Has Blizzard placed too much emphasis on streamers?

[Fenderxx]

@Kyanion I don't think Blizzard or any of the streamers on that list would view it that way. Blizzard most likely is simply saying thank you for being a member of our community and providing them some Beta Keys to give to their fans. I don't think any of them feel "Chosen" and I am sure they all put a lot of hard work into their channels. I personally don't follow anyone on the list, so this is just my opinion from the outside. Blizzard has also given other outlets Beta Keys.. like MMO Champion, WoWhead, Icy-Veins.. and I think these sites and streamers are thankful that they can give something cool to their fans/viewers. Now that I think of it.. it is a little odd that people have an issue with streamers, but not with other WoW related sites doing beta key giveaways ... I am not sure why that is.. (not being sarcastic, honestly curious)

[MoanaLisa]

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.

It all started with Celestalon's tweet regarding the feedback process above, where he essentially says that streamers will act in their self-interest (maximising viewership) rather than the interest of Blizzard (maximising quality feedback). This was onlt after their strategy of almost exclusively inviting streamers into the Alpha. This may have impaired the feedback process, which frustrates not only the players, but Blizzard.

As to the point of "almost exclusively inviting streamers into the Alpha" this is false. There were many people participating in the alpha that were not streamers. Streamers of course were more visible because they were streaming.. But there were many more than just a few dozen streamers participating in the alpha.

Hype can be a great marketing tool, but can also be a double edged sword. Some of the streamers overhyped (intentionally or unintentionally) the contents of their recent exclusive interviews with Blizzard. These interviews were gated behind watching the streamers which only increased the frustration of the community when there was little substance in the interviews.

This sounds as if everyone was frustrated with the substance of the interviews. We gave this a lot of coverage and overall there was a great deal of stuff confirmed and discussed. There was some discussion that there were not huge major announcements but a lot of the chatter about the interviews and information was constructive. Exactly how frustrating it was for everyone is entirely subjective.

There is already much frustration about the event, and it has only just been announced. And rightfully so; the number of hoops that need to be jumped over to qualify is far too disproportionate to the payoff.

Whether or not getting out into the game, finding a specific type of demon and taking a selfie, is not worth the effort is subjective. Some won't bother; some will. The OP's opinion is not a fact for everyone.

So, as I said, every point presented as a fact is either not quite true or subjective. And it ignores the many, many sites like ours, WowHead and others that have been giving away beta keys in contests.

[SteveRocks]

I personally find watching game streamers to be the lowest, saddest form of loneliness.

[glowpipe]

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.

Well i was kind putting things a little on edge here

[shimerra]

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.

To be fair I can't remember a thread or a topic where you don't blame blizzard for Hitler, global warming, that dish you dropped that one time, your pet dieing, and the creation of the aids virus. You really do give off the impression that you think Mike Morhime and all the WoW devs are masturbating to pictures of you crying while they eat endangered animals plotting new and exciting ways to rape their customer base instead of designing the game the way you want them to. And that anything short of agreeing 100% with your position makes the person a blizzard shill who might as well be paid to advertise for them.


Not sure how that's supposed to be better. It rained today and I forgot my coat? Dammit blizzard!

[MoanaLisa]

To be fair I can't remember a thread or a topic where you don't blame blizzard for Hitler, global warming, that dish you dropped that one time, your pet dieing, and the creation of the aids virus. You really do give off the impression that you think Mike Morhime and all the WoW devs are masturbating to pictures of you crying while they eat endangered animals plotting new and exciting ways to rape their customer base instead of designing the game the way you want them to. And that anything short of agreeing 100% with your position makes the person a blizzard shill who might as well be paid to advertise for them.


Not sure how that's supposed to be better. It rained today and I forgot my coat? Dammit blizzard!

To be clear moderation on this site is a volunteer effort. We aren't paid anything. That said, all of this is well off-topic and derailing so let's just drop it. Further posts of this nature will either be reported or receive an infraction. Time to move on.

[Reapocalypse]

Personally, i dont have a problem with Blizzard promoting popular Community Members, but not everyone watches their Streams, "forcing" everyone who wants a Key at this point to watch one of them is really not something that good, i would have preferred if they did something in General (Kill X demons/Kill Illidan etc.) or at least offer a alternative Event for those who dont like these Streamers or who want to double their chances.

[FelPlague]

pvp people are more veiwed and known then pve people, even though they are both good players

more people will watch swifty because the way he pvps its small groups, 1-3 people

where pvers there is 19 other people in the group meaning

"aww man did you see swifty kill in a 3v1!"

and

"aww man did you see method kill archimonde!" no one says "aww did you see X player kill archimonde" because its a team effort, so alot more people know of method then they do swifty, but each person is method has alot less fans then swifty, as all the people watching swifty are there to watch swifty, when all the people there to watch method, are each there to watch etiehr a specific person, or the group all together

[Avaddon]

chances of finding all mounts before legion is higher then actually getting a beta key

Yeah no that's not true. Your chances of getting all the mounts before legion is much smaller than getting a beta key from a website contest.

[Crimewave]

Yeah, I think that Blizzard went overboard with streamers.
Lets be honest, WoW isn't really popular on twitch. PvE is boring to watch, PvP is completely dead. Streaming casual stuff, are you kidding me?
Also, who is the face of WoW streaming, giveaway bot Swifty or manchild Soda?
Blizzard has made huge mistake by allowing huge audience to see alpha\beta. And key distribution through streamers is pure cancer.

[Rehok]

Has Blizzard placed too much emphasis on streamers? What does Blizzard intend to gain from this strategy in the long term? Increased frustration is only going to make the situation worse, not better. And will only further divide the community.

Yep, They give streamers these beta keys and means that people need to watch them or will watch them even if they aren't their favorite streamer for a chance at a beta key. I personally don't mind as i mainly watch towelliee and slootbag regardless if theres an event for something. But take the recent one for Example with twitter, Not everyone uses twitter and it opens up for people to start making multiple accounts (if the website they used can detect duplicate entries) to try and win.

[Arbs]

No people are just out of touch about Marketing tactics & that it is free marketing for a company plus provides exposure for the Streamer / Youtuber. Honestly those who complain about Internet personalities are the type of people who need to either learn to understand, accept it or move on to other things.

The way the forums reacted not only shows Blizzard isn't the only one out of touch, the playerbase itself are more out of touch than Blizz is. The amount of salt, people put out that they can't get a beta key cause they say they have played since Vanilla is just pure entitlement. They expect Blizzard to just hand them one.

If you really wanted a key you could prbly easily got one like anyone else has. Now the event could of been way better than just take a photo & upload to Twitter.

[Bisque]

Probably but its free publicity for Blizzard so I can't blame them for going the streamer route.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Streamers just took the place of 3rd party media outlets that rarely cared or promoted the game beyond the spot it was given. Steamers are pretty much a free and much more dedicated / knowledgable outlet. Not to say they are perfect or anything. Most of them are insanely selfish assholes that put on a face to earn money. But a lot of this comes from streamers being individuals. Which also means not all of them are bad. In fact most of their mistakes are just ignorance and most of them learn from said mistakes pretty quickly. Money does that.

[In Ogres We Trust]

There is no doubt that streamers have a role in the community, but has Blizzard placed far too much emphasis on streamers as of late? It has come to the point where it feels like there is a growing divide between the streamers and the rest of the community, and Blizzard's actions are a direct result of this.

1. Streamers and the feedback process
https://twitter.com/Celestalon/statu...58978651422721
It all started with Celestalon's tweet regarding the feedback process above, where he essentially says that streamers will act in their self-interest (maximising viewership) rather than the interest of Blizzard (maximising quality feedback). This was onlt after their strategy of almost exclusively inviting streamers into the Alpha. This may have impaired the feedback process, which frustrates not only the players, but Blizzard.

2. Interviews
Hype can be a great marketing tool, but can also be a double edged sword. Some of the streamers overhyped (intentionally or unintentionally) the contents of their recent exclusive interviews with Blizzard. These interviews were gated behind watching the streamers which only increased the frustration of the community when there was little substance in the interviews.

3. Beta Keys
Streamers are given an even larger role in the distribution of beta keys, and the latest beta key event places streamers on a pedastal:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/201...-beta-7-6-2016
There is already much frustration about the event, and it has only just been announced. And rightfully so; the number of hoops that need to be jumped over to qualify is far too disproportionate to the payoff.

Has Blizzard placed too much emphasis on streamers? What does Blizzard intend to gain from this strategy in the long term? Increased frustration is only going to make the situation worse, not better. And will only further divide the community.

No, it's free marketing for their games.

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It's odd to me because the streamers are just regular guys, but Blizzard, and some players, treat them with celebrity like status. Good for the streamers if it is bringing in income and helping them support themselves and family, but I find the culture of streamer following, using them as a marketing tool, and people viewing them as important to be peculiar.

I enjoy Bahjeera's streams with Jen. They're a cute couple, and in addition to seeing them document their life, it's nice to see them pwn people in the BGs

[Puzzony]

It's okay though since he can just laugh his way to the bank.

He made fun of poor people living on welfare, after he grew up being the same poor fuck living on welfare, how can someone be a spineless fuck like him?
Disgusting shithead..

[Jademist]

Honestly, I don't care. I don't know why you should care either. The community made streamers a big thing, not Blizzard. If we, as a community, stopped watching streamers, then you wouldn't have this so-called "problem".

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When it comes the Beta Keys, I think it's a good thing to hand them out to popular streamers. They help promote the expansion and people will tune-in to watch because not everyone will obtain the keys. People like to see the new stuff/changes and this is a way to do that if you don't currently have access yourself.

So, it's not really a bad thing, espeically when quite a few of the popular streamers bring in thousands of viewers.

This. This is the right way to view this. Of course, people get salty.

[Irian]

Absolutely. I think they're trying to make WoW streaming happen and frankly it's never going to happen.

WoW is not a game that will ever be interesting to watch on a stream, period. The format is not compatible. I have the suspicion that many of their more controversial or just downright odd game changes are thanks to their attempt to appeal to a streaming audience (max camera distance, action cam) but eventually the results will show no difference other than maybe a minor spike at expansion release. MMORPGs are not enjoyable to watch, they are not games that are designed to appeal to spectators.

[PrairieChicken]

Streamers are overrated, majority of players give 0 about them, they are nowhere as imporatant as people say

[deathgrinder]

I don't understand how ANYONE has an interest in streamers who play wow period. Who the hell wants to watch someone play a game that I CAN PLAY MYSELF?! That is fun? All they do is say retarded shit and over react to everything to try to seem exciting or interesting.