Nigma’s Interview about video editing, Diretide, betting and TI3

Today I took the chance and interviewed the video editor and math genius Nigma, who managed to give happiness to so many of us with his famous YouTube video series Nigma’s Shittier DOTA Digest. We talked about the Diretide situation, The International3, item betting and Video Editing. Here it is:

Hello Nigma, thank you very much for letting me interview you. Although you are quite known in the dota2 reddit scene there are still some people, who do not know you. Therefore, could you please introduce yourself?

Hello, I’m a college student living in Thuringia, Germany- but I was born and raised in Sunnyvale, California, the sunniest place on earth. I’ve been a fan of DOTA it first sprang into existance in Warcraft 3. The handful of people in DOTA2 who know me for my videos probably just know me for the last couple videos I’ve done, but really I’ve been making game-related videos for a long time now, probably since I started playing World of Warcraft years and years ago.

Where does your nickname”Nigma” come from?

Back when I played Starcraft Brood War, there was a clan called Nigma. My original name was simple ‘noname’. Unlike most players, I was more interested in custom maps than the actual game… which is how I stumbled upon the clan, because the guy who made the best maps in Starcraft was called 3nigma. I eventually managed to smuggle myself in the clan where I then changed my name to, you guessed it, Nigma~Noname, and then later NigmaNoname, and then later just Nigma.

Your videos are not only hilarious, they are also extremely well made. How did you learn editing like that?

 Honestly if you know anything about editing you’d know that the stuff I slap together is not impressive at all. As a kid, I loved Macromedia Flash and Newgrounds. So, naturally, I pirated Flash at some point and taught myself (with much trial and error) how to do basic stuff. Sadly I’ve never been artistically gifted enough to make a cool movie or anything like that, but it did teach me how to use basic concepts like keyframes. This knowledge carried over to Sony Vegas and then Adobe Premiere later when I started slapping HoN and then DOTA2 videos together. There isn’t much to it, just basic keyframing!

Please tell us about your “gaming past”.

I’ve been playing DOTA since it first came out and was a completely splintered game made by tons of different people. But really, I’ve been playing since Starcraft. Like I said, I’ve always loved custom maps. As a kid, I loved the map editor in Starcraft and would spend many nights making my own maps, which I always hoped would get famous- which… usually always ended in disappointment, but my friends at school would always think they were cool. After I played DOTA for many years, I eventually switched to Heroes of Newerth when it came out, and then back to DOTA2 a few months after the closed beta started. And here I am, still playing the same game for something like 9 years now.

I say something and you tell me what you think about it:

• SingSing – I wish I never played those games with you because now people wont shut the fuck up about it
• Global Warming – I’m from California so bring it on
• Jungling Venomancer – Thanks for the great video idea
• Edward Snoweden – I’ll assume this is not a typo but actually a glorious ancient Swedish Viking, Edward “Snoweden” who upon discovering Sweden lend it his namesake. Futa would be proud.
• Refresher Naga – Just wait until Valve gives me Techies, I will show you how to really piss people off
• 6.79 – Thank you Volvo for uninstalling Elder Titan, also: Refresher Phantom Assassin??? DEM CRITS?!
• Mud Golems – Jim and Nathan do the gaaaaaaaaames.
• New Axe – Dunktastic and/or dunktacular. Duncula?

Lets continue with the Interview: What motivates you to create these great videos for the community?

Although I’ve made videos for a while now I only really became motivated once I started making HoN videos. Back then DOTA was more obscure and many casual players wanted to learn how to play HoN but had never played DOTA, so I made a tutorial video which received a lot of views. So I decided I could probably do a better job, and made another. Then another, and another, and suddenly I was releasing a video a month. It’s become somewhat of an addiction of mine. I love making something that people enjoy, and I love more than anything reading the comments in the video, and just creating inside jokes that people then use. I guess at its core I’ve just always been the class clown and it’s translated to the internet now.

Any tips&tricks for dota2 editors ?

Since I’ve already talked about some of the ‘technical’ (pfff) aspects if anything I could maybe offer some advice to the content itself. Obviously it helps to be naturally funny. Don’t get the wrong idea, I don’t actually think I’m very funny, but I know funny people, and that’s pretty much just as good. But really: be yourself. Sorry if this sound really pretencious since I’m not an artist or anything- but do your own thing, try not to copy things you’ve seen, create your own jokes, don’t copy/paste or create variations of existing jokes if possible unless the new version is really that much funnier. Oh- and don’t make long drawn out stuff- people are impatient, condence your clips and don’t try to make it artificially long, maybe.

May I ask an additional question: how long do you think will it take for a noob like me to reach your level as an editor?

I guess it depends if you’ve ever touched any software before in your life, but really, it’s not hard at all. You need FRAPS and Vegas or Premiere- I prefer Premiere. If you’re maybe like 16 years old or older it can’t take you more than a week to figure the thing out. Nowadays there’s tons of Youtube guides and similar tools- I’m not sure how many there were when I was a kid learning Flash but I remember never using anything because I didn’t think they existed- I guess I was just stupid. So, Google and Youtube are your friends! Just search for “basic tutorial”, it’s really not that hard, unless you want to do something super fancy.

In you oppinion: How would a salve taste like in real life and which consumable tastes awesome and which one would be spit out instantly?

I imagine a Salve tastes like… green slime. You know, like that shit on Nickelodeon, maybe? Or maybe it’s like… a bunch of herbs blended into a smoothie? Surely tastes better than eating a tree, I guess. I bet Clarities taste pretty good, like sugar water or something. Probably more sweet than a Bottle chug. But yeah, worst? Tangos.

What do you think about the whole Diretide situation and how VOLVO now tries to solve the problem with their newest update “Not my best work”?
I’m glad they’ve finally said something about the whole thing and I’m glad Diretide is coming back. I just hope that the ‘big patch’ they’re now advertising actually comes out within 2-3 weeks and not 2-3 months. Valve releases really cool stuff but god knows they take forever to do anything. It’s no secret that I’ve been annoyed with their lack of content over the last 4 months but I’m going to reserve judgement until I see what is in this next big patch. I honestly believe that Valve simply needs way more people actually working on DOTA2. The people who work on the game are clearly the best of the best, but there’s just not enough of them, in my opinion.

How did you watch The International 3?

This year I actually went to Berlin and watched some of the games live! Sadly not all of them. I went to a bar… I forget the name… Meltdown, I think? I went with my girlfriend who was kind enough to prevent me from going alone since I don’t live in Berlin and none of my German based friends who play DOTA2 could make it. It was cool to watch the games live, but the bar was really small and cramped- also cold!

Do you edit  completely alone or do you get help from some friends? And where do all these crazy ideas come from ?

I make all my videos myself. My friends often throw ideas at me, sometimes even entire clips. I’d say I probably use maybe 30-40% of the things they suggest. Some friends are funnier (Futa) than others (Rob), hehe. Really, though, most of the stuff in my videos happens ‘accidentally’ and spontaneously. Only rarely will I try to artifically make something happen, like the Valium build, or the refresher Razor thing or the refresher/aghs Silencer/Zeus. In those cases, it’s more artificial but also much harder to make happen… one time I spent like 4 agonizing losses trying to make something funny happen that simply wouldn’t happen, so I gave up.

What has influenced you as kid, that still inspires you?

 As a kid I used to watch a shit ton of TV. Specifically, the Simpsons. The newer seasons are terrible but the older stuff is pure comedic gold. I watched the Simpsons so religiously that I knew (and still know) half the dialog by heart. I’d say that probably influenced me the most, but me and my friend would also often make videos on home camera. I think we were inspired from Jackass or something. I also grew up watching the best cartoons ever- all the stuff from Spielberg: Animaniacs, Freakazoid and Pinky and the Brain.  I love those shows, and they’re really hilarious to me, even now. Those shows were really weird and messed up half the time, so that’s probably where it all started.

You proved to be a genius strategist by inventing the valium built and the 5man birdgang team. Now we know that you are a strategic genius, but we do not know if you are a skilled player.  From PyrionFlax to Dendi – How skilled are you?

Well, back in HoN I was a pretty good player, actually. Which is to say, when HoN was relatively big I peaked somewhere around 1900 MMR which I guess wont say much to DOTA2 players but I was relatively high level. For whatever reason, this skill didn’t carry over completely to DOTA2. I’m not awful, certainly not as awful as Pflax (I love you please dont unfriend me), but I’m definitely not as good as I used to be and certainly not as good as real competitive players. I do have a friend (Rob) who is relatively competitive and often when I play with him I will get matched with people like SingSing or Na’Vi or whatever but that’s saying more about Rob than it is about me, since I always lose those games.

Do you only use your own replays or do you also accepts replays from stranger for your video series ?

When I started making Digests I wondered if I should accept clips or not. I’ve actually asked people to send me clips on Twitter before. I don’t think I will do this anymore, however- mainly because this is what DotaCinema’s fails of the week already do and I don’t see a point in basically copying their format. I did actually use one clip which was submitted (don’t remember which Digest but it was the Doom who pretended to be disconnected) which was quite funny, so thanks to the person who sent that in, but yeah, I don’t think I will accept any more clips from people because I guess half the fun is being able to say “all this stupid ridiculous shit happened in MY games!”. I love people who comment and write “how do all these ridiculous situations happen? They don’t happen when I play!”. I don’t know what it is, but funny crap happens to my group of friends constantly- sometimes you just need to keep an eye out.

Do you bet items?

I did some betting on DotaLounge (great website, check it out) but at some point I lost a bunch of rares and then mostly gave up. The straw that broke the camels back was that Orange vs Na’Vi game where that guy denied the Aegis. I bet 4 rares on that game. I don’t often get mad, but I was pretty mad. I mean, shit, that Aegis deny. Easiest rares of my life .

What can your fans look forward to in the near future?

Even though I’ve been making videos for a while now, I have only recently really started making ‘funny’ videos. I’m trying my best to figure out what people find funny and trying to avoid stuff people don’t find funny- obviously. This is, of course, sometimes hard because I will only know if something was or wasn’t funny once it’s already released. I’ll often read the comments and think “bleh, why did I leave that in?” or “wow they really liked that one part”. But basically: I’m going to try and make them funnier. It’s hard when you’re only using clips that happen to you, though. Other than that… I’ve also wanted to try and do some videos that aren’t Digests- but so far everything I do ends up doing just ends up in a Digest or doesn’t happen at all. Maybe soon?

Any shoutouts?

Shoutout to all my retard friends who help me make retarded videos. These include Futa, Hans, Slye, Kiro, Rob (from Sweden), TJ. Also shoutout to Pflax, Comely and DotaPoop- oh and Color, who recently moved to Germany!

Thank you very much for the interview and pleare keep on making Shittier DOTA Digest! 🙂

Make sure to follow Nigma on Twitter , YouTube and have a look at his TwitchChannel:

http://www.youtube.com/NigmaNoname#

https://twitter.com/NigmaNoname

twitch.tv/nigmanoname