Lokno

@equitasinvictus: So there are already sites that archive and play back the chat from live streams? I've never seen this implemented before. Cool to hear its already happening!

@demoskinos: My thoughts exactly! Its a shame not to have the community when you watch the videos later.

Have you ever thought it would be cool if the chat in live streams was archived with the video? I did, so in my spare I time I wrote a little demonstration of the concept (be patience, it may take a moment to load the 4,000 comments). I figured out how to save the chat and link it to a video several weeks ago, but I had to wait for another live stream of a Quick Look so I could demonstrate it with a YouTube video. The popcorn.js API would work with any video, but obviously I can't serve a Giant Bomb video in my own web space. If it bothers you that I'm hosting your comments, let me know and I'll remove them from the demonstration.

To store the live chat feed, I created a local node.js server which stores HTTP get request data to file. Then, I opened the console in Google Chrome, and inserted a callback which is invoked when the chat window updates. This callback removes the new message, parses out its elements, and sends it to the node.js server to be stored. Surprising what you can do to a live website, huh?

Next, I needed to tie the chat to the archived video. This is done using the popcorn.js library. I copied the style of the live stream page so I could duplicate the presentation. Popcorn allows me to add a callback every time the video advances, so every second I repopulate the chat window with comments that would have appeared at that moment during the live stream. I synced the chat to the video by manually determining the time-stamp of the first moment of the video.

Here's a chart of the chat frequency over time for all the comments I recorded:

This is something that could be aligned with the width of the video, giving you an impression where amusing stuff is happening. In this case, the first major peak coincides with Brad driving off of a broken bridge, and the second peak is when Brad escaped certain death with a divekick.

Hope you guys find this interesting! It was fun to do.

Note: I didn't store membership or moderator information, so messages don't show up highlighted or with their appropriate metals. Since this is just a proof-of-concept prototype, I didn't see the need to take the extra effort. No disrespect intended!

Edit: Here are the files for extracting the chat data in your browser:

node.js server for storing the input:

http://www.rabbitfury.com/gbchat/server.js

code inserted into the console during a live show for capture:

http://www.rabbitfury.com/gbchat/gbchat_insertion.txt

Note: the insertion code produces an error after each message is sent to the node.js server because it can't accept the response to the HTTP get request. Its annoying but it doesn't adversely effect operation.

Awesome idea! You should use that data to run numbers and see how many people actually complete games.

Put me on da list!

ID : Lokno

I'd prefer NA East 1, but I'll go where the action is!

Hey there, SexyToad. How's the game project going? I'd like to join your region! I'd like to make a tourist trap and run a processer industry.

ID: Lokno

I guess I can see why people wouldn't be decided yet on these consoles, but it's weird that you're all so negative. I guess everyone is loyal to something. Probably just adverse to a fractured market, in which case I hear you. But brother, this generation is only going to get crazier, mark my words.

Shield could be really interesting, but it needs a design overhaul. For one, you could use it as a set-top box to stream PC games to your TV, which I think is a cool feature, specially with people who have PCs far from their living rooms. Additionally, you can use it to play on the couch when the TV is being used, which several articles have praised the Wii U for. So I wouldn't write off Shield, especially when its backed as big a company as nvidia.

It sounds like Nvidia is working on something that will do this, read so in an interview with a rep for the Geforce Grid clouding computing hardware. Those boards have compression and networking built in so you can send your framebuffer off to a remote node without even bothering the CPU. A consumer version of that hardware would be exactly what you're looking for, and probably that will exist in a year or so. I don't know any good software implementations.

From the article:

GamesBeat: That’s when you have Nvidia hardware in data centers that are streaming things into TVs, right?

Eisler: We look at it both ways. A lot of our focus is on that, putting in the data centers and streaming to TVs or tablets or phones. Or PCs or Mac products. But also, the idea that if you have a high-end gaming PC in your home, you could actually stream it to screens around the home yourself. So it’s both data-center-based and local home-server-based.

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/21/after-onlive-heres-why-nvidia-believes-cloud-gaming-is-just-getting-started-interview/#SzP7ohJ15SgIbupP.99

A well written piece. My observation is that its the question "what is a game?" that's flawed. So much expression and creativity is moving toward interactivity, and sorting things between game and non-game is quickly becoming a fruitless endeavor. At the very least, we need more buckets if we want to keep any existing taxonomy afloat. Frog Fractions is a great example. Its like the naked mole rat of art taxonomy. Its part channel-switching, non-sequitur comedy, part game. And there's no point to the gameplay other then to move forward, so you could even try to refute that its not a game at all, but its so dependent on an audience that knows about specific game genres and control that it doesn't belong anywhere else.

If you dismiss something as not a game, please tell me what it is. There are no reward shows for "interactive storytelling."

I picked up the Wii U at a Walmart on Saturday. I tried two places other places first, but still came home with one all the same. If they sold 1/3 less than they did during the Wii launch, than they've at least got 1/3 of the launch units on shelves, right? Why would they ship less than they did in 2006? 33.34% doesn't sound like "essentially sold out of retail." I guess its possible they had lower low expectations for demand, or that the stores did.

There's probably been a few posts about this already, but today's the last day! You only need to put up a dollar to vote, and right now Brad Muir's idea isn't among the top four! He had a T-Rex hat and everything!

http://www.humblebundle.com/double-fine