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[FEEDBACK] Blades

RollPlay: General & Archives
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#105

  1. Time slot: I’m from the EU and the show starts at 3am…that’s just to late
    Moving it to Sunday won’t change anything if its on the same time slot (because work the next day)

  2. I realize it’s often out of everyone’s control, but having shows cancelled doesn’t help any show, especially a new one like Blades where after only 3 episodes people had to wait up to 5 weeks for the next one. So the interest might just dwindle, and people might just ‘forget’ about it.

  3. The pacing especially in the beginning was sooo slow, where it felt like nothing was happening (mainly those downtimes). You would think a show about assassins would be great, exhilarating and just bad-ass cool, yet in the beginning it failed to grasp my attention as it felt like the show didn’t move forward at all.
    I remember the GM saying how all those mechanics (esp. downtimes) would go so fast they might be doing 2 scores in one show…yet we had shows were a big portion of them were just downtimes (so it felt really slow, and less exciting to wait for the next show)

  4. Some of the best (and my favorite roleplayers) are in the show yet is miss the lightheartedness goofiness, laughter and crazy things they are capable of doing (we’ve seen them do that n other shows)
    In my opinion if a show is to serious it becomes depressing and less enjoyable to watch. But if that’s what they want to go for then so be it its not a dealbraker for me
    Also on a much much smaller note, the way the GM talks (as lovely of a person he might be) feels like he never has any energy, he almost puts me to sleep lol

All in all I think the show is slowly moving in the right direction and if the time slot is more EU friendly then I’ll definitely tune in to watch it live every week

3 Likes
#106

To be honest I’ve stopped watching for 2 reasons.

  1. Blades start at 5am for me, so I almost always have to watch the VoD if I want.

  2. It is… boring? I’ve given up on it after episode 5 so I may be wrong. but from all the shows this one seems the most “fanfic-y” to me. I don’t have anything against John or the players, but the world seemed to me like “Hey, let’s rp in Dishonored universe, but with slightly different magic”. I mean even the city name is inches away from copyright lawsuit. Plus I’m not the fan of the game mechanics. Nebula Jazz gets away with simplistic mechanics because it’s just five friends having a fun and crazy time, but in a more serious show like Blades it is kinda disappointing.

Guess I’m just a guy that prefers mechanics to indepth roleplay, but “roll Nd6, on 6 you win” is really boring to me, while Shadowrun/Stars without Numbers/DnD/Balance of Power/Dark Heresy didn’t have such problem.

2 Likes
#107

i love blades its literally the only reason i subscribe. That being said i never watch live bc its so late eastern time…however i doubt i will watch live when the time switch happens.

I will say we’ve had 3 weeks of filler basically. The flashback episode was cool in that it had Canter in it but you knew nothing bad was going to happen bc it was a flashback episode. This week with no anne meant any major storyline wasnt going to happen.

I’ve noticed blades is much more cerebral than the other shows and that might not play well on twitch

#108

Overall viewership consensus here is time, and I’ll echo that. I watched 2 hours live last night, and I’ll catch the rest today. EST timezone means it ends at 1am, a bit late for me.

As for last night, I think there was some confusion about it being on. Someone mentioned no CoS lead-in, which makes sense to me. The week prior was canceled (no ones fault, just dumb luck) and Anne was away for this week, causing people in both her and JP’s chat to question if it was on last night. I think that makes last nights viewership to be a poor indicator of interest, and I hope it doesn’t effect the show.

I love the variety in the shows. Some are rules heavy and some are RP heavy. And I think some of the critique here is actually why I love Blades so much. Blades leans into the RP, which slows the pace, but has created some GD magical moments.

For people that dropped off, a re-cap hour or two might help, get them back into the story. The first few missions were setting up the team dynamic, and have a TNG-episodic feel, but recently it’s found it’s footing and gone in a great direction these last few episodes. If people had a way to catch up on highlights and drop back in, that may help.

1 Like
#109

I think this might be a big part of it. Compared to a system like D&D, Blades feels much more episodic, so there’s no real drive for me to watch the next episode immediately. I love the show, and I make sure to catch up on the VODs when i get the chance, but its not the highest on my list of “must see” RollPlay content. Other shows on the channel like CoS, West Marches, Swan Song, and Mirrorshades had longer mission/story arcs and more cliffhanger episode endings to bring viewers back every week.

Combine this with a late showtime for a lot of viewers, and the show’s slow pacing early-on (to introduce players and viewers to the new system) I can see how Blades has lost some live views compared to the other shows on the channel. I’m still going to keep watching, because the show itself is great and I’m getting invested in the world and characters.

2 Likes
#110

I am still catching up on the VODs so haven’t watched the show live yet but here are my issues with the show :

First, I love the setting, it’s amazing and should lead to a terrific show. That being said, I feel like Jon is still not comfortable either GM’ing or GM’ing for known personalities. Which leads to my second point :

This show is made for @iNcontroLTV. This is both great and bad. Great because Geoff finally has the freedom to play a character to its full potential. Bad, because what ends up always happening with him, is happening right now. In every podcast/show I’ve watched with him, there is always a point where he ends up dominating the cast and being very condescending to other people. And in Blades, while his character is amazing, he has no one to keep in him in check. Since pretty much the first episode he has been taking over the GM. And Jon being kind of submissive, lets him do exactly that. So when the GM lets a player take over the show, it’s never great…

The other issue is that, as someone already mentioned, none of the players seem to talk back to Geoff. You would expect Aldo to not let someone talk to him that way, but Ezekiel is just too much of a nice guy.

That issue has been present for me in all RollPlay shows with @iNcontroLTV by the way, and I’m not sure how to resolve it. On one hand, he truly brings something to the shows he’s in, but he really needs someone to shut him up when he goes too far. There’s also that part where he seem to not care at all about other players. If the spotlight is not on him, he just ends up watching another stream and completely checks out. The part when he always has to be the ultimate badass, by any means (which is most of the time, by dominating other players and bullying them), is getting pretty old.

Anyway, this post is already pretty long and while it’s not what I wanted, it looks like a hate rant on Geoff, which it isn’t. So to my last point, I just don’t like @djWHEAT’s character. He doesn’t seem comfortable with it at all and it shows, I often end up wondering why she’s part of the group.

So as TL:DR, I love the setting and all of the people involved, but I don’t like the dynamic of the show, and I think it’s being hindering it.

5 Likes
#111

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the show at first and rarely catch it live since it airs at a very late hour where I live.

#112

the show starts at 3am for me so i see the vod on twitch the next day every time, that is the only reason i cant see it live. I have no complaints about the show or the crew love all the players and characters.

only thing i would love to have would be greenscreen on everyone like you have on COS now.(it just looks better)

#113

Competition - A 4 hour RPG stream is a big commitment for a viewer. The current viewership may be full of people who would watch a 4 hour RPG stream that starts at 2am (but I cant do it anymore) and we are people who are already invested. A new viewer needs a really good reason to want to make that commitment, but…

Watching two 4 hour RPG streams live on the same day is for people with excessive amounts a time to spare. For people who want to keep up with both shows this is a problem.

If you do not have 9 hours to spare it makes more sense to pick between them. Court of swords started first, has a cast with a bigger following and a much more convenient timeslot.

Blades has had character moments that you could argue stand head and shoulders above the rest of the content but I do think that the stakes are not quick and obvious to a viewer. If I tune into court of swords there is a good chance that there will be combat, it is easy to grasp that life and death may be on the line, there is danger and it needs to be dealt with. When there is combat a viewer can easily understand the stakes and become invested in the what happens.

When you tune in to blades, nebula jazz or many other shows, it is not quickly obvious what is at stake, it’s people talking and as a viewer that requires you take more time and effort to get a basic idea of what is happening and why you should care.

1 Like
#115

Good Job clearing your calendar!

Every liveshow to date has collided with my own RPG sessions and it’s bullshit. Scheduling a session can be so fucking hard when people have busy worklives.

Twitch prime and missing Cos/blades live pushed me to hit the sub button though. I’d bought shirt’s over the years but the wait on youtube was too much.

#117

Currently it’s just because I’m behind - I rarely catch the live show since I’m EU (as everyone’s been saying) but I’ve been trying to catch up with CoS and with Nebula Jazz because I’ve had a busy few weeks.

The point made below by someone about two shows in a day is valid too - 8-9 hours on a Tuesday is quite a lot, I would have much more time to watch it on a Sunday, particularly if it aired earlier.

Hope that’s helpful, the show is fab :slight_smile:

1 Like
#118

I saw the first episode of Blades and I loved it, but as many others from EU or as for me Denmark its current airtime is 3 am to 7 am. I know the show is moving day and time, this is possible great news, my problem is, with CoS + live show + nebula + old shows on youtube and ofc real life/work I somehow got behind following Blades on youtube and nevah realy followed up on the show. Dont get me wrong, the show is realy realy good, I love every person who is on the show both GM and players.

So a combination of bad time for EU ppl and not having time to get into VoDs as there is so many other JP shows to follow, the show currently slipped true my fingers.

1 Like
#119

Some honest feedback:

  1. I think the cast is great, no complaints there.
  2. As many have said, the airtime is a big issue. I’m on the east coast and can’t stay up that late to watch with work in the morning.
  3. Finally, I hate to say it, but I don’t think Blades in the Dark is a good system for twitch viewing. It never feels like there is any threat of failure or danger. I know that is by specific design. I remember John saying one of the goals is to have long term stress on the characters. However for twitch viewing it just isn’t that exciting for me.
1 Like
#121

Here’s my quick and dirty reasoning for not watching:

  1. As others have said, time is a huge factor. I LOVE CoS and never miss it unless I can’t help it. After 4 hours of that I can’t possibly spend more time watching streams, especially when it starts late (I’m in the most easternly time zone in NA, NL time, so it starts at 10:30pm for me. Too late on a weekday). I also don’t think the move to Sundays this month will help, it’s during prime-time on a Sunday which clashes with the huge shows on TV right now (Walking Dead, Westworld, Game of Thrones, etc, etc) Competing for that spot is gonna be tough. It’s a solution for the “2 Rollplay shows on 1 day” but not factoring in the draw of other major network TV shows.

  2. Content. Blades has a very cool setting BUT the ruleset, gameplay, etc is just not conducive to fun watching. It’s very dry? I tried super hard to get into it but I find myself drifting away with the monotonous tone of the game (and cast). A lot of people like to watch fun combat with exciting situations/RP moments which I find is too few and far-between in Blades.

  3. Charisma. I find there’s a total lack of charisma by the cast making it incredibly hard to watch. It’s too monotonous, too…shallow? I just feel like everyone is “sort of” playing their characters but not fully into it. It’s a very dark show which I understand is apart of Blades’ world but, for me, it’s just not enough to keep my attention that late at night. I kind of wish it was more light-hearted and adventurous. I think this really showed when Adam was on briefly, the game was so much more interesting with him in the mix… I like all the cast individually but I feel like something’s missing when they are all together.

Most of this is probably because of the type of game it is and not that it’s bad as a whole. I’ll admit I am much more a fan of fantasy/D&D than I am other types of tabletop RPGs. I find the rules and “getting into a scene” is a lot easier in D&D than in Blades. In D&D everything is pretty clear, they are a group who travels together, exploring a rich world and attempting to stop whatever conflicts arise, which enhances RP moments and means they are always working together to some capacity. It’s simpler and thus easier to focus on the main storylines or incidents happening before us. Blades is more complicated compared to that, from Ep 1 I never really got into it and felt like missing an episode means you are super lost. With CoS I feel like I can miss an episode and still hop right back in because a lot of the fun in that show is combat (good or bad, it’s fun to see crits as much as crit fails lol) and Adam makes each episodes “focus” very easy to follow.

Nebula Jazz and CoS are so much more fun and interesting to me so I think I’ll be sticking to those.

3 Likes
#122

ohh yes this is also very true as many others have mentioned… two shows on the same day aka 8 hours of live shows is simply to much for any normal person to handle :). Another thing that comes to mind is… Geoff has his new liveshow Fanboys right smack in the CoS timeslot and many other great shows from Nebula ppl also somehow clash with other Jp live shows, something I think also has an effect of the overall numbers.

#123

Totally has to do with time schedule. As a European (+2 UTC) and working full time normal work hours anything that goes past 11pm my time outside of fridays and saturdays I can’t watch live no matter how much I want to.

There’s also the 2 shows back to back problem. 8-9 hours is a lot of content to have on the same day. Either you have to choose in which case CoS being the earlier runner is easier to watch or you just watch one.

I am following both CoS and Blades through VoDs the following days though as I believe so are many other people. I’d recommend checking the VoD watch rates if possible.

Also in regards to the future move to Sunday timeslot. Any chance it could be 11am to 3pm CST? :wink:

In regards to the show itself I have nothing but good to say. @AnneMunition and @Ezekiel_III have both grown tremendously during the show and while @iNcontroLTV is in the leadership role they have begun to rise to match the intensity.

#124

As several others have said, the timezones are a problem, 2-6am is just impossible.

Then this feeds into other issues for me… I can’t really commit to 3 or 4 shows a week what with having work and other hobbies etc - so I’ve even dropped off the Blades VODs because I like being in chat as it happens, so when I realised I only had time to stay up to date with 2 rollplay shows, the ones in the middle of the night was a natural one to drop.

I mention that because even with Blades moving to a friendlier time slot, I probably won’t be jumping in live at all now, if I do watch it eventually (and I hope to, the few eps I’ve seen were great) it will be all vod. If it had been on in the NJ slot all aong for example, I’d probably be watching blades and not that, but I’m 20odd hours behind now

#125

Same point as any, I live in the UK, so it’s 2am start time. Only reason I don’t catch it live, otherwise I would. Love the show, really like John’s DM style I just have to wake up for work when the show finishes

#126

Blades is by far my favorite Rollplay show to date. I just love the setting and the characters. I’m going to echo a lot of what others have said. The timing isn’t the most ideal, often I have to go to bed about halfway through the show due to work, and I’m certain others do as well. Not to mention EU countries.

Someone else said that without Anne, it kinda felt like a filler episode, and it really did. This isn’t against Anne in anyway, but the main plot has been dragging lately with missed episodes, and side stories.

Id be deeply saddened if Blades was cancelled. Just my two cents.

#127

I live in the EU and I can´t watch Blades live. I watch the VODS next day.