Twitch.tv
- Thread starter Mick
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Fadaar
That guy
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I'd never want to be a streamer unless I had a fat guaranteed money contract. Shits just way too up and down and at the whims of whatever is popular. Unless you're one of the big established guys like summit, lirik, doc, etc who can play anything and get 15k viewers.
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CaughtCross
Vyemm Raider
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Sodapoppin has been poop socking the new wow classic server with no cam and hardly talking to chat and gets over 15k viewers for 20 hours streams.
spronk
FPS noob
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streaming has almost nothing to do with game popularity or your gaming skills but how well you can fake being a friend to viewers. You have to be really good at having a consistent schedule (usually 40-50 hrs a week to maintain viewer numbers), and multitask reading chat, reading and responding to donations/subs/questions, and being spontaneous in a fake way
Imagine sitting and talking to your wife and pretending to be super interested in everything she says for 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. Thats a streamers life.
one of the guys i watch, jaystreazy, exploded in popularity from < 500 viewers to > 6k when he was one of the first IRL streamers to visit India about two months ago. he went to Europe this month for twitchcon and his views now have dropped to < 2k and he keeps mentioning how he'll return to India next month lol. i'm the exact demo too, i was super interested in his india streams since its a slice of life i won't ever live but his Europe streams i turn off after 5 mins because its shit I've been to myself.
Angerz
Trakanon Raider
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there is a lot to be said on twitch for just being someone who was there at the start. Not that he hasnt put in the work over the last decade to grow an audience, but a lot of old streamers have an audience who arent twitch viewers, they are viewers of that channel and will tune in every day.
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Khane
Got something right about marriage
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To put that into perspective, the latest WoW MDI or whatever they call the shitshow of competitive M+ now currently only has 14k viewers... as an "esports event". Lol
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Those viewbots ain't cheap, Blizzard has to save some money for Bobby's next yacht.
Aaron
Goonsquad Officer
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Are Twitch streamers mentally fragile from the stress of an online career, or are they Twitch streamers because they are mentally fragile people who can't hold a job and decide to just start streaming because why not earn a few bucks since they're playing vidja 18 hours a day anyway? Questions...
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Cybsled
Avatar of War Slayer
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Well, I'll provide some explanations
1) Self-Employed and subject to fickle income at times due to audience tastes: This is probably one of the biggest things - Outside the big streamers who can become part of an agency that will get them benefits (like disability, medical, etc), you're essentially on your own. Get sick? Get tired? Tough luck. If you take a break, then you can experience a significant erosion of viewers and thus income. This is part of the reason you see lots of streamers chase "metas", like reaction content or specific games. They want to stay relevant and try to cater to ever changing audience tastes. This is especially true if viewers aren't there for the streamer in general, as in they like the streamer and find them interesting no matter what they are doing. However, even that has limits. You see plenty of streamers who would rather play specific games on stream, but because they aren't very popular, they can't because it hurts their income
2) Parasocial/fandom: Streamers aren't unique in this regard - pretty much any public figure with a fandom is going to have this. But there is an added level of stress where you have to pretend to essentially be the audience's friend/interested in their likes, while at the same time trying to guard against overzealous fans knowing too much about you. Especially many female streamers, where you get the psychotic stalkers (males can get them too, but you definitely see more with female streamers). You can tell which streamers have learned hard lessons about this. Ones that has been in this for over 10 years will not show any windows or outdoor shots, refuse to give any specifics or house tours, because they know there are some hyper fixated people that will spend 100+ hours on Google Maps trying to look for a house that has 2 shrubs next to a white lamp pole or whatever it may be.
3) They hate their job: This combines #1 and #2, but at some point you just hate the job because it is no longer fun. You're a slave to a game or meta. Ninja was absolutely sick of Fortnite, but he was forced to keep playing it because it was what brought him views. At some point, you're basically in a job that sucks any enthusiasm you may have about the job.
1) Self-Employed and subject to fickle income at times due to audience tastes: This is probably one of the biggest things - Outside the big streamers who can become part of an agency that will get them benefits (like disability, medical, etc), you're essentially on your own. Get sick? Get tired? Tough luck. If you take a break, then you can experience a significant erosion of viewers and thus income. This is part of the reason you see lots of streamers chase "metas", like reaction content or specific games. They want to stay relevant and try to cater to ever changing audience tastes. This is especially true if viewers aren't there for the streamer in general, as in they like the streamer and find them interesting no matter what they are doing. However, even that has limits. You see plenty of streamers who would rather play specific games on stream, but because they aren't very popular, they can't because it hurts their income
2) Parasocial/fandom: Streamers aren't unique in this regard - pretty much any public figure with a fandom is going to have this. But there is an added level of stress where you have to pretend to essentially be the audience's friend/interested in their likes, while at the same time trying to guard against overzealous fans knowing too much about you. Especially many female streamers, where you get the psychotic stalkers (males can get them too, but you definitely see more with female streamers). You can tell which streamers have learned hard lessons about this. Ones that has been in this for over 10 years will not show any windows or outdoor shots, refuse to give any specifics or house tours, because they know there are some hyper fixated people that will spend 100+ hours on Google Maps trying to look for a house that has 2 shrubs next to a white lamp pole or whatever it may be.
3) They hate their job: This combines #1 and #2, but at some point you just hate the job because it is no longer fun. You're a slave to a game or meta. Ninja was absolutely sick of Fortnite, but he was forced to keep playing it because it was what brought him views. At some point, you're basically in a job that sucks any enthusiasm you may have about the job.
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Djay
Trakanon Raider
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To add to that...I don't rely on Twitch for income, but I have one game that gets me decent views and a few subscribers. If I play anything else, my average views tank. Now, I generally have fun playing that game, but I recently lost a day's worth of saves because my computer crashed while it was saving and now the main save state, as well as the automatic backup for some reason, are corrupted.
I have no interest in playing the game right now. Even though the income I get from Twitch is basically meaningless, losing viewers still crosses my mind. I can't imagine the stress I'd be feeling if this was my main source of income.
Most Twitch streamers have learned that they need to have content on YouTube for consistent income, in order to take vacations without worrying about the lost income from losing 1/4 of their subscribers every week they're not streaming. It helps with the consistent money issues, but you still see them get stressed when they put a lot of time into a video and can't figure out why it got fewer views that the crap they put out the week before. It also doesn't help with being stuck playing a game you're not interested in anymore. One streamer I follow used to hold the SMB1 Any% speedrunning record and gets asked every stream when he's going to play it again. He knows he's losing viewers whenever he plays anything that's not Mario related...his YouTube presence is still nearly entirely videos about SMB1, but he has no interest in ever speedrunning it again.
I have no interest in playing the game right now. Even though the income I get from Twitch is basically meaningless, losing viewers still crosses my mind. I can't imagine the stress I'd be feeling if this was my main source of income.
Most Twitch streamers have learned that they need to have content on YouTube for consistent income, in order to take vacations without worrying about the lost income from losing 1/4 of their subscribers every week they're not streaming. It helps with the consistent money issues, but you still see them get stressed when they put a lot of time into a video and can't figure out why it got fewer views that the crap they put out the week before. It also doesn't help with being stuck playing a game you're not interested in anymore. One streamer I follow used to hold the SMB1 Any% speedrunning record and gets asked every stream when he's going to play it again. He knows he's losing viewers whenever he plays anything that's not Mario related...his YouTube presence is still nearly entirely videos about SMB1, but he has no interest in ever speedrunning it again.
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Edaw
Parody
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Rabbit_Games
Molten Core Raider
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Someone needs to deport that faggot back to Turkey along with his faggot Uncle.
Szlia
Member
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I am not sure the US is in the business of deporting american citizen.
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Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Szlia
Member
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