I see you there wondering how you can differentiate between the many game streams out there, how yours can rise above the noise. I was like you once – I occasionally stream the Souls game or run away Symphony of the night when I scratched my head over my small audience with no interaction. I, too, was alone in the flowing wilderness without a guide light. Turned out I got it wrong, and so did you, probably.
Then I stumbled upon a streaming gimmick, and one that pays off in its own way. As a definition of a small streamer, I don’t make a living playing games on the internet. But by making a few simple rules, sticking to them, and following my own weird muse, streaming has paid off for me outside of the monetary benefits.
Find a game that you can play forever
In the past year and a half, like many others, I have had a little more time at home. Working remotely, I found that hooking up old consoles to capture maps and battling sometimes tricky PC setups had been pushed into the background to hook up an arcade stick and start up Combat cade
Fighting games are ideal for this streaming strategy, especially games as old and researched as 3rd strike. Jumping from game to game is doing you no favor, especially if you are not a well known resource. Not only can you work on your own skills by playing a game consistently, but you can also get used to speaking during the game if the game is a game you know well. Focusing on a game also gives you the opportunity to talk about that game outside of the game. In 3. Strikes In case there are still tournaments taking place and new techniques in a game that is over 20 years old. These are topics of conversation your stream can explore right now.
The game you choose doesn’t have to be as competitive as fighting games. Lots of people make their Twitch hay with Animal Crossing, Minecraft-build or just live as a tourist in Souls games. Your goal: find one to cling to and stick with it.
Don’t sweat being good at it
On a good day, I’m above average 3rd strike, a game I’ve played at least once a week for many, many years. I know deep down that I’ll never be one of the killers of all time. It used to bother me and then I grew up. Burn your ego. When streaming, the love of the game is the game.
I’m not telling you to mercifully lose every game in Appreciation or shrug your shoulders if you Fourteen days Bros vouch for you. But there’s both great comedy in the occasional defeat and an even greater calm in realizing that winning is great, but really, who cares? If your gimmick is you being the losing temper and yelling at the camera over the delay of whatever, then you have to stick with it. For the rest of us, it goes much further than laughing at most of the things and respecting your viewers with comments on what happened.
Photo by John Learned
Play to the game’s dedicated supporters
While some communities are hard to crack and some can be downright cruel, I’m lucky enough to have those based on old-fashioned games, such as 3rd strike, often greet new people.
However, learning to play in front of this audience is challenging and it helps to have some material. Love halo? Dig up and share current Halo stories. Animal Crossing player? Try in vain to guess Nintendo’s plans for future DLCs. Still playing Garou: Mark of the wolves? I would like to buy you a beer. Engaging the core audience of your chosen game is just as important as playing it itself.
Not for profit
I want to repeat two things: first, I don’t make a living streaming, and it turns out almost no one really does that. Second, I am the definition of small-time. 3rd strike Lunch breaks and a weekly one 3rd strike The happy hour stream will never put me on a late night talk show couch no matter how good I look in a suit. There will always be a bigger fish out there, and it is important to be reasonable with your expectations. Make some cash streaming if you can, but playing games you love with people who love it the way you do is already its own reward.
Table of Contents