Last night I sat down and recorded the first good, usable take I've had in months for my YouTube playthrough of Mega Man 7. To illustrate how much of an accomplishment this is, let me give you a timeline of this video series' development:
March 10, 2012: The final bonus video for my Mega Man 6 playthrough is released. I'm free to start on MM7 whenever I please.
March 15, 2012: Preliminary practice begins for my playthrough of MM7. I haven't played this one as extensively as some of the NES games, and logistics are trickier with all the optional items and multiple paths, so more prep time is required to get this one to be on par with my other playthroughs.
March 31, 2012: I upload a fake teaser trailer for MM7, just in time for April Fools' day. The gag goes over pretty well, even though it's not the real trailer.
June 9, 2012: I record a good, useable take of MM7's intro stage. Seriously, it's taken me three months to get through the intro stage. This is gonna be a long one.
July 1, 2012: On a whim, I take a break to spend an afternoon recording a relaxed playthrough of Space Quest 0: Replicated. No showing off; no recording audio one section at a time until it's perfect; merely a casual "Let's Play" with quick-and-easy post-commentary. I'll spend a few days putting SQ0 together for GameCola, and then it's time to get serious with MM7.
January 13, 2013: The last installment of my SQ0 playthrough is released. I'm the best at what I do.
January 20, 2013: Recording resumes on MM7.
January 22, 2013: Negotiations begin to replace my aging computer with my friend's aging computer, which is something like two or three times as powerful. This is especially timely, as I've started to notice my computer struggling with recording some of the video footage for MM7.
February 22, 2013: I record a good, useable take of Burst Man's stage. But upon closer inspection, the footage is not so useable—the video gets choppy during some of the most entertaining moments, completely ruining the showoffery. Several retakes confirm that my computer cannot handle recording this stage, and there's nothing else I can do to tweak my settings to fix the problem without making the game window eye-strainingly tiny. Recording is put on hold until the new computer arrives.
April 1, 2013: I upload a fake "Part 1 of my MM7 playthrough" video for April Fools' day. Due to a massive technical issue, the initial release of the video does not go over well, and even once a correction has been made, there are still a number of very upset viewers demanding the real playthrough.
April 14, 2013: YOU GOT: NEW COMPUTER. In an ironic twist of fate, there's no place to plug my monitor into the new computer. I make arrangements to acquire an adapter plug, and begin the slow process of transferring all my data to an external hard drive, setting up the new computer, and transferring everything over.
April 27, 2013: New computer is up and running with a skeleton crew of programs and files.
May 6, 2013: The video recording shakedown cruise is a success. On a technical level, my video footage should be acceptable enough to make public. MM7 can now resume.
May 7, 2013: I record a good, useable take of Burst Man's stage.
But...
Now I'm paranoid the take I took isn't entertaining enough. Overall, it looks great. But some of the individual moments from previous takes were better. So I'm considering re-recording. At this point, I can no longer tell the difference between what's a genuinely good, useable take, and what's merely "good enough." I've lost all sense of objectivity. I can't see the footage the way a first-time viewer would anymore; I see it as a guy who's played this stage into the ground, knows what some of these sections usually look like, and is focusing more on the parts that should be better than on the ones that are better.
Until I'm back in the groove of recording new stages regularly—and not replaying the same stage I've been struggling with off and on for a year—it looks like I might have to outsource my objectivity. I think I'll let my wife have a sneak peek at the new footage and see what she thinks.
March 10, 2012: The final bonus video for my Mega Man 6 playthrough is released. I'm free to start on MM7 whenever I please.
March 15, 2012: Preliminary practice begins for my playthrough of MM7. I haven't played this one as extensively as some of the NES games, and logistics are trickier with all the optional items and multiple paths, so more prep time is required to get this one to be on par with my other playthroughs.
March 31, 2012: I upload a fake teaser trailer for MM7, just in time for April Fools' day. The gag goes over pretty well, even though it's not the real trailer.
June 9, 2012: I record a good, useable take of MM7's intro stage. Seriously, it's taken me three months to get through the intro stage. This is gonna be a long one.
July 1, 2012: On a whim, I take a break to spend an afternoon recording a relaxed playthrough of Space Quest 0: Replicated. No showing off; no recording audio one section at a time until it's perfect; merely a casual "Let's Play" with quick-and-easy post-commentary. I'll spend a few days putting SQ0 together for GameCola, and then it's time to get serious with MM7.
January 13, 2013: The last installment of my SQ0 playthrough is released. I'm the best at what I do.
January 20, 2013: Recording resumes on MM7.
January 22, 2013: Negotiations begin to replace my aging computer with my friend's aging computer, which is something like two or three times as powerful. This is especially timely, as I've started to notice my computer struggling with recording some of the video footage for MM7.
February 22, 2013: I record a good, useable take of Burst Man's stage. But upon closer inspection, the footage is not so useable—the video gets choppy during some of the most entertaining moments, completely ruining the showoffery. Several retakes confirm that my computer cannot handle recording this stage, and there's nothing else I can do to tweak my settings to fix the problem without making the game window eye-strainingly tiny. Recording is put on hold until the new computer arrives.
April 1, 2013: I upload a fake "Part 1 of my MM7 playthrough" video for April Fools' day. Due to a massive technical issue, the initial release of the video does not go over well, and even once a correction has been made, there are still a number of very upset viewers demanding the real playthrough.
April 14, 2013: YOU GOT: NEW COMPUTER. In an ironic twist of fate, there's no place to plug my monitor into the new computer. I make arrangements to acquire an adapter plug, and begin the slow process of transferring all my data to an external hard drive, setting up the new computer, and transferring everything over.
April 27, 2013: New computer is up and running with a skeleton crew of programs and files.
May 6, 2013: The video recording shakedown cruise is a success. On a technical level, my video footage should be acceptable enough to make public. MM7 can now resume.
May 7, 2013: I record a good, useable take of Burst Man's stage.
But...
Now I'm paranoid the take I took isn't entertaining enough. Overall, it looks great. But some of the individual moments from previous takes were better. So I'm considering re-recording. At this point, I can no longer tell the difference between what's a genuinely good, useable take, and what's merely "good enough." I've lost all sense of objectivity. I can't see the footage the way a first-time viewer would anymore; I see it as a guy who's played this stage into the ground, knows what some of these sections usually look like, and is focusing more on the parts that should be better than on the ones that are better.
Until I'm back in the groove of recording new stages regularly—and not replaying the same stage I've been struggling with off and on for a year—it looks like I might have to outsource my objectivity. I think I'll let my wife have a sneak peek at the new footage and see what she thinks.
RSS Feed
