My streaming journey

Before 2019 I was not very active when it came to the streaming world, I did not watch nor did I really participate in the streaming culture in any way.

Just before the pandemic I was living alone for the first time in my adult life for an elongated period, with no school or job on sight, mental health in an all time low, also during a flu, which also made my physical health situation pretty awful. My sleeping schedule was very upside down for my own time zone, I was lonely and alone, with all of my real life friends sleeping, and most of my online friends from neighboring time zones as well.

This is when I remembered about a new streaming site: Mixer. For some reason the thought about going to a smaller streaming site, not quite as established as Twitch, seemed a lot less intimidating as a first time viewer & watcher.

I was surprised by the very low latency, and almost immediate connections and responses from the streamers, which I didn't realize was due to the unique low latency technology that Mixer was using between the streamers and chats. I became an avid watcher and sometimes streamers would even invite me to their lobbies to talk, hang out and play games with them, and thus a new door to new human connections was opened.

Eventually I mustered up the courage and started streaming on the website myself. I had an idea about a space I wanted to create, for the new friends I had made and I also wanted to open the door to make even more connections. I had a clear idea on the flavor and branding I wanted, as well as a plan to make it happen. I did not know how to do everything, but luckily the business & niche of helping aspiring streamers via tutorials and blog posts etc. is incredibly vast and constantly updating. What programs did I use for streaming?

I chose to use Streamlabs, as it seemed a bit more new user friendly and the user interface was a bit less intimidating from the other leading program on the industry: OBS-Studio. I set up my webcam, stream-key and a few other widgets, and hit that “go live“ button, which was nerve-wracking. I realized pretty soon that being on camera was draining to me, but it was also during the time in my life when it was worth it for the connections I made and for the responses that I got. I ended up making multiple versions of my stream interface and setup, where the latest version I made completely from scratch, pixel by pixel, and adopted as a general visual style for my online content in the future.

Ever since the beginning I’ve had a strong personal policy of not accepting donations. Even though its a big part of the streaming culture, if you are personally uncomfortable with something, you can set up your own rules for your own streams. Your stream is your own corner of the internet, and the number one rule is that you yourself have to be comfortable with what you are putting out there.

I ended up streaming on Mixer weekly, once a week, pretty much every Wednesday until the website made an announcement that it will be shutting down, and upon hearing about this, I set up a date for a farewell party for the website, made a little personal online-pamphlet-invitation for it, and passed it to people who wanted to celebrate the ride that we all had, before moving to Twitch.

I was nervous about the change, but also relieved, since by then many of my friends and fellow streamers, who I liked and felt deeply connected to, had already started migrating to Twitch, and juggling between two platforms was stressful.

The change to a bigger platform also meant a change in scope and discoverability, I started feeling pressured and anxious about the possibility of a lot more viewers finding my little corner of the internet, and the hate raids that plagued the platform, and still do to a point, finally broke the camels back, and made me too anxious to hit the “go live“ button.

I still use the platform as a viewer and as an artist, its a great way to find and keep up with friends, new people who need art made, and also new games etc. The overwhelming feeling of community is not made by the platform itself, but the way you use it, and by the people you find and connect with.

The streaming community, both viewers and streamers, my friends, hold a special place in my heart, and who knows what the future holds. Hopefully one day I will be in a place where I can contribute by having my own space open for new wonderful people to wader into, and maybe find their own little corner on the internet.