I’ve played disc golf dozens of times, and had no idea that it was ever filmed, let alone with the production quality in this video.
300k views in just over a month.
I doubt I’d watch a livestream, but this was incredible. I know PAPA has some videos out there just like this, where the commentary is recorded after the fact by the person who played and one other commentator.
But then again, if this disc golf video was 20 minutes of 4 guys playing the same golf hole over and over, I probably wouldn’t watch…which honestly is much closer to what what it’s like watching pinball.
Edit: I just went back and looked at some of the Youtube comments…
“I started off watching this, thinking it’s a parody. Watching 5 minutes later, a second tab open with the rules and wondering about professionals’ salaries…Here I am 20 minutes into the video.”
“no idea what this is, first time watching this, but still finished watching every second of this”
“Wait, so this does actually exist? Like, outside Wii Sports Resort?”
“Never saw or tried this. Looks fun.”
“I feel like I’m watching a cross between the x games and the pga tour”
In an ideal world the finals of a major tournament would have been perfected by now, where at the very least, watching that live would be undeniably entertaining. Then you can go back from there. Unfortunately no one has ever really figured this out. Currently the biggest views pinball gets on youtube are either documentaries, that show almost no gameplay, or pinball tutorials. You could argue based on that that there isn’t near the amount of interviews there should be, since obviously the tutorial aspect is, sometimes, there. In an ideal world pinball streaming would’ve caught on a lot more, there would be multiple streams per event so people could see their favorite players always, as well as separate cameras for interviews.
Inherently there’s a problem when the gameplay itself can’t carry the stream. Which means pinball might have more in common with something like the construction world championships(where it’s mainly just interviews, with very brief glances at the actual competition) than say fighting games where it’s mainly just gameplay.
Some of the biggest watched videos in pinball are tournament videos for major finals. The problem pinball has is its tiny market and tiny viewership.
Usually every tournament I watch at the finals there is an interview with the finalists or at least the winner.
Unlike many other events pinball relies upon a huge amount of people giving away their free time to run these events and that time isn’t infinite, finding volunteers to help seems to get harder every year.
I was assisting one of my customers, who is a major sponsor of the eSports World Cup, last year and the budget for an 8 week event is probably about the same size as the pinball market all in. Just the announcers for last year earning 6 figures with all expenses covered.
I’m talking about a lot of interviews, video packages in between game switches, someone actively walking around interviewing people. Not one interview one time after everyone has already turned off the stream. But yes, without production money, how can you guarantee that is even done well? Or done at all.
Eh, I just think the gameplay has major flaws, focusing a bit more on the personalities surrounding pinball might be a better tact, as it will just naturally get the viewer more invested, to put up with all the tech issues that seem forever prevalent.
We’ve done this in past Pincinnati tournaments. We recorded a bunch of player profiles to show before matches with them in it. But those are now out of date and it’s hard to find the time with volunteers to keep these up to date and adding more. It’s just hard when there’s no money to put into it.
I don’t know. I think it’s how you sell it. Ever watched American Ninja Warrior? It’s like a minute or two of action after a 6 minute [sob/inspirational/triumph] story. Not everyone that runs through an obstacle course has some truly amazing story. But they always seem to find something in the background to focus on to sell each athlete.
Back when I used to watch poker, it wasn’t just about the cards, it was about the characters playing the cards. Heroes/villians/underdogs/amateurs everyone had a story that they would fill the airtime with. Is everyone that plays that interesting? I don’t think so.
