Game category tab on twitch.tv/directory. Because not everyone wants to watch mmo's or mobas.

luzarius

Let broadcasters optionally choose if they want to be listed in a certain category for what type of game they're streaming. Another way is to simply take the game database you currently have and assign a genre to each game in it (maybe it's already like this in your DB?).

When they click the category it only shows live streamed games of that particular genre.

itruthful

That would be nice, I'm assuming the listing would be as; highest viewers watching > lowest viewers watching for every x amount of games in that genre. However I don't think the listed games have any meta on the genre (someone will correct me if I'm wrong) therefore every current game would need to be put into a genre or multiple genre's.

There was a suggestion the other day which was being able to view multiple games at once like how you can view multiple sub-reddits at once by altering the URL like;

http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/League of Legends+Minecraft

Obviously that doesn't work at the moment but I believe it would be more appropriate for allowing users to browse multiple games at once and more specific to what they want.

However, nice suggestion - it definitely makes sense.

luzarius

I really wish a game category system was on twitch! :)

jamroc75

I support this idea 100%!!!! :) :)

forestm4n

This would be very great idea and would make the browsing of game types you enjoy much easier, also ignoring certain types of games option would be greatly appreciated as well.  I support this idea.

joeydash

This is actually a great idea because I usually have to scroll down 4-5 pages just to see a genre of a game that I want to see. And then scroll another 3-4 pages to see another game of the same genre.

Given that the first pages of games are usually the same, Starcraft 2, LoL, WoW, DoTa 2, and the like, all which are games I tend not to watch because it's just not the game I like to watch being played, I would prefer to sort games by categories. It would eliminate the time I have to spend looking for a stream.

From the looks of it, it doesn't seem too unreasonable to ask for this feature. I also don't think it should be too hard to categorize the list of games in your database with genres. ( Would also make that person earn his/her paycheck Kappa )

wardweaver

I would like to see this option implemented.  It would make the search process a lot more friendly and simplify exploring new genres/games/channels to watch.

bonecrusher1022

Very good idea!

fluxr

That is a great idea. I was thinking of maybe a way to check games that I am not interested in viewing and having those filtered out.

thomas45

Great idea, would help get rid of the whole "Starcraft 2, DOTA, League of Legends" streams dominating the first 2 pages.

dirkdeadeye

thomas45 said:

Great idea, would help get rid of the whole "Starcraft 2, DOTA, League of Legends" streams dominating the first 2 pages.

I brought that up. Was promptly told that "well look at it now..there's even doom on the front page!" Yeah. One stream, with a ton of viewers.

lumin3r

I support this as well.

ngfodder

This would be awesome, there are way too many channels to filter through to find and interesting game type.

deffy92

This is a pretty sound idea, would help out the casual viewer and the new broadcasters!

linguaignota

I support brother Luz' excellent idea.

mialynn

Awsome. i like this.

joegenoa

This feature would be awesome, I support Luz 100% in this

kreeshill

This would be a great option to have, would help the 'browsers' of channels like me alot.

shammaster18

This would help sort through the games a great deal

virlomi

This would be a great idea.  I don't always want to watch LoL or SC2 but want to explore new games that might not be popular enough to be on the first 10 pages.  This would make watching twitch.tv a lot more enjoyable.  I support this idea 110%

michaelt

Great idea.  It would be much easier to find the types of games I'm interesting in watching with a category system.  If I don't find a game in a reasonable amount of time, I just leave.

bluehazee

This would be a great improvement to the site.

memorydancer

I would love this, it's pretty bothersome to go over tens of pages just to find that tiny Puzzle or RPG stream.

tootieman12

like, sold were I sigh

eyesoftheraven

No question—this definitely needs to be implemented into the website!

While we're at it, Twitch should also work on a ranking system for Streamers to properly identify and label who their viewers are, how long they've been watching and how much they've helped the streamer.

programmax

I like this idea. And I would love if one of the categories was "Speed running"

programmax

Maybe a category like "speed running" is a second step, though. Because that requires the broadcaster declare their intent.

A first step might be categories like "Nostalgia" for any game that comes from 2-console-generations ago, for example. All N64 games could automatically be put into the "Nostalgia" category without the broadcaster having to do anything.

luzarius

Speed Running is very popular, that would be amazing if there was a sub category for this.  Now we're talking about catering to the niche crowd which from my experience is HIGHLY profitable. A nostalgia option would also be ideal so you can view games that are like before 2005?

I remember when I streamed KOTOR 1 & Vampire the masq bloodlines, we had over 200+ viewers for these old school games. I've been to other streams where the broadcaster had like 1000+ for an old school game.

I wonder if the twitch game DB has the release year for each game?  Then you can choose by year. OMG, the list goes on & on of how many cools ideas there are to empower the viewer and deliver exactly what they want into their hands.

I'd even go as far as to ask the viewer one simple question.

"What is your favorite game?" - In actuality where they answer is the cool feature in which twitch shows you a game list as you type. URL: http://www.twitch.tv/directory - Form field: "Game Title"

If the viewer types a game that isn't being streamed, then you ask the viewer, would you like to see this game streamed?  If they answer yes you take their answer and generate a list. This list makes up games that viewers want to see most.  Now the broadcasters have a list of games the viewers want to see streamed. 

WHY ARE CATEGORIES IMPORTANT?

If the viewer looks up http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Mass Effect 3 and no one is streaming mass effect 3, then at least you can show them the category in which mass effect 3 is in which is RPGs.  So if no results come up for ME3 streams you say "Sorry no one is streaming mass effect 3, but maybe you'd like these other RPG games"....

Sorry for rambling just speaking out loud and speculating! Thanks for reading :)

1337hephaestus

Hi, i'm a web developer.

I'll throw together a simple site that just lists links to streams by genre (according to the giantbomb.com website)

I'll post a link to it here once i'm done.

1337hephaestus

if twitch wanted to do this, the giantbomb.com api supports this

get a list of genres associated with (for example) league of legends:

http://api.giantbomb.com/game/24024/?format=json&field_list=genres&api_key=like_i_would_post_that_here

you'd then store this in your database and make queries against it as needed

---

I have a rough implementation here:

http://gameballs.herokuapp.com/genres

luzarius

I'm gonna throw this out there, see who knows what I'm getting at. 

http://php.net/manual/en/function.rand.php

heheh *lawlz*