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Holar

Question about the Wurm Online stream

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To start this off I'm not trying to bait, troll or cause an issue with my questions. 

 

For the first time I decided to watch the stream for Wurm Online ran by our PR guy Retro. It was announced in my event window so I popped over and checked it out. I was expecting to hear news about past, future or current updates about Wurm Online. After watching for about 35 minutes the only thing Wurm related was his Wurm client playing in the background and the Twitch channel with the WO Offical name. Now as I tread lightly and being to approach the line in the sand, this stream didn't seem to pertain a whole lot to Wurm Online. There was discussion of ferrets, fun and silly self imagery painting that Retro did of himself and a lady who I was not familiar with. Entertaining to the right crowd who enjoys a chill and funny social stream. I was however disappointed in the lack of actual Wurm Online content that was shown or discussed in the roughly 35-45 minutes I watched. Once again, this was my first time viewing so maybe Wurm content is held later in the stream. So with that being said, it seemed to me it was more of a stream about Retro and not Wurm Online. I'm not knocking the actual stream, it seemed laid back and very chill which is a good image for potential players and current players. What I am knocking is the fact that this stream was announced in game to attract the attention of Wurm Online players to come into a stream hoping to see Wurm content or maybe have some conversations about Wurm Online and not random trolly questions that are asked in chat. Granted, my actual view time was less than an hour so maybe I missed the bits and pieces about Wurm Online. 

 

So now I move onto my question: is this stream about Wurm Online or is it Retros stream featuring Wurm Online?

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Never watched a wurm stream before.

 

Now i'm glad i haven't. 

Edited by atazs
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I wouldn't even mind if he hosted his own channel with the official Wurm twitch but it's a little unprofessional in my opinion to use the official twitch as his personal. Nothing against Retro just my opinion on the matter. Though if this thread gets deleted that'd speak volumes lol

Edited by user
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I've always gotten a little annoyed at the event messages linking to the stream, only to get there and it be a Retro stream and not a wurm stream. The streams are generally still pretty good quality, no complaints there, It just seems unprofessional to have the channel be "Wurm Online Official" and use the game to advertise it in such an official capacity but not actually be talking about the game in any way shape or form.

 

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37 minutes ago, Holar said:

...

 

My guess is you just dont understand the stream as a whole. neither do i tbh. Its the next generation of gamers, who actually enjoy the streamer playing game while they watch and mess about.  I must be old school as i prefer to play a game myself rather than watching somebody else playing. Said that, retro is doing them streams regularly and to be honest if he only talked about wurm online those streams would be 2 minutes long only if he tried... 

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41 minutes ago, Holar said:

maybe Wurm content is held later in the stream.

isnt

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I’d say you mostly just came in on the wrong day. That was the first I’ve ever seen him talk about anything unrelated to Wurm on the official stream, and honestly he was doing it as a “let’s take a mental break from COVID” moment of levity. Everyone in the stream chat was happy and participating in the conversation from what I saw. And afterwards, he ran around in Wurm and answered questions about the game.

 

Is there going to be ground-breaking information revealed in every Wurm Online stream? No.

 

From a personal standpoint, I’d rather the game get streamed weekly, monkeying around or not, than the channel sit and collect dust between announcements or big news. Getting the game out there, seeing the faces behind the game, that’s important to new players and existing players alike.


Last night just happened to cater more towards the existing players who might have needed a bit of fun together in all the turmoil of the world right now.

 

 

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There's nothing wrong with the streams, Retro is a community guy and we all seem to do an incredible job at forgetting the guy is human when we fling endless amounts of trash at him. It's hard to make a Twitch stream work with only Wurm content because Wurm is such a boring stream game. Wurm only works with a personality behind it, which is why a fair few streams tend to fall flat until getting it right. He's having fun, and the chat enjoys it, and it's just silly entertainment to pass the time.

1 hour ago, Holar said:

Once again, this was my first time viewing so maybe Wurm content is held later in the stream.

 

I'm not knocking the actual stream, it seemed laid back and very chill which is a good image for potential players and current players.

 

What I am knocking is the fact that this stream was announced in game to attract the attention of Wurm Online players to come into a stream hoping to see Wurm content or maybe have some conversations about Wurm Online and not random trolly questions that are asked in chat. Granted, my actual view time was less than an hour so maybe I missed the bits and pieces about Wurm Online.

 

These lines are very telling to me in paticular as I often watch these streams. These streams are for community outreach, not for endless amounts of news, because frankly then we'd have streams that are very short and very sporadic. You've come in at the start of a stream, when things are winding up, people are tuning in, and Retro is just having some fun while the chat talks to him about random whatevers. Hell, I instigated part of what you complained about myself, purely because Retro has banter with that chat, there's an actual back and forth conversation and engagement, something Wurm has struggled with in the past and players absolutely hated to no end.

 

The streams have been fantastic for a lot of people, I often use it as a way to discuss actual topics to a good length with someone on the team or to get little tidbits of information where we can get them, as do others. Streams with a live chat are a good way to engage with others, chat about current of upcoming features and possible changes that might happen. A lot of players have gotten good game advice even, and there have been things like giveaways.

 

In summary, this is what I'm taking from your post: You've come in at a very different time, watched only a very small portion and expected a lot more than you reasonable should have. It seems to me that this is more or less just not your type of entertainment. It hasn't meshed with you, and that's fine. But the criticisms are weak and overall not all that constructive. Retro uses the "chillstream" phrase a lot during streams, and that's what they are. A relaxed way for a team member and the community to chat in realtime.

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if there's important news or insider update info to be gleaned during a stream it's usually mentioned on the title/intro/ad.
otherwise it's just a chance to enjoy a muckabout in wurm with retro which includes questions and feedback from the community.
he does pay attention to all users and most comments.

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Streaming Wurm is a tough thing to do, the gameplay is usually far away from action.

 

I think @Retrogradedoes a great job on that.

Edited by Sklo:D
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Well my question has been answered by our community. This can be locked, thank you for the valuable information I was seeking. 

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34 minutes ago, Joelle said:

I’d say you mostly just came in on the wrong day. That was the first I’ve ever seen him talk about anything unrelated to Wurm on the official stream, and honestly he was doing it as a “let’s take a mental break from COVID” moment of levity. Everyone in the stream chat was happy and participating in the conversation from what I saw. And afterwards, he ran around in Wurm and answered questions about the game.

 

Is there going to be ground-breaking information revealed in every Wurm Online stream? No.

 

From a personal standpoint, I’d rather the game get streamed weekly, monkeying around or not, than the channel sit and collect dust between announcements or big news. Getting the game out there, seeing the faces behind the game, that’s important to new players and existing players alike.


Last night just happened to cater more towards the existing players who might have needed a bit of fun together in all the turmoil of the world right now.

 

 

If I may, I'd like to suggest a more hands on approach from the developer streams. It seems that currently the devs have only two modes: Talking about upcoming content or nothing at all.

 

I am going to offer you a new approach: Community Streams. In these, the Community Relations team could speak to developers, staff members and players alike about Wurm. No new content to talk about? How about past content? What motivated the staff to release the Cooking Update? What really happened with the Bridges? How did Hell Horses came to be? Who was the first person to deed Xanadu? 

 

Our game has been around for a very long time and it has a lot of history. A screen of Retro interviewing Shrimpiie split in the middle about why he chose to become a GM for example would be much more interesting an professional and has more to do with Wurm than Retro sitting on his chair scratching his bellybutton while digging clay and talking about what he had for dinner earlier.

 

This requires preparation, work and interpersonal skills. We have a lot of talent among our community and a lot of rich history which a lot of new players dont even know about. It would also be an excellent way to release or hint at new content. 

 

Just my 2 cents.

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Honestly?

 

Me and Traslogan recently had our adventures across Golden Valley to re-create old screenshots from 2009-2010 we found on some guy's blog where he described his adventures.

We posted some of our screens in the WU modding discord, and Retrogarde loved it!

 

He even went as far as logging in himself and recreated a shot that we have already done, putting it on facebook praising how far Wurm has come since then graphics wise.

 

But i suppose these things aren't really stream worthy 

Edited by atazs

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This can be locked. Thanks for the feedback 

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"Who was the first person to deed Xanadu? "

 

I know who that was, and it's still kicking, on Indy.  :P

 

Would like say I've watched a few streamers, it's not really my thing. I'd rather play the game. Occasionally tho, a couple of times a year when alliance chat is thin, it's nice to have the option to check out one of the streamers doing their thing. I noticed the VEN folks get rewards for doing their streams 

 

  • Monthly deed stipend!
  • Contribution to giveaways!
  • Insider peeks on new and upcoming works!
  • Time with the developers! (We promise this is a bonus)
  • And much more

 

I was curious why people who actually create content in game, or here on the forums are not rewarded with the same vigor?

 

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25 minutes ago, Gumbo said:

I was curious why people who actually create content in game, or here on the forums are not rewarded with the same vigor?


The intent behind the VEN program was to reward streamers for essentially advertising Wurm through their content on streaming platforms. We do appreciate the work of players who create content in-game and on the forums, but those things do not bring in new players the way streaming exposes new people to the game. That was the intent, at least.


If you have an interest in creating valuable content for Wurm, perhaps you can message Retro about joining his PR team? We’re also always open for suggestions!

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14 minutes ago, Joelle said:

perhaps you can message Retro about joining his PR team?

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21 minutes ago, Joelle said:


The intent behind the VEN program was to reward streamers for essentially advertising Wurm through their content on streaming platforms. We do appreciate the work of players who create content in-game and on the forums, but those things do not bring in new players the way streaming exposes new people to the game. That was the intent, at least.


If you have an interest in creating valuable content for Wurm, perhaps you can message Retro about joining his PR team? We’re also always open for suggestions!

Wait what? Are you implying that there is a PR team? That there are several PR people for this game? 

 

Surely you jest...

Edited by atazs
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6 minutes ago, atazs said:

Wait what? Are you implying that there is a PR team? That there are several PR people for this game? 

 

Surely you jest...


Currently, it’s just Retro and myself. And admittedly, I have been going through some irl things and haven’t been active in my role, so it’s been just Retro for the most part with me helping behind the scenes. But when I started as a CR assistant, there were a few others on Retro’s team, yes. I don’t know if he’s actively looking for help, but if anyone feels that they have talent or ideas to contribute, he wouldn’t turn down a conversation about it I’m sure.

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I won't touch much on the stream aspect, I see others have already commented on it, and it matches my goal, joking around and engaging with the community, whether it's playing when killing things or being very unmanly while checking out my ferret thread.

 

What I do want to clarify is the PR term. I am not public relations; public relations is not a team we have. By this, I mean that there is a misconception with what some expect, a smooth and polished professional front that's your typical public relations. 

 

My role is community management. Community management differs in many ways, but the most significant difference is that my purpose is about engagement with players, I play the game, I joke around, and banter and I build relationships with existing players. 

 

I work on social media and have some work on marketing, but they are because we are a small team, community managers usually wind up taking on several roles such as these.

 

So to clarify, the purpose of the streams is engaging in a live discussion, just like I join the discord to chat and joke around, community management is a very odd field, where metrics are hard, and you're juggling many different tasks and voices, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. 

 

P.s. I do have a personal stream channel; I started it after enjoying streaming wurm so much!

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1 minute ago, Retrograde said:

I won't touch much on the stream aspect, I see others have already commented on it, and it matches my goal, joking around and engaging with the community, whether it's playing when killing things or being very unmanly while checking out my ferret thread.

 

What I do want to clarify is the PR term. I am not public relations; public relations is not a team we have. By this, I mean that there is a misconception with what some expect, a smooth and polished professional front that's your typical public relations. 

 

My role is community management. Community management differs in many ways, but the most significant difference is that my purpose is about engagement with players, I play the game, I joke around, and banter and I build relationships with existing players. 

 

I work on social media and have some work on marketing, but they are because we are a small team, community managers usually wind up taking on several roles such as these.

 

So to clarify, the purpose of the streams is engaging in a live discussion, just like I join the discord to chat and joke around, community management is a very odd field, where metrics are hard, and you're juggling many different tasks and voices, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. 

 

P.s. I do have a personal stream channel; I started it after enjoying streaming wurm so much!

 

+1 Gained some respect points from me if that matters.

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1 hour ago, Joelle said:

We do appreciate the work of players who create content in-game and on the forums, but those things do not bring in new players the way streaming exposes new people to the game. That was the intent, at least.


If you have an interest in creating valuable content for Wurm, perhaps you can message Retro about joining his PR team? We’re also always open for suggestions!

 

The people creating in-game/forum content may not bring new players the way streaming does, but it helps keeps them here, playing, the way streaming can't. I've always had an interest in creating valuable content for Wurm, as I've shown for many years. How many others can brag about having started an open thread on these forums with 30k+ views?  Guess page hits don't count for much these days. Problem for me, is things like that have gotten overlooked. You've created incentives for streamers, who crave in-game content to accentuate their shows, but you don't reward the people who provide that in-game/forum content.  

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22 minutes ago, Gumbo said:

 

The people creating in-game/forum content may not bring new players the way streaming does, but it helps keeps them here, playing, the way streaming can't. I've always had an interest in creating valuable content for Wurm, as I've shown for many years. How many others can brag about having started an open thread on these forums with 30k+ views?  Guess page hits don't count for much these days. Problem for me, is things like that have gotten overlooked. You've created incentives for streamers, who crave in-game content to accentuate their shows, but you don't reward the people who provide that in-game/forum content.  

Your Wunion thread is always amusing, and I know time and effort goes into every article you do.

Our VEN system focuses on content creators who provide ongoing content of consistent quality with a focus on providing support to allow them to continue producing content. It's not just a matter of "here's a ton of stuff" but instead is gauged by viewership, hours streamed, average watch times, and other metrics. 

As someone who streams Wurm and other games, it's not easy to continually step up to the bar on a consistent schedule, and I want our system to recognise those who do.

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I had to do the rough math. Page hits on the Wunion thread averages out to 11+ hits each and every day, for 8 years running. Nope, no consistancy there. You're free to run things however you want, it's your game. Perhaps it's time to move my in-game content, games, ideas, to a personal level as opposed to public levels.

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7 hours ago, Holar said:

What I am knocking is the fact that this stream was announced in game to attract the attention of Wurm Online players to come into a stream hoping to see Wurm content or maybe have some conversations about Wurm Online and not random trolly questions that are asked in chat. Granted, my actual view time was less than an hour so maybe I missed the bits and pieces about Wurm Online. 

 

So now I move onto my question: is this stream about Wurm Online or is it Retros stream featuring Wurm Online?

hey-hey...

Did you watch the stream?..

Did you have questions to ask?

Were you curious to learn something from the pr guy?

Than.. did you ask any of the questions on your mind?

 

Streams are afaik not with a planned schedule, at 5minutes - showing news, at 15 there's a demo of a feature, at 40 there's some testing on PTS with players and a gm or 2.. etc..

For 1.. there's not too much to change for a month in a small-er team or community, sometimes things go slow, as he mentioned he's gathering more news, etc to make a "better" valrei post with several changes to announce, rather than check the news at a glance and move.

Especially with bigger changes.. you get to a point where a lot is done.. but smaller details could take more than expected and delay things unexpectedly long-er.

 

As a tip.. if you are interested in something... there were 50 people watching the stream, and most of the questions in chat were read on stream and answered, you could have had any of the topics that excite you answered if you have only asked about it, you don't get that on many places.
 

BTW: Somebody.... gift retro a decent horse...

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