Constructive Stream feedback thread
I know there is some discussion in the other thread about this topic, but I think it warrants its own thread.
For those that watched the stream know that it wasn't of the best quality. But instead of focusing what was bad, let's use this thread to focus on how we can make it better.
1) Sound quality and volume: Try and check it in advance. Momi was okay regarding volume, but the other guy (what was his name?) was both too loud and too quiet. What I mean by that: You could hear his breathing and when Momi said something in his direction we could hear Momi twice. But when he was talking I couldn't understand a word. I'm guessing that it's probably his mike was set up too sensitive. It took every sound it could hear, including breathing and background noises. But because he thought he was too loud he wasn't talking loud enough. So try the volume settings out in advance and check the sensitivity-setting.
2) The point of the stream. It's an honest question, really. When starting the stream, what were you trying to bring to your players? We've all seen the cards. We've all read about the cards. We've all theorized about the cards. But what we haven't done is played with the cards. So what a community probably wants to see from you is twofold:
a) Seeing decks featuring some of the new cards
b) Theorizing about the new cards.
Regarding a: It would have been nice to see some showmatches at a decent level between decks based on the new cards. Make sure you practiced with the decks a bit in advance so you don't need to read your cards on stream and know how to react to a certain situation.
Regarding b: What we heard now is: "This card is definitely one of my favorite new cards."
What we wanted to hear: "This card is definitely one of my favorite new cards, because of reason x and y. And did you think of the (non-obvious) interaction with card z? I think this card will see play in decks like A and B because of these reasons." See the difference?
3) Peter. Actually, I liked Peter. He was honest. Answered difficult questions. He had the most clear voice of all three and actually would like to see him stream again. But, why wasn't he shown when talking? We never saw who he was. It's what makes the difference between a podcast and a stream. Anyway, I'd like to see more of Peter.
4) Giveaways; Well, you did it at the end, but global codes are way more friendly to your players watching than just giving away random codes that one guy can get. Raffling is also a lot more fun and gives everyone even odds of winning a code. It also takes up way more time and activates your chat, which is great to keep people engaged. Now I'm not saying that you should raffle all stream long, but I think they're a better way of giving away codes.
I do would like to note that mobile watchers are left in the cold. I was watching on my iPad and am completely left out of any giveaway. I know it's hard to please everyone, but you might want to take that into account since I didn't even get the global code even though I watched the stream.
5) Don't pay too much attention to the negativity of the chat. Don't get me wrong, answering questions from chat is great. I love it. However, don't let all the trolls on there get you down. Honestly, it's a bad culture of streaming, so try not to look to deeply into it. But keep an eye on it so you know instantly when something is wrong, because chat will tell you.
Some other thoughts and comments:
- Watch other people stream and see how they do it. Also, there is a big difference between a revealing stream, a tournament and just a player playing. Make sure to study the right type of stream. Here's a link of a very recent release stream done by Blizzard. And although it wasn't perfect in all aspects, it's still a great stream that did almost all the things mentioned above correctly:
http://www.twitch.tv/playhearthstone/c/6438751
- Know your cards and know what you talk about. Try either to play a lot with the new cards in advance, or try to get an expert player on the stream who has played already with the cards (VIP testing group?)
- A lot of the things mentioned on the stream by Peter were nice to know, like why there isn't draft. But why couldn't we hear this a lot earlier? It's one day before release and we hear about it now, but I think it could have been mentioned at least a few weeks ago. A sincere post like: "Players, we're sorry to tell that draft will not be in the next patch because of reason X and Y. However we'll do our utmost best to bring you the best quality as soon as we can." Something like that but a bit more nuanced. Silence isn't well appreciated by the players. And especially not a big reveal of the expansion wgere players have to find out themselves that there isn't draft in it although everyone was expecting it.
Anything else? Additional constructive feedback is much appreciated, but keep it civil people.
iClipse