Thread: TTP TF2 Top Plays - Final Videos

Originally Posted by [SWC

Erik Thorsen ]
Well, the job of a commentator in visual media should really be to "Comment" on the action, NOT to do a straight play by play. Try to make observation about players being featured.

"Next up we have Captain Coors taking on a solly medic combo. He picks the solly with a nice one two three, switching to his shotgun for the medic kill. A great play by Coors. Knowing when to switch to shotgun, and when to reload your rocket launcher is something that comes with experience. And with over 9000 hours with Solly, Coors has experience to spare."

So you give a play by play, but flavor it with commentary or insights on the action.

That situation with Coors was completely fabricated by the way, sorry Coors, but I needed an example :P

All that said, I think Ted is funny, and doing a good job. It gets a little over the top sometimes, but I think we'll all settle into it more after a couple more videos.

Why dont YOU put a vid up for commentating next time we vote again and show us how its done. Id love to hear you do one.

Originally Posted by tr_enf

Eh, different strokes for different folks. I can see whats happening before my eyes, so I would rather it be goofy commentary like that.

I HAVE JUST COME UP WITH WHAT I WILL DO IN THE NEXT COMMENTARY!

Commentators for actual sports have a lot of information available, the history of the teams, the history of the game and its rules, the history of the players, the specific strengths and weaknesses of the players, the tactics of the plays, etc etc.

But there IS no history for a video game, the teams in the clips are random teams, and everyone has equal attributes and strengths (within their classes, a soldier vs. a solder etc). I can't talk about what kind of computers or mice the people are using, and I can't talk about the tactics of how what is happening is winning or losing the game because the clips are so short. Play by play commentary for a continuing game of sports is interesting because it has context, and even 'top play' summaries of sports games that you might see on the normal news are made by people who watched the whole game.

And despite what the lasting impression may have been, the commentary for videos 9, 8, and 7 WAS about the context of what was happening. (As was the commentary for video 10, I just did it in Spanish and tried to use words that would be vaguely understood, 'momento crucial', 'demolicion de hombre con un gran kaboom' 'suicidio elegante') 6 5 & 4 weren't particular individual feats but just running cascades of owning the other team which speaks more about what the other team wasn't doing as opposed to what the individual was doing that was so amazing, in all 3 of those they had a medic who was healing/ubering/kritzing them (and the demo recordings don't tell me what the name of the healing medic is, I suppose I'll start scanning the names on the assist kills from now on). Video 3 is just a short clip of air shot kills. And the last 2/1 video is about a heavy and medic who stick together and dish out classic death with ubers, which calls into question their personal relationship...

So the next one will be totally context oriented seriousness, and I'll just make up ALL of the context that isn't available or even real...how the demoman lost his eye, why the teams are fighting in a Granary in the first place, the weight of the heavy's minigun, where the spy played ball in college, etc etc.

Because the context of the game as a game is just boring most of the time; the game exists only in very very limited set of physical laws that govern the choices of the people playing it. Coors doesn't make airshots because he grips the rocket launcher with his shoulder in a certain manner, etc. (And I obviously don't have access to information regarding how he uses his mouse either with the tips of his fingers or the palm of his hand)

Ah, an explanation of the method to his madness. Great post THE Ted, Son of Ted, Steward of the Last Empire.

I didn't want to make it seem like I was disapproving of Ted's commentary, like I said, I like his work. I was replying to someone else talking about how play-by-play was redundant in visual media, because you can SEE what's happening.

Also, I was thinking about doing a commentary pretty seriously, but there's always people around, and I'd feel like a total dork yelling to myself about TF2 lol.