Tandor wrote: »

Ydrisselle wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

SolidusPrime wrote: »

Welcome to the year 2005 where people watch others play games.

I'm not a fan of Twitch or watching others play games in general myself, but pretending like you've never heard of it just to make some condescending point is a bit...weird.

I wouldn't over-estimate the number of people who've heard of Twitch. I only came across it through ESO Live, and one look at the Twitch chat was enough to make me maximise the ESO Live window and dump the chat. I've never regretted that. As for watching other people play whether it's through Twitch or Youtube, it's likely to be only a tiny minority of MMORPG players.

I'm quite sure that many, many MMO players watched at least once a WoW bosskill video on YouTube (especially if they were playing WoW too). Or some kind of gameplay video (like an E3/PAX/BlizzCon reveal).

Really? There's quite a difference between a non-WoW player watching "at least once" a WoW bosskill video and gamers generally watching some kind of gameplay video reveal from a major gaming convention. I have myself watched a few video announcements but I've never watched someone else playing a game, so I watched ESO Live, for example, when they were chatting through a video preview of Summerset but had no interest in watching it when they were streaming a trial. However, I fully understand why some people do watch live streams, I just don't think it's a very significant proportion of the total playerbase.

I'm not talking about game announcements, I'm talking about gameplay videos which are usually released with the actual announcement (as a separate video). Those are showing what can be expected in the game. I remember watching the first Watch_Dogs gameplay and I thought "It's ambitious, but there is no way they can deliver what they are promising" and I was right...

The world has obviously passed me by.

Lonestryder wrote: »

The world has obviously passed me by.

it's kind of funny how the whole forum feedback thing can be a bit of double edged sword - I mean on the one hand it's good to be acknowledged...

someone agreed with what you said (me )

on the other hand - what does that really mean...

I also had heard about Twitch for some time but never looked into it until the past year when I found out you could get drops for Legends (which I have since stopped playing, because I got frustrated with the daily login rewards.... annoying to have to be perfect in order to get that gold card).

I went through a quick journey with Twitch... I initially felt exactly the same as the OP. It seemed ridiculous. Looking back I think it was because it does feel a bit like reality tv or talk shows, both of which I really dislike. It had nothing to do with the fact that it was about gaming/gamers, which I respect and enjoy. But I started to watch for drops and found myself getting drawn in. It was interesting to watch the different type of people that streamed, and after a while I would find myself watching to see if the streamers won their matches, watching to see how they reacted to different situations, etc. It's a bit like virtual people watching. I briefly considered streaming, myself, when I realized it could be a career and wouldn't it be fun to play games for a living? Then I started to feel like I had to have something streaming all the time, to get drops, and it became a chore. Very soon I stopped playing Legends and Twitch. And I got a bit turned off by the donations. Some streamers are flashier about it than others, but I'm looking to cut costs, not add them. I may find your stream interesting but I don't want to feel guilty for not supporting you. Being a former musician, I don't really want to watch unless I'm willing to pony up.

That said, it has its charm and I agree it's good for everything from background noise to learning about new games to having a community feel. It is much more personal than watching reality tv or a sports match because you can interact with the gamers. It leaves you feeling less disconnected that social media (Facebook, etc.) because you don't get someone's sanitized version of themselves, you get their live reactions and honesty doing something they enjoy. If you like gaming, at all, it definitely has its place and I'd even recommend exploring it. In the end it wasn't for me because it was just another way for me to spend my time when I already had too many distractions. But again, I don't really watch TV either so that's part of why I didn't really get into it for too long.

To address some other comments I've seen on here, I do not at all feel this way but I think video games sometimes have a negative connotation because they are viewed as being addictive, which directly translates to some folks as "bad" like drugs or gambling or alcohol, especially in the context of games being played by young adults or kids. In fact, in education and other fields the term gamification is used to describe leveraging video game concepts to engage people. This can be viewed as positive but in a way I think this term perpetuates the negative perception of games because it is "tricking" people into doing something. Again, I tell people I am a gamer and think it is a great hobby (more interactive than TV, for example) but just trying to explain why it may be that negativity against gamers does seem to exist.

geonsocal wrote: »

Lonestryder wrote: »

The world has obviously passed me by.

it's kind of funny how the whole forum feedback thing can be a bit of double edged sword - I mean on the one hand it's good to be acknowledged...

someone agreed with what you said (me )

on the other hand - what does that really mean...

Perhaps just that the world has passed us both by. It’s inevitable, hard-earned and I rather prefer my view from where I sit

Yeah it's weird but the kids love it.

I know some people who are very into Starcraft and Heroes of the Storm. They also watch matches on Twitch like a footballgame. So i can understand that.

People watching single player games, i have no clue why they would watch that. But maybe they cannot afford the game itself. I know i bought and finished "A way out" but a friend just watched a "Lets play" on youtube.

I only watch Twitch streams if it's about a new game and they show off new stuff.

I was thinking the same, OP hahaha

brimstone74 wrote: »

It's like watching sports. If you are like me and don't watch sports either, it especially has no appeal. Appeals to a lot of people though, so it can attract more people to the game.

Exactly, it reminds me an episode of the canadian series "Murdoch Mysteries" (s10-6) that happens in the early 20th century ... when the characters learn that people are going to watch football, and even pay for that, instead of playing football themselves, so they find this quite insane.

It made me laugh how it fits today's days about tendancies to Twitch and Overwatch and all that.

But if you think about it ...it's merely like an improvised animated show/movie, or a Discord with motion picture.

You know there are two South Park episodes dealing with the fact that kids dont play anymore but watch people play. And then there are videos about people commenting about people playing. Check out South Park season 18 episodes 9 and 10.

I'm too busy playing video games to be watching other people play.

vamp_emily wrote: »

ZeniMax Online Studios is having a hard time keeping up with users demands in 2018. Amazon.com ( the owner of Twitch ) is looking into a possible merger or a hostile takover. Amazon.com is planning on taking over the gaming industry and will be integrating live twitch feeds inside the game Elderscrolls Online. Users will expect constant popups and advertisement within the game.

/thread

ZeroXFF wrote: »

It's one thing to watch stuff like this, it's another to be compelled via rewards in form of in-game items for doing so.

No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to watch.

Look, I totally understand the "I'd rather just play the game myself now get off my lawn" point of view. Videos, guides, and tutorials, sure. I'd watched plenty of those, but I'd never really been able to wrap my head around why people wanted to watch other people play a video game rather than play themselves.

My 16-year-old son is an active streamer, and he gets a lot of the credit for how I started to see Twitch not as just a place where people watched other people play games, but as a place where people went to establish and grow a community. Folks don't just watch to see other people play. You connect with the streamer, you connect with the other people in chat. It's interactive entertainment, and a lot of people like the ability to not only be truly connected to the sources of their entertainment, but to also know that they can take a direct role in supporting that.

This idea that somehow Twitch is for kids and us "old folks" just don't get it is completely ridiculous, though. Many of the streamers that I connected with during the weekend event I would definitely not classify as kids. ESO tends to have an "older" player base, anyway, with players that have follower the Elder Scrolls IP through Morrowind and before to present day.

I'm 40 years young, a full-time student, and my hobby is ESO. I run a successful trading guild here, and yes, I am a streamer. I stream guild events mostly because my community asked me to, and they enjoy it. It makes my members feel more invested to know that they never have to "miss" the raffle or the auction, they can tune in and see it even if they can't be in game, and because Twitch is an interactive platform, they can still be involved in those events rather than just passively watching, and because I do this, my community is stronger than ever, and because of the Twitch Drop event, it's now bigger than ever, because people were able to find it and participate in it for the very first time.

The drop event was so great for the greater ESO community because it got lots of people engaged in a way they have never been. It connected big streamers to medium to small in a way that was truly positive and supportive. I am so grateful that ZOS gave us all this opportunity.

The bottom line really is that Twitch doesn't have to be for you. If connecting with the community through interactive entertainment isn't your thing, that's fine, it doesn't have to be. You don't have to "get it". To come in here and poo-poo on other people because they enjoy consuming and creating this type of content though is so beyond the pale. Yes, there are some that are able to make a living from this platform, but all of us are doing it to share our love of ESO with people and engage with people that love it as much as we do.

And there is nothing wrong with that if it's how we chose to spend our time.