Slashdot Mirror
How Game Streaming Went From Shaky Webcams To the PS4
An anonymous reader writes "A slightly different take on Sony's PS4 semi-launch this week. This article traces the history and growing trend of capturing/recording and streaming your gameplay on the internet, from the early days of Let's Play articles with screenshots to today, where pro-gamers make money by playing live on Twitch.tv, and the technology is built into the PlayStation 4: 'Multiplayer video games have been around since the beginning — just look at Pong. Sony's real breakthrough with the PS4 might not be the specs, but its ability to turn every game you play into a multiplayer one.'"
HAHAHA!
Tell that to AVG/VGA, AVGN, Angry Joe, PewDiePie, TobyGames, Game Grumps, Machinima...the list goes on. Basically, what I'm getting at is that people already make a living off of "Let's Play" videos on YouTube/TwitchTv/Rev3.
How about you stop telling people what to do? Nobody cares about your "never gonna happen" attitude when it's already been done.
Where have you been hiding? There is a massive audience for watching people gaming. Perhaps a game that you haven't played nor will you ever. Perhaps an old game that you are unlikely to ever touch. Perhaps you're watching a very skilled person in a competitive game. Maybe someone with great commentary and an enjoyable sense of humor. I sometimes enjoy watching people game (or sometimes just have it on in the back ground) the same way I would enjoy watching people participate in any sport that I competed in, myself, at one time.
Youtube is filled with this and the successful ones have hundreds of thousands or even millions of views. The entire twitch.tv network is built on nothing but live streaming gaming.
The only real problem is the incredible copyright headache that is involved. I don't see how anyone can find doing this worthwhile, when confronted with the reality of the imbalanced and unpredictable copyright that could turn your hobby or livelihood (yes, some of these guys make a living at this, apparently) upside down overnight, just because someone decided to target your stream with a DMCA slap.
Another poster, below, already mentioned a lot of people making serious money doing this for a living. Some less than others, but there's a lot of money to be made for some of these guys simply for playing a game and recording it (or live streaming it). Why shouldn't they, if there's an audience for it? Granted, some are better than others. There are some that are built around nothing but personality (for example, that PewDiePie guy who is obnoxious and spastic and only appeals to toddlers) and some that are built around skill. Others around explaining tips or tricks or offering walkthroughs.
Seriously, there are guys streaming their gameplay on youtube that earn six figure salaries from it. It's insane.
Lets hope Publishers and developers don't decide that now every game must have a multiplayer component, no matter how little it makes sense. I'm looking at you Dead Space.
To be fair, that's my general attitude, also. I guess it's just human nature. That's why I responded to that previous Slashdot article about the open source emoji stuff by kicking in a few bucks. Sometimes I find that is a good way to counter my initial reaction of "I AM OLD AND WHAT IS THIS NEW THING I AM SO SCARED OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND NEW IDEAS!"
Anyway, I find watching people playing games fun, because I like playing games. Same way I like watching some sports, because I used to enjoy playing them. And of all the drivel on youtube and other streaming services, people playing videogames are far more constructive and less hideous than most of the content. Good on them for doing something potentially constructive (which is weird to say about video games, in a way).
Sony's real breakthrough with the PS4 might not be the specs, but its ability to turn every game you play into a multiplayer one.
This is not a breakthrough. They already did this with the PS3. Every time I turned the thing on I found myself stuck in a multiplayer game. When I wanted to stream Netflix videos, I'd spend 30-60 minutes in a tug of war between Sony, Netflix, Content Owners and Content Pirates... The Content Pirates would get an edge on Netflix, which would update its software to keep the Content Owners happy, but Sony would make the customers update over their network and lock up the machine for an hour once a week. That game got old so I stopped playing. When I wanted to use OtherOS, I found myself stuck in a multiplayer game between the hobbyists, Sony's marketing department, Sony's software developers, and Sony's legal team. Ultimately, that game got old too, so I stopped playing.
One would think Sony would learn from this, but even if one head of the Sony hydra learned, it couldn't focus on the concept for very long because the other heads are too busy snapping at it.
I don't really want to watch someone else playing games either... yet I do watch other people working, eating and even having sex. Hell, the watching other people have sex industry is gigantic. And the BBC has a watching other people eat show every 30 minutes (and to humorless moderators, that is a joke, not a statement to be taken as literal claim to the BBC programming, that would be every 15 minutes).
And even the NFL comment is wrong... people pay to watch people remove toilets from buildings in Dirty Jobs. Watch mental retards fail to find gold in the ground but find it in broadcasting deals in stead. Hell Big Brother was nothing more then people sitting in their living room watching other people sitting in theirs. And it was a massive hit.
Lets analyse OC choppers. They aren't doing anything fancy or hightech. By watching it, you are not finding out how other people live their lives. It are just a bunch of overly fat rich white guys who suck at planning (did they EVER just start building a bike on time so it was finished in plenty of time) building gay bikes. How many seasons did it run?
Compared to that, watching someone else game... well it could hardly be anymore boring could it? And really the entire sports industry has proven for decades that people are willing to pay top dollar to watch someone else be marginally better at something that doesn't matter. Why cares who put a little ball the most times in the net? Most of the planet it seems.
I agree, it is time for Humanity 2.0 lets call this run a proof of concept and get god/evolution to do a radical redesign and come up with something less couch potato who doesn't fold at the knees at the sign of a crown, oscar or MVP award.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Yeeeeees... and while a lot of people love watching the Superbowl, it's kinda tedious to watch some little league games.
I hope you see the SLIGHT difference between watching a professional do what he is really good at, and watching some self absorbed geek pretend to be someone special.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
So it's already multiplayer when one guy plays a game and others watch?
In that case it's not that new. Even PacMan was multiplayer by that definition. Granted, mostly because we were waiting for that idiot to finally spend his last quarter so we can get a turn, but...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
People watch GOLF.
Watching video games is way more exciting.
People PAY to watch Golf.....
multiplayer - a mode of play involving more than one player at one time in a computer or video game
Someone needs to learn English.
The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
...is considered multiplayer can watching porn then be considered group sex?