Tuesday, March 24, 2015

on twitch

I don't understand why twitch.tv is not more hyped in broader media and why money is not rapidly pouring into the platform. Or why even after a purchase by Amazon the engineering of the service has not been polished. It's baffling.

Do people not realize that this is the creation of a new medium! Sci-fi level stuff.And not old timey sci-fi but today sci-fi. How crazy is it that Saga (a fantastic comic that everyone should read) has a whole plot line dedicated to actors performing live streaming theater where audience members are able to interact with the performer. Or the 1995 utterly fantastical Diamond Age has a major plot feature of performers able to interact with audience in a mass market platform. This is twitch! Today!

The platform is still looking for it's bearings. It feels like it offers two somewhat distinct products. Large audience youtube style video game content where magnetic personalities and smaller more intimate performer-audience interaction is the key. The lines between the two are blurry at times and even at the extremes they share commonalities (live content and live chat). But i suspect that the two types of content will gradually diverge more and more.

What is more interesting to me is what is still possible to do with the medium. Norway pioneered soothing slow TV with a trains rolling through a country side or a woman knitting. Imagine a soothing live stream where people watch and interact with a  knitter. Or scenes of domesticity which allow the viewer to join a family for dinner. Or an improve show that feeds off the viewers. There are whole new entertainment experiences that haven't been tried. Would anyone watch me and a few friend cooking and talking about games? Who knows, but it possible, which is damn exciting.