Two points on newbie streamers like Kohh

[Kereminde]

It's not trolling or abuse to say about a media company's product, "I'm willing to watch this with some ads (like youtube), but not pay a monthly fee." And I'm feeling like somehow HyperRPG is becoming a bit of a sacred cow around here because of its ties to HBS.

No, people are just really tired of people harping on 'mismanagement' we can't do anything about, the mods here can't do anything about, and the decisions are made for very real reasons - even if you don't agree with the outcome, there is a reason for it and . . . well, this forum isn't the venue for it. I don't defend them on this because I agree with it, only because I know they only have so many options.

I'm trying to talk to people and ask politely for them to post the sneak preview stream to YouTube. But given how much people hated it, bashed it, and its host here . . . would anyone care if they did? I don't think it's worth the time and effort to convince them to bother if it's just going to kick off another "oh god this person is terrible" fest.

 

[Deaghaidh]

Anyway to get back to the original point, the enthusiasm and "OMG I didn't expect that" factor of having total newcomers do the streams is endearing. But I'd love to see someone who is big into the BT universe lore do one. Not sure who fits that description, does streams, and isn't already working on BT though. But I'd never heard of any of the people who are doing the streams, because until this week I'd never even used twitch.

 

[Kereminde]

I'm even happier to hear Bombadil sticking up for the other streamers and pointing out we need to grow the fanbase to have these games break out and be big.

 

[CHH_Rampage]

I originally backed HBS BattleTech only because I am a fan of all things BT/MW and wanted to see it produced. I have never been a big fan of turn based games and was not sure I would ever play it despite dropping $50 on it. I played a little of the Backer Beta and thought it was OK. However, after seeing how far it has come and watching both cohh_carnage and Bombadil playing the opening series of missions, I can honestly say that I am blown away and I cannot wait to get my own hands on it. I am pretty sure that I will lose myself in the game for many hours and days. Thanks HBS!

 

[Gronk311]

Does Bombadil post his videos to YouTube?

 

[Ertwin]

We're so southern we're in the Seattle metro area of Washington.

Don't worry, we can annex you. The stealth Beavers are on the way.

 

[The Blade of Light]

(Mod edit: Publicly commenting on yellow mod posts is against site rules. Please review the rules, thank you. )

Anyway to get back to the original point, the enthusiasm and "OMG I didn't expect that" factor of having total newcomers do the streams is endearing. But I'd love to see someone who is big into the BT universe lore do one. Not sure who fits that description, does streams, and isn't already working on BT though. But I'd never heard of any of the people who are doing the streams, because until this week I'd never even used twitch.

I do not know if that would really help. People are already overwhelmed with the complexity of the game and the things they have to learn and absorve. Introducing them to a lore-heavy stream could make some of them give up on it. Being mystified is one thing, being flabbergasted is another.

For example, as a total newbie I find all the abbreviations most people use, hard to grasp, not to mention the advanced tactics or the lore-related posts and I have found myself scratching my head trying to figure out what is going on (especially that weapon efficiency discussion is totally beyond me with all the unexplained numbers and heat calculations).

Some lore is good, giving hints of grand things lurking underneath is a great way to attract.
A lot of lore in one go is bad though.

It is like being offered pizza. One pizza is good and most people will love it.
Ten pizzas at the same time .?. You won't find many people that can stomach that.[/QUOTE]

 

[Kereminde]

Would it have cost anything for HyperRPG to have the promotion/advertisement videos outside their payment structure .?. I do not know. I do know that some people were disgruntled without any real reason or gain for the company and that is never a solid idea.

Yes, well, that's what happens when people misrepresent the facts, but that's all I'll be saying.

I won't be posting anything more from Hyper RPG shows up on these forums, someone else will have to cover DFA when it comes back.

 

[Uncapathy]

Does Bombadil post his videos to YouTube?

NGNG does BUT haven't posted the Battletech pre-view run Bombadil is doing.

 

[Abbahala]

Do you mean newbie streamer as in newbie to the game or as a streamer? Because Cohh regularly gets anywhere between 20k and 50k viewers whenever he streams. A huge percentage of viewers at any time just want to watch him play games. Been following for a long time and yes he kinda makes newbie mistakes when he plays new games, he even states many times he is horrible at the game. But to be fair, as he progresses in the game he does get a lot better.

I do remember him saying many times he intentionally did not read up about the game beforehand to experience and learn it just as any casual gamer would. So it was quite funny sometimes but chat always provides good tips and we learn together. I guess many times the mistakes he made may be quite common for newcomers too.

 

[Chaon]

I originally backed HBS BattleTech only because I am a fan of all things BT/MW and wanted to see it produced. I have never been a big fan of turn based games and was not sure I would ever play it despite dropping $50 on it. I played a little of the Backer Beta and thought it was OK. However, after seeing how far it has come and watching both cohh_carnage and Bombadil playing the opening series of missions, I can honestly say that I am blown away and I cannot wait to get my own hands on it. I am pretty sure that I will lose myself in the game for many hours and days. Thanks HBS!

Yeah, there is such a big difference between the skirmish and the campaign play that it was a bit of a shock to see how much it was.

Even with cohh's learning as he played and talking and asking question from the stream viewers, his stream shows how much time it will take to do some of the storyline missions. The random missions will not take as long but even then, you can sink time into them as well.

So much good stuff has been shown and from what I gather, he is embargoed from showing the majority of the campaign. So even though we will see a bit of it, there will be so much more we will not see, so our own plays will be very interesting.

 

[CHH_Rampage]

Does Bombadil post his videos to YouTube?

You should be able to watch it as the latest video on NGNG.tv. It is not up on youtube yet but probably will be soon.

 

[TripleStrengthMisnomer]

Don't worry, we can annex you. The stealth Beavers are on the way.

Now now!...we're long past that whole annexation thing...HBS is welcome in Canada anytime. Perhaps some place like Vancouver? Hmmmm?

 

[Anarath]

Anyway to get back to the original point, the enthusiasm and "OMG I didn't expect that" factor of having total newcomers do the streams is endearing. But I'd love to see someone who is big into the BT universe lore do one. Not sure who fits that description, does streams, and isn't already working on BT though. But I'd never heard of any of the people who are doing the streams, because until this week I'd never even used twitch.

Actually Cohh is a big BattleTech fan and if you listen to the beginning of his second day stream a big backer, who chose not to get into the skirmish beta or the forums to have a completely fresh perspective on the game and it's mechanics. He is litereally learning on the fly as would a player who walks into a store sees a game on the shelf and goes... "I've got to play this one" ... I know I didi that a lot in the 80's and 90's.

 

[Kreivi]

For example, as a total newbie I find all the abbreviations most people use, hard to grasp, not to mention the advanced tactics or the lore-related posts and I have found myself scratching my head trying to figure out what is going on (especially that weapon efficiency discussion is totally beyond me with all the unexplained numbers and heat calculations).

Some lore is good, giving hints of grand things lurking underneath is a great way to attract.
A lot of lore in one go is bad though.

It is like being offered pizza. One pizza is good and most people will love it.
Ten pizzas at the same time .?. You won't find many people that can stomach that.

[/QUOTE]

Well, good thing for this game (and board game, RPG game and so on) is that you can play it first casually. Use same tactic all the time and so on. Like you can order one pizza once a month and eat it. But if you do it long enough you might try different things and learn new stuff. Like you might try out in years multiple different type of these pizzas.

What I mean is: during 80's I spend plenty of time for board and RPG game. During 90's I spend 3 year making different bots in Mechforce (Amiga) so I guess if I will spend multiple years playing this game it is likely that I allso end up reading all help info what is in the game, check for different boards in internet and try out even old info from 80's books what kind of mech were back then and try to build samekind and see how they fit.I think Nothwind Highlanders forexample will not fit (BKW-7R Black Watch use Light Gauss Rifle forexample) but bots like ENF-4R Enforcer (50T) or VLK Valkyrie (30T) (both are only for House Davion orginally from my Mechwarrior RPG book) most likely yes (well, if they are not in the game you can not get same engine like Enforcer had Nissan 200) same amount of armour, weapons and so on.

 

[jss78]

Yeah, I agree it's really important how the game resonates with people like Kohh. People who like strategy games, but are new to all things BT.

The franchise needs a new point of entry more than it needs anything else, and I think HBS BT is really promising.

What strikes me, watching people like Kohh, is that while some of us might want more depth in the game, it's really a fairly complex game. I think the game might currently be right at the limit of what's approachable enough for a complete neophyte.

Another thing is that the lore is an asset and it can be used to draw in new people. So put the lore out in the open -- even if aspects of it are confusing at first, it really gives the game a sense of depth.

Give people some lore to start with, and they're quick to develop their own "head canon", and that's a powerful, powerful thing to keep you engaged.

 

[Brother Diogenes]

Well, good thing for this game (and board game, RPG game and so on) is that you can play it first casually. Use same tactic all the time and so on. Like you can order one pizza once a month and eat it. But if you do it long enough you might try different things and learn new stuff. Like you might try out in years multiple different type of these pizzas.

Or in the case of BattleTech so far, eating the same pizza until you suddenly discover that the pizza place's sausage supply exploded, so you try substituting ham. The ham's okay, but you're not sure if the green peppers and olives go well with it, but you've always heard pineapple's a good complement... but oh no! You don't have pineapple in storage. You're going to have to start hunting down pineapple sections and assemble three of them before you can try it out.

And that's something I'm really liking so far. Getting your hands on new chassis and replacement parts can take real effort in this game, which is liable to force players to discover new strategies they previously dismissed or hadn't even considered.

 

[Deaghaidh]

I didn't realize that Kohh wasn't new to the franchise until I watched the second one. That makes some of the things he's struggling with (heat especially) odd to me, since they've been in every depiction of Battletech ever. Though 90% of his failures would have been avoided by slowing down a fraction of one second. Especially bad was when he ignored the overheat warning, overheated, then went into the settings to see if there was an overheat warning he could turn on.

While I like his enthusiasm, I much prefer Bombadil's streams. Probably because I don't need to see the basics for the first time. I get that he has a huge audience and that's great, but for the life of me I don't get why certain twitch streamers and other online influencers got such huge and loyal followings.

 

[Kereminde]

but for the life of me I don't get why certain twitch streamers and other online influencers got such huge and loyal followings.

For a lot of them? Because they're nice to their followers and viewers. I mean except for this guy he's terrible, like, the worst at video games. I don't know how he has roughly 20 million subscribers. (Warning: Sarcasm levels exceeding maximum tolerance.) Naturally, not all followings are built the same way and your mileage will definitely vary on whether you enjoy their presentation or not. But that's not what's important.

What's important is there are many people who do enjoy it. For whatever reasons, they tune in, they listen and watch. Some of those could just be duplicates, or sock puppets, or people who forgot to unfollow/unsubscribe after they stopped watching. Much like who knows how many people in a Twitch stream are actually paying attention or are there to hang out with other chatters, there to troll the host, or are just bots. Believe what you will, but there are people who like this thing. This isn't worthy of scorn, or getting torn down, and it's not worth turning a nose up at because it's not your thing.

If I knew how to do this sort of thing? I'd be putting together a studio and doing it. But I don't, so I can't, so I won't, and I really don't want to begrudge these people finding an audience who appreciates the time and money being spent on them - or the audiences who find someone they can connect to, be entertained by, and manage to forget life is a hungry shark tank and we're all people who had raw meat tied around our neck before being pushed in. These streamers are doing work like any improv performer, under much more intense stimuli, and have to be "in character"/"on brand" the entire time the camera is on - and beyond! I can't fathom dealing with that sort of stress to . . . perform, to be excellent, to be funny, to be personable and never let yourself crack lest it be on the Internet forever as a testament to why you shouldn't be watched.

I don't get how it works, exactly. I don't get how people get so many friends in reality when they can be total a- (I can't say that word) to people around them. I don't get it, but I don't need to understand how something like social patterns work to know they have value to people who buy into it. The viewers are like any of us - they want to connect to something bigger than themselves and feel at home. That's why there are huge followings, at the heart of it. Us humans are mostly tribal by nature, and it (often) fulfills a part of us to be part of something beyond ourselves. I mean . . . every single one of us here has something we connect to which we feel shame over, but we do bond with other people who share the same interests.

We don't need to understand how certain people gather followings, all we need to understand is why those gatherings exist. And, of course, we should respect them even if we don't want to join in. And it's fine not to join in, that doesn't make you weird, or crazy - there's more than enough room in the world for people to just . . .

. . . to just "not get it".

 

[Exemplar Voss]

I didn't realize that Kohh wasn't new to the franchise until I watched the second one. That makes some of the things he's struggling with (heat especially) odd to me, since they've been in every depiction of Battletech ever. Though 90% of his failures would have been avoided by slowing down a fraction of one second. Especially bad was when he ignored the overheat warning, overheated, then went into the settings to see if there was an overheat warning he could turn on.

While I like his enthusiasm, I much prefer Bombadil's streams. Probably because I don't need to see the basics for the first time. I get that he has a huge audience and that's great, but for the life of me I don't get why certain twitch streamers and other online influencers got such huge and loyal followings.

Usually its personality. It isn't just a matter of playing a game with the camera on, it's being entertaining while playing a game, and that's actually quite difficult. It's one of the reasons he doesn't stop to read or slow down except to read (ie, interact with) chat, or show off his family and pets (because cute pushes numbers up). While some (usually small) channels attract a devoted following for methodical or informative play, the really successful ones general don't. They kept things moving, even if they're playing naturally slower games like Civ or Xcom. Or Battletech.

While they may start as gamers, the more successful streamers are entertainers first, gamers second. It isn't all that different from any other media personality, except it's generally an unsupported leap into the abyss, and most fail to gain any traction.