Streaming Online Games

Monday September 9, 2013

Popular streaming site twitch.tv is pulling in 38 million viewers a month, by streaming video gamers playing and commenting on their games. The site’s goal is to “connect gamers around the world by allowing them to broadcast, watch, and chat from everywhere they play,” according to their website. Why not stream online go games as well, asks AGA member Royce Chen? ”Streaming go games, with entertaining and informative comments made by the streamers, could potentially attract the interest of young players, especially those who are already familiar with streams of conventional games,” says Chen. “The idea is to make videos like those by TheOddOne, a popular League of Legends player, who is known for providing entertaining commentary.”

The AGA would like to recruit volunteers of any playing strength, who would stream some of their online go games. All that’s needed is a webcam and a twitch.tv account. Live streams would be promoted on the AGA Facebook page, and archived recordings can also be submitted for uploading to the new Go AGA YouTube channel, which is being managed by Shawn Ray (AKA Clossius on Youtube). Anyone interested in streaming can email Royce Chen [roycechen.go@gmail.com] for more details. Ray also plans to promote lessons from several popular online go teachers on the new Youtube channel, with archived videos from both twitch and youtube available. Subscribe to the new channel to get updates on this content. -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor

Who the hell in the last few years has built a site that relies on flash? Twitch.tv, that's who. Useless on iOS and many other mobile devices.

I've been fairly diligent this time round and have been streaming regularly for the last week or so:

http://twitch.tv/shapenaji

They have mobile apps.

if you streamed your game against twoeye, I don't see it, which is sad. I rarely see him lose in <100 moves. well done!

http://www.twitch.tv/shapenaji/b/459229292

Starts at 12:41

I will say it would be nice to have the stream vods broken down into specific games / highlights. Some of the other vods start with a few minutes of technical difficulties or in the middle of a game (or streaming magnus carlsen playing scrabble).

I was actually planning to do this (independent of the AGA) just for fun, but I have been too busy. I have OBS setup to, I just have to find time to actually do it.

I've been fairly diligent this time round and have been streaming regularly for the last week or so:

http://twitch.tv/shapenaji

Who wants a mobile app for every website they visit?

Holy Strawman Batman.

Not quite... a straw man is when someone makes an argument against an argument that wasn't actually made. Skydyr is making the argument that he doesn't like flash because it requires him to have a separate app for every flash based website he visits (which is true and not a straw-man).

I think the Strawman is that you're vastly overestimating the reliability and compatibility of modern web apps.

I think the Strawman is that you're vastly overestimating the reliability and compatibility of modern web apps. I guess things are starting to reach a "good enough" point with the newer phones, but the browsers have been bad for quite a long time.

I do think the approach of building a responsive, standards compliant website is ultimately more accessible than writing a bunch of native apps, but the gap is smaller than you might think, and the native apps often have better performance and UI characteristics. Even discoverability is a less obvious of a distinction, since URLs present such a messed up UI for mobile devices.

Well, I also think that websites making heavy use of flash or other plugins for functionality are bad too, since they aren't easily searchable and don't link as well, though I realize many people disagree with me. Ideally, though, one would present video or other features in a standards compliant manner. Hopefully HTML 5 will help provide this, though it too may have issues.

http://www.twitch.tv/shapenaji/b/459229292

Starts at 12:41