What's the deal with live streaming?

[chazus]

Almost every other computer people are building these days, one of their desires is to do live streaming.

My question is... what's the big draw in that?

Mind you, I personally dislike facebook, twitter, and social networking in general, and I have no desire to tell the world about every little inane thing I think and do. So maybe that's why I don't get it. I just don't see why someone would want to spend an extra $100-$300 just to livestream them playing WoW (or whatever other games).

I get why actual professionals do it. They get paid. But for 99% of the rest of the world, it seems silly to me. I'm not saying it's wrong, or stupid, I simply don't understand why.

[icedwarrior]

Well, I don't livestream myself, but I've watched a couple of friends stream random stuff. I like it so I can actually see their reactions and such. It's just a thing I like to do with friends.

That said, I have little to no desire to livestream anything with people I don't know, but that's just me.

[Deleted]

Guess most people just want to get famous and earn money by playing games as most seems to think its just fun and games doing it.

[Theiea]

Some people just enjoy it, and interacting with people while they play a game they love. Not everyone is in it for the money, its a hobby to many.

[chazus]

I guess I just don't get it, then. Personally, I don't really enjoy watching other people play WoW, and the only time I've ever done it is to watch some boss strat on tankspot. I watch Tobuscus, LAGTV (SC2 games), and occasional minecraft stuff.. But those are all people who are actually amusing and doing it specifically for views. I'm pretty sure if I streamed me doing dailies, it would be the more boring crap in the world.

[Reyzzz]

I'm with you on this, I never wanted to stream and likely won't ever do it.

Also, why do the people who stream put their facecams on them?

[Deleted]

It's like making youtube videos, a massive amount of people do it because they find it fun, even if the majority of those videos will not be popular. I used to make raiding videos that literally - only 10 people in my guild watched and I found it really fun to make those vids just for our raiding team. Likewise I think a lot of people are happy streaming for a small number of friends and family and don't "need" to have thousands of people watching them. I don't stream WoW but I've streamed PoE and a few other games, never had more than 20 people watching me but those 20 people have been chatting in the chat room and asking me questions and I found it a lot of fun.. likewise I watch other streams and ask people questions about their builds or just get to see some part of a game or class I don't usually see.

[Uennie]

A lot of people do art events with livestreaming. People will suggest things for them to draw and get free art out of it. People also do live art tutorials so that people can ask in-depth questions that the person making the tutorial might not remember to mention (where did you get that brush you're using, for example).

But that's all I can think of that would be relevant to me, but I'm sure there are lots of other things people do.

[Snaige]

I actually enjoy watching random people stream not just pros that is. Even more fun if the person in question actually talks about something and has a cam, instead of just game view+some poo music...

[chazus]

I get streaming stuff like art, where you are actually interacting with people. But simply playing games seems.. Odd. Again, I think it's just that I'm of a separate social culture. It's the same reason people tweet and like and all that other stuff that I find entirely... I dunno. Pretentious?

[Deleted]

For 99% of the people that get partnered, they actually do it as a hobby and they genuinely started it as a hobby. There's obviously the exception of some people that have just gotten into it for the money that have been partnered and their channels reflect that (countless ad's played etc etc).

The majority of people trying to get into streaming now are mostly trying to get into it because of the money. They all think it's a quick and easy way to earn money when in reality, live streaming is actually very easy. Anyone can sit there, play a game with a webcam on and occasionally talk to any viewers (if any). It takes a lot of hard work to be genuinely entertaining, gain an audience and grow as a streamer... Unless of course you're female... you can be absolutely terrible at every game but if you wear a low cut top, you'll get viewers.

[Faesroll]

Only stream I occasionally watch is Krip, rest of them are just luring viewers with lame giveaways.

[Xs]

A lot of people I've had ask me for it just seem to get it because they can

Personally I got a PC that was capable of re-streaming vods so that I could do that if needed for worky stuff, unfortunately the internet is still at least several months off of 720p video lol

[Deleted]

Well, why not? If someone finds whatever you stream interesting to watch, I'd feel pretty... happy, I guess?

[Deleted]

Riggnaros is always entertaining. Schools some mage at the start of this video recorded last night.

http://www.twitch.tv/riggnarosbl/b/370684949

[alucardtnuoc]

Riggnaros is always entertaining. Schools some mage at the start of this video recorded last night.

http://www.twitch.tv/riggnarosbl/b/370684949

Sorry to say, rig is wrong about AB blast slow being applied to the boss. Bosses are immune to the slow, so you can use AB to slow the add still. He is right about if it's on one target already, AB won't apply the slow to another, but protectors are immune to it.

[Deleted]

No wonder some people wants to go into streaming when you hear about donations such as Sodapoppin getting a 43k dollar donation. The thing is though, no one wants to watch you stream while you level, do LFR, normal mode raiding, or battlegrounds, unless you are already famous, a female, or very entertaining.

[BloodGutter]

Everyone wants to be the next <insert famous streamer here>

Which is fine, but so many of the new streamers don't have a grasp on why the famous people are famous. All these new streamers are just silent, socially awkward people with no personality on cam, and throw on some generic streaming music to make up for that.

Have a personality, engage your audience, make people think of you as someone different and unique and not just a face on a channel.

If you're just doing it for fun then this doesnt apply but I see so many people who see it as a way to make easy money but are completely clueless.

[Deleted]

I think it's the same with YouTube. A lot of people have seen YouTubers become 'rich' and in some cases famous.

It's both good and bad in my opinion. It floods YouTube with content for the sake of making content... I suppose in some ways that's not always bad because a gem will shine through the rest of the shit, but yeah.

Also quite noticeable now at conventions that anyone with a YouTube account and a camera thinks they're the media

[Deleted]

Personally, I stream for the sole purpose of improvement. Since I'm the only one in the team with a powerful pc and a good connection, the guild leader approached me to stream for my rbg team so we can adjust our play style, improve, see what tactics to apply and so on.
Streaming has the advantage over conventional methods ( like fraps ) that is more resource light, faster ( it automatically uploads ), and realistic.
It's also a trend now for top guilds in both pvp and pve to have at least 2-3 constant streamers. If you are, lets say', doing rbgs in one night with your team and live stream it, off-players or the reserves can give indications in real time....which, at least in our case, were god sent at times.