Hey Folks! It is a very story morning and I am listening to the rain pouring down around me right now as I sit down to write a post that likely no one is interested in. About a week ago I had an interaction with someone on twitter that was asking a pretty simple question. However my answer veered off in a different direction than I think they were expecting and I have been thinking about my comments for the last week. I guess let’s start with what exactly I said.
No and honestly I am personally tiring of the machinery of streaming. I find it so much more likely that I stick around and watch a stream if it is just a person playing a game with or without a camera, but I might be the exception rather than the rule. Overlays and Alerts and subscription widgets and all of that stuff was really cool when it was brand new, but now that it feels like everyone is obligated to have all of these things going on… it is sorta distorting the experience of hanging out with someone while they play
I realize that I am probably in the minority with this statement, but I have very much found myself tiring of the machinery of streaming. I know that is a strange phrase but I am not sure how else to describe it. Streams as a whole are now these large productions that end up feeling an awful lot like the barker at a carnival sideshow. Logging into a stream these days involves all of these widgets going off competing for your attention. Not only is there the flow of chat that is often incomprehensible but also tickers scrolling indicating who is leading in the donation count and alerts popping up each time some sort of interaction goal is met or follow is achieved. Everything competing for your attention but none of it really garnering it.
Once again I realize I probably use Twitch in a different manner than the most diehard of users. I tune in when I see that one of my friends is streaming and more or less it is for the purpose of hanging out while they play a game. All of the accoutrements feels like it gets in the way of that singular purpose. Twitch has sorta become this nesting doll of mini-games over the years and as a result it feels like the general experience of hanging out with someone while they play a game gets lost in the process. I realize that for some that might not be the core reason why they tune into Twitch or YouTube Gaming, but for me it is very much the case that I am there for that simple core interaction with a streamer while they are playing a game.
I remember dabbling in bots and alerts and running StreamLabs OBS because it sort of took care of everything for me. It was all new and exciting and fun to configure the first time, but after having seen it play out countless times on stream it all wears a little thin. I am significantly more engaged when I just see someone streaming a game and occasionally interacting with chat than I am when someone has a streamer theme package and a whole lot of doodads consuming screen real estate. I get in some ways many of these streams are trying to create a self perpetuating feedback cycle that keeps folks engaged in a constant loop, but for me… I find myself wanting off of that ride quickly.
Weirdly I used to stream quite a bit. In my head that seems like it was only a little bit ago that I did this thing but looking back… my prolific period was roughly seven years ago. Also looking back, the very last time that I went live with any game was roughly two years ago. I am not sure WHY I stopped streaming. I think on some level I just ended up stuck in a very turtle mode rut of not interacting with other human beings while gaming. That has more or less been the case for a few years now of me avoiding multiplayer content and absolutely avoiding anything resembling public exhibition while gaming. I do sorta miss the concept of sharing what I was doing with a very small group of people who tuned in to watch it. I’m a Twitch Affiliate, but then again so is everyone else given that those requirements are pretty low.
There are times that I flirt with the concept of going live again but always stop myself before actually doing it. More recently I have recorded a number of videos of me playing various games starting with Minecraft but more recently Valheim. Those have felt pretty good when I have recorded them, but it is also a very one-sided interaction. It feels safe to treat those much in the same way as I do this blog in that on some level I pretend that I am largely talking to myself and ignoring the fact that someone at some point is going to consume the thing I created. With streaming you don’t really have that luxury because you are effectively on air and live to the world, but then it feels bad if no one shows up to that broadcast to keep you company.
The funny thing about my prolific streaming period… is I guess I did not realize just how much I streamed. Essentially there are videos that were replicated over to YouTube of pretty much my entire play through of Elder Scrolls Online and the main story at launch. I think I added it up and just ESO alone it was some fifty hours of streaming. Included in these are a few gems that I have recently revisited of some of us experiencing dungeons for the very first time. This for example is Banished Cells with general group commentary streaming along with me. Watching these again is almost like seeing a version of me that I barely recognize. I was always grouped and always running group content and now I seem to avoid that like the freaking plague. I am not even certain how I used to put myself out there constantly like that.
While I have wildly veered off topic, it seems like my personal jam is just enough stuff on screen to explain what game you are playing and also maybe hide chat. Like ultimately that is why I started putting shit on the screen as an overlay in the first place. It wasn’t necessarily that I was trying to hide anything, but more that I was trying to protect the privacy of any folks that might be interacting with me over chat. Like there was once a time when I would log in to a bunch of messages from friends and I didn’t want any of those inadvertently broadcast. However my personal preference would always land on the side of just straight broadcasting my screen with some random voice over commentary.
I feel like I have lost a lot of the “Me” that existed a decade ago. Like I said before I barely recognize the person who was so prolifically streaming seven years ago. Truth be told I barely recognize the me that was hanging out and streaming World of Warcraft in lieu of recording AggroChat in the above video. I have become so filled with self doubt and anxiety that just talking to another human being in game is a chore that burns through all of my utensils for the day. The problem being that I am not sure how to get back to the person that I used to be. Things change and you don’t realize they are changing until you have gone so far down a path that you can barely see where you started. Today’s post is proof that I do not stage these topics ahead of time, because I started talking about one thing and then have veered wildly into another.
There is a part of me that sorta wants to go live again. Maybe in doing so it would force me to start dipping my toes into group play again. I doubt I would have anyone watch my nonsense, but just the act of sorta putting myself out there might start to batter down this barrier I have built up around me. I miss the person that I used to be and I am not sure yet how to get back there.
I’ve never tried streaming for any purpose than demonstrating a quite specific game or thing to some friends but I still relate to much of what you’re saying here regardless.
“I feel like I have lost a lot of the “Me” that existed a decade ago.”
This in particular really hit me. I feel the same, but perhaps take it back more along the lines of 15-20 years back to a time when I was simply more accepting of forming and maintaining relationships online, in gaming and with the communities that surround. I could, and would, jump into a game and join a guild — interact and build friendships with people. Not only did I do it, but I really enjoyed it.
I’ve written about this loss of my drive for real social connectivity in games before but this post really brought those feelings up again.
In any case — to the other topic at hand here, the machinery of streaming as you eloquently put it has little to do with my enjoyment or lack thereof in a stream. I know that I don’t like the incredibly busy style stream of old where it seemed the mission was to attach every possible widget and doohickey to the screen as possible. If the viewers could identify the game being played by sight alone the streamer was doing it wrong, it seemed.
Cohh is pretty much the only streamer I watch regularly — and even then, in YouTube format rather than on Twitch itself generally — but I appreciate minimal disruptions from the stream itself. Responding to a bit of chat? Fine. Acknowledging the more important things like big gifts of subs etc, sure, I can accept that too.
But if the conversation (or worse, the gameplay) is disrupted every few seconds by some form of stream acknowledgement, ughhh. Honestly this is probably the main reason I don’t watch streamers more.
To be fair it goes further back than a decade for me. The “Me” that existed a decade ago was already a diluted version of the me that was regularly making friends and interacting with people in every single game I landed in. Now I find myself stuck in the position of being out of time band with the bulk of my crew and just finding it too painful to try and create a new mass of players to play with. Elder Scrolls Online has been a weird exception to that because right now we have this weird upwelling of people in what was effectively a completely dead guild two months ago.
Do you think the closing off (generally, this ESO exception aside) to randoms in MMOs has anything to do with having a more stable group to jump game to game with, to the extent that you no longer need to bring in randoms? And then this occurred for long enough, that extra people can even feel a bit like intruders rather than considered with the degree of acceptance we once would’ve felt at such an interaction?
I think that is largely it for me. I’m not sure to what extent things like LFG tools and the like played into this, or concerns over community toxicity.
They might’ve had an impact, but it’s hard to say this far on. All I do know is that I do often catch myself feeling like to recruit new people would be to bring in intruders — and that probably isn’t a good way to look at the world. Just not sure how to fix it at this point.
Well, it’s always about an uneasy balance, isn’t it? A lot of all the glamour of streaming widgets and alerts is about gamification and harnessing human psychology in order to earn $$$, just like microtransactions in games. If there is none of it, one profits less. If there is an extreme amount, it gets cloying.
It’s also about the type of audience one is cultivating. You and me might prefer a more authentic, just humans, chilling with a good game experience; another group of people may be all about the nonstop meme spam and be seeking an experience where the streamer is interrupted by jarring alerts and getting increasingly rattled as he plays. One might pity such a streamer, but I’m sure it’s offset by the amount of money they’re making being a target of a meaner sort of entertainment.
I wonder if it’s not some kind of generation gap from time to time. We blog-preferrers seem to trend in the ages 30s+, which is to say, most of us have had a pre-Internet childhood where we actually read books and faced quieter, not always-connected times.
It could be that our younger generations post-Internet and social media have gotten so used to push notifications and being always in an ever-changing ebb and flow of communications that quiet is uncomfortable and an ever stimulating flow of alerts, ticker tapes, meme spam, and constant movement is required to hold their attention.
Or maybe it’s not age-related and just some other kind of preference. Some need peace and quiet to concentrate, and some need music or TV or some other stimulus keeping parts of their brain occupied in order to focus.
I’d be interested to know from someone who does enjoy watching these kinds of very busy streams what it is they get from the experience that makes it preferable to or at least a reasonable alternative for playing the game themselves or watching some other kind of screen performance like a pre-recorded, edited play-through. My guess is that it’s precisly the interactivity that appeals – the draw being to be taking part in something rather than watching something. It might not even matter all that much what game was being played – the stream itself would be the “game” with the game the streamer was playing merely being one of the ways that meta-game is played.
I can’t imagine many people watch these kind of streams to learn how to play the games they feature. It would seem to be a poor use someone’s time to do that.
I don’t watch streamers — largely due to the fact that I’d rather be playing myself rather than watching someone else play — but also for precisely the reasons you mention.
I tried watching some streamers for ideas on improving my own gameplay, but found that all the alerts and popups and tickers and whatnot clutter up the stream, plus any time an alert goes off then the streamer interrupts their train of thought on whatever commentary they may have been making to acknowledge the alert, which is often quite jarring and “breaks the flow” of whatever they were doing, the train of thought is lost and often not picked back up and thus watching streaming tended to be an exercise in frustration rather than any kind of educational experience.
So yeah, if I need gameplay tips, I’ll go watch a tips video on Youtube, not a stream.