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The original 'Inspector Gadget' is coming to Twitch December 17th
Inspector Gadget is back on duty. The first season of the 1983 animated series Inspector Gadget will be broadcast in its entirety on Twitch starting December 17th at 10:00 AM PST. The show will air in five-hour sessions on the Twitch Presents channel and will conclude December 24 at 9:00 AM PST. The stream will include all 65 episodes of the cartoon's inaugural season.
Twitch nixes Communities, adds tags to improve content discovery
Video game streaming service Twitch launched Communities in February of last year. These were ostensibly hub page for specific games or topics that members could create to help people find content. Now the company will shut these pages down mid-September in favor of a new tagging system. Twitch will also add 10 new categories for streamers to help describe their content for better discovery.
Twitch 'Communities' help you find specific streams
Despite YouTube and Facebook's best efforts, Twitch is still the king of video game live streaming. The platform's popularity has given rise to a new problem though: discoverability. When so many different people are streaming, how do you find the channels that suit your particular interests? Enter "Communities," a new type of hub page that users can build around specific games or topics. They can be about almost anything -- speedrunning, comedy, or the joys of Jet Grind Radio. Each community is public and listed in a new Community directory. Streamers can then "target" them so their broadcast appears on the page's "stream wall."
Twitch reveals dates and new venue for TwitchCon 2017
Following the reveal of its new IRL section, streaming giant Twitch is hoping to attract more international visitors to this year's TwitchCon by moving to a new, better-connected venue.TwitchCon 2017 will be held at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center in California from October 20th to 22nd.
Twitch takes game broadcasting mobile
Twitch is ready to give your Jetpack Joyride skills the audience they deserve. The outfit has just released a mobile software toolset that will let devs enable live broadcasting, capturing and archiving of your in-game exploits on Android and iOS. With its proposed features (including chat, audio capture and options for finding streams from people playing similar games), the mobile tools essentially mirror what's available on PC and consoles. Even with 10 million installs of Twitch's mobile apps, however, the question that remains is if anyone will actually want to watch you play Threes.
Korean StarCraft pro among first foreign eSports competitors to obtain athletic visa
Thanks to support from the competitive gaming community, one of Korea's most impressive eSports athletes has found a home in the US. Kim "Violet" Dong Hwan has ben trying to take his competitive StarCraft 2 career stateside for awhile, but a string of visa denials made his tournament schedule pretty sparse. With his country's mandatory military service looming over his head, Hwan was facing early retirement if he wasn't granted US-entry. Luckily that didn't happen. Hwan's manager rallied Blizzard Entertainment (StarCraft 2's publisher), Twitch.tv and Machinima execs, and over the course of seven months, they penned a 500-page application to immigration services. According to The Daily Dot, this tome included every article ever written about Hwan, translated into English. The result? A P-1A pro-athlete visa that will allow Hwan to compete in the country for the next five years. This is only the second time an eSports competitor has gotten an athletic visa, and now, the government may view them on the same level as, say, baseball players. For the full story (including a harrowing tale of how Hwan's house caught fire just after he sat down for a tournament) we urge you to check out the source. [Image credit: Team Liquid]
Twitch takes over streaming duties for PAX, New York Comic Con
The folks in charge of running America's largest biannual gaming event are teaming up with gaming's most popular streaming solution to offer streams of PAX Prime, PAX East, and New York Comic Con going forward. The company behind all three conventions, ReedPOP, are working in conjunction with Twitch.tv to offer live broadcasts from the aforementioned three shows, as well as Chicago's Comic & Entertainment Expo. ReedPOP also runs PAX Australia, though it looks like Twitch isn't handling that streaming as well. Twitch's biggest competitor in the streaming space, Ustream, secured a deal with Sony to handle streaming from the company's forthcoming PlayStation 4 game console. Microsoft's Xbox One can also handle streaming -- Xbox One distinguished engineer Nick Baker told Engadget, "We architected in several components to allow that. We have a video hardware encoder, h.264, and the ability to essentially screen scrape. Take your output without having to render two separate images. Take your output, feed that back to memory, compress it, save it, stream it to a companion device. The hardware has the capability." Microsoft has yet to announce a plan for how its streaming will work on Xbox One, but we imagine we'll know much more as of next week.
Massively's Beau Hindman streaming 24 hours of gaming for Extra Life charity
It's that time of year again! What time, you say? After all, it's too early for Halloween and Thanksgiving. It's never too early for games, though, and it's time to play them for 24 hours straight and raise money for Extra Life and the Children's Miracle Network Hospital! I've participated in this event for the last several years, sometimes taking along other friends, co-workers and wives. This year is no different and in order to keep me awake and on my toes I will be livestreaming the entire event on our very own MassivelyTV channel. That's right: you can watch as I slowly disintegrate into a pile of goo over the course of the day. Don't fret... a lot of other gamers and developers will be participating, so I won't feel alone. You can join my team if you want to game all day or just donate directly to my page. Starting at 9:00 a.m. EDT on Saturday, October 20th, I will begin broadcasting a list of approximately 24 games randomly chosen throughout the day. There's no real science to it, and if I happen to be having a ton of fun in one particular game then I might just continue playing it. Feel free to come suggest games in the chat room. I might even have another Massively staffer or two jump on the stream with me, or take over the stream when I need to fix a sandwich. The real reason I'll be there is to raise money for sick kids. Every cent goes to the charity, and so far Extra Life has raised millions! Wish me luck, and bring coffee!
Free for All: An interview with disabled gamer Keith 'Aieron' Knight
There are literally millions of disabled citizens in the United States alone. How many of these millions play games or would love to if the developers and hardware manufacturers provided more options for control and accessibility? During my time volunteering with Ablegamers.com, I learned a lot about how disabled gamers are often ignored or simply forgotten during the making of a title. Despite the fact that MMOs are generally more accessible than, say, the latest FPS, the community and developers still have a long way to go. Don't tell that to Keith "Aieron" Knight. Besides having a killer name, he hasn't let his muscular dystrophy stop him at all. Recently he gained a bit of fame after being promoted by the official Guild Wars 2 and AbleGamers Twitter accounts. It turns out he was streaming his gameplay live, along with his webcam, as he played games to raise money for research. When I first tuned in to watch, he had over 3,000 viewers. The chat was mostly civil and showed just how educational it can be to show how a disabled player actually accesses a game. Many in the chat room didn't believe it was real. Why? Well, because Knight can pretty much kick some butt in both Guild Wars 2 and League of Legends... all while playing by using a pen in his mouth and his cheek on the mouse. I had to ask this guy some questions!
Twitch receives $15 million investment to expand eSports broadcasts
Twitch.tv has received $15 million from an investment firm to expand its eSports streaming. In an interview with Venturebeat, Twitch VP of Marketing Matthew DiPietro says the money will allow the company to expand its engineering team and improve its live video streaming services."That's the kind of entrepreneurs we like to work with," said Ethan Kurzweil, Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners, which put up the money. "They created this market. They created a whole phenomenon."Twitch states it now has over 20 million unique viewers per month. The site has raised $23 million to date, with a small seed round in 2005 and an $8 million investment as Justin.tv back in 2007.
Choose My Adventure: How I fell in love with The Kingdom of Loathing
Well, it's time for me to say goodbye to The Kingdom of Loathing. It's more accurate to say that it's time for you to say goodbye to the KoL diary that I've been keeping over the last several weeks. Perhaps we can meet in-world to discuss the game further? Before you go, allow me to recap what I learned from my time with this odd browser-based MMO. I guess it'd be easiest to tell you what kind of player I am and why this game fits my playstyle so well. That way you can ask yourself if it sounds like the right fit for you, based on a comparison of our two personalities. No matter what conclusion you come to, you should still try the game. I don't know how someone could not want to try any new game he came across, but that's getting into my preferences. Even then, there is no denying the convenience of a free-to-play, browser-based, multi-platform sandbox MMO that also offers years of content and a very unique fanbase. It all started several weeks ago...
Report: 'Need for Speed: Most Wanted' listed on E3 booth schedule [Update: Yup!]
That mysterious Need for Speed game mentioned during EA's fiscal 2012 investors call may become slightly less ethereal during E3, as TwitchTV's booth schedule lists "Need for Speed: Most Wanted" as one of the games it'll be showcasing, according to IGN.If that name sounds familiar, that's because it should: The original Need for Speed: Most Wanted (above) was released on nearly every system in existence way back in the ancient caveman days of 2005. It's possible that this may be the Criterion-developed Need for Speed game the rumor mill was churning over a couple weeks ago, but that's just rampant speculation on our part.It's also possible that TwitchTV could merely be showing off the Game Boy Advance port of the original or something, we're going to go ahead and assume that isn't the case since we don't live in a Far Side cartoon.Update: We have also received the schedule in question and can confirm that Need for Speed: Most Wanted is indeed among TwitchTV's on-site programming for E3, along with "TBA" titles from Ubisoft, Capcom and Warner Bros.
Rise and Shiny: Looking back on two years and making changes
This column will turn two years old on May 8th, 2012. I'm proud of not only the fact that I have been able keep up the column with a decent amount of content and writing that has slowly gotten better over that time but also the fact that I have introduced the readers of Massively to so many games that they wouldn't otherwise have known about. Recently, I have increased my efforts by streaming odd and indie games as well as writing about the relatively new world of mobile MMOs. This might all seem like I am attempting to build some sort of indie hipster street cred, but the totally honest truth is that nothing thrills me more than exposing a new game to the world or giving an older game some much-needed sunlight. If someone posts, "This game is still around?" in the comments section, I call that a win. From now on, I am going to tweak how I do things for Rise and Shiny in order to raise the quality of coverage. Let me explain how as well as give you a few figures to illustrate just how many titles I have covered.
Previously on MV TV: The week of April 28th
Ah, another fine week of streaming videos! Who needs television when you have such killer content right at your fingertips, for free? Well, we need Game of Thrones, but other than that, we'll stick by Massively TV! Be sure to bookmark our livestream schedule page so that you won't miss any of the cool videos. Sign up, join in the chat room, and participate! This week we had Mike back with his EVE Online and RIFT streams, followed by MJ with a ton of great stuff, including Aion, Lord of the Rings Online, TERA and City of Heroes! Woo! I finished up by showing viewers how to build clothing attachments in Second Life. So stop reading this and click past the cut. Check out the videos and let us know what you think in the comments section. Here, have some popcorn.
Rise and Shiny: Gemstone IV
This article was a long time coming. Not only have I avoided taking a look at any sort of pure MUD for many years, but I meant to write this up last week but real life interrupted my plans. I just didn't think it was fair to write up a first impressions based on only a few hours of play. I was quite hesitant to take a deeper look at Gemstone IV mainly because I knew that the non-stop reading would surely create more migraines that might derail my work again. I was very worried, actually. Luckily, the Gemstone IV client is customizable enough to allow me to create a "book-style" experience: black text on a white background. I don't think I'm alone in my inability to view bright, colored text on a dark background comfortably. If I were, popular websites would still look like they were from 1996. We've moved past ugly fonts and horrible color combinations. Unfortunately it took me most of the time with Gemstone IV just to learn how to play, make the text comfortable to read, and understand what my character was supposed to be doing. Once I got comfortable, though, I honestly had one of the most enchanting times in a game yet.
Previously on MV TV: The week of April 21st
What a week it has been in Massively's world of streaming games! We have a little bit of something for all types of viewers. Hardcores, roleplayers, explorers, crafters and lazy-bums like yours truly: We have something for all of you. Be sure to bookmark our livestream schedule page so that you can always see the schedule ahead of time. It's much easier to plan your life around our videos if you know the schedule early. Invite your friends... we love to hear from new people in the chat room! This week, we had some EVE Online adventuring with Mike followed by his attempt at Drakensang Online, a browser-based action MMO. Adventure Mike took a spin in the way-back machine and streamed some EverQuest, and MJ scored some time in EverQuest II, a chunk of Vanguard, and Aion. She's been a very busy streamer! Lastly, I took a look at Gemstone IV, a fantastic MUD that almost brought tears to my eyes. Tears of frustration, but many tears of joy. Let's get to watching!
Rise and Shiny: Stronghold Kingdoms
There are certain designs in the MMORTS genre that have frankly started to burn me out. I was a bit worried that I had reached my tolerance point and would not be able to stomach another city-builder until I had put some time between me and my latest preview or first impressions. It's an amazing genre, and as I have argued before, it's more MMO than most MMOs. As in many genres, successful design is copied. The ironic thing is that all of these copies often dilute the market, making it worse on everyone. As much as I love the genre, I am a bit sick of running into the same design, stereotypical settings, and mechanics. Of course, we cannot take these copies and paint the whole genre with a terrible brush; if we did that, all of MMOdom would be in trouble. Still, I'm sick of it. Luckily Firefly Worlds, maker of Stronghold Kingdoms, has a very persistent "PR ninja" who made a point to poke at me on Twitter. Usually, we funnel all PR contact to our lead editors for organization purposes, but hey, I can't resist a nice voice and a lovely looking game... and I have a high tolerance for fun people.
Previously on MV TV: The week of April 7th
Oh hey, guys and gals, did you know that it was just Friday the 13th? Yes, it was. Don't worry; you'll have nothing but good luck on this week's recap of livestream goodness. If you missed a stream that you really wanted to see, or if you've never tuned in to check out what we do, head on over to our Twitch.tv page and keep an eye out. Be sure to bookmark the livestream guide as well so you can keep up with the current schedule. We have a lot of variety in our line-up, so it's always good to check back! This week we had some great stuff! MJ has been streaming like her life depends on it lately, first jumping into EverQuest II, then spending some time in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. She had to pay some attention Aion, of course, and there, she showed off some player housing and took a trip on an airlink. Mike was back in EVE Online avoiding death-rays and spacemen and later found himself dead in RIFT... again. The Mists of Pandaria have tempted Richie once again, and thankfully our cameras were there to capture it. Meanwhile, I spent some time boating in Second Life and gave a first look at Stronghold Kingdoms. Just look at that lineup, will you? We're proud! Now click past the cut and get to viewing!
Rise and Shiny: Zandagort
Zandagort, a very independent browser-based MMORTS by Zanda Games, really holds a lot of promise. I want to get that out of the way first. Potential, unfortunately, has nothing to do with a player's current experience with the game. No one sits at his PC or laptop and says, "Man, I sure am excited about what this game could be, so I'll keep playing." But that very potential often makes me a little depressed. Potential for good also means potential for bad; if a game is unfinished and has the chance to grow, there's likewise a very real possibility that the game could fester, lose development love, or worse yet, die on the vine. There's no guarantee that even a "AAA" massive-budget game like Star Wars: The Old Republic or RIFT will last forever or even a good amount of time. Who knows? Usually with an indie game, if it isn't shining and picking up an audience relatively quickly, it just might be in trouble. Zandagort has an audience; I can see players in the outer reaches of space. I am not going to pass judgment on the number of players simply because indie budgets are often easily supported by a smaller playerbase, but I wonder what type of audience it is. I am open-minded and enjoy the occasional slog through an intense "spreadsheets-in-space"-style game, but Zandagort really wore down my patience.
Previously on MV TV: The week of March 31st
What a week, huh? We had all sorts of great livestreaming for you to enjoy. If you missed some of the cool things we put on live during the week, no worry! Just check back here every week and you'll be able to recap many of the best moments from our week of live video games. Each week is something new, and this week is no different. We've got quite the variety! This week, we have Mike jamming on some EVE Online and then jumping into RIFT for horrible magical adventures. Richie ventured into the Mists of Pandaria beta for World of Warcraft to show off cute, cuddly, and furry butts while wielding a weapon of destruction! I had to check out some of the good and bad points about Second Life's Linden Homes, free structures that come with any premium account; I also jumped into Luvinia Online to participate in a huge PvP event, and let me just give you two words to entice you to watch: giant chickens. Blake took some time to shoot things in Global Agenda, and finally, we had MJ taking on some Bristlebane quests in EverQuest II, following it up by attacking stuff all over Aion! Check us out!
