Game:

Counter-Strike: Source (2004)

Duration: 0:46

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1

So how goes it? I'm trying to be more philosophically true to my theoretical ideals as to how multi-part video series should be handled. That is, it's an extension of what I've already done on the subject of Lumines stretched out to its logical conclusion, creating somewhat seemingly illogical video running times when taken at face value.

Or maybe I just think too much about things that don't actually hold any meaning after all... I know I've gone off at lengths about it even though it means far less to your average mass multimedia content consumer than perhaps one ought to consider.

It strikes me as similar to the example of the DVD versus the VHS tape. Streaming video is exists as a sort of sequential-access "tape" to be taken in order, generally started at the beginning and finished at the end, and then you move on from that one to another, gradually consuming more, kinda like popcorn.

Of course, you might say this neglects the potential use of the video progress slider bar or timestamped links, but I don't think I have to say much to anyone who's ever used one how many pitfalls might be associated with these.

The slider can be hard to estimate with if you don't know quite where you're going, even if you happen to have the magic of little thumbnail approximations as you mouse over it... and even then, it's never going to be precisely where you wanted to get it, so I say it's a little like instant rewind/fast forward, just trying to guess at where you're trying to land and hope to get there as best you can.

The time codes are a closer solution, but besides having to deal with the same imprecise starting points as often are found on the slider bar, you also have to depend on the idea that someone's already gone through and found all the relevant time codes for you and maybe even sift through the description to find it... and I'm big on descriptions, but I'm not big on forcing people to use something I may not have even done so well on timing...assuming they even go there at all, meaning it's a nonstarter of a "solution" for most YouTube users anyway.

Oh, and I haven't even mentioned how both of the aforementioned methods will pretty much force you to load up the whole video at LEAST once before you're done. If you're caught in a particularly bad position, you'll need to reload the whole thing starting from where you asked it to go, and this can compound rather easily if you have to try again.

Because a streaming video has to load up in the same sequential fashion as they lend themselves to watching, the absolute "best" case you have to work with is the idea that the whole video must load up first, and THEN you can skip around unimpeded... if you're lucky, because sometimes even this doesn't work out, even though I know it used to. If what you want hasn't loaded up yet, if it's behind the point where you started loading, or if the player just doesn't keep the parts of the video already loaded up and watched on hand in case you want to jump backwards... well, you'll be reloading several times.

So? What's my point? Why am I pouring my guts out when this video is so freakishly tiny? Well, by keeping segments short (where applicable) and focusing the action around exactly what the title describes... like say a crazy short stage or a single puzzle or something like that, it's my way of keeping the viewing experience way more manageable and, hopefully, more useful/instructional/relevant watching. Like a brute-force DVD scene selection imposed on a format that doesn't naturally lend itself to that.

And hey, have you noticed how every single series of videos I have up falls into the playlists I have set up neatly for each subject matter? Talk about your handy "scene selector," huh? *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*

I DO have a very tiny number of videos out there where I put a brief annotation linking straight back to the series playlist as an experiment... but nobody really weighed in on the potential annoyance/convenience trade-off, and it was a ton of work anyway...particularly as YouTube switched up the way it handled its annotations while I was smack in the middle of it. Yeesh.

Oh, and for purely selfish additional purposes, I guess it also means I get more description space to run amok in per unit video duration... yay?

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Puzzle Mode
Puzzle 4: Dog

Uh... uh... look at the little doggie! I... think? Now we get into some somewhat more interesting shapes to deal with rather than vague geometric constructs that come a dime a dozen while you're fiddling about with Lumines... just needing to pluck one of those dozen dimes out of your hat on demand instead.

This is where your spatial recognition and visualization can really shine! You can probably much more easily look at your target and try to break it down into the familiar falling shapes that the game provides you with, so just think of it as dropping them into the right places and letting the image fall into focus.

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