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If that was true, they would be doing it without games - they would just be sitting there and chatting for example. But since they don't, it mostly means that f

If that was true, they would be doing it without games - they would just be sitting there and chatting for example. But since they don't, it mostly means that for those streamers people would not have watched them without the game being played, so the question of whether the game or streamer is at 90% of value it quite open.

panic 7y ago
"Just Chatting" is so popular on Twitch there's an entire category for it: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Just%20Chatting https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Just%20Chatting
- Mirioron 7y ago
  And quite often it is the most popular category on the site.
- Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
  Exactly, it is a different category with usually different people in it. And likely different people watching this category than the ones watching games.
bradenb 7y ago
No. The games are just the common ground between the streamer and the audience. Remove the common ground and it's not as much fun. Sure, the streamer's personality might be sufficient for a video by itself, but I suspect both sides want the game there to serve as a vehicle for progressing the social interaction.
sushibowl 7y ago
> If that was true, they would be doing it without games - they would just be sitting there and chatting for example. This argument is flawed because 1) many streamers do exactly that, and 2) just because a streamer is not interesting when he's not playing a game doesn't mean that all the value is coming from the game. A juggler is not interesting without balls, does that mean it's the balls providing 90% of the value? Given that: * many streamers spend a substantial amount of their time just sitting and chatting with viewers, no game being played. * if it was the game providing the value, you could just show a recorded playthrough without a streamer there to interact with the viewers, but this is not very popular. * many streamers can play any game at all and draw a large viewership, but there are no games that any person can just start streaming and easily draw a large viewership It seems fairly clear to me that the streamer contributes much more value to a livestream than the game being played.

panic 7y ago

"Just Chatting" is so popular on Twitch there's an entire category for it: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Just%20Chatting https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Just%20Chatting

Mirioron 7y ago
And quite often it is the most popular category on the site.
Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
Exactly, it is a different category with usually different people in it. And likely different people watching this category than the ones watching games.

bradenb 7y ago

No. The games are just the common ground between the streamer and the audience. Remove the common ground and it's not as much fun. Sure, the streamer's personality might be sufficient for a video by itself, but I suspect both sides want the game there to serve as a vehicle for progressing the social interaction.

sushibowl 7y ago

> If that was true, they would be doing it without games - they would just be sitting there and chatting for example. This argument is flawed because 1) many streamers do exactly that, and 2) just because a streamer is not interesting when he's not playing a game doesn't mean that all the value is coming from the game. A juggler is not interesting without balls, does that mean it's the balls providing 90% of the value? Given that: * many streamers spend a substantial amount of their time just sitting and chatting with viewers, no game being played. * if it was the game providing the value, you could just show a recorded playthrough without a streamer there to interact with the viewers, but this is not very popular. * many streamers can play any game at all and draw a large viewership, but there are no games that any person can just start streaming and easily draw a large viewership It seems fairly clear to me that the streamer contributes much more value to a livestream than the game being played.