Had this idea, didn't really know where else to post it. Just trying to get it out there.

So I know Twitch has been struggling to come up with a way to monetize with ads, and with the whole "forced mid-roll" fiasco, I think everyone is worried that whatever they do will be very "un-Twitch" by trying to emulate live TV. So my idea was to just gamify it.

Twitch recently added the little icon dudes that everyone can choose as their logo, and I thought that could be like your Twitch persona, and you basically just turn ad watching into a survival style mini-game. Very basic, very trimmed down. Something like 3 main bars: Hunger, Thirst, Exhaustion. Bars slowly tick down at different rates, depending on your time in an online stream. To get rid of each you have to do a different type of "task" (an ad type) and then that reups/adds to your bar. Getting hungry? Clicker style game on a banner ad. Getting thirsty? Maybe hide a random brand logo somewhere on the page, that they have to click. Getting exhausted? Watch a 1 minute ad. Obviously, these are just examples, but gamify it in some way. Make it something active that the viewer participants in, instead of something they have to passively wait through.

Now why would people even participate? What's stopping them from just ignoring it? Tie mid-rolls to that. If 2 of your 3 bars hit 0, or you opt out, a 3 minute mid-roll will play along the timing they've already set out. People who aren't invested in the stream, and don't mind missing some stuff can ignore everything, and just have midrolls. If the viewer is invested in the stream, keep a streak of how long they've "survived". Unlock emotes for different lengths. Give chat badges. Make the ad experience something that people want to be involved in instead of just something everyone dispses.

Also, make sure all the timers are very obvious in how long until they're empty. Let a viewer get ads when it's convenient for them. There's a lul in the game play? Knock it out. Know there's a juicy part coming up soon? Knock out your tasks. ****, even get Streamers on board, by having them remind people to knock out their ad tasks before the next cut scene. Maybe even let the streamer run an ad to refill all 3 bars for everyone in chat, so chat will literally beg for an ad sometimes.

Obviously, this all requires work, and approval, and someone to sell it to the higher ups, but I'm convinced that having a system like this instead of the forced ads will make ad interactions healthy on Twitch, something that viewers and streamers can both exist with harmoniously.

What important points am I missing? Cuz it's almost 4am, and I'm sure there a glaring issues somewhere.