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Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

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Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#141

Post by che_shirecat »

jrockway wrote: post #67
somerando7 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're one of the top streamers, with decent financial literacy, you will easily make enough to retire by 30 if you started streaming at say 20.

But what if you're not one of the top streamers, and you just get 250 viewers a few times a week? I watch a lot of people like that. It seems to pay for room and board, but I worry about their future.

What's the alternative? Alot of these people are great entertainers and terrible . If they weren't streaming they'd be working shifts at McDonalds. If anything they're doing the most advantageous thing they could be doing.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#142

Post by chrisseaton »

gizmodo59 wrote: post #81

“ But as a gig worker for a media empire, even a successful streamer like Tyler has a livelihood that’s inherently unstable — without insurance, unions, sick days, retirement funds or hope for a sustainable career.” That’s funny. He has earned more in a year than many in a decade. Million a year and it’s unstable. What makes you think the job of a software engineer is stable! He is skilled in entertainment. He will f…

And why does he need a union when he works for himself?

And what do they mean he doesn't have a retirement fund? He has plenty of income to invest in a retirement fund.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#143

Post by dathinab »

paulpauper wrote: post #135
lhorie wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imo we should be lauding this brand new sector I disagree. Twitch/YouTube/TikTok didn't create a new kind of millionaire. They're simply celebrities. The only thing that arguably changed is that content production is so cheap and saturated now that consumers get a lot more choice in terms of who they want to watch, without being constrained by TV schedules and other distribution/logistics limitations. There is no "…

it is different. the old celebrities were chosen by media execs, who wielded all the power. now the audience decides.

yes, it's basically strips gate-keepers from parts of the entertainment industry.

Through it's still the entertainment industry as in: It requires a mixture of skill, hard work and luck to even just get to the point of earning more then just your basic-living expanses with it.

Through we also have seen such a disruption in the music industries where with modern music services people can reach some degree of success without any deals with any large publishers (through it's not easy).

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#144

Post by selectodude »

azth wrote: post #122
kubb wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it laudable? Sure, we shouldn't be jealous of successful people, but why go to the other extreme? It surely won't help you have an unbiased stance on the phenomenon.

Exactly. Making money is fine as long as it is done in a moral and ethical way. Women showing their bodies on twitch and others so guys can drool over them? No thanks.

Sounds like you're just jealous nobody wants to spend money to look at you :)

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#145

Post by megablast »

aidenn0 wrote: post #82
Permit wrote: post #51

Streaming aside, tyler1 has an almost inhuman dedication and focus when it comes to League of Legends. On Hacker News it's common to hear that programmers can't work (on classic programming tasks) for more than ~4 hours a day. I also feel exhausted after working for ~4 hours and have always wondered if this was some sort of mental trap I'd fallen into or a genuine limit. Games like League of Legends require complete…

My dad worked for startups on-and-off and he definitely was productive for a lot more than 8 hours per day. He does agree that for truly novel work there's a limit, but for every novel problem to solve, there's dozens[1] of reported bugs to investigate, so there's plenty of work to fit between work on new things. 1: That number seems small today, but I got the sense that bug-discovery by customers at least was limite…

You are talking for your dad?? What??

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#146

Post by lostmsu »

MacroChip wrote: post #134
Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've played League of Legends for nearly 10 years. Not to take anything away from Tyler1, because he really goes above and beyond, but it really doesn't take much mental focus or anything really to play it. Programming? It takes focus, you really have to think sometimes. But League? When I'm tired the game plays itself. It just feels like muscle memory. It might take a bit more effort to play at a consistently high l…

There's a difference between "playing the game" and playing the game. I can sit at a chess board and move pieces around and say that chess takes no focus because I chose not to focus

Is there thought? How do you know his skills are not due to a few hours (tens of hours, hundreds of hours) of intense training of a few basic rules, and the rest is just freeroaming like it is for every other player?

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#147

Post by [deleted] »

MacroChip wrote: post #134
Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've played League of Legends for nearly 10 years. Not to take anything away from Tyler1, because he really goes above and beyond, but it really doesn't take much mental focus or anything really to play it. Programming? It takes focus, you really have to think sometimes. But League? When I'm tired the game plays itself. It just feels like muscle memory. It might take a bit more effort to play at a consistently high l…

There's a difference between "playing the game" and playing the game. I can sit at a chess board and move pieces around and say that chess takes no focus because I chose not to focus

[deleted]

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#148

Post by notreallyserio »

mathteddybear wrote: post #111
belval wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article mentions that Tyler makes $300k per year in merchandise alone (so excluding any actual sponsored content). Frankly I don't get why this can't be seen as a legitimate very successful business. Where is the line? Is entertainment only valid on TV? YouTube? Some commenters here even said that it's all good now but that it won't work in his thirties or something as if there aren't a ton of jobs out there that…

There was a leak of Twitch data recently, so we know that top twitch-ers earn megabucks. The real business is, of course, Twitch itself.

IIRC you had to crack the top 2000 to hit $50k in a year, although I don't think the data showed streaming hours per year so it's hard to know how many earned something close to a living wage.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#149

Post by notJim »

kzrdude wrote: post #55
belval wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article mentions that Tyler makes $300k per year in merchandise alone (so excluding any actual sponsored content). Frankly I don't get why this can't be seen as a legitimate very successful business. Where is the line? Is entertainment only valid on TV? YouTube? Some commenters here even said that it's all good now but that it won't work in his thirties or something as if there aren't a ton of jobs out there that…

Not a real job is a quite good stance to take. Because there is an absurd power law at play here, the absolute top make a lot of money. In a "real job" you are paid a living wage, on twitch you are paid scraps if you don't make it to the top.

What definition of "real job" are you using? By that definition, any kind of performer (music, sports, etc) is not a "real job". Hell, starting most businesses including startups would not be a "real job," since most fail. I guess you can definite it this way if you want, but I'm not sure what you're trying to communicate.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#150

Post by moosebear847 »

Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #121
Permit wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you played League of Legends or Dota 2 before? It will be hard to convey the mental/emotional exhaustion that most people feel from playing MOBAs at even a semi-competitive level. In my experience it's a lot different than playing FPS or other games. I have a distinct memory of finishing a game of Dota 2 and realizing that it felt as though I'd just finished a 3 hour exam. I didn't feel happy that we'd won, just…

I've played League of Legends for nearly 10 years. Not to take anything away from Tyler1, because he really goes above and beyond, but it really doesn't take much mental focus or anything really to play it. Programming? It takes focus, you really have to think sometimes. But League? When I'm tired the game plays itself. It just feels like muscle memory. It might take a bit more effort to play at a consistently high l…

Playing a game like LoL is like being in a battle or war.

Would you watch anime and shoot your gun with 'muscle memory' while fighting 5 ruthless, intelligent opponents?

A fight requires constant reevaluation of the situation and planning to win the game. If you play by "muscle memory" and win, you are playing against weak unthinking opponents or getting carried by your team.

If you played against good players, trust me you won't win thinking about anime and chilling. And it's very stressful because you're constantly on guard.

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