Hi all,
I want to share my thoughts about "How to improve DLive?" I used DLive for over a week now and I generally like DLive a lot. Streaming setup is rather easy and it also works from a technical perspective, although I think improvements are necessary in terms of bitrate handling, but I read you guys are working on it.
"How do you decide a stream is good or not?"
When watching:
There are 3 types of streams I enjoy depending on my mood or intention.
1. Entertainment
I enjoy watching gameplay of good players showing games I either play myself, think about playing or if it simply is great entertainment. It doesn't need to be Live, I also enjoy watching videos. A good commentary is a absolute plus to both stream or video. Webcam doesn't need to be on, sometimes it can also be distracting, but I don't mind seeing you guys play ;)
2. Information
I get a lot of information out of videos. New trailers, first gameplay footage or decision making about what to play next. Games news is also interesting to watch if presented in the right way. What I do not like as much are hyped "Top 10" videos, that's just grabbing attention most of the times in my point of view.
3. Guidance
Sometimes I get stuck in games. It can be a specific boss or level I can't solve. My first look is on streaming or video platforms if my problem has been solved by other (obviously better) players. Also when improving the last % out of a character, like I do at the moment with playing Diablo 3 Seasons, videos of top players give great tips and inspiration on how to improve.
When streaming myself:
For me, streaming is relatively new doing it myself. There are 3 main topics I care / worry about the most.
1. Technical issues
Can people see my stream in decent quality? Do they understand what I am saying (I am German, so my English might be a little clumsy) both in terms of sound quality and relative to the shown content. Is my internet connection (upload) good enough? It should be but sometimes OBS lags and I am not sure why. Is the bitrate too low, or the server connection not working properly?
2. Content issues
Are people seeing what they expected? Do they like the selection of gameplay I show? In the end, I don't want to show stuff people don't enjoy watching. Because if this would be the case, I could simply play for myself. This is not necessarily about the game I show, it is more about what I show from the game.
3. Feedback
I love getting feedback on my streams or videos. I don't mind criticism. That's the only way to improve. Unfortunately, there isn't as much feedback, as I would like to get, but that might change over time ;)
"What do you think about DLive?"
I think DLive is a great service and I enjoy seeing it constantly improving and getting more traction. I also like the easy setup and the opportunity to also upload videos. What I don't like at the moment is the way to discover content, I will more point out more detailed in the next paragraph. I also enjoy that a lot of people started streaming on DLive and therefore advertise for it.
"How can DLive improve?"
I think there are two main areas where DLive needs to improve to attract even more streamers and especially watchers.
1. Content discovery
It is always the same thing. The best community or service will fail if you cannot find what you are looking for. This issue is pressing. It is very hard right now to find content you would like to see on DLive. Some examples:
This was the Homepage when I started DLive this morning. Only six streams online? Actually, there have been online a lot more, since I wasn't seeing my own stream there when I tried it out several days ago. Why is this? There should be more live content shown, searchable, or differently explorable when coming to DLive's Homepage.
Talking about Search. This feature seems to not work at all, am I right?
I also quite don't get the language selection feature. It doesn't seem to be of any use at the moment.
I totally get what it is thought to be used for, but why is it limited to those languages? If it is mainly English at the moment, you could simply replace this for more useful filters like more categories or sub-categories.
So in total content discovery should get a major overhaul in DLive in my opinion. There are lots of ways doing this. Twitch is a good example for Gaming. Each Game has it's own category. More general, you could also look at Youtube for categories more than Gaming. With the tagging system there should be a way to group content easy and make it searchable for watchers. In the end the watchers decide if a platform like this will be successful and not only the streamers.
2. Settings and technical issues
When I tried to update my settings with a background image nothing happened.
I also uploaded a video (https://steemit.com/dlive/@zharadum/7b8c00a0-0cca-11e8-956c-1531c3d89b8c), but it doesn't show in my account. Is it because I edited tags on Steemit later on?
For those issues I would love to have an overview on DLive, what you guys are working on or what is a known issue. I bet you wrote this down somewhere, but there needs to be a FAQ list, best placed on DLive.io for everyone to know what is improving and what is a user problem (maybe I am using a non-compatible browser).
"Why you started streaming on DLive?"
This is quite simple to answer. It is easy to use and setup and it is connected to Steemit!
"What are you streaming?"
I am mostly streaming gameplay, since I am a gamer by heart for many decades (yes decades) now. At the moment I enjoy revisiting Diablo 3 very much, but I am also looking into playing more games in the future.
"How are you planning to improve your stream in the future?"
I want to improve on commentary and interaction with my viewers. Also, I want to improve according to specific feedback I get.
