Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1286
Location: 🇫🇮 Finland
I was browsing the movies a while ago and I noticed that many movies have no description whatsoever. All it says is that it's yet TODO. I understand that the publishers don't always have time to write the descriptions immediately, but some movie descriptions are long overdue (Wild Guns, anyone?). I also understand that it's difficult to write a description if one is not familiar with the game. But the fact remains that an increasing number of movies have lacking descriptions because the site has grown at an incredible speed. The workload is just too much for a few people to handle. It's easier for them to just say "read the authors comments", but I think every movie should still have SOME kind of description. And I don't just mean "Version 5 of game x in 5:34".
This is why I think the workload should be shared a bit more than it is now. I realize that this is why Editors exist. I myself am one and I have to admit that the only movie description I have written is the one for my own movie. I know how hard it is to come up with something actually relevant and yet short.
How should the issue be dealt with then? Obviously letting everyone edit the movie descriptions is not a good idea. But how about a suggestion thread? A stickied thread where everyone could throw their suggestions at editors, who could then do as they see fit. It would ease the workload a lot if everyone could be a part of the process. In addition, it would let the authors themselves have a say in how their movie is described (perhaps this could also be integrated to the submission?).
This would only be the basic idea, I haven't thought about it further as I'm extremely tired. Please tell me why you would see this as a good idea or why you think it might lead to total chaos.
I like to write comments for movies of games I know a lot about, but there are only a few of them.
But the easiest contribution-favoring solution would be to discuss the possible movie description in the movie threads at the Published Movies forum.
The optimum movie description fits the following goals:
- It's easy to read.
- It's relevant to both the movie and the game.
- It makes the reader interested of the movie without resorting to marketing speech.
- It identifies the movie from everything it could be mixed up with.
Yep... I waited for several weeks hoping someone else would write a description for my movie, but gave up and wrote it myself. I hope it's somewhat objective.
I write descriptions for all the videos I watch if there isn't one yet. I think more editors could do the same. It isn't that difficult. When Bisqwit handled all the movies himself, he wrote descriptions for all of them.
Suggestions for descriptions could be posted in the submission thread after (or before) it's accepted. We just need to make it a tradition. Perhaps a blurb somewhere.
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1286
Location: 🇫🇮 Finland
I had hoped starting this thread would create some discussion and more importantly a solution, but I guess there is not that much interest in this matter. I would still like to see something done about it though, so how about some suggestions? Should we add a note to the submission form saying that the submitter should suggest a movie description? Then perhaps people could evaluate the movie description as well as the movie. How about existing movies? I don't think there would be very much interest in reviving old submission threads just to discuss movie descriptions. Am I the only one who cares about this issue at all? If that's the case, then I guess there's no helping it.
Joined: 5/17/2004
Posts: 106
Location: Göteborg, Sweden
The ambitious yet hard-to-control solution is inviting user reviews/comments/etc for all runs. I imagine it shouldn't be too difficult to implement with a wiki.
The easy solution is adding some more trusted users to the site staff to take up some site running duties.
Wrote 5 descriptions just now. Any editor familiar with the 10 games not having descriptions (they are linked on the left on http://tasvideos.org/TODO.html), put in an effort and we'll have this done.
If anyone not an editor has a good description, just post it here and I'll add it.
Edited by Bisqwit: Used the code to separate the parenthesis from the URL.
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1286
Location: 🇫🇮 Finland
I wrote 3 this morning, but that still doesn't solve the initial problem, which is that as the site keeps growing faster and faster, the workload is getting bigger and bigger. Either we need more (active) editors, or we need to have a suggestion box where everyone can suggest a description. This could also work for other TODO stuff. That way editors could just check that the information is correct and copy & paste.
Joined: 3/15/2005
Posts: 30
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
I know I just made my first post not but a minute ago, but I wanted to reiterate here what I said in my introduction in the off-topic forum. I've been a--... we'll call it a 'viewer' for a while now, but I'd love to become more involved if you'd let me. More to the topic on hand, Kyrsimys made a comment that you need more active editors. I feel this is a roll I could fill well.
I understand that, being a new poster and not having any posts or history to back myself up, you have no reason to trust me, but I wanted to state this now as something to keep in mind.
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1286
Location: 🇫🇮 Finland
Hello there and welcome! First off let me just say I think it's great that you are showing interest in this matter, as this has been a personal annoyance for me for some time. As you probably know, Bisqwit appoints all new editors, so I'm guessing you'll have to take it up with him personally. In the mean time (and in the case that you are not appointed as an editor) if you are feeling energetic and you already have some ideas for descriptions or other TODO stuff, feel free to post them here or send me a PM. I'll be glad to check them out.
Joined: 3/15/2005
Posts: 30
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
I'm getting a 404 error on the link to TODO posts, but I'll hunt around and see if I can't find some anyway.
Edit: sorry, link works now. I didn't notice the stray characters.
I believe that TASVideos should standardize the movie description length. The movie description is analogous to the abstract of a journal paper. It should provide a concise summary of the movie, explain key results of the TAS, help viewers determine whether it matches their interests before checking the full movie/submission text, and provide relevant keywords increasing its visibility in searches.
Unfortunately, a number of movies fall short of this goal. I ran a python script that checked the word count of all 6810 movie descriptions (as of this writing). In practice, the median word count for movie descriptions is 94 words, with a standard deviation of approximately 44 words. Thus, approximately 98% of movie descriptions are below 182 words. Therefore, I would suggest standardizing all movie descriptions to 100–180 words (5–9 sentences).
This pastebin provides the word count for each movie. The movie descriptions with the lowest word count contained only 6 words: (1) "Here's another "Chip carries Dale" movie" and ""Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on hormones." Similarly brusque movie descriptions unfairly downplay the effort that went into such movies. Often a description follows a basic format of "X is a Y type of game. Author improves on the previous movie by Z seconds."
I would suggest at least a 5-sentence format like so for all movie descriptions:
(1) Introduce the game. Example: "Bionic Commando (1988) is a platform game with a hero who can't jump but can quickly latch onto objects with his bionic arm." (23 words.)
(2) Establish the main character's purpose. Example: "Simon Belmont must fight his way through the castle and destroy Count Dracula." (13 words.)
(3) Describe the gameplay in more detail. Example: "But Karnov is no ordinary hero: his fiery breath incinerates foes, his boomerang makes enemies disintegrate, and his summonable ladders bend reality itself." (23 words.)
(4) Specify the author's general approach. Example: "Most of this run features Link's racing across Hyrule so fast that the screen can't keep up and inexplicably warping between places that shouldn't be connected." (26 words.)
(5) Summarize the specific results of the run. Example: "This run improves the previous movie by 00:08.719 seconds thanks to use of zipping to skip some boss fights." (20 words.)
Total example words: 105.
Additional sentences can be added as necessary. Example: "This run was shown at Awesome Games Done Quick 2016 during the TAS block."
This idea is proposed as a collaboration between editors and publishers, with the aim of improving movie descriptions under 50 words (16% of descriptions). This issue is not limited to older movies; for example a movie published in 2025 has a 26-word description.
That sounds like a lot of work (over 1000 submissions to update). And tedious work. And diving deeply into each submission again (because submission notes are frequently lacking important information and flare). And creative writing is not a universal skill. But I do see the desire to improve the site. Hopefully you can find someone to help you in this endeavor.
If I may suggest an alternative moving forward, an optional extra field on the submission page where the author can write in their own publication description. It can even have a 'Prefill Publication Notes' button that will paste your entire example above. Of course, publishers will have final say on what gets written.
YouTube descriptions also need to be updated. Or, redirection logic needs additional flexibility.
This is a tool-assisted speedrun. For more information, see http://tasvideos.org/4543M.html. TAS originally published on 2021-10-31.
For instance, here the URL on the published movie contains a dot at the end. If you click it, TASVideos will redirect you to 404 page
Hmm I'm not seeing this issue. I tested on desktop, the YouTube android app, and YouTube's mobile website. None of them combine the final period into the link, and thus all link properly to the site.
(Note pasting the link onto the forum does break, but that's a forum thing, not YouTube.) Arc wrote:
I believe that TASVideos should standardize the movie description length. The movie description is analogous to the abstract of a journal paper. It should provide a concise summary of the movie, explain key results of the TAS, help viewers determine whether it matches their interests before checking the full movie/submission text, and provide relevant keywords increasing its visibility in searches.
Unfortunately, a number of movies fall short of this goal. I ran a python script that checked the word count of all 6810 movie descriptions (as of this writing). In practice, the median word count for movie descriptions is 94 words, with a standard deviation of approximately 44 words. Thus, approximately 98% of movie descriptions are below 182 words. Therefore, I would suggest standardizing all movie descriptions to 100–180 words (5–9 sentences).
Why so much concern/emphasis on word count? The goal you described doesn't seem to depend on word count, besides it being "concise", which is subjective.
Also take note that there are numerous situations that will potentially extend the description beyond just describing the movie's or game's contents. Such as:
console verification details
commentary
photosensitivity/content warnings
improvement details
where to acquire the game (homebrew or hacks)
references to related resources or movies
and more...
Such a rigid format takes away from a publisher's unique style, and there are surely many situations that simply don't fit nicely into 5 distinct sentences. For just one example, in the recently published [6810] Flash Super Karoshi by zapkt in 07:10.814(CW: suicide), the description was a collaboration between the publisher and several (non-publisher) staff members. In this case the publisher chose to first describe one of the game's predecessors as a base, and then specify how this game is different. Which I think is a valid approach and overall it concisely introduces the game/movie imo.
Hmm I'm not seeing this issue. I tested on desktop, the YouTube android app, and YouTube's mobile website. None of them combine the final period into the link, and thus all link properly to the site.
(Note pasting the link onto the forum does break, but that's a forum thing, not YouTube.)
If you use Google Chrome, open this video and click the link in the description.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMBm6iZafn4
TASVideos does the following redirection: https://tasvideos.org/Wiki/PageDoesNotExist?url=4543M.html.
At least, this has been happening to me all the time if I get some interesting TAS in YT suggestions. On Firefox, such issue doesn't happen, but, anyway, the majority of people still use Chrome on desktops.
Just a thing to consider. I don't want to transform this thread into a bug report
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
