Twitch should ban sponsored streaming and drops.
" Mercenaries master craft service Mercenaries My IGN TreeOfDead
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2037371 Vouch Mercenaries veiled crafting all service all crafts mods Mercenaries SC master craft service Mercenaries SC craft mod! Veiled crafting Service Settlers craft PM: TreeOfDead |
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" It was a pretty shitty pun. Meanwhile I got badged for trying Kpoptart so yknow...tread lightly, Exiles. --- Also, yeah. I'm totally Old Man Yelling At The Cloud here. Don't care. Fuck twitch. It's exploitative and malignant on almost every level. It makes trad reality TV look like fine art and that should be impossible. The idolisation of streamers is a serious fucking indictment of how incredibly stupid we've been as a species blessed with the means to do pretty much anything. It is not the only such indication that we are unprecedented squanderers but I'll let you know when that lets Twitch off the hook. A grim day that would be. Games are meant to be interactive. That is what sets them apart from more passive entertainment. I make no excuses for my love of passive entertainment -- I'm currently watching (at least) one 'new' movie a day to see if I can hit 365, a tailor-made resolution. I watch waaaay too much premium TV. I read a lot. But in all these the medium pushes itself because it has to. It engages the imagination and at its best gives us something that wouldn't work as well in any other medium. Games however don't need to excel on a passive level -- they just have to feel good to play. That is it. Everything else is extra. Appreciated extra but extra. What Twitch has done is turned gaming into a performance. Ignoring the role of streamers here for a moment, this primarily forces a game to be more than just good to play -- it has to LOOK good to play. There is a potential benefit here in that at its best, Twitch provides a sort of hyper-focused review method that completely blows any other trad media out of the water. So games that NEED ten or fifteen hours just to get out of neutral are more likely to get that attention beyond a column in EGM. But. You are also now at the mercy of reviewers who aren't actually reviewing but are instead using the games as trampolines. And it's a very, very big trampoline park. Well and good, keeps it diverse. But what happens when the people making entertainment media notice these de facto reviewers have real clout? They buy them. Now in trad media reviewers are accused of bias all the time, of being in a studio's pocket, but at least they strive towards some modicum of honesty in their views. Streamers are much more visible than trad media reviewers and so must at least seem much more earnest and not "beholden to The Man". And I think for a while this was true. When I watch a sponsored stream (usually for an upcoming game I'm interested in which few others are) I am amazed at how little effort said streamer needs to put in to make it look good to play. The publisher isn't paying them to 'sell' the game because they think the streamer merely playing it will sell it. They are very likely right. So for two hours the streamer is 'on the clock'. Usually you can't hear the game so that's one crucial aspect of its aesthetics wasted. The last one I took a glance at the streamer was utterly bored and chatting about other games. He did not make that game look good at all. It's like getting a celebrity endorsement and then that celebrity not bothering with the script. Not even pretending to care. And you might say, but that's so good! We don't want fake, paid endorsements. But you kind of do because you know them when you see them and react accordingly. See aforementioned Raid. In contrast, you have streamers 'endorsing' products just by casually engaging with them or, even if they are into it, misrepresenting the experience as it will be upon release. Unlike fake as hell endorsements, these can be harder to spot as misleading. There is a LOT to dissect here. But for the purpose of supporting my argument I'll pick just one angle. What happens when the sponsored stream is so crucial an advertisement that the developer puts in more effort to making that small portion of the game look good to play over the game itself? Closer to home, none of you are naive enough to think that a high priority stream of PoE is going to represent actual gameplay experience. And you might say, okay, but other media do this. Upcoming book extracts are usually highlights; trailers are infamously flashy. True, but in both cases you can expect the preview to contain genuine content from the finished product. Some changes might be made but overall it's pretty WYSIWYG. But a sponsored stream? Not so much. What you see is what the developers want you to get. Not the same thing. But since it's a trusted streamer they're keeping it real, right? Sure they have to announce it's a sponsored stream but is that in the viewers' mind the whole time? Maybe not. It is absolutely in the game makers' though. The community 'engagement' maintains a veneer of democratisation but there is no real engagement beyond the community. The game might as well be a tv on in the background. Something to watch while playing PoE, perhaps. See? My "Fuck Twitch" is a lot more than merely character attacking the undeserved fame of top tier streamers or pointing out that it's sometimes borderline porn because of course it is. The level of compromise is to me staggering. An active medium reduced to passive with an inferior active supplement. And here is where the sportsball fans have the actual higher ground. Do you think if they could play their favourite sport to watch and really enjoy it that they'd be just as happy to sit and watch it for hours? Some, maybe. But I think they watch primarily because they can't play without making a lot of effort and putting in a lot of resources. Meanwhile you probably now have "gamers" who put more into donating to streamers than into games themselves and tell me that's not fucked up. We gamers don't have to train or stretch or put together a team or find a venue to do what we love. It's all right there. Easy as. Sure you won't be playing at peak level but neither is your local soccer club or a group of friends shooting hoops. Hell, thanks to Covid we are even MORE well positioned to enjoy our interest than those who typically have to actually gather in person to enjoy theirs. Which leaves me wondering if there isn't some relationship between the introverted origins of gaming and the extroverted narure of engaging with a community. That weird mix of showing off and voyeurism unique to chat rooms. Eh, to be explored another time perhaps. Twitch might support the current gaming industry but it is a crutch, not a foundation. And if it is a crutch...something must be broken. --- Amusingly when I googled "fuck twitch" to see what popped, I got Gordon Ramsay. Of course he, unlike me, will be on board with it because it's already making him a lot of money whether he knew it or not. Willing to bet if you eliminated those making the money and those being exploited for it, you wouldn't have many defenders of Twitch left. If I like a game, it'll either be amazing later or awful forever. There's no in-between. I am Path of Exile's biggest whale. Period. Last edited by Foreverhappychan#4626 on Jan 8, 2022, 5:38:09 AM
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Never Twitched. Probably never will. I'm fine with that. Let other people do what they will though.
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I only "Twitch" for those free MTX - I mute the stream and have it minimized in the background whilst playing the game myself.
If there were no freebies I wouldn't bother with Twitch. I also agree with Foreverhappychan's summation. 😹😹😹😹😹
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" I like your opinion and you have convinced me. I have not yet developed a taste for twitch and I think it will never happen. I only watch youtube to see If I will like the gameplay of a certain game before I'll buy and download it and for some game tutorials. |
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" His opinion is an exaggerated overstatement where he generalizes based on a small group of big streamers. Most communities on Twitch are not like that and we're just having fun. It really is a social network in more than one way The opposite of knowledge is not illiteracy, but the illusion of knowledge.
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wow I gotta say Foreverhappychan nailed it. I know is not 100% like this per say and as the above poster said its kinda of over exagerated notion but fact is a fact. The predatory cycle twitch (and others) do and abusing labor of thousands just for a few to get rich is immoral.
Well at least is fun seeing that we have A LOT of people with well errr strange taste or hobbys like smelling crapped cloths or drinking bathwater. I thought I was weird for liking games too much so is good to see there is worst out there. BTW my asmr is for sure exalted filter sound drop hehe Last edited by IHellBoundI#4693 on Jan 8, 2022, 12:40:04 PM
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ok Karens
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" Eh I wouldn't take my word for it. But I'm glad you have at least inclined yourself towards thinking about how easily these platforms can be desecrated by greed and exploitation. I am, also contrary to this, a huge fan of well made gameplay videos. I can sit and watch 20 minutes of a content creator tackling a game in a way I never would -- but it has to be 20 minutes of full engagement with the game. No stupid pauses to check the chat or thank a new sub or clearly frazzled rambling. Give me a well scripted and edited gameplay video anyday. Make me believe you're not just doing this for the peanut gallery and the paycheque. The examples are endless but my latest little obsession has been a series of in-character reviews of each ship in Elite Dangerous by a now retired content creator called The Pilot. He was basically Top Gear in space and I think I watched 30 or so reviews in a row. Thats like 6 hours. Glorious stuff. And I have no idea what the guy looks like. But his voice...oh man. And if some of this content is made by streamers, well, good for them. Nice little break from having to make gaming as a job for a simply unhealthy amount of time somehow seem fun. Most of them suck at it anyway -- that dead eye zombie look long term streamers get? I have no idea how anyone could see that and think, oh yes, that's exactly how I want this game to make me feel. And I imagine most people don't think that. They think jeeze, this fucker must be making a mint to do something this boring anyway whats the chat about now? If I like a game, it'll either be amazing later or awful forever. There's no in-between.
I am Path of Exile's biggest whale. Period. |
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As for using Twitch as a social media platform, DID YOU KNOW there is a social media platform that was made by gamers to coordinate with other gamers, specially Final Fantasy XIV and League of Legends? And unlike Twitch, Discord isn't owned by a reprehensible megacorp, at least not yet.
So if you use Twitch that way, good for you. I'd argue that's closer to the original intention than whatever the unholy fuck it is now. But know that when I say "fuck twitch" it is with the clear understanding that whatever good it may be used for, there are other, less morally bankrupt options for most if not all of them. Took me a while to warm to Discord, since it was originally just a suped up Teamspeak but now I really dig its mix of IRC, skype and messenger. Unlike Twitch, it has a flexibility that isn't locked into the demands of video presentation. And that's good. There's a reason why gamers are historically disinclined to commodify themselves. And it's not as if standards have somehow improved since then. We were absorbed, twitchy little weirdos functioning on a different plane then, and we are just the same now. I don't want or need to see that. Show me the damn game and say something meaningful about it or fuck off. If I like a game, it'll either be amazing later or awful forever. There's no in-between.
I am Path of Exile's biggest whale. Period. |
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