Kind of like Chat Roulette, but with fewer penises.
May 11, 2020 9:06 AM   Subscribe

Twitch roulette helps you find the loneliest streamers “The site randomly shuffles live Twitch.tv streams and connects you to ones with empty rooms and no other viewers. This breaks out of the algorithmically-selected and most popular streamers you've probably already watched, and allows for something new.” [via Vice]
posted by Fizz (20 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
I love twitch but trying to find smaller streams is so difficult. Their system automatically puts the people with the most followers/viewers at the top and it's a nightmare trying to find a less busy stream.

I enjoy finding smaller twitch streams where only a few people are watching. It makes the hangout feel a bit more chill, the streamer is more likely to also engage with you because you have more of their attention (your presence not being lost in a river of a thousand voices all screaming).

There's also something nice about following someone who is starting out or who has been grinding out videos/streams and seeing their joy as you give them some attention. Glad this exists.
posted by Fizz at 9:13 AM on May 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


I chose the "game" named "just chatting" and am now watching a Chinese kid do his homework. This is so wholesome.
posted by Jacqueline at 9:17 AM on May 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


Oops I think the arrival of a random stranger might have scared him -- he closed his stream. :(

But yeah for those who aren't already aware, there are non-gaming Twitch categories too.
posted by Jacqueline at 9:19 AM on May 11, 2020


Once you find someone, you can click on their name in the upper left to be taken from the roulette site to the actual Twitch site/app where you can log in to use the chat room.
posted by Jacqueline at 9:22 AM on May 11, 2020


But yeah for those who aren't already aware, there are non-gaming Twitch categories too.

Also see this post from last month.
posted by Fizz at 9:24 AM on May 11, 2020


I'm annoyed that the knitting/crochet Twitches aren't a roulette option. :(
posted by Jacqueline at 9:25 AM on May 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


I love twitch but trying to find smaller streams is so difficult. Their system automatically puts the people with the most followers/viewers at the top and it's a nightmare trying to find a less busy stream.

Forgive my ignorance, but I'll usually search for a game (most recently Mount & Blade: Bannerlord and then scroll down until I get to the streams with maybe a dozen or fewer viewers and that's it. Is Twitch hiding some of them or did I misunderstand?
posted by ODiV at 9:33 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


Depends on the game. I imagine there's a lot more scrolling involved with, say, Fortnite.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:51 AM on May 11, 2020


For bigger games I've just been sorting by view count lower to higher. This is kind of just a technical detail though, tangential to the main point, which is that the popular streams are absolutely placed more visibly which leads to a major snowball effect (avalanche effect?). So I don't want to overshadow that.
posted by ODiV at 9:54 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


ODiV, that's right, that's exactly what you do. But their search and filtering system is trash. I just wish we had more flexibility with narrowing search parameters because I don't always want to see the most popular eSports streamer. I'd like to be able to narrow down on streams that only have 10 or less or 5 or less. But that's not how they run their business or how streaming culture works. So I'm glad this random roulette tool exists.
posted by Fizz at 9:58 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


I just started doing this in the past week of time off work. I met a guy in Ulan-Ude waiting to see how exams were going to work out, another guy in Chicago who I'm pretty sure worked for the mob, and a Kentucky commercial furniture refurbisher among others. It's been great for quiet nights looking to talk to anybody. I'm not particularly interested in watching people play games, but the "Just Chat" category has people in it if you look through the chaff.
posted by roue at 9:58 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


I've been using Twitch recently to do quarantine boardgaming. I've got 2-3 cameras going into Elgato capture boxes, complex scene setups in OBS and then I stream that on one or two Twitch channels depending on the complexity of the game (e.g. main board on one stream, player boards on the other, so that participants can switch between them at will). The streams are silent, since we're on voice comms over lag-free channels like Slack calls or Mumble. Every time I've done this, there have been multiple randos in there, just observing a silent stream of things moving on a game board with no context. No idea how they got there; the stream has some random punny name and no descriptions. Maybe the fact that I have 3-4 viewers due to the other players already elevates my stream above some massive pool of zero-viewer streams? It's bizarre.
posted by jklaiho at 10:46 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


I wanted to try this, then realized I'm on my work machine. Boundaries of decent IT allowed behavior may only be pushed so far during a pandemic... I'll try it later though.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:55 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


I'll never understand why people use "penises" when the much more fun "penes" is a legit option.

(This in regards to the post title)
posted by Cogito at 11:48 AM on May 11, 2020


MetaFilter: I'll never understand why people use "penises"
posted by umber vowel at 12:58 PM on May 11, 2020 [6 favorites]


Because it's longer?
posted by ODiV at 12:58 PM on May 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


I'm gonna start using peniseses just to be contrary
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 1:24 PM on May 11, 2020


Because some people like things that are more difficult?
posted by jojo and the benjamins at 5:28 PM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


I used to use twitch streaming as an easy way to play games together with my kids when they were away at college but we felt weird about randos showing up to watch us play Subnautica or whatever.
posted by straight at 6:02 PM on May 11, 2020


I'm watching some dudes play guitar hero! and they said Hi. But I can't say hi back because I don't have a twitch login.
posted by vespabelle at 6:38 PM on May 11, 2020


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