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lord_of_flood

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jan 1, 2018
1,743
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like Twitch doesn't really have guidelines for running ads if streamers are electing to not run them more often than not, and having guidelines is exactly what they need here. For example, run X minutes of ads per hour of streaming on average, and if a streamer doesn't meet whatever that target is, then that streamer's revenue from a given stream is impacted in some way. Automating them is the worst way to go about this because it impacts the viewing experience in a wholly negative way. TV programs build their structure around dedicated commercial breaks in order to not take away from the program itself, and that's the type of model that should be encouraged with streaming, too.
 

Watership

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,116
This is why it was sad Mixer never picked up any real popularity. Twitch can do whatever it wants now. Don't like it? Tough.
 

fanboi

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,702
Sweden
The point is people missing big moments because they can't see or hear what's happening because of a forced ad that the content creator wouldn't have wanted played at that time.

Yeah I do get that, I still find it a non issue for me since I bet this will happen very seldomly and even if it did I wouldnt mind really since I am more there for the profile then the moments.

I also bet there will be possible for events like AGDQ and tournaments to be not affected.
 
Oct 25, 2017
41,368
Miami, FL
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like Twitch doesn't really have guidelines for running ads if streamers are electing to not run them more often than not, and having guidelines is exactly what they need here. For example, run X minutes of ads per hour of streaming on average, and if a streamer doesn't meet whatever that target is, then that streamer's revenue from a given stream is impacted in some way. Automating them is the worst way to go about this because it impacts the viewing experience in a wholly negative way. TV programs build their structure around dedicated commercial breaks in order to not take away from the program itself, and that's the type of model that should be encouraged with streaming, too.
Streaming games doesn't always provide regularly timed, predictable moments to take commercial breaks.
 

LordRuyn

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,909
That sounds like a surefire way to not be able to charge much for the ads. It's useless to the company buying the ad.


It sounds like based on Evolution of Metal's post that if the streamer runs ads manually this automatic ad doesn't happen. So there is an incentive for the streamer to still do this if the automated ads are going to turn people off even more.
That's good at least. Have they stated what that time interval is?
 

fanboi

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,702
Sweden
One alternative is, for partnered streamers, to put out a schedule and add commercial spots I guess.

EDIT: Missed that if you run your own commercials thing... yeah then it is a non issue.
 

LumberPanda

Member
Feb 3, 2019
6,328
As a streamer, if you roll an ad or two every hour, the automatic preroll is not going to do it on its own.

It is aimed at the streamers who don't run ads at all. If you are aware of these limitations/obligations as a streamer, you can easily avoid ads cutting into the gameplay by rolling them during the search or lobby while playing the game.

+ If you are using an adblocker, you will not have ads as a viewer anyway.



The streamer is still in-control. No need for ever-reaction. Twitch doesnt get the cut from sponsorships.
Pretty much how I see it. This is the way I saw it eventually going when they introduced manual mid-rolls. Get people used to it and then make it mandatory for partners. Streamers are gonna want a button on their stream deck which they use during bathroom breaks, in between speedrun attempts, while in matchmaking, etc, to run some mid-rolls. Fighting game tournaments I've watched already ran ads between matches being streamed.

I think partners that run 2hr+ speedruns will be the ones most negatively impacted by this.
 

Jest

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,565
As a streamer, if you roll an ad or two every hour, the automatic preroll is not going to do it on its own.

It is aimed at the streamers who don't run ads at all. If you are aware of these limitations/obligations as a streamer, you can easily avoid ads cutting into the gameplay by rolling them during the search or lobby while playing the game.

+ If you are using an adblocker, you will not have ads as a viewer anyway.

The streamer is still in-control. No need for ever-reaction. Twitch doesnt get the cut from sponsorships.

The bold isn't accurate because there are many games that don't allow for this kind of timing. Whether it be Online Games that don't effectively have the ability to Pause (MMOs, Battle Royales, etc..) or be they styles of content where taking a break every hour on the hour isn't feasible like Roleplay (not RPG's but games where the players are essentially acting out roles... like DnD). Critical Role regularly has 10's of thousands of viewers for their DnD liveplay and their sessions range between 3-5 hours. It's live improv acting by professional actors. Stopping play every hour to prevent pre-rolls/mid-rolls would absolutely destroy the atmosphere that leads to incredible moments.

Forcing ads just plainly won't work for many types of content. It's going to upset the viewers AND the streamers. If Twitch isn't careful about how they choose to implement these types of things, the absolutely will lose some big names/brands. And I'm not talking about to competitors (even though Youtube is still completely viable, especially for huge names). A lot of these names/brands are large enough that they could strike out solo and be just fine. Twitch will be fine without them, of course, but at some point the lost money from subs and bits and all that will outweigh the ad money. Especially if the rates are based on "per 1,000 views." Twitch *needs* its big streamers for those ad rates to be effective.
 

Jamie

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 27, 2017
940
Disgusting! If we accept this, then what's next? Forums? I usually don't go off but this is bulls

giphy.gif


and that's pretty much how I feel about that. Hopefully the mods let my anger go this once.
 

Cantaim

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,323
The Stussining
Off topic, (somewhat). Has anyone been seeing more ads on youtube recently? Yesterday, I watched 2 ads in a 7-min video, plus one at the beginning. Should I upgrade my adblock game?
It's 100% increased on Youtube in the last few months. I workout to music on Youtube and It's becoming impossible to listen to music on the service. I'm getting 3-4 ads per song now. Shit's wild
 

Patryn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,826
This is diabolical, but I'm guessing it's designed to "encourage" streamers to run ads more often. Because it says that viewers won't see them if they recently saw them, so it incentivizes streamers to run frequent ad breaks at natural stopping parts instead of having viewers get random ads.
 

Cipherr

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,426



GYAAAAAhahahahahaha. OH man, thats fucking brutal.

I remember back when Twitch was rumored to be bought by Google and people were saying it had to be stopped to prevent literally THIS from happening. Forced ads in the streams that werent Streamer controlled. The earth is a funny fucking place man.
 

Crayolan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,756
This sounds like a decision made by an exec who thinks streaming is like television. If they're gonna force ads at least let the streamers control when they play.
 
Oct 27, 2017
6,960
The bold isn't accurate because there are many games that don't allow for this kind of timing. Whether it be Online Games that don't effectively have the ability to Pause (MMOs, Battle Royales, etc..) or be they styles of content where taking a break every hour on the hour isn't feasible like Roleplay (not RPG's but games where the players are essentially acting out roles... like DnD). Critical Role regularly has 10's of thousands of viewers for their DnD liveplay and their sessions range between 3-5 hours. It's live improv acting by professional actors. Stopping play every hour to prevent pre-rolls/mid-rolls would absolutely destroy the atmosphere that leads to incredible moments.

Forcing ads just plainly won't work for many types of content. It's going to upset the viewers AND the streamers. If Twitch isn't careful about how they choose to implement these types of things, the absolutely will lose some big names/brands. And I'm not talking about to competitors (even though Youtube is still completely viable, especially for huge names). A lot of these names/brands are large enough that they could strike out solo and be just fine. Twitch will be fine without them, of course, but at some point the lost money from subs and bits and all that will outweigh the ad money. Especially if the rates are based on "per 1,000 views." Twitch *needs* its big streamers for those ad rates to be effective.

Which BR game lasts more than one hour? A DnD liveplay lasts 5 hours and nobody takes a bathroom break?

If you are gaming, and you are in no position to have a break or a slow-moment where nothing happens, you seriously need to reevaluate your gaming habbits. Burning eyes for 2h focusing on the screen is not healthy.

Lets say you are a speedrunner. Are there no loading screens? Are there no sections in the game where nothing important happens for a minute?

Give me a channel right now which cannot afford to conceal the stream for 2 minutes every hour.
 

Alfredo

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,023
If Twitch is going to insist on doing this, then they should at least implement the ability to rewind live streams so you can go back and see what you missed.
 

CelestialAtom

Mambo Number PS5
Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,039
As a Twitch Affiliate, this is super annoying and will definitely cause problems for streamers like myself that are still building our communities.
 

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,325
Which BR game lasts more than one hour? A DnD liveplay lasts 5 hours and nobody takes a bathroom break?

If you are gaming, and you are in no position to have a break or a slow-moment where nothing happens, you seriously need to reevaluate your gaming habbits. Burning eyes for 2h focusing on the screen is not healthy.

Lets say you are a speedrunner. Are there no loading screens? Are there no sections in the game where nothing important happens for a minute?

Give me a channel right now which cannot afford to conceal the stream for 2 minutes every hour.
It's live interactive entertainment. Every single second counts, and it should be on the streamer to decide whether or not to have their content ruined by advertisements. And to answer your question, I watch a lot of long-run RPG speedruns (EB, Final Fantasy, deathless Dark Souls, etc).
 

nikos

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,998
New York, NY
I thought this was already a thing. I've seen ads being triggered at completely random moments when a streamer clearly hadn't triggered one. It's the reason why I've subbed to streamers I enjoy watching.

It'll help the "medium" viewership streamers either get some revenue or new subs. Big streamers will probably say they're against it, to look good, because they're already making enough money. Won't make a difference for small streamers.

Either way, random ads are not a good thing for gaming. They're almost sure to happen at the wrong time.
 

IIFloodyII

Member
Oct 26, 2017
23,963
So that's why I been getting random ads mid gameplay, thought was strange when I got one watching a streamer who pretty much never plays ads. Will definitely watch much less if it becomes the norm.
 

Arklite

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,639
Ads have been getting worse and worse all over the net but Twitch in particular has been on an awful trend with how annoying they are with it.
 

mk_68

Banned
Feb 3, 2020
942
They can manually trigger ads, but, most don't during a large portion of their streams. The most common times streamers use ads and when they have to brb or go use the bathroom so they just do it then so people don't miss content. Most just push for Twitch Prime instead of forcing ads on their viewers.
This but also smaller streamers don't want to run ads because they are trying to make partner and having ads decentivizes people from staying in the stream. This is just shit for speedrunners though. I watch speedrunners, one of which is Linkus7 and he hates running ads. His fans want him to run ads cause they are weird lmfao but he only runs them when he has to step away from the game.
 

ThatCrazyGuy

Member
Nov 27, 2017
9,848
Why don't they run these auto ads in the small window in the corner. Minimizing the stream seems weird.

And have a different kind of ad where you don't need audio.
 

Sparks

Senior Games Artist
Verified
Dec 10, 2018
2,879
Los Angeles
OH god that is amazing. Such comedic timing.

Twitch is already rotten AF with ads. It's always when you are late to some live event and some game is being announced or something, you click on the stream and have to sit through like two 30 second ads. So infuriating.

This would be hilariously awful if say someones is explaining some tragic event in their life and its interrupted by a donut chicken commercial.
 

thePopaShots

Member
Nov 27, 2017
1,687
This is such a horrible idea, as a small streamer who struggles to keep viewers I find this to be a huge bummer.
 

Jest

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,565
Which BR game lasts more than one hour? A DnD liveplay lasts 5 hours and nobody takes a bathroom break?

If you are gaming, and you are in no position to have a break or a slow-moment where nothing happens, you seriously need to reevaluate your gaming habbits. Burning eyes for 2h focusing on the screen is not healthy.

Lets say you are a speedrunner. Are there no loading screens? Are there no sections in the game where nothing important happens for a minute?

Give me a channel right now which cannot afford to conceal the stream for 2 minutes every hour.

Battle Royales don't last for an hour, no. However, unless you're actually scheduling and actively timing your stream down to the hour/half hour, it's extremely easy to find yourself mid-match when that magical timer of 60 minutes of uptime hits and a mid-roll ad plays.

Critical Role lasts from 3 to 5 hours and they take one long break, *roughly* in the middle of the session. When that happens *exactly* depends on the flow of the story/action itself specifically TO avoid ruining the flow and momentum. The individual players are free to excuse themselves from the table as they need to because of the ability of the other players at the table to continue play. An ad break is inherently different to a player choosing a moment when their character isn't active in the scene to run to the bathroom.

I don't follow the speedrunning community at all so I can't comment on how this midroll ads impact them. I *can* comment on MMOs, where Raid content can last for over an hour and the player is already working with anywhere from 5 to 39 other players, all with varying personal schedules, so managing time between everyone is already a difficult feat in and of itself. Adding mandatory ad breaks into the mix for any number of which that are streamers who aren't on the same time table makes that even more difficult.

The issue isn't whether or not a stream "cannot afford to conceal the stream for 2 minutes every hour" but how feasible it is for some types of content to be able to do so, regularly and consistently without troubling the streamer or bothering the viewer (who is the audience being targeted to begin with). I know of one streamer who actually does schedule hourly breaks in her content of her volition and to run ads so that pre-rolls won't interrupt her content. And even she runs over that hour time period fairly regularly due to reaching points of gameplay/story where taking a break on time would be counter productive to the experience.

Your stance also seems to strongly suggest that Streamers somehow owe it to Twitch to be responsible for these ad plays. They aren't. The relationship between Twitch and Streamer is symbiotic. At the moment, the payout for ad rolls isn't one that's equitable for the streamer and can result in losses in other areas of the Streamer's income (that are already being split with Twitch). And Streamers are not employees of Twitch either. They're Private Contractors, so they're already not receiving many benefits that would be afforded employees at the cost of being beholden to the company through responsibilities.
 
Oct 27, 2017
6,960
Your stance also seems to strongly suggest that Streamers somehow owe it to Twitch to be responsible for these ad plays. They aren't. The relationship between Twitch and Streamer is symbiotic. At the moment, the payout for ad rolls isn't one that's equitable for the streamer and can result in losses in other areas of the Streamer's income (that are already being split with Twitch). And Streamers are not employees of Twitch either. They're Private Contractors, so they're already not receiving many benefits that would be afforded employees at the cost of being beholden to the company through responsibilities.

My stance is that Twitch is a platform that can dictate the terms and obligations to the streamers. Which, it is... And Twitch can do this regardless of whether the streamer likes it or not. Twitch streamers no longer have the right of a completely ad-free broadcast on Twitch.

The example of the Raid is again, nonsense. Just hit the keyboard buttons when you complete one stage of it and either traveling or just waiting for the others to collect themselves. There are NO battles which last for two hours... A Raid is a collection of rooms/puzzles/bosses...

I see a bunch of people pretending that the sky is falling when streamers are asked to play an ad every hour... It is not a big deal, get used to it, or subscribe, or use adblock... Stop the unnecessary outrage and overreaction.

I would like to see channels with almost no viewers to avoid this requirement, because a 1 minute video to 5 people is just ehhh... It is the large channels who never run ads, get the personal ads/sponsors, and therefore caused the Twitch to have this requirement... Small channels are just caught in the crossfire, and perhaps Twitch is going to realize that they cannot make any money out of those channels anyway, so they leave them be.
 
Last edited:
Oct 27, 2017
776
First off that video is fucking hilarious. Absolutely perfect.

Secondly, and I'm fairly new(ish) to the Twitch viewing experience, but how is this different than the ads that play now on certain channels? I'll be watching Bruce Greene and a block of ads will run. I had four 30 second back-to-back ads run the other day. It seemed to be every like half-ish hour or so? At the very least the OP video was picture-in-picture.
 

Jest

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,565
My stance is that Twitch is a platform that can dictate the terms and obligations to the streamers. Which, it is... And Twitch can do this regardless of whether the streamer likes it or not. Twitch streamers no longer have the right of a completely ad-free broadcast on Twitch.

The example of the Raid is again, nonsense. Just hit the keyboard buttons when you complete one stage of it and either traveling or just waiting for the others to collect themselves. There are NO battles which last for two hours... A Raid is a collection of rooms/puzzles/bosses...

I see a bunch of people pretending that the sky is falling when streamers are asked to play an ad every hour... It is not a big deal, get used to it, or subscribe, or use adblock... Stop the unnecessary outrage and overreaction.

You understand that when a Streamer chooses to run ads the length of the ad time varies, quite a bit, as do the number of ads that play? They have no control over this. So an ad can be 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or minutes long. And there can be a series of ads that run back to back. When running a Raid, the time between attempts can be a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the raid and content type. Asking the entire group to wait because you have to run an ad for your stream is incredibly invasive for the streamer and instantly comes across as inconsiderate to every other person in the group. A raid also regularly consists of strategy discussion, clearing of trash mob packs and puzzle navigation/solving between encounters as well as during encounters. ALL of this is content to the viewer.

Saying that this is bad is not claiming that the "sky is falling" either. It's disingenous and dismissive to try to frame it that way. "Deal with it" is never a genuine or productive argument to make in any discussion.
 

Teeth

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,936
You understand that when a Streamer chooses to run ads the length of the ad time varies, quite a bit, as do the number of ads that play? They have no control over this. So an ad can be 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or minutes long. And there can be a series of ads that run back to back. When running a Raid, the time between attempts can be a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the raid and content type. Asking the entire group to wait because you have to run an ad for your stream is incredibly invasive for the streamer and instantly comes across as inconsiderate to every other person in the group. A raid also regularly consists of strategy discussion, clearing of trash mob packs and puzzle navigation/solving between encounters as well as during encounters. ALL of this is content to the viewer.

Saying that this is bad is not claiming that the "sky is falling" either. It's disingenous and dismissive to try to frame it that way. "Deal with it" is never a genuine or productive argument to make in any discussion.

You don't ask the entire group to wait, you run the ad and keep playing. There's the possibility that the most amazing thing may happen in the first 2 minutes of the raid...but probably not.
 
Oct 27, 2017
6,960
Saying that this is bad is not claiming that the "sky is falling" either. It's disingenous and dismissive to try to frame it that way. "Deal with it" is never a genuine or productive argument to make in any discussion.

There are comments in this thread using words like "diabolical", "disgusting" and "fucking worst". These are typical ERA overreaction to nothingburgers.

Deal with it is not the argument. The argument is that that major Twitch streamers do NOT run ads, they have their own personal ads/sponsors/donations/merch embedded into the platform bypassing Twitch. The only revenue Twitch gets from this is that subs... The amount of ads Twitch puts into their FREE broadcasting platform is nothing compared to what you have in other platforms. You get 2 double-ads in a 10 minute youtube video...

Nobody is asking to wait for the Raid party. The streamer (or his mods) have to use the minimal amount of brains to run the ad when the Raid is on its low-tide and nothing of the importance is happening. And if something miraculous happens during that one minute out of 60, the streamer can just recap the comment or the action that he made verbally.