Why Developers Need To Stop Taking Streamers More Seriously Than The Rest Of Their Players.

This has been a running theme in the later half of the 10's, developers will actively seek out input directly from streamers and some may even change the course of the game directly based on what active and popular streamers have to say about it, there are some notable cases like PUBG, Rust and GTA V, and for the most part it's relatively harmless, there's just a big problem, gaming like everything is subjective and it can lead to some pretty stupid and weird game play changes, likewise it has the opposite effect sometimes where developers will actively ignore streamers complaints simply because they're streamers, How you doing Brenden Greene, so today we're going to look at some of the pros and cons of developers listening to streamers for input.

Gaming is Subjective

Like any form of free form art, gaming is subjective and as such it should be treated like that, unfortunately a lot of streamers take their own opinions as facts and sadly a lot of developers will do this as well, the best instance I have of this is Rust, during it's transition from Legacy to New, there was a lot of downtime and things that needed to be fixed, thankfully Garry and FacePunch are amazing developers but they fell into this trap when streamers and a very very vocal minority started what is essentially a crusade with the gun play of the game.

Anyone who remembers Legacy Rust remembers the gun play was amazing, it was HitScan and didn't really have the shoehorned "realism" that most games suffer from, however a few streamers, not naming names, and a small part of the community decided this was bad and it needed to be changed to the "realism" that most games where getting involved in, it was a fucking shit show for months when they decided to do this, first of all it didn't work properly because it wasn't how the game was set up, secondly it let people basically exploit the shooting mechanics of the game since the way it was set up, nothing short of a headshot to the back of the head would down someone and it just didn't work.

The Aim cones of the game were woefully destroyed when they attempted this and Garry and Co spent months trying to fix this before they finally scrapped it and went back to the tried and tested gun play of Rust and everything went back to be awesome, this is only a small part but it was pushed on the majority because Garry listened to a small playerbase they felt was more valuable and finally realized were just complaining about the game because it wasn't their personal vision of the game, anyone who knows video game development knows that it's literally impossible to cater to every individual person.

Streamers aren't important to developers.

This sentiment might piss some people off but it's true, streamers are great for 2 things, entertainment and getting your game recognized, most streamers only have a very basic understanding of video game development and tech limitations, they aren't exactly in the best position to make choices on gaming, again, How you doing Brenden Greene, i'm not saying they can't help with development or aren't great for bug catching but playing video games and designing them are two incredibly different things, for example iv'e been a gamer for over 20 years now, I play every day and play a lot of games, but it's not that that gives me the ability to criticize or praise.

Iv'e been pretty high up in a lot of games over the years, Counter-Strike, C&C, Warcraft, Dota, World of Warcraft, the list goes on, but for all my experience that isn't what gives me a unique perspective, it's because iv'e been following game design and technology development in tandem to playing games, most streamers don't, they load up a game, put on their cams and let their personalities do the rest, like I said, great for exposure of your product, not exactly great for design choices, probably the only well known streamer i'd say is in that position to give this advice, as much as I'm loathe to say it, is DrDisrespect since he understands game development at a fundamental level.

Now like I said, I have no problem with streamers, I enjoy the eyes they put on video games, but they aren't more important than the average gamer, they're celebrities and should largely be treated as such, the problem is with fame, comes following and with following comes blind obeisance that streamers know what they're talking about when in actuality they really don't, ask an active streamer what tessellation does and what it needs to work properly and you'll soon find out they know about as much as the rest of us do when it comes to gaming design, thankfully most triple A titles don't fall into this trap, but with the rise of the indie market, we're seeing what are essentially celebrities dictate gameplay for the rest of us.

Not as bad as i'm making it out to be.

I know I have a flair for being dramatic and often times a lot of the things i've brought up aren't rampant problems, but this is sort of the slippery slope mentality, is that enough streamers are dictating multiplayer game play now that it's been caught by my radar and many others, but thankfully this has largely stayed in the indie scene with triple A titles largely ignoring this a part from very big "campaigns" of people like the Battlefront 2 fiasco, but as someone who does play a lot of...lets say double A titles, it's annoying when a big streamer can complain about something, then suddenly it's a problem that needs to be fixed.

The gaming industry has changed over the past few years, bug testing, alpha and beta testing are all now a marketing campaign in the form of Early Access, and they rely on word of mouth to get their product spread, unfortunately this also means whoever has the biggest word of mouth can usually influence the direction of the game for better or worse, in Rust' case it was for the worse and for games like PUBG, it became about placating the streamers with stupid "invitationals" when the game wasn't even ready to be called a beta.

But I did say it wasn't as bad as it seems and it's not, its just getting there, sort of like loot boxes in the early 10's, everyone said it wouldn't be a problem, now it's the scourge of the industry, and for better or worse I don't like people having influence of the market, top streamers like Shroud or acculite can heavily sway opinion on games, I know i have a modest following now, but I actively seek to make sure people know that this is just my opinion, it's not gospel and it shouldn't be treated as more important than your own opinion, but sadly it's getting to become a cult of personality with some of these streamers.

Like every thing that is just popping up in the gaming industry, only time will tell, and I wanted to make it clear that there are some great streamers out there pushing games in the right direction, but ideally i'd rather companies stick to their guns and create their own vision, instead of pandering to an artificial market where whoever is the loudest in the most right.

Thanks for taking the time to read my article, if you enjoyed it feel free to up-vote,resteem or follow me for more content, how do you guys feel about streamers and their influence on the market? let me know in the comments below, thanks guys!