No

Split screen and all the chatter is a bit annoying... However it's a good way to see a new game and how it plays

I always think it will be entertaining and always turn off after 10 minutes. Even with a good commentator explaining the shots you just can't see good enough.

I like to watch as well as do the streaming. I’ll be glued to pinburgh once it starts.

Most I like to watch. Sometimes the presentation or commentary just don't work though and I've got no interest.

I love to watch pinball, but I don't watch live. Watching it afterwards, I can bypass all of the "junk". I'll pick a game I'm interested in and watch everything I can find. I look for ways to improve my game. The commentators often have a lot of good input as well.

Honestly I don't have enough time to...aka it would be VERY low down my list of things to do. If it were the Finals of a big event and I had friends playing in it would be the biggest chance for me.
Here's the big thing...Commentating on a live event is NOT an easy to do. Remember when Poker got big and Mr Kotter was the announcer? I even got sick of that guy and I grew up in reruns loving that show.

Yes. That is what I do most days.

LTG : )

I watch this guy the most. Great guy will answer any question you want. Won't be asking you subscribe twitch or anything like that.

I prefer to watch in person - you get to feel the buzz by being there. The social aspect is also a big thing for me.
Having said that, definitely don't mind watching streams, but i don't have hours & hours spare to watch it from start to finish.

When I was a kid I'd stand back and watch the older kids play while I waited my turn. Trying to never interfere like some of those other kids did.

I find live streams, like pinball podcasts, about as interesting as staring at an artichoke, so no I don't care to waste any time with those.

However, if playing a game with somebody, I'll watch and wait my turn unless it's one of those modern, twenty minute ball games, then I'll probably play something else while I wait my turn.

I'd rather watch pinball than poker.............

I can only watch so much of it. The interacting with the twitch chat room annoys me to no end. Smash the like and subscribe button!!

I've watched it before. It's better than most stuff on TV. Finals can be exciting.

Pinball steams are great, but only when filmed well. The first competitive game that got me interested in competition was the epic Jackbot game played by Cayle George and Daniele Acciari I forget where. Daniele scored 7 billion something, Robert Gagno and Lyman were also in the group.

I like tutorials and repair videos a lot. Not huge on just the "playing" streaming unless it's a game I want to check out I've never seen, but even then I'll turn it off after a few minutes.

I like watching pinball in action. I could do with out all of the jabbering. PAPA tutorials work for me.

I love it with good commentary - love the Buffalo, Dead Flip, and PAPA videos. I watch everything on YouTube and never live though.

I believe stumbling upon one of Bowen's tutorials is what got me into pinball in the first place. His videos are my favorites, by far. I've seen every single one, most several times...

I vastly prefer the "mobile version" layout of just the playfield and dmd display taking up the entire screen though, vs the now standard splitscreen layout. The latter dedicates too much screen real estate to the player and backbox cameras, making the playfield harder to see...

I really like watching pinball streaming. It must have some type of commentary to keep my interest. Bowen tutorials are always great...he has a knack for it. I watched the majority of the Pinburgh banks being revealed last weekend. Steve Bowden able to play over 280+ plus games (one ball games) is pretty awesome. Was a long day for him I'm sure.

I love Twitch and also several podcasts.

Last night deadflip had a mini-tourney on Iron Maiden. This chick Abbey put up 70M for the lead and everyone was excited for her because she was intense and fun to watch. Then some dude came after her and absolutely destroyed it, posting over 500M and taking GC spot like it was candy. That's good TV.

My biggest complaint with streamers is you can't always hear the machine sound. Gotta have that!

I have watched a few of the videos on Pinside. But really like to watch live. Started when I was a kid and didn't have much money.

Yeah this is a tough one. You can do direct audio feeds from the game but it requires more equipment, and tough to get that and the player audio to balance right.

Yes, however, I do like high production value so that I can actually see what's going on. The person that delivers the best for competitive pinball, in my eyes, is Karl DeAngelo. High quality recordings, great info on the screens and usually, well-informed commentary.
https://m.youtube.com/user/IEPinball/featured

Often, I'll find my son watching papa tutorials or archived comps too. We had a great time watching the last 2 years of pinburgh finals streaming live. Luckily, we made it in and will be able to be there to watch them live this year. Let's be realistic, we won't be in the finals.

The wife calls it pinball porn. So yeah, I love watching pinball videos on youtube. It started with games I was about to buy that I haven't played before and has just snowballed into just watching all the new games coming out etc.

Agreed. Karl is on another level imo.

I like watching finals streams when people like Bowen Kerins or Steve Bowden are doing commentary.
I appreciate short gameplay videos that have no commentary and really show off a machine. Great for doing research on games I haven't played before.
But it all must be HQ video.

I immediately turn off any video that has people reading from their stream chat and/or sound effects of people subscribing to their stream or whatever.

In my old job when I would do really mindless tasks like replacing folder labels or whatever I liked to pull up PAPA gameplay videos from older pins. There's something oddly engaging about watching them play EMs and SS pins, I just like watching them bump the ball around. Gameplay videos of rare pins are always a treat.

I do like them - I can’t say that I actively seek them out, but I do enjoy watching the great players in competition.

I don't generally watch on a regular basis. Usually only if there's a new game release, to learn something specific about a game (rules, strategies, etc), or gameplay footage for a game I'm considering buying.

Yeah, never gonna happen. Hard enough to get some people playing, let alone watching. Yet, tune in to twitch any given moment and 100,000+ people will be watching someone play a video game in their bedroom at their parent's house.

I watch videos when I'm deciding to buy a game and want to see it in action if I never played it. Last week I watched a PAPA final because they were playing T2 and I was picking up another one. Got some good tips and was psyched to try them.

Oh I’ll be shocked if I ever see pinball on ESPN. Hell just look at the stream numbers. The best pinball streamer averages around 100 viewers a stream. The best video game streamer averages around 100k viewers a stream.

So if they made a Fortnite pinball machine and you got Ninja to play it.... instant pinball renaissance

Haha. Maybe. It just the access. I was watching fortnite with my daughter and we immediately fired up the Xbox and got it and were playing 10 mins later. Cannot do that with pinball.

Now an avocado, on the other hand ...

No. Now playing "pass the skunk", that is another story.

The biggest tournaments like pinburgh will have more like 600 watching live I believe. NYCPC had 5,000 views within a week of the event (and 7,500 now, and it’s just a long 10 hour block that was never edited/improved) so clearly people are interested and tuning in.

I remain far less concerned about how few people watch Pinball streams compared to overwatch than I am with thinking about how we can improve broadcasts and make them more fun to watch.

As far as I can tell there are more people doing it than ever and the production quality seems to be improving, so the idea that nobody likes/gives a Shit about these broadcasts is news to me. Seems like it’s increasing in popularity and frequency - almost all medium-sized and up tournaments I’ve been to lately have had a streaming team on hand.

Streaming is on the upswing. Lead, watch, or get out of the way of this eSports freight train baby!

My stream from last night: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/286764105

I love that more shows are streaming the tournaments. I am not a competitive pinball player myself, but I really enjoy watching. I agree with others though that the commentary can kill it. PAPA is currently my favorite stream, with my one conplaint being that they are the worst at capturing the game audio and balancing it with the commentary.

That’s because you’re on here posting 24/7 365

Hard to believe I'm missing all that action!

confused-computer (resized).jpg

I only post when I'm at work or drinking.
Or work drinking, and many times when drink working.