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Northern Ireland20858 Posts
Interesting read, must say wasn’t something I’d previously thought about much
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It must be disheartening to see those crazy influencer numbers while doing an "honest" cast, but it doesn't make much sense to argue that all those people are just fans of the influencer and not contributing to the eSport's health, but get upset that they aren't watching the "main" broadcast. If they really are just there for the influencer, then they wouldn't have any interest in the main broadcast anyway, so the influencer hasn't "stolen" them. Contributing temporary numbers to an eSport is better than contributing no numbers.
Hell, if there wasn't a Tasteless doing those funny GOMTV casts that I may never have fallen in love with professional Starcraft, with my LAN party days long behind me. One might say Tasteless is a "real" caster, but I've seen posts on these very forums that would cast him as an "influencer" with insufficient game knowledge. So I don't think it's completely fair to say a popular influencer joining in with a game doesn't mean much.
The piece sort of came across to me a bit salty. Like "these influencers with their sheep fanbases pull in so many numbers for doing nothing". Which okay, probably true but if it's a problem, it's a world problem not an eSports problem.
All that said, I'm actually quite sympathetic to the point being raised here, and for example League of Legends has ex-pros doing co-streams of the live games that function somewhat as "influencer" streams, but with more cred and do quite a bit to set the tone of the game's pro scene. Arguably for the negative. It does raise questions to me about co-streaming, and the amount of money that goes into putting on the main broadcast (for Riot this is quite a bit). Integrating ex-pros into official content has been well received in LoL, so it's possible the suggestion of combined broadcasts instead of co-streams is still a good one.
Done right. If these influencers really are so clueless about the games they're casting (or should we say "reacting to"? :p), it's also easy to imagine horror scenarios where bringing one on just totally sinks the official cast.
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Well if these influencers just share content they didn't create but just stream on their channels, why not monetize this somehow?
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It's monetized already. It's marketing. This whole argument falls apart the moment you understand that many of those watchers would not be watching the stream if it was not because of the influencer, streamer, or whatever, in the first place.
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Commentating/Casting anything is first and foremost entertainment. If the commentary is also knowledgeable and so on is 100% secondary issue.
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If the viewer gets to choose I think it's great.
Personally, I never watch influencer streams, since I am interested in the game itself first and foremost, but I'm assuming the vast majority of people watching these secondary streams would not watch the primary stream even if it was the only offering.
This approach means more views, and more views is always better for the game.
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Looks like someone is envy that they can't become an influencer
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I get what FunKa is saying, but even without counting the average Reddit troll, it still may come as a snob POV. I don't personally view influencer streams, but there's tastes for everybody.
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