Monday, January 30, 2017

Conan Exiles early access streaming started a day early

Conan Exiles early access streaming has already started today on twitch.tv!

So today browsing the game directory on Twitch.tv I noticed Conan Exiles was on the list and I said to myself isn't the official early access release tomorrow?



Checking the sticky on the steam community section does indeed list the release for early access as follows:
  • Pacific Standard Time 9:00pm 30th, 2017
  • Mountain Standard Time 10:00pm 30th, 2017
  • Central Standard Time 11:00pm 30th, 2017
  • Eastern Standard Time 12:00am 31st, 2017
  • Atlantic Standard Time 1:00am 31st, 2017
How is it that there are already people streaming the game on Twitch? It seems they gave out many press copy game codes to either Twitch which then gave them out to a selected list or streamers gain them directly in some fashion from the game community team.

Whatever the case is does it make sense to continue this selected press copy streamer thing in 2017?

My opinion is that its probably more harmful then good and here is why I think this way.
  • Majority of the streamers who are selected for press copies are your typical pump and dump. Do you want to build a streaming community on twitch for your game or just sell as many copies and not care? I guess that would be the question right? If it was me picking who gets any time of special early access or press copies I would find streamers who have been doing youtube content already, podcasting, fansite making and/or bloggers who have been talking about the game. These people would be first on my list for any press related content or perks.
  • Cutting out other streamers will make some angry and you may lose them as customers. Go look at the subbreddit or the steam discussion forum you can see some of the anger there.
  • Extra confusion of release dates and time, again you can see this play out on the forums or the subreddit. 
  • Disclosure issues, are the streamers who received press copies are following correct disclosure protocol? I have a strong feeling this is something overlooked...
Follow up next day directory check shows around 500 streamers showcasing the game in the early morning at around 5:30 AM EST.


In order to gain access you have to pay $29.99, and judging by the reviews it seems better to wait for server issues to be fixed.  Many reviewers are saying server performance is really bad, alot of rubber banding and other issues.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Recheck video clip embeds!

Updates to Twitch Video Embed Coding, requires recheck of video embed pages since previous embed code will no longer work.

If you are a long time Twitch broadcaster and have been embedding video clips to a blog or a website its time to recheck all those pages. The <object> flash embed will not work anymore and you have to use the new video clip embed code.

Here is what the old Flash video embed code looks like:


Click on image to enlarge


You will need to switch it out to the new code found here:
https://dev.twitch.tv/docs/v5/guides/embed-video/


Here is the snip that I'm currently using for embedding video clips to my blog.

<script src= "http://player.twitch.tv/js/embed/v1.js"></script>
<div id="{PLAYER_DIV_ID}"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
    var options = {
        width: 570,
        height: 350,
        video: "{v47183494}"
    };
    var player = new Twitch.Player("{PLAYER_DIV_ID}", options);
    player.setVolume(0.5);
</script>

If you want to use this code you will have to change the width, height sizes and in the video: section the clip ID # which I made bold. In order to find your clip ID number, go on Twitch and use their search functionality.

Here is a screenshot of me looking up the clip ID from the video in the old embed screenshot above. Take note of the old embed code for flashvars it shows title=, use that information there to search for the clip id numbers.


Click on image to enlarge

Once you find it on the search panel, click on it and you should see the clip id in your URL path. From my example it shows "twitch.tv/daopa/v/47183494". Replace all the numbers, switch out the old code for this new code and your good to go!

Tip: New Embed Video code includes a auto play feature which will start up another video as soon as the one listed is over. This is why you see on the video of Twitch.tv so many past broadcast showing up. The default next auto play video is last broadcast video the streamers have done. I personally hope they switch this to highlights instead of past broadcasts by default.
Saturday, January 21, 2017

How to export chat from a Twitch.tv vod?

Guide on how to export a chat replay transcript from a Twitch.tv vod.

Here is a quick guide on how to export the chat replay from a video clip on Twitch.tv. You will need to download python, a script and then run it in a command prompt.

Step 1.

Download python 2.7 which you can get from here: https://www.python.org/download/releases/2.7/

Step 2.

Get the Twitch chat replay downloader script from here: https://gist.github.com/PetterKraabol/0daed253f4c4ebce25c3fdac8f3cf0d3

Step 3.

Install python 2.7, extract the script from step 2 and make sure you put them it in a easy to find folder.

I made a folder on my D: Drive called it Temp and extracted the chatreplay.py file into that directory.

Step 4.

Script requires a special module to run called requests. To get this module for Windows Python install you can use the easy_install.exe script located in your python\scripts folder.

Open up a command prompt, go to the directory for python27, then scripts, then type easy_install.exe requests

That should download the required module.

Step 5.

Start up the command prompt and then go to the directory where you installed the chatreplay.py script.

Then type python chatreplay.py VOD#



Replace VOD# with a number to the video clip you want to get the chat replay transcript from on twitch.tv.

Then that finishes, inside the directory where you have the chatreplay.py script will have a text file with the VOD# as name. If you open that up all the chat from that vod will be in there.

And thats basically how you would do it! Please note this script and the API it uses is not really supported for this sort of a thing and may change at some point making this script not work anymore.


Tuesday, January 17, 2017

I followed to say I'm reporting you!

[15:58] <zaycara> i followed just to tell you that i reported you for veiw botting , unfollowed now

[17:01] <swishyswish> I followed you to tell you I reported you. Have a good day
[17:01] <swishyswish> View bot with partner? not sure how you have made it this far
[17:01] <swishyswish> :) :)

So this happened yesterday during my streaming session.  It was the first time I streamed a game called, "Tiger Knight: Empire War".

 


I have enabled Follower-Only Chat a while ago so these two guys had to wait 5 minutes in order to write in the chat. Both appear to be streamers of this game so I guess that's how they found my channel by looking at current streamers under the game directory.

This problem appears to be creeping up more and more across twitch.tv. Recently I've checked out a r/twitch reddit post talking about a similar sort of a thing.


My advise for streamers who get accused of such things has been to document it and ignore it.