Instructional Videos

I am so looking forward to Minti’s 1v1 instructional videos. Finally a narrative that is worth watching and some insight into the split second decision making that goes through a top-notch rogue’s mind mid battle. - Lorr

Like Minti and Dahis, I think it is pointless to try to write out a guide on how to fight classes 1v1. There are certainly some general rules of thumb to follow, but in the actual fights themselves there are just far too many variables. What if one of your crucial shots gets dodged? What if they start off with a huge string of crits (I think we all know what happens then). There are a lot of intangibles in any fight mostly the fault of our old trusty psuedo-random number generator. You really can't judge a person on how good they are when everything goes as planned. It's when some curveball gets thrown at you that you never expected that truly tests how good you are. It's if you can turn the tables even when everything is going right for the other guy. These are the true tests... not following some scripted fight sequence, even though it might hold true in many cases... but not all.

I think most movie makers have dabbled around with the idea of making instructional type videos before. I know I have. And in some of my videos you can see text comments I make explaining some things (my older movies, generally). The problem is that there are certain "elitist" people around who take personal insult when you try to help people who may be new to the class or not as knowledgable as you.

How dare you help this person when I know more than you do! You suck!

And then, of course, they go on to offer not a single shred of help to the person with questions. I think we all the know the value of these types of "elitists" in society in general.

For this reason I think a lot of movie-makers have shirked at making fully instructional videos. However, if anyone can pull it off while minimizing a flamewar, it's Minti. What these videos would offer is not a step-by-step guide on how to beat different classes. What they would offer is insight in what you can do when things go wrong. As we PvP we build up a database of knowledge:

"Oh shit! I can't believe that just happened! A few weeks ago when this happened I tried this, but it didn't work. But wait! A few days ago when this happened I tried this, and it worked! I'm going to try that again."

Minti's videos could add to this database of "oh shit!" knowledge. What do you do when things do NOT go according to the scripted plan. It could offer alternative or superior solutions than the ones you've come up with yourself. And it will definitely open up discussion (hopefully constructive) about how to handle different situations as they arise. There is, afterall, more than one way to skin a gnome.

And most importantly, from shadow-gaming.com's point of view, it would turn them into a true online resource for WoW PvP. Could you imagine how popular a series of such videos would be featuring a variety of classes? To Minti and Dahis, please become the History Channel rather than E! Entertainment News like that other blog.

Before I wrap this up, I'd like to give some credit where credit is due. As I mentioned before this is not a new idea. In fact, recently someone did this type of thing from a holy priests point of view. I thought it was pretty well done, and was actually an interesting watch.

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=42450

Perhaps shadow-gaming.com could open up an Instructional video section for their website and link to movies like the one above as well as their own to offer a centralized location for these types of movies. After a formal review, of course. ;)