streaming

How to Keep the Conversation Going on Your Stream

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As a streamer, your voice and the words you say with it are your most important assets. Every game you could ever play will be covered by thousands of others, but viewers will have to come to you for your particular spin on the action.

Easier said than done, of course. Talking while gaming isn’t a skill that players develop naturally. Add in the fact that you might not be comfortable partaking in conversations in real life, and the thought of carrying the conversation for the duration of a multi-hour stream becomes incredibly daunting.

If you routinely find yourself drawing a blank, here are some pointers for how to keep the conversation going!

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Elgato Stream Deck Alternatives

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I adore my Elgato Stream Deck. Yes, it seems very pricey for a handful of buttons. And no, you probably shouldn’t buy the Stream Deck Mini because six buttons isn’t enough for most. However, my standard Stream Deck has proven to be more than worth it. With this device, it makes it so easy for me to seamlessly juggle between scenes, toggle audio sources on/off, activate my voice changer, trigger my sound board, and so much more. If anything, I’m pining for the Stream Deck XL so I can have access to even more buttons.

Regardless of how much I and many others may recommend this controller, it’s hard to overcome the sticker shock to really understand the Stream Deck’s value proposition. If you want a taste of what it’s like to have a Stream Deck but don’t want to pay Stream Deck prices, consider these alternatives.

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The Experience of Building a Gaming and Streaming PC From Scratch

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Do you like to…do-it-yourself?

With a host of new parts and my old rig sitting on the dining table, I was about to embark on a PC project larger than anything I’d taken on before: build my own PC from the ground up.

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The Art of Repurposing Stream Highlights for Social Media

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Sharing highlights from your stream can be a great way to attract new viewers or keep your existing fanbase engaged with content they might have missed. For a number of my social media followers, they’ve never gone to my stream but regularly engage with my highlights. If that’s the way they want to connect, that’s cool too!

The process could be as simple as taking a snippet from your stream and uploading it to your social media platforms. However, you’re likely to be leaving money on the table if you don’t go the extra mile. Here are a few tips to get the most out of your streaming highlights when you share them on other platforms!

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I Finally Bought a New Streaming and Gaming PC

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“and with that…i think this build is…done?”

After many months of planning, saving, and countless messages exchanged with my PC sherpa fakeghostpiraterobot, I’d arrived at a place I never thought I’d reach. The money was ready. The parts were picked. All I had to do now was go shopping.

A few pickups and deliveries later, I finally was in possession of everything I needed to build a new PC.

“that’s going to be an awesome computer for a long time.”

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Troubleshooting Rendering Lag and Encoder Lag in Your Twitch, Mixer, or YouTube Live Streams

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Of all the calamities that can occur on stream, lag is one of the most common and most annoying to wrestle with. There are many potential reasons for why lag occurs, all of which require different sets of solutions.

In the last installment, I covered how to troubleshoot network lag. Now let’s cover rendering and encoder lag. Unlike network lag, dropped frames caused by either rendering lag or encoding lag are tied to your PC’s performance. Here are some pointers for reducing the strain on your PC and maintain a smooth presentation!

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Why You Should Start Streaming Today

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Lacking the proper equipment? Scared that no one will watch? Just not in the mood today? It’s incredibly easy to psych yourself out of streaming long before you even give the medium a try.

Streaming isn’t for everyone. But how will you know if you don’t give it a shot? You might be missing out on a new and fulfilling hobby if you let your anxieties keep you on the sidelines. Let’s see what we can do to push those to the side and finally make progress on establishing your channel!

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Content Efficiency: Get the Most Out of Your Content By Turning One Piece Into Many

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When In Third Person expanded into the world of video many moons ago, I did so with an eye on efficiency. The first video I ever uploaded to the In Third Person YouTube channel effectively turned into two pieces of content when I wrote a post about it on WordPress. Doing so gave me the opportunity to add supplemental video content to my written work while also establishing a presence on a new platform for others to discover me. If you want to count auto posts from my blog to Twitter, then that one video turns into three.

As I’ve expanded my presence in other mediums and platforms, the concept of efficiency has become even more important. While the workload is already too much for me to handle, I’m still able to crank out a lot by being as economical as I can with the pieces I make.

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Early Observations and Lessons Learned from Giving Control of My Twitch Stream to Viewers Through Channel Points

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“Ew… No.”

There I stood, alone in my soul, but in front of everyone at the Stardew Valley spring dance. After weeks of courting, the love of my life Haley viciously rejects my proposal to be her dance partner. In my silence, I could hear that a viewer had triggered the air horn. Usually meant as a noise of celebration, its presence only amplified the awkwardness.

Distraught in real life, I fall off my chair and into the fetal position. Unbeknownst to me, someone in the chat cashed in their Channel Points to activate the new Snorlax Cam. Normally, this is used to take a peek at my giant Snorlax bean bag chair when he’s not clearly in view. This time, it was being used to zoom in on me at my most vulnerable.

This was…not part of the plan. And that might be for the better?

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Avoid Copyright Strikes by Using Streaming-and-Video Safe Music

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Everyone would love to use licensed music if it weren’t for the whole copyright thing. Over the years, online platforms have gotten increasingly harsh on creators who play licensed music in full, leverage snippets, have it play in the background because a car across the street was blasting it, or even poorly singing a few bars of a licensed song in jest.

Getting caught can subject your videos to getting partially muted, having any ad revenue that it would have made go to the music license holder, getting hit with a permanent copyright strike that will push your channel closer to deletion, or even lose your account outright. YouTube is far stricter than Twitch in this regard, but some of the platform’s largest streamers have been suspended for using licensed music in the past. It’s inevitable that Twitch will increase its efforts to shut down the illegal use of license music in order to protect itself from liability.

If you want maximum control and minimal liability, your best bet is to steer clear of licensed music. But where do you turn to when you need background music for your just chatting sessions or want music to fill the empty soundscapes of the battle royale games you play? Try these options!

(and avoid the last one)

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