Hosting other Shroud Streamers after Friday Streams

I've got to ask why this can't be done or keeps getting missed. There are streamers who are asking to be hosted after the Friday stream ends. Let me rephrase that; there are players of this game, who are streaming (advertising) this game, asking you to help them, help you.

It's such a trivial/easy thing to do here. Most of the streamers, outside a Markee Dragon, have between 5 and 20 viewers. Hosting them on a Friday night with over 300+ viewers from your channel does so much:

1) It says Thank You for playing the game and we see/recognize you
2) It helps them with their stats and builds their audience (which means more people watching your game played)
3) It shows all the other people that care about all aspects of the community.

But when you don't... even after you said you would... and don't see the people in Twitch Chat asking for it... it comes across poorly. I know everyone there is busy and covering all kinds of different roles. Have you thought about engaging one or two of us in the community as Mods? We can help you work this. I'm not sure who is covering the Community Managing role these days but this fall right inline with those kind of duties.

~~E

 

I very much agree.

At the moment, this is very much a community supported game. Such an easy opportunity to reciprocate should not be missed.

 

Yeah!

You should Auto Host NBNN 24/7 Shroud of the Avatar News when your all off line

Laz

 

I dont stream often any more because I used to stream 15+ hours and few people would talk to me, and it just felt a great weight on me with no purpose.. I then got hassled by someone who kept telling me "well if you were streaming now you'd have like 150 viewers" yeah and Id check twitch and there'd be like 9 people watching a sota stream in total.. so clearly numbers were made up, but, I always host people for those who bother to still follow me in case I pop on, but its sad Sota doesnt do the same.. It would be good for them to share out or even invite people to stream after so they could get some publicity..

 

Yeah it’s tough with little viewership. I’m doing okay right now and averaging about 10 peeps per stream. But here is what is going to happen (pay attention here Port): a game like Crowfall or something is going to hit and I’m going to find a lot of viewers there and then there goes Shroud. Portalarium has to get this program/support with the streamers going.

 

Funny you should say that.

It seems that all the streamers that I have seen come and go all have one thing in common.

They only care about how many viewers they have and what's in it for them. And once a game is not getting them viewers they move on to another game.

The "Markee Dragon School Of Streaming" I call it.
(no offence meant to said Mr. Dragon. It works if you work it. And it IS WORK. It's not fun and games)

Find a game.. make loads of help videos and post them and move on.
No one in the streaming community seems to have any LOYALTY to The GAME!

Hence why I don't support Portalaruim supporting streamers in general.

STREAMERS SHOULD BE SUPPORTING THE GAME THEY PLAY. That's my opinion.

Portalarium Rewarding Loyalty... That I can support.

But every time the streamer thing has come up... I Have And Did try and help support it only to see what i describe above happen over and over and over.

I / We were told other streamers would eat us up when it came to Shroud.

I / We were told there would be LOADS of competition for viewership.

Well in the end. @Jack SinAssist and I have seen them come and seen them go. Why ... because they want VIEWERS. They want The $$$ ..
Streamers don't seem to care about the games they play.

Well when it comes down to it... I don't have a NEED for tons and tons of viewers.
What I do want is people to APPRECIATE what I'm streaming because they want to see what I'm doing.
Not because i'm streaming the latest greatest game this week.

So I'll ask this of any and all the streamers out there who wish for some "Support"

What have you done this week to help promote and bring in more viewers to YOUR STREAMS while streaming SOTA?

Are you promoting yourself? Telling folks in and out of game what your doing? Social Media? Advertising via other means?

Are you posting a regular schedule and STICKING TO IT? (that's a big peeve for viewers)

Or are you just sitting there streaming the game and hoping that folks will come because they heard somewhere about the game? Hope that the game your playing will "bring them in"
Or that you might by some mere chance find hundreds of people who will stumble on your stream and become big fans?
Or that maybe Port will pick your stream and dump hundreds of viewers on your streams because you stream their game?

Or do YOU WORK FOR IT? (see comments above about work because it's work people)

My partner @Jack SinAssist and I spent our first 6 months streaming to NOBODY. ZERO viewers day in and day out.

WE were told we should QUIT because all the other streamers would eat us alive. Where are they all now? Not streaming SOTA. Nowhere to be found actually.

But We went on and to this day spent 3 plus years, 5 days a week Promoting NBNN And SOTA.

Portalarium has Bigger things to worry about. And while they like to support the streaming community I really think it should be the other way around.

Anywho.... enough of that.

P.S. @macnlos This is not directed at you personally but a general view of streamers in general.
Your comment quoted above hit a nerve on the topic and I had to post my thoughts and observations for all.
You and your stream are a valued addition to SOTA. Thanks.

Laz

 

Trying to divide "greater" and "lesser" streamers or community members is unwarranted.

I do not think streaming 1 hour news show, 5 days a week, with reruns going 24/7 is comparable to 4-8 hours at a time 2-5 days a week of actual game play. Both provided much needed exposure for the game and community. In much different ways of course. But, both are very much needed.

A radio style news show with discussion and opinion with no game play is just as valuable as a PvP master showing all the high level "tricks" for winning. The overly-helpful-walkthrough-everything for every new viewer streamer is needed just as much as the silent quester that doesn't even have stream chat up to interact at all. We need all types of streamers to meet the needs of all types of viewers/platers.

Markee has brought many of us here. Many of us have put thousands of dollars into this game based on his exposer of the game to us.Some seem to have issues with Markee's perceived history, Many others do not. Some, like myself, have issue with his perceived "anointedness" by Portalarium and his current lack of participation in the game and it's promotion. But, nobody can deny the monetary benefit to having him involved.

The fact of the matter is that, for many modern gamers, watching real game play is an extremely important part of checking out a game. The game industry has tricked us all many times with awesome demos for potato games that play like crap. I'm sorry to say that without more promotion and an increasing flow of new blood into the game, we are just building a virtual world for all of us to sit in only to reminisce and ***** about the same old things to the same old people. It is up to us as the community and it's developers to promote it anyway we can. Crowd funded. Crowd built. Crowd promoted. It is exactly this calling that started many of the streamers we have had.

It is clear that Portalarium can do far more to support and promote our streaming communities than just COTOs and Steam keys to give away. These steamers put in a lot of hours trying to build their individual communities in and around our community. Streaming is not easy. Building a community (any kind) is not easy. Every viewer in every stream on every platform is important. We, the community, devs, etc) must support everyone of them in every way possible. Hosting or raiding a live streamer is about the least costly thing for a game development company to do. It literally takes less than 30 seconds for most people to do.

Also, I sure hope that every streamer is doing what they do for the viewer counts as much as, if not more, then the love of the game. Streamer's viewer counts and total live streamers are possibly the most important metrics to a games success in todays marketplace. Anyone care to take a look at https://www.twitch.tv/directory and dispute this?

 

I don't like this idea in general. I would love for a community manager to be in charge of this and set things up with streamers to showcase aspects of the world, game, or lore. If they randomly host someone then live streamers are likely to go live before the end of the community stream which can pull attention away from Portalarium's own stream. If they don't do it randomly then it can feel like favoritism to the unhosted channel, which may also happen if done randomly. I don't see how this is a good idea without a community manager to guide it. I also just wanted to add that I think everyone has a point so far, and I sort of see where Laz, Mac, Liz, and Shawn (My landlord!) are each coming from. Either way thanks for listening and supporting SoTA. I appreciate having a place to stay and a new (EDIT: News) network to check in on!

 

Thank you @Lazarus Long for the feedback. Your opinion means a lot, if not just for the sheer amount of effort you and your cohort have put it in. And I understand what you saying. Same with Mr. Butts and Mr. Wax. We all have different goals, different view points and different things that matter to each of us. While any money is nice, it is not for the money for me. LOL I'd declare bankruptcy.

What I do love is just streaming and getting in game message that something I did help someone, I love that and that's why I'm here. Last night was fun because I found a newer player streaming and having some game struggles. I actually ended my stream and tossed my viewers over to him. It was just my way of throwing a big hug and to help him out a little bit. That is what I like. That is what I want to see more streamers doing in this game. And part of me think that Mr. Wax hit it on the head that this should be an active thing done by someone in formal role rather than random.

No offense taken at all Laz and I appreciate your candor with your opinions, I appreciate everyones input on this. I just hope conversations like this end up in someone's hand at Portalarium.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!!!

 

I mostly have ZERO viewers most of the times and I was told many times my Livestream SUCKS or it's BAD... heck... even Shroud of the Avatar told me to "don't bother LIVESTREAMING" an event once because my stream was bad... HAHAHAHA...

 

Id like to point out, while I gave up because no one talked to me, I certainly was not in it for the $$$ I think in 18 months of streaming as I didnt get any. Twitch never paid me a bean.

I did it for the game, I did it because I could, but I stopped because I was doing around 30+ hours a week, and talking to myself, and I was frustrated because i had to play with a headset on and I have a hearing issue which means I cant hear myself talk through my body only through my ears so without that ive no idea what volume etc I talk at.. and having game noise so close to my ears was very off putting.

However, few came so, I stopped bothering, because it was a waste of my time when I could just go game play by myself and enjoy it more, than streaming

 

just last week... someone popped into chat during one of my livestreams and asked... "who are you talking to?" I replied with... "I'm talking to myself"...

 

lol... Everytime I'm starting a stream I'm talking to myself. Whether there are viewers or not, it is practice because streaming is talking. When it becomes interesting is when questions or comments are being added. I guess it is natural for me because I also make videos, which is always talking to no one. So zero viewers on Twitch is like making YouTube videos for me.

 

That's a good point, but I think the first reason why they aren't is simply because now that they're running a tighter ship, there isn't as much knowledge about how streaming works. I've been streaming for a few weeks now. I will probably cut back and come up with a schedule when I hit the 25/30 days thing, but mostly it's been learning how this thing works. For instance, I have some basic idea how a raid works, but I don't know the social implications of it, since the main reason I've been on twitch is just to watch a particular stream (Club Mogra in Akihabara [club-mogra.jp], which used to be on Ustream), so I don't know things that an average twitch viewer would know, and I expect it would be the same for most of the devs as well. The big monthly stream has more time and more people, and Chris clearly understands how to do a host, but on the other Fridays he may not be around.

These past few weeks have also been a chance to learn how it works, and also how it doesn't work. I had one day where I had no audio due to TWO things being wrong in obs. And I still have times where obs doesn't pick up the audio properly and I have to restart the game. Also, I'm not exactly sure, but it seems that the twitch default is that comments are closed except to followers unless you change settings. That makes it even more lonely when only a few people can hit the chat box. And is there some way I can see who those nine (9) followers are? I can't even be sure of the stream participants list, because some of names are always there, perhaps they're bots or something? It's really confusing to just have a bucket of names with nothing to tell you they aren't humans.

So what's my objective? To share time that I would be playing anyhow, and to show off the game to others. It has made me aware that a lot of playing this game (at least my way) is to take a lot of time harvesting resources. If I smack something down, that frees up the stuff around it for harvesting, which can later be worth something to other players. Sure, you can go around grinding XP, but I want to work on economic stuff, so I grind resources. Eventually I might stream some other games that I have lying around (I plan to stream FFXI when the free week rolls around again in November), but SotA is my "home" game, and I don't play many others.

So anyhow, my twitch name is "ElwynMoon", and I've been usually streaming in the evenings Texas time. I've streamed at all different times of the day, but evenings is when I seem to get more viewers anyhow.

 

Elwyn, if I see you on I will drop on by. "Raid" and "Host" do two very different things. When you Host it means that anyone watching your channel will see who you have hosted. They are still on your channel, but see someone else. If they want to talk with that person then they have to go to their channel. When you Raid you actually set off a mechanic that after 60 seconds, it takes all of the people in your channel and moves them into that other persons channel. Host == see another channel through your channel. Raid == move your viewers to another channel. I typically Raid and shut down my stream.

 

Sorry, forgot to mention one thing. This is not because they are running a "tighter" ship. That implies they have proper controls around everything. What they are running is a "leaner" ship. You cut down on expenses to run a leaner ship but with that comes the possibility of running too lean... or cutting down to far and to the bone. But I get what you mean and I just mention this because I think they are running too lean in this one area.

 

I have just come across this post after taking some time to look at the forums. @Lazarus Long

I have been streaming the game since R52 launch and have had a lot of success streaming the game. Now when I say success there are many different facets to this. I felt like it was worth a shot to stream the game after backing back in 2015 from seeing Markee Dragon stream the game.

In the past few months I have made many friendships and met a TONNE of great new people who have shown me immense amounts of support. From the moment Kalendreth Kain spent 40 minutes on an early stream to teach me a TONNE of recipes. To the support I have received from the likes of @that_shawn_guy and others in their provisioning of land to show off gameplay such as agriculture. I have put in over 1,000 hours of gameplay and a lot of that on stream too! I never felt forced, and always felt appreciated the whole time that I did it.

There have been some great streamers such as @Elgarion and @Arieus , some fun times from the likes of being trolled in the Monkey room at launch and some outright inspirational times, such as a viewer getting a friend to buy the game.

What does disappoint me some times is, that we do not have enough streamers. I stream 4-5 days a week and usually pull the lion share of viewership. Heck at launch I was always at the top of the list with 30+ viewers, apart from when say Markee Dragon or Elgarion were on. Now did I feel "better than anyone else"? No I did not. I have a lot of experience in streaming over the past 8 years and have suffered from circumstance and bad mistakes like any one else.

There is plenty that can be done in the game it just takes imagination. Heck one stream I could be running around Elysium mines and having a laugh with people, or I could find myself knee-deep in Naryad Woods giving people a fun time taking on endless Kobolds.

Now I appreciate what you say but I feel disheartened to read what feels like a one size fits all judgement. I put a lot of work and energy into my streams and expect nothing in return. I do the best that I can to give back to people if they show me some support with bits and so forth. Yes I may have moments on stream like anyone where I show dislike to things but I have stood by the game to the hill and back. I am even taking a gamble in my own life as well as putting my belief into the game.

There are also other good people like @Daedwax @skeggy Media @Alphaine and more who (barring personal circumstances) do a great job of sharing the experience they love with no expectations in return.

Does this mean that we deserve to get extra goodies for doing this? No it does not, and it does not make us any better or worse for doing so. I think that we can all agree there have been and always will be people that come and go, that is the nature of the streaming scene sadly. However it is a nice touch when Portalarium make the effort to support others.

In a way we do need streamers, and an incentive that is accessible but hard to unlock would be good. At the end of the day a stream can be a great way to provide new players easy and free points of view. It just needs to be done in the right way.

I am always happy to help people if they need help with streaming, hosting raiding anything. No streamer is bigger and better than anyone, especially in a community setting like this. Like I say there are not many streamers, and some times I want to host people but it ends up being the same people all of the time. Skeggy I am sure loves my raids but I am sure he would also appreciate if others get a chance to feel a part of something.

So yes @Lazarus Long I do feel your concerns, however as a polite request, please do not hold the same view for all. I typically stream around the same time as your live-show runs and even I see that you are widely respected as you do pull in an audience, which I seem to pick up people from as you return to pre-recorded shows.

I am sorry I am sleepy writing this but I feel that I can show my passion a little better this way. As much as streaming is a difficult thing to grow (I am hindering my growth by playing shroud) I know where I grew my audience from and will continue to support/stream the game for as long as the game is going.

 

Howdy guys, thanks for the tag, @Dulayne.

Sorry for my 1 monthish absence from streaming. Some may know, my gaming computer is finally going to be returned to me from the shop... for the second time as it came back broken last time. I'll have a back-up system purchased by January at the latest so this will never happen again. It irks me that I haven't been able to stream SotA, now especially due to the dungeon system coming online piece by piece. Very soon though. I'll be starting up next week for sure, just not sure which day yet.

Cool thing is? They're replacing the computer this time and built me a new one Not a bad deal for a 1 year, 8 month old system, eh?

And I guess I have to defend myself due to comments in this thread... I have immense loyalty to this community. SotA has been my passion for 5ish years now. I see much loyalty in other streamers that I've seen online in the past. It's been very frustrating for me that I cannot stream for about a month now.

There's a lot of great comments in this thread about SotA streamers. Glad many of you feel they're an appreciated part of the SotA community.

Dulayne, you're spot on and I've always felt you show SotA in a good light, and good shouting out to the other streamers. All good peeps!

I agree with the original statement in this thread. When you finish your stream? Whether it be to another live SotA stream or another project or game you personally wish to show appreciation for, do it. Why not? It's cross-promotion. Twitch realizes the value of cross-promotion between streamers which is why they've created the host and raiding system.

 

I find this strange coming from someone that has their very own cash shop for the game and is CONSTANTLY advertising it during their 24 hour repeatathon on Twitch.

Anyway...

Not everyone lives and breathes this game. I don't even do that. I play multiple game and will stream those when I want. Asking streamers to give exclusivity to one game is unfair. The bottom line is that ANY exposure this game is given, in a positive light, is good for Shroud. Regardless if a streamer is here one day and gone the next, the eyes they got on the game while they were playing were more than there were if they didn't.

I agree with Daedwax. We could definitely use some sort of Community Manager, be it volunteer or paid.

 

@Alleine Dragonfyre has a point, as someone who spent over a year streaming sota, amassing usually 30+ hours a week.. I had like 0 viewers.. I didnt really care how many i had but the extra pressure of being online, is draining in that sort of quantity and when you're just talking to yourself... I was then too tired to even dream of running around trying to advertise and stroke the hands of people.. so, i gave up. It didnt help that it seemed others made money from it and that just rubbed in to me that clearly it was a waste of time.. i wasnt in it for the money or the numbers but there has to be a point and clearly if people arent watching there isnt a point to doing it.