2009 was an epic year in the life of TASVideos. We were challenged with (and overcame) a shift in ownership that challenged the fate of the site and community itself. We saw an unprecedented increase in TASable platforms including Playstation, DS, PC engine, Arcade, and Sega Saturn. We saw some of our most popular and (thought to be) most unimprovable movies shattered. We saw an increase in publications, new TASers, and site staff. The site also underwent an unprecedented shift in user friendliness regarding the viewing of site content. We even saw an unprecedented increase in submission queue efficiency. Along with that goal of user friendliness we also had a big increase in site visibility with a new promotional video, video groups on major streaming sites, a twitter account, a mini-nova torrent account, big boosts to site inner working resulting in much better search engine visibility, and a push for better organized and intriguing site content. Since its birth in 2003 we have never seen such rapid and positive change to our site and community.
So where do we go from here?
2009 signified the "year of the emulator" and a great expansion of TASable games. I want 2010 that TASVideos pushes into the realm of "current". What I mean by that is that I want TASVideos to be more interactive and more cutting-edge. This is the site to learn the latest tricks, see newest glitches, to see progress on new upcoming TASes and the development of advanced routes/tricks/strategies of new games. In summary, this is the site to
interact with and to the "new" and "current" in advanced/competitive gaming. This is opposed to the past image that is more of "classic" gaming and "nostalgia".
Currently I have 4 aspects that I want to prioritize to push towards this long term goal.
1) Better documentation of tricks!
This is the one where I need the resources of all of you, the TAS community the most. Late 2004, word of Moriomoto's SMB3 TAS brought me to TASVideos. However one of the main things that kept me coming back were the tricks pages (such as
SMB). I had a thirst for more advanced concept & strategies for the games I was familiar with, and I was tired of the tired and worn out "100 lives" and "-1" tricks that you would see at places like GameFAQs. I was amazed at the amount of ideas TASVideos (NESVideos back then) had that I would never even considered. And they even had animated GIFs demonstrating these ideas!
I think these pages carry a lot of potential for interest in the general gaming community (at least the competitive gaming community) even if they aren't especially drawn to TASes initially. However, are pages are sorely outdated, too few in numbers, and too infrequently updated. I hope to rally support behind a push to update the content of existing pages and create pages for more games (especially newer platforms.
We don't necessarily even need animated GIFs for these pages since we now have easy streaming embedding. I will be willing to work on additional site features too if anyone has ideas for increasing the effectiveness of these pages or the ease of maintaining them. (For instance, an animated GIF tool for emulators, ability to specify a time range of an embedded video, or any creative ideas I haven't considered).
2) More site "interactivity" with the act of TASing
The tricks pages were about 50% of the reason I kept coming back. The other 50% was to see progress on specific TASes in the forum threads. In particular was Bisqwit's Megaman TAS back in early 2005. Every day I would go to that thread to see if a new WIP was posted. When there was, I would watch it in excitement, hoping to be blown away by new tricks and shortcuts! Since 2005 the forums have greatly decreased in activity, and many runs are now done "in secret" in order to be a big surprise on the submission queue. I hope to revive this spirit of "the latest TAS progress" in TASVideos.
Currently I am really excited about the idea of "live" TASing via ustream (demonstrated by the
Bubble Bobble commentary. I've done a few live TAS sessions this way as an experiment and I hope to make it a regular part of my week. I hope others might get into this idea as well; holding TASing sessions that the audience can see. I plan to write up a page about how to get set up for streaming emulator content on ustream. I also really hope this idea spawns a series of TAS tutorials & introductory videos.
Imagine being able to regularly visit the site and actually see TASes in the making, right this second! The site could announce and promote these in a visible manner as well. The audience could visit regularly eagerly waiting to see the latest progress of various movies.
3) Younger consoles becoming rerecordable
Morimoto's SMB3 run spawned the original generation of TASers. Super Mario 64 spawned the 2nd. Which TAS will spawn a 3rd generation of TASers? That answer lies in the next generation of consoles such as GameCube, Wii, and PS2. I plan to put work towards getting the rerecording emulators of
dolphin and
pscx2-rr ready for good TASing. Any help along these lines is greatly appreciated.
4) Better integration and attention towards the
News feed. It is my intent that this feed has regular updates. This would include news about any of the events mentioned so far. I want this to be a page that is visited frequently by users to see the latest news on site events, live TASing, rerecording emulator news, latest discoveries in the TAS world, etc. I also want this page tied to an RSS feed and the TASVideos twitter account.
Apologies for this long post, but I wanted to detail the priorities and goals I have for TASVideos in the upcoming year. I think these ideas could really increase the value of TASVideos, increase its viewership, grow the TAS community, and better spread knowledge about the art of TASing. However, to realize these goals fully will require effort from all of us in the TASVideos community. So let's get to work! Cheers to all on a great 2009 and to an even better 2010.
(Also my apologies, I wanted to make this post about 6 weeks ago, but life and other TASVideos duties have pushed it back).
I applaud you, sir. This is exactly the kind of enthusiasm we need from our admins and our veteran runners. May this site never die!
