Justin-TV
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Justin.tv shuts down as Twitch goes all-in on video game broadcasting
Twitch shut down Justin.tv this week, putting an end to the streaming platform's seven-year run, as the company is now focusing its resources on Twitch. Videos on Justin.tv are no longer available to view, and those with active premium pro accounts should receive an email about getting refunded. The shift in focus has been in the works for months, as the company formerly known as Justin.tv changed its corporate name to Twitch in February, the same time Twitch achieved one million active monthly broadcasters. Those with Justin.tv accounts that would like to move over to Twitch need to fill out a form on Twitch's site, though all requests must be received by September 5. However, Justin.tv broadcasters' videos are lost forever; VOD and video archiving support were removed on June 15.
Twitch hits 1M broadcasters per month, takes over corporate name
This Justin: Twitch Interactive has replaced Justin.tv, Inc. as the company's corporate umbrella name, though Justin.tv remains a product under the primary Twitch brand. Twitch, a video streaming service focused on games, recently reached 1 million monthly active broadcasters, 45 million monthly viewers and an average of 13 billion minutes watched per month. Viewers watch an average of 106 minutes per person per day, Twitch reports. At least you kept your New Year's resolution to watch less Netflix. The spike in broadcasters and viewers comes from Twitch's PS4 integration, the company says: "Less than two months after the console launched, 20 percent of Twitch broadcasters were PS4 owners." Twitch is on its way to Xbox One as well. We're personally included in Twitch's monthly numbers report, with our live Joystiq Streams series on the Joystiq channel, plus some streaming our personal channels. [Image: Twitch]
Rise and Shiny Recap: Evony
Yes, you read the title correctly. This week I revisited Evony. But don't worry -- I tend to write about a game's gameplay and how it made me feel, not the politics surrounding it, especially during a time when people are talking more about an instance of poor taste in lieu of a discussion about how fun the game is. In other words, I will only speak about the infamous Evony ads at the end of this column. if you want more opinionated stuff, check out our Soapbox column! I knew going in that the game had changed since I last played it. I also knew that it would not blow me away as far as gameplay is concerned, simply because I have played scores of MMORTS games over the last year. But what did I find? What was good and bad about the game? And what about those ads? Click past the cut and we'll chat about it.
MV Guide: November 14-20, 2011
MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively TV. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of titles to take a look at. During our streamed events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, and simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, streaming is subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) We've got some exciting MV TV news this week: We're changing the channel! We've moved to Twitch TV, and we think you're going to love the new look. You can still access the old livestream archives at our Livestream.com channel, but beginning today, everything new will be shown and saved on our Twitch TV channel. Ready to see what's on MV TV this week? Follow along after the jump and take a look!
Choose My Adventure: Another Cataclysm live stream from Robin
Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H). I'm streaming now on WoW.com's Justin.tv channel. Since this isn't my regular Choose My Adventure stream time, I'll be playing one of the characters that is not winning the vote in the polls today. It looks like my tauren paladin is winning that, so I'll save Robinidin for the regularly scheduled stream next Wednesday. Of course, you can change my mind. Perhaps I'll put it up for a vote. It is Choose My Adventure, after all. Tune in now and choose my adventures live! Please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) in <It came from the Blog>. Guild ranks of "Blog Lurker" or above can invite, so /whisper Robiness or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules -- basically, don't be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.
Choose My Adventure: Live Cataclysm stream
Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H). I will be streaming my exploits on one of my beta characters live on WoW.com's Justin.tv channel tonight at 11 p.m. EDT. I will be taking requests from the chat channel for various activities as they come up. I'll also be narrating, as usual, so prepare to be babbled at. Tune in now and choose my adventure live!
Multiboxing.tv lets you watch multiboxing as it happens
Our old friend Tim Sullivan, who worked at Wowhead way back in the day, just sent along a note that he's working on a brand new web video series all about something in World of Warcraft that's been gaining a lot of ground lately: multiboxing. Thanks to recruit-a-friend and all of the bonuses that come along with sponsoring a second account, quite a few people have shown an interest in running more than one character in the game, and Tim's series, called Multiboxing.tv, shows live feeds from his gameplay (all five screens of it, four Hunters and one Priest) while people can chat and learn live about multiboxing and how it all works. He's also leveling the group up -- they're currently around level 40, and he says he's headed to 80 eventually.You can check out his front page to see when he'll be streaming next (and someone told us he was streaming for something like fourteen hours the other day -- take care of yourself, Tim!), and if you're interested in how you might get started multiboxing, he and his chat channel are probably more than happy to help you figure out how to do it. He did say he'd be streaming every night this weekend, so if you're around then, you should be able to catch him. Personally (as you probably already know), I'm a big fan of the standard one character gameplay -- I have enough trouble figuring out one toon, much less five. But Turpster, as you've probably heard on our podcast, has dived into this kind of stuff headfirst and loves it, so if you're interested in seeing how it works, tune in to Tim's channel and find out.Update: Apparently while this was presented to us (and appears to be) just a guy streaming his multiboxing, Tim may have some less generous motives -- he's apparently trying to sell multiboxing software, and you can see the comments below for some other shady moves that have been made. Watch at your own risk, and keep in mind that while the stream appeared legit to us, it may be an advertisement for software you certainly don't need to multibox.
Warcraft the TV show
I'm sure that many of us would like to have more WoW time in our day. That's the reason I started reading WoW Insider, so that I would be able to be as close to the game I love while I was doing the annoying part -- working to pay for my subscription and the utility bills that run my computer. Now this doesn't mean I spend the majority of my day perusing the latest theorycraft threads trying to figure out the best spell rotation for a 5v5 arena battle versus one warrior, two shammies, a priest and a rogue. What it does mean, however, is that I look for interesting ways to tap into WoW when I am not able to log in.So when Ray tipped us off that there was a new Justin.TV channel where I could watch someone level a character all the way to 70, I wasn't all that surprised. Sure it might sound a little strange to watch someone else play, but really, don't we do this all the time in real life? I know I have more than once sat down to watch another person run an instance I wasn't a part of. That's how I experienced the Sunken Temple for the first time. WoW Adventures runs without a specific schedule, so you will have to catch it when it's playing. I assume this is because Gelu Nex enjoys sleeping and eating on occasion, and I suspect might also need to do the annoying work part. If you would like to watch someone else play the game when you aren't able to, stop by WoW Adventures and perhaps we can nail down exactly how long it takes to get to 70.[thanks Ray!]
