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| Image courtesy of www.cardschat.com |
So keep your shirts on, and I thought I would write an in-the-moment article on Twitch and why it as a whole, had surprised me more than I can imagine.
I cannot remember when Twitch was announced or when I heard about it, but what I do know is how I felt having just heard the concept, and unfortunately for me it was dumbed down to, "Watch other people play games". Now I have observed the online gaming content scene for a while now so I heard the concept and it seemed lazy, and as ever, I'll attempt (and probably fail miserably) to explain to you lot, why I had these thoughts.
First of all, and as simple as it sounded, watching someone play a video game isn't just the basis of what makes the idea lazy, because the art of making entertaining content based around playing a video game isn't impossible. Having just stated that I have observed the online gaming content scene for some time, and it was a time when heavily edited videos with clips that were not just reliant on the gameplay but more on graphics and personality.
A friend of mine was starting out on YouTube in the gaming genre, and back then I felt the only way to become recognised was to have a brand and something to identify yourself as. I wasn't wrong, I am still not wrong in that sense as we have seen huge YouTube channels such as VanossGaming (Nearly 19 million subscribers on YouTube) become recognisable because of his association with his owl based character, which was popularised thanks to his most prominent success with GTA 5.
However for the one Vanoss who does edit his videos to a top notch quality and adds graphics and illustrative and audial features to enhance the comedic effect of the moment, you have so many others who follow in the path of a JackSepticEye, where they just play the game and rely on themselves to bring the comedy. I hate that I have gone into so much depth about this and it has taken me so long to get to the main point.
The main aspect of how to make a video entertaining in any field was never in the moment of making the video, it is how you edit it afterwards, because even someone who leans more towards a JackSepticEye over a Vanoss also has to edit the video in a way that makes it entertaining, and that is where my main concern came with Twitch.
Twitch is a streaming site, where you broadcast live gameplay to your audience and of course, emphasis in this case is being put on live. That was always a concern for me, because I pictured a load of boring old fucks just playing a game and letting everything happen, but I could not have been more wrong.
The first time I engaged with Twitch was watching one of only two streamers I regularly get on the site to watch, and that is Broughy1322. I've mentioned him before but Broughy is primarily known for going very in depth with racing within Grand Theft Auto, and he is the go to person if you want to know about any vehicle performance wise in the whole game, as he laps every car around his custom test track to give a pointer as to how the car behaves and their characteristics so you know how quick they are, as well as topping out every vehicle to find their top speed.
For a short time, I would go to Broughy's Twitch channel from his YouTube videos where he would announce his stream was happening, but I did not create an account until much further down the line. Before I created my account, I saw Broughy interacting with a lot of his fans and that element was what made the streams, he was able to communicate with his audience. Having created my account, the first thing I ever wrote in the Twitch chat to Broughy was me poking a hole in his logic when referring to an in-game freemode event, and ever since then, being able to have fun by interacting with whoever is streaming is always great but what is even better, is interacting with others.
In my time on Twitch, I have become friends with so many wonderful people who I probably would not have thought to be friends with. It is a genuine joy to get into a stream and speak with these people, speak about current events and have whoever we are watching play a prominent part as well, and one major bonus of having gameplay in the background, something is always happening so we have stuff to bounce back on.
You saw how I said I watch two streamers on a regular basis and that one is Broughy1322? The other one is called Zearxy (18k followers on Twitch), who I discovered through Broughy when I was watching a duel stream between them on Rocket League. I remember that I had put in Broughy's chat about how I was infuriated by the fact that my username was coloured in pink, and Zearxy (Whose actual name is Liz, and I will refer to her as that for the rest of this article) told me that pink was a great colour. So we had a bit of banter back and forth with this mystery Scandinavian feminine sounding voice, before I become curious and was like "Who is this person?".
So I started to follow Liz (No, I am not a stalker) and been watching her streams, and they are honestly really enjoyable. She is extremely lovely, she follows me on Twitter so occasionally we talk via direct messaging and we agreed that Twitch has always been a community place. A point proven further by a YouTube stream from the other day by a friend of Vanoss from earlier named Mini Ladd (3.5 million YouTube subscribers), when his chat was moving so quickly that you honestly could not get a word in without some numpty using multi-coloured squares to spell out 'DAB' 100 times every five seconds.
I should clarify that the fact that I could not follow Mini Ladd's chat was nothing to do with the fact that he's using YouTube over Twitch, it's because he has such a large following compared to Broughy and Zearxy. I expect that if Mini was streaming on Twitch, we would get the exact same results in terms of how quick his chat would be going.
Both Broughy and Liz's streams are very small, and it gives them a relative tight knit feel to them where their streams feel quite personal, this being despite the fact that Broughy is fast approaching 100,000 subscribers on YouTube and quality wise, is at a level that far surpasses the typical crap on YouTube. I have a feeling that one day, with the eventual rewarding of actual quality, these two will garner a following so big that it will eventually be a case of not being able to properly communicate with them directly and the chat will move quicker than an RE-7B around the track (Broughy fans will get this reference).
My friend Matthew streamed recently and all it was in the chat was all his friends that would peak at around 15 viewers and stagnate to at the very least around eight or nine viewers, but in the chat the banter was amazing. The experience of kicking back with your mates and having an easy going and enjoyable time, just with the bonus of sharing it with others who will joke around as well and offer more things to laugh at.
I always enjoy gaming, and it may actually be better if I did decide to stream on Twitch. I realise having now been watching Zearxy's streams especially that you don't need to be a professional and have everything look extremely fancy, that it can be low key and reliant on fan interaction. Not that Zearxy's isn't fancy, let's go with high budget, or whatever that puts forward my point, that anyone can stream on Twitch, as long as you have fun.
So to end this, I want to thank Liz especially for helping out (Even if she didn't purposefully mean to do so) and if by the small chance you haven't checked out their stuff, go subscribe to Broughy1322 on YouTube, follow his Twitch and follow Zearxy on Twitch as well.
I have considered starting streaming on Twitch, I would do so if I could start racing in Broughy's crew Nonchalant Dominance, it has been my dream to race in the NoDo GTA Online Multi Class Endurance Championship and maybe I would stream just so Broughy could use my point of view in a video of his covering the event. I am still sitting on the idea though, I would be playing GTA and Rocket League mostly at least for now, I have a lot to think about, it isn't something I want to just do, I am considering a load of other factors of course. I know I said it should be a simple decision so I am contradicting myself, but I suggest you lot go for it, for the BANTZ!
Alright! Thank you for checking this article out, now this is normally where I'd tell you lot where to go if you want to continue following my blog, and I will but I want to let you guys in on something.
So one of my favourite movies is The Martian, which is adapted from the novel of the same name by Andy Weir. Now for those of you who don't know, Andy Weir actually wrote out his novel on his blog for free and also because his novel was based on science fact over fiction, he had people submit scientific corrections for him to put into his story. He began writing it in 2009, he had the finished version on his blog by 2011, he had it properly published by 2014 and of course, the rest is history.
I have decided that I want to publish stories for you lot. I have two stories imprinted into the back of my mind, one I am giving more time to than the other at the moment, and whilst writing is a hobby, I would love to become an author so I have decided that if at some point, I finish my first novel, I will share it on here for free.
My plan is to finish all the chapters, then write up an introduction before publishing a chapter on successive days. I want to hear everyone's thoughts on reading my stories, it will be really amazing to hear how everyone feels after reading them. So if you that is something you lot would like me to do, then let me know.
How can you do that? Well comment below here if you like, or tweet me @TheLucaFormat. You can also follow me there if you want to know when I publish, as well as typing in your email address in the Follow By Email bar.
That will be all from me today so until we meet again,
Luca.
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