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Stop making only video guide


pulli23

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I'm unsure where to post thsi, but I think this is an important message guidemakers should realize, and hence should receive some visibility:

 

 

 

A video can be a great media to show how something is done. And hence it can extend a guide greatly. However guides with only a video shouldn't be considered "finished", they lack too much to fit that role:

 

-A video requires much more storage (and hence bandwidth) than just a text/images. This means you can't load your guide immediatelly and some people will have a difficult time viewing your guide

-A video has 0 overview, no one can skim your video quickly to see what it talks about and if it is applicable to you.

-As you don't have overview, with just a video a guide can never be used as a reference once you seen it. You are constantly forced to look through the whole video. Even if you want to see just the setup you will have to download the video and take much time to look at the setup.

-Videos are not good for text, I read at a different speed than someone else. So either some people can't read everything easily, or people get annoyed by the slow speed text is shown. Furthermore if something is a "difficult" point you read it multiple times, leading to even more confusion and annoyances when the video moves on but you aren't ready yet.

-Spoken commentaries are just terrible: please realize that not everyone is a native english speaker. And where text can be read more slowly to translate it in your head, with a voice this can't be done. This means that often the message won't get across.

-Background music, this is just punishing viewers. My prefered music will probably not be the same as yours. And most of the music I see with videos I think is a waste of time to produce. Everyone has their own tastes, and people don't open a guide to know your music taste. People open your guide to learn something. So don't force your taste upon others and just keep music out of a video guide.

 

 

All in all I believe video guides are just terrible when they are "on their own". As I said I do see a great point in giving a video demonstrating what is written down in the guide, but don't leave a video without written text which can be read without opening the video.

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and I didn't speak out because I wasn't fishing

 

Then they came to the yews

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Then they came for the ores

and I didn't speak out because I didn't collect ores

 

Then they came for me

and there was no one left to speak out for me.

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I agree, unless I go on Youtube specifically, if I open a guide in AoW with just a video, I immediately go back and look for another. It's a brilliant tool, but writing and images are needed as well I find. And this is coming from a guy who speaks English as his first language, lol. Guess I'm just lazy.

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I have to agree with this. I'll spend a long time reading and rereading everything in a good guide, but won't watch a 10 minute video telling me the same thing.

 

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I like video guides better than all text guides personally.

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I quite agree, I prefer text and images to videos all the time.

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While it may be at times inappropriate for a guide to be in a video format, video-guides do have their place. As an example, it is much more difficult to describe complex sequences of movements through either text or images than it is to illustrate with a video. It is also possible to have an overview contained early in the video, and with annotations you can allow the viewer to jump to specific time indexes in the video (tutorial:

)
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Then you make the guides next time.

Flawed logic. People who have the urge to make guides will do so anyway. pulli23's message is that they should actually do so in a way that helps more people, which is through text and images for many, myself included.

 

Full support for the idea.


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Then you make the guides next time.

Flawed logic. People who have the urge to make guides will do so anyway. pulli23's message is that they should actually do so in a way that helps more people, which is through text and images for many, myself included.

 

Full support for the idea.

I don't see how his logic is less flawed than yours. What about visual learners? I'm a visual learner and video guides are best for me. There is a huge amount of visual learners and a huge amount of people who learn by reading, so saying text is "helping more people" isn't true.

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Then you make the guides next time.

Flawed logic. People who have the urge to make guides will do so anyway. pulli23's message is that they should actually do so in a way that helps more people, which is through text and images for many, myself included.

 

Full support for the idea.

I don't see how his logic is less flawed than yours. What about visual learners? I'm a visual learner and video guides are best for me. There is a huge amount of visual learners and a huge amount of people who learn by reading, so saying text is "helping more people" isn't true.

 

Being a visual learner doesn't mean that a video guide will be better. He provided multiple reasons why text/image guides are superior for conveying information and he's right.

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I agree 100%. The only time a video guide might be better IMO is if it's for a boss hunting method or Fight Caves or something. Otherwise I usually don't bother watching it at all if it's a video guide, for all the points that you mentioned.

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I agree. Frankly, outside of the AOW the guides section of this forum is trash, filled with subpar video guides. I would fully support separating the general guides subforum into Video Guides and General Guides.

 

EDIT: I think I'll post this in the forum updates and suggestions forum tomorrow.

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People still need guides now?

The only time I need a guide is during quests.

Honestly everything else in runescape can be written down in 1-2 sentences so that even an idiot can understand it.

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Then you make the guides next time.

Flawed logic. People who have the urge to make guides will do so anyway. pulli23's message is that they should actually do so in a way that helps more people, which is through text and images for many, myself included.

 

Full support for the idea.

I don't see how his logic is less flawed than yours. What about visual learners? I'm a visual learner and video guides are best for me. There is a huge amount of visual learners and a huge amount of people who learn by reading, so saying text is "helping more people" isn't true.

 

Being a visual learner doesn't mean that a video guide will be better. He provided multiple reasons why text/image guides are superior for conveying information and he's right.

Pretty much. That and the fact that most people, on this thread and those I've spoken to in game, prefer text or text and image guides.


"Imagine yourself surrounded by the most horrible cripples and maniacs it is possible to conceive, and you may understand a little of my feelings with these grotesque caricatures of humanity about me."

- H.G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau

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Then you make the guides next time.

Flawed logic. People who have the urge to make guides will do so anyway. pulli23's message is that they should actually do so in a way that helps more people, which is through text and images for many, myself included.

 

Full support for the idea.

 

Flawed logic. Instead of complaining about someone else's work, which they did not even have to do, how about you go and do it how you want to? Nobody is stopping you from making text guides.

 

 

Simply put, that's being called a [bleep].

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everything else in runescape can be written down in 1-2 sentences so that even an idiot can understand it.

 

 

That's pretty ignorant.

Every monster killing guide: bring gear, attack monster, pick up loot, bank

Every skill guide: use this on that, bank, repeat

Give me suggestions on what other guides I should make.

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Mostly badly made video guides will suffer from the shortcomings that the author mentioned. If a video is well-thought out (which will also require a level of ability and knowledge from the author in order to make it like that) then i think it can even surpass the usefulness of a text guide. I believe the problem is that most videos are made by people who don't know how to make them properly and are made in a rush.

 

I've personally seen a great deal of extremely useful videos on various aspects that teach me alot, but they come from professionals and have some thought put into them.

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Video guides do have their place - it's less about the format than it is about the author.

 

A poorly written text guide is about as useful as a monotone video guide with poor picture quality drowned in loud music. Admittedly, text guides are easier to make and comprehend, but there's many limitations of text guides that need considering too.

 

Examples of where video guides work;

 

A guide to use Photoshop/Blender/Sony Vegas, etc

 

A guide for showing specific sequences of moves - Nexing, pking and staking

 

etc.

 

I'd say as long as the author doesn't use videos as the primary tool for guides, then it should be fine.

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I'd say as long as the author doesn't use videos as the primary tool for guides, then it should be fine.

 

 

Except GuidesforScapers. Objectively, he makes very good videos. Very clear, easy to follow, good mix of music, includes text in the video, good examples of techniques. I say if a video maker is skilled, then a video guide is fine for some things. If they're not very skilled then it's useless.

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