Fred the Barber Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Tomorrow night at 10:30 PM, I'll be presenting "Getting Started with Visual Novels" at SakuraCon. On the off-chance you'll be there, come by to support me. If not, well, you can get something not wholly unlike that experience, since I just posted a video recording of my rehearsal up on youtube. Note that the video will be rather boring if you don't listen to the audio - the slides are just supporting material, not the meat of the content. Be advised: this is really intro-level material, designed to provide maximum information for people with almost no VN experience. Unless you're somewhat new to this whole VN thing, it's probably not going to teach you anything. Disclaimers done, the video is below. I'm still fiddling with editing out the cruft at the beginning and ending of the video (I'm new to this video stuff), so if you watch it right now be aware there's a few seconds at the beginning and end where nothing's happening. Edit: man, I really didn't do Comyu justice in this recording (I'm going off pretty bare-bones notes, so I say completely different stuff every time I rehearse, especially in the last section). I was just listening to an earlier recording, where I unfortunately messed up the video part or I would've uploaded it instead, where I absolutely nailed Comyu. I somehow made it natural to say "It's about not giving up on connecting with other people. And it's about doing that with a giant robot, because that's what brings people together." Hopefully when I have to do the actual thing, I'll do it right. Funyarinpa, Flutterz, kingdomcome and 6 others 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flutterz Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 You have a good voice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred the Barber Posted March 25, 2016 Author Share Posted March 25, 2016 Flattery will get you everywhere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flutterz Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 1 minute ago, Fred the Barber said: Flattery will get you everywhere Everywhere? Even to Seattle in time for SakuraCon?! Kawasumi, Funyarinpa, kingdomcome and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred the Barber Posted March 25, 2016 Author Share Posted March 25, 2016 4 minutes ago, Flutterz said: Everywhere? Even to Seattle in time for SakuraCon?! Maybe. If you believe hard enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainsismyfav Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Is your panel going to be 18+ or open to general audience? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred the Barber Posted March 25, 2016 Author Share Posted March 25, 2016 Just now, rainsismyfav said: Is your panel going to be 18+ or open to general audience? General audience. I'll be pointing people to 18+ material, but nothing I say or show will be 18+. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainsismyfav Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Some feedback: You should include specific slides from the fuwa forums, reddit's buying guide, VNDB's homepage, steam etc. to give your audience some idea how they look like, it would match while you're taking your time explaining instead of just having the general slide for each. You might even be able to point out specific locations if you have a mouse cursor or pointer to work with. Might be extra work though Fred the Barber 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred the Barber Posted March 25, 2016 Author Share Posted March 25, 2016 Thanks! I was thinking along the same lines, especially about VNDB. I remember finding VNDB very intimidating the first few dozen times I ended up there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kawasumi Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Dude, I would fucking love to be there and have a chat with you afterwards, but the ocean is big n stuff. All the best kingdomcome 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiquidShu Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 I actually listened to it all Was going to get up and do stuff but your voice entranced me. I can't say anything for most of the slides since I was only listening but good job~ Good luck at your panel! krill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babiker Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Really nice, but I find it very odd that you started by telling everyone how to VN, before actually getting them interested in VNs. I think starting with giving a good example of a VN, with explaining what makes VNs superior to other platforms (VNs master race!) which you did do at the start makes more sense. Not sure if you have time to edit it at this point or if you've already gone lol, but good luck never the less Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred the Barber Posted March 25, 2016 Author Share Posted March 25, 2016 Thanks for the support and the suggestions, folks. My presentation is in 9 hours - starting to get a little jittery, but I'm sure it'll be fine. 2 hours ago, babiker said: Really nice, but I find it very odd that you started by telling everyone how to VN, before actually getting them interested in VNs. I think starting with giving a good example of a VN, with explaining what makes VNs superior to other platforms (VNs master race!) which you did do at the start makes more sense. Not sure if you have time to edit it at this point or if you've already gone lol, but good luck never the less I actually intended to do things in that order initially, but I've been reading books about presentations, and some points they made convinced me that I needed to move things around. The psychology is basically that you need to start off strong, and then end even stronger. In an informational presentation like this, it's ok for the middle to be a little bit slower, but the ending is what people are going to remember the most, so you really need to save your strongest moments for the wrap-up. Probably the online video is a pretty different beast vs. the in-person presentation, in two big ways: Viewers are less invested in the online video than the people at the panel will be, since it's just a youtube video and they're comfortably at home; they can click away at any time. If you're there in person, as long as I hook you enough at the beginning and keep the pace reasonable, you're not going to get up and leave on me. In the live presentation format, I'm going to be visible, and people like looking at people rather than words (which is why my slides have so little text) - so a lot hinges on my attitude. Like Ageha said in KonoSora, you can control people with your eyes. So, I'm going to be trying to make good eye contact and whatnot to try to keep people engaged, and then finish strong to get people really hooked on the idea. babiker 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingdomcome Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Fred, you got this public speaking thing down. Will you have a video of yourself doing the presentation? Flutterz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred the Barber Posted March 25, 2016 Author Share Posted March 25, 2016 12 minutes ago, kingdomcome said: Fred, you got this public speaking thing down. Will you have a video of yourself doing the presentation? Alas, no, the only thing I'm going to post is that recording. I don't have the equipment in the first place to do a decent recording, and frankly even if I did I'd be too self-conscious to post that to the internet. Thanks for the support! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flutterz Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 1 minute ago, Fred the Barber said: Alas, no, the only thing I'm going to post is that recording. I don't have the equipment in the first place to do a decent recording, and frankly even if I did I'd be too self-conscious to post that to the internet. Thanks for the support! Now I definitely need to come to Seattle... and bring a camera Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingdomcome Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 5 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said: and frankly even if I did I'd be too self-conscious to post that to the internet. You have the balls to present in front of people, you're definitely not too self conscious. If I was in the USA in some nearby state I'd definitely be there. Good luck! 4 minutes ago, Flutterz said: Now I definitely need to come to Seattle... and bring a camera You must! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoganW Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Good luck! I'm sure you will crush it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenophilious Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 You have an attractive voice, Fred Good luck, man! Make those weebs realize there's more than Sakura Spirit. rainsismyfav 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred the Barber Posted March 26, 2016 Author Share Posted March 26, 2016 With the amount of people commenting on my voice, I'm starting to think maybe I missed my true calling as a radio personality. rainsismyfav and Flutterz 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainsismyfav Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 1 hour ago, Fred the Barber said: With the amount of people commenting on my voice, I'm starting to think maybe I missed my true calling as a radio personality. Start your own VN/anime/manga radio stations . I'd invest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ittaku Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Maybe voice acting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flutterz Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 So how'd it go? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingdomcome Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Indeed, very curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred the Barber Posted March 26, 2016 Author Share Posted March 26, 2016 It went really well! I was going to post last night, but, well... Anyway, I was up so late that despite not getting anywhere near enough sleep, I just now got settled in front of a computer again briefly (before, of course, heading back to the con shortly). My biggest fear was that nobody would show up, but the opposite happened: the crowd was so big that people had to be turned away at the door! So that's a little sad, but on the other hand, I had a big, interested group of people. Also, apparently they had a projector malfunction in that room and no replacement, so my slides were up on a depressingly tiny 32" TV screen. Thankfully the room wasn't that big, so people were able to read the large text of my slides (which I'm quite certain of because the whole room was laughing at both the second Steam slide and the Steins;Gate slide well before I said anything). But I think the game screenshots were probably illegible, so things like my Grisaia Somalia reference and my closing joke didn't play as well as they should have. The presentation itself went off really well - by my own lights, I did better on each topic than I did in any of my rehearsals. I must've talked at light speed, though, since I was apparently done in ~30 minutes... but whatever, people didn't seem to mind. I did the eye contact thing; it clearly worked. The Q&A section went for about 10 minutes, and revealed a pretty diverse crowd: I had a passionate otome fan who had played pretty much everything she could get her hands on and was looking for new stuff. She was mostly interested in the importing + fan TL side of things, and we had a little chat after the panel was over. I mentioned that I'd been planning to pick up Hakuoki soon, and her eyes lit up. I had another female who had a friend that was trying to get her into VNs, but only knew about JList, and she was loth to spend $80 and wait a month to play something. So, she was very happy to hear about all the more affordable options I'd laid out. I had a /r/visualnovels redditor who helped me out with a couple additional pointers about the reddit VN community, and who grilled me about my basis for believing the Grisaia translation to be better-written than the original Japanese (my answer: I can understand a lot of the original dialog, and it's clearly not as colorful as koestl's translation) I had the three people who, for the last few years, had been hosting a kind of "what are visual novels" panel at SakuraCon. I actually ran into them early at the Sekai Project line and asked why they weren't running the panel this year, and the main guy said "I forgot about the deadline. But it looks like somebody else is doing a panel, so I guess it worked out ok". That of course elicited a chuckle and a "That's me". They were quite helpful, especially in fielding some audience questions - clearly a lot more experienced than I am. I was chatting briefly before the panel with the SakuraCon volunteer who was running ops for my panel; when I mentioned I was running the only visual novel fan panel at SakuraCon, it turned out that he had no idea visual novels existed, and assumed that I was using some weird name for graphic novels. He got into it enough that he asked a question during the Q&A session too All told, the room was at capacity with 25 attendees. I had two people leave near the end (maybe they had somewhere to be at 11; still hurts a bit), but the rest of the crowd seemed really into it, sticking around all the way through the end of the Q&A, and I got a couple big rounds of applause. I walked out in company with the friend I'd brought along (who had never played more than a little bit of F/SN before deciding it wasn't for him, but who I apparently completely sold on picking up Grisaia; I really thought Comyu would be more his speed since he loves mecha...), as well as the past-year panelists and a few other random people, all of whom were chatting about ancient VN lore I knew nothing about. It was a great vibe, and I'm really happy that, even if those people didn't get anything from my presentation directly, I provided a venue for them to meet up and chat. So, yeah, it was an absolute blast, and I definitely achieved my goal of bringing knowledge to a few more people and helping the community grow a little bit. Flutterz, Gibberish, Kawasumi and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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