loadingreadyrun.com

Omega Lairon wrote:I get the same problem actually. In some of the earlier timezones, (looks like Tantusar's the same as me at GMT+10), the day highlighted on the calendar page is one day behind what day it currently is here.

For example, I'm posting this message at local time of just before 4am on Sunday, but the calendar page is still highlighting Saturday for me, and will continue to do so for most of the day.

Honestly, I've just learned to live with it, but since it's being mentioned...

Same problem here, and looking at Omega Lairon's comment it seems that it is a day off.
I am at GMT+1 here and it is 9PM on saturday, while it shows friday.

Paul wrote:

Tantusar wrote:Here's something that's been bothering me for ages. It's definitely not Friday.

Can you elaborate on the problem, Tantusar? Is the problem that the streams are scheduled in the wrong place? or is it that the wrong day is highlighted?

The stream times are in the right place, but the highlight is definitely not.

You guys are overlooking the fact it also still says "Loading Ready Live", not "Loading Ready Run Streams"

SAJewers wrote:You guys are overlooking the fact it also still says "Loading Ready Live", not "Loading Ready Run Streams"

I can deal with that, that's not technically broken.

Moved.

not sure if this matters to Paul or anyone else: https://blog.twitch.tv/new-developer-agreement-and-terms-of-service-5227c1ebf0fa#.lrqd10zdp

I note that Twitch has also updated its player as well as other things. Which now means the player speed can be adjusted (like on YouTube) so it's now even easier/quicker to watch replays. Yay!

So now the new streaming schedule is fully embedded, I thought I would share my thoughts, because I can't help myself.

The Good:

- Production quality seems to be way up. Less technical issues, everything sounds and looks cripser and cleaner, replays have run better than they were. Everything feels like it's more on time, the intros are neat and I think the overlay is so much better now without the blue bar and all that jazz.

- I'm really glad we're getting more of what I feel is the best stream content - i.e. AFK and Crossing the Streams. These being regular fixtures is great and consistently provide some of the best entertainment you put out, because it allows you to be yourselves - funny, interesting and great at riffing off each other.

- Although I was skeptical, I think LoadingReadyLive has been a great addition and does exactly what it set out to do. I think some of the segments have been the best stuff you've put out, I enjoy how it fills in for the LRRcast and it's become something that I really do look forward to watching now.

That said, there is one massive negative from the new schedule for me, and simply - I'm watching a lot less now. I feel like I would watch almost daily between streams and replays, but now I generally watch twice, maybe three times a week (although I would usually watch Adam's Gamehaus religiously, unfortunately I'm always busy at the time now.)

From my PoV, there are two big reasons as to why.

- For me, some of the shows are now just too niche. They don't hold any appeal to me or the first couple episodes didn't grab me, so I just don't watch them because there's nothing to really bring me in. I don't think there's any need to name the shows as to avoid making people feel bad, but I'm just never going to watch them. This wasn't the case before - even shows I didn't watch often, sometimes they'd be playing something that really got my interest, so I'd drop in for a few streams. But if it's always going to be 'X type of show' or 'X genre of game', I don't feel motivated to watch. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I almost feel the hosts are worse off having to always fit the game to the format, rather than just play something they really want to play.

- I know this was done in response to feedback, but I really dislike that the majority of shows will not play the same game over several weeks anymore. Some of my fondest memories of LRR Streams have been the longer playthroughs (Beej's Harvest Moon & Paper Mario, Graham's Drunk Jensen Deus Ex, Ian doing Shenmue, Shovel Knight, DARK, Alex's STALKER runs) that were interesting to follow. I know for some it was tiresome if they didn't like the game, but I miss getting excited to see the latest foray into a particular game, I enjoyed the continuity. Second to that, a lot of the shows I would watch weekly just because I liked watching the host. I loved watching Beej & Heather streaming together, same with Ian & Cori, Graham & Paul. Or just enjoying Kathleen jamming a JRPG and chatting with Heather. I feel like although the group streams are fantastic on CtS/AFK, I think for the other shows, that 'personal' element has really faded. Many of those shows had that sense of hanging out with a friend and it was super relaxed - I now feel a lot more like I am watching something and being 'performed to', so to speak.

I think what compounds this seeing a really interesting and entertaining stream of a game, and then it's just done and we never see it again. (Newday Tewsday is a massive culprit here). I know there's been a bonus here or there, but a lot of one-off streams is a little frustrating. Maybe I'm biased because a lot of my favourite streams fell under this (Beej's Backlog, iHorner, House of Stark) but when the game's different every week on a stream, I just lose interest really quickly.

- Also, I remain eternally sad about the fact we've not had anything to fill the void of GPLP. I really miss that show.

Hopefully that's not overly negative, but I know you guys always listen to feedback, so I thought I'd chuck in my two cents.

SohNata wrote:- I know this was done in response to feedback, but I really dislike that the majority of shows will not play the same game over several weeks anymore. Some of my fondest memories of LRR Streams have been the longer playthroughs ... that were interesting to follow.
...
I think what compounds this seeing a really interesting and entertaining stream of a game, and then it's just done and we never see it again.

Yeah, I completely agree with this.
On the whole I'm really enjoying the new schedule, but I've been feeling this vague sense of dissatisfaction, and it took me a while to realise that it's because we hardly ever see more than a few hours of any particular game.

I understand that variety keeps things more interesting for the audience and for the hosts, and probably also brings in more viewers. But at the same time, when somebody starts playing a game that you really enjoy watching, and then a few hours later it just abruptly stops because of the show format, that can be sad and frustrating.

So, what about introducing one regular show for continuing/finishing games?
It could periodically rotate through different games and host(s) in a similar way to Newday Tewsday, but rather than switching to something new for every episode it would stick with the same thing until the game was finished (or maybe after a certain number of episodes for really long games? probably also best to choose games that are likely to end within however many episodes was decided). There could be community voting for which recently-streamed game people most want to see continued (probably with host veto power, so nobody's forced to keep playing something they disliked).

No idea whether that would work, but it's something to think about.

The decrease in full game play throughs on the new schedule is definitely something we have thought about. Part of the problem was that, when the various shows are only once a week, a single game can represent many months of streams, which can be a drag if the game isn't that good. Also, there is often a lot of wasted time trying to remember how to play and what you were doing in the previous stream. We often still do play throughs of shorter games on Newday, Let's Nope and Talking Simulator, but finding a way to do longer games that works for both the streamers and the audience is tricky.

One thing that seems to work well is doing prerecorded "Let's Play" style videos on YouTube, like Graham's Agatha Fisty series and my Paul Quest videos (new Paul Quest episode just went up!) Recording these videos is much easier to do since they don't conflict with the streaming schedule and we can record and release them at a pace that makes sense for the content and our workload. I think that we might try to do more of these type of video series in the future to scratch that "full play through" itch.

Honestly though I miss GPLP, I miss Cam being Cam... ,I miss Alex playing shooters. I understand that while it's a lot harder to attract new audience when the stream changes dramatically day to day, and isn't consistent every week, I really enjoyed those shows. That's probably why I usually try to catch Adam's stream. I think most shows are working great but sometimes I find that my interest is more on what game they're playing and/or who's playing. I would really enjoy time where personalities can just stream a single thing for an extended period of time on a more regular bases.

d3fr0st5 sums up one my biggest problems with the new schedule quite well.

I agree there are downsides to the consistent long-game playthroughs, and I wonder if the other suggestion of a 'Newsday Tewsday' but for continuing games would work out. I'm guessing that there hasn't been that much desire for the internally, as I think outside of Cam doing 40k and Kathleen/Heather doing Tokyo Mirage Sessions, nobody's really ever done follow-up streams.

I have really enjoyed all the LRRPLAY's (especially Space Quest!) and I would love to see more of those in the future, for sure.

I think 18GAC will hit it first.

Thanks for fixing the day problem on the schedule Paul!

Have they announced what the secret Friday stream is going to be yet?

This is more of a piece of feedback for Twitch than for LRR, but still. Does anyone know how to filter highlights out of the past broadcast section in the Twitch app? I've missed a few episodes of Talking Simulator here and there but trying to go back and find them takes ages if I try and do it through the app.

Through the website, just select the box that says "All Videos" and change it to "Past Broadcasts". If you mean from the mobile app, I can't see any way to filter out highlights there, sorry.

If it helps, LRRbot has separate pages for streams and highlights.

Note that Twitch has been a bit shaky the last month or so, and will sometimes give you highlights anyway even if you ask for broadcasts. Affecting everything... the official apps, lrrbot, whatever. I haven't seen it happen in a little while, but I don't know for sure if it's fixed.

If it happens, try refreshing the page, sometimes it'll work again.

Yeah, I found the way to do that on the website but I was wondering if it was possible on the mobile app. Obviously it's nothing more than an annoyance, but I'm glad I haven't missed something that was noticeable for everyone else. And a bunch of streams were just uploaded to the Youtube channel, so I can catch up on things from there.

Thanks for the answers in any case.

I wasn't sure where else to ask, but is there any word on the handful of missing replays? The first episodes of grahams RE Revelations, beejs shadow run, and Ian's metal wolf chaos seem missing, and its hard to get into a stream when you're missing the first 2-3 hours of a game. I hope they are not lost forever.

Worst case scenario: They can get them from Anubis.

OK, so there are backups? Well, thank you Anubis. I guess I can put my mind at ease knowing they do exist and can continue waiting patiently for them to get put up. Thank you very much.