I mean this seriously; not as a dig. Why be exclusive when everyone knows youtube? I may even watch a video if i see it when browsing.
But who just watches OTHER PEOPLE play games for fun? How can you build a hugely expensive business off this? Is it all basically advertising for video games funded by companies?
I feel there's a few things worth mentioning that either haven't been mentioned or I have a different take on.
For me, Twitch is background a lot of time. I have 3 monitors, so I often have youtube or twitch up on one while I work on something, and it has a chat, so you can interact with other people watching it and their conversation if the whole thing isn't just a giant meme-blast-fuckathon like it is on so many popular streams. In this era of marathon-oriented Netflix shows, Youtube and Twitch are surprisingly reminiscent of old-school TV in how little attention they demand.
At some point, people have other motivations besides the obvious. Maybe they just like making neat videos for themselves and YouTube's a nice place to store them. Maybe they have one or two people they're sharing with because they know each other in real life and just like to show off to those people. Maybe they hope to strike it rich one day but don't have the resources to pursue it.
I pretty regularly think about the Twitch streamers that spend hours streaming to literally zero viewers. They stream for months and even narrate what they're doing, but nobody's watching. You wonder if it's a learned behavior from watching Twitch for so long.
This is easy enough to answer; gamers / game enthusiasts.
But then you confound it by asking:
>Why be exclusive when everyone knows youtube?
I don't really follow at this point. I thought my post covered that; Twitch has great discoverability of live content, and so if I am trying to watch a CS:GO tournament, and they're all going to be on Twitch, I'll go to Twitch and watch...
If you're asking from a content-creator's perspective, I think I can answer that in one symbol: $
>But who just watches OTHER PEOPLE play games for fun?
"Who just watches OTHER PEOPLE play sports for fun?" Is that a dissatisfying parallel for you, or does it sufficiently illuminate the point?
The reasons why people watch other people play video games are several:
1. People like to see someone of a very high level play a game that they too play.
2. You often get to see someone playing a game that you never heard about. For instance: The recent speed running marathon streams have showed a lot of obscure and old games.
3. And most important: People are entertained by the commentary from the streamer.
If you just run a game with no commentary you will be hard pressed to get any viewers. It is more that with the younger generation games have become a huge part of culture and to see someone playing games you play as well and chatting give the viewer a social experience. There is chat too and the streamers often address people in chat. If you look at the most popular personalities on YouTube many of them are gaming related. People spend a lot of time playing today's very immersive, social, and large scale games so it follows that they can be entertained by personalities involved with them.
Maybe I can answer some of your question. I'm a daily twitch consumer, and perhaps worse, a lurker at that.
It is basically the same as TV or YouTube for me, neither of which I consume much of. Good streamers are entertainers, and are interesting to watch. It is low effort consumption and relaxing. I learn about high level play for games that I enjoy, even if I watch them more than I play them.
Most of my watching takes place as I lay in bed waiting for my melatonin to kick in and pass out.
Millions of people do? I do. There's a few reasons I do:
* Streamers connect with their audiences, I can chat with them live - ask questions about the game or technique
* Streamers are entertainers. They joke, cry, rage with you. They are engaging people.
* Community. I'm a subscriber to person X, so are you!
* Skill. Streamers are often the best in the world at their games.
* Can't play now. Cooking? Folding laundry? Watch some twitch.
* Events. Exports, and charity events like games done quick are amazing.
* Discoverability. Finding a new game or a new streamer for a game I like is super easy.
How do you build a business? Some streamers have thousands of people paying them $5 a month. Twitch takes a cut. They show ads, they collect donations, they sell in game products and the games themselves. (Twitch splits the revenue for those with their streamers. ) It's powered by viewers and ad revenue, is what I'd guess.
Normally, when I do play videogames, it's a private sort of thing between myself and my game system.
I just recently ran across some twitch channels via youtube because I was looking for some help with some Dark Souls III content.
It's like a whole different universe with people who live and breath these games every waking moment. I found it very interesting to see that it's a whole way of life with this many people. Now I'm tempted to watch some of these twitch broadcasters even though I'm not interested in the games that they're playing.
I mostly watch Twitch during a big title release, just to see if I am interested or not. I also like watching big events like Overwatch League and other competitions. To me it is relaxing to watch people that are very good at the game play because I also learn from them and do that myself in game.
some just don't have the money to buy the game they want so they go into Twitch to watch that very game and get their fix until they can purchase that game.
I love the idea. Something like this will happen soon.
There are some games developers who live stream occasionally on Twitch.tv. The results are generally visual, and feedback quick.
I wonder how much they interact with the viewers / chat. If they can take feedback from and incorporate ideas or fixes.
When I've tried streaming, I've found it hard focusing on the chat side and coding at the same time - it's probably a skill that the best games streamers have - that of paying attention to the viewers, being entertaining, and doing a good job.
The other issue is wondering why I would want to stream myself programming? The first thought was to share with others if they might find it interesting. The second was that as a home worker I might like some virtual company, and the third was that of narcissism. All three thoughts were kind of weak, and I couldn't really come up with a benefit to myself from doing it. Nevertheless I think that there is some future here with such a platform!
Is aspiring to being a top Twitch streamer any different than those aspiring to be a top musician, artist or actor?
You'd have to be fantastic at your particular game or whatever they stream on Twitch (I know absolutely nothing about this platform) and great at self promotion. Not unlike wanting to be a rock star or movie star.
I fail to see how it's any more like a lottery win than being in other forms of media, other than it's a very new platform (in the grand scheme of things).
It wouldn't be for me but I'm sure plenty of people are making plenty of money and Twitch has its own Justin Bieber/Miley Cyrus (or whoever is the pop star of choice today. Yeah, I'm getting old).
I feel the same about those Twitch streamers. I really dislike opportunistic people trying to cash in on something they wouldn't be interested in if not for money. It cheapens the thing that is supposed to be a passion for others. Too many Twitch streamers and Youtubers who don't provide much value other than being a pretty face. The idea of Twitch was supposed to be rewarding gamers for their hard work and passion doing something that at first wasn't profitable at all to do full time until their efforts proved that a market was there. Now it's a glorified camwhore site.
Gaming streamers on Twitch seem to get quite a bit of donations. Streamers are personalities that connect with their audience and have a following. Surprisingly, movies and music are now available through subscription services, after many years of sharing for free. These services are successful because they are polished, convenient and legal. People are paying a lot for ebooks, in-game items and other virtual goods.
So, no reason why other content couldn't make money.
Kill advertising and you'll take a lot of lame, average content with it. Or even desirable, culturally meaningful content that doesn't quite do enough. Sports news? Forget it, people may find their favourite vlog-commentator and pay for comedy, mash-ups and creativity. A decent article that makes you think for a bit? Not good enough, chances are they'll follow a popular author and his movement and put some money down for the cause they believe in.
(Ok that last thing is a bit scary but it's where things are going anyway...)
How many of you use Twitch on a daily basis and what type of content you enjoy watching. Additionally, I'm curious as to why there seems to be a lack of diverse live streaming content available on the platform beyond just gaming. Could Twitch's heavy emphasis on gaming be a factor in restricting the variety of content offered when compared to platforms such as YouTube?
this is way less true of twitch than it is of youtube. i'd say the typical twitch channel is someone casually playing some game while participating in the chat and keeping it going by asking questions or talking about their life
Relying on Twitch streaming for income is a hard life. Anyone who doesn't realize this is delusional.
You're talking 10-12 hours _every day_ entertaining people. Successful streamers work 6-7 day weeks at those hours and if they're lucky take 2 weeks off a year -- one of those spent at TwitchCon. Most of them are playing the same game for long stretches of time (months to years). That's really hard!
And if you regularly have ~3k viewers, you'll probably earn $2k-4k a month between ad money and donations. Except for outliers, obviously. The overwhelming majority of streamers are not successful, by the way, or are only successful for a year or two.
It's absolutely a labor of love. You do it because you can't stand doing the alternative.
Twitch is really a phenomenon. It provides incredibly well targeted marketing to a very large demographic (gamers) and has an amazingly good public reputation because it compensates content producers extremely well by granting them free access to a large number of revenue streams that were previously unavailable.
Personally I enjoy playing competitive Overwatch and learn a lot of technical skills from watching some of the better players who stream on Twitch. I happily turn off ad block whenever I do this because I think the players deserve it.
On a psychological level I think twitch appeals to the masses because it offers a social interaction that is missing for many gamers.
I mean this seriously; not as a dig. Why be exclusive when everyone knows youtube? I may even watch a video if i see it when browsing.
But who just watches OTHER PEOPLE play games for fun? How can you build a hugely expensive business off this? Is it all basically advertising for video games funded by companies?
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