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No One Watches Online Videogame TV 54

Posted by Zonk from the why-would-we-when-we-have-g4 dept.
GameDailyBiz talks about disappointing statistics for anyone who enjoys online videogame related video or podcasts; Almost no one watches them. From the article: "didn't even recognize that I might have made a mistake until I ran across a recent Forrester Research marketing report. The report found that while 25% of online households have expressed interest in podcasting, only 2% had experimented with audio downloads but did not listen on a regular basis and a mere 1% of households actually download a podcast onto a player. For most new tech trends a 1% percent adoption rate might be admirable or even encouraging. However, podcasting is a nerd darling. On tech blogs and nerd-news centers podcasting been proudly crowned the Wave of the Future(TM). Currently, the search site PodNova is tracking more than 55,000 different podcasts. Yeah, 55,000 channels and apparently nothing's on."
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No One Watches Online Videogame TV

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  • But this is only for online broadcasts (Score:3, Informative)

    by dshaw858 ( 828072 ) on Saturday April 15, 2006 @02:54PM (#15136132) Homepage Journal
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but it isn't all videogame broadcasts that aren't watched. In Korea, there are two television stations dedicated to video gaming (mostly Starcraft matches) that are extremely popular. During the CPL Championships, TSN (the premier online broadcasting network for cyberathletics) supports many many viewers- in fact, even during the CAL (Cyberathlete Amateur League) matches, many people watch the matches.

    I think that this article is trying to accomplish the wrong things. Comparing things like video game broadcasts to YouTube simply is comparing apples and oranges.

    - dshaw
    • I love how everyone mentions Korea. Completely different culture, different set of values, different entertainment norms.

      We're not Korea, guys. Talking about them won't say anything about America or the very america-centric internet.
      • We're not Korea, guys. Talking about them won't say anything about America or the very america-centric internet.

        Is the Internet American? Sure, we might have a lot of users, but the title of this story is Games: No One Watches Online Videogame TV". "No one" and "online" are key words. Korea certainly counts as people, and are most certainly online.

        Granted, I'm not saying that we're Korea, or that we have a videogame-centric culture- we don't. That doesn't mean that it isn't a valid point for discussio
        • The article was by an American website and was posted on Slashdot which, while certainly having a sizable non-American following, is also very American centric. The politics section in particular makes it pretty clear how American centric this website is. I am not saying that this is a good or bad thing. I am just pointing out that it is pretty well implied that when they talk about "no one" wanting to watch video games, they are talking about Americans. Reading Slashdot is like reading an American news
      • Well, I'm in Korea, and if I go to lunch at a cheap diner near a high school, the TV there is always tuned to ongame.net, the channel the GP mentioned. Kids are obsessed with watching their role-models and learning new tricks or strategies for Starcraft, CS, or Special Forces. It's no different than anyone who watches experts at his serious hobbies. I doubt, as you say, that it's especially cultural. It just depends on how serious people take their gaming, I think.
      • I love the way everyone mentions the United States in the few articles that /aren't/ US-centric.

        I'm in Australia; I'm just as interested in what Koreans are doing as I am in hearing about what the US is up to. Expressing surprise at seeing posts centering on nations other than the US is just plain silly.

        • I'm just as interested in what Koreans are doing as I am in hearing about what the US is up to.

          Well, being from a English-speaking former colony of Great Britain, *OF COURSE* you're going to care just as much about a country whose language you don't even understand as another English-speaking former colony of Great Britain.

          Why, I bet Korean movies and TV are just as popular in Australia as American movies and TV--what with your worldly, enlightened attitude and all.

          -Eric

          • All points about the language barrier aside, I already receive my daily intake of US and US-centric culture, thus the statement you quoted above. Being just as interested in Korean culture doesn't mean it's just as popular as US culture; conversely, I'm interested /because/ I don't hear about it as often.

  • And...? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hotdiggitydawg ( 881316 ) on Saturday April 15, 2006 @02:56PM (#15136138)
    Yeah, 55,000 channels and apparently nothing's on.

    So what? The internet had brought broadcasting to the masses. But the right to free speech doesn't mean anyone actually has to listen to you.
    • the right to free speech doesn't mean anyone actually has to listen to you.

      Neither does it mean anyone is worth listening to.

  • People do watch... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This site seems to be pretty popular: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/ [bisqwit.iki.fi]

    This was on google videos popular list for quite a while: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6590364564 874563352 [google.com]

    Not to mention all the WoW stuff I constantly see on google video...
    • Well, just because a video gets put up on Google, doesn't mean anyone is watching it.

      Me, I've never seen one that could keep me watching for more than two minutes, and it doesn't seem to matter what they do to it to make it more interesting. Of course, 90% of the time, they just cut out the walkin-around bits and add a death metal track.

      The funniest ones generally last less than thirty seconds, and have a punchline. Like that one where somebody's critter detonated in the auction house, killing a whole cro
    • The NES Videos site isn't professional gaming, for starters, but its popularity can be attributed largely to the novelty factors of these videos, because such a large archive of videos like this doesn't really exist anywhere else. And yes, some of the videos are extremely cool. They still don't equate with professional gaming, though.
  • just like sports. I'd rather do something than watch others, unless its something like boxing or Ultimate Fighting Championship :p

  • Of course they don't.. (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Would you? [google.com]

  • On my to-do list this is way down.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NorbrookC ( 674063 ) on Saturday April 15, 2006 @10:39PM (#15136369) Journal

    The only people who were surprised that podcasting TV shows about videogames didn't take off were the people who had the idea in the first place. I don't know if I'm typical (but apparently I am), but watching downloaded TV shows about videogames ranks at the bottom of my list of recreational "things to do." Up near the top of my is actually playing the videogames, followed by downloading mods to the games, and browsing news sites announcing new games. Somehow, I never get around to watching television shows featuring videogames, let alone downloading them and watching them on the computer I'm using to... well... play the games on.

    • Indeed, although I think it's more an issue of effort versus interest. If streamed game videos were enabled within the game... for example in WoW while you were waiting to play, you recieved a live feed from a currently active game, or archived feeds of classic events.

      I think gamers want to watch footage of the games they play, they just don't want to do it at a point where they could be easily playing themselves, or go to a lot of effort to get it up and running.

      This is where sites like own-age.com reach a
  • What the hell is that? And what's the point?

    There are three kinds of video game videos:

    -Play footage.

    -Reviews.

    -Industry news.

    As far as Play footage goes, I'd rather watch someone read a book. (Yes, there are exceptions, and while the survey doesn't say, I'm assuming it's American, and game culture in the US is very different than abroad.)

    For the other two, podcast is the worst format. I want to scan, review and get the bottom line, which is something you can't do in an audio or video format

    • Compare that to How many are only visited by spam-bots?

      And the close friends of the person producing it. But even then, live humans go once or thrice and never again, unless they're asked to go again :P.
  • No one posts to articles about No One Watches Online Videogame TV. Up for 8 hours and this is the 12th post.
  • I guess I don't get this podcast craze to begin with. I've heard a few here and there, and listing to some guy and his friends prattling along in the basement in front of the PC about any topic just doesn't fit into my life. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are some neat, informative podcasts out there. But the format just turns me off. Now, a blog I can scan, pick out relevant information, and it doesn't require me to read every word to find something interesting. But audio is a different beast
    • This is exactly how I feel about it, as well as blogs and most of the "content" out there on the Internet. I have opinions on many different things, but don't see a reason to put them "out there" because I don't have a big enough ego to think I would get all that many people interested in what I have to say.

      Personal web pages are similar, and I've never understood why so many people set up a web page. Do they really think that ANYONE out there would want to go to a web page when an e-mail would be a bet
  • Why would I want to?
    I subscribe to half a dozen different podcasts mainly covering 'soft' science and politics and a couple of entertainment ones, I can't get through the day without my daily Pennradio fix, but why would I want to listen to people talk about video games, trying to describe game mechanics or graphics when I can find that information without the waffle in less time?
    A couple of looks by some reliable websites and I've seen what the graphics have to offer and read about the game mechanics. T
  • The difference is that those 2% could theoretically could deliver targeted advertising like no other. If I'm watching a show on TV, I'd say 80% of the ads are not even in the realm of something I'd be interesed in. Whereas a podcast requires someone to actively 'subscribe'. Also podcasts have alot better tracking stats than simple neilson ratings boxes. Not that I want ads in online content, or would put any in my own show. But when something on the internet becomes a revenue stream, everyone takes not
  • noone knows what the hell a podcast is. Throw a 15 second clip on ABC during american idol, explaining the deal.

  • umm... yeah... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rakslice ( 90330 ) on Sunday April 16, 2006 @02:02AM (#15137063) Homepage Journal
    There's no connection between "online videogame TV" and the podcast stats in the linked story, other than the fact that they got the author thinking about his media habits...

    And there are no actual stats about "online videogame TV"...

    And the author wasn't dismissing all "online videogame related video" like the poster suggests -- "I pull up gigabytes of game videos"...

    I can only conclude that the poster didn't actually read the story, and that the slashdot editors are too busy smoking crack to notice... But what else is new? =)
  • A lot of households still rely on dial-up bandwidth to satisfy their daily Internet needs. With a dial-up connection, it will be really taxing to download audio or video (ESPECIALLY video) podcasts and listen or watch them on a regular basis. Also, there is also the problem of bandwidth ceilings. A lot of ISPs set a limit on how much bandwidth a connection can "use" per time period and some might people prefer to use their bandwidth on something else.

    I personally have a broadband connection
  • I think the biggest problem is that gaming as a medium isn't very conductive to being watched. That's why you see so much bullshit around the spectacle, as opposed to the actual gaming. There are cheerleaders in football, sure. But the action on the field is the focus. The same cannot be said for gaming, where the girl with the cheerleader looks gets the sponsorship, even if she can't tell a motherboard from a twinkie.

    How can anyone take this seriously as sport? Smokescreens and lightshows and sponsorships
  • I don't even know what a Podcast is (I'm not really "up" with all these things), but, when it comes to video games, I don't want to watch or listen to someone talking about them. I like reading, I like text. I don't want to listen/watch someone talking about something that I can just read instead.

    On the other hand, that's no different from how I am in general I suppose. I basically never watch television or movies (whether related to video games or not) or listen to the radio or music or anything like that,
  • Database maintenance is currently taking place. Some items such as comment posting and moderation are currently unavailable.

    I've tried on more than one occasion to get a "podcast" and the given site wanted me to "subscribe" with a "podcast program." Why can't I just get a link to the MP3 the way Allen Sniffen does? [computer.net] I don't want to subscribe, I just want a sample, thanks!

    Maybe I missed something, but MP3 "podcasts" work just fine on my MP3 car CD player.

    And while we're on Gaming TV, G4 stinks and I don

    • Re:Can we just call 'em MP3s? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There are plenty of shows (so-called "podcasts") out there that do not force people to subscribe, and that have clear direct links to MP3's and even sometimes OGG vorbis files.

      A site like HackerMedia [hackermedia.org] is a great place to start, they even catalogue video shows.

      Most of the shows on RantRadio [rantradio.com] and RantTV [ranttv.com] also operate in the same manner, such as GAMERadio [hwhq.com] and LagRadio [lag-radio.com].

      And lets not forget about TextFiles.com [textfiles.com], Jason Scott's mirror of a little bit of everything, offering direct links to the files.

      The ter
  • Podcasting requires:
    1) an expensive piece of hardware
    2) a substantially higher-than-average level of understanding of both the internet, and how to move the information from the internet onto the expensive hardware
    3) excessive amounts of free time, to watch the hours of worthless crap

    Between work, social life, family, Netflix, and the online gaming I squeeze into the spare hour or two per week, I don't even have a 'favorite' TV show because I simply don't have the time available to watch it on a regular bas

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