Slashdot Mirror
No One Watches Online Videogame TV
GameDailyBiz talks about disappointing statistics for anyone who enjoys online videogame related video or podcasts; Almost no one watches them. From the article: "didn't even recognize that I might have made a mistake until I ran across a recent Forrester Research marketing report. The report found that while 25% of online households have expressed interest in podcasting, only 2% had experimented with audio downloads but did not listen on a regular basis and a mere 1% of households actually download a podcast onto a player. For most new tech trends a 1% percent adoption rate might be admirable or even encouraging. However, podcasting is a nerd darling. On tech blogs and nerd-news centers podcasting been proudly crowned the Wave of the Future(TM). Currently, the search site PodNova is tracking more than 55,000 different podcasts. Yeah, 55,000 channels and apparently nothing's on."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it isn't all videogame broadcasts that aren't watched. In Korea, there are two television stations dedicated to video gaming (mostly Starcraft matches) that are extremely popular. During the CPL Championships, TSN (the premier online broadcasting network for cyberathletics) supports many many viewers- in fact, even during the CAL (Cyberathlete Amateur League) matches, many people watch the matches.
I think that this article is trying to accomplish the wrong things. Comparing things like video game broadcasts to YouTube simply is comparing apples and oranges.
- dshaw
Yeah, 55,000 channels and apparently nothing's on.
So what? The internet had brought broadcasting to the masses. But the right to free speech doesn't mean anyone actually has to listen to you.
This site seems to be pretty popular: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/
4 874563352
This was on google videos popular list for quite a while: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=659036456
Not to mention all the WoW stuff I constantly see on google video...
just like sports. I'd rather do something than watch others, unless its something like boxing or Ultimate Fighting Championship :p
Would you?
The only people who were surprised that podcasting TV shows about videogames didn't take off were the people who had the idea in the first place. I don't know if I'm typical (but apparently I am), but watching downloaded TV shows about videogames ranks at the bottom of my list of recreational "things to do." Up near the top of my is actually playing the videogames, followed by downloading mods to the games, and browsing news sites announcing new games. Somehow, I never get around to watching television shows featuring videogames, let alone downloading them and watching them on the computer I'm using to... well... play the games on.
this article seems to be trying to use a previous article about podcast and IPTV?? Well they are similar, I consider them to be two very distinct things.
There are three kinds of video game videos:
-Play footage.
-Reviews.
-Industry news.
As far as Play footage goes, I'd rather watch someone read a book. (Yes, there are exceptions, and while the survey doesn't say, I'm assuming it's American, and game culture in the US is very different than abroad.)
For the other two, podcast is the worst format. I want to scan, review and get the bottom line, which is something you can't do in an audio or video format.
And frankly 99.93% of podcasts are embarrassingly bad. The only reason podcasts have become popular is because they require even less skill and time to produce than a blog. (If such a thing can be possible.) There are tens of millions of blogs, but how many do you read? Compare that to How many are only visited by spam-bots?
So what does that say for the future of spectator mode in upcoming games?
No one posts to articles about No One Watches Online Videogame TV. Up for 8 hours and this is the 12th post.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
I just can't understand why some people think that games can be a spectator sport. When I watch sports on TV I do it because I can see people do something that I simply cannot do - I can't drive a car at 200+ mph or run 25 mph but the few times that I've bothered to watch professional players play some FPS I've never seen them do anything that I cannot do when I play myself. Everything that looks spectacular has been created by the people that wrote the game engine and I can see all of that when I play myself and it doesn't look any different when pros play so I just think it's a boring waste of time to watch them when I could just as well play myself and be more immersed into the game world.
I guess I don't get this podcast craze to begin with. I've heard a few here and there, and listing to some guy and his friends prattling along in the basement in front of the PC about any topic just doesn't fit into my life. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are some neat, informative podcasts out there. But the format just turns me off. Now, a blog I can scan, pick out relevant information, and it doesn't require me to read every word to find something interesting. But audio is a different beast, and I just don't have an hour to listen to some fan pontificate about anything (even subjects I care about). I think that's the core of what this article is talking about. I'm sure videogame podcasts magnify the problem, just like videogame "journalism" does. Let's face it, as much as I like reading reviews and news postings, most gaming sites are run by young men and women as hobbies. They are not professionals in the industry at all, and while they may have opinions (however well-formed), it's still just a bunch of guys sitting around a PC talking about how wicked hard beating that palladin or whatever in WOW is, and his strategy for beating it. I think that is the crux for me though, the audio part - if I played WOW I might be interested in a technique to kill a certain MOB, but having to listen to a podcast to do it is silly when I could just read the text in five seconds if he wrote it. But that's just my opinion. AE
Why would I want to?
I subscribe to half a dozen different podcasts mainly covering 'soft' science and politics and a couple of entertainment ones, I can't get through the day without my daily Pennradio fix, but why would I want to listen to people talk about video games, trying to describe game mechanics or graphics when I can find that information without the waffle in less time?
A couple of looks by some reliable websites and I've seen what the graphics have to offer and read about the game mechanics. There's only so much that can be said about modern games anyway.
Even better, I can throw on the telly and watch Morgan Webb talk about games for half an hour.
The difference is that those 2% could theoretically could deliver targeted advertising like no other. If I'm watching a show on TV, I'd say 80% of the ads are not even in the realm of something I'd be interesed in. Whereas a podcast requires someone to actively 'subscribe'. Also podcasts have alot better tracking stats than simple neilson ratings boxes. Not that I want ads in online content, or would put any in my own show. But when something on the internet becomes a revenue stream, everyone takes notice. It's a circular cycle where you need content to distribute, and then distribution methods to get it out there. Typically the content can't keep up, but in this case you have a ton of it just waiting to find better distribution methods. Once money is involved, you'll see companies do things like inexpensive set top boxes to watch online vidcasts come down in price (they're out there, just not quite popular enough yet). That'll get it up from the 2%. Joe http://www.downstairstheater.com/
noone knows what the hell a podcast is. Throw a 15 second clip on ABC during american idol, explaining the deal.
Ant
Search Engine Marketing
There's no connection between "online videogame TV" and the podcast stats in the linked story, other than the fact that they got the author thinking about his media habits...
And there are no actual stats about "online videogame TV"...
And the author wasn't dismissing all "online videogame related video" like the poster suggests -- "I pull up gigabytes of game videos"...
I can only conclude that the poster didn't actually read the story, and that the slashdot editors are too busy smoking crack to notice... But what else is new? =)
A lot of households still rely on dial-up bandwidth to satisfy their daily Internet needs. With a dial-up connection, it will be really taxing to download audio or video (ESPECIALLY video) podcasts and listen or watch them on a regular basis. Also, there is also the problem of bandwidth ceilings. A lot of ISPs set a limit on how much bandwidth a connection can "use" per time period and some might people prefer to use their bandwidth on something else.
I personally have a broadband connection with a high bandwidth ceiling. *I* watch podcasts (not just video-gaming) on a regular basis but a lot of people I know are not as fortunate as me.
The article shouldn't address the problem of "Nobody watches online video-gaming TV" but more of "Nobody can watch a lot online video-gaming." Besides...I think the article confused cause and effect...It's "Nobody watches because nobody CAN" instead of "Nobody watches because nobody wants to."
I confess...I watched The Movie, Double Dragon.
You heard that correctly! Double Dragon was and is the Trailer Trash attraction of the moment, right next to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Movie, and Street Fighter, The Movie.
I am verry aroused when these video-game movies feature unknown or obsolete actors, especialy Fred Savage. Prrrrr. And I masterbated to one of those Double Dragon pictures in the above link. Can you guess which one?(HINT: It's somthing to do with that car with the UPC barcode plates.)
I think the biggest problem is that gaming as a medium isn't very conductive to being watched. That's why you see so much bullshit around the spectacle, as opposed to the actual gaming. There are cheerleaders in football, sure. But the action on the field is the focus. The same cannot be said for gaming, where the girl with the cheerleader looks gets the sponsorship, even if she can't tell a motherboard from a twinkie.
How can anyone take this seriously as sport? Smokescreens and lightshows and sponsorships are all part of any sufficiently advanced league, I suppose, but when the core of the activity is dependent on such cheap diversions to generate its excitement, you're left with a poor concept.
At the end of the day, you are manipulating a computer program. You may be among the very best in the world at manipulating said program, but it is still manipulating a program, and unlike sporting, any lazy couch potato in the world could actually be playing instead of watching you do the same.
Then again, Survivor is in its umpteenth season, so it's obvious my finger isn't on the pulse of "middle America."
Good thing I very much like it that way.
I don't even know what a Podcast is (I'm not really "up" with all these things), but, when it comes to video games, I don't want to watch or listen to someone talking about them. I like reading, I like text. I don't want to listen/watch someone talking about something that I can just read instead.
On the other hand, that's no different from how I am in general I suppose. I basically never watch television or movies (whether related to video games or not) or listen to the radio or music or anything like that, but I read plenty of books. Watching/listening to stuff just isn't something that I find enjoyable.
Ah well.
1% of the American public is about 300,000 people. I've heard several podcast claim subscription numbers higher than that. TWIT claim about 200,000 itself. Are they all lying? I do agree most videgame tv, online or otherwise, is pretty boting. But, it CAN be a great source of opinon, like a movie review. Or more about the culture (no not "G4TV culture"). One of the best video podcats I've seen is The 1UP Show. This is a show that would never fly on TV. But manages to give a real insight into the industry. It all has it's place. They just need to stop emulating TV.
I've tried on more than one occasion to get a "podcast" and the given site wanted me to "subscribe" with a "podcast program." Why can't I just get a link to the MP3 the way Allen Sniffen does? I don't want to subscribe, I just want a sample, thanks!
Maybe I missed something, but MP3 "podcasts" work just fine on my MP3 car CD player.
And while we're on Gaming TV, G4 stinks and I don't like it!
The 1up Show and 1up Your's Podcast are awesome examples of gamer podcasts. For me I listen to the Kojima Productions Report, CAG Cast, Chatter Box Radio, Retro Gamer Radio, and Dual Screen Radio.
Gaming podcasts serves a need for content to play on my car MP3 player since music tends to go old fast. Basically, all you need is a CDRW and a knack to download any content. As long as the community wants to provide more content, more power to them and gives us less insentive to listen to any RIAA sanctioned garbage crap.
Down with Clearchanel!
Podcasting requires:
1) an expensive piece of hardware
2) a substantially higher-than-average level of understanding of both the internet, and how to move the information from the internet onto the expensive hardware
3) excessive amounts of free time, to watch the hours of worthless crap
Between work, social life, family, Netflix, and the online gaming I squeeze into the spare hour or two per week, I don't even have a 'favorite' TV show because I simply don't have the time available to watch it on a regular basis.
If I don't have a spare hour this week, I certainly won't have the two spare hours next week, or the three hours after that, that would be required to watch a podcast AND catch up to the show.
(And this is only talking about marginally-interesting professionally-produced shows; as the OT says, there are 55,000 hours of crap of which a vanishingly small % is of any entertainment value whatsoever.)
Frankly, if I need to tote some small device to amuse myself during some intolerably 'free' time, they have this really cool thing called a book - fits in a pocket, uses NO batteries, you can get it (a little) wet and it's ok, heck it even works if you sit on or drop it. Plus you have a reasonably well-reviewed body of work going back at least 1000 years so you don't lack for content that you KNOW (or can at least reasonably expect) is rather good.
-Styopa