Slashdot Mirror
Steam Broadcasting Now Open To Everyone
jones_supa writes: The beta test phase of Steam Broadcasting feature has been completed. It is now available to everyone by updating the client to the newest version. The feature allows users to watch and stream games to and from users on your friends list. Right-clicking the name of a friend who is in-game offers the option to "Watch Game." This will send a request which needs to be accepted by the player so that the spectator can hop in. A chat is also included. Steam Broadcasting was first announced late last year as an alternative to third-party streaming services like Twitch, Ustream and Hitbox.
Just don't turn it on. Easy peasy.
Settings, Broadcasting, change "Privacy Setting" to "Broadcasting disabled."
Although I'm pretty sure you have to explicitly choose to start broadcasting, although once you start, I could easily see Steam continuing to broadcast even after you left the game.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
with Steamcast? http://www.steamcast.com/
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
except corporate websense doesn't block /. whereas kotaku is, and earns me dirty looks from by boss when he is asked to review the audits...
I've found Steam's broadcasting feature to be quite handy for getting a handle on the basic mechanics of games with a steep learning curve, such as Crusader Kings II. If you tell a player you're watching him for the purposes of learning the game, he will often slow down and explain his actions.
I also like to watch FTL. It's fun to be a back-seat starship captain, and many of the players like it too, as having an extra set of eyes and ears can be helpful for catching things you might overlook: "Uhh, dude ... Your ship is on fire ... ".
It isn't open to everyone. It doesn't support any web browsers other than Chrome and Windows 8Internet Explorer. They won't be competing with Twitch anytime soon with those restrictions.
Who the hell wants to watch other people play games when you could be playing them yourself?
That's what I said. But then I started watching a few streams. You can pick up tactics, skills, ideas from streams. You can also help out new players, or watch a game you're interested in buying. It has it's uses.
And in the same response I have for people who point me at YouTube links to "teach me how to do something":
You're telling me it wouldn't be quicker to google a page of tips for the game?
Fuck sitting through a ten-minute video about how to click on a certain combination of buttons in some software, and double-fuck watching random streams to pick up game tactics as opposed to PLAYING THE FUCKING GAME against/with those same people.
I would. I am lousy at playing games, but I really like watching others play. And I am not alone
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I know what I'll be doing.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
i just dont get it TBH, i guess im just old now (29 haha) but i find the idea of watching other people that I dont know...play a game does nothing for me. I dont mind watching my friends play because, they are my friends. but I dont understand why people would want to watch people play a game. that to me is the definition of lazy. because you have got to be seriously lazy if you cant be bothered to pick up a controller to play and instead sit around watching people play.
Even worse is watching people talk about watching other people play games (like that south park season finale made fun of)
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
You're telling me it wouldn't be quicker to google a page of tips for the game? Fuck sitting through a ten-minute video about how to click on a certain combination of buttons in some software
These days, tactics and strategies aren't just like "Jump towards the opponent and press down, down-right, right+strong attack" Games are more complex, with some things "seeing" things can help. It also depends on the game. It's not a all or nothing thing.
The day I got Civilization 2 my friends sat around the Playstation all weekend to play it and shoot the shit. It's pretty much the same thing, except now I'm 1500 miles away when I bitch about Ghandi. And by the way, that South Park was a 2-parter.
...I dont understand why people would want to watch people play a game. that to me is the definition of lazy. because you have got to be seriously lazy if you cant be bothered to pick up a controller to play and instead sit around watching people play.
I have 2 kids. You can't "watch the kids" and play a video game (the types I enjoy playing anyway) effectively at the same time. One or the other is going to suffer. Watching someone play a videogame is not a substitute for playing myself but it passes the time while the kids watch Frozen (again). Playing video games really needs 95% of my attention. If I had 80% of my attention available, I would watch a TV show or Movie. Watching others play video games is a background media, something to do when I can only devote 30-50% of my attention to leisure.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
depends, i've got people on my friends list who my watching could probably improve my game. movement, aiming and such. the in-game spectator mode isn't phenomenal.
I adore watching speedruns. Okay, it's not the Olympics, but it's still fun to watch someone demonstrating a lot of skill.
Also to make streaming more personal--I remember that Zork: Grand Inquisitor had a multiplayer mode. It's your standard Mystlike first-person puzzle game, but you could let someone be a backseat driver, talk to you, point at things. It's not for everyone, but if you actually liked playing those games as a group and someone's moved across the country...yeah, pretty nice.
sometimes you get to a point where nothing you do is making you good enough to beat those people. and maybe spectating some of them might help.
i'm probably somewhere near the point where spectating some of the better players in ns2 will help me against them or against people like them.
I found out by accident (when the kids tried to stream a game on my computer while I was doing something else), that if you log in multiple locations at the same time, you can remote control the other by streaming a game from it, then on the computer to be controlled, alt-tab to the application you want to share.
My son took over my game from me (trying to play a kids game on steam, only the appropriate ones are loaded, and if you are logged on multiple times, the most recent is "primary" and the rest secondary, and you can stream a game from the primary, but not run it locally, unless you go offline.
After figuring that out, I've played with it some as a remote-control program. Steam RDP.
Learn to love Alaska
I've never had that work for me. What did they do to make it do that was always my issue. I know what to do, but do it poorly. Watching someone play golf well won't make you an expert, unless *they* watch you and tell you what you did wrong.
Learn to love Alaska
Why do you hate choice?
Learn to love Alaska
While you can watch streams on Linux and OSX, you can't broadcast with those OS's, not yet anyway. Minecraft's built in streaming doesn't work on Linux either, and Linux users still don't have that promised OBS port.
The expression "a picture is worth one thousand words" comes to mind. Sometimes it's far easier for a video to highlight something than it is for us to read a text description. For example, navigating a 3D environment in order to locate some items for yet another idiotic fetch quest, especially if we're new to that environment and it's not entirely clear where everything is at yet.
Does it help if I do this? I know a LOT of people who watch other people play sports and somehow that is OK.
"i just dont get it TBH, i guess im just old now (29 haha) but i find the idea of watching other people that I dont know...play SPORTS does nothing for me. I dont mind watching my friends play because, they are my friends. but I dont understand why people would want to watch people play SPORTS.
Even worse is watching people talk about watching other people play SPORTS (Sportscenter?)"
It's rm -rf /*, get it right.
Also that's only when you launch Steam for Linux if your Steam data directory is a symlink or if you use steam.sh --reset without having Steam installed.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
My circle of friends do it to show stuff to each other - "look at this cool thing I did!" or "hey, I can't figure out why this isn't working."
We don't often watch each each other play just for the sake of it.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Tactics and strategies you can absorb this way, but physical skills (eg, aiming) are more like your golf example. Knowing that you should avoid the sand pit doesn't mean squat if you can't get the ball to land in front of you more than half the time.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Someone should tell Twitch that their business isn't necessary.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Who the hell wants to watch other people play games
Only a few hundred millions of people...
https://www.youtube.com/result...
when you could be playing them yourself?
Only idiots that think and insist those two things are exclusive and that you can't do both.
Watching someone golf will never tell you that your problem is under (or over) rotation of the wrists (a common problem). As that detail is hard to see in someone else swinging. Watching games seems mostly like that for me. I see you are spinning around and jumping in a physics-defying move. But I don't see that your fingers work together to adjust aim when jumping in a second-nature way so as you jump up, you target down to keep the crosshairs on the same target.
Learn to love Alaska
I got my first one when I was 5, my really nice one when I was 8.
Amazingly enough, electronics were more fun than explosives; hooda thunkit?
Your kids will do better if you're only there for the bigger problems; hovering is not good.
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
Good call. I watch sports, but I used to play but you have a valid sports ftfy there
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Umm... you can't watch a friend while waiting for his game to finish via a pre-recorded video...
What if you don't own the game, and just want to see your friend demo it? Or your friend is showing you how to find the secret level, but without all the hassle of making a video. Yes, it's not very special I agree.
There are a few other uses but those come with drawbacks of having to add strangers to your friends list. Which maybe says it all right there; it's about social networking, so if you still think twitter or instagram are a bit weird then no way would this make sense.
I suspect that's been done already.
Me and my friends regularly watch each other play dota2 while we are waiting for everyone to join the same party to get a game rolling.
nah, movement tricks, positioning, how often they check their six etc, how they fight certain enemies, not necessarily tactically, but if it's just aim/reaction or if it's something else. how long they take traversing the map, and how long do they spend entering a room etc etc. what they aim for in a clusterfuck etc etc.
also, for smaller games that don't have massive followings. could help sharing information.
I watch game-play videos to see if a game is worth buying and sometimes to get ideas about how to play more effectively.
I thought it said "Steampunk" broadcasting... ;-(
Anonymous Coward
Why do people watch sports?
How do you get to 29 years of age and still not understand this?
Anonymous Coward Posts Ill-Informed Opinion
"I'm a big idiot", later added.
Are you trying to counter the OPs point, or re-enforce it? ;)
Watching or playing sport has zero appeal for me; watching people play video games is pretty much the same. People talking about sport makes me want to gnaw a limb off to escape from the conversation.
... People talking about sport makes me want to gnaw a limb off to escape from the conversation.
Ha! You and me, both.
But then, I never had a chance to learn all of the details of the sports in question. Maybe that makes a difference.
You sat around playing Civilization 2 and injecting heroin?
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Same reason people watch other people play sports.
Hell, in most IRC channels, people do exactly what they do in a Twitch chatroom, but they don't even have anything shared to watch!
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Well, one of the things I like to watch on twitch is Spelunky runs. Every run is different (random levels, don't you know), and the streamer interacts with chat in between levels (sometimes in the middle of levels, if they're reckless). They also have a "death roulette" function, so you can compete in guessing how the streamer will kick it, obviously that's one thing that won't work with prerecorded video.
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
If there's a specific piece of knowledge you want to get, reading the wiki is better. However, if you don't know much about the game and just want to learn as much as possible, watching it being played is far better. Sometimes videos are better even for specific knowledge (think for instance Super Meat Boy levels).
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Who the hell wants to watch other people sing at the opera when you could be singing yourself?
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.