Facebook Wants to be the New Twitch

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Facebook is not liking that Twitch is pulling the huge amount of traffic it does when it come to online game streaming content, and it is now introducing the Gaming Creator Pilot Program. It is teaming up with the CS:GO Pro League and the ESL One Events team as its main broadcast partners. Surely this will usher in a whole new genre of "Watch Me Play Candy Crush" streamers that will take the world by storm. Little too little, little too late, by a company that is already seen by the mainstream streaming community as a platform for their parents. On the upside, most HardOCP readers will never be aware of this beyond this news post. Thank goodness. Facebook has gone out and paid a select group of gamers that it is hoping will make Facebook cool again. At least now we can now mark the day that game streaming jumped the shark. Ooooo, 1080p! Thanks cageymaru.


There's a lot of work to be done, but we’re committed to building the fundamental architecture that gaming creators need to be successful, starting with foundational elements like enabling all creators in the program to livestream in 1080p/60fps. Most of all, with each new feature we add for gaming video, we’re committed to building it alongside our creators hand-in-hand.
 
Wonder if they will only partner with amd or only partner with nvidia...
There will be partners

Still Kyle hit on something, casual streaming from mobile devices. They dont have that on twitch and the games are a big market.
 
Didn't Google already try competing with Twitch and are failing miserably? I remember Nadeshot was one of the first that they paid to be exclusive to Youtube Gaming and now he's back on Twitch.
 
I had a dream once that Apple bought Facebook then shortly after decided people were using it wrong and just shut the whole site down. I was really sad when I woke up that it wasn't reality.
 
FlawleZ said:
I had a dream once that Apple bought Facebook then shortly after decided people were using it wrong and just shut the whole site down. I was really sad when I woke up that it wasn't reality.
Click to expand...
That dream works if flipped also! Facebook buys Apple......
 
Maybe I'm just too old, but I still don't see the point of streaming at all.

1.) Why would you want to watch some self important jerk play a game online, when you can just play the game yourself?

2.) What kind of a self centered prick actually believes people want to watch them play games?

I had my fill of watching other people play games back in the 80's on the NES, when you didn't have any choice but to wait your turn. I'm never doing that bs again.
 
I only watch one or two streams and they're on youtube (check out Nicki Thiim if you like racing sims, he's an irl LeMans and WEC championship winner in the factory Aston Martin team). I could give 2 shits what the platform is as long as it's easy to find what I want and the quality is half way decent. It's not like you can't post twitch and youtube streams on facebook, so not sure what their streaming brings to the table.

Zarathustra[H] said:
Maybe I'm just too old, but I still don't see the point of streaming at all.

1.) Why would you want to watch some self important jerk play a game online, when you can just play the game yourself?

2.) What kind of a self centered prick actually believes people want to watch them play games?

I had my fill of watching other people play games back in the 80's on the NES, when you didn't have any choice but to wait your turn. I'm never doing that bs again.
Click to expand...

It's fun to watch a real life pro driver in a racing sim and see how he sets the car up, what lines he takes etc. Especially as I run the same series he does in iRacing.
 
As I said in the other thread about Facebook and streaming media, there will be plenty of legit content providers ("streamers" in this case), that won't switch, because Facebook has ripped so many other people off without paying royalties.

Why the fuck would anyone use Facebook as their "streaming" platform (aka CDN), if they already have a reputation of not paying royalties for content?

This is actually a big deal, and Facebook is fucked in the head if they think everything is copacetic. Spoiler: IT ISN'T.

It's such a big deal, that Kurzgesagt made a whole video on it :

 
Eh, they should find a niche, like do vr game streaming since they bought oculus. That should give them a head start in what will be a growing market instead of competing with existing ones.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Maybe I'm just too old, but I still don't see the point of streaming at all.

1.) Why would you want to watch some self important jerk play a game online, when you can just play the game yourself?

2.) What kind of a self centered prick actually believes people want to watch them play games?

I had my fill of watching other people play games back in the 80's on the NES, when you didn't have any choice but to wait your turn. I'm never doing that bs again.
Click to expand...

Stop being such a grandpa!! (south park reference to this exact thing s18e09)

I totally agree with you, I would rather just play the game myself; however, sometimes it's useful to watch a guy if he's good kind of like watching a golfer to help your own swing. Let's say you play LOL and you like to jungle, you might watch a pro jungler to see what route they take, what level do they try to gank, what order do they pick their spells, what's their build, etc... But as far as a ratio, I play 99% and watch 1%.
 
Do you watch any of the following?:
  1. Poker
  2. Hockey
  3. American Football
  4. Football
  5. Lacrosse
  6. Field Hockey
  7. Olympic Games
  8. Curling
  9. Baseball
  10. Basketball
  11. Golf
  12. Fishing

If you do, then chances are you get a similar type of enjoyment that others get by watching others play games. There's many reasons people watch others play games. This can include, but is not limited to:
  1. The viewer doesn't own the game, and wants to see a realistic representation of the game
  2. The viewer finds the style of the content creator to be entertaining, comforting, or some other way pleasant
  3. The viewer is too exhausted and just wants to watch something that they would play themselves, but perhaps they don't have the energy right now (hard day at work?)
  4. The viewer is trying to learn about a facet of the game, and wants to see a demonstration of that facet. Perhaps they are trying to get better at the game, or they are stuck at a point in the game, or their attempts at the facet of the game have not been successful, and they want to see an alternative method for that facet.
  5. The viewer is a group of people, and perhaps one person in the group is showing a facet of the game to their friends
  6. The viewer has the video on as background noise while they work on something else

The reality is, you probably "don't get it", because you haven't yet found something you enjoy to watch from this kind of media. And that's fine. But should the day come where you find something you genuinely enjoy to watch, someone playing a game, chances are you will understand better then what the appeal is.

Until then, I recommend you review the above lists of information.


Zarathustra[H] said:
Maybe I'm just too old, but I still don't see the point of streaming at all.

1.) Why would you want to watch some self important jerk play a game online, when you can just play the game yourself?

2.) What kind of a self centered prick actually believes people want to watch them play games?

I had my fill of watching other people play games back in the 80's on the NES, when you didn't have any choice but to wait your turn. I'm never doing that bs again.
Click to expand...
 
Rahh said:
That dream works if flipped also! Facebook buys Apple......
Click to expand...
Except the difference is how dramatically different the end result would impact society. And I don't mean that in a good way.
 
nightanole said:
Wonder if they will only partner with amd or only partner with nvidia...
There will be partners

Still Kyle hit on something, casual streaming from mobile devices. They dont have that on twitch and the games are a big market.
Click to expand...

Twitch actually does have this, check out the IRL section. I'm pretty sure the most recent version of the Twitch App allows direct streaming, but many mobile streamers use multi device setups for quality/failover/battery reasons.
 
Armenius said:
Didn't Google already try competing with Twitch and are failing miserably? I remember Nadeshot was one of the first that they paid to be exclusive to Youtube Gaming and now he's back on Twitch.
Click to expand...

Google half-asses every attempt these days. Since they're no-longer a first mover in a lot of areas, they try to brute force it.

I'd be surprised if Amazon doesn't spin a Twitch'd version of YouTube after the whole Google/Amazon spat which saw Google pull YT off of Amazon devices. With how many creators are getting jacked by YT's newer (and worsening) policies, I think a ton of people may jump. They wouldn't need to do much, just listen to the communities gripes about YT and they could get a lot of them given their widening viewer base. A lot of popular gaming channels have already switched to Twitch live streaming (they simply can't make money on YT anymore).

People argue that YT is too popular/big to be replaced. But I personally, go where the content is, and if that content is on another site that is just as easily accessible with a good UI, they'll get me.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Maybe I'm just too old, but I still don't see the point of streaming at all.

1.) Why would you want to watch some self important jerk play a game online, when you can just play the game yourself?

2.) What kind of a self centered prick actually believes people want to watch them play games?

I had my fill of watching other people play games back in the 80's on the NES, when you didn't have any choice but to wait your turn. I'm never doing that bs again.
Click to expand...

While I never played on NES, I did a lot of gaming. I concur on the rest.
 
BSmith said:
While I never played on NES, I did a lot of gaming. I concur on the rest.
Click to expand...


Yeah, and i feel online games suffer from it too. Instead of just playing a game and enjoying it for what it is, all the kids these days are hellbent on being the next streamer, and seem to want to turn every gaming session into some sort of live streamed joke.

So annoying.

Seventyfive said:
Stop being such a grandpa!! (south park reference to this exact thing s18e09)

I totally agree with you, I would rather just play the game myself; however, sometimes it's useful to watch a guy if he's good kind of like watching a golfer to help your own swing. Let's say you play LOL and you like to jungle, you might watch a pro jungler to see what route they take, what level do they try to gank, what order do they pick their spells, what's their build, etc... But as far as a ratio, I play 99% and watch 1%.
Click to expand...

I'm so much of a grandpa I lost you on this one. So you either play Laugh out Loud or Land 'o Lakes, and somehow "jungle" has become both a verb and an occupation, and I have no idea what is meant by "gank". :p
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I'm so much of a grandpa I lost you on this one. So you either play Laugh out Loud or Land 'o Lakes, and somehow "jungle" has become both a verb and an occupation, and I have no idea what is meant by "gank". :p
Click to expand...

LOL = league of legends, game has around 100 million active players world wide so it's quite popular with streamers. Jungle = a strategy in the game where a player doesn't fight other players for the first few minutes and instead fights computer controlled enemies in "the jungle". gank = to help a teammate attack an unsuspecting opponent player.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Maybe I'm just too old, but I still don't see the point of streaming at all.

1.) Why would you want to watch some self important jerk play a game online, when you can just play the game yourself?

2.) What kind of a self centered prick actually believes people want to watch them play games?

I had my fill of watching other people play games back in the 80's on the NES, when you didn't have any choice but to wait your turn. I'm never doing that bs again.
Click to expand...

1.) you dont own it, it just came out, you want to improve, the streamer is a vastly better gamer than you could ever hope to be, you enjoy the streamer as an entertainer, ect ect

2.) Lots of people think that, and are having fun while getting paid.

as mentioned earlier, if you watch any sport, its basically the same thing. just because you dont get it, doesnt mean that no one else does. hop on twtich and look for a game that interests you, watch a few streamers. youll eventually find someone you like...and then youll know.
 
Seventyfive said:
LOL = league of legends, game has around 100 million active players world wide so it's quite popular with streamers. Jungle = a strategy in the game where a player doesn't fight other players for the first few minutes and instead fights computer controlled enemies in "the jungle". gank = to help a teammate attack an unsuspecting opponent player.
Click to expand...


Ahh, thanks.

I don't venture much outside of FPS games. Really the only exception is the Sid Meier's Civilization Series which I am a living fan of.

As far as FPS:es go, I tend to stick to gritty historical reality, or science fiction, and usually completely avoid anything in the Fantasy genre.

I don't even do 3rd person, only first person, with the exception of the Fallout series where I never left first person mode.
 
Honestly I can't see a real upside to FB getting into streaming games. Used it before for live streams and it was scary low quality. Can they provide all the tools twitch and Mixer provides? Plus the amount of back end to support encoding work.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Maybe I'm just too old, but I still don't see the point of streaming at all.

1.) Why would you want to watch some self important jerk play a game online, when you can just play the game yourself?

2.) What kind of a self centered prick actually believes people want to watch them play games?

I had my fill of watching other people play games back in the 80's on the NES, when you didn't have any choice but to wait your turn. I'm never doing that bs again.
Click to expand...

I mainly watch people like TFS and Maximillian Dood because they're just basically themselves while playing.

I used to not see the point in watching others play games, and thought it was just a stupid fad that'll die out; but seeing whether people like a game or not helps better than some reviews when it comes to buying games.
 
I updated to a new feed on the news page. The guys on there right now are entertaining and doing a good job showing off the game.
 
If you are a left wing democrat type of person, this is probably good news for you, but both facebook and google have been censoring and/or demonetizing right wing content for quite some time now.

I'd argue facebook is even more left leaning than google.

For instance facebook already bans a ton of gun related stuff on their site, and youtube has been demonetizing gun and reloading channels for quite some time now, two of my biggest hobbies.


I don't see this being good for free speech in the long run, nor do I see facebook being any less biased.
 
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Zarathustra[H] said:
Maybe I'm just too old, but I still don't see the point of streaming at all.

1.) Why would you want to watch some self important jerk play a game online, when you can just play the game yourself?

2.) What kind of a self centered prick actually believes people want to watch them play games?

I had my fill of watching other people play games back in the 80's on the NES, when you didn't have any choice but to wait your turn. I'm never doing that bs again.
Click to expand...

I don't see how it is any different than sitting down and watching football. Its impossible to play every single interesting game out there, both from a time perspective and from a money perspective. I can, however, consume the games by watching someone else play. I'm pretty terrible at most fighting games now, my reaction time is not what it was when I was a kid, so I can watch experts play and see what high-level play looks like and learn how they do things and about all the hidden mechanics of a fighting game. Your comment on streamers is rather dismissive and incredibly wrong. There are some that are jerks or self-centered, bu most of the mare just everyday people. They're able to make a living doing something they love and bring a little enjoyment to people that watch their videos. What is so wrong with that?

Yukon Ranger said:
If you are a left wing democrat type of person, this is probably good news for you, but both facebook and google have been censoring and/or demonetizing right wing content for quite some time now.

I'd argue facebook is more even left leaning than google.

For instance facebook already bans a ton of gun related stuff on their site, and youtube has been demonetizing gun and reloading channels for quite some time now, two of my biggest hobbies.


I don't see this being good for free speech in the long run.
Click to expand...

Don't twist what Youtube is doing to fit your narrative. Youtube is demonetizing almost everything that isn't insanely super popular these days. It doesn't matter what the content is Youtube's algorithm will go after it and demonetize it. And yet, mysteriously, videos from douchebag pieces of human garage like Logan Paul remain up and monetized no matter what they do. Its almost as it Youtube prioritizes people that bring in big bucks over anything else.
 
Yukon Ranger said:
If you are a left wing democrat type of person, this is probably good news for you, but both facebook and google have been censoring and/or demonetizing right wing content for quite some time now.

I'd argue facebook is more even left leaning than google.

For instance facebook already bans a ton of gun related stuff on their site, and youtube has been demonetizing gun and reloading channels for quite some time now, two of my biggest hobbies.


I don't see this being good for free speech in the long run, nor do I see facebook being any less biased.
Click to expand...


Oh noes. All the right wing game streams are going to be censored!

Seriously? Are even game streams now political? :p
 
Master_shake_ said:
facebook has no original ideas, just a shitty versions of everything else.
Click to expand...

Successful companies usually copy.

Look at Microsoft. Copied the GUI, copied everything else through "embrace extend extinguish", and finally started struggling when they were too late to copy mobile...
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Successful companies usually copy.

Look at Microsoft. Copied the GUI, copied everything else through "embrace extend extinguish", and finally started struggling when they were too late to copy mobile...
Click to expand...

but most make it better not mediocre.
 
What Facebook doesn't understand is that even if they have the video quality and the features and everything else dialed in just right, I don't want to use Facebook for things like this.

If I wanted to stream myself playing a game, I don't want to do it with my real name that connects to people I really know - including several co-workers. Yes, sometimes people can sleuth it out, but that's a two way street of social hazard:

1. I don't need people I work with knowing what I play, when I play it, how I play it and how I act when I'm playing it (and I'm well behaved)

2. Look at all the SWATiing incidents - many of them started with disputes in a game. Who wants to worry about some psycho trying to mess with your life because they didn't think you were healing them enough in Overwatch?

No thank you, I'll keep what thin veneer of anonymity still remains.
 
DoubleTap said:
What Facebook doesn't understand is that even if they have the video quality and the features and everything else dialed in just right, I don't want to use Facebook for things like this.

If I wanted to stream myself playing a game, I don't want to do it with my real name that connects to people I really know - including several co-workers. Yes, sometimes people can sleuth it out, but that's a two way street of social hazard:

1. I don't need people I work with knowing what I play, when I play it, how I play it and how I act when I'm playing it (and I'm well behaved)

2. Look at all the SWATiing incidents - many of them started with disputes in a game. Who wants to worry about some psycho trying to mess with your life because they didn't think you were healing them enough in Overwatch?

No thank you, I'll keep what thin veneer of anonymity still remains.
Click to expand...


Good points....

But why would you be connected to people you work with on Facebook?
 
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