I’ve been thinking about a solution for viewer fatigue, making videos shorter, making things more concise, and doing that without heaping a massive amount of work on the organizers.
(Quick TL:DR: Start each day of the event with a quick summary video of what’s upcoming. Also, put new projects at the start of the event and returning projects at the end.)
The solution I came up with: Make one video per day of the event (ie; it would be 18 videos for this year) that quickly showcases and summarizes the projects being displayed. Then, a few hours later, post the LP-format videos, or full trailers, or whatever else.
Let’s Plays are not particularly interesting to watch, they have a huge time investment, and the commentary quality can differ from person to person. When you watch an LP you’re often not getting any insights on what makes the project unique and interesting. The majority of LP commentary is typically “Oh wow, a critical. Ha, he hit! Gosh, that animation sure looks cool.”
The problem is, let’s plays are not inherently interesting, but even more important, they do not serve the purpose of FEE3 itself; showing off the projects the community has made.
Let me posit a question: What is the ultimate point of FEE3? I believe its function is to bring awareness to people about cool new projects in the community, as well as to update long-time viewers about the progress of older projects.
If we assume that is the case, then there is one type of LP that genuinely works for FEE3, and that is a developer interview. Hearing from the dev their goals for the project while someone LP’s the submission is actually very interesting.
If you’re going to do longform videos, this is the best and most effective way to pull them off. Yes, the commentary was a tad stilted here and there, and yes, the microphone quality wasn’t amazing, but it perfectly accomplished the goal of FEE3.
However, another issue is that many, possibly most developers don’t have the time or ability to provide this kind of insightful and useful commentary about their vision for their project. Some people don’t have microphones, others live in houses with paper thin walls (see: me. This is why I don’t make youtube videos anymore, because it’s awkward having people hear me talk to myself) and a host of other reasons.
So, if longform developer commentary is the best method of accomplishing FEE3’s goals, but it’s hard to pull off en-masse, then we’re back at my original suggestion: Start-of-day Summary Videos.
Imagine if at 6 AM each day, a FEE3 video dropped that would take about, oh, say, ten minutes to talk about the projects being featured that day. 2.5 minutes per project. Write a script for each video, record the commentary, and use clips that the LPers submitted to play in the background while the designated commentator speaks about those projects.
These were day 1’s projects. Assuming you were to go back in time and retroactively apply this sort of summary video, you would start by talking about Vision Quest’s history, Pandan’s goals, and other topical things. Then, 2.5 minutes in, you transition to a similar bit about Last Heavenly Throne. Rinse and repeat. You’d end up with 18 videos in total, one for each day of the event.
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Finally, one more suggestion. FEE3 puts a lot of preference and favoritism towards certain projects. FE7x is the obvious one, but there are others too. Frankly, I don’t actually care. So long as projects aren’t outright excluded, slighted, or ignored, it’s a whatever to me. That being said, I’ve seen people complain about this, too. So, I propose for next year you divide the event into three segments. I’ll use this FEE3 as the example.
Days 1-8: Brand new projects only. Start off the event with cool new projects that weren’t here for the last FEE3. To avoid bias, choose the order with a randomizer, or group them by similarity. We had an FE9 demake this year as well as Sacred Echoes; they’re both demakes, so why not group them together? I don’t remember if Sacred Echoes was in the last few FEE3’s, but assuming it wasn’t, it could be cool to put the demakes together. Why not have a whole ‘demake day,’ eh?
Days 9-12: Showcases for things like new community tools, updates to tools, animation showcases, etc.
Days 13+: Returning veterans! Once again, I recommend either grouping them by similarity, or by using RNG to determine the order.
One reason I bring up this second issue, of favoritism, is because ‘big old projects’ not only started the event, but ended it, too. I get not wanting to start off with the equivalent of a wet fart. I get that starting with some ‘mediocre’ new project would be a lame way to start the event. Even so, there are countless cool new projects that keep popping up; finding a few that have suitable quality for a day 1 banger shouldn’t be too hard. Newbies should get the first section, and vets should finish us off with an explosion of awesome.
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That’s it. Those are my suggestions.
TL:DR, short intro videos for each day - start with newbies and finish with returning vets.
Edit:
One last thing. This needs to not happen. There is nothing more gross than when someone uses FEE3 as a moment to shame or attack a project. I don’t actually know which video Mermur is referring to here (I haven’t watched even half of FEE3 because, well, it’s long) but I remember at least two instances in past FEE3’s where the commentator(s) would shit on the project they were playing. It’s tasteless, rude, and leaves a sour taste in the mouth. I can’t even remember which videos they were, since they were a long time ago (and Grandfather Klok is old) but I remember getting very angry at the presentation of said videos.
