Using Recordings to Lower Barriers

[Jason Newquist]

Split off from A Skill to Cultivate: Setting Stakes, which was talking about how we can design games with feedback mechanisms to encourage setting good stakes.  I don't have an opinion whether this is possible, or how possible it might be.

But what DOES occur to me is that specific gaming behavior -- as with any social behavior -- is best learned through participation and observation.  In the last couple years, Forge and allied designers have really made a strong push at conventions like GenCon, and this is terrific.  You spend quality time with people showing them how your game works.  Everyone understands the benefits.

So where does that leave people who attend the con and want to learn more, or who can't attend the con and who find these games really cool... but hard to imagine how they play out?  Of course, the answer is to just dive in, but the problem is something like this:  "I know how D20|WoD|GURPS|CoC plays, but I can't quite imagine how this game plays."  These customers are experiencing a barrier to entry.

There's another, related audience:  "I attended the con, spent a few minutes at a game demo, and it was great!  But I want to learn more and get better.  What are my choices?"   Currently, the options are: (1) play and get better!  (2) read the Forge, starting with the backlog from 3 years ago and move on up... (3) read game designer blogs.

Using audio (or video) recordings is a much more efficient way for people to learn these social skills. The game designer or an experienced player can sit down and explain how a single game feature works, and walk through some examples of play.  Imagine your target audience is a D20 player.  You have 5 minutes to explain why your game is worth his time.  Go.

Now, once you've got a customer, we can do more.  I'm picturing individual designers recording 5-15 minute snippets where they talk about bits of their own game - not a lot of theory, here, but nuts-and-bolts "here's how this works" type stuff.  This is the kind of stuff you normally see transcribed in game books.  Post them as mp3 files on a web site.  People can download to their iPod if they want, too.

Vincent might have something like:

• How to create a town (with example)
• Conflict Resolution (with example)
• How to GM a Town (example is a full session of play!)

Matt's PTA site might talk about:

• How to Create a Series
• What to Do When It's Your Turn, or, How I Stopped Worrying and Set the Scene
• Fan Mail is Easy

And you can go from there.  Advanced play examples, too.  Adapting Dogs to Other Settings.  Character Death in Polaris.  Setting Stakes Like Nobody's Business.

Finally, I mentioned in the thread above Paul Tevis's recorded session of Polaris.  Now, for those of us who have listened to the above, bought the game, and are thinking about running -- I think having a couple 2-3 hour full sessions of actual play would be incredibly useful.  Here's how one group -- maybe run by the game designer, maybe not -- is actually making it work, and brining it all together.

So, between (1) an initial 5 minute "here's why my game rocks" pitch, (2) examples and snippets, and (3) full sessions -- I think that provide a whole new kind of support for their games which extends the reach of games far beyond cons, and makes them a lot easier to understand.  Instead of telling people to Read Yet Another RPG.net or Forge Thread, tell them to click on this link and listen.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

[Russell Collins]

Gaming infomercials? Maybe we can shake the stigma off by offering something people actually want.

This sounds quite a bit like the short training videos my boss keeps proposing we do for our trainees, acting as supplemental material for the printed manuals and Standard Operating Procedures.

[Vaxalon]

I have, in the last six months or so, discovered podcasting... or well, at least, discovered podCATCHING.

The perfect venue for audio and/or video for these would be a podcast.

[Josh Roby]

There's also the very real barrier of learning skills: some folks cannot just read a book and play the game described.  Lots of the folks who post here are the kinds of people who learn by reading, so we make assumptions about how other people learn.  This would be a very nice tool for those folks who learn by listening (and eventually we can make little flash movies for the visual folks).

Especially if you can make it humorous, this doubles not only as instructional but also promotional material.  One more goodie to download from the website, a little more support for the game, a little closer connection with the game designers.

What I'm most curious about is the technology required to do this.  I've got a headset at home for Ventrilo; does anybody know if this would produce a decent recording (needless to say, I'll try when I get home)?  If we decide to get really complex, what kind of mixing software is available out there (GarageBand for Mac)?  Lastly, does anybody know how to set up a podcast feed, rather than post mp3s that can be downloaded manually?

[Jason Newquist]

Can Ron Edwards do a Ron Popeil impersonation?  ;-)

But, yeah.  Not informercials.  Material that lets some D20 gaming group more likely to pick up your indie game and get better at it, despite never having read your blog, or the Forge.

Ideally, the game is all they need, but text isn't always the best medium.  Games are social experiences, and text isn't always the best medium for the message.

[JarrodHenry]

I've always been a fan of flash based character creation tutorials, or flash based animations detailing how a specific mechanic in your game works...

The whole podcasting/video podcasting is a good idea, but as a former podcaster, let me tell you.. it'll eat your time up faster than indie-game dev will.  It'll also suck money from you like a vacuum. It's not a cheap ordeal to get into nowadays.  Most good podcasters have spent a few hundred on sound setup alone.

[Nathan P.]

For Mac, I use Garageband and Audacity (actually, I like Audacity a lot more for doing everything except buildings beats out of loops, and it's cross-platform) for my sound recording and editing.

I have a bunch of recording and playback equipment lying around, so I don't really know how the current market is for mics that go right into a computer (via 1/8" (headphone) jack, USB or Firewire). A quick search at Sweetwater turns up this sweet deal, and theres obviously also stuff at places like RadioShack that will record spoken vocals just fine. I know I can record into my laptop (Mac G4) using its internal microphone fairly clearly, but obviously that option depends on the specs of your system.

Incidentally, I try to record my playtest sessions to aid my poor memory. With some tight editing, doing something like that could really be a good intro to the game, as the session is already oriented towards working out the bugs and hitting the features of the game.

[TonyLB]

The thing is ... you're not going to be able to can the actual, participatory, in-the-moment experience that is the roleplaying game.  At its most basic, the person listening to the podcast isn't participating, they aren't there in the moment.  There's no point to them (for instance) thinking about how they're going to respond that what's being said, because they're never going to get a chance to respond.

That's not to say that it won't be a valuable tool, just that I think you'll need to recognize that it's a separate medium.  While I wouldn't recommend (for instance) pre-scripting and rehearsing a roleplaying game, I think I would recommend scripting and rehearsing for creating the audio to convey to a potential buyer what is so cool about the RPG.  In order to convey that feeling to a listener, the speakers are going to have to be doing things differently than they would if they were actually playing the game.

Does that make sense?

[Vaxalon]

I have Audacity and as a TOTAL AUDIO NEWBIE I found it quite usable.  I recommend it to anyone who wants to go this route.

As for microphones, definitely go with a USB mike.  Soundcard mikes are generally considered poor quality.  It's very difficult to listen to something that has poor audio quality.

[Nathan P.]

Tony,

Totally. That's why I think a playtest recording would be better than a "real" session recording. I could see something like this as a viable route - record a playtest or regular session, play it back and mark down all the cool stuff thats very it for your game, and then script something from that and re-record. That way you can preserve some of the spontaneity (THIS is what happens when you play!), and add in explanatory notes, cut out the incidental play based off of support mechanics, etc.

I'm sure there's tons of podcasting FAQs and resources out there with experienced advice about how to technically do something like this. A quick Google search gave me this, f'rex.

[Jason Newquist]

Tony,

It does make sense, and thanks for verbalizing the distinction.  The best I was able to do was say that observation is the next best thing to participation.  I agree that participating in a game with an experienced, friendly GM is the best way to learn.  But given that this is not possible for the vast majority of the target market, it's my claim that observation through a recording is better suited for some types of learning -- and makes some things more accessible for some types of learners -- than written text.

I also fully agree with your comment that the kind of play that is best suited for the little snippets is fully contrived to be an illustrative example, just as the ones written in books are!

But is the same true of recorded full sessions?  ...Hard to say.  Obviously, people know they are being recorded, and so they might act differently for that reason.  Secondly, since it's being recorded, players are probably reminded to use slightly differently styled ephemera.   They might be encouraged to actually spell things out, to some degree:  "Ok, I'm pushing forward my 6 and 6 to See.  This totals 12, and matches or exceeds your Raise of 11."

[Vaxalon]

After the holidays, I'm going to see if my new Dogs group wants to give this a try as a proof of concept.

[Chris Peterson]

I found the Polaris Actual Play podcasts from the "Have Games, Will Travel" blog very helpful:

http://tao-games.com/games_polaris.shtml#downloads

Unfortunately, the audio quality was very poor. Since the players were still learning the game, I got to hear both game play and meta-game discussions of rules (which was helpful).

[Jason Newquist]

I agree, Chris.  Having listened to that podcast in some ways made me feel more prepared to run Polaris than any other Forge game -- even though I'd read countless threads on DitV and PTA.

"Yeah, I've not run it before, but I know how it could look to play it."  This is how social animals learn new social behavior: watching a model, mimicking it, and finally adapting and making the behavior your own.

[matthijs]

I'd buy videos of people playing Forge games. You know why? Because I have a feeling that we somehow play them differently. I'm sitting here thousands of miles away from the designers, and am bringing my own background - gaming and otherwise - to the table. I'd love to see what the differences are, and how we play the same. Not in order to play "the right way", but just to see - are we doing the same thing? Ethnographical curiosity, I guess.