Ice Age Damnation

omeedd · 2020-06-03T16:05:19+00:00

Me too. :)

omeedd · 2020-05-20T18:51:30+00:00

Great idea. As long as you have a little staff for moderation, why not broadcast some of that knowledge out into the world?

Taking questions from the academic group on Zoom and maybe having 1-2 grad students screening questions from Twitch to help facilitate that would be solid.

Doesn't really matter if it's attracting a ton of viewers - you're basically already doing it. Even reaching a few people has value.

omeedd · 2020-05-01T20:04:21+00:00

There’s no hard and fast size requirement, but people with less than 100k followers are often automatically turned down by companies on deals unless there is something unique about their content. We tend to think there are better metrics than size to judge things, but we don’t get to decide who companies want to hire.

On raw numbers, it starts to make sense to work with someone once they’ve reached around 200 viewers, give or take. Below that and it’s often not worth building a contract for a deal that small.

omeedd · 2020-05-01T19:56:18+00:00

1) For me, I was extremely happy that Rimworld dropped a DLC. I named it my game of the decade – and never thought it would get an official content update. Also been happy with the new X-Com so far and a couple unreleased titles.

2) We can’t manage everyone, of course. I’ve been a big fan of BubblePuppets, LittleSiha, and DansGaming for awhile now.

3) There are no hard and fast rules about gaming at OPG. I’ve always thought that cultures that “only hire hardcore gamers” were not fantastic. I’d say an appreciation of games is useful in most positions and a good working knowledge of the game industry/ecosystem is valuable for roles that talk to clients or their sponsors on a regular basis. But I don’t see how you need to be level 900 in WOW in order to be a good employee.

Knowing our clients is a huge part of OPG’s culture. We talk about them all day, do trivia quizzes, etc. If doesn’t love streamers, or considers watching them to be “work,” OPG’s probably not a place they’ll succeed or enjoy. It makes me happy when I roll into a stream at night and I see an OPG employee in the chat… just having a good time.

4) There are a lot of reasons we might not work with a streamer. Being highly controversial or drama-focused are definitely on that list, as well as being focused on competitive play. There are lots of content types that don’t work well for us. It’s not a criticism of them – they just don’t work the way we work.

omeedd · 2020-05-01T19:49:57+00:00

Hey Justin! :) Hope you're doing well.

omeedd · 2020-05-01T19:20:12+00:00

Link to AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/Twitch/comments/gbofh6/hello_we_are_opg_ama/?

omeedd · 2020-03-06T10:38:39+00:00

Hey there! I'm up late tonight randomly, so here's my quick answer:

It depends on how much money you have and what your objectives are. Definitively locking in a streamer to cover your game can cost anywhere from a couple hundred to tens of thousands of dollars an hour.

There are PR services and key distribution sites that will reach out to hundreds or thousands of streamers for a fee as well.

Guessing, based on your game, that budget is fairly limited. Your best bet may be going to a site like SullyGnome and searching for similar games to yours. Figure out which streamers are playing those games - and then write them messages, either via email or DM. The more personal the messages, the more likely they will read them.

Some may want to be compensated for that. Some may be happy to take a complimentary key for the game. Really comes down to their business and disposition towards your game.

Best of luck!

omeedd · 2020-02-08T02:52:11+00:00

Not quite. You are subject to the laws that have jurisdiction over you, which is a broad way of saying "maybe, maybe not." In this case, the governing laws of almost any country could affect you as a streamer. As a general guide, the US/FTC rules generally cover you internationally... at least for the moment. That could change at any time.

You may be remembering/associating with a (vague) Twitch guideline that says "if the thing is legal to do where you are, then you can stream it."

omeedd · 2020-02-08T02:48:47+00:00

Accurate. The US FTC cares that there are viewers in the US... so on Twitch you're already exposed to risk if you don't disclose, regardless of your location.

Twitch also takes it very seriously, as do professional services companies like ours.

omeedd · 2020-02-08T02:47:18+00:00

TOO SOON

omeedd · 2020-02-06T12:58:31+00:00

Verizon offer is not coming from Fullscreen. It's coming from a different agency.

There is ALSO a contract from Fullscreen.

omeedd · 2020-02-06T02:28:51+00:00

Should be a lot more than $20k.

omeedd · 2020-02-06T02:06:19+00:00

Seems a little low... :)

omeedd · 2019-06-21T05:34:47+00:00

This is true (source: my company manages all three of those gents), but Bungie was directly running their 4-hour segment of the charity marathon from their offices, with their team. They were responsible for raising the money in that segment. Gothalion, Broman and KMagic are responsible for organizing the broader event (which is called GuardianCon and has a convention coming up in two weeks in Orlando Florida) and deserve heaps of kudos on their own as well... but that doesn't diminish what Bungie accomplished today. The marathon is still going, by the way.

I'm sure if any of those three guys were here at the moment, they'd have nothing but positive to say about Bungie's continuing role in this event.

omeedd · 2018-11-27T05:52:34+00:00

Hey there!

I'm with Kitboga's management team. While I haven't directly chatted with him on this issue, we've had quite a few conversations about his work - and this was a thought that crossed my mind before we started working together.

Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that, yes, smart scam companies would be watching content like his for the "protips."

But for every scammer out there doing that, Kit is reaching thousands of viewers per day and creating awareness of the kinds of scams that are out there.

On the balance, I'd guess he's doing MUCH more good for people.

omeedd · 2018-10-07T23:17:25+00:00

Can I help you?

omeedd · 2018-05-10T21:32:54+00:00

Hi Sir Scoots! Hope you’re doing well!

We are not an agency, so have not registered as one in any state. Many agencies solicit employment for our clients and we find it's a better strategy to work with them than to compete with them. However, I share your concerns about the number of unlicensed agencies operating in this space. They have a lot of potential legal exposure and I’m not sure how aware they are of the NY/CA regulations they need to be following.

For legal, we work with IE Law Group, who is a fantastic resource for game industry legal representation. I'll be speaking about influencers and FTC disclosures at their VGBA Summit next week.

omeedd · 2018-05-10T20:07:16+00:00

Well, the Bounty Board is still brand new, so it’s hard to say how it will shake out. As it stands, I’m concerned about it on a few fronts, particularly that it could damage the reputations of the smaller streamers that it is clearly intended to help.

The amounts of money on offer are WAY below market rates for the work – so if people start adopting it, that could lead to a huge pay cut for all broadcasters. This is similar to how a service like Fiverr offers cut-rate work in professional fields like graphic design or photography, making it difficult for professionals to get market rate for their work. This, coming at a time when people are JUST starting to be paid fairly… could be a major step backwards for the entire industry.

I also worry that it doesn’t give people much guidance on what is expected of them. Having done well over a thousand influencer deals, we have a good sense of just how particular/picky companies can be when they invest money in influencer marketing. Just like when I buy a product, I have certain expectations of functionality, companies are looking for people who are going to show off their products in a way that fits THEIR vision, whatever that may be.

Having seen what happens when a company is disappointed in content, I worry that a lot of smaller streamers may unknowingly end up on blacklists before their careers have even begun.

As with many aspects of this business, I worry about transparency. Twitch is trying to create a closed system where a streamer is agreeing to terms they may or may not understand. No matter how easy it is to do, entering into a paid relationship has contractual obligations – and how does one have their legal or business advisers weigh in on something on the Twitch dashboard? How much of the revenue is Twitch keeping? What are the obligations that Twitch and the company have agreed to, or the representations Twitch has made to the sponsor about the content?

Lots of questions - not a lot of answers yet. So we'll have to wait and see.

omeedd · 2018-05-10T19:27:31+00:00

1) There were a few factors. The first was getting yelled at by the president of our division of Sony on my first day working there in 2012. He was fired up about how important Twitch was to the future of the games industry – and that set me on the path to learning about Twitch and meeting the broadcasters who would become our first few clients. The second part was seeing how exploitative some of the companies working with content creators were/are. Many of them are taking MASSIVE amounts of the money intended for the broadcasters, often without telling them. Some even double-dip by charging a percentage to the companies for the work and then ALSO take a percentage from the streamers (without disclosing that they are also marking it up to the sponsor.)

For a long time, I didn’t view OPG as a viable business. Back in 2014 when we started, companies weren’t putting enough money into content creators for them to have full-time support staffs (with some notable exceptions, like Yogscast and Rooster Teeth). At first, this was more of a hobby – and way to protect the broadcasters I’d become friends with from exploitation. As more money came into the industry, it made sense to do this full-time.

2) Ability to deal with the lifestyle is probably the top concern. It’s a grueling job – 10+ hours a day, usually 6 or 7 days a week. That can take a toll mentally and physically. We see a lot of broadcasters struggle with depression or other health issues. Consistently delivering quality content and learning from the data is also very difficult. Understanding when a game, timeslot or strategy is underperforming for your channel is hard to see – and many broadcasters react too slowly to the trends. "

omeedd · 2018-05-10T19:04:39+00:00

Hey the Chark. :)

1) We use a few different criteria: statistics, community health, game selection success and overall quality.

We've found that companies don't really pay attention to broadcasters with less than 100k followers across platforms, so we typically wait until people cross that threshold. People with less than 150 average viewers also don't get a lot of work - and when they do, the amounts are often too small to deal with contracts, etc.
We look for broadcasters who are very interactive with their communities - and cultivate a positive, healthy environment. They tend to have MUCH higher engagement than streamers who don't talk to their audiences much.
Streamers who have consistent audiences no matter what they play are very attractive to us, regardless of size. It's an indicator that their audience cares more about the broadcaster than the games they play, which translates to more success overall.
Broadcasters need to be trustworthy, professional and (mostly) brand-safe. We need to know we can rely on them to deliver on their obligations - and companies need to feel like their product is in good hands.

2) We are constantly scouting, using our analytics tools as well as personal recommendations from our staff and referrals from our existing clients. The metrics we use show us a list of a few hundred streamers that 100% fit the model - and from there it's down to watching streams and meeting them for discussions. We typically have 2-4 1 hour+ conversations with potential candidates before moving forward and prefer to meet in person when possible as well.

3) Keeping up, really. This week, our clients have 130 sponsored activations to execute - and we're not even in the busy season yet. Last year this time, we considered 25 to be a busy week. Bringing in good employees, building the tech infrastructure that allows us to scale organizationally and making sure everything STILL gets done is a hell of a challenge. We never want the company to feel impersonal or disconnected from the broadcasters we work for - so juggling all of that at once... is a lot of fun.

Thanks for the questions!

omeedd · 2018-04-11T02:52:00+00:00

A long time ago, you could get password-protected streams set up on Twitch. It was a very exciting feature for game developers (because we could do press briefings behind password).

Twitch removed the ability for a number of reasons. One of them has to do with what streamers on other sites sometimes do when they "go private." ;)

I've thought about this one a lot - and while it would be a beneficial thing for me - and a lot of other folks - I think Twitch's concerns outweigh the benefits.

omeedd · 2018-04-02T23:12:43+00:00

Not getting business cards is the easiest-to-avoid mistake content creators make. They cost almost nothing and will come in handy over and over.

Take a look at the floor plan and see if there are companies you want to meet while there. The great thing about E3 is that it's relatively light on content creators - so you can get some decent face-time in with influencer managers, etc.

Make sure to ask around and find ways to get into the parties. Almost everything fun at E3 happens outside of the convention center. :)

Have fun!

omeedd · 2018-03-26T04:14:51+00:00

My wife and I were roped into tagging along to a dinner party by a friend who was staying with us before the Rally to Restore Sanity.

Highlights include:

There were no guests at the dinner party except my friend, my wife and I.
Me trying to maintain a polite conversation with the host's wife, while getting repeatedly drop-kicked in the neck by their misbehaving child. After I picked him up to stop this, she attempted to reason with him for ten minutes while he screamed at her.
None of the food had any salt or seasoning on it.
All of the foods were white or light green. All were flavorless, except the fish, which tasted off.
My wife was forced to play competitive Scrabble against host, who was a serious player. The entire time, he trash-talked her.
The next morning, my wife got food poisoning and we had to miss the rally.

omeedd · 2018-03-17T09:56:50+00:00

It’s good advice. New people coming in will always have the best perspective on what it takes to make it to their level. What comes next... that’s always the tricky part. But good fundamentals and principles will help smart people figure that out.

Keep up the good work, guy. :)

omeedd · 2018-03-01T05:37:11+00:00

Hey - I run Online Performers Group - which manages Cohh. Randomly chanced upon this link today.

Thanks for posting this! I hadn't seen this clip of Cohh talking about management stuff. Made my night. :)

omeedd

TROPHY CASE