I think it’s great for business for gamers to do video streams, walkthroughs, playthroughs, etc.
Why not incentivize them to do so?
Affiliate links unique to content producers on youtube, twitch, etc. would make them want to attract viewers because the idea is that viewers will use their link for something like 3 to 5 percent off, and the owner of the link gets paid a small percentage of the sale of the game, trackable by the link.
Of course funds may have to be held for a period of time to cover chargebacks, etc. but I think it would work.
A standard addition to the ToS would have to apply, stating that they can’t use their link in SPAM, etc. etc. etc.
Another option would be to try and set up something via Linkshare, or Commission Junction (I think they now go by CJ Affiliate), or one of the other major affiliate link programs.
Doing it this way lets them take care of the legal work and payment (I believe).
Hearthstone and IF are wildly different. First of all IF is incredibly niche, streaming IF isn’t sustainable for most streamers. There are people streaming IF for fun, but those are small time streamers with small audiences. I feels like the IF community is just so niche that anyone watching stream or vids of IF is already playing IF anyway. Good idea, but not the right time, these kind of things only work with easily marketable games or games that aren’t too niche. This idea would work if IF is popular, which is a bit of a Catch 22 innit?
Apple and Amazon offer affiliate links for any/all apps on their store, including ours. In principle, you could start a streaming channel for iOS apps today, build up an audience, and make some money. But nobody seems to be making a meaningful income doing that today; restricting your scope to interactive fiction would be even harder.
Yeah and the only channel that has a sustainable D&D stream is geek and sundry and thats because every single player is a charismatic voice actor/actress. Instead of talking about whether we should do this, I think we first need to talk about how to make streaming IF enjoyable NOT necessarily for the person streaming it, but for the people WATCHING it. Any ideas?
If the view count isn’t as high as it could be, then that problem is on the content producer to try and solve.
Figuring out if it’s a matter of advertising, or their own presentation or the subject, or if the piece of IF may only appeal to a certain audience… all those things are up to the individuals trying to make a little extra money to solve, because solving those problems takes real work.
Are you including Choices and Episodes, for example? What about TellTale’s games?
Moreover, if someone played one game once, do they “read IF”? Or do you mean people who play games regularly? What if they play games regularly, but never spend any money (like our free games)?
I think wievers mostly depend on the streamer, not the game. If they feel close to the streamer they would watch whatever they are playing. But first they need to have that loyal community and only way is to get known by playing popular games.
An example:
If a streamer with 1000 subscribers play overwatch, they would get around 500 viewers per stream. Only 200 if that would be there for the game and other 300 would be their loyal subscribers.
When it comes to IF, its hard to grow with that so i cant see a way to do it because no matter how hard you try, you wouldnt be getting the views you deserve…
