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On Twitch, you can never log off

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Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#151

Post by Semaphor »

ehnto wrote: post #100
imtyler wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, an average person can make a living wage on income from YouTube/Twitch royalties?

A big part of streaming on Twitch or Youtube streams is donations from fans and subscribers/members (regular payments from fans). Royalties from advertising is a part of it, but a lot of the money comes in from donations. Another common approach is merchandise in the from of stickers and clothing, people love that stuff. You can do well even as one of the smaller streamers if your community and other monetization is…

The other stream I watch, most donations actually pay for the food of college students in Moscow, Idaho, USA, as the stream is a food truck in that town ;)

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#152

Post by j33zusjuice »

jatins wrote: post #93
vimwizard wrote: post #53

I think a more interesting story would be about the people that grind for years and years and never make it. You're left without a useful skill and no money, and probably a deficit on your mental health because you didn't go out and talk to people in real life for years. I think its not at all worth getting into as a career because making it big is like starting out as an actor, you have to know people. If you hit it…

> I think a more interesting story would be about the people that grind for years and years and never make it. I wonder the same for athletes. Was recently reading Nadal's biography and parts of book describe his routine in childhood and teenage. And my first thought on reading that was "what if he hadn't made it to the top?" because he essentially had no semblance of a regular childhood/teenage. Being out on the fie…

Tennis isn’t pro or bust, though. There are viable career options that make tennis your life if you really want that. You could coach (whether coaching a competitive player or team, or giving lessons at a clubhouse), you could be a tennis writer, you could work adjacent to tennis like designing or selling equipment, etc.

Tangentially, I’ll add that trying and failing to become a pro gamer is very different than failing to become a streamer. At least if you’re playing competitively, you have to move beyond shit talking your opponent. There’s a lot of coordination and communication required if you’re playing a team game. Any game requires a ton of dedication and focus, and a level of creativity within the confines of the game, all of which are valuable and transferable skills. Sitting and playing games by yourself while waiting and hoping someone stops by to watch you doesn’t teach you much.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#153

Post by j33zusjuice »

jatins wrote: post #105
holler wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like this could apply to startup founders as well.

Startups are much more team work as compared to success in sports. And success of many startups can be attributed to being in the right circles rather than founder's skill/grit. The modern day founder hero worship is exaggerated imo.

It seems like you’re downplaying the importance of teamwork in sports. There are very few who succeed in sports who aren’t team players. Most of them fizzle out before we ever hear about them.

Otherwise, I agree.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#154

Post by BlargMcLarg »

knaik94 wrote: post #145
trap_goes_hot wrote: post #94

Not being able to take a day off sounds horrible. Is it possible to pre-record and queue up videos or is it always live?

It is always live, there have been doubts, but a common joke/trope is a streamer calling out a specific chatter by name saying "is this prerecorded? no _name_, this is not prerecorded". Queuing videos is okay and when streamers have to take a break to fix equipment or use the restroom they keep it up. As long as chat is actively moderated, you can do anything for the most part. I don't know if there's an unwritten ru…

>did a subathon where each new sub extended the time he continuously streamed by a little. He ended up streaming for 30 days.

This isn't really an achievement on its own when many big names stream every day anyway, and they draw huge amounts of money playing into psychological factors to do it. Subathons are predominantly just ways to prey on people's weaknesses and use hype to get more money and exposure. The quality of the streamer also suffers massively.

And that really shows the heart of it all: dark patterns, softcore sexual pandering and 'metas' have a strong hold on the market, leaving very little for what streaming used to be 10-15 years ago. Twitch being the biggest and having strong reinforcing mechanics doesn't help, either.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#155

Post by SilverBirch »

This whole thing is eurgh. Yes, this business is toxic for creators, but it's largely toxic for creators because it's monetizing a toxic product. Twitch is like a low cost off-ramp for having friends. The better, well adjusted version of twitch is that you log on to xbox, playstation or PC, hit up your friends and play some games and chat. That's the ideal. Then everything tumbles out from there, people without the time, social skills or inclination log on to twitch and form parasocial relationships instead. As a Twitch streamer that's the job you're doing. So it's not surprising when if you don't turn up, people tune out - they came to you because you aren't flakey like their real friends. You have to provide the social interaction and the dependability they need. If you're not doing that, you don't get paid.

Arguing about how Twitch streamers are treated is like arguing how Uber drivers are treated. The business is exploitative by nature, do you know how to not get exploited by Uber? Don't be an uber driver. There is no world in which Uber exists and Uber drivers aren't exploited. Similarly there is no world that exists in which Twitch streamers and viewers aren't exploited, because as a business it's only mode of operation is exploitation.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#156

Post by [deleted] »

vimwizard wrote: post #53

I think a more interesting story would be about the people that grind for years and years and never make it. You're left without a useful skill and no money, and probably a deficit on your mental health because you didn't go out and talk to people in real life for years. I think its not at all worth getting into as a career because making it big is like starting out as an actor, you have to know people. If you hit it…

[deleted]

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#157

Post by wruza »

Technical note out of purely personal experience: platforms suck at managing subscriptions (ux-wise) when you’re a viewer, so I unsubscribe if there is no content for a while.

I don’t do this for websites. I have hundreds of bookmarks which I reorganize a couple of times a year and may visit when I have nothing to do. But I never had hundreds of e.g. youtube subscriptions, because youtube ui just sucks. I cannot categorize them. I cannot pin them down in the list that they bs_sort() randomly so you can’t find things. It’s basically useless and only serves as a pile.

And if you dare to subscribe-as-a-bookmark, it will pile up your feed as well.

No surprise then I keep it at 15 channels max and remove those that I have no reason to visit in just a week. I watch some of the top streamers / video makers occasionally without subscribing, because of that. I just remember them and watch when I remember to. But when you’re smaller than 0.01% it means you basically lost a viewer.

This doesn’t apply to twitch exactly, but still in the same category. I’ve visited it for a while and left because it sucks even more as a webapp.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#159

Post by pxoe »

fulltimeloser wrote: post #61
mscdex wrote: post #41

Every time I see articles talking about this subject, it's always completely focused on Twitch streamers that stream for a living. I would be more interested in hearing the contrast with streamers who stream for fun/not for a living. Which problems are the same between the two groups and which are unique?

Small streams are great when you want to interact with chat and the streamer. Once a stream grows bigger than a couple hundred viewers, interaction suffers and the stream becomes something else. Bigger streamers are more like watching regular TV where you just passively watch.

this is the difference in streamer dynamics that doesn't get enough coverage

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#160

Post by j33zusjuice »

kaashif wrote: post #139
emodendroket wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always just get a job later in that case.

This is true. Founding a startup probably makes one more employable for more jobs than training for tennis every day.

Of course it makes you more employable. If you put in some real effort towards running a business, you have to gain some amount of business knowledge. People who understand business implications of technical decisions are usually pretty well-paid.
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