What Is The Purpose Of A Dev Stream?

[ibilibertas]

What Is The Purpose Of A Dev Stream?

I too somewhat like the playful environment Gwent Devs are trying to have in their stream with their favorite YouTubers and Streamers. Mainly though i watch a Dev stream to get more insight on what is to come, why these changes are made, were they want their game to head etc. I thought putting so many resources on a stream should meant something more than what writing about can. Otherwise just post the patch notes on Reddit/Forums and be done with it.



Now, off topic...Many of us, i think, like CDPR not just because they give quality content and good games, but also because they do not follow the same buisnes tactics as the rest of the gaming industry as a whole. One of the things that most draw me into them was their transparency, their general behavior was in contrast to mainstream. Meaning they actually try to noe exploit passive consumerism, which btw. thrives in 21st century. They live among us. GOG and DMR free etc. And even the polish gvt. gave them money to develop games with even more depth and innovations. How more proud can you be than to see the president of your country giving the Witcher game to B.Obama. Awesome! So they are unique, we love them.



But i feel here, at least for me, they are showing some inexperience. I go to watch a Dev stream because i want answers, because i have questions and i hope to get an idea of their thought process. I do not understand the point of wasting resources to make a stream were you basically say, "this becomes a 6 from a 7", "this becomes a 12 from 1" and you end the stream, without even addressing any questions whatsoever.



There's this MOBA game i like to occasionally play called "Paragon" from Epic Games and their stream is the perfect example of why a Dev team should spend resources for doing a Stream. They explain thoroughly on the ins and outs and the whole kit of a hero, then the whole design process, and after everything they start answering questions on the live feed. That it, simple, no rocket science involved and no famous YouTubers were needed to be greeted. The world knows about their existence regardless.



Thanks.

 

[Nimraphel]

I too somewhat like the playful environment Gwent Devs are trying to have in their stream with their favorite YouTubers and Streamers. Mainly though i watch a Dev stream to get more insight on what is to come, why these changes are made, were they want their game to head etc. I thought putting so many resources on a stream should meant something more than what writing about can. Otherwise just post the patch notes on Reddit/Forums and be done with it.



Now, off topic...Many of us, i think, like CDPR not just because they give quality content and good games, but also because they do not follow the same buisnes tactics as the rest of the gaming industry as a whole. One of the things that most draw me into them was their transparency, their general behavior was in contrast to mainstream. Meaning they actually try to noe exploit passive consumerism, which btw. thrives in 21st century. They live among us. GOG and DMR free etc. And even the polish gvt. gave them money to develop games with even more depth and innovations. How more proud can you be than to see the president of your country giving the Witcher game to B.Obama. Awesome! So they are unique, we love them.



But i feel here, at least for me, they are showing some inexperience. I go to watch a Dev stream because i want answers, because i have questions and i hope to get an idea of their thought process. I do not understand the point of wasting resources to make a stream were you basically say, "this becomes a 6 from a 7", "this becomes a 12 from 1" and you end the stream, without even addressing any questions whatsoever.



There's this MOBA game i like to occasionally play called "Paragon" from Epic Games and their stream is the perfect example of why a Dev team should spend resources for doing a Stream. They explain thoroughly on the ins and outs and the whole kit of a hero, then the whole design process, and after everything they start answering questions on the live feed. That it, simple, no rocket science involved and no famous YouTubers were needed to be greeted. The world knows about their existence regardless.



Thanks.

I agree completely. And I have to echo that CDPR is unique amongst developers, and I have the utmost respect for their work.

However, as you point out, it seems... inexperienced. I wish they'd take a page out of StarCraft 2's dev-community interaction and way of presenting design philosophy and developer commentary. Although numbers changes are important, they can essentially be presented in a press release/statement/patch document in advance. What would be interesting is the thought process. The design vision. Why were things changed, which direction are they going, what are they trying to achieve with the changes, why do they see certain things as problematic and others as not problematic?

Giving more insight into those aspects rather than slaving through numbers change after numbers change while twitch chat explodes in hurr-durr mindless emojis would be refreshing and interesting. It would also create a more organic community, after a lot of people on the public forums felt blindsided by the sweeping closed -> open beta changes.

 

[RickMelethron]

But i feel here, at least for me, they are showing some inexperience. I go to watch a Dev stream because i want answers, because i have questions and i hope to get an idea of their thought process. I do not understand the point of wasting resources to make a stream were you basically say, "this becomes a 6 from a 7", "this becomes a 12 from 1" and you end the stream, without even addressing any questions whatsoever.

the point is to reassure people that they're making changes.

if not, everyone would just keep ranting about gold weather and X archetype being bad/good until the very day of the patch. this is them saying "guys, relax, we're fixing this and this"

as for "spending resources", how much do you think it costs for a 40 min after-hours stream..?

There's this MOBA game i like to occasionally play called "Paragon" from Epic Games

The world knows about their existence regardless.

can't say i've ever heard of it... and either way, mobas and card games are fundamentally different at their core; one is based on gameplay, the other on numbers.
for a moba, even if a character has high numbers it might be completely useless if it doesn't have a good toolkit to support it, or doesn't work well with other characters

for a card game, increasing a number from 5 to 6 can make a card go from useless to pretty good; and when 5 cards get increased in the same archetype, the changes are quite significant