What makes a JRPG "streamable"?

[MarxMayhem]

As title says.

Not sure about the percentage of people in this forums watch people play JRPGs, be it streams or pre-recorded, because of the JRPG. For those who do, I am curious as to what you like in such media: the game itself, or what the content creator is like, or something different altogether?

 

[Silenity]

Anything can be streamable if the streamer is entertaining enough.

Content is a vehicle. It will get you from point A to point B. But you need a good and experienced driver if you want to make the vehicle do some cool tricks and turns on the way to the destination.

 

[Maliki79]

Firstly: Awesome analogy @Silenity!

I would say all other things being equal, the randomness of the game's content would help.
Also, the quality of the story beats could play a role.

So, for example, if 10 people made a let's play/stream of Super Mario Bros, a person might only watch 2 or 3 of them since once you've seen the route to the end there's little more to experience.

Now, if those same 10 people did a let's play/stream of Super Mario Odyssey, you'd likely see yourself watching more as the variation to gameplay would be that much more different as SMO is far less linear!

So as for a JRPG, if you have a game with a crazy battle system where lots of different outcomes can happen in battles or player choice can affect stats, etc, you'd get more interest.
Then of course, if you have an interesting story in there as well, even non-players can be entertained by it and thus might be more inclined to watch a stream.

 

[Magenta-Fantasies]

I agree with both the above posts. I tend to prefer Let's Plays/Streams of non-linear games, or at least games that have multiple variables, choices and outcomes.

 

[coyotecraft]

I don't really watch streams casually. But when I'm discussing a JRPG with people it is pretty nice to just pull up someone's video segment and point something out. Or take a snapshot a piece of dialogue.

I guess I enjoy some speedruns techniques. But it's not very often a new trick or exploit is discovered.

 

[KawaiiKid]

JRPGs are probably one of the least "streamable" genres. Since most of the enjoyment of the game is following the story, unless you are paying attention to the stream 100% of the time and don't miss any stream, you will miss out on the stream.


That being said, a lot of watching a streamer is their personality, so some people will stick around no matter what's being played if they like the streamer. In my personal opinion, as someone who watches streams and loves jrpgs, I would never in a million years watch one being played - even by a favorite streamer. It's too boring.

 

[Popoto_milk]

Streamers/youtubers themselves are a big part of why people watch that type of content to begin with.

The best games for streaming are more gameplay focused with a degree of randomness. Games which allow for collabs between personalities are great for this too. Gotta agree with KawaiiKid on this. There are better genres for streaming, even if the game itself is fun.

 

[Aoi Ninami]

For a JRPG more than any other game type, if you want it to be streamable, it's essential that failure should never set the player back too much. Nothing kills interest faster than having to watch the same unskippable cutscene every time before retrying a difficult boss battle.

 

[MarxMayhem]

Content is a vehicle. It will get you from point A to point B. But you need a good and experienced driver if you want to make the vehicle do some cool tricks and turns on the way to the destination.

I really like this response, but it is useless to me because I asked what I ask because I'm including "people with streaming behavior" as part of my target audience. XD

So as for a JRPG, if you have a game with a crazy battle system where lots of different outcomes can happen in battles or player choice can affect stats, etc, you'd get more interest.
Then of course, if you have an interesting story in there as well, even non-players can be entertained by it and thus might be more inclined to watch a stream.

I agree with both the above posts. I tend to prefer Let's Plays/Streams of non-linear games, or at least games that have multiple variables, choices and outcomes.

My initial answer to this a job system where players can build what they want based on options they have (and they can get more via story progression or sidequests). But I agree that there needs to be more variety from that.

I'm almost tempted to make my game an auto-battler just to add a layer of variety to the mix. Of course you can make some controlled choices but you can't actively choose everything you do.

I don't really watch streams casually. But when I'm discussing a JRPG with people it is pretty nice to just pull up someone's video segment and point something out. Or take a snapshot a piece of dialogue.

Basically, have moments that players in general can turn into points of interests? I'll keep it in mind.

For a JRPG more than any other game type, if you want it to be streamable, it's essential that failure should never set the player back too much. Nothing kills interest faster than having to watch the same unskippable cutscene every time before retrying a difficult boss battle.

Agreed. Already thought of setting cutscenes to play if its respective switch is on, but playing that cutscene turns its own switch off. XD