The ultimate checklist for casters!

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Netherlands MCJim
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The ultimate checklist for casters!

Post by MCJim »

I think we all can conclude this tourney was very nice and enjoyable to watch! Many thanks for all people who made this tourney possible and especially to Samwise12, who won this tournament.

But except the fact that we all enjoyed it, I notice its hard to get streams up in time. And mostly then theres much downtime due to little things like lag, no UI installed, bad Skype volume etc... Thats why I want to make a checklist for the casters to improve their streams. Its just important to get as many viewers as possible. We have to reach many viewers on Twitch, and after a stream their feeling has to be positive. Right now I often see people complaining about little things as I listed above. To attract more people, the streams have to be perfect and streamed in time. We did reach 900+ viewers in the Spring Tourney and we didnt reach it this time due to the late start of the stream. Im sure many people wont bother about this, but on the other hand Im sure many will.
I really appreciate all the effort that is put into streams but since I'm not a caster, Id like to help the actual casters with this checklist. :D


Image


- Make sure the newest UI version is installed and configured right.
- Make sure the ingame volume is right.
- If you are going to cast an important series, do a lag test in time.
- During a duo cast, check in time if you both are on the same volume.
- Don't forget to remove the overlay from the stream.
- Start in time, so people can tune in.
- Mute your Skype and other background noises.
- Make sure you don't play copyrighted music on the background as that can cause trouble later on.




(More? Reply!)
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No Flag Jaeger
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Post by Jaeger »

Don't forget to remove the overlay! I actually don't even like the overlay at all, it's better to stare at a guy starting up aoe3 than at a dumb picture.
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Post by britishmusketeer »

ovi12 wrote:Don''t forget to remove the overlay! I actually don''t even like the overlay at all, it''s better to stare at a guy starting up aoe3 than at a dumb picture.
+1
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Post by SaDe »

Don't alt tab out of game to look at Skype gr or w.e. very distracting and unprofessional

Turn background noises off, skype calls, music, gr sounds etc
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Post by momuuu »

Put skype and stuff on busy. I dont like the disappointnent following the hype that I might have gotten a message which I didnt actually get.
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Post by willhaversham »

Again, not a caster and don't want to sound inconsiderate. I appreciate the contribution of the casters and think they do a very good job.

The key factor I would like casters to resolve is being prompt. If a stream is scheduled to start at say 6pm, I would expect the stream to go live any time between 5:59 and 6:03 (allowing for the delay that casters sometimes impose). My first view should be the players in the game, with the map set up, ready to select what civ they want to play. If this means players and casters need to prepare for 30 minutes before the stream starts, then so be it.

It seems that delayed streams have become something of a habit. Sometimes, this can mean hundreds of people can be left waiting, second guessing themselves if they have the date or the time right, or whether something else has come up that means the players won't be streaming. For the sake of some preparation time on behalf of the casters, these issues could be spared.
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Post by Qulala »

willhaversham wrote:Again, not a caster and don''t want to sound inconsiderate. I appreciate the contribution of the casters and think they do a very good job.

The key factor I would like casters to resolve is being prompt. If a stream is scheduled to start at say 6pm, I would expect the stream to go live any time between 5:59 and 6:03 (allowing for the delay that casters sometimes impose). My first view should be the players in the game, with the map set up, ready to select what civ they want to play. If this means players and casters need to prepare for 30 minutes before the stream starts, then so be it.

It seems that delayed streams have become something of a habit. Sometimes, this can mean hundreds of people can be left waiting, second guessing themselves if they have the date or the time right, or whether something else has come up that means the players won''t be streaming. For the sake of some preparation time on behalf of the casters, these issues could be spared.

wew, such high standars you guys want. afcourse i want to have my streams on time, but you cant have everything

remember that the people that cast are just people like you and me who just happen to have a microphone and a twitch account
and dont mind to talk about a game wich happens in front of them. (because they are high ranked players and know what is happening, and one day decided to tell that to others who listen to that via stream)
they are not professional sport commentators or people who know evething about any program they use.
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Post by SoldieR »

Ya being on time is big. Everything else falls in if you are there half hour early. I woke up late today and was quite upset because I knew the being late reputation and wanted to start on time. Casters need to be there 30 min before start time while players and viewers just need start time
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Post by benj89 »

feel like this topic was needed! Except for today's stream (which was great), I indeed think that casters should check the chat a bit more for feedback
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Post by thebritish »

+1
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Post by thebritish »

CAsters can even start streaming 5 minutes before the real time and then when the time is on, the match can start begin
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Post by thebritish »

mcjim wrote:I think we all can conclude this tourney was very nice and enjoyable to watch! Many thanks for all people who made this tourney possible and especially to Samwise12, who won this tournament.

But except the fact that we all enjoyed it, I notice its hard to get streams up in time. And mostly then theres much downtime due to little things like lag, no UI installed, bad Skype volume etc... Thats why I want to make a checklist for the casters to improve their streams. Its just important to get as many viewers as possible. We have to reach many viewers on Twitch, and after a stream their feeling has to be positive. Right now I often see people complaining about little things as I listed above. To attract more people, the streams have to be perfect and streamed in time. We did reach 900+ viewers in the Spring Tourney and we didnt reach it this time due to the late start of the stream. Im sure many people wont bother about this, but on the other hand Im sure many will.
I really appreciate all the effort that is put into streams but since Im not a caster, Id like to help the actual casters with this checklist. :D


[img]http://i.imgur.com/tUHwe18.jpg[/img]


[ul type="disc"][li]Make sure the UI is installed and configured right.[/li][li]Make sure the ingame volume is right.[/li][li]If you are going to cast an important series, do a lag test in time.[/li][li]During a duo cast, check in time if you both are on the same volume.[/li][li](More? Reply!)
Perfect writing (rofl) :D :thumbsup:
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Post by japanesegeneral »

iamsoldier wrote:Ya being on time is big. Everything else falls in if you are there half hour early. I woke up late today and was quite upset because I knew the being late reputation and wanted to start on time. Casters need to be there 30 min before start time while players and viewers just need start time

Well players might be there 5 mins earlier for lag tests.That would be perfect.
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Post by _tank »

this being said, I think it is awesome aoe3 has so many dedicated and awesome casters who are free to cast on a regular basis
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Post by Hagi »

I have a serious proposal to improve players' comfort, casting quality and viewers count.
The overall idea is to stream the match 30mn after it started in live.
Game start with 2 players and a referee that is there only to check the map is fair and record the game.
2 casters will then wait the game finish, get the record from the referee, use the Aizamk (soon to be released) Spectator UI 2.0, set everything on high graphic quality with balanced sound between the game and casters.
As a result, there will be no lag (or much less) for the players and the viewers will have the best watchable quality.
I only see big improvements with the only downside of a 30mn delay compare to real live stream.
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Post by momuuu »

iamsoldier wrote:Ya being on time is big. Everything else falls in if you are there half hour early. I woke up late today and was quite upset because I knew the being late reputation and wanted to start on time. Casters need to be there 30 min before start time while players and viewers just need start time

I appreciated it, couldnt make 17 gmt :p

adv wrote:I have a serious proposal to improve players comfort, casting quality and viewers count.
The overall idea is to stream the match 30mn after it started in live.
Game start with 2 players and a referee that is there only to check the map is fair and record the game.
2 casters will then wait the game finish, get the record from the referee, use the Aizamk (soon to be released) Spectator UI 2.0, set everything on high graphic quality with balanced sound between the game and casters.
As a result, there will be no lag (or much less) for the players and the viewers will have the best watchable quality.
I only see big improvements with the only downside of a 30mn delay compare to real live stream.

recorded games are really messy tbh. They often playback much slow than normal games do, and you see when the games gonna end. I like the live casts, acer just needs better internet :p
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Post by Hagi »

jerom wrote:
iamsoldier wrote:Ya being on time is big. Everything else falls in if you are there half hour early. I woke up late today and was quite upset because I knew the being late reputation and wanted to start on time. Casters need to be there 30 min before start time while players and viewers just need start time
I appreciated it, couldnt make 17 gmt :p

adv wrote:I have a serious proposal to improve players comfort, casting quality and viewers count.
The overall idea is to stream the match 30mn after it started in live.
Game start with 2 players and a referee that is there only to check the map is fair and record the game.
2 casters will then wait the game finish, get the record from the referee, use the Aizamk (soon to be released) Spectator UI 2.0, set everything on high graphic quality with balanced sound between the game and casters.
As a result, there will be no lag (or much less) for the players and the viewers will have the best watchable quality.
I only see big improvements with the only downside of a 30mn delay compare to real live stream.
recorded games are really messy tbh. They often playback much slow than normal games do, and you see when the games gonna end. I like the live casts, acer just needs better internet :p

I also noticed recorded games are usually slower than real time games, even though I got a recent PC for gamer.
But, since I apply the Lag fix from aenna, it looks normal speed now.
As for your last point, I dont think it will be too difficult to hide the scroll bar so we wont be able to tell when the game finished.
I believe that Interjection with his OP computer and OP internet connection will be able to give us a highly graphic streams.
Im not sure if twitch is better but I have seen live stream channels on youtube and never experience latency like I saw on twitch. But maybe the youtube one is not free? No idea...
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Post by MCJim »

jerom wrote:
iamsoldier wrote:Ya being on time is big. Everything else falls in if you are there half hour early. I woke up late today and was quite upset because I knew the being late reputation and wanted to start on time. Casters need to be there 30 min before start time while players and viewers just need start time
I appreciated it, couldnt make 17 gmt :p

adv wrote:I have a serious proposal to improve players comfort, casting quality and viewers count.
The overall idea is to stream the match 30mn after it started in live.
Game start with 2 players and a referee that is there only to check the map is fair and record the game.
2 casters will then wait the game finish, get the record from the referee, use the Aizamk (soon to be released) Spectator UI 2.0, set everything on high graphic quality with balanced sound between the game and casters.
As a result, there will be no lag (or much less) for the players and the viewers will have the best watchable quality.
I only see big improvements with the only downside of a 30mn delay compare to real live stream.
recorded games are really messy tbh. They often playback much slow than normal games do, and you see when the games gonna end. I like the live casts, acer just needs better internet :p

I dont really like the idea though. A recorded game doesnt support Aizamks UI and you miss the players chats. Not that its so important, but its still fun to see for example their stuggles they show us in their chats.

Its also not very nice to keep waiting for the recorded games. If you cast a 10 min recorded game, theres a big chance you have to wait for the next game if they are playing it in the mean time. Especially if its a 30 min game. In this example you have to wait 20 min... And thats during a live stream :(
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:wood: My AoE3 Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/MCJim_


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Post by MCJim »

And thanks, I'll add more things to the list! :D
:food: My AoE3 YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/MCJimAgeofEmpiresIII
:wood: My AoE3 Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/MCJim_


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Post by Hagi »

mcjim wrote:
jerom wrote:I appreciated it, couldnt make 17 gmt :p

recorded games are really messy tbh. They often playback much slow than normal games do, and you see when the games gonna end. I like the live casts, acer just needs better internet :p
I dont really like the idea though. A recorded game doesnt support Aizamks UI and you miss the players chats. Not that its so important, but its still fun to see for example their stuggles they show us in their chats.

Its also not very nice to keep waiting for the recorded games. If you cast a 10 min recorded game, theres a big chance you have to wait for the next game if they are playing it in the mean time. Especially if its a 30 min game. In this example you have to wait 20 min... And thats during a live stream :(
Aizamk spectator UI (not observer UI) is supposed to do the same thing for recorded games.
I agree we wont have players chat. That might be a downside for some people who like emotional reactions.
Delay can be 1 hour so you wont have waiting time.
But come on, last time, we were waiting 40mn for Sam to arrive and after an entire day to see the rest of the games.
Give me better arguments please :P
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Post by momuuu »

I dont think the waiting time is as bad, it justs adds to the feeling imo.

Just as long as the stream is set up in advance and the lag tests are done etc.
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Post by gibson »

jerom wrote:I dont think the waiting time is as bad, it justs adds to the feeling imo.

Just as long as the stream is set up in advance and the lag tests are done etc.

Not all of us have the flexibility of schedule to wait around for an hour. I didn''t watch the finals because I just can''t afford to sit around doing nothing at that time of day. No even mentioning how unprofessional it is. For most of us it''s just about fun, but this is an event that has a fairly significant cash prize. I mean would you show up to work 40 minutes late?
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Post by thebritish »

gibson wrote:
jerom wrote:I dont think the waiting time is as bad, it justs adds to the feeling imo.

Just as long as the stream is set up in advance and the lag tests are done etc.
Not all of us have the flexibility of schedule to wait around for an hour. I didnt watch the finals because I just cant afford to sit around doing nothing at that time of day. No even mentioning how unprofessional it is. For most of us its just about fun, but this is an event that has a fairly significant cash prize. I mean would you show up to work 40 minutes late?
i would show up later for work one hour later :D :lol:
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Post by gibson »

thebritish wrote:
gibson wrote: Not all of us have the flexibility of schedule to wait around for an hour. I didnt watch the finals because I just cant afford to sit around doing nothing at that time of day. No even mentioning how unprofessional it is. For most of us its just about fun, but this is an event that has a fairly significant cash prize. I mean would you show up to work 40 minutes late?
i would show up later for work one hour later :D? :lol:



well not all of us have that flexibility lol. Im not just talking about work though. I got school, I got wank schedule, I got gym. Cant balance it if things randomly start an hour late lol
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Post by momuuu »

gibson wrote:
thebritish wrote:i would show up later for work one hour later :D? :lol:


well not all of us have that flexibility lol. Im not just talking about work though. I got school, I got wank schedule, I got gym. Cant balance it if things randomly start an hour late lol

you cant claim to be busy if you have time to watch a bo9 lol.

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