Am I Floatplaning wrong?

[yolosnail]

Okay, so I pay the 2.99 a month for Floatplane and I honestly don't know why.

I can't see the difference between the quality on the YouTube videos and the ones on Floatplane, I tend not to watch the videos early because it just feels wrong, and I usually end up watching the videos on Youtube on the TV.

The only advantage I can see to using Floatplane is avoiding the cancer that is the YouTube comments.

If there was actually exclusive stuff uploaded like there used to be then I could see a reason for paying, but at the moment I don't think I can justify it.

Anybody else feel the same?

[Guest]

I pay for it because I want to support LMG, but do not want to turn off adblock. Everything else is a bonus.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Isn't the point of Floatplane club kind of that there isn't really any large benefit like exclusive content? 

 

It's basically a way to support LMG directly and you get a few perks for it. I recall Linus and Luke stating many times that they don't want to cut off access to content for people who aren't giving them money or make people feel like they're really missing out by not giving them money.

[colonel_mortis]

There have at times been exclusive (but low production quality) videos (the Mezzanine update videos). They aren't being done at the moment though.

The videos on Floatplane usually have slightly higher bitrate than YouTube, but if you don't notice the difference (I don't), it doesn't really matter.

There's no need to feel weird about watching the videos early though - it can be thought of as everyone else watching them late instead - I would imagine that a lot of their scheduling is planned for both platforms. When the next series of Scrapyard Wars comes out (soon™), there are quite a few people who say that they subscribe just to watch SYW a week early, though it's up to you whether that's a factor.

If you have a Chromecast, you can stream Floatplane videos to your TV as far as I know, though if you don't then there's no other neat solutions to watching FPC on a TV.

[ghostofprice1]

The main benefit for me the the early video. When you see them tweet something and then see the video the same day it is much better. A nice side benefit is the mezzeize update vlogs and the archived live streams 

[yolosnail]

4 minutes ago, colonel_mortis said:

There have at times been exclusive (but low production quality) videos (the Mezzanine update videos). They aren't being done at the moment though.

The videos on Floatplane usually have slightly higher bitrate than YouTube, but if you don't notice the difference (I don't), it doesn't really matter.

There's no need to feel weird about watching the videos early though - it can be thought of as everyone else watching them late instead - I would imagine that a lot of their scheduling is planned for both platforms. When the next series of Scrapyard Wars comes out (soon™), there are quite a few people who say that they subscribe just to watch SYW a week early, though it's up to you whether that's a factor.

If you have a Chromecast, you can stream Floatplane videos to your TV as far as I know, though if you don't then there's no other neat solutions to watching FPC on a TV.

See, I don't get the whole wanting to watch Scrapyard Wars early thing, what does that achieve other than being able to brag about it to the people in the YouTube comments (to be fair, I can see why people would want to do that). I would see the draw if you could watch the whole series at once, but if you still have to wait a week between each episode then it doesn't really make a difference.

Sadly, I have a Fire TV stick not a chomecast, and my phone doesn't like to mirror to the stick in my main TV. 

Once the Floatplane site is up, it would be a good idea would be to make the site usable on a TV browser similar to the youtube.com/tv site. That way I can just set a bookmark to it and it wouldn't involve making an app for every device.

[Bensemus]

The main point is supporting LTT directly. You also get a much better comment section. Exclusive content isn't what Linus wants to do. He wants everything to be available to his audience so FP won't get much exclusive content. Just some unedited cam footage it seems.

[3rrant]

10 hours ago, yolosnail said:

Okay, so I pay the 2.99 a month for Floatplane and I honestly don't know why.

I can't see the difference between the quality on the YouTube videos and the ones on Floatplane, I tend not to watch the videos early because it just feels wrong, and I usually end up watching the videos on Youtube on the TV.

The only advantage I can see to using Floatplane is avoiding the cancer that is the YouTube comments.

If there was actually exclusive stuff uploaded like there used to be then I could see a reason for paying, but at the moment I don't think I can justify it.

Anybody else feel the same?

Personally I like to be able to download the videos and be able to watch them later when I'm travelling, that's my main reason. Then, I like to access them as soon as they are ready, even if sometimes I miss them for the entire week. It's not about bragging, but sometimes they are already covered by other medias a week later.

 

I can see the difference in quality. It's not huge in most cases but for example the red camera review to me was WAY better on FP than on YT. I had more troubles noticing the difference with my older monitor (1080p vs 2160p) which might be a reason.

 

And in the end, I really like the concept so I wanna support it as I can. If it ends up being a service, it's gonna be great.

[KuJoe]

IMO the point of FPC is to support a content creator that you like. If you joined for specific benefits, you're doing it wrong because (as Linus, Luke, and Nick have stated many times) nothing is guaranteed. The videos are better quality than YouTube but this depends on a few factors such as your connection and server network usage (good luck trying to stream or download SYW at 1080p during the first few hours of release).

 

In addition to the FPC comments being immensely better than even the nicest YouTube comments, there are no pre-roll ads which gets you right into the video.

 

And back to the topic of comments, the conversations had between FPC members and LMG staff in the FPC forums is just awesome. @GabenJr has been pretty awesome at providing answers to questions about "why did you do this?" or "why did this happen?" or "why not this?" and doesn't just reply with a "because we did" answer and instead will get pretty in depth sometimes in the methodology of why the video turned out the way it did or why they did it the way they did. @nicklmg is another great source of answers and information in that forum and gives us a great insight into the business side of things sometimes in regards to video releases, schedules, and other factors. And the best part is, they don't just dismiss feedback, they acknowledge it (both good and bad) and turn it into a discussion and there have been plenty of times where an LMG staff member has said they'll bring that feedback to the team (and I have no reason not to believe they would).

 

FPC is all about managing expectations. If you look at it like a "what do I get?" service then you'll probably be disappointed, if you look at it like a "how can I contribute?" service then you'll be as happy with the service as I am.

[LogicalDrm]

For me its supporting LMG. Other options are either too expensive (I got ~€60 per year for subscriptions budgeted), or don't give direct enough support (Amazon links, other sponsors, swag sales). I rarely watch things same day when they are uploaded. But I do download bunch of them at once and watch later while doing something else. Video quality is irrelevant, though I did kinda test it with friend who has 40'' 4k monitor. Quality of that and YT is too close to notice with FPC 1080p and 100'' projector canvas.

[SlipperyPete]

18 hours ago, yolosnail said:

See, I don't get the whole wanting to watch Scrapyard Wars early thing, what does that achieve other than being able to brag about it to the people in the YouTube comments 

instant gratification lol.