Viewers don't care about Classic, they care about their streamers

[valky94]

Do they really have an huge impact on people playing the game and not just people watching the game? I mean, some people like to watch a guy grind stuff for days without end or whatever but that doesn't mean those people will do the grind themselves. I watch DOTA2 from time to time, I haven't played it in years and I'm not planning on doing so. WCS is always nice to watch, but I'm not going to start SC2 any time soon. Watching Grubby playing WC3 is also entertaining, but I'm not going to install WC3 now. And so on.

i watch dota only for the tournaments, i never opened up a personal stream from someone like bulldog, singsing, gorgc etc.

[Tiwack]

Personality, jokes, discussion, interesting stories, attachment you may have for the streamer, the community experience (what little of it there is), them trying out crazy things you yourself would never consider, them being a better player than you and offering advice, not having the motivation to actually play but wanting to be entertained... the list goes on, mate.

Why do people come home and sit in front of a TV watching shows instead of doing things? Similar reasons.

Great if just relaxing for a bit of downtime but if not then why seek distractions and believe to be better off attempting to turn off the brain like it's possible in the first place. Use it or lose it. No motivation doesn't come out of nowhere, it comes from lacking meaningful relationships of your own, like friends who'd be able to provide you those things you speak of as well as opportunities to share of yourself towards goals - because you value yourself, your time and similarly others.

[The Stormbringer]

Great if just relaxing for a bit of downtime but if not then why seek distractions and believe to be better off attempting to turn off the brain like it's possible in the first place. Use it or lose it. No motivation doesn't come out of nowhere, it comes from lacking meaningful relationships of your own, like friends who'd be able to provide you those things you speak of as well as opportunities to share of yourself towards goals - because you value yourself, your time and similarly others.

Eh, some of us are introverts. Being around people all the time is draining to me, and I work around/with people for a living. I do value time with my friends and family, but even at large family gatherings I might disappear somewhere for half an hour to an hour just to 'recharge'.

[Tiwack]

Why are people so fixated on telling people that what they want isn't what they want and that they'll get bored of it?

Either it's sarcastic fun or they don't know what they want or derive pleasure from, they only know struggle and escaping responsibility.

[lonely zergling]

I would say viewers dont care about the streamer they just want to see Classic WoW gameplay. Since most didnt get a beta acces they have to endure toxic streamers.

[Tiwack]

Eh, some of us are introverts. Being around people all the time is draining to me, and I work around/with people for a living. I do value time with my friends and family, but even at large family gatherings I might disappear somewhere for half an hour to an hour just to 'recharge'.

That's both understandable and a sensible method of coping but be careful about boxing yourself in instead of trying to work to solve the problems that bother you/annoyances that distract you

[Lorianus]

I mean twitch chats from famous arena guys are already demanding arena streams again sometimes so i think there is a a little truth in this, cant blame the folks, watching venruki drink every 30 seconds is not exactly the epitome of fun stream watching.

[schwank05]

The 2 streamers you mentioned literally built up their following by playing WoW...

Why does this forum consist of people who are excited for classic, and then people who want to shit on classic every chance they get? Like cool, you dont like it... Dont play it...

It's like yall being lactose intollerant and walking into a creamery and screaming "MILK IS DOG SHIT! YOU DONT EVEN LIKE MILK PRODUCTS! HOT DOGS ARE WHERE IT'S AT BRO!"

Like, who cares? Move on. Classic is happening, either ignore it, or embrace it... but theres no need to just look for every opportunity to trash it for zero real reason.

Thank you, This is exactly how I view it. I see Classic as Blizzard finally answering all my tickets, and posts about how disenfranchised with Retail many of us are and that we want a return to the core game and it's core designs. Are there things from Retail that would be nice sure, Dual Spec or at least cheaper respecs comes to mind . But it is what most of us want a game that is challenging and fun with 1 raid difficulty so when you are finished you are finished. Dungeons that are intricate and long with many options on routes to take. Server identity that actually means something, Gear from lvl 40 that is next to BIS for most of the game. We just want what little time a log of us have to dedicate to this game now that many of us are grown and have families and other priorities, we want that time to matter and that we feel rewarded with earning a level or 2 a night or a piece of gear every couple of days.

[Maudib]

The only reason why Classic has gotten any viewership traction is because famous streamers like Asmongold and Sodapoppin are streaming the game. Without these famous streamers, there's hardly anyone actually watching streams of Classic WoW. The numbers are back to where they traditionally have been.

When these famous streamers go back to streaming something other than Classic, their personal viewership will go with them whilst WoW's plummets. So the interest doesn't lie with Classic WoW itself, but with the streamer personalities behind the screen. So any sort of overall interest for Classic WoW based on stream viewerships should be taken with a grain of salt, as these people are there to watch their favourite streamers, not Classic.

Keep telling yourself that. Perhaps if you say it enough you'll convince one person not to play it.

Look... Classic cannot harm BfA... it will be there for you whenever you want to grind island expeditions for azerite power. Classic is different and for different people.

Can you like both? Sure.

[Dergiab]

WoW is one of those games that is better played rather than watched. The only reason why so many people are watching right now is because they dont have access to the beta.

So you mean once people will be able to play, it will be hugely popular?

- - - Updated - - -

As for me watching, the most entertaining for me is watching retailers getting their ass handed to them. I usually scan for the spirit world on the thumbnail. There was a guy from Method who had died close to 50 times up to level 30.

[Cainium]

I only watched some streamers because they where streaming classic.

I've seen the epic battle between Venruki and Asmongold. Most of the time nothing happened, they have been regrouping and gathering players, but it was super exciting waiting for the final clash and see who would win (and hearing Asmongolds whining, of course).

What bothers me more is that whenever there is something positive about Classic to talk about these threads pop up. It's like naysayers, retailers and any other form of classic hater has to find made up points that speak against Classic despite it's success. Seriously... what's the point? Panic that retail maybe influenced by Classic if it will be a success? Trolling? Inability to grant others something they like...?

I think the worlds will turn around as soon as Classic releases. Retail will be fore the hardcore, Classic will be for the casual. 'Cause in Retail, only the hardcore achievements is what matters and remain after the next patch. In Classic, no matter if one plays half an hour a day, or 10 hours a day, it stays. Forever (well, at least as long as the servers are up).

[MasterHamster]

IIRC, Asmongold said one reason he stopped streaming BFA was because other than his transmog/mount contests, people didn't want to watch him play BFA. I'm not sure if he said that made his viewership lower than usual or that it poisoned the overall mood in the chat (which is course is crap regardless, but let's entertain the idea of a shit-scale)
If you wish to rationalize that people don't want to watch classic, but just the streamer/personality, I suppose the next step is to rationalize why people aren't shunning the wow classic streams in the same way they shun BFA?

WoW is rarely a fun game to watch in by itself, obviously if you streamed yourself silently grinding mobs just to level up will leave and watch something else. And yet people are more inclined to watch someone leveling up an alt while doing all the other stuff that you did when leveling in classic, you know, leveling up profs, looking forward to upgrades in their inventory, item management, finding treasures filled with stuff you actually wanted/needed, getting killed by some random rare elite... because WoW Classic feels like an RPG and that spills over to when watching it as well. No one gives a shit about someone soloing WQs in 30 seconds, obliterating everything in their path in BFA world content, because the "gameplay" is limited to flashy attacks as everything dies before barely doing any damage to the player. There's no proper gameplay to watch.

Obviously this is all simplified, but let's not pretend that Classic and BFA are equally entertaining to watch on Twitch. I understand plenty of people want Classic to do poorly. It's a matter of some sort of pride deep down, and people who do that knows it. Maybe they've repeated "It's just nostalgia" for the last 5 years here and there on the forums and now it's cognitive dissonance in trying to explain why 100k people would watch Asmongold run Deadmines.

No, I can't pretend to know how many of those 100k want to play by themselves, how many will remain "loyal" classic players for years to come, but the fact of the matter is that WoW Classic fills a niche that the market has failed to fill in a long time, for a lot of players. An old-school, easy to get into MMORPG that feels rewarding every step of the way. I swear getting to level 20 on a private server felt 10x more rewarding and satisfying than hitting 120 on my first BFA "main". The only thing that happens when you hit maxlevel in a new WoW expansion is that you have about 2-3 afternoons of impossible-to-lose, faceroll-content until you're ready for the latest raid.

[MoanaLisa]

Closing this as being more about streamers specifically than the game.