Matt Chat Thread

[Lagole Gon]

Cleve?

 

[Infinitron]

Cleve?

Oh wow. That would be funny if it were true.

 

[Kalin]

I suspect it might be John Carmack.

Cleve would be beyond awesome though.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

You have to respect Jakab's husband for dutifully doing these long and detailed videos week after week after week only to satisfy a very limited but very appreciative audience of fans, now that's what we call being earnest.

 

[J_C]

Jon Van Caneghem!!! Here he comes!!!!!!

Spoiler

 

[Infinitron]

Ooh, I know who he should interview. Trip Hawkins.

 

[Jaesun]

Matt Barton ‏@mattbarton3m
What do you guys think about this RPG project? Would you like to see these guys on the show? http://fb.me/1NaO5sE0A

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Matt gets a bit passive aggressive about his lack of YouTube viewership: http://mattchat.us/?p=512

So, almost no one watches his videos D: ?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Could someone suggest Cleve to him?

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Jon Van Caneghem!!! Here he comes!!!!!!

Spoiler

Don't do that again, Jakab.

 

[octavius]

Cleve?

He said famous, not infamous.

 

[Alchemist]

Clues to this mystery guest from the Matt Chat facebook:

It's not a game designer or developer.
He's important for history of computers
Okay....Maybe he's more famous to me than most.
Just imagine what "Matt Chat" would been like back in the 80s as a syndicated national program.

So we can rule out any game designers / developers. Some kind of important computer guy from the 80s... hmmm.

 

[kazgar]

Woz?

 

[Alchemist]

Perhaps or maybe some C64 dudes... I know Matt loves his C64 stuff.

 

[Kane]

I don't think that the problem is with the videos, I think they are good material. Is there really such a low demand for videos about classic games and legendery developers?

People simply don't care enough to watch two middle-aged virgins debate the merits of computer games.

It's like this

for these people


That doesn't mean that computer games don't hold critical value(s), but in these day and age, where they are made to make money and targeted at the lowest common denominator the audience that would have been, is not there. Just think about it: A Nobel price for games. How ridiculous does that sound?

So there are two ways to continue the show:
1) Enjoyment and acceptance of viewership numbers.
2) Becoming angry joe and raking in all the clicks.

 

[Jarpie]

Dave Haynie maybe...but he's probably not that well known.

 

[zerotol]

bill gates???

 

[Jarpie]

Noel Bushnell.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

People simply don't care enough to watch two middle-aged virgins debate the merits of computer games.

I don't know why you assume he's a virgin.

It's like this

for these people


That doesn't mean that computer games don't hold critical value(s), but in these day and age, where they are made to make money and targeted at the lowest common denominator the audience that would have been, is not there.

What does being nervous have with liking or disliking talking about culture? I used to watch stuff like that even in times when I was pretty violent against items.

A Nobel price for games. How ridiculous does that sound?

It sounds ridiculous only because I'm pretty sure that it would be given to the most common denominator, not to monocle developers.

 

[felipepepe]

Here's thing about Matt's videos, beyond their sheer nostalgic nerdiness:

1) They're very long.
2) He works as an archivist or a collector, not as a news reporter. Once he's done a series of interviews with somebody, he doesn't talk to them again if they're doing something new in their career, etc.

That limits his appeal even further.

Other stuff:

• His editing is bad (the pace and the length, too much of him/interviewed, too little gameplay),
• Episodes with him playing are boring, watching 30-40 minutes of it is unbearable.
• Only die-hard fans will watch 50 minutes of Richard Garriot on a webcam (although it was very cool),
• He doesn't have the support of any major channel, like The Escapist or Gamesutra (sorry, Armchair Arcade ain't gonna get you far),
  
• He's dorky. Sorry, I have nothing against it, but is not something that will help when getting new viewers.

Now, I'm a graduated 9th level demon marketing guy, so my class description says I have to say marketing stuff:

• Redesign the art of the show (it was good 4 years ago, today no). Also, add a cover picture to the videos. Just anything more interesting and nice-looking than a bald fat designer on a webcam.
  
• Be more of a actual archivist/historian/researcher and less of a happy nerd with the drinking horn and t-shirts. Make this the "thing" of your channel, "Matt Chatt: The Weekly Class of Game History" or something like that. Make people realize these are informative for new players & designers, not just a bunch of old people talking about the good old days.
• Go after new stuff as well. Seriously, there's nothing besides prejudice stopping him from interviewing people about Skyrim, New Vegas, Nu XCOM, AoD, KOTOR, Blackguards, Shadowrun Returns, Mount & Blade, etc... that would definitely bring up a new audience.
• Feature less of himself on screen and more of the games. If the interviewer is speaking for a long time, show the game and him on a small window, not both of you. Spoony sucked as a host for his Richard Garriot interview, but he had him showing stuff and walking around. Since Matt only does webcam interviews, he has to make it interesting to watch.
  
• Don't EVER do a short let's play again, like the Wizardry 8 or Dungeon Master one. If he just read what he wrote on his Dungeons & Desktops book (which I own, all the way here in Brazil, so he already achieved something) and used gameplay footage to complement the review, it would be a billion times better.
• Consider making a pilot of a 3-8 minute, heavily edited interview for the mass audience (but release full interviews as well),
• Consider making round-tables, people love those. Get Jullian Gollop and Jake Solomon to talk and discuss why turn-based is NOT a hardware limitation.
  
• Make a awesome 5 min potpourri trailer of your channel, with only the absolute best lines from the most famous interviews, spread it through the internet and leave it on the home screen of your channel.
  
• Go to a big network and try to get support for your channel.

He could also transcript his interviews into a awesome Matt Chatt book, like "Gamers at Work: Stories Behind the Games People Play". I would buy that. And if all fails, make a Patreon campaign for money. Small and faithful audience should shine at this point. As HiddenX likes to swipe on our face, they have the money to burn.

Now excuse me while I take a bath to purify myself.

 

[Kalin]

Here's thing about Matt's videos, beyond their sheer nostalgic nerdiness:

1) They're very long.
2) He works as an archivist or a collector, not as a news reporter. Once he's done a series of interviews with somebody, he doesn't talk to them again if they're doing something new in their career, etc.

That limits his appeal even further.

Other stuff:

• His editing is bad (the pace and the length, too much of him/interviewed, too little gameplay),
• Episodes with him playing are boring, watching 30-40 minutes of it is unbearable.
• Only die-hard fans will watch 50 minutes of Richard Garriot on a webcam (although it was very cool),
• He doesn't have the support of any major channel, like The Escapist or Gamesutra (sorry, Armchair Arcade ain't gonna get you far),
  
• He's dorky. Sorry, I have nothing against it, but is not something that will help when getting new viewers.

Now, I'm a graduated 9th level demon marketing guy, so my class description says I have to say marketing stuff:

• Redesign the art of the show (it was good 4 years ago, today no). Also, add a cover picture to the videos. Just anything more interesting and nice-looking than a bald fat designer on a webcam.
  
• Be more of a actual archivist/historian/researcher and less of a happy nerd with the drinking horn and t-shirts. Make this the "thing" of your channel, "Matt Chatt: The Weekly Class of Game History" or something like that. Make people realize these are informative for new players & designers, not just a bunch of old people talking about the good old days.
• Go after new stuff as well. Seriously, there's nothing besides prejudice stopping him from interviewing people about Skyrim, New Vegas, Nu XCOM, AoD, KOTOR, Blackguards, Shadowrun Returns, Mount & Blade, etc... that would definitely bring up a new audience.
• Feature less of himself on screen and more of the games. If the interviewer is speaking for a long time, show the game and him on a small window, not both of you. Spoony sucked as a host for his Richard Garriot interview, but he had him showing stuff and walking around. Since Matt only does webcam interviews, he has to make it interesting to watch.
  
• Don't EVER do a short let's play again, like the Wizardry 8 or Dungeon Master one. If he just read what he wrote on his Dungeons & Desktops book (which I own, all the way here in Brazil, so he already achieved something) and used gameplay footage to complement the review, it would be a billion times better.
• Consider making a pilot of a 3-8 minute, heavily edited interview for the mass audience (but release full interviews as well),
• Consider making round-tables, people love those. Get Jullian Gollop and Jake Solomon to talk and discuss why turn-based is NOT a hardware limitation.
  
• Make a awesome 5 min potpourri trailer of your channel, with only the absolute best lines from the most famous interviews, spread it through the internet and leave it on the home screen of your channel.
  
• Go to a big network and try to get support for your channel.

He could also transcript his interviews into a awesome Matt Chatt book, like "Gamers at Work: Stories Behind the Games People Play". I would buy that. And if all fails, make a Patreon campaign for money. Small and faithful audience should shine at this point. As HiddenX likes to swipe on our face, they have the money to burn.

Now excuse me while I take a bath to purify myself.

 

[felipepepe]

Trust me, I was EXTREMELY tame.

 

[J_C]

Here's thing about Matt's videos, beyond their sheer nostalgic nerdiness:

1) They're very long.
2) He works as an archivist or a collector, not as a news reporter. Once he's done a series of interviews with somebody, he doesn't talk to them again if they're doing something new in their career, etc.

That limits his appeal even further.

Other stuff:

• His editing is bad (the pace and the length, too much of him/interviewed, too little gameplay),
• Episodes with him playing are boring, watching 30-40 minutes of it is unbearable.
• Only die-hard fans will watch 50 minutes of Richard Garriot on a webcam (although it was very cool),
• He doesn't have the support of any major channel, like The Escapist or Gamesutra (sorry, Armchair Arcade ain't gonna get you far),
  
• He's dorky. Sorry, I have nothing against it, but is not something that will help when getting new viewers.

Now, I'm a graduated 9th level demon marketing guy, so my class description says I have to say marketing stuff:

• Redesign the art of the show (it was good 4 years ago, today no). Also, add a cover picture to the videos. Just anything more interesting and nice-looking than a bald fat designer on a webcam.
  
• Be more of a actual archivist/historian/researcher and less of a happy nerd with the drinking horn and t-shirts. Make this the "thing" of your channel, "Matt Chatt: The Weekly Class of Game History" or something like that. Make people realize these are informative for new players & designers, not just a bunch of old people talking about the good old days.
• Go after new stuff as well. Seriously, there's nothing besides prejudice stopping him from interviewing people about Skyrim, New Vegas, Nu XCOM, AoD, KOTOR, Blackguards, Shadowrun Returns, Mount & Blade, etc... that would definitely bring up a new audience.
• Feature less of himself on screen and more of the games. If the interviewer is speaking for a long time, show the game and him on a small window, not both of you. Spoony sucked as a host for his Richard Garriot interview, but he had him showing stuff and walking around. Since Matt only does webcam interviews, he has to make it interesting to watch.
  
• Don't EVER do a short let's play again, like the Wizardry 8 or Dungeon Master one. If he just read what he wrote on his Dungeons & Desktops book (which I own, all the way here in Brazil, so he already achieved something) and used gameplay footage to complement the review, it would be a billion times better.
• Consider making a pilot of a 3-8 minute, heavily edited interview for the mass audience (but release full interviews as well),
• Consider making round-tables, people love those. Get Jullian Gollop and Jake Solomon to talk and discuss why turn-based is NOT a hardware limitation.
  
• Make a awesome 5 min potpourri trailer of your channel, with only the absolute best lines from the most famous interviews, spread it through the internet and leave it on the home screen of your channel.
  
• Go to a big network and try to get support for your channel.

He could also transcript his interviews into a awesome Matt Chatt book, like "Gamers at Work: Stories Behind the Games People Play". I would buy that. And if all fails, make a Patreon campaign for money. Small and faithful audience should shine at this point. As HiddenX likes to swipe on our face, they have the money to burn.

Now excuse me while I take a bath to purify myself.

There are some good ideas here, but you have to take into account that he is not doing this for a living, so he can't spend all of his time doing pilots, making extra artwork and spendin much time on vidoes with special effects. Making roundtables needs a lot of organiztaion, which still need much time. He has a fulltime job.

Go to a big network and try to get support for your channel.

Unless he sells out completely and start doing interviews with idiot AAA PR guys, who will support him?

nobody stopping him from interviewing people about Skyrim, New Vegas, Nu XCOM

And ask what? Why are your games suck? Because he told several times that he doesn't like most modern RPGs.

He could also transcript his interviews into a awesome Matt Chatt book,

Been there, done that:
http://www.amazon.com/Honoring-Code...9IU_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389717699&sr=1-4

 

[Kane]

People simply don't care enough to watch two middle-aged virgins debate the merits of computer games.

I don't know why you assume he's a virgin.

I don't, it's a figure of speech for extreme nerdism.

What does being nervous have with liking or disliking talking about culture? I used to watch stuff like that even in times when I was pretty violent against items.

Nothing. But that's not what the paragraph you quoted is about. The videos are symbols for high level debate (upper) and the core audience of computer games (lower). As is immediately obvious, there isn't much overlap between the two. And this is our problem.

A Nobel price for games. How ridiculous does that sound?

It sounds ridiculous only because I'm pretty sure that it would be given to the most common denominator, not to monocle developers.

[/quote]

I am not aware of e.g. the Nobel price in literature being handed out to the "most common denominator", quite the opposite.

 

[felipepepe]

nobody stopping him from interviewing people about Skyrim, New Vegas, Nu XCOM

And ask what? Why are your games suck? Because he told several times that he doesn't like most modern RPGs.

So he can't interview people that made a game he doesn't like? He's a butthurt fanboy that will just shout "YOUR GAME SUCKS!" if Jake Solomon wants to talk with him about Nu XCOM?