I pointed that out before but I don't think it's any harder to understand than say Hearthstone. The only reason HS has a big viewership is because it has a big playerbase, so there's many people who know how it works.
I use my own experience when I say that but everytime they release a new expansion, I'm curious about the new decks and stuff(I just watch streams, haven't played since like, Naxx). But the fact is I spend several hours not having any idea what's going on in most of these games until I've seen each new cards being played. Sure I could open a deck building website and read all the cards but I don't want to do that it's a fucking waste of time and I wouldn't necessarily remember shit either. So every expansion it takes a while to follow what's going on with the new decks and stuff.
And that's HS, it's really simple, but the fact is, if you don't know the cards beforehand, any card game is going to suck to watch, even if you know how they're played. I don't think Artifact rules are really complicated, it's complicated to play right, but not to understand what's going on. But if you don't know the cards everything is confusing, just like any other card game.
Or say, MOBA too. Watching LoL worlds without keeping at all with the game can be a pain sometimes. Sure I recognize champions because they don't add that many constantly anymore, but 3/4 of them also play differently than the last year I saw them(or the year before if not very common). The champions which stay the same are rare. I saw Leblanc at this year's world and was surprised that she looked basically exactly the same(might be numbers tweaks and shit but still). Meanwhile you have fuckers like Sion and I don't even know what he does anymore. The model changes also don't help in that regard. Dota is the same. You can understand the rules of mobas in like, 2mins flat, it's really simple shit, even basic skills effects is your average RPG stuff, stuns, silences, slows, roots, it's all common terminology. But once you start combining it with all the 100+heroes/champions with 4+ skills each, it gets really messy until you learn most of them.
I think the low viewer count isn't because the game isn't viewer friendly. I think the low viewer count is because of the low player count. More players means more viewers, because players can understand what they watch while non players rarely do. I think games like CSGO, SFV and SC2 are a lot easier to watch without shit about the game but once you start throwing classes/cards/skills/items etc into the mix it basically becomes "either watch this for 5hours or play the game to understand the stream".
Pyros, love you dude, but this post illustrates how out of touch you are with standard human viewing habits. People don't give a shit about the minute details of a game (or show, or sport) that they watch. It's big picture shit that draws you in and hooks you.
The details of the cards isn't why HS succeeds and Artifact fails, the same way anyone watching PUBG or Fortnite don't need to know the details of the weapons and the same reason MOBA is watchable isn't the champion abilities.
The key to success is being able to easily see big picture items & strategic options.
In Hearthstone for example, you see the entire board always, unlike Artifact. And a viewer can easily gauge strength by looking at 3 things: Health totals, Board State, Hand State. At a quick glance you can see all 3 and get an idea of the flow of the game. Artifact hides this and makes it much harder to assess due to the 3 boards. 3 Board states, 3 Health totals, etc etc. I still haven't played the game but that's what I gathered from streams.
Board State & Card State don't need you to know the details either, in HS it's mostly. "How many bodies are on board?" and "How many cards are in hand?" . Usually the bigger numbers means you're doing well in HS.
Additionally, big picture items: Ranking & Arena Wins are clearly displayed and known. If I load up a HS stream and the guy is rank 20, I'm turning it off. But if I'm seeing Dog fighting for Rank 1 Legend.. I'm keeping it on.
I don't know what the big picture shit is in Artifact. No ranking right? I don't know who's skilled and who's a noob. Lets be honest here, most people don't want to watch noobs.
BR games succeed because you follow the 1 guy around the map and as long as he's alive you know he's doing well and you can root for him.
MOBA games succeed because you have knowledge of the entire map and can easily see team strategy unfold due to the top-down view.
Tons of players does not make for a successfully streamed game. Look at Overwatch which only has good numbers because of the OW League. Otherwise it's been quite low for a popular game. OW is just a hard game to watch, and they added a ton of tech for the OW League to try and make it more viewable. Some games are just a shit viewing experience... Artifact falls into that category.
Now that said, Artifact could probably do some things to make it watchable, but sounds like they have more important tasks to take care of first. Ranking is probably the biggest item they could add to make it watchable. If I know I'm watching a top 20 player, I might actually try to watch. I believe Savjz just made a twitter post about this exact thing. So maybe Artifact starts getting viewers once there's ranking.
