Commentary for Final Fantasy Randomizer is a team effort; we aren't a community without you, and your work to help us staff our races isn't just appreciated, it's essential. Everything you, our volunteers, do helps us continue to provide entertaining races for fans of FFR.
The FFR community does have standards for our broadcast team. They aren't overly onerous, but we do ask that new race team members -- for commentary, tracking, or restream -- follow these basic policies:
New volunteers for the race crew should consider first participating as a “tracker in training”. Generally speaking, we encourage new race team members to do tracking first not only so they can learn the lay of the land – our tracking systems, the icons on the layout, how we handle broadcasts – but also so they can get hands on experience while being overseen by a more veteran tracker. It's good to learn how we do things in the community, as well as learn the game, before you jump into more expansive roles in the community.
Although it might seem easy to just, you know, talk, it can be difficult to do that while on stream. Commentating a race isn't just talking but it's also speaking cogently on the game, interacting with your commentator, interacting with chat, and doing it all in a seamless way that seems natural. A good commentator can make a game feel fun and interesting even when all the players are doing is grinding levels for five minutes. A great commentator makes a viewer forget the commentator isn't a natural part of the game.
Learning to be a commentator takes more than just picking up a microphone. It's about learning the flow, the patter, and becoming comfortable with the whole atmosphere. It's easy for some and takes a lot of practice for others.
When you're new we'll have you pair up with a veteran comms person, to learn the ropes and get comfortable. We will also limit you to weekly races on our channel to start so you can get comfortable in a community environment. We might have you do this for a few broadcasts; we might have you do this for a lot of broadcasts. The community's Race Leads will pay attention to broadcasts and, when we feel you're ready, we'll take the training wheels off and let you ride. Be patient and practice and, when the time is right, it'll happen.
IN some ways restreaming is both the easiest and the most technical part of our broadcasts. In no small part that's because unlike with the other tasks for our broadcast team, only one person can restream a race at a time; you can't share the duty like you can work with a co-comm or a co-tracker. Everything about the technical aspects of restreaming rests with you. You have to get the layout setup, crop in the runners, balance the audio, and be ready to take the broadcast live when the time is right. When you're restreaming you are the channel.
That said, once the stream is up and going all you have to do is put your feet up, relax, and watch the race (while keeping an eye out to make sure the stream doesn't die). And then, when the race is over and interviews are done, you get to cut stream and go back to your life. All the work is up front but then you get to be a participant on the sidelines.
Training to be a restreamer means teaming up with another restreamer and watching the work they do to setup their steam. Then, once you've installed the needed software and are ready to go, we'll get you on a stream on our channel to see how you do.