Yeah, short snappy videos are great for an overview of the game, but I don’t learn well from them. The app they tried for Tiny Epic Dungeons just ended up annoying me.,.
I like videos as a second source, to confirm or clarify a point. Unless produced by the game maker, I would not trust rules videos as a primary source.
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I find I like play throughs. A video explaining rules I don’t find very helpful however a few rounds of people actually playing the game and a whole load of context for rules to hang together around lodges in my brain. It is however time consuming and not every one who does them has a personality that fails to grate at all times.
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I recently tried using videos for learning some games, and while there are some benefits, I found it unreliable – sometimes rules are left ambiguous or skipped entirely, so I’ve still always needed to read the rules myself afterwards to be sure. But sometimes that’s ok. There’s no shortage of times when I’ve struggled through a wall of text (perhaps repeatedly) only to realise that the thing they’re explaining is actually very simple; so if a video has made the simple thing apparent in advance then there’s a decent chance that the subsequent read-through will make sense the first time. A person might do quite a lot of reading in the time it takes to watch a video, though, so… YMMV!
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I think it’s reasonably well-accepted now that different people learn in different ways; if I want people to get familiar with a game before we play, I usually post links to rulebook and video and they can choose what they like. In the Blender world (3d modelling) the vast majority of third-party tutorial content seems to be in the form of video, which takes a long frustrating time when you’re just looking for the answer to a simple question that isn’t quite clear in the manual.
What makes a good how-to-play video? I haven’t seen a lot of them myself but I think that’s probably on topic.
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I think it’s almost as much of an art form as laying out a manual. The medium may be different, but the aim is substantially the same.
A good video is:
- Well planned – the presenter knows what they’re going to explain, how they’re going to do it, how they’re going to show it, and almost certainly has written a script to follow.
- Well ‘performed’ – the presenter speaks clearly at all times, without stumbling or getting off track.
- Well photographed – the visuals are clear, in focus, and generally of adequate quality for the purpose.
- Well edited – you are always being shown what’s important to see at that time.
- Accurate – the rules are explained unambiguously.
- Succinct – explains things quickly and clearly, neither labouring points unnecessarily, nor overwhelming the viewer by rushing.
- Comprehensive – at least for the intended scope of the tutorial.
- Successful at teaching the game : )
I doff my hat to those who can manage all of that, as I don’t think it’s at all easy.
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Since I’m a reasonably experienced teacher of games face to face (I have woken up first thing in the morning at Essen to find myself in the middle of the teach for the game I was demoing that year), I’ve sometimes thought about just filming that, but I suspect I’d need a lot more video production skills.
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Do it! Then watch it back and critique yourself, to figure out how it could be improved. I don’t imagine that people get really good at this without practice and iteration, but it might still be pretty good (particularly when it comes to games you have taught many times before).
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From my experience of teaching in a pandemic I imagine one of the things that will be a trip hazard will be adjusting to having a lack of feedback. Talking in to a blank bank of zoom windows required a different flow and style as I couldn’t see who was picking up what so what needed repeating was very odd at first. Maybe the proper teachers here will have more to add on the subject.
On topic I suppose this is a difficult balance on a video tutorial. Personally I wouldn’t want a full rundown of all special powers for many games, that could drag. Let’s take a Legendary deck builder. However some times that would be necessary maybe? Getting the balance between brevity for interest and explaining enough to play a game smoothly (towards completeness?) must be part of the art of it.
Is that something that we’ve been hinting at with the glossary issue in rulebooks? It’s frustrating when core rules are only in a glossary but then rules can get difficult to reference when every clause is listed all the time. Is that an equivalent between the mediums?
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For something like Sentinels there are clearly important prowords you’ll find on cards (like Discover) that you need to be able to understand, but I don’t think I’d list all the different sorts of damage – just say “damage comes in different sorts, and sometimes a target will be able to block one but not another”.
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Apparently you just need to film yourself sleeping, then see how good of a teach you give! It’d be entertaining, at any rate.
One instructional video I highly rate is RTFM’s “Twilight Imperium 4th edition in 32 minutes”. Is 32 minites long? Maybe, but so is TI4, and the video does not feel that long. It is thorough, presents the rules in a logical way, notes when a rule is different than 3rd edition for those who are familiar with it, provides examples, and, perhaps most importantly, it is entertaining! Their TI4 Prophecy of Kings in 7 minutes is also good.
I do not go to videos often when learning a game. I typically do fine just reading the rulebook and maybe setting up a practice game. But, if it is a complex game where it is highly beneficial if everyone has at least some grasp of the rules before we play, RTFM is my go-to.
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I appreciate how-to-play video content because it shows the flow of the game better than a rulebook usually can.
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As part of editing, a good video should have timestamps that align with the phases and/or actions of the game, from Setup to End Game Scoring.
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I second the RTFM backing. I had to teach Root to a group of new players at the last minute when I needed a refresher myself and found the task … daunting. So I gave the put on a video thing a try and it went over great, everyone was entertained and everything was solidly covered. Lead to a great game.
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Also as someone who is the game teacher for our group and who learns rules the best by reading the manual a bad rulebook is such a hurdle. I have Kemet: Blood and Sand on my shelf still unplayed yet after receiving it from the Kickstarter delivery because the rulebook is pretty hard to digest.
Also worth mentioning is I find a poorly done rulebook makes the rules fade out of memory faster than a well done one. I have read through the above mentioned rulebook probably three times at this point and it’s already fuzzy again.
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I read this as TI4 is 32 minutes long, and snorted.
A game of TI4 that last 32 minutes only without involving a table being toppled would be a Guinness world record.
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And on the subject of rulebooks I have been quiet, because I am puzzled sometimes. I admit that rulebooks that other people have criticised I agree with, but then there’s other than, not being great, do the work.
Things that I don’t enjoy on rulebooks are:
-Walls of letters. Paragraphs, bullet points… do help. I see publishers get fixed on how many pages long a rulebook is. Sometimes, at the sacrifice of an extra page or two, tidying up and making things clear can help a lot.
-Lack of assist cards: there are key things like a turn structure or priority concepts that cannot take more than a piece of paper. Those help a lot.
-Ambiguity. I know I may be stepping on a minefield here, but clarity of concepts helps a lot. Particularly, by making clear what cannot happen.
On the glossary, I am all for it, but it can be separate from the rulebook. On a folded (or laminated) A4. So I can go for a quick check mid game. Anything other than that, suffers from lack of accessibility. And by all means, the horror of having rules or concepts only explained on the glossary is a big no, noo.
I also agree that everybody learns in a different way, but a rulebook must be like a manual, something that you need sometimes, like on a car, to find where the petrol lid gets open. It should be easy to find, and quick and clear. With pictures even better. (This reminds me of a time I had a Nissan Micra as courtesy car, and it took us 15 minutes to find out how to open it to fill up before returning it, with the staff from the petrol station also assisting).
Videos are great, sometimes key (Brass, I am looking at you) but I would not use them mid game, for example. Playthroughs I use to see how is the game dynamically, and if I would like to buy it.
And finally, apps can be great to teach you that rule you’ve been doing wrong for a long time. My first play of Lords of Waterdeep, the owner of the game did not know about the Port cards giving you an extra action at the end of the round. She had had the game for years. I had learned that through the Steam app.
Wow, that’s a major rule to miss. The redeployment of agents is clearly noted in the rules, though, so it sounds like she was either taught incorrectly, or missed a page when first learning the game and never went back to it.
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Definitely. But it shows how missing a rule can affect a game severely. Sometimes in the App it looks like a race for the Port slots, and they were playing the Port with an “unless I have a really cool card, I won’t bother” kind of attitude.
And depending on the rule, it can break the game.
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