What’s been fascinating about the pivot to prerecorded episodes that livestream @CriticalRole has had to make during the pandemic is how much post-production LABOR is required that’s invisible to viewers. I’ve seen requests for “simple” overlays that would be a labor nightmare.

Twitch’s affordances for livestreaming content (like the DnDBeyond dynamic display of hit points/conditions) simply don’t work when the content is recorded then streamed. And replicating then would be an enormous burden.

It’s also true on the fan side: because of the hard work of fan information labor collectives like @CritRoleStats & @critrolecloset, there’s an *assumption* that all relevant information is always available, in the form desired, somehow out of nowhere, & will always be available.

That a wiki could go down or be deleted, a fan project could go dormant, that servers cost money, or that transcription, editing, & continuity expertise are professional labor is only acknowledged sporadically (note: NOT by CR, but by the discourse communities around the show).

What’s most interesting is how some labor behind CR is often made hypervisible by the parasocially-inflected ethos towards transparency. Individual crew coming on camera has been a thing since G&S days, to the point where they are well-known to “the community” as well.

Even so, there’s still those who ask for ever more — which is both a desired (in terms of merch sales) and undesirable (cranky fans will turn on you) state. Which BAFFLES me.

No argument in this thread, no critique of anyone. I’m just continually fascinated by how this particular show & its fans are a space where we can see (often in real time) fan-creator discourse as a two-way exchange, the many gray areas, & the effect of tech on it all.