Does anyone get anything out of Live Chat?

So I'm in the live chat as I write this watching the finale of MGScanlon. It's the first time I've been in the live chat for a show in a while , and to be honest, I totally remember why. So many impatient grumpy people spamming their anger at anything and everything with nothing constructive offered at all.

The idea of live chat, especially when it's only open to subscribers, seems like such a good idea, but I don't see how it can ever be enjoyable with the way some people behave.

Does anyone have any stories of nice interactions that can make me feel happier about the idea of trying live chat again one day?

I sit here replying to you watching the same live show of MG Scanlon finale....and I have it full screen. I purposely ignore the chat and when if I have a smaller screen I try a million things to hide chat. It is not all bad but its not my bag tbh.

Then there is some terrible times of past were unfiltered tactless comments or hate can be thrown around (a segment of the last Big Big Live Live show Live. being a stand out on such), these do get moderated however the time of an instant chat it is already too late as soon as the individual pressed enter.

Followed with a press conference coverage the chat tries to act like they are the GB Crew and crack their jokes....90% is "Is this INSERT OBVIOUSLY NOT THAT GAME NAME?"

Then in other times chats go so fast its is rendered pointless.

So those of whom enjoy chat go ahead. I myself enjoy the video content too much to watch or reply to chat.

Chat's down on my end ( in the UK, DNS and cache flushed but to no avail. ) but I can imagine some people having a massive vent about how Drew's playing this.

I like live chat when it's with less than 100 people who are all cool dudes but with any more than that it gets rough.

The only time I enjoy chat is during fighting tournaments, otherwise it's hidden or I'm fullscreen.

Same experience in Finland. But eh, doesn't matter. I always just turn it so only replies show up. As in, nothing shows up. Because it's just screaming in to a void.

Eh, I get a couple of laughs from chat now and again. But it's usually from the same people, so I know what to look for and what to ignore.

With shows with lots of people like this one, though, I usually find myself fullscreen-ing after about a half an hour or so.

@vierastalo: yeah, especially that Dan doesn't have his macbook open to read the chat through all for this ^^.

I like chat when something crazy happens in the live stream just to read what people would type in as reactions. Its fun that way, I'm not looking at it the entire time either.

Live chat does seem pretty pointless unless the guys are looking directly at it for questions or what not. Just a place for people to shout into the wind really.

I like it. Its pretty fun to see people's reactions to things that happen.

Not especially. It's typically just a cacophony of nonsense and memes. The one time it actually felt like it served more of a purpose was during Rorie's 12 (?) hour stream, primarily because of his audience participation throughout the whole thing. Otherwise it's just a mess, and I think it sucks how much time & effort is invested in upgrading that thing. It's just about the only thing on the site that has even had any noticeable upgrades at all. It makes sense, given the live-stream focus of the site... Still sucks, though.

Live chat can be fun--and very useful for feedback by the person running a stream--but it VERY QUICKLY can devolve into people spamming the same mindless comments, basically doing their best to ensure that the chat is completely unreadable both because of the content and the speed with which it pushes everything out of view. I do think chat can be useful on some things, such as Patrick's Spookin' feature, but it seems to work better when there are less people overall to mess with it: the crap-to-gold ratio is a much nicer one at that point.

I think especially when it's something like Metal Gear, the chat can get a little unbearable since that's one of those games where if you say one bad word about it, there's going to people who immediately jump down your throat.

nope, same experience. lots of uptight people upset about trivial things.

The first thing I do when entering a live stream is Alt+Q to hide chat and it's very very rare that I hit it again to unhide. Just not my thing so it's a waste of space for me.

@tourgen: you mean the people in the chat are uptight and upset about trivial things right? As in, how well someone is doing in a game, how they should play it, what they know about it, etc. I'd say that's 80% of most chats.

Chat's only great with real small numbers I think, MGS or otherwise.

I'll post still as direct replies to people or a random thought but that's it. Mostly we are all just talking into a black hole but you should now this by now.. I mean, is there any chat room, anywhere in the internet, with more than 100 people in it, that's not *mostly* noise?

Subscriber chats have always been 1000x better than a regular live show. I've never had a problem with it. Even people nitpicking how they play isn't that big a deal in comparison.

I hate the live chats. They have such an absurd cooldown you can't even have a conversation with someone. What's the point really?

Yes, also this ^^

I like the chat. I glance over occasionally and there are usually a few funny posts or informative things about the game.

I like live chats, but you have to ignore 95% of people/what's going on there. So it's pretty much like what you should do in real life too, if you ask me.

I like talking to people, seeing funny comments, and generally feeling a community atmosphere. So yeah, I enjoy having live chats with people who share my hobby.

@geraltitude: yep that's what I meant. I don't know, it used to be fun and more loose a few years ago. Something about the atmosphere changed or something.

I rarely use chats for live shows of any kind, GB or other sites.

it really feels like they need unlimited mini channels in chat with a user cap for each otherwise it turns into what it is now, spam,basically. There is great stuff in there but there is no way to see it

@berserk007: hmm... that's an interesting idea. They would have to make it so all the rooms could still send @ replies to the staff, but that would be a cool feature.

I wonder how server intensive something like that is. I've never handled chat rooms so I don't know.

I like the live chats live. I've met and talked to some cool people with common interests. I've joked with fools. I've gotten in deep gaming discussions with total strangers. It's pretty awesome. There are occasions when chat gets really shitty, but that's pretty rare. The majority of folks in the chat are good people.

Also think the chat should be utilized more by the Giant Bomb Crew. When Jeff does those Chat picks a Game, I love people's reactions and the feeling that we're apart of the show. Remember when they used to have callers call in? If they're not going to do that again, they could utilize the chat for questions.

That chat system has come a long way. I can't remember how many times chat has broken down on us. Seaserpent anyone? It's come a long way, and seems more stable than it's ever been. Point being, lets use it. Lots of work has been put into it.

I second that emotion.

@corevi: Totally this. When it gets to be too big, it's unmanageable. It's what I imagine the screams in hell to sound like.

I like seeing people react to stupid shit happening. Otherwise it's easy enough to ignore.

I always minimize the chat during livestreams with more than like twenty people in them. With that many people there's no possibility for any meaningful discussion because everyone's responses get pushed off the page so fast.

The only thing live chat ever did for me was distract me from what's going on during the actual show, so I never utilize it. My wife however likes live chat and actually likes people (insane I know!) so she'll keep that front covered for me when she watches.

Not a whole lot I admit.

Still moderately amusing to just watch the madness unfold, especially when it's positive and/or silly.

Watching people whine & complain is about the worst thing ever tho

its a good place to spew a bunch of bullshit that no one would want to hear otherwise!

I find chat useless because whenever I manage to catch a live show it's just chaos.

It's definitely chaos. Sometimes it's fun chaos. Other times it's just incomprehensible chaos.

It makes Spookin' with Scoops a better experience. Everything else? Eh...

to be honest im not getting much out of anything around here that is community related. as time goes on, i feel more and more nothing like the majority of users here and im starting to lose interest in the site in general. man there were some amazing times in the last few years, but they'll have to be just fond memories....

It's a fun dumb thing that some people take too seriously. People shouting like assholes and laughing and having a good time (and yes, bitching as well) is what chat will always be, and to go into it looking for thoughtful conversations (even if those do occasionally happen) is to approach it as something its not.

I like it when it's a stupid blob of insanity/inanity (PAX Royal Rumble), and when it's something a little more intimate and laid back (Dan's Last of Us stream, quite enjoyed it).

It's community. It's not supposed to be a place for conversation. It's a chorus.

When you go to a (LOCAL SPORTS TEAM) game, you don't expect to have a conversation with everyone at (LOCAL VENUE). But you all cheer when there are #BIGPLAYS and you feel like a part of something.

Calling the chat "uptight" is weird since most of the time its just people bullshitting around. Sometimes it gets bad like when a game people really love is being played but thats far from the norm.

I personally love the insanity. Especially when something crazy is happening on a UPF or Johnny V is telling a story during E3.

It was pretty entertaining watching the chat during the pax royal rumble. As close as you'd get to actually sitting in the crowd. Though most of the time my internet isn't stable enough to watch the live streams, so I normally end up missing the live chat when catching the archives.

HA! Thanks. I just spit my morning coffee all over myself after reading that last sentence. That was really damn funny.

You're right though that it's quite a bit unmanageable when there's too many folks chatting at once. 60+ second cool downs help a bit. I don't know how GB would solve that issue other than that though.

Now it's time to clean myself...

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