Idea to make Go more popular
Hello everyone,
I like that Go got now some presence on Twitch and Youtube, but there are possibilities, to gain more attention.
In chess there are now some streamers, with a really growing number at followers (even among many people which where not interested in chess before), cause they are including the followship really good.
They don´t limit their streams to training and comments. They also play average players and even beginners online and they do sometimes online tournaments and competitions with other streamers, to keep the interest of new followers. Here two examples from Germany and an international example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oc1rl_5Ne8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJzqWpHlNYA&t=249s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6i69R8QrjA
The chess streamers are really successfull to raise the popularity, with such streams. I think Go could do the same, even better. next to the possibility that high Dan or Professional Go players, play online against average and beginner players, there is the Rengo possibility.
The people who got curios cause of the streams, would be really interested, if they can play the streamer or maybe even team up in a Rengo. Also online tournaments and team competitions (for example fans of Antti Tormännen vs fans of Ali Jabarin) would help making Go more popular.
I think we can see in chess, give the newcomers a good and big program, their attention on the game is raised. Go can do the same, give the people fun with internetprojects and raise it´s popularity.
Especially now, when people are more at home during Corona. Chess took it´s advantage from it, there is no reason why Go should´nt take it´s advantage from it too.
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Hi Kasim, and thanks for your post!
I agree that go is currently lagging far behind chess when it comes to online game streams. Luckily, the trend seems to be positive; see below for just a few popular go streamers.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBGI3tQZE3aXgH8IAsr6Ucw
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ7fRyWobKv_FejtqwUVImA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfw9_YdrjZ1zts2ancNQT6g
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_AU7Wu_tKhFIRjrJZgYA9w
There are many more streamers that I know of but cannot quickly find on Youtube because I don't remember their channel names; maybe this kind of visibility is part of the problem. (If you just search ‘go stream’ on Youtube, you will get something very different from what you were looking for.) If only there were some go website that aggregates links to known go streamers...
Streamed online matches between professionals would definitely be good for the popularity of the game, too, but unfortunately Asian professionals (me included) are tied by the rules of our professional associations. For example, I cannot play a public game against Ali Jabarin without both the Japan Go Association and the European Go Federation agreeing on it. In an ideal world, this kind of bureaucracy would be quickly handled, but the Asian professional associations are a bit slow to adapt to innovations – which is a shame, because I think this is an enormous lost opportunity. I can only hope that the Japan Go Association will soon wake up and realise what is good for itself, as well as the game in general.
Hi Antti,
thanks for the answer and I can also mention one streamer more, dwyrin.
https://www.youtube.com/user/dwyrin
He could be even the most popular Gostreamer, among european and american audiences, with his 23800 followers.
Also it was helpful, to see what problems are coming, when a match between a EGF/AGA Pro and an of an Asian pro can occure.
But it´s not only I meant that, my idea was to increase the themes and the numbers of videos among streaming.
Ok we see some success especially for dwyrin and now go Pro Yeonwoo. They do a good job in making a lot of videos/streams. Thats important for the algorithm, feed the algorithm and you will be shown to more people. Also they do more than teaching and comment, they play simple online against normal players and show it in streams, giving sometimes funny quotes.
Also Yoon Youngsun seems to grow pretty fast on youtube, cause she makes a lot of content.
To be more visible on Twitch and Youtube, the main issue is, thats theres still not that much of content, compared to other things like chess.
In the last few months, with corona I saw chessstreams exponentially growing. They took advantage of the fact, that more people stay at home. They did more videos, so they could be seen easier and grew a lot. Some even started to update their channels daily with new content. Two of them got so many followers, that they now can live as yotuber/streamer and two new channels a growing that fast, thats probable that they can manage that too in the future. (And I talk here only about german channels.)
I know you have to put some time, in such a project, thats a fact. But it gives a real chance, also its a advantage, if there are more channels which do a lot. The chess channels grew also, cause they worked together and made competitions. So followers of one channel saw, that there more channel about that game and some did follow the other channel too.
At one point it even happened, that they where so well known, that they got attention, of influencers from complete other genres. These influencers reacted to the chess youtuber and learned chess themselves and played with them, which even improved the growing of the chess channels.
I think it´s possible for Go too, but the content has got to be big. I know, it´s not easy for one person alone, to give that much time, but there is also the possibility that many persons work on one channel.
For example the EGF could do daily, or if not daily at least 4 or 5 times a week a viedo/stream. the content could be produced by more than one person. If the EGF would do that much, you can be sure the number of followers increase fast, especially at corona times, where more people stay at home.
Also could the channel of the Nordic Go Dojo do it and grew fast. One benefit is, not every content has to be that well prepared, like a lecture. You see on chess channels or on pretty successfull Go channels like Dwyrin and Go Pro Yeonwoo, streaming during simply online playing, does a good job.
Playing with normal opponents online or the fans and giving some quotes/comments during the game, also is not a bad content. Many followers are interested in such stuff, thats proven by successfull streams.
When your channel has grown, you can also work together with other channels and do some competitions. Also are online tournaments announced on the channel, a good thing to raise the popularity. it´s important to interact with the people, who see your channel.
I hope, it doesn´t look too agressive, what I wanna say. I just hope, Go can improve in western countries and I see a good oppurtunity. And I hope, I didn´t bother with too much writing. I am aware that I do sometimes annoying long texts and I even have to hold myself, to not write more.