Board Game Arena

So watching a recent No Rolls Barred stream for Colt Express ( https://youtu.be/gufeDBHDxyc ), the comments section have a few people complaining about the game being a bit hard to follow. I suspect that a few of the people are watching on iPads/Mobiles etc , but it did get me thinking - is there an option to let streamers record a game in a way that lets them jump around the screen in games that need you to do so? Alhambra for instance, if you're recording the game, you probably want to jump to each player board as they add a tile.

Further to that, in some games it might be nice if a neutral party could also see all the hidden information in the game. Something that helped Poker boom on TV were the tables were a commentary team could see the cards that each player held and talk the audience through what was going on. Obviously this view would need to be tightly controlled, but it would make viewing a game like Perudo for example quite enjoyable if you had some sense of what each player was up to, rather than just seeing a single player's view

Finally, would it be possibly to let them mask the user names of the players? It would be a shame if people didn't feel comfortable playing in streams on here because they didn't like the way people could just add them as friends and stalk their profiles. It's maybe OK to do it in post if you have time to edit and upload, but that wouldn't be an option if people were to stream via Twitch

Do people think any of these ideas should be raised as proper bug/suggestion ideas?

Hidden info to spectators are bad because it open the door for cheating. For the rest I think streaming is maybe too heavy To write code for. Maybe there exist already plug-ins for it?

Generally, streaming your games means that you stream everything on your screen. In that case, all your suggestions are not very viable. What you seem to suggest is some kind of TV production from a random game in the internet. I doubt that's worth it. Also, if it had hidden information, in some games the delay would need to be quite big. Replay mode after the game with all information available would be good though.

el cosimo wrote: ↑07 July 2021, 22:11 Hidden info to spectators are bad because it open the door for cheating. For the rest I think streaming is maybe too heavy To write code for. Maybe there exist already plug-ins for it?

I have my doubts about whether it's worth the effort, I just thought it is worth raising if streamers are considered a valuable enough community to cater to. I know that potentially the ability to cheat is there, so some complex safeguards would have to be built, but the thing about being able to mask the names I'd say needs to be considered because of how people can cyberstalk. I've followed that channel since it was created and the first few times they've dropped videos, I've seen people just add people in the stream as friends, and that's a clear disincentive to use this platform when playing games publicly.

Tulivuori, my point is that streaming one player's screen is not always the best option for the audience. As for how viable they are, it really depends on how the game is implemented, but it seems like a number of games use frames so the screens can be rearranged for various mobile devices in which case all you need is give to options about what frames this 'editor' view has access to in real time, so there is no reason to think there would be a delay. By far the bigger question would be the cost-benefit ratio - it may not be cheap to set up this functionality for a very small pool of users (and a small pool of potential users). It just seems worth highlighting given the number of comments in the video about people struggling to follow the game

I think this really boils down to if BGA has any desire to cater to helping make it easier to stream games from their platform....and personally I really hope they don't (and I do stream games I play on BGA!).

Mostly I say this because I'd rather they spend their development effort on continuing to ensure this is the best possible place on the internet to play board games. They have a wonderful site, but there are still many ways I think they can improve and I'd like them to focus on that before they spend time for any of these games implementing niche modes to help stream stuff. The vast majority of users here could care less about how streaming games and all that works, they want to play games, and as such I really do think they should cater to and focus on that audience.

I also really do not like the idea of allowing spectators to see hidden info. It's just not worth setting up a possible avenue to make cheating much easier.

ViolentSilence wrote: ↑08 July 2021, 12:09 Tulivuori, my point is that streaming one player's screen is not always the best option for the audience. As for how viable they are, it really depends on how the game is implemented, but it seems like a number of games use frames so the screens can be rearranged for various mobile devices in which case all you need is give to options about what frames this 'editor' view has access to in real time, so there is no reason to think there would be a delay.

I didn't mean the delay due to technical reasons, but the delay to prevent cheating.

Ranior wrote: ↑08 July 2021, 13:57 I think this really boils down to if BGA has any desire to cater to helping make it easier to stream games from their platform....and personally I really hope they don't (and I do stream games I play on BGA!).

Mostly I say this because I'd rather they spend their development effort on continuing to ensure this is the best possible place on the internet to play board games. They have a wonderful site, but there are still many ways I think they can improve and I'd like them to focus on that before they spend time for any of these games implementing niche modes to help stream stuff. The vast majority of users here could care less about how streaming games and all that works, they want to play games, and as such I really do think they should cater to and focus on that audience.

I also really do not like the idea of allowing spectators to see hidden info. It's just not worth setting up a possible avenue to make cheating much easier.

I largely agree with your points, though I think trying to use streamers to increase the user base may be a way to empower the other developments. There is a sort of dilution happening - the more new games they add, the more spread out the user base gets so it's harder for some titles to get played (especially with how the lobbies are organised), so something that drives new users to the site to me is worth pursuing. Maybe not immediately, but I just wanted the discussion started. That said, I do think they could prioritise masking user names as that feels like it cuts off something before it becomes a serious problem - I wouldn't want peoplestreamers to avoid using the site because of concerns about creepy users, and that's especially true of their guests. That impacts all games that someone might want to stream. The other stuff is more presentational

There is a distinction between allowing spectators to view stuff and what I'm asking for though. To be specific, what I'd want is:
-The ability of a streamer to designate 1 person not in the game to have access to all information
-When this is active, there are no ELO awards etc

It was this ability to talk through someone's options that made televised poker a success, they were able to choose between when to highlight something, or when to let it play out dramatically which I feel could also do a better job of showcasing some games on here. For the people who play, then edit the video, you could maybe get some mileage out of a simple "Screen sync display" - start everyone recording, then have the option to trigger 1 second of a single colour so you sync up all the video feeds then edit as if live later on, but I still worry about navigating around the screens for games like Dice Hospital or ALhambra

In general, BGA has very few option for having a Game Master of some kind.
Someone who could edit the state of the game, for example to set up some specific initial situations, or as is asked here, being able to see all the hidden informations.

But in practice, it would require quite a bit of work. A tool would probably need to be developed for every single game.