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YoinkCasting™ 101: Tips on making a better shoutcast

By jodonnell - 5th August 2008 - 05:42 AM

Yoink™, a broadcast professional, offers some industry tips and insights on how to improve both the technical and entertainment quality of your shoutcasts.

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YoinkCasting™ 101: Tips on making a better shoutcast!
by Yoink™

This article may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the explicit written permission of the author.

Hello friends!

The GameReplays.org shoutcasting community is experiencing exciting times! With several new shoutcast moderators joining the crew and lots of new public shoutcasters, it looks like the demand for new, finely-crafted shoutcasts is higher than ever!

The superb guide pinned by SomeBloke at the top of the shoutcasting forum offers excellent tips on how to build your first few shoutcasts for your listeners. I thought I'd take that guide a step further and offer some tips on how to refine and improve your shoutcasts and make them the best they can possibly be!

Allow me to humbly present the five point process of refining and improving your shoutcasts (along with patented YoinkSecrets™ for an even more powerful shoutcasting experience!)

1) First and foremost...Relax and have fun!
Remember, shoutcasting is supposed to be fun. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to forget that. Don't try and build a shoutcast that's going to please hundreds of CoH fans. As a matter of fact, don't even bother trying to please ten CoH fans. First, just work on pleasing yourself. Your shoutcast will never be anything better than just "average" if you're constantly uncomfortable, nervous, and confused about recording it. If you're unhappy with your own shoutcasting results, switch it up! I personally guarantee you that if you maximize the "fun" aspects of shoutcasting (whatever that may be for you...maybe it's stats, or play-by-plays, or macro-strategy talk) your shoutcasts will automatically become better, because you will come across as being excited and enthusiastic about the game! Don't try to build a shoutcast by anyone's expectations but your own. For instance, do you hate talking about macro? Fine! Focus on the play-by-play! Are you getting too tongue-tied trying to track down every Grenadier squad on the map? Then don't worry about it! Talk about how that Allied player must be just as frustrated as you are in trying to track down all these Grenadiers running around everywhere! Do what's most comfortable and be sure to have fun doing it.

Patented YoinkSecret™: I only record shoutcasts after I've just won an online CoH game. If I play all night and don't win any games, then there is no shoutcasting for me that night. After I've won a game online, I feel energized and my mind is positively swimming with CoH facts. I'm jazzed and amped up and feelin' great. My strategies and micro obviously just worked to defeat the opponent I played against, and I'm totally focused on what works and what doesn't work. If I can find a replay that mirrors the map and/or factions I just played, then all the better! It makes bringing up discussion topics so much easier in game if you've just used those very same concepts yourself!

2) Record your shoutcast as if you are talking to one person.
This is an old broadcast journalism trick from the early days of news radio. In order to help overcome their fear of public speaking, radio announcers would envision that only one person was listening to their voice on the other end of the microphone. Instead of believing that millions of listeners were hanging on their every word, they instead envisioned their brother, or sister, or friend was listening to them alone in a room. When you envision that situation, it becomes much, much easier to speak in a conversational manner. Instead of "announcing the facts to the world," you are simply "telling your friend the details of a story." It's an excellent trick and has helped hundreds of people overcome their fear of public speaking. The same thing works for shoutcasting CoH games. Record your shoutcasts like you're explaining the game to one friend or your 2v2 partner. If that's still too difficult for you, practice by recording a shoutcast to yourself. Take a replay of one of your own games and simply shoutcast your own actions and strategies to yourself. It may sound silly at first, but it will help you practice your style and identify things to talk about. You know what your own strategies were, so say them out loud! Explain to yourself what you are doing at each stage of the game, including your micro, your tactics, what you were thinking about each move, and what went right (or wrong.) It will give you excellent practice for when you want to talk about the tactics and strategies of others!

Patented YoinkSecret™: When I shoutcast my games, I envision that I'm talking to one very specific, fictional person. This fictional person is a slightly noobish CoH player - perhaps someone that's only played about 15 or so games. He is familiar with how the game works but isn't an expert on the larger strategies or micro details of the game. And here's the most important part - this fictional person is watching the game blindfolded. He can only hear the game audio and my voice - that's all. This trick forces me to work extra hard in describing the play-by-plays and really emphasize the exciting parts. For example:

The phrase: "Now the American player is moving his Rifles to fight the Volks," becomes "Now we see two half-strength American Riflesquads moving southbound through the fields by the strat point. They look like they're trying to get into heavy cover, but those Volks with MP40's are closer and are going to beat them to the wall! There's no way they can win!" That's much more descriptive!

The phrase: "British tanks are in a great position to kill that Marder" becomes "These three Fireflies are arrayed in a straight line in open territory for a superb chance to kill that Marder at long range!" Paint the picture for your listener, and force the blindfolded player to understand what you're talking about!