The Cheerful Ghost Roundtable films next week and the topic will be "The Rise of Video Game Streaming." While we film the episode, Will Lewis from PIGSquad will be live streaming the episode on his Twitch.tv channel as we live stream the episode on Google Hangout.
That said, I had the idea to start a new thread a week before the show to start the discussion. What do you think of video game Streaming, Twitch.tv and Let's Plays? What do you think about the news that Google just bought Twitch.tv for a billion dollars? What kinds of game streaming do you watch?
I want to take everyones comments to possibly use as a springboard for the roundtable. Fear not, if we use something you said we will credit you by name! (YAY)
That said, I had the idea to start a new thread a week before the show to start the discussion. What do you think of video game Streaming, Twitch.tv and Let's Plays? What do you think about the news that Google just bought Twitch.tv for a billion dollars? What kinds of game streaming do you watch?
I want to take everyones comments to possibly use as a springboard for the roundtable. Fear not, if we use something you said we will credit you by name! (YAY)
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I have no interest in just watching people play. There seems to be this big industry these days where you can watch someone play any game on the planet live. If there's a hook to it, like speedrunning Mario 64 or something awesome like Twitch Plays Pokemon, I love it. But I really don't care that you're streaming Diablo 3, I'm playing it over here, which is way more fun that watching you, no matter how awesome you are at it.
I really enjoyed watching the recent DOTA 2 International. I had a co-worker over and we both watched a bit of the League of Legends tournament that was fun. I had little understanding of what was happening, but it was a fun experience.
That's definitely one of those awesome moments. A tournament, especially a major one, is cause to watch. I watched the Starcraft tournaments on ESPN 3 back in the day and loved it.
Sometimes I'll watch if it's a game I haven't played before, to see what it's about. Tournaments are fun, especially the League of Legend games, since I know a bit more about the game and the scene. There are also times when I'll have a stream - someone that I'm following just because I like...whatever: their perspective, communication, etc - playing in the background as I draw or design. I've always liked having music, or some environmental noise, on while I work.
There are games that I can't watch because it's annoying not being able to grab the controls. It can also be annoying watching someone play a game that you've already "mastered", but then with Twitch, you can actually chime in and say "Hey, look behind that building" or "Just do this instead of what you're doing, it's easier." Streamers will sometimes poll the chat for what to do, or what to play next. I don't know. I find the whole thing pretty fascinating.