Looking to the Future - XY NU casts

[FireMage]

Hello as NUcast host I'm looking on revamping the NUcasts so not only are they better quality - but so they are more interesting for you, the NU community to watch.


The purpose of this thread is to offer up suggestions / constructive criticisms on;

• How to make the cast better
• Things you would like to see from future casts
• Things that could use better execution
• How the format could change to make the audience more engaged in watching the casts
• Improving interactivity between the viewers and the casters during a live cast.

This thread isn't for bashing or insulting cast members themselves - any post doing so will be subject to moderation and the user posting it may receive an infraction.

I'm well aware that this is a short post.

 

[soulgazer]

People such as FLCL, Zebraiken, Annoyer, Raseri (don't be shy dude you are awesome), and more would be great to have as they are important member of the NU community (except for Annoyer but he's cute) and I am sure they have a lot to share with everyone with their experience and knowledge of the tier.

Improving my english would be great too~

Also I know that some of us might not enjoy XY NU as much as BW NU when it goes up, so some of the people I listed may or may not even care about the tier, but I believe that everyone by now gets the idea that what the public wants is users that are well know in the cast!

EDIT: Free Nozzle pls

 

[atomicllamas]

Hmm, I think one way to make casts more interesting is to make them less frequent. There is really only so much you can say before each cast becomes exactly the same, however, if you have a cast every three months, like 3 weeks after a tier shift to talk about new mons, and old underrated ones that would be a lot more interesting.

I also think that if you are going to do a battle during the cast you should absolutely avoid the ladder, I know I got flack for saying this during last cast, but honestly watching Soulgazer vs. Raseri or X well known NU person vs. Y well known NU person is better than some random on the ladder. I think you guys actually got very lucky last time by running into Aladyyn and Draggi on the ladder.

One thing I liked about the last cast was that you took questions from IRC, which made watching it live a lot more fun. However, I think a lot of times the NU cast becomes straight up Q&A and I think a more conversational approach would be more fun to watch (idk if that makes sense).

For the record, I have enjoyed all the NU casts so far, I just think that there could be some minor improvements :).

 

[Lolk]

I kinda disagree with atomicllamas. I actually found the casts where all of the members are really chill and centered on battling with friends and laddering with a variety of teams more enjoyable. I got the experience of of battling through the eyes of a developed battler and hearing his thoughts and move-selection processes was quite entertaining and beneficial. We also got to see and discuss every playstyle/pokemon that popped up and mvp'ed the match. Ladder hax, if anything, added some nice comic relief to the cast because we all can relate to it. The moments where FM read off questions from the forums really dulled the cast since all of the answers were either obvious, personal and unimportant, or just one-line answers that didn't lead to any discussion. The laddering and matches with friends created much more discussion, first hand experience, and it allowed all of the cast members to open up in a comfortable setting.

 

[atomicllamas]

I kinda disagree with atomicllamas. I actually found the casts where all of the members are really chill and centered on battling with friends and laddering with a variety of teams more enjoyable. I got the experience of of battling through the eyes of a developed battler and hearing his thoughts and move-selection processes was quite entertaining and beneficial. We also got to see and discuss every playstyle/pokemon that popped up and mvp'ed the match. Ladder hax, if anything, added some nice comic relief to the cast because we all can relate to it. The moments where FM read off questions from the forums really dulled the cast since all of the answers were either obvious, personal and unimportant, or just one-line answers that didn't lead to any discussion. The laddering and matches with friends created much more discussion, first hand experience, and it allowed all of the cast members to open up in a comfortable setting.

I think we actually meant the same thing I just worded it kind of poorly, lol. I agree that watching them battle was one of the better parts of the cast, but I think it is best for them to avoid the ladder and instead focus on battling each other, as that is more likely to be a high level battle. I also agreed that just reading off the questions is rather dull, but I think the questions are still important and that they should continue to ask the questions that spark conversation (or random funny ones).

TL;DR: Battle each other, instead of the ladder. Conversations over straight up Q&A. I also still think that having casts somewhat less frequently (at most 1 per month) would help keep them fresh and entertaining.

 

[FireMage]

People such as FLCL, Zebraiken, Annoyer, Raseri (don't be shy dude you are awesome), and more would be great to have as they are important member of the NU community (except for Annoyer but he's cute) and I am sure they have a lot to share with everyone with their experience and knowledge of the tier.

Improving my english would be great too~

Also I know that some of us might not enjoy XY NU as much as BW NU when it goes up, so some of the people I listed may or may not even care about the tier, but I believe that everyone by now gets the idea that what the public wants is users that are well know in the cast!

EDIT: Free Nozzle pls

So what you're saying here, SG is that you want more well known users and NU titans in XY Casts?

I would like to say I have attempted to get both Raseri, Zeb and Annyoer on a cast, but due to one thing and another they haven't quite managed to appear on one just yet.

Hmm, I think one way to make casts more interesting is to make them less frequent. There is really only so much you can say before each cast becomes exactly the same, however, if you have a cast every three months, like 3 weeks after a tier shift to talk about new mons, and old underrated ones that would be a lot more interesting.

I also think that if you are going to do a battle during the cast you should absolutely avoid the ladder, I know I got flack for saying this during last cast, but honestly watching Soulgazer vs. Raseri or X well known NU person vs. Y well known NU person is better than some random on the ladder. I think you guys actually got very lucky last time by running into Aladyyn and Draggi on the ladder.

One thing I liked about the last cast was that you took questions from IRC, which made watching it live a lot more fun. However, I think a lot of times the NU cast becomes straight up Q&A and I think a more conversational approach would be more fun to watch (idk if that makes sense).

For the record, I have enjoyed all the NU casts so far, I just think that there could be some minor improvements :).

From this post, I gather you want to see some more "Highlight matches" between strong users within the tier and have us commentate on the match - and for the Q&A To be less Q&A but more informal and conversationally.

I kinda disagree with atomicllamas. I actually found the casts where all of the members are really chill and centered on battling with friends and laddering with a variety of teams more enjoyable. I got the experience of of battling through the eyes of a developed battler and hearing his thoughts and move-selection processes was quite entertaining and beneficial. We also got to see and discuss every playstyle/pokemon that popped up and mvp'ed the match. Ladder hax, if anything, added some nice comic relief to the cast because we all can relate to it. The moments where FM read off questions from the forums really dulled the cast since all of the answers were either obvious, personal and unimportant, or just one-line answers that didn't lead to any discussion. The laddering and matches with friends created much more discussion, first hand experience, and it allowed all of the cast members to open up in a comfortable setting.

I've dropped a bold tag in here because I feel this is important. Would you guys prefer to see more of this stuff implemented in future casts. Ie; if you read what I've put for AtomicLlamas re: trying to put together highlight matches would this be more of what you're aiming at suggesting for XY NU Casts.

Also from this Lolk, you feel an better selection of questions need to be both submitted and/or selected by myself for the cast to progress more into discussion.

I think we actually meant the same thing I just worded it kind of poorly, lol. I agree that watching them battle was one of the better parts of the cast, but I think it is best for them to avoid the ladder and instead focus on battling each other, as that is more likely to be a high level battle. I also agreed that just reading off the questions is rather dull, but I think the questions are still important and that they should continue to ask the questions that spark conversation (or random funny ones).

TL;DR: Battle each other, instead of the ladder. Conversations over straight up Q&A. I also still think that having casts somewhat less frequently (at most 1 per month) would help keep them fresh and entertaining.

Bold 1- What sort of Ratio are you thinking if you're suggesting adding in humorous ones as well as seriously discussion points?
Bold 2- Did we even get more than 1 cast a month?

 

[termi]

I'd say that we should consider mostly casts that are battle-centered, with mostly battles between more experienced players in the NU community (so basically, no ladder, except for maybe once or twice a cast for fun) who can show off several different threats, both top tier ones and underrated/overrated ones, as well as different playstyles, so that we basically get the most accurate representation of what the current meta is like while still having fun watching it. However, I also think that non-battling casts can be good, although they should probably be more rare than the battling casts. In regards to non-battling casts, I also think that, considering it's usually more srs bsns than the ones where people are battling and having fun, they should be shorter and very to-the-point so that they remain interesting for everyone to watch. I'd say that they really should be shorter than an hour in pretty much any situation, sometimes people start going kinda off-topic regarding situations and then you just get endless meandering, which is not what you want.

Also, when you plan a cast at a certain time, make sure the cast is actually up around that time. Having over an hour of delay is not what you want as far as I'm concerned.

 

[FireMage]

I'd say that we should consider mostly casts that are battle-centered, with mostly battles between more experienced players in the NU community (so basically, no ladder, except for maybe once or twice a cast for fun) who can show off several different threats, both top tier ones and underrated/overrated ones, as well as different playstyles, so that we basically get the most accurate representation of what the current meta is like while still having fun watching it. However, I also think that non-battling casts can be good, although they should probably be more rare than the battling casts. In regards to non-battling casts, I also think that, considering it's usually more srs bsns than the ones where people are battling and having fun, they should be shorter and very to-the-point so that they remain interesting for everyone to watch. I'd say that they really should be shorter than an hour in pretty much any situation, sometimes people start going kinda off-topic regarding situations and then you just get endless meandering, which is not what you want.

Also, when you plan a cast at a certain time, make sure the cast is actually up around that time. Having over an hour of delay is not what you want as far as I'm concerned.

So, as a medium; If we do a display of "Current Meta trends" and do some discussion per cast. An Hour is probably an estimate of the time I'm looking to take per cast - I'm thinking based on this, 40mins of Battling display if I can get it and approx 20mins of discussion about current trends and potentially look at future trends (obviously dependant on when tier shifts are happening - I'd like to do some close to tier shifts, maybe some just after the tier shifts, who knows)

Bold - Technical issues, people turning up late, People turning up late + Having technical issues. People not turning up at all, so needing time to find any last minute replacements (Not wanting to cancel the cast altogether for the 3rd/4th time) There is an entire list of why the cast gets delayed. I personally make sure I'm ready for that time and so do a few others (shnen + SG in particular) I plan to cut anyone from appearing on a cast - or future casts if they aren't ready in time (even myself).
Trust me, this isn't just an issue for myself - most other cast hosts encounter the same problem.