Well this looks....

W

Wolfeman

Member
I have never understood the fascination people have with watching other people play video games or with broadcasting their own gameplay but apparently it's big enough for Steam to get in on the action too. Steam is introducing a broadcasting service...

http://store.steampowered.com/news/15117/

http://steamcommunity.com/updates/broadcasting


I wonder if you can opt out of letting people watch you play or if it will tell you when people are watching you.
 
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Bird got a request to watch him play today. I believe he denied it. Now I know what that was about.

I wouldn't mind a few people watching me but if people were going to do it en masse I'd totally be monetizing it on youtube. The only use of this service would be for the friend who wants to see what another is playing and if they wish to join them. Though from Steam's perspective it's a marketing scheme to get friends to advertise their wares to each other. Friend A will casually talk about how great the game they are playing is to friend B. Later on friend B sees friend A playing on Steam and gets curious. I am weird though generally the more videos on a game I watch the less interested I become.

Wolfeman said:
I have never understood the fascination people have with watching other people play video games or with broadcasting their own gameplay but apparently it's big enough for Steam to get in on the action too. Steam is introducing a broadcasting service...
Click to expand...

For the majority I think it's a social bonding thing. Popular Youtubers embody their viewing audience and reinforce their values and behavior. From some Youtube comments you'd think they know some of makers personally. Unfortunately Youtube behavior is generally vulgar and to a degree faked/forced resulting in rather bad role models. For the minority they just want to see the game. For me what is the point of spending money on a linear plot driven game when you could just watch it and skip the grind and expense. Unlike most I don't feel accomplished by games designed around you feeling empowered by grinding out levels (of which are many). Anyone can grind monsters to get powered up so what's the point but to pad your game's time out? So I just watch someone else play. Though I watch many games I have no interest in just wanting to keep informed... and because there is nothing else to watch XD. I've reached my limit break on most modern and anime things because of idiotic morals and plots. The few decent things that remain I save to watch with my parents.

Graphics have advanced but gameplay remains virtually the same as a decade (or more) ago. It's depressing people are so unoriginal but also optimistic in that I have ideas no one else has done right ^^.
 
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I would be more surprised if Valve didn't find a way to allow players to monetize broadcasting gameplay, though how they'll do it is anyone's guess.

I'd like to use this feature to watch people on my Steam friends list play games I don't own before making purchasing decisions. I'd also like to show my Steam friends some of the less common games in my library that I enjoy. This way, if someone asks me what a game is like, I can just let them watch me play it (with the disclaimer that I'm the father of a 3-year old and a month-old baby and may need to pause or go AFK at any given moment to take care of my kids).

And Gerbil, there's still excellent new anime being made. Like any media, the majority of the content isn't worth your time, but there have been some fantastic series in recent years (Silver Spoon immediately comes to mind and I strongly recommend it).
 
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