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[TheSpoiler]

Looking back at the Youtube and Twitch debates, one of the most common concerns is the lack of support for the little guys.

The lower the view count, the lower you are on the page, and the less likely people will see, and visit, your stream. Meanwhile, people with more viewers watching gobbles up your potential audience.

Twitch allows games to be searchable, so it's not like beginners are completely invisible. And with a little bit of social media greasing, it's possible to grow your craft. But some find that to be not a good enough solution.

So what say you, GAF? How can these big streaming services further push in new people and help them out, but without shitting on people with an established base?

 

[Enter the Dragon Punch]

S T R E A M B O Y S

 

[23qwerty]

Random stream button? Or a random collection of streams in a dedicated featured section?

 

[Tom Nook Sawyer]

it's a bit of a catch 22, isn't it?

 

[TheSpoiler]

it's a bit of a catch 22, isn't it?

Right?

Help the big guys, the little guys get squashed before they can even warm up.
Help the little guys, the big guys who've spent hours of their lives carving out a place for themselves get screwed over because Billy 11 Year Old wants to scream into the mic while playing Minecraft.

 

[KillerIsJed]

• Highlight more than just partnered / well known talent on the front page from time to time.
  
• Different sorting options instead of just most viewers in descending order such as: Bitrate, time streamed so far this stream, frames per second, or account date.
  
• A "TV Guide" style release once a week for those streamers that have a set schedule.
  
• Providing everyone with transcoding, or at least letting them pay to get transcoding, as a lot of people watch on mobile / slower internet connections
  
• Let everyone be monetized, ala YouTube.
  
• Take out the middleman and provide review / stream code to people that have proven they can keep a set schedule.

 

[ZangBa]

It's fine the way it is. If the little guys want to be successful, then they will earn it themselves one way or another through hard work and dedication, and/or whatever gimmick they come up with. The only thing I want is quality settings for everyone, I think it's bullshit I can't change it to be lower than whatever I'm watching.

 

[Industrialist]

• A "TV Guide" style release once a week for those streamers that have a set schedule.
  
• Let everyone be monetized, ala YouTube.
  
• Take out the middleman and provide review / stream code to people that have proven they can keep a set schedule.

I like your ideas, but I don't think the three I've quoted would work....

TV Guide won't work as Twitch would be telling people that "Streamer X" is going to be streaming at 7pm on Tuesdays, only to find that Streamer X decides to go and get smashed on Carlsberg instead, leaving the Twitch audience confused.

Monetization won't do anything for helping the little guy. The big guys will take all the money while the little guys make hardly anything. Plus, just like on YouTube, the little guys won't grow at all - mainly because they don't reinvest their income wisely enough to grow the brand. If they make $200, they'll buy a racing chair to be like the big guys, rather than buying some advertising or buying a handful of games to give away to draw viewers in, which could potentially make them INTO one of the big guys in the long term.

Providing stream and review code won't help either. I've streamed AAA console titles a week before ANYONE else (with publisher permission) for hours at a time from a relatively professional setup and never had more than 200 viewers. But I can switch my Xbox One on now and see that 600 people are watching some random guy play the year-old FIFA 15 without even having a cam or mic on. Tomorrow I'll fire it up and there will be 1,000+ watching a no-namer do a character build on Destiny.

But a big new game with plenty of interest? Fuggedaboutit. If it isn't in the most popular game list (ie. has the most individual streams, even if they're just one guy playing the game with zero viewers) then any unique stream featuring a new game isn't going to get shit.

Bottom line is that discoverability is AWFUL on Twitch.

 

[pants]

I'm a sometimes streamer and this is pretty much impossible. Hitbox recently gave every little streamer the ability to be partnered, and while not immediately helpful ito discoverability, it will at least make people try harder I think. On twitch I think they should feature more (say a grid of 8) smaller streamers on the front page instead of that heavily populated 1 panel of e-sports it always inevitably is.