Add a Virtual Reality Category
Virtual Reality discovery is limited on Twitch. Indie titles are spread across multiple categories, with arguably the only unified VR category being Beat Saber.
Since 2016, the VR playerbase has increased by approximately 30% per year on Steam alone, this does not take into account the million+ headsets sold by Oculus-Facebook, Sony, and users on their respective platforms during this time. (Source: https://www.vrlfg.net/Charts)
We are proposing a general Virtual Reality category to support all VR titles, from Half: Life Alyx to Pavlov VR to the smallest and newest VR indie titles.
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sourgurl commented
Please add it back!
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LonelyViper commented
We absolutely need this
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SadlyItsBradley commented
VR category was super useful for my channel and many others.
Please bring it back 🙏
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Bounty_V commented
100% this. There are a fair amount of VR specific Twitch partners now, so it makes sense to add the category they primarily show.
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BOLL7708 commented
The thing is, this existed in the past, it's how I found many of the people I follow today. Then it was inexplicably removed. Twitch says categories are imported from the Giant Bomb wiki, but I guess Just Chatting etc are custom categories directly on Twitch? Regardless what it was before, we need it as a custom category directly on Twitch now. I can see how it is a chicken and egg problem, VR streamers aren't very big, why give them a category, but then if nobody can find them, how are they supposed to grow? I wonder if there are more gaming genres with this problem.
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VRBug commented
+1
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VRBug commented
As VR is growing in popularity I would love to see Twitch embracing it more. Currently to find a VR stream you need to know the game name to search for channels playing it. We need a Virtual Reality category so that we can tag the channel properly and people click that category and can see all VR streams. The current “VR” tag doesn’t seem to work as a searchable entity..
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KroyVR commented
An additional point to note that there is a tag for "VR", but it's used predominantly by vtubers. The definition of the tag suggests "for streams that feature gameplay utilizing virtual reality hardware". It's not ideal and in no way replaces the requirement for a category, but I wonder if Twitch is not seeing the demand to elevate this tag with a category because
a) it's not well used
b) it's being used incorrectly.
In lieu of Twitch adopting the suggestion for a Virtual Reality category in the interim I suggest a pro-active approach as follows:
Ensure that when you are streaming, check the VR tag is applied, and re-apply it if Twitch drops it partway through your stream.
Encourage VR game devs to have their VR game listed (e.g. cyubeVR, which is currently listed) and for them to lend their voice to having the VR tag highlighted.
VR users should also rally behind v-tubers getting their own tags and/or categories to ensure segregation of the two communities, which at the moment is a cause of confusion and reduction in the accessibility for both communities.
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WAR_n_GORE commented
Awesome idea! Thank you for doing this!
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TheTissueissues commented
Yes please
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samsalmi commented
+1 :)
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kevinerror commented
YES!
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headassbtw commented
yes.
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HeyFalcon_ commented
voted, I really think this will help a lot of current VR owners and users soon to join us via Quest 2 to find a much larger spectrum of games and apps available to them.
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the_monotonist commented
There's going to be a major surge of interest in VR technology once the consumer models start shipping the end of this year and into 2016. As of now, VR streamers are scattered all over the place and are hard to find.
The majority of games that VR streamers are going to be playing will not be big name titles, but rather small miscellaneous tech demos, so there currently isn't any fitting category for us to set for our stream.
It's also not a technology that appeals to the majority of gamers currently, so having a reliable place for us all to congregate will help spread the word and hopefully spark interest across Twitch!
I already have all my equipment ready for a full room capture with the Vive, and hope to stream my experience this holiday season!