First off, I want to thank FFG by putting the time and effort into setting up a live broadcast with multiple cameras and dedicating two of their staff to comment on stream. It means the world for us who didn't make it to Worlds and want to follow the games and progress of our friends that did make it. Watching Worlds with my friends is kind of our Superbowl equivalent.

That said, while the banter and annecdotes on the commentary were fun to listen to, half of the time the commentary guys had no clue what was going on in the game. Which was very frustrating for the more experienced players out there. Some were even that frustrated that they acted out and publically critisized the commentary in chat and got banned from Twitch chat. I'm not saying they were justified in acting out, I'm just pointing out how frustrating bad information on a game you're watching is.

So my question to FFG is: next year, can we get experienced players on for the commentary, who know what's going on in the game? It would make watching the stream a more pleasant experience. Thanks in advance!

Experienced players are not the target audience for the stream.

30 minutes ago, SOTL said:

Experienced players are not the target audience for the stream.

I'd wager that most casual players aren't invested in the competitive scene deeply enough to watch tournaments.

But if they are, it is even more important to ensure they understand what's happening on the board

A link to everybody.

4 minutes ago, eMeM said:

I'd wager that most casual players aren't invested in the competitive scene deeply enough to watch tournaments.

But if they are, it is even more important to ensure they understand what's happening on the board

Not really, what matters is that it's presented as an exciting and interesting product that they want to buy more of.

8 minutes ago, SOTL said:

Not really, what matters is that it's presented as an exciting and interesting product that they want to buy more of.

Yeah, I've been browsing the webshop for hours looking for that awesome X-Wing Devestator model....

Another thing a commentary has to do is keep the viewer informed about what is happening if it isn't clear to the viewer. This was not something they achieved, as when there was a dispute or something was being checked on or thought through, they had as little idea as we did, sometimes less lol

I know the main X-Wing team were all busy with V2 interviews and videos and press and so on, but I do miss the days when Alex or someone similar would be one of the commentators.

3 hours ago, Sarcon said:

So my question to FFG is: next year, can we get experienced players on for the commentary, who know what's going on in the game?

I only listened to a couple of games, but I thought that they did just fine from what I heard/saw. From that, it seemed that they were very deliberately avoiding interrupting the game and didn't seem to have a runner, something I've seen streamers do in order to get more information. But generally, I didn't get the sense that anything egregious was missed and being an experienced player doesn't necessarily make for a better commentator. I think Dion is very good, obviously, and Radio TCX is one of the most precise/accurate, but beyond those two I thought the streaming was better quality than anything else I've heard.

Matt and Kyle are probably two of the most experienced X-wing players at FFG and Matt has played several hundred games of Xwing. Matt was the best local competitive player (up until the time he started working for FFG and couldn't anymore, but I know he's continued to play). Kyle pointed out at some point on the stream that he was mostly a scum player which caused him to mistake some dial options, for example.

The only other choice may have been the devs, but I think I even remember Alex at some point saying that he's been replacing his 1.0 with 2.0 in terms of rules/cards etc...for some time now, and as you mentioned they have other duties, so they may not have been any better off this year.

2 minutes ago, AlexW said:

The only other choice may have been the devs, but I think I even remember Alex at some point saying that he's been replacing his 1.0 with 2.0 in terms of rules/cards etc...for some time now, and as you mentioned they have other duties, so they may not have been any better off this year.

I was just watching a Team Covenant interview Alex did about Xwing and Legion back in December.

A question about Luke’s pilot ability came up... and Alex forgets that in 1.0 Luke’s ability only worked on defense and not offense. I might be reading too much into it, but I swear you can kind of see on his face that he’s not sure if he’s getting them confused but it’s too late so he leans into it. It’s pretty hilarious in retrospect, but man must it be hard to keep it all straight.

4 minutes ago, WAC47 said:

I was just watching a Team Covenant interview Alex did about Xwing and Legion back in December.

A question about Luke’s pilot ability came up... and Alex forgets that in 1.0 Luke’s ability only worked on defense and not offense. I might be reading too much into it, but I swear you can kind of see on his face that he’s not sure if he’s getting them confused but it’s too late so he leans into it. It’s pretty hilarious in retrospect, but man must it be hard to keep it all straight.

Yeah, and I've also seen first hand where designers mix up a rule that was playtested with the final outcome.

I get mildly annoyed during football games when the commentators make mistakes or are obviously unfamiliar with some aspect of the game, but not enough to change the channel or for the whole thing to be ruined for me. I'm watching for the game, not the commentary.

Also important to mention: most of the errors had to do with their prep work being based on the prevailing meta, only to have SURPRISE BROBOTS! make an epic run through the finals. I thought they did a fine job trying to cover the unanticipated non-meta lists, and I also imagine that prep will be more extensive in the future.

For some reason FFG continues to succeed while putting out the barest minimum of effort.

3 hours ago, SOTL said:

Experienced players are not the target audience for the stream.

How many new players do you think are watching tournament streams?

Given the usual twitch chat, it's always seemed to me the majority are at least moderately experienced and competitive.

Could we at least get a proper overlay that shows health, upgrades, and crits?

4 minutes ago, LordBlades said:

How many new players do you think are watching tournament streams?

Given the usual twitch chat, it's always seemed to me the majority are at least moderately experienced and competitive.

I basically did that job for 7 years so what do I know?

1 minute ago, SOTL said:

I basically did that job for 7 years so what do I know?

What job would that be?

Coverage/streaming from major gaming events.

2 minutes ago, SOTL said:

Coverage/streaming from major gaming events.

I'm even more curious then, as you seem to have experience in the field, are there really that many new players watching streams?

My only experience is as a stream viewer, but pretty much anyone I've interacted with through stream comments appeared at least moderately knowledgeable (so not really new).

25 minutes ago, LordBlades said:

How many new players do you think are watching tournament streams?

Given the usual twitch chat, it's always seemed to me the majority are at least moderately experienced and competitive.

There were over 1000 people watching the stream at a given time. Sure, the people chatting about the game seem to be those that are experienced, but almost every stream I've seen has people asking about getting into/back into the game as well. Either way, the chat is only a small sample of the people watching it.

Matt and Kyle did a great job. They even paid attention to the chat!

I've worked for a number of games organisations (Hasbro, Upper Deck, Cryptozoic, Konami) but in each case Organised Play, and by extension streaming of Organised Play, was essentially a subdivision of Marketing. The purpose of Organised Play is to deliver a combination of player retention (by giving people something to do) and growing the brand (by providing a showcase for the product to new/lapsed players).

If you took the playerbase of a typical game it will look a lot like a pyramid, with a small number of hugely experienced/invested players at the top that expands out to a large number of people who play it semi-casually, to a large number of people who bought a few ships and play it now and then, to a larger number who have heard of the game but never played it, to a larger still (essentially the entire population of the planet) number who've never heard of the game.

Organised Play exists primarily to retain the top tier of players, who are extremely valuable to the company because they're so heavily invested. The coverage of organised play exists primarily to reach down the pyramid and try to move some people out of each tier into the tier above. Play semi-casually? Well come to a tournament, they're awesome! Did you forget about those X-Wing ships you bought? Well look how cool it is, shouldn't you go and check out those new ships they look great! Never given X-Wing a try? Well you're missing out. Sitting in Timbuktu and stumbled on this stream by clicking the wrong link? Welcome to the game!

If you aim your official coverage at the experienced players your target audience is 1) much much smaller, 2) already heavily invested in the game, and 3) you talk so much jargon that it can be impenetrable to less experienced players, so there's minimal marketing benefit.

Third party streamers tend to have very different goals - they're not trying to sell the game down the player pyramid, they're trying to piggyback their own revenue stream/scubscriptions off the experienced niche players who are already invested in the game.

Where the official coverage streams tend to suffer is when experienced players watch them expecting the third party stream experience and don't understand why they're not getting it.

They did fine. The overlays others make are nice, but not quite necessary.

I wasn't happy with the stream either. The commentary was pretty average, not bad, but not very informational. The worst thing though was the lack of the overlays. Every other stream has one, even ones run by podcasts with basically no budget. FFG should be able to provide one. It makes following the game much easier. Keeping track of damage and upgrades on all of the ships is pretty difficult without it. All of the streams I've seen from past worlds have been great, not sure why this one wasn't.

As far as the debate of experienced vs non-experienced players goes, I don't really care. The best solution is probably a mix of both - explaining some interactions that a casual player might not know, while also commenting on overall strategy and tactics.

I don't mean to insult those involved. But hopefully some helpful criticism will result in a better stream next time around.

They did fine. This isn’t ESPN. Calm your jubblies.

3 minutes ago, JaxonEvans said:

All of the streams I've seen from past worlds have been great, not sure why this one wasn't.

You're thinking of unofficial streams. The official FFG stream has never had overlays.