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Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

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Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#161

Post by Liquix »

busterarm wrote: post #117
com2kid wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and each Twitch stream attracts over two thousand viewers. It's not a good way to make a living. To contrast with that, I know twitch streamers whose channel averages out at around 300 viewers a time, and who make a very comfortable living. Having a properly run channel that encourages donations, cash and bits, is a huge part of it. I've seen streamers who pull an easy $200 a day in donations. Add in 500 or so subs…

You also have to consider that the average length of a "day" for a popular Twitch streamer is 10-12 hours. And that those streamers have to stream 6-7 days a week to maintain their audience. Not worth it, honestly.

You also have to consider that many streamers are playing video games they love to play and casually chatting with friendly fellow nerds. Apples and oranges when compared to grinding out an 8 hour work day.

I can definitely see how it could/would eventually become more work than fun, but that doesn't seem to be the case for many streamers.

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#162

Post by thejake0 »

degenerate wrote: post #128
Reedx wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I'm curious about is where that comes from. Why do people like falling asleep to the TV? Why is it preferred over white noise?

White noise is better than nothing, but my brain won't stop generating content (thoughts) with white noise. When the TV is generating the content, my brain focuses on that, and it's mindless enough to fall asleep to. I think it has something to do with being a mentally active person forced into a passive role, like shifting the brain into low gear.

Check out the Sleep With Me Podcast[1]. Same concept: Dull, meandering talking to lull you to sleep.

[1]https://www.sleepwithmepodcast.com/

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#163

Post by phil248 »

apeace wrote: post #51

I too have met kids who say they want to be a Youtuber or Twitch streamer when they grow up. It makes me sad. I love watching Twitch, and watch 5-7 gamers regularly (almost every night). From what I can tell, most of them: - Are in their mid-20's to early 30's. - Live with their parents. - Make just enough from Youtube/Twitch/Patreon/merch to fund their gaming rigs, buy new games, buy their own food, and maybe pay fo…

It's the same with sports, music, art, writing and lots of other hobbies-that-can-be-careers. Most people won't ever make a living, but plenty of people want to give it a shot. If it works, awesome, you get to play games or make art for a living!

And what better time do make a go at it than in your 20's?

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#164

Post by elif »

invalidusernam3 wrote: post #18
metalliqaz wrote: post #14

What I don't understand about Twitch is how anyone has time to consume this content. When it comes to sitting on your butt and watching something, the traditional TV show is moving to an on-demand model. Twitch is a step in the other direction, where if you faithfully consume content from any Twitch channel, you have to sit down and watch for hours every night when the streamer is online. Who does that? I imagine it'…

I guess people treat it like sport. Most people wouldn't think it strange for someone to watch a 90 minute football match

or in the case of american football fans, watch 3 hours and 4 minutes of ads and commentary around 11 minutes of plays.

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#165

Post by izzydata »

munificent wrote: post #102
izzydata wrote: post #55

The way people use Twitch makes little sense to me. It might have to do with some age gap, but it doesn't seem like 10-15 years should really make this big of a disconnect. When I think of gaming it is strictly about playing for fun and engaging with friends in a kind of hanging out in a living room together way. Maybe that is how all twitch channels start off, but once you hit some threshold where the streamer can n…

> it is strictly about playing for fun and engaging with friends in a kind of hanging out in a living room together way. For some, Twitch is to playing games as talk shows are to conversation with friends. It gives people a fraction of the mental reward of social interaction without any of the effort or risk of actual social interaction. It's like a junk food snack for the social center of your brain. I definitely se…

Playing a game is already an effortless activity that is hard to believe people are even unwilling to do that. I can maybe understand if you couldn't afford it or didn't want to afford it, but there are countless recordings of any video game on youtube without commentary.

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#166

Post by ryandrake »

hoopism wrote: post #73
SaltyBackendGuy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Twitch consumer (married 'professional' in early 30's). I am a huge video game nerd at heart, so I watch streamers that run games that I am interested in however don't have time to play/master. Often it doesn't involve me sitting down for hours at night (although I am sure there's a huge demographic that does that as well). I usually watch when I am laying in bed before I go to sleep. Same time my wife is usuall…

This. I also enjoy video games and often read up on trends and news... unfortunately I have little to no time to really meaningfully play them. I enjoy watching people who have gotten really masterful play the games I have read about. Not unlike sports. I also watch things like the Games Done Quick marathons. Those are mostly people who have dedicated themselves to a few games and are mostly interested in completing…

Yea I love games and used to play a lot, but they have become a huge time commitment. It’s usually one or more of:

1. Games that simply require grinding to unlock game progression (XP, time-based gates, etc.)

2. Games with numerous hour-long quests that need to be done serially in order to progress

3. Games that disproportionately reward outlier-level skill, requiring a huge practice time commitment (multiplayer shooters)

4. Games that reward deep knowledge of rules and formulas, requiring extensive study and sometimes Excel modeling (Eve Online comes to mind, but also the Civilization series and some sandbox games)

These days if you want something fun you can play for 15-30 minutes and still get good at on that schedule, you’re limited to the bland “Casual Gaming” genre.

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#167

Post by cuckcuckspruce »

vultour wrote: post #159
cuckcuckspruce wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've toyed with having a "Watch me Linux" stream where chat shouts out things they want to know about Linux and I show them / help people with their Linux problems.

I'd like to do some infrastructure streams where I play around with things like my Kubernetes cluster, unfortunately it seems like a pretty bad idea to livestream configuration of something that is connected to the internet.

I was going to set up a VirtualBox virtual network disconnected from the Internet to do this - perhaps only allowing HTTPS to a Debian/Ubuntu mirror if I need to install packages. You could do something similar for your Kubernetes cluster.

I was also considering a cheap, pay-by-the hour VPS that I could just destroy after the stream.

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#168

Post by Nursie »

metalliqaz wrote: post #14

What I don't understand about Twitch is how anyone has time to consume this content. When it comes to sitting on your butt and watching something, the traditional TV show is moving to an on-demand model. Twitch is a step in the other direction, where if you faithfully consume content from any Twitch channel, you have to sit down and watch for hours every night when the streamer is online. Who does that? I imagine it'…

I don't understand the drive to watch someone else play, when you could be playing the game yourself!

Re: Twitch streamers who spend years broadcasting to no one

#170

Post by astrodust »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #130
grogenaut wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work for Twitch but I'll put it in old man terms: I have a subscription to MLB.tv. I watch EVERY SINGLE game of my team each year, that's 162*3 = 486 hours a year. That's 27% of a 1800 hour work year. If you go in season, that's 54%. It's on all day every day that I'm at my work desk. I watch Twitch the rest of the year. Do I watch it intently? No. Do I know the score and what's going on? Generally. Do I feel I fol…

It is really regrettable that humans have this incredibly illogical, subconscious algorithm for making otherwise logical decisions. Most of the money and capital in this world are held by the older generations rather than the younger generations. The younger generations have to then spend their time "pitching" the older generations on ideas that, in a vacuum, are logical but not evident to the older generations. As a…

There's an argument in the middle of this muddled statement that's valid, but this seems excessively combative.

The problem is not people with good connections, it's a system that rewards those connections.

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