Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#241

Post by xenihn » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 9:45 PM UTC

mkirklions wrote: post #139

com2kid wrote: post #28

I am a regular of a low viewer count stream, choaslegionkaeru, who is pretty good and talkative. He rarely gets past 10 streamers, and his style isn't for everyone and I don't think he'll ever be a massive success, but I enjoy watching and interacting with him. I've tuned into other low viewer streams, and a lot of them are just bad. The gameplay is bad, and the streamer isn't entertaining. A successful streamer need…

This sounds like the twitter Financial Independence blogging community. People with 0 new advice, rehashing the same old credit card rewards and budgeting advice. Its so terrible that there are people claiming 'frugal ways to eat' and claim 50$/week per person for food is frugal. A single google search would tell you that under 30$/week is a good goal. This drives me crazy because we are eating for 20$/week and actua…

What's your website?

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#242

Post by joshschreuder » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 9:51 PM UTC

fastball wrote: post #137

mlinsey wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watch Twitch because I grew up playing lots of video games and now watching is less of a time commitment then playing the games. Streamers aren't meant to be consumed by watching them every day for hours on end. I mean, I'm sure there are core fans who do that, probably students and single young professionals like you say, but my use case for Twitch is "hey, I have 10-20 minutes free; not even enough time for a ful…

Relevant HN post from yesterday[0]. I'm sure the same is true for eSports (if not more so!) 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17535995

I believe it to be true. And like professional sports there is an enjoyment to be had seeing how people so far above your skill level play

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#243

Post by cybwraith » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 9:58 PM UTC

alexgmcm wrote: post #185

ryandrake wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea I love games and used to play a lot, but they have become a huge time commitment. It’s usually one or more of: 1. Games that simply require grinding to unlock game progression (XP, time-based gates, etc.) 2. Games with numerous hour-long quests that need to be done serially in order to progress 3. Games that disproportionately reward outlier-level skill, requiring a huge practice time commitment (multiplayer shoo…

These days? Hasn't that always been the case? It's just that when we were kids etc. we had more free time. The Nintendo Switch has an excellent selection of more 'casual' games. Super Mario Odyssey reminded me a lot of the games I played as a kid.

I would say not really. For one thing, the early days of gaming held onto many elements from arcades where games were meant to be consumed in somewhat bite-sized chunks (Atari, NES, etc).

A big factor for multiplayer games is the somewhat modern obsession with matchmaking and character intro/pick screens. When I was a kid, I could hop into a game immediately for a 15-20 minute deathmatch session of Quake 1/2/3 in any semi-populated server then leave whenever it was time to do homework, etc.

Last I tried Quake Champions, the newest installment in the series, you spend roughly 1-5 minutes in a matchmaking queue then another 2-3 minutes (or more, it was pretty bad sometimes) in some intro/loading screens, then another minute or two in a pre-match warm-up. So even in the same genre's case you're already potentially 8+ minutes sunk into your 15-20 minute 'quick game' period.

To make matters worse (again because of matchmaking) you are penalized if you have to leave before the completion of a match or if you go idle. Usually this penalty is applied as a low-priority queue the next time you try to matchmake which just compounds the problem from above.

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#244

Post by steveklabnik » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 9:58 PM UTC

metalliqaz wrote: post #174

mlinsey wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watch Twitch because I grew up playing lots of video games and now watching is less of a time commitment then playing the games. Streamers aren't meant to be consumed by watching them every day for hours on end. I mean, I'm sure there are core fans who do that, probably students and single young professionals like you say, but my use case for Twitch is "hey, I have 10-20 minutes free; not even enough time for a ful…

I think this is a good explanation, however don't you find that you have to be a player of the game in order to enjoy watching it? Not being a MOBA player, I can never understand what is going on when watching games like DotA.

Just like regular sports, you need to understand the basic rules, but that doesn't mean you need to know all of them. Most people don't know the full rulebook of sports that they watch.

And commentators can make it even more accessible; their expertise is there to help provide context and guidance.

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#245

Post by 67_45 » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 10:00 PM UTC

This reminds me of jackass and skating. There used to be a huge following for jackass stunts and skating culture. I was a part of that following and I loved it. Looking back I am confused because jackass just seems sad. Through the eyes of an adult it loses almost 100 percent of it's charm. I suspect that twitch is the same thing because I just don't get it. People seem to be completely oblivious to the horrible sadness of what they do -- from streaming to an empty chat and all the way to personality worshiping. The whole thing is just awful. I would say it will face the same death as jackass and skater culture.

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#246

Post by scoggs » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 10:05 PM UTC

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #237

mlinsey wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watch Twitch because I grew up playing lots of video games and now watching is less of a time commitment then playing the games. Streamers aren't meant to be consumed by watching them every day for hours on end. I mean, I'm sure there are core fans who do that, probably students and single young professionals like you say, but my use case for Twitch is "hey, I have 10-20 minutes free; not even enough time for a ful…

This BAFFLED ME for years as well. But I think I've finally figured it out. A lot of people are watching these streams AS THEY GAME. I can devote 75% of my attention to one monitor as a play "League of Legends", and listen to some helpful coaching from a Twitch Stream with 25% of my attention in the other monitor. At times when my game is loading, or my character is dead and I'm waiting to respawn I can even devote 1…

I mean maybe, but it's just as the person you replied to said:

Lot of us grew up playing videogames with all of our free time. We are adults now. People in our age bracket who watch Twitch video game streams often probably do so to replace some of that time we wish we could be gaming.

I can't speak on younger generation's consumption of Twitch and Youtube but I imagine for them it's just as normal as watching TV, playing video games, watching videos on the internet (in the early days), or to liken it to something people my generation and older did: going outside and playing.

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#247

Post by Havoc » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 10:17 PM UTC

Undergoing a similar type vibe with a recently set up website. Barely has content on it so not expecting much, but the low hit-count isn't exactly encouraging & motivating towards putting more content in place.

Must be far worse for streamers - that's a hell of a lot more personal.

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#248

Post by paulie_a » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 10:33 PM UTC

metalliqaz wrote: post #14

What I don't understand about Twitch is how anyone has time to consume this content. When it comes to sitting on your butt and watching something, the traditional TV show is moving to an on-demand model. Twitch is a step in the other direction, where if you faithfully consume content from any Twitch channel, you have to sit down and watch for hours every night when the streamer is online. Who does that? I imagine it'…

I honestly don't understand how twitch even exists. I play video games on occasion but can't imagine wanting to watch someone else play.

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#249

Post by robryan » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 10:34 PM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #238

The important thing is enjoying the game and having fun. The number of people watching the stream shouldn't have a negative impact on that. Lots of streamers seem to approach video games like they're some kind of full time job. They play games, stream the footage then expect thousands of dollars to start coming in every month. Of course the vast majority of them are going to end up frustrated. These people seem to be…

It depends what the stream is for them. If someone is streaming a game they would be playing anyway in their spare time they probably don’t care too much. If someone sees it as their ticket out of a job/career they hate I can see where the frustration would come from.

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#250

Post by corobo » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 10:34 PM UTC

H1Supreme wrote: post #158

nickjj wrote: post #100

You could replace this title with "Programmers who spend years creating a SAAS app that no one uses" and it would be the same article. All of these streamers who are bothered by not having an audience seem to have started for the wrong reasons. If all they care about are subscribers and viewers, then you're going to get really burnt out when that doesn't happen. Most of the popular streamers who I've come across do i…

Yes, but creating a SAAS app from the ground up still gives gives a valuable skill set. Even if no one uses your app.

My on again off again wander into the world of streaming/letsplaying/podcasting improved my ability to speak infinitely. Before I started I was the guy that spoke in mumbles or from behind a hand in front of my mouth