Critical Role Critical Role Suspends Broadcasts

With the ongoing global health crisis, Critical Role has announced that all live broadcasts will be suspended for the foreseeable future, starting today.

Here's the announcement:

"Like many of you, we have been monitoring the progressing situation around COVID-19 and have made the difficult decision to temporarily stop all live broadcasts, effective Tuesday, March 17th, 2020. Please note that our next episode of All Work No Play will air live on Twitch today at 4pm Pacific and the finale will air on Tuesday, March 31st at 7pm Pacific.

The health, safety, and well-being of our company and employees is the highest priority for us and we asked our staff to begin working from home to practice social distancing last week.

Our hearts go out to everyone affected by COVID-19. If you are interested in helping, many state governments have set up special funds to help those in your local community or check out covid19responsefund.org.

Going forward, we’ll keep our social media accounts and website updated with the latest news.

Stay healthy, friends. We’ll be back soon.

Critical Role"

 

[jgsugden]

If they can do it, an online 'special adventure of the Darrington Brigade' might preserve the magic of episode 100 of Campaign 2 and keep something on the air.

 

[jgsugden]

Recall that a lot of what goes into CR is not on screen - it is support staff - that will be home. There are ways for them to do this, but it may take a while for them to work it out.

 

[pogre]

I think they would be wise to suspend it and not go to another format. Then when things are safer announce the grand restarting of the campaign with new introductions of the characters and a summary of events thus far.

It could give the CR folks a deserved break during this stressful time and perhaps be a chance to attract new viewers when they restart - you know critters are not going anywhere!

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

If they do start streaming from home I don't think it's unfair to say that production quality would go down. They currently stream from a studio with professional grade lighting, sound, and camera equipment with a number of staff to manage things behind the scenes. To create comparable setups in each cast member's home would be unrealistic.

So the question then becomes "is a sacrifice of production quality to continue streaming worth it?" There's no real right answer here. The current fans would appreciate the show not going on hiatus in the short term, but preserving the quality of the show in the VODs for the long term is also understandable.

 

[MarkB]

Probably their best option would be to provide a limited output of one-shots and mini campaigns, maybe even pre-recorded rather than live to minimise the potential for technical issues. I'm guessing they'll be going pretty stir-crazy within a few weeks if they don't do at least something.

 

[jgsugden]

... know critters are not going anywhere!

NOt necessarily true. People follow because they're invested in the story. If another game continues to play and Crit Role sits out for several weeks, the interest in CR might be lost compared to the thing people have been investing in during the virus period.

A lot of things we assume will 'return to normal' after this period likely will be changed forever.

 

[jgsugden]

Considering the popularity of the podcast format, a pure audio option remains a possibility, especially for one shot content. Matt could set something in one of the unexplored areas of the new Campaign Book.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Selfishly? I'm a little glad. I fell behind for almost a year and I'm back on episode 16 or something, so this gives me a better chance of catching up before a finale or something like it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Considering the popularity of the podcast format, a pure audio option remains a possibility, especially for one shot content. Matt could set something in one of the unexplored areas of the new Campaign Book.

I don't watch any actual play streams, but just listen to them as podcasts while driving or exercising. A good microphone (and maybe some music and sound effects) is all I need. And, honestly, CR doesn't put much emphasis on the audio production -- their music is almost entirely World of Warcraft (and maybe other CRPG) soundtracks.

I think the argument that "people aren't going anywhere" is precisely why streamers should think about putting out content now. People are homebound and looking for something to watch. Black Widow just got bumped back, Mulan got bumped back, and TV shows are going on hiatus. A show you can produce with videoconferencing software is going to have a lot less competition as Netflix and its competitors burn through whatever they've got stored up.

 

[Eltab]

CR could make a triumphant return if part of the backstage prep work included getting the whole staff tested and announcing their resumption date once they know everybody is in fact OK.