Has Blizzard placed too much emphasis on streamers?

[Kyanion]

Nearly every numbered point in the OP contains something that's either false or highly subjective.

Well the OP made 3 points. 1st was Celestalon talking about feedback from streamers. That was not made up by the OP or 'highly subjective'. 2nd was that streamers overhyped the interviews that happened. I dunno if you noticed but the backlash from that was quite real. That was not false, streamers hyped the interviews and then they plopped out and people were like..."That's it?"

3rd point was that streamers have an even larger role in the distrubution of beta keys. Well umm that is also true and not subjective. Go look at the event happening right now, this is something totally different than the usual giveaway of keys. The OP wasn't creating stories or putting huge spins on them.

[Derpleton]

This honestly was a terrible idea for a beta key giveaway. Not because of the streamers but because they're using Twitter screenshots. Most of them won't even get looked at and its way too easy to exploit with multiple accounts, posts, etc.

[SoulSoBreezy]

Well the OP made 3 points. 1st was Celestalon talking about feedback from streamers. That was not made up by the OP or 'highly subjective'. 2nd was that streamers overhyped the interviews that happened. I dunno if you noticed but the backlash from that was quite real. That was not false, streamers hyped the interviews and then they plopped out and people were like..."That's it?"

3rd point was that streamers have an even larger role in the distrubution of beta keys. Well umm that is also true and not subjective. Go look at the event happening right now, this is something totally different than the usual giveaway of keys. The OP wasn't creating stories or putting huge spins on them.

No, but the OP is mentioning them, hence the "win" for the streamers. Bringing them up validates their continued use.
As for the third point, the whole streamer conspiracy is way overstated, IMO. Marketing has shifted away from tv commercials and codes in cereal boxes to much faster, cheaper distribution models towards a very specific audience.

Streamers, like every other marketing model, has its pros and cons, wins and failures. Feel free to poke and prod at the idea, but it's effective, and the OP totally fell for it.

[Caolela]

Well the OP made 3 points. 1st was Celestalon talking about feedback from streamers. That was not made up by the OP or 'highly subjective'. 2nd was that streamers overhyped the interviews that happened. I dunno if you noticed but the backlash from that was quite real. That was not false, streamers hyped the interviews and then they plopped out and people were like..."That's it?"

3rd point was that streamers have an even larger role in the distrubution of beta keys. Well umm that is also true and not subjective. Go look at the event happening right now, this is something totally different than the usual giveaway of keys. The OP wasn't creating stories or putting huge spins on them.

I can't remember a topic or thread in which MoanaLisa doesn't blame the players/community or side with Blizz as if she's on auto-pilot, or being compensated in some way to take pro-Blizz positions. It makes you wonder. With her it's never Blizzard's fault and there's always some spin or half-truths. I don't think with that track record she should be saying that anyone is being "highly subjective" or is "false", when as you pointed out here it is she who is doing just that.

Yes, moderators might have their own opinions but one would think that they'd be a bit more even-handed since what they post may, rightly or wrongly, be given more weight than others.

Blizz generally knows how this kind of thing is likely to turn out, and they encourage and let it happen because it's very low-cost publicity and advertisement. It's only when it occasionally blows up in their faces that you hear anything out of Blizz, but they seem not to mind when their customers feel shorted by the hype.

[Fabinas]

This demon bounty shit is the shittiest idea ever for promoting Legion. This shitty attachment to to social media makes me cringe. I am already in beta, so, no salt over no invite. But, ffs this 69 between Blizzard and streamers is annoying.

[Jerichofr]

Yes. Streamers are horrible.

[Fabinas]

No, but threads like this only give them more attention. You might as well ask "Am I putting too much emphasis on streamers?" Answer would probably be yes. A few dozen beta keys to popular streamers that have a steady audience isn't a big deal. Nearly every numbered point in the OP contains something that's either false or highly subjective.

"False or highly subjective". Right. You're Blizzard fanboying to the extreme now. And no, he doesn't say "go watch streams to get beta keys". He wants to discuss this new Blizzard ploy inside MMO-C.

[Kellorion]

Maybe they should just fire Celestalon

[ejpaints]

I think people are just getting tired of seeing the same people seemingly being placed on a pedestal. But it's a marketing tool & Blizz is using it.

Quite a few events have been overhyped lately & people are bored out of their mind. So much saltiness ensues as a result of the hype over something that ended up not amounting to much. Pre-patch needs to drop & soon. At least that would give some people incentive to go farm transmog.

We're in a content drought, in what many consider to be the most mundane expansion they've ever done. So of course people are salty. The only reason I'm not one of em is I'm fortunate enough to have seen Legion content & know it's going to get better soon. This is just what happens when a crappy product is released & then seemingly no communication for months. Hopefully they've learned from this mess.

[Deleted]

This demon bounty shit is the shittiest idea ever for promoting Legion. This shitty attachment to to social media makes me cringe. I am already in beta, so, no salt over no invite. But, ffs this 69 between Blizzard and streamers is annoying.

Everyone is doing social media campaigns nowadays cause it gives more publicity. At least that's the idea, im not sure how many people actually use their real accounts for shit like this and don't just create alt accounts. You certaintly won't catch me spamming the accounts connected to reallive people with backhanded advertisement for cheap virtual rewards.

Towelliee doesn't even know what a Dreadlord is and he's in charge of some of the keys? That's the part I don't get.

Don't like him tbh but why does it matter? His job does not require knowledge nor skill in the game. He just has to be entertaining for enough people.

[Caolela]

This is just what happens when a crappy product is released & then seemingly no communication for months. Hopefully they've learned from this mess.

The only thing Blizz will learn and has ever learned is how to spin, deceive, and hype in ever more insidious ways.

[Fabinas]

If Blizzard was an army and streamers its generals, i'd definitely not follow them to battle...

[glowpipe]

As much as i hate most streamers. They are free PR. If a dude have 500 000 watchers. They adore him like the morons they are. Streamer want something in the game changed. All the peasants agree, Blizzard acommodate for said streamers. And boom. Now you have 500 001 happy wow fans. Blizzard goes "Money in mah pocket, I am fricking assum"

[Kyanion]

As much as i hate most streamers. They are free PR. If a dude have 500 000 watchers. They adore him like the morons they are. Streamer want something in the game changed. All the peasants agree, Blizzard acommodate for said streamers. And boom. Now you have 500 001 happy wow fans. Blizzard goes "Money in mah pocket, I am fricking assum"

heh none of the WoW streamers would ever sniff 500k watchers though. Some of them have 500k people who looked at the stream at some point or followed but average viewer base during those events wasn't even breaking 8k people online. Yes some of them are new people as others log out but no way someone is hitting 500k for a WoW stream.

[elmoe420]

Some thoughts to consider around the OPs three points of discussion.

1.)

Remember that it is very easy to have the perception that Blizzard only invited streamers to the Legion alpha but this does not make that perception reality. By definition a streamer or other type of social influencer is using a social media channel to broadcast their thoughts to the public. This is why they are included in play testing, because companies want the audience of these influencers to actually get a chance to see the play testing which would otherwise be happening almost entirely behind closed doors. The vast majority of players invited to Legion alpha/beta do not post about their play testing in public.

While impossible for us to get accurate data on the number of players invited to the Legion alpha/beta do not assume that the people who discuss their play testing in public are the only players with access.

2.)

Personally I enjoyed some of the interviews and not others. To me this has more to do with the subject matter at hand rather than the quality of the interviewers themselves.

Rather than just saying 'streamers are bad interviewers', a more productive line of discussion might be who would you prefer to conduct the interviews? Who do you all think would be the best interviewers for these Blizzard Q&As? Would you prefer to have only Blizzard employees serving as interviewers (more of a press release style)?

3.)

One important thing to keep in mind here is that Blizzard giving away Legion beta keys through social influencers is not mutually exclusive with other distribution channels. Rather this could be viewed as an incremental channel for key distribution.

Regardless, a more productive line of discussion might be what distribution channels do you prefer for these type of key giveaways? Would you prefer keys to be 100% directly distributed by Blizzard? Are some third party distributors like fan sites such as MMO-C okay? What about through vendor partnerships with companies like Gamestop or Sony? Is any non-zero amount of key distribution through social influencers okay? What should the right mix of distribution channels be?

[Manhands]

WoW streamers are also passionate WoW gamers. Who else would they ask from the community? MVP posters on battle.net forums? Maybe, but streamers are proven to be at least somewhat charismatic and are often a source of information for their viewers. They are an obvious choice to get community involvement.

The only thing that was questionable, to me, were the interviews by streamers. Those questions were really...not informative. Would have been better to have the streamers ask their viewers to submit questions and pick the best ones from there.

[Tavin]

Why would they give keys to random people when they can give it to streamers who promote their game?

If you want beta keys, just raid in a top 100+ guild and you'll get alpha/beta keys for every expansion. All the raiders always gets them in our guild.

So if you don't stream or raid. Join the competitions to get them, whether it's from mmo or a streamer. Makes no fucking difference

[CptHandjob]

I don't know if I'm old (35,gaming since the 80s) but i don't get the whole streaming thing and why its important.I can't watch a stream for more than 15 minutes max ,it gets extremely boring if you're not the one playing the game.

[Fenderxx]

Blizzard giving streamers Alpha/Beta access is a great idea from their point of view. Streamers provide free advertising and let a lot more people see the expansions development without having to let millions of people into the Alpha/Beta. If you allow everyone in the beta you get over welled with feedback and opinions. You need to focus it more, for example, Blizzard invited people and guilds that finished Mythic HFC, because they want those specific people's feedback on boss design because there experience makes their feedback valuable as a play tester. So by inviting a focused population to test your content and provide feedback, and inviting streamers to review and it a way promote your product... I don't want to say win/win... but as close as you can get. As far as I am concerned this promotion is Blizzard saying thank you to those streamers for their support by putting a spotlight on their channels. Personally I do not see anything wrong with it, If you don't want to enter then don't enter.. no biggie.

[Kyanion]

Blizzard giving streamers Alpha/Beta access is a great idea from their point of view. Streamers provide free advertising and let a lot more people see the expansions development without having to let millions of people into the Alpha/Beta. If you allow everyone in the beta you get over welled with feedback and opinions. You need to focus it more, for example, Blizzard invited people and guilds that finished Mythic HFC, because they want those specific people's feedback on boss design because there experience makes their feedback valuable as a play tester. So by inviting a focused population to test your content and provide feedback, and inviting streamers to review and it a way promote your product... I don't want to say win/win... but as close as you can get. As far as I am concerned this promotion is Blizzard saying thank you to those streamers for their support by putting a spotlight on their channels. Personally I do not see anything wrong with it, If you don't want to enter then don't enter.. no biggie.

Why does Blizzard need to 'spotlight' certain streamers? A streamer is popular based on their own merits and content. Some of these streamers are doing just fine without Blizzard swooping down to crown them 'General of the Masses' or whatever the hell stupid thing they dub them with. And what does this say about other popular streamers or youtube people that weren't 'chosen'. Hey you promote our game but you are not worthy /shun