I have noticed more and more are doing vodcast during times when they normally would be live. A few times is fine but it's been a few weeks for a few streams I had followed. Not being live regularly will cause a drop off I've noticed so this is one way of getting around that. However at that point though, if it's always used, channel isn't that different from a youtube channel. Worse actually because you are sort of being tricked into watching old content if you don't pay attention to the description or title first. While the streamer still can get money even though they aren't there. It's a system that can be abused I think and I would imagine constantly using it will cause viewership to decline as well. It certainly has for one of those streamers. It does have its negatives if not used well.
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Are Big Time Streamers Getting Lazy?
- Thread starter Spacebar
- Start date
tearsintherain
Member
Twitch streaming is definitely an interesting dynamic. When you first start out, you have to maintain regular hours, interact a lot with your viewers since there are so few, and basically you are just desperate to get more people watching so you end up in the top 20 of whatever game you are streaming so more people "see" you, hopefully follow, etc.
At a certain point though you get big enough where you will always get some people who immediately switch to you when you go online, and your big concern at this point is sub numbers and donations. You only stream really to increase those two things, you don't care that much about how many people are watching you or how long you stream, its just a daily grind to increase subs and get more donations.
I dunno, just an interesting dynamic and it feels like we haven't seen the ways people will learn to exploit the difference. Like... what if you could "host" other people on your stream (not the way twitch currently does hosting which is redirect essentially), you split the subs/donations but you are using your "name" and popularity to help someone else? Sounds sleazy but happens all the time in the real world. They've supported VODcasts more and more now and I'm sure some people sub/donate during VODcasts. Multi-twitch hosting?
I'd love more travel twitch streaming, I think its bigger on youtube but I love watching people walk around foreign countries and i think this is gonna be a huge growth area, just people doing stuff that I wouldn't be doing anymore, like clubbing or raves or travel or sports or shopping.
At a certain point though you get big enough where you will always get some people who immediately switch to you when you go online, and your big concern at this point is sub numbers and donations. You only stream really to increase those two things, you don't care that much about how many people are watching you or how long you stream, its just a daily grind to increase subs and get more donations.
I dunno, just an interesting dynamic and it feels like we haven't seen the ways people will learn to exploit the difference. Like... what if you could "host" other people on your stream (not the way twitch currently does hosting which is redirect essentially), you split the subs/donations but you are using your "name" and popularity to help someone else? Sounds sleazy but happens all the time in the real world. They've supported VODcasts more and more now and I'm sure some people sub/donate during VODcasts. Multi-twitch hosting?
I'd love more travel twitch streaming, I think its bigger on youtube but I love watching people walk around foreign countries and i think this is gonna be a huge growth area, just people doing stuff that I wouldn't be doing anymore, like clubbing or raves or travel or sports or shopping.
Dansgaming -> Videos, last 6 days
July 19th - day off
July 18th - streamed Destiny 2 beta for 2h
July 17th - streamed Final Fantasy XII for 8h 08min
July 16th - streamed Final Fantasy XII for 8h 42min
July 15th - streamed Final Fantasy XII for 8h 24min
July 14th - streamed Final Fantasy XII for 7h 16min
July 19th - day off
July 18th - streamed Destiny 2 beta for 2h
July 17th - streamed Final Fantasy XII for 8h 08min
July 16th - streamed Final Fantasy XII for 8h 42min
July 15th - streamed Final Fantasy XII for 8h 24min
July 14th - streamed Final Fantasy XII for 7h 16min
Nose Master
Member
Isn't half of the appeal of most gaming streams donating a dollar so they say your handle / it appears on stream? Vods seem less lucrative.
How is this different than yt let's plays tho
How is this different than yt let's plays tho
Only thing I find hard to handle is the constant, constant notifications and readouts for donations, I wish there was a way client side to turn it off so you never see it but hearing the same damn jingle 10 times a minute interrupting gameplay is horrible. Im glad these guys get paid, but it makes for a shitty stream experience.
I can see some viewers getting pissed if they re sub during a vodcast and the streamer doesn't read their message.
Spukc
always chasing the next thrill
dear me
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
I don't think it's "lazy" or a problem to do a vodcast or choose to work fewer hours. Numbers for vodcasts are always lower than live broadcasts, and that's fine, like how numbers for repeats of radio shows or TV shows are lower than live broadcasts. For my part, I'd actually prefer that people stream less, because these people streaming 16 hours a day have no work-life balance and it's a pretty ugly phenomenon.
For me, the bigger issue is that most big time streamers aren't good and Twitch isn't a very good platform at helping you discover content you actually want.
Starting with game choice: if I go into the Twitch app and look at the list of top Games, I always see the exact same games: LoL, Overwatch, DOTA2, CS:GO, Hearthstone, PUBG, H1Z1, GTA Online, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, World of Tanks. Sometimes there's a few others. It's fine that people like these games, but suppose for a second that you're a viewer and you're not looking for one of these games. It's relatively difficult to surface other games. Here's how I think Twitch could fix this:
a) Allow users to mute specific games so that they do not show up in the various organic discovery methods. I will literally never watch an IRL stream. Come on.
b) Allow users to specify a game they want to see and more clearly list people who have streamed that game -- right now if you search for a game name you get user results, but it's presumably based on their bio and not based on their actual presence data historically. An ideal search result would show the person's username, their approximate audience size, and how many hours they've streamed the game in the last 30 days.
c) Build a behavioural profile of users to determine if they watch games or watch streamers. If they watch games, then suggest games like the games they watch. If they watch streamers, suggest streamers like the ones they watch. Right now, so much of Twitch is about suggesting people who are already popular.
The next issue is that the commercial incentives for being a big name streamer are totally ass-backwards. Stream as much as possible, use your DXRacer chair, use your <insert one of three twitch approved microphones>, thank your sponsors including G2A and that one t-shirt site, play your animated gif of David Hasselhoff drunkenly eating a sandwich because someone subscribed, put on an affected scream if you're playing a horror game, encourage emote spam in your chat so people subscribe or feel left out, have anime graphics of Sephiroth from DeviantArt, have the little cup with the animation when stuff falls in the cup so more people cheer, thank people for rehosting you even if they only have one viewer, fill the silence by talking constantly, etc. Also embed your chat in the video so that even people who turn off the chat have to see it. I'm sure there are 13 year olds out there looking to belong who appreciate this stuff, but mostly it's just noise that gets in the way of the person playing the game.
I think the solution here is part cultural part technical. The technical side would be innovations to allow streamers to simulcast multiple version of their streams and allow viewers to opt out of this stuff. Best of all worlds, right? But I think it's also cultural. Adding more rich metadata on streamers so they can self-classify would be useful. Right now there are those tags under a Streamer's username, but they're all completely useless. Really building those up would help. Even right now -- imagine you want to watch a game with a lot of broadcasters, like Final Fantasy 12 which just came out. It's impossible to know at a glance who is doing a casual social playthrough and who is doing a speedrun. It's impossible to know who is actually playing the game and who is doing a stream of them knitting while talking in an anime voice. It's impossible to know which streams are live and which streams are vodcasts.
I've been trying to build up a good follow list of 20 or 30 streamers so that when I toss on Twitch, at least someone I like watching is online. And it's honestly pretty difficult to do, or to find what I'm looking for.
For me, the bigger issue is that most big time streamers aren't good and Twitch isn't a very good platform at helping you discover content you actually want.
Starting with game choice: if I go into the Twitch app and look at the list of top Games, I always see the exact same games: LoL, Overwatch, DOTA2, CS:GO, Hearthstone, PUBG, H1Z1, GTA Online, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, World of Tanks. Sometimes there's a few others. It's fine that people like these games, but suppose for a second that you're a viewer and you're not looking for one of these games. It's relatively difficult to surface other games. Here's how I think Twitch could fix this:
a) Allow users to mute specific games so that they do not show up in the various organic discovery methods. I will literally never watch an IRL stream. Come on.
b) Allow users to specify a game they want to see and more clearly list people who have streamed that game -- right now if you search for a game name you get user results, but it's presumably based on their bio and not based on their actual presence data historically. An ideal search result would show the person's username, their approximate audience size, and how many hours they've streamed the game in the last 30 days.
c) Build a behavioural profile of users to determine if they watch games or watch streamers. If they watch games, then suggest games like the games they watch. If they watch streamers, suggest streamers like the ones they watch. Right now, so much of Twitch is about suggesting people who are already popular.
The next issue is that the commercial incentives for being a big name streamer are totally ass-backwards. Stream as much as possible, use your DXRacer chair, use your <insert one of three twitch approved microphones>, thank your sponsors including G2A and that one t-shirt site, play your animated gif of David Hasselhoff drunkenly eating a sandwich because someone subscribed, put on an affected scream if you're playing a horror game, encourage emote spam in your chat so people subscribe or feel left out, have anime graphics of Sephiroth from DeviantArt, have the little cup with the animation when stuff falls in the cup so more people cheer, thank people for rehosting you even if they only have one viewer, fill the silence by talking constantly, etc. Also embed your chat in the video so that even people who turn off the chat have to see it. I'm sure there are 13 year olds out there looking to belong who appreciate this stuff, but mostly it's just noise that gets in the way of the person playing the game.
I think the solution here is part cultural part technical. The technical side would be innovations to allow streamers to simulcast multiple version of their streams and allow viewers to opt out of this stuff. Best of all worlds, right? But I think it's also cultural. Adding more rich metadata on streamers so they can self-classify would be useful. Right now there are those tags under a Streamer's username, but they're all completely useless. Really building those up would help. Even right now -- imagine you want to watch a game with a lot of broadcasters, like Final Fantasy 12 which just came out. It's impossible to know at a glance who is doing a casual social playthrough and who is doing a speedrun. It's impossible to know who is actually playing the game and who is doing a stream of them knitting while talking in an anime voice. It's impossible to know which streams are live and which streams are vodcasts.
I've been trying to build up a good follow list of 20 or 30 streamers so that when I toss on Twitch, at least someone I like watching is online. And it's honestly pretty difficult to do, or to find what I'm looking for.
psychowave
Member
So like a rerun of an old TV show? If TV stations can do it I don't see why streamers can't.
I lot of people will probably catch streams if they're on, but if they miss it they miss it and won't go to the vod afterward [unless they hear something especially notable happened]. Putting up vodcasts is like giving them the chance to just 'catch it if it's on' again.
Actually kinda makes sense, especially if the previous stream for a game goes up before you continue live so people can easily catch up.
Actually kinda makes sense, especially if the previous stream for a game goes up before you continue live so people can easily catch up.
Video game developers are one of the laziest professions. Nothing can excuse the amount of bugs that seem to ship with their "incomplete" release product nowadays.
Probably sit at their disk and browse Reddit all day.
?? heh?
I started following summit when he played Black Desert for about a month recently. Still watch him now even though I don't care about Battlegrounds and stuff. I think he's pretty entertaining.
You misspelled moonmoon
They do more than just play. They offer entertainment by reacting to things, interacting with the chat and more. It's not that different from a Youtuber, if you want to be good at it you need some acting skills to be funny while at the same time not going overboard and look fake.
The Dutch Slayer
Member
No way Dan is live 6-7 days a week and most days for like 9+ hours
Adam Prime
hates soccer, is Mexican
What a world, 2017.
People who play video games professionally, do not play enough video games, and are being called lazy.
People who play video games professionally, do not play enough video games, and are being called lazy.
Yeah, the only problem i see is that some streamers interact with their chat all the time, but with vodcast the chat is live, so you may not understand some references or answers the streamer gives because you're not seeing the chat from the time the video was recorded. In that regard, i'd rather watch the VOD with the original chat.
Yes it is because Youtube is a platform for a huge variety of video mediums whereas Twitch is a platform for a few things... but predominately "I play video games and your username will be on the screen if you give me money for doing it."
If you weren't a lazy forum reader then you would have read the entire thread where I said I was being sarcastic with the title.
Smokey_Run
Member
And if you follow him on Twitter, he said he was taking yesterday off to handle other stuff he's been putting off and needs to catch up on.
I meant it in the way that in both cases you become a sort of a character and your work is to offer entertainment.
But yes, not every Youtuber is like this of course, I was just thinking of a specific subset of them (the ones trying to be funny, mostly).
you put reddit above gaf? bannable offense I'd say
daninthemix
Member
You have done nothing to dispel the 'old man shaking fist at sky' stereotype.
Kojirospath
Member
Hilarious most people are missing the joke of this post #Lazydevs.
Dr. Buni
Member
I don't know what you are talking about. That may, maybe true if you have tunnel vision and only see big developers out there, but considering all developers, big and indie alike, there is a lot of effort and creativity put into games still.
...Alternatively, I was just baited.