How to make WoW more Streamer Friendly

[corebit]

ASmongold does transmog and mount contests, viewer raids and world content and reads almost every comment in chat is very interactive and responsive to questions. He is also just a goofball and can Be funny to watch. However is whole project 60 crap is making me not watch soda and asmongold. I don't give a fuck. It seems like he only plays with other streamers now instead of 30 man viewer groups.

Lol, Asmongold's viewer raids are just a way for his alts to get carried and shamelessly ask for gear.
"Hey can I have that?"

[Achilles55]

ASmongold does transmog and mount contests, viewer raids and world content and reads almost every comment in chat is very interactive and responsive to questions. He is also just a goofball and can Be funny to watch. However is whole project 60 crap is making me not watch soda and asmongold. I don't give a fuck. It seems like he only plays with other streamers now instead of 30 man viewer groups.

100% this. I used to watch every day and was subbed for 2 months as my way to show support. After Blizzcon it seems like he's changed for the worse. The whole Project 60 thing has made me stop watching him completely.

[Shelly]

The problem isn't that WoW PvE needs to be more stream-friendly, but rather that streamers need to be better.

Your example of the M+ invitational is an example of this.

You need a streamer that can comment on exactly what they are doing as they are playing or for them to be YouTubeing - as in making pre-recorded videos - where they cut together multiple takes from every character and comment with each bit.

Which brings up the biggest thing that the M+ had, which would definitely help streaming and even just recording, the observer camera. If we could swap from player to player and had a 3rd party perspective on the whole thing it would be a game changer, but I get the feeling that particular tech is going to just stay in-house.

[Camthur]

A good bit of the content of WoW just doesn't have the potential for excitement. Many of the top streamed games have the potential for "OMG!" moments where crazy things can happen.

[tkioz]

Simple answer. Don't. So many of them are so incredibly fucking toxic its not worth it.

[Grevmak]

Mythic+ Invitational imo was already a lot more enjoyable to watch then Arenas, for me.

Competitive streams like that side by side are fun to watch.

It's a shame they don't have like official Rated Battlegrounds on tournaments and stick to Arena

Solo streamer clearing old raid/worldbosses for mounts and transmog isn't interesting when I can do the same in-game.

Agreed. I find Arena extremly boring to play AND watch. Hugging a pillar for 20+ minutes just is not enjoyable and not a strategic plan either. Just LoS and CC, play a Druid to add insult to injury and enjoy that pillar. Hope you'll marry it.

RGBs, M+s and Raid Speedruns need to be promoted far more by Blizz. There needs to be official modes, regional regular tournaments etc.

Smash 4 for all its...Weird decisions regarding competitive play had a really cool tournament-creation mode for online play. Bring that to WoW, host tournaments within that forumula and enjoy the sudden spike in people wanting to play competitively outside of Arena.

[Lochton]

It still blows my mind that streaming even exists. Who gives a shit what a complete stranger is doing in game.

Oh, it is worse, there is now a fashion of RL streaming. Follow some guy doing his job. Follow some guy doing the dishes. Follow some woman walking on the street. Follow some woman painting her toenails. Trust me, streaming is almost out of hand and people find anything to stream. Pretty sure with enough hype and planning, you could make a successful stream of a burning candle.

[Topornic]

It still blows my mind that streaming even exists. Who gives a shit what a complete stranger is doing in game.

I fully agree. Why the hell would you even want to look at random people playing instead of playing it yourself. And paying them money to play the game on stream.

[Mendzia]

It still blows my mind that streaming even exists. Who gives a shit what a complete stranger is doing in game.

Because shit tv programs/sitcoms are much more interesting...

Oh, it is worse, there is now a fashion of RL streaming. Follow some guy doing his job. Follow some guy doing the dishes. Follow some woman walking on the street. Follow some woman painting her toenails. Trust me, streaming is almost out of hand and people find anything to stream. Pretty sure with enough hype and planning, you could make a successful stream of a burning candle.

Yeah that is true. There are some much stranger streams than just gaming ones.
I've seen vids from some popular RL guy streaming his sleeping. People are literally giving him money to wake him up...

[Flurryfang]

So i arrived to the conclusion that streaming WoW PvE is not fun...plz feel free to disagree with me but for some reason WoW is a fun game to play but is not really fun to show off to people like other games.
I don't know if i am being unfair in my conclusion but for some reason is not fun (for me) to see someone Raiding or doing Myhtic+ Dungeons unless there is a capable commentator telling me what the hell is going on. (like The Mythic Dungeon Invitational, huge success)

Maybe it's because of it's nature of being scripted events. Also raids are a bit chaotic and you have no idea whats going on if no one explains you or comments what everyone is doing.

On the other hand PvP is really fun (for the people who enjoy this side of the game) and is also fun to watch Roleplay events and gatherings.

My question is, should Blizzard create content that is fun to Stream/Watch? Since raiding and mythic+ are not exactly fun without a commentator?

Suggestions:
I would see streams of Mage Tower types of gameplay. Skill based, mechanically intense, something that i can admire the skill involved and is not chaotic and hard to understand. Something endless, not like Mage Tower that is a one time deal.
In Battle for Azeroth we will have islands and Warfronts. We have little information on this but maybe it could be very interesting to stream?

Any suggestions?

Hmm i don't know if mage tower challenges are that entertaining either. Remember seeing something to learn to beat it is only fun undtil you beat it yourself and to be honest, seeing somebody kill a solo boss for the 32th time is not that fun.

But i do agree, that we need fun watchable content. I would personally say, that mini-games is the way to go. Stuff like the Thunder Kings Treasure run, the PvZ style game in Hillsbrad, the rolling on the Pandaria wall and a constant changing Mage Tower, where you rarely would meet the same boss. Maybe even some where the community could join in

It really comes down to that playing WoW is not a fun thing to see, not that there is anything wrong with that, because a game can still be amazing, just not be a spectator show. But if Blizzard wants a piece of the Twitch money, they will really have to create some form of gameplay, that is not only different from the normal grinding and have something where people are actually entertaining and experience suspence

- - - Updated - - -

ASmongold does transmog and mount contests, viewer raids and world content and reads almost every comment in chat is very interactive and responsive to questions. He is also just a goofball and can Be funny to watch. However is whole project 60 crap is making me not watch soda and asmongold. I don't give a fuck. It seems like he only plays with other streamers now instead of 30 man viewer groups.

The thing with Asmongold is that he is becoming a guy, who plays on his personality and his engagement. He could pretty much play any type of game and still rank in a good amount of views. Its like with Soda, people just like watching the guy and the game really comes 2nd.

And from the total views of other WoW stramers, it is quite clear that for a large audience, WoW is not something that lets you go search for streamers of that game. Like even Asmongold had to get his Youtube channel going before he could gather people for his twitch.

[klaps_05]

A good bit of the content of WoW just doesn't have the potential for excitement. Many of the top streamed games have the potential for "OMG!" moments where crazy things can happen.

This is why arenas used to be popular - throughout the years there was always some funny OP shit people were playing (block capped paladins, Arp warriors, African turtle cleaves, Fishing cleave, Frost bomb mages, boomkins in rbgs, etc.). This was VERY entertaining to watch as you always had numbers popping everywhere or ppl dropping like flies. If the streamer also had a great personality that just made the stream even better (e.g. Hoodrych/Freeze when they used to stream, Watchmeblink, Reckful, etc.).

Nowadays a lot of classes arent exactly exciting to play in PvE and PvP feels too sluggish as there are almost no dmg spikes.

[Lei]

It still blows my mind that streaming even exists. Who gives a shit what a complete stranger is doing in game.

This. Sooooo much this. For me watching a stream is only about info: when wow alpha rolls out, I watch streamers to familiarize myself with the new expac's theme, setting, environment, gameplay, and new features. Or when a new raid is in testing, to watch new boss fights. But to watch mythic+-es and pvp? Uhhhh. NO thanks.
Also I need to find a streamer who I actually like seeing and watching what they're doing, most of them are obnoxious and plain assholes.
Outside WoW I sometimes watch game playthroughs. These games are typically fun games but I don't see myself playing them, but I am interested in the story element (Life is strange for example)

[Deleted]

Bah you use the good ol' 2-steps way:

Step 1 : put a female streamer half naked, camming on her part time and forgetting to turn the cam off when she's with her boyfriend (I would advise a girlfriend for better results)

Step 2 : profit

Method has a whole bunch of attractive female streamers who stream under the Method flag but don't have anything to do with hardcore raiding (or WoW) - it's pretty smart move. Seems to work for them.

Streaming is just yet another variant of the "reality TV" trend with extremely simple and low-cost "content" which just hints at "something exciting" (like a flash of cleavage). It seems audiences keep watching this - and as a result why the hell even produce normal TV-content which costs huge amounts.

Nothing wrong trying to make a living out of that - so go Method streaming girls!

[Lei]

The thing with Asmongold is that he is becoming a guy, who plays on his personality and his engagement. He could pretty much play any type of game and still rank in a good amount of views. Its like with Soda, people just like watching the guy and the game really comes 2nd.

And from the total views of other WoW stramers, it is quite clear that for a large audience, WoW is not something that lets you go search for streamers of that game. Like even Asmongold had to get his Youtube channel going before he could gather people for his twitch.

Because on youtube you must provide some sort of quality content, which requires planning, a script, a footage, and then some editing work that takes hours. while on stream you can literally derp around for hours puking nonsense out of your mouth, without needing any of those prerequisites, and people (age treshold I would say between 12-24) still watch it "for the lulz" and "notice me senpai". So ofc people will first make a youtube channel, provide content, build their names, and then just fuck off to stream, followers will drool watching them playing. Then, eventually you can open a coffee shop and don't give a fuck about your viewers anymore and your previous streamer life. (dodger)

Look at Asmongold's latest videos on youtube. It's nonsense: "my view on strawberry pancakes". He is literally living off of his "name" now. Imagine these videos from some guy named "averagejoe8563". Noone would watch them.

[Flurryfang]

Because on youtube you must provide some sort of quality content, which requires planning, a script, a footage, and then some editing work that takes hours. while on stream you can literally derp around for hours puking nonsense out of your mouth, without needing any of those prerequisites, and people (age treshold I would say between 12-24) still watch it "for the lulz" and "notice me senpai". So ofc people will first make a youtube channel, provide content, build their names, and then just fuck off to stream, followers will drool watching them playing. Then, eventually you can open a coffee shop and don't give a fuck about your viewers anymore and your previous streamer life. (dodger)

Look at Asmongold's latest videos on youtube. It's nonsense: "my view on strawberry pancakes". He is literally living off of his "name" now. Imagine these videos from some guy named "averagejoe8563". Noone would watch them.

Well there is really no way of stopping that from happening. As soon as a cult of personality have been put up around a person, it is really all up to them if they want to do something good or something easy.... And to be honest, can you blame them for going for the easy money? As long as they are not abusing their playerbase (Syndicate and the entire lotto thing), people are "entertained" and occupied, which is what people are looking for.

[Nitros14]

I think WoW can be fun to watch with editing. But not streamed generally unless you're interested in doing the raid yourself.

I like making videos like this. The voice com communicates what's going on, the boss emotes are loud so the bosses are also telling you what's going on in their way. I think it's immersive.



Also I started adding in all the sound effects for important boss abilities, like here.

https://youtu.be/Rtf5qHpxTCI?t=3m57s

And here

https://youtu.be/8pOTGezPLEE?t=4m6s

[Hyrja]

I agree with most of you. Why the f would you watch some random guy/girl play WoW or games overall online?
Most of those viewers are also craving for attention from the streamers. That kinda describes what their audiences are.

[Kokolums]

Mythic+ Invitational imo was already a lot more enjoyable to watch then Arenas, for me.

Competitive streams like that side by side are fun to watch..

Ive been an advocate of m+ tournament style play in diablo 2 and later wow for like 20 years. I always said one of the major enhancements to battle.net would be picture in picture play so you can race other people/teams. It FINALLY happened in some form this year and im not surprised it was a great success. Its just sad it took this long for one of my ideas to get adopted lol.

- - - Updated - - -

Streaming is very similar to the old late-night public access shows from the 1950s-1960s. Back then, they had a transmitter and 24 hours to fill. So some stations were like “hey if anyone just wants to do a show from their basement for an hour at 1AM well broadcast it locally.” A few people got big in that and similar settings. In Cleveland Ohio, they had one guy named Ghoulardi who was basically like sodapoppin or asmongold. He dressed up a bit like a crazy beatnik and would do skits or just trash people for fun. He had a running gag where he would make fun of a suburb of Cleveland called Parma Ohio. He would say all the kids were Polish and wore tight shorts and long white socks all the way up over their kneecaps. Ghoulardi got really popular over time and this stereotype of Parma actually began to stick. It all came to a head one evening when the Parma high school varsity basketball team played a road game and kids in the stands just bombarded the court during the game with long white socks that were balled up. Thats when parents and teachers started to notice Ghoulardi and they actually got him banned from the airwaves for a while until it blew over. Ghoulardi eventually left Cleveland because stunts like that were taking their toll. He moved to Los Angeles and had a wildly successful career as a voiceover guy. He was like the top 2-3 voiceover people for decades. Almost everyone has heard his work.

Anyway, its interesting to see all of it play out again, just with streaming instead of public access TV

Here's an old clip of Ghoulardi:
https://youtu.be/34c4k23JNTk?t=424

OIne of his biggest memes was 'knif" and "stay sick". knif was backwards for fink. It was frowned upon to call someone a fink on TV so he reversed the letters.

Instead of reading and reacting to chat, he would read and react to fan mail as he opened it on air.

[Softbottom]

Oh, it is worse, there is now a fashion of RL streaming. Follow some guy doing his job. Follow some guy doing the dishes. Follow some woman walking on the street. Follow some woman painting her toenails. Trust me, streaming is almost out of hand and people find anything to stream. Pretty sure with enough hype and planning, you could make a successful stream of a burning candle.

lol that's so ridiculous.

[GreenJesus]

Lol, Asmongold's viewer raids are just a way for his alts to get carried and shamelessly ask for gear.
"Hey can I have that?"

It was still fun though. It got the steam involved and he joked around with people and it was fun to watch. Now he is all in on vanilla and that is all he talks about.