New Blog!

This blog is going to go away. I'm going to be moving blogging operations over to https://medium.com/@papermarioguy. That's about it really. Go over there to check it out.

How an Idea Becomes a Video

Yesterday (as of writing this) I released a scripted video on my youtube channel for the first time in 2 months. Less than a week ago (again, as of writing this) this blog post by the person I would call my biggest inspiration for all of this was released. The subject of that blog post was on the writing process for the man's video series. The release of both of these things got me thinking. Maybe someone wants to know what the process is for making my videos. If you are that person, read on.

A video always has to start with an idea. Now finding ideas isn't particularly difficult (I have six or seven ideas for scripted videos in my head right now) as I tend to think about video production whenever I'm bored. If you however are someone that has a hard time coming up with ideas. I've got nothing. I'm sorry it's just not a problem that comes up for me.

Next is the largest phase of the video making: writing. I don't research before I write, I just do it when I need to. The first few sentences of the script are always the most heavily thought about ones. Since I don't want people to click away from the video. Other then that I just write the whole thing in one draft. (Because I have a life outside of making videos). By the end I like to have 1000-2000 words that would make sense to someone that was not me. I do edit the thing a little bit to try to catch grammar mistakes that spell-check wouldn't catch. When doing this I recommend reading the script aloud because you just seem to catch more mistakes that way. The word processor that I've used to write these things has historically been Google Docs but I recently got a copy of microsoft office 2013 so now I'm using word 2013.

Now, the recording. And before anyone asks here's the microphone that I use. (This is not sponsored in any way and I can say, that mic is amazing for anything under 100 CAD). I record the audio with audacity, which conveniently also works as an audio editor. The way I go about recording is straightforward. I read a sentence, if I screw up or it didn't sound that good, I repeat the sentence. If it sounded good, I read the next sentence. Rinse and repeat until I've read the whole thing. For the usual 5-10 minute the recording takes about 20 minutes. Recording is fairly unpleasant as I get easily distracted when there's an internet connection available (I have a reddit problem ok) because of this I'm not as used to doing unbroken-up work when I'm not being forced to do it. Editing the audio, while uncomfortable doesn't take that long and is just a matter of cutting out screwed up lines and unnecessarily long pauses.

Finally, the editing. Starting with the email video, my first step is going to be--with a combination of google drawings and photoshop elements--to create a thumbnail with a duo-colo(u)r style inspired by this man's thumbnails. Now the editing program I use is Pinnacle Studio 14 which is immensely outdated (the current version is 18) and based on the fact that the newest version is only 60 USD (there's no canadian site but given how the Canadian dollar is doing right now that might not be a bad thing) I'll probably upgrade soon. However the software has served me well for the lightweight stuff I need to do. I really don't have much to say when it comes to the editing process itself. All it consists of is 50% finding relevant images to whatever I'm talking about and placing them in the correct spots. The other half is writing relevant text on top of or next to a picture and placing the text boxes in the correct spots. If you're curious the font that I used for the Email video and plan to be using for videos in the future is here.

So that's my video production process. Tons of ideas, 1.5 copies of a script, a bunch of recorded lines, significantly less good sounding lines, one quasi-professional looking thumbnail, 20 or so relevant images and text boxes, and one final 5-10 minute video. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go through this process on the next internet protocols video. 

PMG02 Barfs out words #5 January Microsoft Event Reactions

Reactions to the Windows 10 event

For those that don't follow this sort of thing, on January 23 Microsoft had a big 2 hour press conference about their next operating system Windows 10. (They skipped 9 because reasons). For those that don't have the time to watch a 2 hour event. (Of which the first 20 minutes or so seem like an extended commercial directed by somebody who doesn't know how to make his commercials interesting). Here is my rundown of said event and my thoughts on each individual thing.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room. Said elephant being that if you own windows 7 or 8 (which make up roughly 68% of the market share so it’s pretty likely) windows 10 will be free for the first year it comes out. Now this is great for me you and basically every windows user. I’m curious how this makes any business sense as about a third of microsoft's profits come from windows sales.So I’m weary of Microsoft attaching asterisks to that statement. Or maybe they're just willing to take a hit in revenue for a year for amazing PR and possible future income. It’s just that big corporations aren't exactly known for their amazing long term thinking.

Secondly, Cortana comes to Windows 10 desktops. For those who aren't aware what cortana is. (Or if the name brings up the image of a halo character instead). She is essentially siri (or ok google or hello moto if you prefer) for windows phone. And unlike siri it actually works. (At least that’s what I've been told I can't speak from experience). It seems cool and all but the main point of these things on a phone is so you don't have to take it out or spend time fiddling around looking for your web browser app. Neither of which are really problems on a desktop PC you just click your browser icon and start typing no holdup. For tablets it makes more sense though. <sidenote>I think that the most likely reason that they have it on desktops is to imprint the unity between devices motif that windows 10 has by giving us all the same services for different platforms even if they're redundant</sidenote>.

Thirdly, Windows Phone 10 and Windows 10 for tablets were announced. I mean, yay everybody knew it was going to happen. They mainly just wanted to express the fact that it will be a seamless transition from walking away from your Dell xps 8700 to grabbing your hp stream 7. To putting down that and grabbing a nokia lumia 830 and having it be free of complexity. With Windows 8 it was overly complex and got a lot of flack for it.

Fourthly, Project Spartan. Microsoft’s next gen (aren't buzzwords the best) web browser that hopefully doesn't suck. I personally am very glad that they're doing this as internet explorer has been the butt of so many jokes between tech guys (especially on reddit). I'm also not sure if it’s going to be called ie 12 or something completely different to get rid of the bad rep ie has. Unfortunately unless it’s by far the best browser the world has ever seen. I’m going to stick with chrome as my main browser. I'm heavily reliant on the google ecosystem (one of the reasons I'm in the process of building my own website so I can have my rules) and due to it being google’s own, new features for google things get rolled out at least a month or two before firefox and ie. I’m still happy about it for other people as ie makes up around 60% of the browser market share so this will give millions of people the opportunity to see what better browser experiences are. That is definitely a good thing for the people who don’t bother to change the default.

Fifthly, New MS Office apps that are the same between devices (here we are again). I don’t really use office (I like google drive just for the convenience of free cloud storage for google docs files) and it hasn't really changed that much since 2003. Something that’s nice is it looks like it will switch touch first stuff of if you're on a PC, so no more of the Windows 8, we think you’re on a tablet when you aren't crap.

Sixthly, Some stuff that already existed but people couldn't be bothered to download by themselves and other miscellaneous crap on windows that people rarely use will be polished up given the unity between platforms treatment. Like movie maker, photo gallery, video, and music. (You store this stuff in the cloud service that again, nobody uses, one drive) so you can continue a project you started on your desktop on your tablet.

Seventhly (this is starting to get a bit stupid), An Xbox app for Windows 10. (Now my thoughts on the XBox one and the other current-gen consoles I don't own one so take this with a grain of salt. Can be best summed up here but anyway). This will let you let you use XBox live on PC. (Why? You may ask , because reasons and logic are for losers) Stream XBox games to your PC (and tablet) and bring better compatibility for Microsoft’s PC gaming platform, Direct X. Now these are all just nice little things I don't get why they just don't keep Consoles and PC gaming separate. I've felt like we’ve shown that for grown men and women, the 2 gaming platform camps (I’m aware that mobile is a third camp but bare with me) can’t seem to play nice and I think console and PC perform best when separated from each other and doing their own thing. I don't have much to back that up other that just a thought so take it with an extremely small grain of salt.

Eighthly, Continuum mode. On laptop-tablet mashups they will detect when you put them in tablet mode and vise-versa to switch the interface between keyboard and mouse focused and touch and stylus focus. There isn't too much to talk about here except for that I think this shows Microsoft is listening to everybody complain about the touch first on PC so they found a way to make both UIs work. The fact that they're listening to complaints I think we can all agree is very good. (With all of the unity between devices stuff I can't help but think that Microsoft is taking a page from apple. I don't particularly like apple but credit where credit is due).

Ninthly, The HoloLens. <sigh> Microsoft’s HoloLens is “the world’s first untethered holographic computer”. (I feel like that’s a bold statement guys). It’s an AR machine that you wear on your head and look through the glass to use windows 10 apps. This will make HoloGrams of said apps to come up. I mean it’s really cool that we can do this at all but why, just why. I see no current reason to use this thing and frankly I think the hype around it is stupid because it doesn't seem practical in any way. But who knows maybe they'll find some amazing use for it (is my google fanboy showing, I think it might be)

Last but not least they introduced the Surface hub. A 84 inch surface pro TV tablet thing. The Microsoft surface line of tablets are tablets that also work as very good high end laptops. What they’re doing is taking the whiteboard tablet idea shown on the surface and making it TV sized. (Big TV sized jeez) I actually have a lot of faith in this product (nobody else seems to really care about it though) and I think that 15 years from now most board rooms will have them for presentations during meetings. I don’t see it becoming a consumer thing but I don't think Microsoft was targeting the Surface hub at that demographic anyway.

To wrap things up, the over arching themes of consistency between mobile and home and listening to customers were really nice to hear. I hope for the sake of all of us that windows 10 won't suck and, based off this press conference I think it indeed won’t.

Welcome to the outro screen. The idea for this blog post hit me pretty quickly and I had to work fast to make sure it was still topical when it came out. The script for this was made in a day and a half. I plan to do more tech event roundups and reactions in the future. The next big tech event would be the Mobile World Congress or MWC at the beginning of march in Barcelona. (After that would be Pax east in april, e3 in june, WWDC in July, the September Apple event in, well September and finally the October apple event but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here). For now leave comments positive or negative if you want to. Subscribe if you want to. If you don't want to I'm not going to make you. Now I hope you won't mind if I read out my completely and utterly amazing haiku about this event.

The MS event

They showed off cool new features

that windows 10 has

Beautiful. Oh and one last thing. Click this text to watch my other editorial piece on Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Ok now I'm really done. Bye Bye.

PMG02 Barfs out words #4: Re: Let's Plays

If you watch my YouTube channel (which by the way is: https://www.youtube.com/user/PaperMarioGuy02/). You would have noticed that when I started producing written content for the channel that I implied that I would not be tying up loose ends with let's plays that I started in years past. (Don't watch those by the way they're terrible). However if you watch my YouTube channel (which you still should) you would know that I'm doing let's plays again. Don't freak out though written, content isn't going away (after all you're reading a blog post). But there will be gaming content. Because I'm starting them back up the rest of this post is going to mainly be my thoughts about let's plays.

In case you're living under a rock with no internet (in which case how are you reading this) let's plays are videos posted to the internet of someone commentating a game whilst playing it. In the last two years they've become wildly successful and have taken the world by storm. In my opinion there are three types of let's plays out there. Type a is the most popular leave your brain at the door let's plays that are just a fun thing to watch after a hard day and I think it has its place for that just straight up entertainment purposes. Now south park recently did an episode on these types of let's players and touches on all of my problems with them so that is definitely worth a watch. Type b of let's plays turn them more into film projects and years can be spent on preparing for them. Type b is really good but let's plays of that type are few and far between (probably due to the aforementioned years of preparation that they can take). Type c is when someone just talks to themselves while playing the game without putting any real entertainment face on. You would think then that type c has no place, but due to their generally laid back nature I find them somewhat relaxing.

In summary I think that all let's plays have their place but I really don't want them to take over my channel. Because I really want to keep myself doing scripted content I've decided I'm going to-once my current let's play is over-do a follow up video on actual English history for some background on who exactly I was playing as in my Civ 5 game. Anyway that's about it I will keep you posted (most likely in an ALog) on the status of the video so you can know what stage it is in. Bye.     

PMG02 Barfs out words #3: Pokemon ORAS review/editorial

     Disclaimer: This video is targeted at fans of the pokemon video game series if you don't know what this series is or is about, this video is not for you.

About every year there is a pokemon game, and this annual installment is a remake of the 2002 release of pokemon ruby and sapphire. Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (I know, real original titles) which are the 2002 releases with a gen 6 X&Y finish. I got the game on launch and after having completed it here are my thoughts, in a review.

Story: There really isn't very much to say here, it’s a nintendo game after all. You find yourself in a small town, you get your starter pokemon, you find yourself a rival you collect 8 gym badges and become the best trainer in the region. All well fighting your games pokemon mafia group and getting your games resective legendary pokemon and enslaving random wildlife to do your bidding. It’s not the focus of the game, the stories have always been barebones (except for black and white) but I sort of wish they did more to expand upon it from the originals then just one thing that I won't spoil for you. This lack of story expansion starts to show my main problem with the game.

Presentation: The graphics are exactly the same as X and Y’s so I won't spend too much time on them. Beautiful cell shaded models (especially for the 3DS) but a very low resolution for such a small screen (it is very easy to see pixels at certain points). Sonically however the game is amazing. Honestly the music might be my favorite part of the game. It does exactly what I want a remake to do which is draw heavily on the original content, but remix itself a decent bit to justify the purchase. There are relaxing tracks, fast actiony tracks and a lot of fun remixes that I’m sure anyone who grew up with those games would get tons of nostalgia from. anyway that’s enough gushing let’s move on.

Gameplay: This is what makes or breaks any nintendo game and let me preface this by saying even though I'm about to crap on this game a lot. (like a lot, a lot) Just know that as a game it is a fun, (and lengthy, I had clocked in 18 hours by the end of it) fairly easy RPG. (The keyword there is fun, it is an enjoyable experience which is an far too many games forget about.). Now I don't think that anybody likes it as much when somebody on the internet is nice to a game so on to my problems. First some nitpicks: Why didn't the get rid of the parts that essentially required level grinding I thought pokemon had moved past that. Why are the pokemon center and pokemon mart not squished into the same place. It wouldn't be that hard to just redesign the town a little around that and we figured out that the squashed model is more convenient.Both of these problems dance around my main problem so let me explain.

Nintendo lost money at the end of 2012 and 2013 and their main problem was the wii u. But instead of trying to pick between the casual or hardcore audiences with the thing and moving forward. they're looking back to when times were better for them and are seeing what of that people still want. (I personally don't think that nintendo is headed for bankruptcy any time soon but that’s beside the point) You can see that very easily this year with Mario kart 8, Super smash bros. for the 3DS and wii u, the Xenoblade chronicles remake for the 3DS, Majora’s Mask 3d and Pokemon ORAS. And I think the reason nintendo just made the same game from 2002 with a shinier coat of paint and mega evolutions is that they don’t want to damage the quote on quote “secret sauce” that made the originals so popular. I see that in the lack of squishing public facilities together. I see it in the lack of level cap increased and I could name quite a few more things that support this hypothesis. What this fear of changing things does is it prevents the game from fixing things that were problems in the original

Conclusion: To end this I would like to say that I still really like the game and I'm still a fan of the series but if they pull this twice in a row then I might think to take the move to abandon ship. The subtitle of this video (or blog post) is Call of Pokemon Modern catch ‘em all 3 because I fear that pokemon is headed for the same fate that that series has/will suffer. Turning in to the same game every year with slight tweaks but still selling millions of copies, then in 10 or 20 years dying a sad death with nobody caring remotely about its recent titles. Yes that is what I think will happen to CoD. I think for a year or two, but only a year or two the remake strategy will work even better than what would have happened if they made entirely new games. (people like familiarity after all) Which is why I think nintendo will gain money this year. So nintendo you can remake but fix the mistakes that were in the original that seem archaic now alright, ok bye.

PaperMarioGuy02 barfs out words #2

     Hey It's another blog for the first time in several months I wanna try to keep these short from now on (under 250 words). I just wanted to say here that the script writing for the american revolution is almost done and that this blog isn't dead. This post is just mainly to get something out the door so I can get invested in writing stuff again that's all I really have to say

PMG02 barfs words Entry 1

I type this first blog entry for two reasons. One to announce that because I'm writing videos now I will also be writing blogs. Expect new blogs every suday at 5:00 ADT or AST at http://papermarioguy.blogspot.ca/. Second I'm writing this to memorialise September 14th 2014 as the last date I will write anything under the PaperMarioGuy02 umbrella on the PC I'm using right now as we are getting a new computer. RIP hp pavillion PC 2007-2014.