What makes WellPlayed different than other streaming sites? Of course, the aesthetics will be different for every site you go on, but what really makes it different? I think Teevox(warpprism) will be your biggest competitor, simply because the two services are so similar. What can you do to differentiate yourself enough to make people want to use WP.tv over Teevox? Certainly, one must have the basics for streaming sites. Here are a few things WP.tv is missing as opposed to Teevox:
- Automated volume controls. When you select another PiP stream as the main one, play the sound from that stream and mute all others automatically.
- Windowed Picture in picture. Having 2 streams the same size for PiP is distracting and unnecessary.
- Show viewers underneath the name of each stream. (Not through the cumbersome "thumbnail bar")
- Don't include non-starcraft streams in the list automatically. (Since WP.tv is user based, one should be able to set an option to include LoL and HoN streams.)
Certainly, a beta site should not be expected to match the features of a fully completed site. But what can WP.tv do after it has implemented the necessities for a streaming site? Well, first we must ask what does Wellplayed.tv have over Teevox?
User-based browsing. One is able to sign in and upvote/favorite a certain stream -- This is huge. If you want WellPlayed to be successful over Teevox, you must capitalize this. Also, the "News" bar at the bottom has quite a bit of potential. Speed. Teevox is very very laggy and buggy. People will get annoyed and look for different streaming sites -- Now is your chance to gain potential converts from Teevox.
Also, some more aesthetic things should be added in my opinion, such as right click controls. You can right click on a stream to add it to favorites or open it in PiP. This is something Teevox does not have, and again, you can capitalize on that.
In conclusion, I think that in order for WellPlayed.tv to be successful, you guys need to fix certain things, such as Windowed (or just smaller) Picture in Picture. 2 equal sized streams doesn't make sense -- No one is going to watch 2 streams at the same time. People usually focus on one.
Thanks for reading!
When I'm watching 2 streams, I use the stacked format and I would love if whatever stream I have open and watching (or I guess the one on top of the stack) for the other to mute and that stream sound to kick in. Same when in the 3 stream layout and I have 3 streams. Whichever is rotated into the large display I want the sound on for and the rest muted.
1This is all excellent feedback and I think every feature you suggested here should be implemented. We'll look into it.
1Thanks for the feedback!
Automated volume controls. When you select another PiP stream as the main one, play the sound from that stream and mute all others automatically.
This has been a goal of ours for some time now. We've been trying to work with all of our streaming services to make this possible but most of them don't have "api methods" we can hook into to make this possible. The reason Teevox can do this is because they support only justin/twitch.tv. We can add this feature but it will only work when you have twitch.tv streams open. Is that ok?
Windowed Picture in picture. Having 2 streams the same size for PiP is distracting and unnecessary.
Have you tried "stacked" stream mode? The streams will hide behind each other and only the one you have focused will show up. Along with stacked stream mode there are also plans for alternate layouts like PiP.
Show viewers underneath the name of each stream. (Not through the cumbersome "thumbnail bar")
I assume you mean in the narrow bar at the bottom of screen. This will mean that users with smaller screens will see fewer streams. I can probably shrink the font down though to compensate. How does that sound to you?
Don't include non-starcraft streams in the list automatically. (Since WP.tv is user based, one should be able to set an option to include LoL and HoN streams.)
Actually, new users are only shown SCII streams on visiting wptv. Once they log in and choose other games from the "Games" menu that choice is stored on their user account so that the next time they visit those games will be selected automatically.
1Thanks for the reply!
This has been a goal of ours for some time now. We've been trying to work with all of our streaming services to make this possible but most of them don't have "api methods" we can hook into to make this possible. The reason Teevox can do this is because they support only justin/twitch.tv. We can add this feature but it will only work when you have twitch.tv streams open. Is that ok?
I do think having the automated volume feature working only for twitch/justin.tv would be alright, because the vast majority of streams I see and watch are on those sites.
Have you tried "stacked" stream mode? The streams will hide behind each other and only the one you have focused will show up. Along with stacked stream mode there are also plans for alternate layouts like PiP.
I have tried the stacked stream, but I use picture in picture in order to quickly switch between streams when games stop playing (commercial break, etc.) then switch back to the one I was watching. You cannot do this with the stacked stream layout. Sure, I could do this with the Three Stream Layout, but in my opinion the secondary and tertiary streams are so big that they can be slightly distracting from the main one.
I assume you mean in the narrow bar at the bottom of screen. This will mean that users with smaller screens will see fewer streams. I can probably shrink the font down though to compensate. How does that sound to you?
I'm talking about the "Thumbnail bar" that appears when you click on the arrow to the right of that narrow bar. The size of the narrow bar is fine, but in order to see the amount of viewers, one must click on the rather large thumbnail bar. Maybe you could put "Stream name - #viewers" in a slightly smaller text size?
Actually, new users are only shown SCII streams on visiting wptv. Once they log in and choose other games from the "Games" menu that choice is stored on their user account so that the next time they visit those games will be selected automatically.
Oh, thank you. I did not know about that feature! Thanks! I was just misled because there were some of the accounts set up for starcraft playing league of legends.
Finally, I must say that the wellplayed.org service and aesthetics are astounding. Great site, great responses from staff members. Keep it up. You guys need more publicity.
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Actually, new users are only shown SCII streams on visiting wptv. Once they log in and choose other games from the "Games" menu that choice is stored on their user account so that the next time they visit those games will be selected automatically.
Oh, thank you. I did not know about that feature! Thanks! I was just misled because there were some of the accounts set up for starcraft playing league of legends. […]
If this is talk about "Live now": How am I able to ban other games from the "Live now" list. I don't have any other game then SCII in my preferences selected. Though, there might be an option I'm not aware of.
Thanks in advance
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Thanks for such a detailed and thorough analysis of our product. We take user experience feedback very seriously and this will be discussed internally for sure.
edit: If any other users would like to contribute feedback about WPTV please feel free to post it in this thread.
2Oct 1st 2011 2:24 AM