Yle abandons the idea of ​​a role-playing game to reach millions of viewers around the world: “Maybe the Swedes will take off”

Millions people nowadays watch for hours while others play a tabletop RPG. For example, watch a video on YouTube where a group of friends talk, throw dice, laugh and have fun together.

This kind of game watching and listening is one of the fastest growing forms of entertainment. There are hundreds of podcasts and video channels. The most popular creators like Critical Role are big media brands and the creators are stars.

Could such a thing work in Finland?

The thought for a long time Yleisradio’s reporter and role-playing game enthusiast Juhani Kentämaa. In Finland and the Nordic countries, role-playing has been taken in the direction of art and culture. Maybe new kinds of doors would open here?

Kentämaa, who worked at Yle Puheen Aamu, made a program as a radio journalist that boldly involved the audience and was made together with the community. “I got the idea that you could make an interactive role-playing program.”

Yle got excited about it.

Ropelivection the later-named project was implemented in connection with Yle’s 95th anniversary in the fall of 2021. “It was supposed to be a one-time event, as a gift to our audience.”

Kentämaa developed the idea together with the game director Arto Saaren with. They left out the rules side of role-playing games and fiddling with numbers. The game was divided into shows. “Each had an explosive beginning and a cliffhanger ending.”

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“The popularity exceeded all expectations.”

Princes of the New World the production was big and spectacular. There were manned crane cameras, a large staged studio, art, dramatic plots and specially composed music. The audience participated via chat. You could influence the course of the story by voting. There were more than 250,000 video launches.

“The popularity exceeded all expectations.”

When Yle The morning of the speech ended, Kentämaa had to be searched Ropelivelle new home. He offered the idea to different parts of Yle.

Ropelive ended up in the Interactive contents and learning edition at the beginning of 2022. At that time, Yle invested in working together and interactive content, says the producer Jyri Loikkanen. “Juhan’s idea to do it together with the audience was a different idea than commercial role-playing programs in the world.”

This was a suitable angle for the broadcasting company: to make a role-playing program as a live broadcast.

There were two broadcasts a year. Public figures were included. After a popular start, the best was successful by Maria Pettersson pulled by The touch of an angel game in the spring of 2022. It included Karri “Paleface” Miettinenwho had previously played a physicist Autumn Räsänenwho plays actively and Fatim Diarrawho had never played.

“Celebrities were involved in making tabletop role-playing more accessible,” says Kenttämaa.

On the other hand, he collected well-known and awarded creators from the role-playing game industry.

Finland’s largest role-playing event Ropecon awarded Ropelive With the game creation of the year award. The program received an honorable mention at the Koura gala, where the best Yle and MTV productions are awarded.

Ropelive was also selected for the Prix Europa and Prix Italia races. Kentämaa presented the program in Taipei at an event that gathers the world’s most interesting public radio media content.

The first one the broadcast gathered a little over 20,000 different visitors. A lot or a little – depends on who you ask. Yle also makes content for small audiences.

“Corona and the beginning”, thinks Kenttämaa about the reasons for a successful start. “People were at home on Friday night, and non-role players were also interested.”

Alcuinto did not carry. According to the player barometer, there are approximately 80,000 role players in Finland. Apparently they weren’t really reached either. One problem is that you have to sit and watch the live broadcast all night just when the program comes on.

“We did not succeed in conveying information about the program to the public. It’s not even known at the top that this is the case,” thinks producer Loikkanen.

In the world, the industry’s success stories have been continuous stories lasting even years. Continuity is important. The audience learns to wait for a new episode with a familiar group, like a new episode of a TV series. “Once every six months is too rare,” says Kentämaa.

Ropelive there was continuity in the podcast series made last spring, but its listener numbers were even lower than the live broadcasts.

Responsible producer Jasmiini Lappalainen no longer gave Ropelivelle budget for next year. He resents the situation. “The numbers have been in a downward direction, even though the product has improved.”

Long live broadcasts are no longer made, but there may still be opportunities in podcasts, for example.

November 1st will probably be the last to be sent Ropelivemade with Sweden’s SVT Finlandsfärjan.

Maedan Spirit the game will be played in Finnish in Helsinki. It is sent with a 30-second delay to both countries, so that the artificial intelligence has time to subtitle the speech in Swedish.

Authors hope that the Swedes would get excited about the concept. There have been discussions.

“Maybe the Swedes will get this off the ground,” Lappalainen thinks.

Field knows that his creation Ropelive time may be over. “To each his own time.”

He would be excited about the new life of the idea of ​​an interactive role-playing broadcast. “It would be great if this spread to Sweden.”

Ropelive Finlandsfärjan at Yle Areena and SVT Play on Friday, November 1 at 6 p.m.

The author was playing Yle’s Princes of the New World: Time of Conspiracies game in December 2021.