Boring to listen to at parties, etc. Then there are the Carl Sagans and Neil deGrasse Tyson’s, who make it all very approachable and interesting, but who wouldn’t themselves necessarily win any grand prizes.

BUT they have their areas of expertise, namely space and astrophysics for both of them, and wouldn’t necessarily be any good with, say, biology.

Then there is Ira Flatow, the host of Science Friday. He never went further than a BS in engineering, and went almost straight into broadcasting, but now he interviews scientists every week all across the spectrum of science, and makes it all understandable and approachable.

So… you can be a Nobel prize winner of board games, or you can be somebody who makes Wingspan and Azul and Catan approachable but not necessarily very good at Go, Scythe, or Can’t Stop.

Or you could be the Ira Flatow of board games… bring others on your show, talk to them about their preferred areas of expertise, and cover a wider spectrum.

Just a thought.