Ok, so this isn't a game suggestion but more of a broad one to engage with the community more. Over the past year or two we went from a healthy schedule of interactive live streams. There was some pre-recorded magic (the 4UP runs, for reasons that will be very obvious to anybody who has done community events with multiple streams) but even then, there was a huge live element with the banter and the interaction. The challenge was just the vehicle to give us something to interact with and to say to more casual players "Have fun, we all stuff it, it's a game - we expect that!" There was the wonderful Workshop Wednesday where Jamie would showcase LIVE on stream things that the community had created in TSC, was everything to my personal preference? Of course not - but it was all great, with lots of hard work put in, showcased really well and with lots of wonderful interactions. There were wonderful let's plays, done LIVE so that we could get to know people better, questions were asked and answered, it was a very fun and lighthearted way to enjoy TSW and to engage with each other. I'll lastly mention the Q&As as well as the earlier roadmap streams, they were amazing! Not because we got good news out of them, oftentimes we didn't. Who can forget the section: "The answer is no but we'll ask it anyway"? Did we as a community like that news? Of course not! We felt respected though, we felt special because we could be trusted with the truth! There are many more examples of golden streams and moments: a certain bell, wasted and launching a TGV spring to mind. Those who remember will no doubt be smiling now. Unfortunately these memories are getting more distant. This week there were 3 "streams" announced. Two of which were really watch parties with videos lovingly produced by DTG's amazing ambassadors. But why not ask one or two to a LIVE stream to introduce themselves? Why not ask if they're happy to answer questions based on their experiences? Imagine asking DadRail to drive a route he signs in real life while taking questions! Am I asking for the old days back? No, there are different people here now, it's 2024, not 2022, but please give us some LIVE streams and chat with us again, we're on your side here, we want to buy games and addons, but I think a little more interaction and maybe showing what's asked for in a preview stream rather than making it all pre-recorded will make people a lot happier. I miss you folks, I miss the interactions that we all had, I miss the range of streams from someone playing silly to someone suggesting that we get our snacks and sleeping bags ready as we're about to have a long powerpoint session on the intricacies of braking rather than breaking a train.
I really do like this idea! However it might be a bit difficult to manage access to the official DTG Youtube channel to others. But having the opportunity to do these kind of streams sounds cool!
Thank you, I was thinking more that they could do it on a Discord call with someone from DTG so that DTG don't hand anyone the keys to the kingdom. Think streams like when we were introduced to dtg_jan and DTG Harry - they were great insights!
Good afternoon! This is a wonderful thread, and a brilliant way for us to receive feedback, so thank you LondoSpark - Let me share some thoughts TL;DR Sharing more community-fun and live-hosted streams, at least once per month (outside of previews/roadmaps) Often our team love getting involved, but finding time for hosts to join can be difficult Ambassador pre-recorded content will remain being shared on our channels, especially around sales windows Most of our livestream planning is a responsibility I look at, and I totally agree with most of these thoughts - I think there are plenty of opportunities to bring live interaction and even different members of the team onto our streams more often. The recent 4UP was intended to be joined by the entire cast, but internally we had shifted the date of sharing it multiple times, so it was more manageable for myself to own this whilst we shared it. As an action, I'm looking to bring more community-fun live streams, and more live-hosted events back to our channels, initially at least once per month, which should be an easy goal to achieve, and then following this up if we have more capacity. This would exclude our regular previews & monthly roadmap streams, which will happen regardless. Of course, with planning livestreams, we have to acknowledge that our teams are generally very busy, and often finding time for hosts to join livestreams can be difficult. Generally, a large amount of our dev team love getting involved, but making the time to join outside of work, and often right after the day, is a big commitment. As an example, a few months ago I wanted our teams to focus on creating more PC Editor guides and short live masterclasses, however, we realised after the planning part that it was often quite a burden on our development teams to carve time to create this content, and it's not been something we have delivered (as of yet) which was a miss that I'd like to apologise for. We're still thinking about how we can keep supporting this, and I'll share more news once we can confirm it. Just on the Workshop Wednesday mention - I've actually got a similar showcase for community-created projects coming up in this month's roadmap (this Thursday!) to highlight the amazing Editor projects being shared. We usually call out a few Photo Mode screenshots / Editor projects, but this month I intend to share a detailed update on (currently) 16 Editor projects! Final note when it comes to Ambassador videos, these are often pre-recorded because the logistics to allow our ambassadors to host on our channel live is extremely difficult, and as much as we trust them fully it's truthfully quite risky with the intricacies of hosting being challenging. The solution we have works quite well I think, and ambassador feedback has been really positive, so I'm looking to keep this type of ambassador content being shared on our channels, especially when we can share news about sales and discounts Anyway, I hope that gives more insights into the current thoughts with livestreams - please keep letting us know what you'd like to see, and we'll do our best to take this into account when planning the months ahead. Thank you! DTG Alex
I must say I stopped watching the latest 4-up challenge when there wasn’t the live particpation of the players chatting about what they were doing and having the same kind of banter as in the older challenges. I believe the players were in the the live chat (not available to see on watching later) but reading what they say isn’t a match for hearing them as you can’t really watch the screen and read the chat at the same time.
I wish there were more people who worked on these products that were willing to come on stream and share their work and passion with the community. There have been only a few instances of that. For example Joe appeared on one or a few live streams to showcase his work. But if people are are unwilling to be participants there is no reason to force them, which might be the issue. Alex and JD are fine as moderators of the live stream but they offer little information or insight that hasn't been written down for them. I don't think either of them sit down with the product they are advertising at any length to prepare, but I could be wrong. Almost always it rests of Matt to bear the full weight of information dissemination and game play. I miss the banter that Sam had offered with Matt, which felt a little less stiff and scripted that what is offered today.
