{"id":1637,"date":"2015-01-06T13:54:41","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T18:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/?p=1637"},"modified":"2015-01-06T13:54:41","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T18:54:41","slug":"hats-off-to-video-game-commentators-making-twitch-streams-more-exciting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/hats-off-to-video-game-commentators-making-twitch-streams-more-exciting\/","title":{"rendered":"Hats Off to Video Game Commentators: Making Twitch Streams More Exciting"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sure right now you are one of the thousands watching Awesome Games Done Quick<\/a>, an annual charity gaming marathon that involves a solid week of speedrunners blasting through your favorite games. I made sure to tune in<\/a> on Twitch shortly after this year\u2019s event started on Sunday, mostly because one of the first speedruns featured in this year\u2019s stream was of a childhood favorite game, Banjo-Kazooie<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I got hyped from the start, shouting out in excitement whenever a speedrunner succeeded in pulling off a challenging glitch or exploit, and as a result I stayed hooked on the stream for the two-hour-and-fifteen-minute run of Banjo-Kazooie<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"GDQ\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t stay purely because I was impressed by the skill of the person playing. He was impressive, yes, but I would not have known what to be impressed with if it weren\u2019t for another talent sitting right next to the player on the couch: the commentator.<\/p>\n

During Awesome Games Done Quick, commentators \u2013 and sometimes even the speedrunners themselves \u2013 talk through every aspect of the game being played, highlighting each glitch they are about to exploit, explaining how and why the game thinks in such a way to make this glitch happen. The result: not only do I learn some impressive secrets about some of my favorite video games, but I also learn how challenging it is to pull some of these exploits off, and therefore I get a satisfying feeling when a speedrunner pulls off a glitch that shaves a few second off their runs.<\/p>\n

Some of the most talented commentating I saw, however, came when the commentator knows what trick the player will pull next, and when it is coming, but doesn\u2019t tell the audience exactly what is going to happen until the magic is made. A perfect example: during Sunday\u2019s Banjo-Kazooie <\/em>run, the player executed a new glitch in the \u201cGrunty\u2019s Furnace Fun\u201d level. The commentator explained the player was taking a different path through Gruntilda\u2019s sinister board game than in previous years, but didn\u2019t say exactly why. When the speedrunner then used this new exploit to skip the rest of the level, the crowd \u2013 and I, sitting in my apartment \u2013 went absolutely wild.<\/p>\n