Streaming: Lifestyle, Impact and Consequences

When you make a decision in your life, it can really have some consequences, especially a big one, such as starting to stream or even trying to become a professional streamer in the long run.
A choice such as this one will definitely affect you, but also your friends and family. It very well might change the way they see you and maybe even the way you see yourself. But how? Lifestyle and the impact it has had on myself

I feel as though producing live content has allowed me, and enabled me, to better myself and improve on some key aspects that were previously in disarray. This isn't to say that it hasn't also messed with my daily routine or habits to some degree. For example, as previously stated, I started streaming, also with the intent to overcome a temporary slump in my life which had kind of left me ‘down’, with a not-so-optimistic view of things to come, but one I also wanted to overcome and be done with, especially when I got news of impending membership to ‘the parenthood club’, lol.

So yeah, when I got the awesome news that I was to become a dad, I vowed that I needed to do whatever it took to overcome some psychological hurdles that had been holding me back, not just the financial ones, you know? So stepping out of my little bubble, forcing myself outside my comfort zone, was a crucial point I wanted to achieve and get confident enough that I could later teach, and tell my daughter, that she too was strong, had a will to her, that she could put her mind to something, pursue it and, given plenty of hard work and determination, achieve it. I started getting better, pretty much right after I made this decision. It’s not perfect, but my creepy companion, anxiety, has all but subsided in most situations (if not all of them), I am more confident in my own ability to follow through on stuff I say and promises I make, as well as trusting that others will sometimes recognize my merit and hard work put into something if I freaking do it, and believe in it, instead of wussin' out or giving up because not everything works out… It has also improved, or rather, restored, some of my social interactions as my anxiety had left some of those a little bit more rusty and awkward, but they’re now back to their former state, along with a happy, helpful and social Joe. So, what has actually happened to my life?
Some of the routine and the amount of work that goes into what I do, is not fully perceived by the audience, or viewer-base. They mean well, they just can’t see all of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ stuff, so… either they’re very fast-paced individuals and workers, who are plenty good at multitasking and think I’ll do things in a jiffy, or they never streamed before, but, either way, they’re not at fault but still kind of misjudge the amount of hours I sink into trying to be the best I can, for the channel and for them.

Should this make me privileged or should they worship me? I know that’s how it sounded, hence this joke, but to be honest, it’s not what I meant, at all. It’s just a preamble for me to actually explain that sometimes it’s tough, when it happens with your close real-life friends or family too.

Content production does take a lot of work, while Streaming and community-building even more-so. All of this on top of already trying to fit in 5-6h of freelance work, whilst standing on that famous knife-edge that is ‘starting/continuing’ to look for a steady job and still trying to be a good and present father in my newborn daughter’s life, helping her learn and be able to process such ridiculous amounts of information coming her way these first few months. That said, all of this work takes its toll and sometimes I can only finish stuff very late at night, especially the stream since I love my American continent audience, putting a slight stress on some relationships with people closer to home. This has, thankfully, been changing and people are starting to understand why I do Live Streaming, and how much I love it, as well as the amount of work that goes into it, but I too must strive to understand their Point of View and attempt to achieve the perfect balance so as to not ‘forget’ the physical, amazing, loved ones in my life, as well as the newly loved community I created through my channel. Lack of time, work-shuffling and time-juggling are therefore the biggest changes I’ve seen almost instantly. My mood has improved though, also my ambitions and dreams are awake, I’m feeling better than I did before and actually consider myself a better person and more balanced individual now. The thing I love the most is that I actually think I’m even a more qualified parent now. I have the will, determination and confidence to face more things and situations outside my comfort bubble and can be loving, kind but also serious or even strict when need-be. When it's all said and done, I really do have some of my community to thank, for some good advice, not all of it stream related, and some of them for being fantastic role-models as people AND parents.

Finally streaming: First impressions and Misconceptions

Thinking about doing something and actually doing it are two different things, like reeeeally different…

I think that everyone can picture in their head what streaming or live content creation is like, but all too often, they later find out it was actually nothing like they had imagined. It need not be better, or even worse for that matter, just different.

I really thought that it would be an exhilarating thrill whilst I’d be ‘LIVE’ and that I’d get constantly overwhelmed by the chat interaction on account of being new and not very fast, or expedite, at dealing with the questions or situations as they arose. I also thought that I’d be somewhat held by, or tied to, something similar to a more professional conduct, or relationship, commonly held by any other kind of Entertainer and their audience.

Turns out that, regarding the excitement of it all, it’s more like a rollercoaster ride that you can get on, but can’t really leave. You have some breaks, which are pretty much the off-stream times, but it seems as though it’s merely set on PAUSE and will resume the next time you go live again (you find yourself constantly thinking about the last few streams, or even a single specific one, trying to see where you could’ve done better, what people seemed to enjoy the most and what they were looking for that you didn’t follow through on… mostly, trying to see which parts of your shy self they really seemed to enjoy or which of your reactions might’ve appeared, or actually been, over the top).

The truth of the matter is, it looks like a crazy adventure, filled with excitement and possibility, but, while there’s definitely some excitement and it definitely can be described as a long-ass quest or journey, it has more to do with hard work when it comes down to it. A constant search for self-improvement, willingness to learn more and accept you don’t yet know everything, as well as a deep desire to engage people with your content and really see or ascertain their enjoyment of what you tried to produce for them.

So, first impressions were kind of a surprise in and of themselves really, I went in wanting to do my best to entertain or amuse, and came out really thinking that, ‘holy shit, this isn’t so much about ME and what I can bring to the table, but very much so about the people, what they want to see, what they enjoy, how they’d like me to interact with them, but also with them wanting to get to KNOW me. This is a much more personal and intricate connection than I thought’.

And then, Live Stream is over...

Well, when I turn off the camera, I feel a sense of accomplishment. Of a ‘job well done’. I feel as though I worked hard, before and DURING the stream, but it was all well worth it, ‘because people enjoyed themselves, the channel, the content and their interactions with me and amongst themselves’! That is, on most days, where everything went sort of according to plan or just with some slight deviations from it, really. Those are the golden days, from the good ones, to the highs of streaming. But...

There can be some days where, despite some of your best efforts and sometimes even a massive amount of planning, a particular event or special meaning assigned to that day does not, or did not, shine through to the other people... the audience, your followers or your viewer-base.      

Therefore sometimes they don’t all show up exactly when you sort of felt like you needed them most. Those days can be sort of devastating, if you allow them to, especially on the post-stream routine. You’re left wondering where it all went wrong, if you had not publicized the event enough, if people just didn’t care, either for the event, the theme/category it falls into or just your channel in general…

It raises a lot of self doubt and the only real way to fight it, is to stay consistent and not give in too much to the highs and lows of it all. Just TRUST in the work that you put forth, the QUALITY of the content you try to produce for your viewers and the RELATIONSHIP you’ve established with them so far, and that it will eventually guide people to your channel again in the future. Some days might be slightly off, but better ones WILL come.

All things considered...

So, in the end, I might say that streaming is quite a bit of excitement, definitely a long journey, requiring a lot of hard work, some sacrifice and a need to understand that it’s NOT all about yourself, the streamer. It’s about everyone who will be involved, from the people who will watch it, to the community that you will build around your channel AND, above all else, the relationship you will build with them. Without it, you’re just a trained buffoon playing some video games and throwing out catchphrases.

First Day of Streaming

After many hours, days even, of preparation, the first day finally arrives. Anxiety takes its place and the hardware seems to feel it, since it either starts failing or falling apart, along with all the preparations.

My first day was in January and it’s been a while now, so talking about it can be kind of tricky, since memory is definitely not my strong suit, or even a strong suit. I’m bad when it comes to remembering stuff, like really bad.

However, your first day is an important milestone and that’s why I think it’s important for me to share with you all that I can actually remember about it. It serves multiple purposes, not only providing motivation but also showing you that not everything goes according to plan. You just need to know how to take this in stride.

So, here’s what I can recall from my actual first day of streaming, as in, my first broadcast. I was pretty nervous, even though I had tried to lay the foundations, do the groundwork days before, really. Still, once you start streaming, you’ll realize that technical difficulties are a given, really. They will come, whether you want them or not, tried to prepare for them or not. So that’s kind of what happened, a few issues here and there with the key bindings I had set up for my stream’s Game Capture but forgot to replicate in another scene, all on the classic OBS.

Once those were ‘resolved’ the audio was still a long ways off of ideal, but I tinkered with it with some help from the awesome ExilePT (@Exile__PT) and a very kind and awesome viewer (thank you mallycakes!), all whilst attempting to play some Darkest Dungeon.

I distinctly remember being sort of pissed (and wrongly so) at Red Hook Studios for the freaking timing of when I actually planned to start streaming (January 2016) and their Darkest Dungeon release, so quite a few big-name streamers and channels were playing it that night and I couldn’t amass much interest from a few people, which, given all the tech difficulties and stuff, is understandable.

But, as with all things I’ve mentioned so far, some bad situations will arise, just so you can learn from them and move on to something better, really. So, once I stopped cursing my lagtop (affectionate pet-name for my laptop, which I also fondly dub, ‘the streaming potatoaster’), it got better… a lot better. I interacted more with the ‘OH so exciting’ 2 or 3 viewers in my channel and ‘Lo and behold!’, one of my other good friends, also a streamer, the awesome Foamz (@FoamzTV) brings in a small support crew in the form of a raid, even throwing out some host love my way.

This, as you can probably imagine, was huge, getting me in front of just a few more people, some of which even dropped a follow on my channel, pushing me out of my comfort zone and forcing me to learn to adapt to a growing crowd, on a faster pace. To this day, I am very grateful to all of the people mentioned above, since they were pretty much some of my first followers, viewers and supporters, helping me get the stream ready for organic viewers walking in (people who enter through the browse features of twitch, such as a person joining because they like the game I’m playing and there aren’t too many live channels with it right now), for the additional engagement and interaction it generated and some of the new-viewer questions.

From there on out, the stream was a blast, I was no longer as nervous and it was really a matter of continuing to try and obtain some audio balance so as to reach an equilibrium and a visual quality decent enough that it still, to this day, consistently makes people question me when I tell them I stream on the lagtop (both the laptop portion of it and mostly even the specs, are the things that really surprise people).

All in all, it was a bad, turned good, turned great, day which kind of evolved into it’s own thing, being both a milestone for my first broadcast but also a learning experience in and of itself.

So remember, when you’re just starting out, all that really matters is that you put forth your best effort to entertain any possible viewers that would walk in. Don’t really focus on the numbers, actually try and avoid knowing how many viewers you have, since it’ll just psych you out if you have none or way too many.

Eventually, some people you might already know, some good friends or even some complete strangers who happen to be awesome people, will drop by and give your channel a chance. If you keep up your effort, you’ll be as amazing as ever when they do, and hopefully get that very precious first follower who you’ll try to convert into a regular that’ll be dropping by often in the future.

And thus, a channel will be born and with it a small community will be formed. But it will grow! Believe! Then keep at it!

Being a Streamer

Being a streamer is as easy as sitting in front of the computer, turning on the camera and playing some games while saying a couple of jokes and, eventually, people on the other side of the screen will like it. Right? Right guys?! Hmmm… not really.

Most people can’t understand what moves a person to be a streamer and why there are other people who like to watch us, laugh with us and try to be there every single time (or close to it) you turn on that camera.

Yet, for someone that chose to be such a thing, I can assure you, it is quite more... 

I personally like to think of myself as a content producer, first and foremost. Even though the word ‘streamer’ does pop up every now and then, I like to see myself as what I really am, a content producer, an entertainer (or a wannabe, lol) and, in reality, a facilitator for the meeting and getting together of a bunch of different, yet commonly amazing and overall awesome, group of people.

Video & Live content producer & actor, Entertainer, Community-founder/builder/leader...

It seems like a hell of a lot of work to fit that description when I could just call myself a streamer, but I don’t really think the term fully covers what it is that people like me actually do, or try to.

There are a whole bunch of great streamers, who I constantly try to learn from, look up to and admire. They also don’t fit the regular ‘I’m a streamer. I click the Broadcast button and then play some games and look at chat every so often to answer some odd questions here or there or say catchphrases at the right times’ bill. That’s way too narrow a definition for a lot of the really hard working entertainers out there.

These people actually build a brand, their own personas, target an audience, take requests, research new and exciting ways to improve their content, even heed advice, and above all, try to innovate and create fresh content that’ll later become the ‘new and appealing thing’ that everyone else keeps talking about.

This is what I love to do, who I love to be, who I want to be. The guy who brings people together, tries to make them laugh and enjoy their time (be it successfully or otherwise) and creates the best content he can, for the people... Those people! They are the ones who keep on supporting him in his endeavors, they are the ones who deserve it the most. <3