Livestream and Let Livestream

Four days ago, in my post about sort-of preparations for the Sword and Shield games, I noted that the day after that post, there would be a sort of a "livestream" from a certain place in Galar, the region of the games. That livestream did indeed happen, and it resulted in a few nifty finds. The livestream itself is a rather unique idea with some ups and downs, so I'd like to take this post to discuss it to glean the insights from this rather new promotional method, for the games and otherwise.

The impact of this new method seems to be quite mixed. Some fans seem to have gained quite a bit of excitement from it, while others did not gain as much. It may be related to how long those fans tuned in; the ones who tuned in for longer may have seen a few more things than the ones that didn't tune in for as long. I can see why - in the moments I tuned in, I did not see much other than a somewhat dark scenery with not many things going on, and I couldn't continue to tune in because of other things I had to do. However, a certain fan, one who also updates a certain other site for Pokémon, has indicated that the fan stayed up for all the 24 hours of the livestream in order to be able to update about the livestream. If that is the case, then that's a real dedicated effort, on the scale of my own effort to post every day on this blog. Ultimately, what was seen seemed to determine the excitement.

It was great that at least one person was dedicated enough to go through the entire livestream for information. But as evidenced by my personal case and perhaps the case of others, not everyone is able to go through 24 hours of a livestream that may show things only intermittently. If something like this ever happens again, it may be worth it for some viewers to cooperate with several other people and arrange shifts as to who will watch the livestream when, and record the findings as they appear. In doing so, it lightens the burden for everyone involved - but again, only if it occurs in similar fashion with the same length at some other time. Given the reactions to this really long livestream, it may be that one that is half as long (12 hours) or one-third as long (8 hours) may be sufficient to keep viewers engaged and allow others to take part. Both the execution of the livestream itself as well as the way of watching the livestream may be improved upon.

As for the findings from the livestream regarding the games, there is quite a bit. Most of those findings deal with Pokémon that will appear in the Sword and Shield games. The camera is set in a forest place called "Glimwood Tangle" in Galar, and as expected, most of the Pokémon are dwellers of the forest due to the nature of the setting. Some Pokémon that were predicted to appear such as Morelull and Phantump did appear, thereby confirming their and their families' presence in the games. Cottonee and Impidimp also appeared, though they could be considered to be less expected. The biggest discovery of all during this livestream is a new Pokémon that looks strangely like infant horses from "the fandom next door" and yet has similar characteristics to a Ponyta, which could therefore only be described as Galarian Ponyta. These are all quite significant in some ways.

As a promotional method, the livestream can be described to be successful in certain aspects, while being less successful in others. The idea is novel enough in that it lets one find out about things by direct observation, as if one was actually there or at the least doing remote research work, which is the intent. The only real problem is those who may or may not be able or willing to watch for the entire length of the livestream. That said, some fans will be expected remain up (literally) for it, which at least may benefit others; with some adjustments, that may still be incentive enough to "livestream and let livestream".

One year ago: Cosplay: SJF - Tomodachi 3
Two years ago: Iron Trainers?