BlazBits Indiegogo Campaign (Update: FAQ section added to the IGG page; we reached 1500$!)

[CupofT]

Would it be possible for you to explain how the 10 minutes are divided? If you are going to stick to 10~ minutes I think it would be nice to know what ideas you have for what content you are going to put for the 10~min.

 

Like: "X amount of time for explaining key moves, X amount of time for character specific knowledge/tactics, X amount of time for character specific FAQs, etc"

[Niko]

Musing about how a different person could do a better job or do the same thing for free is pointless, because nobody is doing a better job or doing it for free. This project is actually happening right now, and the only question is whether you think it could help inexperienced players and introduce new blood to the game. It takes nothing to talk down on a man's work -- it's a lot harder to do that work yourself, which is probably why all we see is people complaining and nobody stepping up to do the work themselves.

 

For a small community that's always saying they need more players, there's an awful lot of negativity in this thread.

[Klaige]

Musing about how a different person could do a better job or do the same thing for free is pointless, because nobody is doing a better job or doing it for free. This project is actually happening right now, and the only question is whether you think it could help inexperienced players and introduce new blood to the game. It takes nothing to talk down on a man's work -- it's a lot harder to do that work yourself, which is probably why all we see is people complaining and nobody stepping up to do the work themselves.

 

For a small community that's always saying they need more players, there's an awful lot of negativity in this thread.

 

Except that plenty of people have done tutorials with better information (by the way, that's what matters in a tutorial), for free.

[skd]

I'll be name dropping, without giving the whole story behind every name, because that is not relevant to the content. You are free to google "Seth Killian" and "Domination 101" and explore for yourself, but I mentioned them as credits for the phrase I took, and that phrase is all you need to take from there in order to understand the episode. Not much different from how a scientific research paper looks like, when quoting from other papers.

 

waiting for this

[Siefer]

Musing about how a different person could do a better job or do the same thing for free is pointless, because nobody is doing a better job or doing it for free. This project is actually happening right now, and the only question is whether you think it could help inexperienced players and introduce new blood to the game. It takes nothing to talk down on a man's work -- it's a lot harder to do that work yourself, which is probably why all we see is people complaining and nobody stepping up to do the work themselves.

 

For a small community that's always saying they need more players, there's an awful lot of negativity in this thread.

 

Uh...setting aside the whole legality thing (seeing as how that's kind of important, but I digress), this project isn't actually happening "now", it's in limbo waiting for funding.  Helping inexperienced players and introducing new blood into the scene?  I'm not so sure about that, but it could be argued either way and I'm not going to get into that tangent.

 

There have been some snarky/passive-aggressive posts in this thread, but there have also been a lot of legitimate, concerned posts as well, which most people who are on the opposite end of this debate feel haven't been adequately addressed.  This isn't a matter of whether this project should exist per say, it's really more of a matter of, does the cost justify the result?

 

At least some of the posters who have questioned this have produced educational content for the community for free as well, so it isn't like everyone here is an arm-chair analyst or something.

[Tokkan]

I'm honestly surprised this hasn't been brought up earlier, and it wasn't addressed in your FAQ, but is this entire thing legal to do?  It's one thing to use the game (and other assets such as art/sound/music/etc.) to make a not-for-profit tutorial video (or combo video, or whatever), but I imagine that it's another to do so while generating a profit.  I'm assuming you guys have talked to a lawyer about this?  I'm only asking because I'm not too familiar with copyright law and what that entails.

 

I also imagine you guys will properly report this on your 1040s next year as taxable income...

 

Crowdfunding counts as charity, not profit. And in the event that the campaign succeeds and they do make these videos, they won't be selling them.

[Teyah]

Looks like ArcSys has taken notice of the project, for better or worse:

https://twitter.com/ArcSystemWorksU/status/448254996950159360

HEAVEN OR HELL

[4r5]

I was watching Cosmos earlier and it reminds me of what you've been doing with Airdash Academy, which I really like, by the way.

[Luminos564]

Looks like ArcSys has taken notice of the project, for better or worse:

https://twitter.com/ArcSystemWorksU/status/448254996950159360

HEAVEN OR HELL

 

Well now, this ought to be interesting then. ASW Gestapo hasn't struck in a while.

 

Going back a bit, you said that 1$ = 1 vote, yes? You may want to rethink on that and just focus on the order you so choose, rather than having the people who donated vote on it. If Skullgirls' campaign taught me anything, is that people will become incredibly vicious if it looks like they are not going to get what they want. Somehow, I doubt you want all that extra drama on your plate.

[mAc Chaos]

Interesting. They did do something like this for CT, so maybe they might want another one for CP.

[OmnixTSC]

 

 

Crowdfunding counts as charity, not profit. And in the event that the campaign succeeds and they do make these videos, they won't be selling them.

 

Does it not count as profit when they're using the money provided by said crowdfunding to give hourly wages to the people working on the project? I'm curious about this, so please respond when you have the time.

 

Now, back to the matter at hand: Blazbits as a whole. I was originally going to respond a few days ago, but most of the members here covered a lot of the issues I was going to point out with this whole campaign. So instead of asking questions that will most likely be danced around as you have done to the ones posted already, I'll focus on the videos you have provided for us. I apologize in advance if you just haven't had the time to respond to or properly answer our questions, but the fact that you're expecting us to provide money for this endeavor of yours makes me expect for you to have someone from your team regularly responding to this thread in order to address any potential problems we may present to your group. You have not done this, which has lead to a lot of the people I've discussed this campaign with questioning your dedication to making this a quality project while keeping the interests of the community in mind.

 

I'll start with Guilty Bits. The first thing that most people have pointed out to me about it (and that I noticed months ago) is that the project was entirely free and used some of your free time in order to get it out there. While the series didn't really illustrate what went into the gameplans for each character, it did a good job of getting the audience interested while only covering the moveset of a character and general applications of said moveset. I felt that this series was short, sweet, and to the point for what it seemed to try to accomplish, but lacking overall. You say that it's an "in-depth video tutorial series" in your BlazBits introductory video, but this isn't the case and is very misleading.

 

Blazbits leaves a lot to be desired based on the introductory video, but that makes sense considering there isn't much to go on. You missed a few of the options off of 5C that a player would have access to and why they're important to his neutral/pressure game. Frametraps that could be setup with 5C weren't really addressed and the ranges that you wanted to use the normal at weren't noted either. People that see the video would have time to point this out before the project is started, which could lead to this being addressed. This makes it a smaller issue, but an issue nonetheless as we would be critiquing your group on something that you are currently attempting to get funds for.

 

Airdash Academy is another beast entirely. I really was at a loss for words initially, discussing the first video with a number of players that had an understanding of the subject matter and finding out that we were all equally confused. We weren't able to determine what exactly you were trying to accomplish with the first video as it didn't seem like your group even had a target audience in mind. The video did a poor job of exciting the viewer or getting them interested, whether they found the video on accident or actively looked for something similar. This video went out of its way to make the scope of what was involved with fighting games seem unimaginably large. It's almost as if you wanted to discourage your viewers by pointing out to them that they would need to play "catch-up" with the rest of the community instead of just being able to gradually be immersed in what fighting games have to offer while having fun. A lot of information was thrown around without even a small portion of it being explained, not to mention that some of the explanations were incorrect. The biggest offender being the Tekken explanation, which oversimplified the game to a point where it actually pushed the viewer farther away from an understanding of what the general gameplan for Tekken was. Another issue with that, and probably a more important one, was the fact that Tekken did not even need to be introduced, as you are focusing purely on 2D airdashing fighting games and have little to no reason to point out another format of fighting games that has no impact on your future explanations. 

 

The second Airdash Academy video followed with similar issues, albeit this video was even shorter than the first. It seems like you skipped a few steps in the learning process and jumped right into a player looking for combos on Dustloop or similar board systems. You could have mentioned how some games offer the player an in-game tutorial or a challenge mode to give the player a basic understanding of how things worked combo-wise for his/her characters. Even mentioning how just picking a character and fooling around with the provided movelist can go a long way would have helped illustrate things better for the viewer. You introduced notation and why it's important, but didn't fully explain how inputs translate to said notation (you forgot to mention numpad notation?). There's really not much in the video itself to mention or critique outside of what I've brought up.

 

If we are judging your group's ability solely on what's been presented to us so far, I can't help but assume that your group doesn't currently have the means to provide us with a high-quality tutorial series that will get people interested in airdashers without confusing them or leaving out important information along the way. I do, however, believe that you have the potential to reach a point where you can do just that. You will have to actively interact with the communities here and elsewhere in order to be more focused and organized. Try to provide the community with a better understanding of what your efforts will entail and be as realistic as you possibly can be about everything involved. This takes time and effort, and there's not a single person that expects this to be easy (maybe a few of us expect it to be less time-consuming than you'd have us believe, though).

[Verimeloni]

Interesting. They did do something like this for CT, so maybe they might want another one for CP.

You mean the the tutorial dvd which came with LE? They possibly want to take this project down because they are working on a tutorial series of their own?

 

It would make sense, considering they have easier access to (let's be frank here) the best BB players/biggest BB scene there is. Plus they could just sub it for multiple languages.

[mAc Chaos]

You mean the the tutorial dvd which came with LE? They possibly want to take this project down because they are working on a tutorial series of their own?

 

It would make sense, considering they have easier access to (let's be frank here) the best BB players/biggest BB scene there is. Plus they could just sub it for multiple languages.

I didn't think of that. I meant that they might want to help this kickstarter out since it could do the work for them.

 

Although it would be neat if they made another one.

[Verimeloni]

I didn't think of that. I meant that they might want to help this kickstarter out since it could do the work for them.

 

Although it would be neat if they made another one.

I don't think that's the case, Arcsys sensor just happened to google their franchises and found the kickstarter. Thinking people are trying to profit using their franchise they take the project down like Nintendo did with the Metroid movie kickstarter and people who already donated lose their money.

 

I don't want that to happen but it's possible.

 

The dvd with CT was kinda sucky.

[Airk]

I don't think that's the case, Arcsys sensor just happened to google their franchises and found the kickstarter. Thinking people are trying to profit using their franchise they take the project down like Nintendo did with the Metroid movie kickstarter and people who already donated lose their money.

 

 

Why would people who already donated lose their money? Isn't that sort of the opposite of how crowdfunding works?  I guess maybe if they kill the project AFTER funding is completed, but BlazBits has quite a ways to go first.

[zankoku]

Flexible Funding means the project keeps whatever funds it receives, but in this case BlazBits is set as Fixed Funding (only receives the money if the goal is reached).

[Verimeloni]

Thanks for clearing that up. Sorry for posting ignorantly Airk. Back to the topic.

[wiredgod]

I'm thinking I'll donate maybe $20 to this campaign.  I really don't see the harm it could do and it could give a good reference for beginners.  Guilty bits is a better comparison than air dash academy.  I don't understand why the first AA video took 3.5 minutes to do introductions that didn't really say anything.  Less fluff in this series please.

[OmnixTSC]

Guys, I tweeted Novril a while ago. It seems that his group is really busy right now, so they aren't able to respond to our posts atm. I guess we'll just give it a little time?

[floatwater]

People should put TL;DRs more. 

shit

[TVGonzo]

I haven't read the whole thread so I'm not sure if someone's already said this but how much more in depth will the series go beyond the training and challenge modes in the game?

[mAceOfHearts]

I just finished watching AA episode 3, and while I enjoyed the video, I have one, fairly large, issue with it.

 

You made it seem like fighting games were homework.

 

You told new players that, in order to get better, they would have to a) fight the same character over and over again, b) watch match videos and c) re-watch said videos over and over again.

 

I can agree that this is what you should to do if you really want to improve, but this is not something a new player will find appealing. As I said, it seems more like homework than anything else. A far more entertaining way to learn is to just pay attention when you're playing. It's nowhere near as effective, true, but what do you think is more fun? Fighting someone and paying attention to what's happening, (EG: ´´Huh, my projectile hit Azrael, but he didn't take any damage? Maybe it has something to do with that barrier thing he creates when he raises his arms.``) or re-watching Kusoru's Sol vs SteveH's Ky for the fifth time, trying to learn about SteveH's use of Oki and Crossups?

 

I feel like you really needed to point out that there are other ways of improving, that's all.

[White Man]

I'm not personally 100% on board with this project (the costs involved just seem way too out there), but I feel compelled to play devil's advocate and point out that a lot of the detractors here have missed one very crucial component of this series: you are not the target audience.

If BlazBits is to appeal to newcomers, then taking the route of making the videos relatively short and emphasizing a flashy presentation is actually a really smart way to go.  New players who just want to get the basics for the various characters are going to be after just that: the basics.  Showing them dozens of different combo routes and going into the most minute aspects of characters' frame data and whatnot will accomplish nothing except for making new players feel hopelessly overwhelmed.

Based on what has been shown of BlazBits so far, the series is obviously intended to be edutainment.  For a rough comparison, look at televised nature programs such as Planet Earth or the National Geographic specials.  From an academic standpoint, such programs are sorely lacking in information — nobody is going to be able to watch a few episodes of these series and have everything they need to be an expert in animal biology or specialized ecosystems.  But that's okay, because the point of such programs is to stimulate curiosity as much as it is to inform.  You give viewers something that's interesting and entertaining to watch while teaching them about the basics, then leave it up to them whether or not they want to do further research on their own.

From my experiences, the #1 reason so few people bothered to complete in the in-game tutorial in CS/EX is because "it was boring."  Even with the fully-voiced dialogue and gameplay demonstrations and all that, a lot of players didn't want to be bothered sitting through such a tedious info-dump.  If you want to capture people's attention in today's world of total media saturation, you really need to put on a bit of a circus act and keep your points limited to what's absolutely essential.

Case in point: How many of you have skimmed over the longer posts in this thread?  How many of you began to skip over the larger paragraphs in this post until the unusual formatting of this one caught your eye?

 

If I were to criticize the video creators for anything, it would be that their intentions were never clearly stated.  The target audience is somewhat ambiguous at first glance, in part due to how the videos seem to aim for this middle-of-the-road territory by being showy and simple enough to appeal to complete neophytes while still attempting to pile on enough information that someone can learn virtually everything they need to know in order to use a character proficiently inside of ten minutes (a goal anyone who's ever seriously played a fighter knows is impossible).

You can't play to both crowds and expect either one to follow you.  Either embrace the fact that BlazBits is intended to be eye-catching edutainment meant to draw new players into the fandom and accept that this will reduce support from the hardcore crowd, or make the videos a more in-depth and information-centric tutorial series and accept that you'll likely alienate newcomers who are still trying to get their bearings.

Just my $0.02, whatever that might be worth to you.

[tataki]

If I were to criticize the video creators for anything, it would be that their intentions were never clearly stated.  The target audience is somewhat ambiguous at first glance, in part due to how the videos seem to aim for this middle-of-the-road territory by being showy and simple enough to appeal to complete neophytes while still attempting to pile on enough information that someone can learn virtually everything they need to know in order to use a character proficiently inside of ten minutes (a goal anyone who's ever seriously played a fighter knows is impossible).

You can't play to both crowds and expect either one to follow you.  Either embrace the fact that BlazBits is intended to be eye-catching edutainment meant to draw new players into the fandom and accept that this will reduce support from the hardcore crowd, or make the videos a more in-depth and information-centric tutorial series and accept that you'll likely alienate newcomers who are still trying to get their bearings.

Just my $0.02, whatever that might be worth to you.

We ARE looking to please both crowds, just not at the same time. A new player should understand SOME things when he starts out, and the rest as he improves and watches again. We are intending to try to teach as much as we can within the limits of an accessible format and relatively short videos. Again, the main target audience are newcomers to the game, but we want them to be able to learn as much as possible from a single source before they are forced to move on.

 

 

 

 

Now, regarding the people who disagree with the very existence of this project-

 

Please do some thinking about how much of your objection to it is emotional and how much is logical.

 

The emotion says: "It feels like it should be done for free, since the standard on the internet is free and our community is based on free contributions".

 

And that is completely correct! I fully agree that this is a great ideal to live by.

 

But let's look at some additional facts:

 

Fact #1: Some people out there would like to watch video tutorials for every character, and in general, video content that helps learning fighting games. If you need obvious proof- I had 2000 subs when I made random stuff, and a few weeks from now I'll be way past 6000. So there's demand for the final result. Our problem is how do we get there?

 

Fact #2: I suggested 1 practical solution to make this type of thing (26 polished videos in half a year) happen. You may not like it, but it's a practical solution nonetheless.

 

Fact #3: Nobody ever suggested an alternative practical solution. All the responses are about how much people like or dislike the only practical solution suggested so far. That's fine, you were heard loud and clear. But what now?

 

Fact #4: Even if you come up with a suggestion for a free practical solution, you need to provide a satisfying explanation why it was never ever done until now, despite being free and practical. Why nobody else went and did what we did once and now are trying to do again, but bigger, better, and faster? You can't volunteer hypothetical people. We need names of real people, and enough of them, that are committed enough to work together to create this kind of project on their free time.

 

Fact #5: Until that happens, the options we have are either "Enough people make the sacrifice of donating $5 to the cause, and then this thing gets made" or "Nothing of this scale gets made ever".

 

If you don't like my practical solution that's fine, but at least give an alternative that's easier and more practical than paying 5$. Throwing insults is really easy, but providing an actual plan and executing it successfully is hard.

 

 

Edit: If people show up and commit to making 26 character guides, we are closing the campaign. Tuka says he'll be giving you all the assets he made in photoshop for BlazBits, and I'll make an appealing opening sequence to the best of my ability. I haven't spoken to specs but maybe he'll be willing to narrate if you'd like him to. You want it free? We'll do our equal part and do it in the best way possible. Now the ball is in your court.

[Narroo]

While it doesn't look like this is going to be funded...

 

Is there anyway to help out aside from monetary contributions or being a current expert in something?