streaming

I applied for a partnership with Elgato and got rejected. Here’s why that’s okay.

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A few days ago, Elgato opened up applications to its streamer partnership program. Though I’m generally weary of any sort of partnership or sponsorship programs aimed at small streamers for how slanted they are in favour of the brand, I decided to give this one a shot. I did so because I am a fan of the brand’s products, applying alone didn’t appear to lock me into anything overly-exploitive, and whatever permissions I gave them to my channels could be easily revoked if they rejected me.

Well, they did reject me. That’s okay. There’s a silver lining to my application that you may want to take advantage of while the opportunity is still open.

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Some Twitch Stats to Put Your Streaming Ambitions Into Perspective

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So you want to be the next big streamer. You saw Ninja make millions by playing video games on Twitch and want to do the same. Totally understandable.

How feasible is it to actually turn your gaming hobby into a streaming career? Though I am far from a Twitch expert – particularly when it comes to growth – there are tidbits of knowledge I’ve picked up from my personal experience, from streaming gurus, and from publicly available data on sights like Twitch Tracker and Sully Gnome.

In this post, let’s focus on the hard data. When I think about the realities of growing my channel on Twitch, these particular factoids go a long way to put things into perspective for me. Hope they do the same for you on your journey!

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The Latest Trend on Twitch? A Bigger and Better View of You

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“Kelsey’s view of herself is…very large.”

I made this observation as my wife was watching KelseyDangerous stream Animal Crossing: New Horizons (she’s a great streamer by the way and you should check out her show!). Unlike the thumbnail-sized streamer views I’ve seen in the past when the streamer has overlaid themselves over-top of their gameplay, Kelsey’s view was a large square that covered up a sizable portion of the screen. It was also cropped in such a way where you could see more than just her face. In this view, you could everything from the torso up.

As I’ve continued to explore Twitch in recent months, it’s become apparent to me that Kelsey’s overlay strategy is not a one-off. Streamers of all sorts are making the view of themselves larger, even if that means you see less of the gameplay underneath.

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Create a Twitch or YouTube Stream Worth Watching By Offering Meaningful Value

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Why should anyone watch your stream?

I know I might come off as a jerk for asking, but it’s a serious question all streamers with ambitions of growing have to answer. Myself included. Streaming is a highly-crowded, hyper-competitive, and top-heavy space where zero viewers is the norm for most.

Furthermore, there are inherent challenges that come with consuming live streaming content versus anything else online. Asking someone to carve out hours of their day to go to your channel and engage with you through the chat is way harder to do than to watch a much shorter YouTube video or view a social media posts that get propagated in other people’s feeds. All of this makes live streaming as a medium one of the most difficult forms of online content to consume.

If you want potential viewers to make that effort, you have to provide them with value equal to or exceeding the effort they put into watching you. Let’s talk about our value as live streamers and what we can do to make our streams more valuable.

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The Next Round of Streaming PC Upgrades

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“But Jett, didn’t you literally just get a new PC and gaming chair?”

Yes. So far, I’m loving both! But there’s always work to be done. Here are a few more items on my list to pick up!

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Twitch and the Danger of Quantifying One’s Value

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Almost every aspect of the Twitch experience is driven by quantifiable and publicly-facing values. We know how many people are watching any channel at any given time. We know follower counts. We know which streamers are Twitch Partners because of the checkmark beside their names. If you dig just a bit deeper, you can find pretty much every performance metric for any channel, right down to the breakdown of how many paid subs it receives each month.

The Twitch and broader live streaming community at-large embrace these types of quantifiable systems. Streamers flash on-screen notifications every time someone follows or subscribes to their channel. Viewers flaunt their streamer-exclusive emotes on other channels. Even outside of Twitch, many streamers proudly declare that they are Twitch Affiliates or Twitch Partners in their social media bios.

All of this is in service of creating an ecosystem where viewers and streamers become emotionally and financially invested in the platform. In large part, it works as Amazon intended. They make money hand-over-fist by displaying ads and by taking their cut of Bits and Subs. Meanwhile, many of its audience “bleed purple” to the point where most chose to stay on Twitch even when its top creator left for Mixer.

These systems can tell us a lot about the performance of a channel. However, there’s a ton of danger when we apply these channel-specific values to ourselves. It creates a lot of friction on Twitch in very overt and subversive ways that can be incredibly draining on one’s mental health.

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I want to start streaming. What equipment and software do I need to start? (And what can I get later)

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You don’t need a high-end PC, top-of-the-line microphone, or DSLR camera to start streaming. If anything, avoiding those big ticket items if you don’t already have them for now is a wise decision.

Instead of focusing on having the best gear, now is the time to determine if this is a medium you want to pursue. Run a couple of test streams and determine whether you enjoy everything that streaming entails, from managing all of the equipment, to engaging in the chat, to handling all of the stress that comes with going live. If things don’t work out, at least you’re not sitting on thousands of dollars worth of equipment that will simply collect dust.

If you’re looking to get into streaming, here’s a quick guide on the stuff you’ll need right now – and the stuff you can get later!

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Will Console Streaming Continue to Suck in the PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X Era?

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The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were the first home consoles to feature the ability to stream directly from the console itself. Having that functionality is great, as it lowers the barrier dramatically for those interested in trying their hand at streaming. That being said, console streamers are at a distinct disadvantage from those who have their consoles connected through a PC.

With a PC, console streamers get access to all of the bells and whistles that viewers expect, from some semblance of an overlay, to on-screen notifications, to multiple scenes, When streaming from a console, you’re stuck with the limited options you have for microphones, cameras, and overlays. Microsoft got better as the generation went on, as they added support for different cameras and allowing for custom overlays through Lightstream Studio. However, that feature seems to have gone by the wayside as part of Mixer shutting down.

In particular, that PlayStation 4 streaming template can be a death sentence. I think when viewers see that default PS4 streaming overlay as they browse through Twitch, their first impression is that this is a “lesser” stream, even if you might be the most charismatic person in the universe.

Streaming from a console is totally fine for practice. But if you really want your channel to grow at this juncture, you’re in a much better position to do so by capturing your gameplay through a PC. Will this change as we transition into the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5?

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What’s With All of the Streaming-Related Posts of Late?

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In Third Person started with video games as its primary subject matter. However, it’s taken many subject matter detours over the years as my interests have evolved. There was a stretch of time where I wrote a lot about comic books. Board games were huge on the site for a while. I discovered over the years that it was more important for me to use this space to write about my interests – whatever they are – versus trying to box myself in. I’m not trying to make the next Kotaku, Gamespot, or IGN (though they all stray from gaming at times as well). For the sake of my happiness, I’d rather have the site evolve with me.

Most recently, streaming content has consumed the site to the point where it’s a daily conversation point. In case you haven’t been following my recent antics on Twitch, here’s the lowdown on why it’s having such a dramatic impact on my writing output.

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Aspects of Live Streaming on Twitch That I Love

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I’ve engaged with streaming as a medium for quite a long time. Even before the existence of Twitch, I remember being glued to my computer when I stumbled on the Devastation 2009 Street Fighter IV tournament that was broadcast on Ustream.

Though I would become an avid viewer of fighting game tournaments from that point onward, I didn’t really immerse myself in the medium as a streamer or as an engaged viewer until 2018. During that time, my streaming efforts finally started to generate some momentum and I discovered how amazing it can be to watch and engage with streams as a viewer.

These days, I’m deep in the trenches. Singing or rapping my heart out at the start of every stream. Spamming emotes in a fellow streamer’s chat. Inviting streamer friends over for ice cream. Spending countless hours in front of the computer programming in new elements into my own show. It takes up more of my time than any other hobby.

Here are some reasons why I’ve become so enthralled with the medium!

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