EDIT: The following videos are better and more thorough than the video originally posted here. I recommend viewing these videos in favor of the original:

https://youtu.be/9TA1Vq46DmA
https://youtu.be/wUYpjd9fOmA

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

Hi all,

In lieu of streaming (as I normally do), I decided to give recording myself playing a 1v1 strat MME game and trying my best to describe my thoughts as I pick the board and play out the game a shot. This game features a situation where I have to use my position and outpredict my opponent in order to win the game while behind on income:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAKlOwkoo9M&feature=youtu.be

I will probably stick to these live no-cut takes for my videos since I don't have too much time to spend to learn how to edit. Nevertheless, if you enjoy the video or have advice to me on what could be helpful when I am commentating, please let me know, as I will be planning on doing more of these in the future.

-Aura

Edited 6/24/2020 06:36:19

gj

Aura, I don't think this format really worked all that well. I know you're a capable player, but I think live commenting distracted you from your actual gameplay. Some mistakes you made in the game:

1) You can take all your initial bonuses on turn 3 by moving to India turn 2. This makes your game significantly easier, as you either are much closer to completing things in Africa or maybe counter Malaysia turn 4.

2) Forgot reinforce card existed.

3) Probably should've taken Beijing much earlier than you planned to as West China + East Russia = 11 income while Indonesia + Australia is 9 and you can abuse double borders so seems a more effective strategy to win down income. All you really need to do is equalize income as position and expansion is SOOOOO much better for you.

Also there was no discussion of turn order when it's critically important in a game like this.

I'm guessing the point of the video is to help newer players learn how to size up boards, and strategize. To that effect I would recommend maybe doing videos reviewing games you've already played instead of live commenting a game. Maybe going over some ladder games since those will be higher quality than real time.

My 2 cents.

Edited 6/22/2020 06:47:59

yea actually playing games and giving commentary while reviewing them is the best as you can pause/play and also explain what mistakes your opponent made.

Mr. Glass,

Thank you. That is very good advice. Xeno more or less told me something similar. In the future my plan is to prepare a script of an already completed game instead, have Xeno or another top player look through it to make sure I am not missing anything, and discuss important/key factors rather than trying to do this on the fly. It was readily evident the quality of the result to me the second xeno said "good job on creating a video on how NOT to play".

-Aura

Nice friend

Nice work Aura ;)

Thanks for the video! Will have to watch it!

I think recording your real-time thoughts is fine, it shows that not everybody plays perfectly at all times. However, I would suggest doing it like kcscrag. He played Multi-day games and recorded his thoughts whenever he took his turn. Then compiled that into a video. I know you said you don't have much time to learn how to edit, but you could essentially just make a lot of short clips and compile them together to form one video. That isnt a lot of editing work and you should have it under control really quickly. The multiday aspect allows you to take your time to analyze your turns and explain why something will or won't work.

You can check out some of his vids here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R-dRLmnWog&list=PLxwMHS8kAEZO4R2VeUNA4ClIG_4Eq44uj

Thanks for the advice, min! I think I might end up trying it both ways - The way xeno/glass suggested, and the way you suggested.

Aura, why did you blacklist me? I'm hurt

Hello All,

I took another stab at it, this time reviewing a past game where I took the time to focus on play. Kudos to xenophon for helping me with this!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TA1Vq46DmA

I liked this one a lot better. Nice job!

Nice work Aura!

New video up: This one is shorter and focuses more on counting to ensure a won position.

https://youtu.be/wUYpjd9fOmA

This video helped a lot, thanks for making it!

New video is much better! Keep up the good work!