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On Twitch, you can never log off

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Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#161

Post by underbrush »

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…

The far majority of twitch streamers do not have some illustrious career waiting for them. People in big cities with competitive degrees are underrepresented on twitch relative to other areas.

> Most of the big earners started streaming within the last 5 years

I'm not sure what numbers you are referring to. There was a huge increasing in streaming and watching during the pandemic. Many of the big streamers are in their late 20s or even early 30s. Which is relatively old considering you can start streaming in your teens.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#162

Post by scrollaway »

SilverBirch wrote: post #155

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 t…

So your whole thesis is based on this nonsensical idea that the only reason people come to twitch is because they’re too socially maladjusted to play video games themselves?

What the actual what?

I don’t watch twitch streams as often as I used to because I’m low on time running like four different businesses these days, but I always enjoy experiencing games through the shoes of somebody else. I get to discover a game at a different and more flexible kind of pace than if I were playing it myself. It removes the commitment while still letting me see everything it’s about.

I could talk for a while about when and why I prefer watching over playing myself. But what’s the point if you’re just going to dismiss me as some friendless, asocial shut in who doesn’t know how to talk to people, because I dare not use my Switch anymore?

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#164

Post by Nursie »

SilverBirch wrote: post #155

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 t…

The parasocial nature of it is a bit concerning and (to me) deeply weird.

I went to a presentation by a couple of streamers at an event a few months ago, aimed at people wanting to learn a little more about it or get into it themselves. They referred to the people in the chat as 'chat' but warned never to use that word in the stream, instead have a cute name for it. One always called them her "besties" which helps give the impression they are friends. But they aren't, they're the audience, they're people she doesn't know and doesn't want to, and they're the income source either directly or through being paid to promote stuff to them.

I came away feeling the whole thing was weirdly dirty.

I know that there are a lot of streamers who aren't in it for the money, who hang out and watch each other's streams for fun and game together on the side. That's by nature going to have a very limited audience and that's fine, often these folks do know eachc other and it's genuinely social. And I know there are the superstars who people watch like tv because they make entertaining content. But there seems to be this middle ground of para-social streaming that's not quite either of those other things and just feels wrong.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#165

Post by scrollaway »

thefz wrote: post #123
pocketarc wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the same kind of thinking that leads to people saying that sitting at a computer isn’t real work, couldn’t possibly be exhausting. It’s not back-breaking work, after all. Their kind of work does come with its own challenges, even if they don’t include the same challenges you’re used to thinking about.

> Their kind of work does come with its own challenges, even if they don’t include the same challenges you’re used to thinking about. You can't be serious. Streaming yourself in a hot tub playing with an inflatable ball is a job? Then it's softcore porn, at best. These people are paid to be literally playing video games .

> These people are paid to be literally playing video games.

Let me introduce you to QA game tester, a full time job that pays you to play video games. A regulated job in many countries.

Let me also introduce you to the concept that you, being on HN, are likely “paid to be on the computer all day”. Not much of a job if you ask me.

My marketing assistant is literally paid to spend time on Instagram.

And that’s not even to mention our resident dang, who’s just paid to be on HN.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#166

Post by amrocha »

j33zusjuice wrote: post #152
jatins wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 faili…

Sure, but it doesn't seem worth it to give up your childhood and early adulthood if it turns out you couldn't cut it and have to become a tennis coach instead

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#167

Post by majewsky »

johannes1234321 wrote: post #150
ilyt wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's massive stretch. Why would anyone do that? Twitch player isn't that great if you want to seek around the video

It works easily and keeping hours and hours of video locally still requires quite some storage space

My OBS recordings (of mostly game footage) come out to between 1 and 1.5 GiB/hour for 1080p resolution. Given that simple external HDDs start at about 20€ for 500 GiB, that comes out to 6 cents of storage per hour recorded. Your power bill for the gaming PC is going to be higher than that in some places.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#168

Post by amrocha »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #44
Gigachad wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way out is to just consume less. Have a less impressive house, have a second hand phone, cook your own food. And then you can work less in return.

Yes and no. The problem is financial position seems to have trajectory. And with financial inequality widening all the time you don't want to be on the wrong side of the "middle" line if you can help it. For example: Less impressive house vs more impressive house with year on year compounding of % increase in value over 20 years. When the houses are both worth double what they were, the more impressive house has gain…

This kind of thinking is a big part of what's wrong with the world. Why do your kids deserve to have a house that they didn't work for?

Inheritance tax should be 100% above like 1M

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#169

Post by underbrush »

brailsafe wrote: post #43
quequeque wrote: post #8

Twitch has become a much lower risk more rewarding place for many creators who want to make "low effort" content in respect to edited/curated videos. Earlier this week a content creator with ~4,000-5,000 average concurrent viewers (~300th biggest by follow count) leaked his "bounty board" of advertisements he could show to his viewers, this included a $1195 "bounty" to watch a 1 minute trailer and a $7365 "bounty" to…

Was that Asmon?

It was "pokelawls".

https://old.reddit.com/r/LivestreamFail/comments/zj54oq/poke...

https://i.imgur.com/BLlyZ55.jpg

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#170

Post by Semaphor »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #118
Semaphor wrote: post #40

I watch a streamer (cooking) with a bunch of autoimmune diseases. She has a lot fewer people watching than anyone mentioned here (30-100, but a far higher percent than normal donate), but she’s also scared of taking days off, mainly because she knows it’s a job. It makes me sad when I see her stream while one of her diseases is flaring up, but unlike the rich streamers, they need the money.

> I watch a streamer (cooking) with a bunch of autoimmune diseases. Out of curiosity, as someone who never used Twitch, what is the discovery process here? As in how did you find this specific streamer in the first place? My (likely biased) impression was that the platform is mostly for gaming streams.

There are some other categories like Food & Drink [0], Just Chatting [1] (everything from talkshows and outdoor over scams (Elon Musk is apparently giving crypto away currently) and softcore porn), or Music [2].

Outside sometimes watching a new RPG, I stay away from gaming sections as the community tends to be toxic and turnbased RPGs are a smaller niche anyway.

[0]: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Food%20%26%20Drink

[1]: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Just%20Chatting

[2]: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/music

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