Change the Game Developer badge instead of deprecating it
On October 21st, 2024, Twitch will be deprecating the Game Developer badge. This badge has, in my opinion, a pretty important benefit for both game developers and streamers alike: It weeded out viewers that would pose as game developers.
I can't tell you how many times I heard from streamers that they were glad our studio had badges verifying who we were, as they often had new viewers claim they worked on our game. Knowing that the badge existed made them skeptical, especially as they'd seen us in their chat before.
With the badge's upcoming removal, this opens the door for more impersonation and will make it difficult for developers to interact with the communities that play their game. I have not seen Twitch provide a reason as to why the badge is being removed yet, so I can only assume as to the reason. If the issue is that it takes resources to verify studios -- which currently is quoted to taking one business week -- the reasonable solution is to extend the timeframe for verification, or to hire a few seasonal employees to help with the verification.
If the issue is that the badge is global and can cause confusion for streamers when game developers watch streams of other games, then instead of deprecating the badge, I'd like to propose two different solutions.
1) Recategorize it as a different badge than "Global", and then only allow it to be used in streams where your game is being played; or
2) Leave the badge as-is, except when you're watching someone play your game, the badge should change in some way (e.g. turn golden) to highlight that you are a developer for that game. (idea from @HardwiredStdios on Twitter)
Either of these solutions would be a better way of ensuring streamers can reliably identify actual developers of the game, while also preventing confusion when those developers watch streams in other categories. Interacting with streamers is incredibly important to us as it gives us that extra line of feedback being able to chat with people playing our games in real-time, and removing the badge will only cause skepticism in those interactions.
Thank you for your time.
amallah
shared this idea
Thank you for your detailed submission and articulating the usefulness of the badge for game developers. We agree with the sentiment and additional context can be found in the deprecation announcement. You are correct that there was an increase in requests to verify organizations. This process is also used to gain access to other features such as Drops campaigns and game analytics. Product updates to limit requests for a global badge and remove confusion, such as enabling the badge only on a matching category as you mention, will take considerable time while continuing to block new developers from using these organization features. This change will reestablish the 1-week SLA for organization requests and an improved implementation of the game developer badge can be considered in the future while we enable new game developers to onboard.
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Thank you for your detailed submission and articulating the usefulness of the badge for game developers. We agree with the sentiment and additional context can be found in the deprecation announcement. You are correct that there was an increase in requests to verify organizations. This process is also used to gain access to other features such as Drops campaigns and game analytics. Product updates to limit requests for a global badge and remove confusion, such as enabling the badge only on a matching category as you mention, will take considerable time while continuing to block new developers from using these organization features. This change will reestablish the 1-week SLA for organization requests and an improved implementation of the game developer badge can be considered in the future while we enable new game developers to onboard.
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LordPhrozen
commented
I vote #2 Here.
The badge has been incredibly helpful to us indies who have a game *still* in development, as we engage with creators, their communities, etc. The badge has come up in chat many times, and provided us with legitimacy instead of skepticism.
Having it ONLY in the category we made, is... better than nothing I suppose. And does benefit teams communicating with players playing their game. But for small indie studios, with an in-dev title, you're taking away a great tool from us, and a great tool for creators, and their chat, to verify claims being made.
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Macmonster2
commented
As a viewer, I love the idea of the second implementation. Makes it clearer for everyone involved that 1) Someone who says they are a dev is actually a dev, and 2) That anyone with the highlight is a dev of the current game. Seems like a pretty straightforward good idea to me.
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Xenflux
commented
The timing is really amazing. This news is really unfortunate, if it's true.
Historically, I've seen some streamers had a habit of giving developers VIP to better highlight their messages. (And even then, they weren't always certain they were the actual developers, instead going off of good faith, because not every developer even knew the badge existed.)
Recently, while watching streams of new/unknown games (it's currently Steam Next Fest, as I write this), I've advocated to developers that happened to show up in chat that they go through the process to get the badge.
I believe it was just last week or so that I also suggested the very same idea presented here: to change/highlight the badge when the stream was set to a category associated with the developer. This would make it easier for the developer to be noticed in chat and by the streamer, just generally improving engagement. It seems like such an easy win and value-add for Twitch, I strongly recommend considering this direction rather than dropping the badge entirely.
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noctisnexus
commented
I support this in either direction you’ve suggested and think that Twitch doing away with the badge is a poor choice on their end.