Twitch Channel FuzzyJCats
After a hiatus due to my friends being in hospital, when I came back to streaming, it finally dawned on me to not care about viewer numbers - at last! Even as I theoretically realize that ignoring numbers is a major solution to preventing burn out, there was always a part of me that cared, due to ego issues.
As a result, I was watching a lot of Twitch streams as that's the best way to grow numbers (i.e. networking = making friends), that it's caused migraines, not to mention, feeling imprisoned because I "have" to watch streams for numbers.
In other words, I was afraid to limit Twitch viewing as it may lead to decrease in numbers. However, during the period of time when I was visiting and supporting my friends, I didn't have time to watch Twitch, and despite this very sad period, I felt physically better due to lack of migraines.
When I came back to streaming, I had such a huge outpouring of support that I finally internalized deep down that it's my viewers who are the most important, not reaping numbers. Because of my viewers (and it can never be overstated, your viewers make your stream), I was able to internalize this completely.
Indeed, one of the most deadly things you can do as a streamer is to take your audience for granted. Having all this support and love from my community make streaming worth it, and that certainly prevents burn-out. I must never forget how I felt when my community was there for me when I came back to streaming.
I'm not sure if my viewers noticed that I was more spontaneous and free during this time, but I felt like a burden was lifted from my shoulders. Indeed, you can ad lib more when you don't have to worry about turning off viewers. Although I enjoyed streaming before this revelation, my joy was constricted by worrying about concurrent viewers. Now, without my joy being choked off, I feel liberated while streaming.
Interestingly, since not being concerned about numbers, I noticed that I was able to stream just as well as ever. In fact, I may have been better at streaming since I had the same (or perhaps better) mental focus despite not exercising. Almost all of my past streams, I made sure to exercise. I think having this psychological freedom made streaming less taxing. When you're truly happy in what you're doing, in other words, you're able to be more effective.
It took almost a year to get to a place where I finally know and feel that numbers are irrelevant, and that's a breath of fresh air. In the meantime, I've come up with strats, a flowchart that I follow, that help guide my stream:
If there's someone commenting, stop everything and talk to the person (though remember what you were talking before that and continue that thought process).
Once talking to the person, if there's a pause in chat, go back to previous thought and complete the thought.
If there's no one there, comment on gaming action (why you did this, what you're going to do, how you feel about the cinematic cut scenes and the like), or tell interesting stories (more on that later)
Use load screens to catch up on chat and talk.
It gets rather stale talking about the same points (i.e. gaming action and streaming issues), so to improve content, discussing life experiences are key as you can fill dead air by telling stories. Talking about life experiences is material enough.
Further, these experiences don't have to be unique and exciting ones - often any common mishaps that you experience can be told very humorously. Making people laugh is one of the best forms of entertainment.
I never had reason to be a story teller, so being an entertaining story teller is a skill that I'll be working on. This is an entirely new and exciting new adventure that I'll be experiencing!
Progress made:
After a hiatus due to my friends being in hospital, when I came back to streaming, it finally dawned on me to not care about viewer numbers - at last! Even as I theoretically realize that ignoring numbers is a major solution to preventing burn out, there was always a part of me that cared, due to ego issues.
As a result, I was watching a lot of Twitch streams as that's the best way to grow numbers (i.e. networking = making friends), that it's caused migraines, not to mention, feeling imprisoned because I "have" to watch streams for numbers.
In other words, I was afraid to limit Twitch viewing as it may lead to decrease in numbers. However, during the period of time when I was visiting and supporting my friends, I didn't have time to watch Twitch, and despite this very sad period, I felt physically better due to lack of migraines.
When I came back to streaming, I had such a huge outpouring of support that I finally internalized deep down that it's my viewers who are the most important, not reaping numbers. Because of my viewers (and it can never be overstated, your viewers make your stream), I was able to internalize this completely.
Indeed, one of the most deadly things you can do as a streamer is to take your audience for granted. Having all this support and love from my community make streaming worth it, and that certainly prevents burn-out. I must never forget how I felt when my community was there for me when I came back to streaming.
I'm not sure if my viewers noticed that I was more spontaneous and free during this time, but I felt like a burden was lifted from my shoulders. Indeed, you can ad lib more when you don't have to worry about turning off viewers. Although I enjoyed streaming before this revelation, my joy was constricted by worrying about concurrent viewers. Now, without my joy being choked off, I feel liberated while streaming.
Interestingly, since not being concerned about numbers, I noticed that I was able to stream just as well as ever. In fact, I may have been better at streaming since I had the same (or perhaps better) mental focus despite not exercising. Almost all of my past streams, I made sure to exercise. I think having this psychological freedom made streaming less taxing. When you're truly happy in what you're doing, in other words, you're able to be more effective.
It took almost a year to get to a place where I finally know and feel that numbers are irrelevant, and that's a breath of fresh air. In the meantime, I've come up with strats, a flowchart that I follow, that help guide my stream:
If there's someone commenting, stop everything and talk to the person (though remember what you were talking before that and continue that thought process).
Once talking to the person, if there's a pause in chat, go back to previous thought and complete the thought.
If there's no one there, comment on gaming action (why you did this, what you're going to do, how you feel about the cinematic cut scenes and the like), or tell interesting stories (more on that later)
Use load screens to catch up on chat and talk.
It gets rather stale talking about the same points (i.e. gaming action and streaming issues), so to improve content, discussing life experiences are key as you can fill dead air by telling stories. Talking about life experiences is material enough.
Further, these experiences don't have to be unique and exciting ones - often any common mishaps that you experience can be told very humorously. Making people laugh is one of the best forms of entertainment.
I never had reason to be a story teller, so being an entertaining story teller is a skill that I'll be working on. This is an entirely new and exciting new adventure that I'll be experiencing!
Progress made:
- Truly not caring about concurrent viewer numbers (finally!).
- Realizing that story telling can make streams more compelling.
- Putting in scheduled vacations, and notifying community, to prevent burn-out.
Improvements to be made:
- Be a better story teller.
- Thank new viewers for stopping by stream (use cbenni.com chat log to review chat history) - I was consistent in past, but not currently.
- Completing my thought processes and sentences (I have a tendency to do this IRL as well).
- Get back into exercising and self-care.
- The usual being able to chat and game at same time (this is not habit yet).
- The usual decreasing filler words, vocal "tics" and the like.
The How of Happiness Review
