Whoops, I've been streaming
Jul 29, 2023
Wow, it's been a while since I've been on here. But, at least that means I can come back with some substantial stuff. Since mid-June, I've done 15 streams (with 1 unarchived). This doesn't include test streams or one offs I've tried in the past, months before this summer. It's mostly what you would expect from an amateur Twitch streamer: easily accesible video games. But, there's a hint of stuff that's a little different. At the very least, I try not to have two boring streams in a row.
An average of one stream every three days should tell you that I've been enjoying streaming quite a bit. As long as there's a single person there, I think it turns into a neat social activity, where I try to either share my game experiences or pull off a dumb bit. It also doesn't require the same level of commitment and quality control as my videos or writing, since the expectations are lower, I guess?
Regardless, it's been fun trying out streaming this summer, and hopefully I can keep doing it somewhat regularly during university. While streaming certainly requires less effort than making videos or writing, it does require a longer time commitment in a single session. The average stream (that I would hope to do) is about 3-4 hours. If that becomes hard to do during school, I'll refocus my efforts into writing or producing videos since I can work on those during shorter periods of time.
If you're interested in seeing what my streams look like so far, check out this collection of highlights on my channel. And if you want to see my previous streams, you can look at them on my new VOD channel.
A Christmas Stream Story
Dec 28, 2022
TL;DR: The first time you do anything probably isn't gonna go well.
So...I tried doing a stream over a week ago now. For anyone who didn't watch and doesn't want to watch the VOD: I did a Christmas "variety" stream where I was giving out games to random viewers. I tried doing a bit of advertising several hours before the stream, mostly to friends. I was hoping that the allure of free Steam games would be enough to pull maybe 5 or so viewers? Unfortunately, my viewcount peaked at 4. I'm grateful for the few friends that were there, but due to poor planning on my part I was only able to gift Rogue (1980). There was a much more unfortunate error, however.
The timeline of stream events was supposed to go like this:
- Elf: The Movie for GameBoy Advance
- Christmas Buzzfeed quizzes
- Christmas flash games
- Christmas tier lists
- THE BIT
- Post-bit events (misc.)
I started out with Elf: The Movie as planned, which was a terrible decision. I wanted a real video game as part of the stream, and thought Elf on GBA would be funny. It was not, and only painful. Spent too much time on it, let's move on. I gave out Rogue while transitioning to the next segment, dare I say maybe the only successful part of the stream. Buzzfeed quizzes were okay, but I don't think I found as much as I wanted during the stream. Flash games were where the momentum started getting really bad. I couldn't manage to give any entertaining commentary for a bunch of generic flash games, and the last viewer I had left me to my own. This was before THE BIT, of course, and the whole point of the stream was to get to THE BIT. So I immediately did THE BIT to an audience of none.
What is THE BIT, you ask? Let me keep it as brief as possible: I call Santa who turns out to be Michael DeSanta from GTA V, who I argue with using an AI generated voice. Michael kills me violently, stream is replaced with a goon of his who proceeds to play Roblox and other terrible games at increasingly worse quality. The mic gets crunchy, the screen gets pixelated, we have a laugh and a funny haha. I managed THE BIT up until the Michael killing me part, where I proceeded to fling myself around my room and against the wall (intentional), then trip hand-first into my nightstand (unintentional). I scrambled to find band-aids and cut the stream off before the second part of the bit, but ultimately it was a deserved mercy kill at that point.
In hindsight, it's very easy to see where I went wrong. I frontloaded the stream too much with the less entertaining portion, but I was insistent on building up to the bit and giving out games like I advertised. As soon as I saw that 4 viewers was all I was getting, I should've transitioned quicker into THE BIT and at the very least make a friend or two laugh, if nothing else. In even further hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have planned an elaborate bit for my first "official" stream. The VOD's probably close to getting deleted now, so I might download it for my own sake. Even then, I have no guarantee that I'll reupload the VOD anywhere. Regardless, I've got a better idea for how future streams should be.
