The Death of Metacritics & Reviews - Twitch

Hi all.

Has your habit of resources to inform yourself if you should buy a Game or not changed?

My way is 100% like this - Oh intresting Game - lets check it out - click on Youtube - search First Impressions “Insert Game Name”

Next i go to Twitch and search for Live Streams of the Game and “watch” it.



But “Live Streams” is the most important! for me

Quote from a blog:
“
Twitch provides the most authentic preview of a game you’ll find on the internet. That’s because it replicates the experience of watching your friend play from their couch. Is the hype real? Do you kind of want the controller? Should you buy this game right now? Contrast that with watching a two minute trailer loaded up with cut scenes.”

That’s my intuition for how Twitch helps viewers make purchasing decisions.


I actually only use articles majorly to get Roadmaps or future Plans.

Steam Reviews - have learned that to much politics, review bombing destroyed the reliability.

I think the classic Written Form is only an additional decision media for me.
An add on information.

The future looks bad in my opinion for classic written Game Reviews.
As a Game Company it is far more important
to have a well known Streamer try out your Game.

This means: If a Gamer clicks on Twitch it is majorly NBNN they will stumble on regarding SotA.

On Youtube if i enter Shroud of the Avatar it is still TheLazyPeon with his 220000 views that will draw the first eyes.

Even so some might disagree i came to my personal conclusion that what is said on Forums or in comments or in written form is
Unmeaningfull.

New customers of the new age will decide based on The LacyPeon as most impactful youtuber to ever look at SotA. And NBNN as most active Twitch Streamers currently that go “Live”

My personal opinion.

What do you think

 

I don't trust Youtubers or Streamers at all. Not after what happened with Shadows of Mordor.
For me most Streamers and Youtubers are easy to mainpulate. Just seeing that they don't want to have the word advertisment written in their videos the whole time tells me that something is wrong. It's about money. Nothing else. Maybe it started as a hobby to play games for fun but it has become a business. And what is most important in a business: money.
Most of those people even have cooperations with gaming companies. They are paid by them. And they get money out of advertisments. How trustworthy can such people be?
I don't trust Youtubers and Livestreamers at all.

 

Successfull Twitch Streaming does not depends on talking nice about a Game. That is the main difference. They get successful because of the personality and how they play.
Good Twitch Streamers ad to the Game itself.

If a Game is not fun for them personally, they will drop it and not use it for Streaming.
Or if they try to follow the main successful Games and pretend they enjoy it - you find out very fast they will loose followers.

They will choose Games they Enjoy. That is how most go. Even if it is a niche Game.

And we humans are very good in reading peoples honesty if we see them live. To many factors we have additinal compared to just the written article.


If i read an article of someone - i do not know nothing more. I have no feedback of his emotions, his mood he had , no direct connections to what ingame moment he is talking about.

All that i have in a Livestream.

If he says: Did you see the Bug - that is annoying - I see it directly.
If he says: Man this Interace is frustrating as he tries to set something more easy - it is a direct connection i can follow as a Gamer.

If he is excited - i can see why. And laugh with him and enjoy the moment with him.

Nothing that you can do with an article.

 

By the way.

Instead of us using this old fashioned way of writting what we do not like in a Game.

Believe me if we all would constantly Livestream Sota during our play - all the Developers would need to do is - watch - and they would get so much awesome feedback you can´t even deliver in a written form for them.

 

Looking at how this PewDiePie behaves, all of the disgusting things he does and how his fans are still defending and supporting him I doubt that those followers would see if they are manipulated - or maybe they don't care and still support their idol blindly.
I can't trust them.

 

Great example.

The old fashioned media has used "written form" and out of context "cut scenes" from Pewdiepie to represent him or situations, or his motivations in his Videos total out of context.
And Disney then destroying his contract and destroying jobs and work of others because of that. LOL - will not go into that one.

But basically your example of Pewdiepie is for me the opposite. A wonderful example of written form loosing against Livestream as a reliable source of information.

Wallstreet and other Medias had proven that it is better for me as a "User" to watch the original content of Pewdiepie myself then the "written" out of contect crap they had presented.
The people of Wallstreet who had written that article are a dissapointment.

Instead of doing awesome research into Pewdiepie - his live, how he got attention and doing a deep , quality research before writting an article - like i would expect from journalists- all they did is use Youtube as a source of taping a truly dishonoroble job - dishonoring journalists who had in history build up wall-street and the job of journalist as something to strive for.


But lol. Lord Darkmoon i like you - but we are getting way off topic. LOL.

Lets add Shroud into the Discussion.


I think it needs more Livestreams additional to articles written.

Compromise?

 

Each one has his own opinions and preferences

I agree to the compromise.

 

You have to count in the double negative in reviews....
Idiot gives negative review makes it a good one
That also works for the idiot to give a good review though

But I also agree that watching youtube videos or twitch gameplay is the best way to see if you like a game and is also the best marketing if you want to attract today's gamers.
That's why it is so important that SotA needs more gameplay features and systems, as they also provide content for the people to show to others.
Hardly anyone is interested in another fundraiser, dance event and such. If you make a big RP event with story quests etc... that might actually interest RPers.
Same goes for content like PVE, PVP, PKing etc for gamers.

The number one streamer ever playing SotA with about 2k viewers each show wanted to play a thief... no surprise how his review of the game turned out
All he found was a flat, bad designed system and he went his way.

I think it was Envy and Blake that tried to get multiple streamers to play the game. They even gifted them copies to promote the game.
Sadly they all came to the same conclusion: Nothing to present in terms of gameplay etc.

So yeah once we get sth like that, SotA needs to push for streamers and youtubers. Right now they will get mixed reviews at best.

 

The Pantheon devs seem to be doing everything, so far, pretty much perfectly from a marketing point of view. They have employed one of the most popular streamers on Twitch and put out very well produced, although fairly scripted, content and tapped into his large audience and also more importantly, they seem to be capturing the minds of MMO players who are looking for a more old school experience.

Although it may or may not be a big reflection, it's worrying to see the lack of content players are putting out on Youtube and Twitch for a game available to play now. You could argue that it's not finished and people are waiting etc but I think that if Pantheon become available now to play and stream, even in pre-alpha, there would be a ton of people streaming it. Port need to find a way to overcome the current malaise on these platforms.

 

Brainstorming:

1. Richard Garriott himself. - Create an Twitch Account and play your Game online. Invite other Streamers to play with you and "Chat and talk with them".
Share your thoughts.

2. Install a "IN REAL LIFE" Twitch Stream in one of your Office Rooms that runs ongoing. Often you only see a empty seat. But your Developers can randomly decide to sit down in that room and start a nice chat or ask questions.
So for example QBall sends a Message in the Forum: sitting down in 5 Minutes. Feel like sharing my newest design.
Then he sits down and talks about how happy he is to have finsihed this new content and what the challenge was. And good night to all.

3. Have some "AFK" Avatar acting like incame Webcameras of interesting locations.
Call it Shroud of the Avatar Owls Market Twitch Cam, Shroud of the Avatar New Britannia Market Twitch Cam or Shroud of the Avatar Overworld Map Cam.
Let them run ongoing and players can look what is going on?


So that is my brainstorming.

Take care.

 

I do wonder if some games just don't show well when watching someone else play it. As it currently is, even watching Mac2's great videos, the combat looks like a massive skill spam fest and to be honest it also feels like that when playing, to just burn the mobs down as quickly as possible. When I go looking for something to watch it's normally emulated EQ on P99 or SOTA but invariably always end up watching P99 as the combat and levelling experience is a lot more dynamic and dangerous. We have to assume the combat is somewhere near what the devs want so maybe that's just something that can't be overcome.