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Penny Arcade - Comic - The Zero Factor
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - The Zero Factor
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
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Honestly I actually like Mixer as a platform it has a lot of neat features I'd like more streamers to move toward. And Twitch having actual competition would only be a positive since they've done pretty much a wet fart for supporting streamers recently.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I doubt Mike talks to Ninja..
I dunno PA is pretty big in the gaming world, I'm sure if either side wanted to someone could arrange that chat. I mean Ninja is a big name right now with some public stuff, but PA is an institution in the gaming industry.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Oh I'm not saying they couldn't communicate if they for some reason wanted to.
I'm saying they seem to be in extremely different worlds and Mike isn't exactly known to be the kind of guy to go out there trying to meet big personalities.
Ah, that's supposed to be a Ninja? Ok, then.
I just assumed it was another Mixer streamer.
Yea it's a joke because that's the big streaming news right now that Ninja just moved over there from twitch.
Dammit, Google, why aren't you delivering the IMPORTANT news to me?? Trump, schmump. I need to know about the STREAMERS.
Personally, I don't get really popular streamers. One of the main things I like about streams is interacting with the people streaming and with the regulars in chat. That's what I usually get with PA streams or the occasional Amy stream. But I accidentally left twitch open during a C-Team stream (which I normally podcast because it's during my workday) and saw the scrolling insanity even there. At that point, it really ceases to be a "a stream" in my eyes and just becomes "a video."
Some of the bigger people will also have like a party chat to amuse you so its not just listening to one person rattle on. I also know big streamers like Cohcarnage has his mods finding good comments to respond to so he can still game but not lose the personal interaction.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Seriously though, I wonder if Ninja is still modest/humble enough to think, "Sweet! I just appeared in a Penny Arcade strip!"
-Tycho Brahe
Same!
What I'm trying to say is that I don't get them as a stream. To me, at that point, they just become another video to watch whenever. Not really as much of a compelling reason to watch them live while actually streaming. They just get put on the pile of the other video content I might watch and slotted into the priority queue algorithm like any other pre-recorded stuff.
What I think this misses (and it may not be something that matters to you) is that for a decent number of people, they enjoy being part of that person's "community" and more directly chatting with each other -- occasionally interacting with the streamer. I have occasionally thought of streams like IRC channels where the main moderator has their webcam running all the time. Some people will drop in to lurk on the gaming; some will be there to chat with other people with similar interests.
The thing is that a lot of these chats move too fast for people to actually interact with each other. People's attempts to react to each other just get lost in the wall of reactions.
Like, I watch, say, LaurenTheFlute's streams, and since there's like thirty people there, we can chat with each other and Lauren with no issue. Sometimes the gameplay stops as she and the chat sit down for a dicussion on, like, sentience and personhood (she was playing Talos Principle recently, see). sometimes two people in the chat go on a tangent while she's getting murdered by a boss talking to each other. But on a big stream by the time you've been able to write a response to Dude 1 his question is two pages away and there's a 50% chance he won't even see your response!
Yeah, other than OverWatch league, where I hide the chat, the only streams I really do anything in are LaurenTheFlutes and Super Soul Bros, since you can actually talk with folk there.
As other people have pointed out, you're echoing my original post. Scroll up and check it out. Summary: streams where you can actually interact with the streamers and chat are ones I enjoy being part of. Ones with non-stop scroll where it's just taking into a void - not so much.
Bonus question: Why is Ninja so popular? He doesn't seem particularly entertaining or special compared to any other streamers, at least not from the <10 minutes I tuned into his stream one time to see what all the fuss was about.
Mike (and to some degree Jerry) have gone over that in several posts. For one, it's a post-stream streaming site. In that it was built AFTER a lot of the streaming culture was established. That means the technology is designed from the ground up to facilitate it, rather than it being bolted on top. Imagine if they built a new crowdfunding website, only they made stretch goals (no matter what your opinion of them is) an inherent part of the user interface both for managing campaigns as well as participating in them.
You can find more nitty gritty details in those news posts. Just do a google search for: "mixer" site:penny-arcade.com/news/
To some degree, why is any "personality" popular? It's an old question, and ultimately either impossible or really hard to answer. Maybe an AI will eventually be able to understand these things.