betweenlands

[betweenlands]

reblogged all the positivity from yesterday so i can Make My Own Post TM about the epidemic of "this should've been a miniseries" -- because pacing-wise, tone-wise, plot-wise, Ocean should never have been three hours long. it's one of Legs's longest non-compilation videos and it is also full of a lot of... not much happening besides the same core gameplay loop.

that'd be fine if i was looking for podcast/"second monitor" content that i could put on in the background while i do something else, but 100DMV is an ARG. there is no reason to make a video this long for a series that is, secretly or not, part of a running plotline. the two are at odds with each other. an ARG needs to be something you want to give your full attention to, make sure you aren't missing anything, pick apart and rewatch multiple times to analyze strange details. a three-hour video is directly hostile to that and a timesink for no reason.

i don't have a problem with longer videos -- there's a reason i cite hbomberguy as my usual exception to the Three Hour Balk Point -- but with Legundo's stuff, i'm increasingly finding it just doesn't have the same substance to hold together its own runtime. i mean, Ocean is longer than:

Sculk Apocalypse (kind of on the long side and could be shorter, but generally uses that runtime to keep a strong sense of tension and fighting to survive. has a very strong hook, multiple "time limits," and a clearly defined endgoal from the start.)

Undercover (a video with Legs actively trying to pretend he's not playing on the server he's playing on, consisting of secret community interaction, cool builds, the potential for a lot of lore drops, and a clearly defined time limit/endgoal from the start.)

Nights (the S1 finale of 100DMV, containing a whole bunch of separate mods to tinker with that hadn't previously been seen before, a good deal of lore, uses its runtime to keep a strong sense of tension and fighting to survive)

the Zombie Apocalypse scenario (full of interpersonal tactics and tension, contained a lot of person-to-person interaction and discussion, had a clearly defined time limit/endgoal from the start)

Dimensional Doors (the video that got me into 100DMV! full of strong plot beats, had variety but began cutting stuff when the dungeon pockets got too repetitive, contained a good deal of lore. also had the bonus of namechecking a mod i knew, recognized, and enjoyed that then made up a good deal of the playthrough's runtime)

the entirety of Deceit Season One, including the wrap-up episode (I DON'T NEED TO TELL YOU HOW INSANE DECEIT MAKES ME. JUST. HUH???)

and then there's the one i suspect started it all, the Game of Thrones scenario.

the GoT scenario is long. it clocks in at a little under 3 hours. but the difference between GoT and a lot of the other long videos is that it uses every single second of its runtime. there is a clearly defined endgoal and a time limit for that endgoal. there are a lot of different mods that play off each other and are used in interesting ways for interesting tactics (as well as smart use of vanilla mechanics). it has clearly defined sections for people that don't want to binge-watch all at once (including one that is pointed out to the viewer in-video as a good time to take a breather). it has, and this is critical, multiple running subplots owing to the fact that there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 50+ players on the server, most of whom are working for one team or another.

GoT works because of interaction between other players. a singleplayer quest for the Iron Throne would not feel nearly as tense or engaging -- but because there's a great deal of interpersonal politics, planning, and battle tactics, it keeps up the variety and nicely flows between downtime, negotiations, and battles. and, because there are multiple players in the conflict, something is always happening offscreen. the world of GoT isn't static, and doesn't only change when Legundo Specifically does something. it is always changing, all the time, when even a single person is logged in, and it means that there is no possible way to get stuck in one gameplay loop for too long because someone is always going to either finish that loop or throw a curveball into it from completely offscreen.

i've made my peace with Haunted Winter being so long, even though it probably should've been a four-part miniseries with one episode per each season. it still has those clearly defined "season" segments, has multiple mods that are being used in different ways at different times, and contains both a known time-limit and interesting editing that keeps up a decently strong sense of tension. it's also the S2 finale of 100DMV, so i can understand how it'd run a little long.

but, and i cannot stress this enough, there is no good reason Ocean -- which consists almost exclusively of a core "loot ships, return to current base, build/mine, loot ships" gameplay loop with no real variation until the mod in the thumbnail really comes into play on day 74 -- should be three hours long. there's no good reason for it to be longer than GoT, than Sculk Apocalypse, than Deceit S1. in the time it takes to watch Ocean, i could rewatch most of Deceit S2. if i set the Ocean video to loop and walked away, i could go rewatch every single Dominion episode that Legundo has ever uploaded and come back in time to find the Ocean video only partway through its third loop.

i really hope this doesn't keep happening. 100DMV used to be something i could recommend without caveats, at the most go "it's got some slightly clickbaity intros, and it might start a little slow, but it picks up quickly and stays really good." now i'm in a situation where the second season runs incredibly long and i genuinely don't know if i'd tell people to get into it anymore -- because right now, at the pace the story is progressing, with the length of videos being put out, it just is not worth the time investment.

i like 100DMV. i like 100DMV a lot. i mean, i'm writing a multichapter fanfiction about it, of course i like it. but if i hadn't gotten into it when i did, with an hour-and-a-half long video about Dimensional Doors, i would be seeing 2-3 hour long videos in my recommended, shrug and go "nah," and then go watch something else.

and this frustrates me. i know 100DMV can be good. i know 100 Days videos can be tightly edited, engaging, interesting fiction with a lot of strong plot hooks despite having a fairly repetitive gameplay loop. i know there's got to be a way to fix this, but i can't do that. all i can do is point out how it comes across to a specific subsection of the audience and hope that it doesn't just come across as needless bashing on something kind of popular.

because it's not. i say all this because i love storytelling in MCYT videos -- it's why i've been here for so long. i say all this because i don't want it to become a lost art for more and more people because long videos do better in Youtube's algorithm.

#long post // #yt #txt #orig #dominioners #<- sorting tag; sorry and hope nobody's checking this as a maintag still #salt #solar scraps #<- it IS storytelling analysis i think i have a right

[betweenlands]

Inspired from Legundo's newest 100 day video, which also inspired another au 'Gundo to add to my list of the billion of gundos that I have. Anyways, pretty aquatic creature <3

#OOOOOOOOOHHHH #yt #art #dominioners

[betweenlands]

i want to catch up on 100dmv so bad but like. the past few videos have been Several Hours Long. why is this now the standard. i miss dimdoors

#GO THE FUCK OFF LEO!!!!! #yt #txt #misc #dominioners #salt

[betweenlands]

i've got my heart in the grave; oh, six feet deep and it's calling out to me, you're calling out for me

the more i look at this sketch the more i realize i am probably never going to fully ink it because it is so complicated. anyway, HIDE/SEEK is a campfire crew song, or at least the final two choruses are, source dude trust me

#yt #art #orig #deceit smp #deceit #eeeeh to heck with it this is going in yter tags too #legundo #loonymc #taneesha #anyway i got sent mongo's pov of The Steakhouse recently and it's making me feel emotions #about how incredibly All In legundo was behind loony despite his reservations #not to mention legundo basically being the one to suggest the murder #but hey #they're the good guys -- right? right???????

[betweenlands]

Any loony enjoyers

#YEAAAAAAAAA #yt #art #deceit

[betweenlands]

i'm america's sweetheart, baby! x

remembered i had this clip downloaded and decided everyone needed to see it right now. go watch AvidMc.

#IT FINALLY POSTED. GOD THAT TOOK FOREVER #yt #aud #orig #avid adventures #avidmc #gilded #also putting this in several general tags #mcytblr #mcyt clips #mcyt #i deserve the reach this took FOREVERRRRR #please reblog this. you gotta. he's america's sweetheart baby

[betweenlands]

and you know also maybe put this specific video on loop or post it on a community page if you have one of those or something. make it blow up like it deserves to. i'm biased, there's NPCs in this video i helped write dialogue for, but god this is such a cool style he's trying out right now and i am here for it

also everyone should be watching AvidMC right now, especially if you're a fan of creative-mode building and mapmaking. beyond the slightly clickbaity thumbnails is an incredibly keen sense of storytelling and some fantastic buildings, bosses and collaborations -- the Shrouded Isles have a really cool story to tell, and Avid's way of conveying that story is both intelligent and easy to hop in on.

he's really got a talent for making up a place and then getting you to care about it within a tight timespan (usually around 25 to 40 minutes), and his editing's also top-notch and very engaging without being overly flashy. great sense of humor, too!

#yt #txt #orig #misc #gilded #avid adventures #aud #Youtube

[betweenlands]

also everyone should be watching AvidMC right now, especially if you're a fan of creative-mode building and mapmaking. beyond the slightly clickbaity thumbnails is an incredibly keen sense of storytelling and some fantastic buildings, bosses and collaborations -- the Shrouded Isles have a really cool story to tell, and Avid's way of conveying that story is both intelligent and easy to hop in on.

he's really got a talent for making up a place and then getting you to care about it within a tight timespan (usually around 25 to 40 minutes), and his editing's also top-notch and very engaging without being overly flashy. great sense of humor, too!

#yt #txt #orig #misc #gilded #avid adventures

[betweenlands]

on a more uplifting note, though -- if you miss that Sweet Spot from around 30 to 90 minutes of chill, interesting, well-paced series editing, i've gotta recommend Sir James Ender for hitting that exact sweet spot.

he's of a slightly older modded MCYT variety, like something you'd get from around the 2018-2020 eras -- laid-back, not prone to over-editing or over-acting, minimally character-focused and more focused on creating builds that themselves tell a story. a great "podcast" MCYTer, sure, but more than that i find the pacing of his videos is excellently tight to the point where i can comfortably watch the whole way through on a lunch break or something.

he also literally only has 48 subscribers right now, which... look, he may only have two videos out right now, but considering how good his stuff is already turning out, the fact that he's not only sub-1k but under fifty subscribers is frankly just criminal.

so yeah -- go check him out. subscribe, leave him comments, i'd love to see more people get on board :]

#yt #txt #orig #misc

[betweenlands]

we're also really starting to get tired of The Good Stuff in MCYT all hitting the 2.5+ hour mark. it's extremely frustrating; it's a balk point for new people and means a significant time investment for people interested enough to go for it.

i genuinely think 40-90 minutes is around the sweet spot, with 2 hours being a comfortable maximum. any longer than that and the pacing gets weird; i don't look at a 4 hour long video and go "oh boy, four minecraft hours!" i look at it and go "this probably should've been a miniseries"

and i get that the algorithm favors long videos more, but i also think playing to the algorithm like this makes the general MCYT scene very viewer-hostile, and requires a lot more trust in whoever's making the content that it'll actually be good, which is not something i'm going to have if i randomly come across it.

i think we're really missing that sweet spot right now -- there's a lot of videos coming out that are under 30 or even 20 minutes long where i just sit there and go "that's it?" as well, but well-edited stuff in the ideal range is just not there (or at least isn't getting pushed to me) and it bums me out a lot. i miss when someone would make a video that was an hour and fifteen minutes long and would go "sorry for the long video today guys, we did a lot of work!" yanno? not that i like people apologizing for anything about their videos, but, i miss when an hour and a half was considered a movie-length video.

uh. yeah.

#yt #txt #orig #misc #solar scraps #salt

[betweenlands]

i want to catch up on 100dmv so bad but like. the past few videos have been Several Hours Long. why is this now the standard. i miss dimdoors

#sighs. yeah. #yt #txt #misc #salt

[betweenlands]

Based off this picture Shadow tweeted

#LMAO #yt #art #dominioners

[betweenlands]

Wels hums as he walks through the shopping district. He doesn't need much, but with the recent release of Overlord, he wants to hear if any of the establishments are playing it. He doesn't expect it somewhere like the Permit Office--Grian's spent too much time and money getting a song that was as perfectly annoying to be put on hold to as possible--and if it is playing in the log shop, he will laugh. But music tends to spread around Hermitcraft fast, and sure, this isn't about anything specific, but who's gonna miss a good opportunity to dunk on Doc?

He hears the backing beats from a nearby shop and hums along with them, walking down the path--

--then turns a corner and leaps back.

"You," Wels hisses.

Hello. Awfully rude of you not to include me, you know, says the specter.

"No, there's absolutely no reason for you to be here. None at all!" Wels says, throwing his hands up. "The last time I saw you was--gosh, I don't even know. Season Seven?"

Yes, yes, and the only time you saw me, you aren't lying to yourself at all, the specter says agreeably. Come on. We both know I was haunting you for what little of Season Eight you bothered to be around for.

"If you were on Eight then you super shouldn't be here," Welsknight says. He shakes his head and looks up at the shop playing his song. Joel's? Huh. Wouldn't have thought he'd have a reason to make fun of Doc. Welsknight removes his shaking hand from his sword hilt again and starts walking.

On account of you leaving everyone there to die, yes, we're both aware, the specter says.

"Oh, screw you, you wouldn't have done any different, get new material," Wels says. "Also, you aren't real? You're like, all of my insecurities or whatever. You don't even have a real body right now, no one's made you one."

The specter shrugs. I mean, if I'm the worst parts of yourself, really, you're the one who needs better material. Abandoning all your friends to die and then abandoning them altogether--it's a wonder they let you stick around!

Wels rolls his eyes and forces his hand to stay out of his inventory. Wouldn't do to give away that still even gets him. He peaks at another shop. They're playing the song too, but it's ever-so-slightly out of sync, which is kind of terrible. As he does, Cleo waves at him. Their eyes sort of stutter right past Helsknight, which definitively tells him exactly how much body the specter even has to possess right now.

"I'm actually having a great time with my friends this season, so like, the whole 'abandonment' song and dance isn't going to work this time. Started the season with them and everything; hard to even go for 'they'll forget me at the first opportunity' or whatever."

The thing is, the more Wels says it, the more its true. None of the insecurities and pain points that the specter is echoing back at him are what he was actually thinking about. He's been like... fine? Sure, he's definitely still got repressed negative traits, but nothing like "Xisuma's evil twin brother playing around with his head" or "the moon crashing and killing everyone" or "too depressed and burnt out to get out of bed" or "sort of considering abandoning everyone because that's like, his thing" these days. None of the things that should bring the specter that had haunted him since Beef's cloning machine back to him without a body. But Wels is careful about clones outside of something like Vault Hunters, where they're explicitly under his control. He, like, doesn't even armor stand much. So that can't be this either; Helsknight clearly doesn't have a body to be messing with Wels yet!

...Helsknight doesn't even have a body or an actual insecurity to be poking at Wels with yet.

He stops. He puts his hands in his pockets, and turns around to face Helsknight. He is no longer shaking at all.

"Dude, why are you even here?" Wels asks.

I told you, it was rude to leave me out, Helsknight says.

"What," Wels says.

The final bars of Overlord play over the speakers. Welsknight hums and nods before it suddenly clicks.

"What," Wels says again.

Honestly, you're not normally this much of a moron. It was rude to leave me out. Rapping is also my thing.

"Dude," Wels says.

I could totally destroy Docm77 any day. I would obliterate the fool you call a "friend" in ways you cannot comprehend. You invoke a sacrificial goat? I know ways he'd never recover, gods he'd never be able to retrieve himself from. It would be laughable. And you left me out.

Wels stares at the demon from his nightmares.

"You're mad at me because you didn't get to be in my diss track," Wels says.

You let me be in the last one, Helsknight says.

"Dude," Wels says. "Dude, that's pathetic."

Helsknight sniffs. I'm your worst qualities. What does that say about you.

"I didn't even write this for this season," Wels says.

That makes it worse, Helsknight says.

"I don't even know where to start? For one--no, I still don't even know where to start," Wels says. "This is like, the lamest reason you could possibly have to come haunt me. Go away, I'm basking in my like, top 3 charting hit on the Hermitcraft server."

Top three? Pathetic. There are only three songs. You'd be the top song if you'd simply included my power, Helsknight says.

"I can't beat the streaming minutes Grian puts on that hold--look, uh, dude. You're, uh, a very scary representation of my fears and worst qualities and all. Appreciate that. Next time I need to do a diss track, I don't know, maybe I'll invite you? First you've got to stop appearing solely to make my life worse, though. Bring me a cookie or something. I don't know, whatever demons do."

I'm not a demon, I'm a Shadow. We're different, Helsknight says. ...I'll think about it.

When Wels turns the next corner, Helsknight has vanished again. Wels stops in the middle of the street, looks around, confirms the specter has vanished, and then bursts out laughing.

"What the Hels," he says, somehow feeling lighter and more bemused than before. That's a new feeling with his doppleganger. Then, he goes to visit Big Wood. While Doc definitely isn't playing the song of his own accord, Wels figures that Beef just might, and given the day he's having, that would feel like a kind of irony Wels isn't sure how to describe. Besides, he wants to see if Doc will notice if Wels sets the song on loop or something. What can he say--the man's reactions to being taunted are spectacular, and Wels loves seeing them. Call it a bad quality of his or something.

#THIS IS SO FUCKING GOOD. #yt #txt #hermits

[betweenlands]

I found Legundo's 100 days multiverse stuff and now I've fallen down a rabbit hole and I've decided that as I slowly try and edit the footage I have of my own minecraft stuff I aspire to have the organizational capacity of the leggy man, the ominous-ness of VikingPilot and the sheer crack energy of Sneve.

#op i'm really excited to see where you go :] #txt #yt #misc #dominioners #also congrats on getting into dominion the exact same way i did lmao

[betweenlands]

willows au fic :)

#YAAAAAY WILLOWS AU FIC #yt #txt #dominioners

[betweenlands]

scenario smp stuff

#KIPPERSSSSSS #yt #art #dominioners

[betweenlands]

so there's this minecraft map i helped write lore for,

#AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. #dl #reruns