Project Revitalize LA: Our Focus / Target Audience

It might be just me, but the real one is down?

It is down, and will be for some time.

I remember someone suggesting we should become a nonspecific gaming guild, expanding on our LOTRO guild into newer games with a current playerbase. I really like this idea because it gives people who join a strong incentive to become active members.

Agree with Egann said - Zelda is not as mainstream as it used so we should start focusing more on PC games. Overwatch, single-player RPG discussions, stuff like that. Regular Twitch streams like the Overwatch one Lena did earlier are a good way to publicize, but we should also have weekly gaming events to get as many new members involved with the community as possible. We could also look into voice chatting applications like TeamSpeak. One of my gaming clans in my recently-ended RuneScape days uses it all the time and I can 100% say being able to communicate vocally on a daily basis made any new member feel 3x more part of the clan than if we had just communicated via typing and the such.


This is technically a deviation, but I also think we should also maintain the off-topic and everyday life conversations that most of us have now. What really drew me to LA was the presence of casual forums and not everything being about Zelda; i.e. have a Milk Bar v2 new members can request access to after they reach a time/post threshold or something.

Yeah, we won't be abstaining from general discussion -- the Commons is still gonna be at the tippy top of the forums like always, with the members-only Milk Bar probably not far below.

So I looked into TeamSpeak. It sounds like a fantastic addition, but it also costs $45 a year (the cheapest server for two years) which makes this a pretty hefty stretch goal. That and the server aren't undoable, but it's also starting to add up. I wonder how practical it would be to cover our expenses with a monetized Legends Alliance YT/ Twitch channel. Probably not, but I suppose it's worth investigating.

Also, with XCom 2 about to hit consoles, I remembered a game I played with my friends a while back which I thought was fun, but I've never seen streamed; XCom Co-op. Basically, everyone involved gets a squad member and roleplays their character with actions and banter, switching out control by playing hotseat. Would this be hard to set up and stream? Definitely, but considering how long a product-tail XCom has and how unique this could be...it could be worth it.

We can apply for a non-profit license and not have to pay anything, plus we get up to ~500 slots compared to just 32 for the standard package. I think all we need for the application is proof that we have an active site and forums, so it shouldn't be too hard for us. I'll ask my buddy today for more details.

Just use Discord. It's free and better than TS. It's what my GW2 guild uses.

I will also vouch for Discord. Easy chatrooms, easy voice rooms, easy install and join functions. Nearly all of my internetfriends have migrated to it in place of Skype.

I'd definitely try Discord first -- if, for whatever reason, it proves insufficient, then we can switch over to TeamSpeak later. We should operate on a strict budget until we get some attention. Then we can gradually upgrade service. You know, if we're successful.

Group chat would also be great for doing group reviews / MST-ing terribad or cheesy games.


About finances: I debated whether we should have a group Twitch channel or a collection of separate individual ones - I figured it would probably be easier to have separate ones at the start. Then post a directory on our main website. It would make it easier for people to find their favorite streamers. We can try the alternative further down the line, but we should again start small and work our way to bigger things.

Because our members will be doing very different things, a general Patreon fund might also be easier. We could possibly create a team Youtube Channel for our highlight reels, and maybe monetize that.




About streaming: I've found that broadcasting to twitch directly from an Xbox One requires considerable up speed (more than what I currently have). The Xbox Twitch app doesn't really scale down properly for slower speeds. So I may upgrade my internet in the future.

In the meantime, I've found a weird workaround for stable streaming. Direct from Xbox? No go. Broadcasting to Twitch from my laptop? No real issues or lag. So, streaming my Xbox to my laptop and broadcasting it there using OBS results in a much smoother streaming video. Unnecessarily complicated, but it works.

Means I'll probably end up doing more PC streaming than Xbone streaming, but a few sessions of Overwatch on a regular basis wouldn't be too hard. There was a little lag during the game itself, as you might expect from having to stream the game to multiple locations just to get it to broadcast properly, but I'll see how bad it gets when I play some matches later today. Even still, there was less lag in the stream using that method. Just have to deal with some hiccups during gameplay.

I like this focus. All I can offer at the moment besides helping organising things is if we need an injection of cash to start things up, I have funds available.

I think having a dedicated Twitch and YT channel with the LA name on it would be solid branding if nothing else. A bunch of member channels is branding all over the place. If they wind up being a thing, we can monetize them and recoup some of the costs. If not...I don't really see the harm in trying.

Besides, user names can turn into columns. I think transitioning from contributing content to a communal channel to an individual one would be easy. We would even know a splinter channel's chance of success with the viewer statistics we'd get. 

That said, with talk of this and possibly a Patreon (both of which I'm all for...provisionally) I think at least talking about how to handle the money is important. I had this conversation with the indy studio, as well; few things can end friendships quite like a big stack of money with no rules of use.

We'll primarily use the money to pay for LA's various upkeeps and then I'm gonna use the rest on hookers and blow

But only after LA's bills are paid for I'm not irresponsible