I’ll never understand how Twitch became as big as a thing as it is.
"So you’re telling me that instead of watching a fifteen minutes of nicely edited video of content I can watch for hours of a greasy man in a tank top play a game for four hours and get fifteen minutes of good content in the time span? "(Literally) “Take my money!”
Smaller streams make more sense to me. It’s like a virtual social setting, an old school chatroom, but with a focus of attention, and a guy kind of structuring the whole thing, and a guy who can be engaged with. Occasionally, the streamer can be cool, most of the time they’re kind of a goblin, though, so the good streams are few and far between.
Larger streams don’t make much sense unless you kind of view them as being like, the same appeal as talk radio, or something, because the chat scrolls way too fast and most of it is emotes, so most messages will never get read, and never have anything good to say in the first place. There’s not much of an advantage for any of it to be live content, it just sort of is a relic of the format. Sometimes you get higher production stuff, most of the time it’s just some bald asshole ranting about the prices of things in costco and doing other bad stand up bits.
Edit: Also a big appeal is how brainrotted people are. The focus (I’m generalizing now across all internet platforms) is less on some specific information, and is more on “personality” and appeals like that, because that’s the most sustainable way to pump out a metric ton of content at all times, and algorithms tend to reward when you pump out a ton of content. And so you get a lot of parasocial relationships and non-content, and viewers, frankly, just watch whatever’s in front of them. There’s not a lot of control these platforms, increasingly, give you over what you’re watching anyways, and people aren’t going to keep pulling that skinner’s box lever unless they get a hit at some point. Most of the content ends up being dogshit, so you get a kind of selection for people who enjoy dogshit, and a lack of other options, so people just acclimate to their lack of alternative and become kind of complacent in their environment.
For twitch more specifically, you also basically just get shit that’s meant to only reward people’s dopamine centers, when they get their message read by the streamer, and then they keep pulling the lever on the slot machine over and over multiple times per stream. Either that, right, or you’re getting a lot of people who just don’t have many social relationships, and just want to feel like they’re part of a larger organization, or being, even if it’s totally mindless and meaningless. People who want to “turn off” and just kind of mindlessly be part of the flow of the chat, or what have you. That last part is the brainrot, basically.
A stream is a very different format for content, but that doesn’t necessarily make it worse - only different.
As streams are live, anything could happen, so there’s the possibility for unexpected excitement and being a part of that as it happens
Live chat can make a stream feel social and connected with other viewers
Streams give you the ability to speak to the streamer and change the outcome of the stream
I think that the way people consume content has also changed. A lot of people watch streams “in the background” just as noise while they do other things, not in a way where they are giving the stream their 100% focus in the way you would with a short and well-edited video.
This is 100% me, I just commented elsewhere a similar thing, for me I love that the streams tend to be long. I like having things playing for long periods at a time so having to stop and find a new video every 10 minutes is maddening especially if I’m at work and it’s more like background noise about a topic/game I enjoy.
I watch forsen a lot on twitch, and his chat streams at a hundred messages a second so no one will ever see your individual chat. It’s awesome because it’s like a hive mind at work. Everyone is spamming one emote, and then something on stream happens and then every single chatter simultaneously starts spamming another emote in reaction to that. It’s fun.
For me smaller streams aren’t fun because everything’s (generalizing here) super moderated. No unrelated chat, nothing negative, no backseat gaming, etc. It’s basically post something positive about the streamer or the game and that’s it. Of course if you’re watching your buddy with three other guys not applicable.
You can ask questions about the game and get a direct answer, often including someone showing you exactly the thing in the game you asked about.
Some streams are genuinely entertaining, such as GTA RP streams. These people mostly aren’t slobbering fat guys (though some are) but are actually working and acting the entire time.
I’ll never understand how Twitch became as big as a thing as it is.
You already answered that in your comment.
You want to watch videos, not livestreams. Of course a video will be better at being, you know, a video (nicely edited, in short format, etc). A livestream is different for many reasons, none of which interests you apparently.
Nothing wrong with that tbh. It’s just not for you.
I mainly watch speedruns and esports live because if you’re watching a video you already know if a runner has PBed or which team won (in the case if esports)
As a genXer I don’t get it either. The model at the moment referenced here makes much more sense to me at least. Not understanding twitch is a real marker of shifts in generational mindsets. I think I understand tech, but I wouldnt invest in tech sectors as I clearly don’t have the instinct for it anymore.
I always did this. I let my friends play and I watched. Dunno why really. I still find it extremely hard to play single player games (or solo multiplayer), I just get bored. I need to either watch or play with a friend.
For me it’s that twitch is a lot more personal, at least it used to be.
I met some of my best friends hanging out in smaller streams. That was 8 years ago. We still hang out daily in discord or on twitch when one of them streams.
I much prefer to watch gameplay on twitch. It’s a much more natural way of consuming content vs the super energetic, loud, pushy YouTube videos.
Edited game content provides very little entertainment value to me, while I mostly have streams turned on as background noise and check in occasionally to see what happens.
A buddy from college is a somewhat famous twitch streamer. I remember seeing him a few years after college and asking what he was up to, and couldn’t believe he was making any money just streaming himself playing League. My brain couldn’t comprehend who would want to watch that. That was like 10 years ago, and dude is still doing it, and hasn’t worked a real job in a decade. I’m low key jealous AF.
I had an application from someone who had his previous 3 years of work history as “Twitch streamer”. He didn’t even put his twitch name on there so we could look him up. That one went in the bin.
Right? The 15 minutes of watching someone else play would even be a challenge for me if I’m actually trying to pay attention. That is the kind of content I barely can do as background noise.
From my view, I enjoy watching Twitch for two main reasons:
For the same reason I like watching live sports rather than a 15 minute cut of highlights - the feeling of experiencing events in real time, the payoff of seeing a big play unfold after all the anticipation leading up to it, watching strategies and counter-strategies unfold in real time, that kind of stuff.
For the same reason I like watching video essays, stand-up comedy, interview shows, podcasts, or other media where one particular person is the focus - that person is entertaining to me. They have a personality I vibe with, they’re funny, they have an interesting perspective, etc.
To a lesser extent, it’s also nice background noise. I can throw a stream on at the beginning of my workday and not have to fiddle with it until I’m done with work, because it’s a constant, reliable source of background noise.
For me it’s nice to have someone playing the same game as I am while I’m playing, the streams are usually long so I don’t need to worry about stopping to find something new to put on and I learn stuff about the game I might have missed or just never knew. I live alone so, depending on the streamer, the conversation is also nice to have around.
I can’t say I’m one of those that only watches a stream though, I need to be doing something other than just watching lol
I practice too, but I still find it helpful to watch chess streamers talk through their thought process in the moment rather than reading/watching a structured lesson.
Unstructured practice is only one form of skill enhancement. Alone it is not usually an effective tool. That’s why coaches, books, training regiments exist for all sorts of things from sports to chess to games
You know how people watch videos of master carpenters or cobblers or whatever the fuck do their jobs expertly? This is like that but with videogames instead of building shit.
Alternatively, you know how people watch dumbasses with endearing personalities do whatever the fuck? This is like that. Exactly like that.
Most blacksmithing videos I’ve seen aren’t as funny as the gaming videos. Besides even though I find it interesting, I think watching a sword getting made live would be boring as fuck compared to the action and pithy banter of many streamers.
Edit: I mean, there’s a whole industry around watching other people game. I find most sports boring, but I’d just be wrong to critique it like you’re doing right now.
I listen to podcasts while doing carpentry and watch streamers or YouTubers while coding or using CAD it’s a great way of holding focus and taking away the urge to rush. Bikini hulahoop streamers are just as good side noise as gamers, nothing important so you don’t get distracted but interesting enough to stop boredom.
Games can be competitive. Or maybe you are having difficulty in a certain game and want to learn strategies to get better at it, even if it isn’t a competitive game.
I can’t do it, either. The only way it’s tolerable is if I’m sitting next to them and can occasionally grab the controller (husband and I get through 1 player games this way, currently playing The Sinking City)
Personally, I enjoy watching people who are better than me play a game. One of my favorites is Insym, dude is just incredible at figuring out the mechanics behind gameplay and screwing around with the game engine. It’s really interesting to watch him figure stuff out and test his theories in real time.
On the opposite end of the scale it can also be hilarious to watch someone like Jerma walk around talking about food while ignoring the most obvious things in the game. It’s like a mobile ad that makes you want to play the game just to do it right.
There’s plenty of trash content on twitch but there are definitely creators that make watching them play a lot more about their personality than the game itself.
Basically any recent septic line is setup with a fresh air vent. Yes it’s gonna stink like hell probably but there is an actual fresh air source in there
trying to escape is a good option when the fire is just starting. But when you’ve been trapped inside, can’t see, can’t breathe, with no way to leave - go breathe the poo air, and pray to whatever god there might be the firefighters get to you before something collapses on your head
Not just that, they assume you have an IMAX Dolby system installed in your theater sized living room, that everyone obviously has. Bad mixes are inexcusable and sound mixing snobbism is a symptom of the pompous pretentiousness that is the rotten core of Hollywood. Yes, Hollywood, most foreign films with DTS have perfectly good and serviceable mixes that sound nice in both Stereo and Surround…
Classic schooled actors with theater experience are being replaced by young actors using basic conversational speech and volume. More natural but not that easy to understand.
No, there’s definitely an element of not speaking clearly.
Matthew McConaughey and Tom Hardy as examples. Chris Nolan gets shit on for his terrible sound mixing, but him picking actors who mumble is the main issue.
Put on a movie from 1980 vs one from 2020. The voice clarity is night and day.
Atmos won’t save you from shitty sound mixes, I have a pretty nice speaker setup and still have to turn on captions if I want to hear a conversation without my neighbors calling the cops during the next action sequence.
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