In Your Dreams! – Stardew Valley Live Stream – Part 17

Though I scrape and claw for any ounce of Haley’s attention, her sister is dreaming of me? We also experience winter within Stardew Valley for the first time, discuss the upcoming console launches, and tackle a myriad of tier lists! You won’t believe what cereal made it to S-tier!

View the full post to see the full stream, highlights, and shoutouts!

Continue reading

Stream Snipers! – Tetris 99 Live Stream

Stream snipers came out of the woodwork to take me down in Tetris 99. Were they successful? Between intense matches, we send our love to Chadwick Boseman, discuss games we enjoyed as kids but were always bad, and I share a bunch of new toys in my collection!

View the full post to see the full stream, highlights, and shoutouts!

Continue reading

Aspects of the Super Mario 35th Anniversary Direct I Loved (and Loathed)

The long-rumored Super Mario Nintendo Direct turned out to be true! Nintendo packed quite a bit into its 16-minute presentation. Won’t cover absolutely everything shown, but here are my notes on what I loved (and loathed) from this presentation!

Continue reading

The Rising Costs of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X Games

Earlier this year, 2K Games revealed its next generation pricing for the NBA 2K21 series. While the current gen equivalents retain the standard $60 USD price point, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X equivalents are listed at $69.99. More recently, Activision revealed that they were doing the same for their next gen iterations of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Though 2K and Activision might be outliers in this practice, my spider sense is telling me that this $10 increase will be the standard going forward. As a consumer, I hate it. As a Canadian consumer, this is a double-whammy that might price me out of AAA gaming going forward.

Continue reading

Some of My Favourite Defect Cards in Slay the Spire

The Defect is far from defective when it comes to battling in Slay the Spire. When pushed to the limit, this AI can be equal parts bulldozer and fortress. Reaching that limit by managing its unique orb mechanic is the true challenge.

Now that I’ve conquered the tower with The Defect, take a peek at some of my fave cards in its deck!

Continue reading

Making of the Lego Nintendo Entertainment System

Lego takes the 80s gaming nostalgia to the next level with this brick-based Nintendo Entertainment System. Right up until its release, my wife and I debated the merits of purchasing this set. As you can see, logic and reasoning won out.

Come along as Steff and I build the Lego NES!

Continue reading

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

“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.

Continue reading

Halloween in the Valley! – Stardew Valley Live Stream – Part 16

Closing out the fall season in Stardew Valley with Spirit’s Eve! Before closing out the stream with the haunted maze, we finally add animals to the farm and dive deep into the Sunk Cost Fallacy!

View the full post to see the full stream, highlights, and shoutouts!

Continue reading

Dubs All Day! – Overwatch Live Stream featuring Switch To Decaf and PlayerTwoStart!

Not even stiff competition and technical issues could stop Switch To Decaf, PlayerTwoStart and I from getting “dubs all day”! We cover a ton of ground in our conversations as well, from unintentionally not showing Switch To Decaf’s highlights, to impostor syndrome, to Jett teeing off on everything!

Click through for the full stream, highlights, and shoutouts!

Continue reading

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

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.

Continue reading