Building a Stream: Rock Bottom

Building a Stream: Rock Bottom

Hello everyone,

            About a week ago I made a decision to begin streaming regularly. I figured that since I was on my computer for a few hours just about every night, that I might as well give streaming a shot. I also believe that I am a fairly funny and entertaining person. That is, once people get to know me. I enjoy laughing and more importantly making people laugh. Since joining the Twitch community about two years ago I have frequented many streams and the ones I continually go back to are the streamers who provide a fun-natured environment. This is the type of stream I’d like to create for my audience.

Perseverance

            So far streaming has been very disheartening. For the past three days no one has come to my channel while I was streaming and on my weekend streams, only people I know in real life have come to my channel. I’ve never had more than four people in my channel and two of the four people did not appear to have Twitch accounts so I was unable to communicate with them or add followers.With little to no results the notion to “just quit” has emerged nightly (after completing a stream) and hourly while streaming.            

I’m realistic and believe I am just an average looking guy with little to no visual stimulation being initially generated for viewers. I also am not a professional in any of the games I play. Therefore, I do not believe I have a strong-initial pitch for people to watch my stream. That’s not to say that other streamers with these same qualities have not been able to achieve successful streams. All I am saying is that I do not believe I have a huge “click/what’s that/ watch me” factor. Thus I believe my only course of action is to stick with it and try and build an audience, one viewer at a time.

Connecting With My Audience

            Not being able to connect with my audience is probably the most frustrating thing. I try and say “Hi” whenever I notice a new viewer has joined the channel but when they don’t have an account and/or don’t say anything in chat, I really have no idea how to reach them on a personal level (and reaching people on a personal level is the only way I believe I am going to generate an audience). Thus, I have determined that I need to just start being myself regardless if someone is watching or not. This means looking like a crazy person and potentially talking to myself and laughing at my own jokes. If I remain quiet and wait for viewers to show up before being exciting and entertaining I will never have highlight clips to promote and share.

Support

            Another thing that I have relied on early on is a strong support system. For starters it is always nice hearing from my friends and family that I am a great person and that ultimately I do have things to share with others. Not to mention these friends and family are the ones that will most likely be the ones to help spread the word about my stream by re-tweeting my stream, playing with me while I stream or be my initial audience. Every successful streamer I have seen has always had helpful people around them to assist in making their stream a hit.

            So I’m going to continue my grind and hope I start reaching viewers. I’ve got some additional content ideas that I may or may not get around to. On Thursdays I plan to play some old school games for #TBT. This Thursday I plan on playing Final Fantasy III, which I am very much looking forward to. I had a copy for my SNES with near maxed out characters. Unfortunately someone I knew stole it from me years ago and I’ve forgotten much about the game.

Thanks for your time and I hope to see you in my channel or reading another one of my blogs.

I’m on the West Coast and do a majority of my streaming during the hours of 7:00-11:00 PM PST. This is after I have had family time and put my child to bed for the night.

Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/mccl0udy

Twitter: https://twitter.com/McCl0udY

 -          Jeremy ‘McCl0udY’ Muller

Harassment that Twitch Streamers Face Daily

All views and opinions expressed in this blog are my own. Any person who is referenced or quoted may not share the same viewpoints conveyed in this piece. All quotations were taken from public communication outlets.

Edited by: @pandamoz

Harassment that Twitch Streamers Face Daily

Hello everyone,

I’d like to take a few moments of your time to discuss an on-going issue that I believe is disturbing, pathetic, and unacceptable. There seems to be a trend of male gamers verbally abusing female gamers for no good reason. Whether these attacks are motivated from jealously, poor attempts of hitting on these females, or pure boredom; the motivations are irrelevant. The important thing is that these attacks are happening and the effects of these attacks are damaging. The disturbing part is anyone who attempts to counter these attacks is immediately labeled a “white knight”. Apparently, showing everyone the same amount of respect regardless of their race, age or sex is still a minority practice on the internet. The point of this blog is to address the on-going harassment that female streamers receive on Twitch.tv chat.

If you’ve read my other blogs it should be no secret by now that I am a huge fan of Twitch.TV. I think the more accurate term is I’m a Twitch Junkie: I pretty much have Twitch going whenever I am at my computer (which is everyday). In January I joined the two monitor club so watching streams has become even easier. Over my countless hours of watching streams I have found a select core of streamers that I prefer watching and interacting with. I’ll admit most of them are female. My reasons for this are:

1)      As a typical dude, women tend to stand out and thus I check out their streams first.

2)      The atmospheres that these female streamers create are generally really fun, comedic, and overall pleasing. There seems to be less focus upon being the best ever in the perspective game and a larger emphasis on making sure everyone is having a good time.

3)      The following are generalizations: Men in general are more arrogant and in a male dominated community, women tend to be more appreciative of their opportunities and achievements. This of course makes me feel better and more welcome in their streams.

To sum up these reasonings: I checked out female streamers based initially on looks but many of the female streamers have kept me coming back because of their fun and high spirited efforts. Thus, when these compassionate-female streamers are verbally and sexually harassed by immature and potentially jealous individuals, it becomes upsetting for the streamer and the viewers who enjoy the broadcasts.

I ask for you to perform the following exercise: Load up Twitch.TV and find a female streamer and watch the chat. How long did it take for someone to say something that was verbally or sexually offensive? I performed this exercise for about a week while watching some female streamers:

Pretty funny these tools trying to correct grammatical errors when they are sexually harassing streamers (sarcasm), but I digress. These screen grabs did not take me long to capture and I’m sure I could have captured way more if I was fully paying attention to the chat (and not gaming on my other screen).

I have come up with three important reasons why this type of behavior needs to be addressed immediately:

1)      I believe that this type of behavior stems from their being zero/little consequences. As this tool put it: 

So this tool got banned and most likely found another female streamer and repeated the cycle. Just banning the users from the channel with nightbot does not stop the cycle. I believe further action is required.

It is unfortunate but it seems humanity lives by the following:

Many people on the internet are there are little to no consequences because they don’t have to be accountable for what they say; since no one can physically reach them. The only way to counter this is to make people accountable for their actions.

2)      All of this verbal and sexual harassment has an effect on female streamers.

 This is really a shame as these female streamers are really great people who love interacting and entertaining their followers. People’s livelihoods and professions have been created with partnered Twitch streamers. It is in all of the parties (Twitch, the streamer, and viewers) best interest to ensure these streamers broadcast for as long and as often as possible.

3)      The most important reason this should be dealt with immediately is Twitch.TV has a responsibility to its employees to provide a workplace free of harassment.

Not only do I believe there is a huge morality issue with the ongoing harassment that is taking place, I also believe Twitch could be liable if its employees (partnered streamers) demand repercussions for users who commit harassment and nothing is done.  

The fact is, partnered streamers and Twitch entered a joint venture where Twitch provides the system and the streamers provide the content and both parties’ benefit financially. None of this behavior would ever be acceptable in a non-virtual workplace. As times change and technology increases, virtual and non-virtual workplace boundaries have begun to lack differences. I believe Twitch has to be responsible for its customers.

My proposal is that Twitch implement sometime of escalation ban system:

- Any user that is banned from a channel he/she would go on a list where the owner of said channel could state a case for why the user’s account should be banned completely and even down to ISP/IP. If there were numerous occurrences (say 3 for example) where blatant harassment occurred, then enact the ban. This would actually make consequences for unacceptable behavior.

For now, my suggestion to all partnered-female streamers is to leave your chat in subscriber mode only. There are two particularly good reasons for this:

1)      It should substantially reduce the amount of harassment that occurs, as users would have to pay to gain access to the chat (and even if they paid and were offensive at least the streamer would gain something before banning the user in question).

Moxierawr is a great female streamer who used to conduct viewer Saturday streamers. However, after a recent troll, Moxie changed the Saturday stream to subscriber Saturday games because, as she stated on one of her streams, “if someone is going to troll me again, at least I will get something out of it now”. Leave it to one person to ruin the fun for everyone else…

2)      It will allow streamers to focus on their true supporters. The fact is, many of these female streamers provide great content and I believe they do not need an open chat to be successful. Users will catch the stream, see that it is a good time, and ultimately subscribe to participate and gain benefits of the stream.

However, what about the non-partnered female streamers? Or the male streamers who receive harassment? I’m fairly certain that the non-partnered streamers outnumber the partnered streamers. Should only partnered streamers receive assistance?

My answer to these questions is it should not matter whether the streamer is partnered or non-partnered. A culture change needs to occur and Twitch seems like as good a place as any to start. Great organizations that survive throughout the years are innovative, groundbreaking, and refrain from accepting the norm. I believe Twitch has an opportunity to set itself apart from the pack by taking a dynamic stance on curbing harassment.

I believe most users utilize Twitch for entertainment purposes. However, there are a few users whose idea of entertainment is purely trolling and harassment. It is these haters that detract from broadcasts and cause emotional turmoil to the streamers and viewers. These are users that Twitch could really do without.

League of Legends: Ultra Rapid Fire Mode

Hello everyone,

I’m sorry it has been a while since my last post…

     On February 6^th of this year, my wife and I were graced with the birth of our first child. This event has altered my life in every way. Our perceptions of being parents prior to birth were that parenthood was going to be difficult but over-the-top rewarding. What we soon learned was that parenthood is tougher than anything we’ve ever known and no words or wisdom could truly prepare us for the hardships we will endure. These obstacles and an inability to find free time put me into missing-in-action mode, hence no blogs.

 Although, Diablo 3 updates/expansion didn’t help either…

In any case now to the blog!

     If you have been under a rock Riot Games released a new game type for League of Legends called Ultra Rapid Fire. Essentially URF is the classic game type, except cool downs, movement speed and mana cost were significantly padded to provide the fastest game possible. Riot added this game type as a prank for an April Fool’s joke to the community. What Riot did not realize was how much success the game was going to have. I have numerous friends who came back to play LoL for this new game type and they want it added permanently. And based on all the comments and a pending petition, a lot of other online players feel the same way.

          However, two days ago Riot announced that it would be removing URF mode and only making it available at a later designated time in a potentially different fashion. I believe this a huge mistake by Riot. The company may have originally designed the mode to be gag for the community but sometimes when a product is delivered it takes on a mind of its own. In this case Riot created its own monster and they would be foolish to take away something many community members are calling for. The old adage “the customer is always right” applies here. With competition from DOTA2 and brewing competition from Blizzard's MOBA (whom most gamers have strong feelings towards the characters in the game), Riot would do itself a disservice by not listening to its community.

If you think about it, the classic MOBA map has been around for many years. Some people have played hundreds or thousands of matches. I started playing MOBA’s in WarCraft 3 with the DOTA map. When I finally decided to play LoL, I found my interest more in ARAM games then the classic mode being as it was something new, faster, and quicker. I believe URF is the next addition. Consumers are always seeking improvements to the products they own, that’s why new generation of models are continually built. URF is LoL’s next generation. All you have to do is look at the comments on the removal announcement:

Riot... please make it permanent. Ultra Rapid Fire revived my waning interest in the game, please don't take this experience away from us players :(

 HagenBacon 

Please keep this mode riot, It’d my will to keep playing league. There's no logical reason why you can't keep it in custom games at least same with any other special game mode. You have one of the most popular games in the world with a huge support staff and you're telling me you can't put these modes in custom? I simply refuse to believe that. Oh well then, time to quit til either this mode comes back or the next special mode, i don't play normals anymore because they are boring. well time to find something else to do in the meantime.

 USAF Crusader

Seriously though, I've never been more addicted to League than ever before thanks to U.R.F. I need it to stick around now. :(

 Ermahgerd LOLOL

These are just a few of the comments but here is the kicker. The new game mode actually had a user spend real money to purchase champions to play in this mode.

I bought multiple champions with RP so I'd have a chance to use them in URF. They actually made money off me with URF being the sole reason; That's a pretty solid reason for them to permanently add the mode to me!

 Valkyrie Witch

I personally have never spent a dime on LoL (I believe I am in the minority). However, I have no idea if the above user was the similar to me prior to this mode release but anytime users actually spend money, Riot should be interested. So I will re-post the comment to emphasize the importance:

I bought multiple champions with RP so I'd have a chance to use them in URF. They actually made money off me with URF being the sole reason; That's a pretty solid reason for them to permanently add the mode to me! Valkyrie Witch

          It’s getting late and I have to get up in a few hours for an early-morning feeding, so please Riot, do us all a favor and make URF a mode staple of LoL. You can play hard to get if you want but ultimately my advice is to always listen to the community. Take it from Diablo 3, game interest can go from minimal to a sure explosion in moments with a patch/release that addresses community needs. Riot, we want and need URF 24/7, 365, make it happen. I’ll be boycotting LoL until it gets reinstated and I encourage all other users who want the URF mode available all the time to do the same. It's the only way to send a message to Riot. You could also re-tweet or share this blog.

Thank you for your time.

-          Jeremy ‘McCl0udY’ Muller

Oh and during my research I noticed this:

http://www.change.org/petitions/riot-games-keep-urf-mode

Quickie: ESEALAN 15 Thoughts

Congratulations to IBUYPOWER on winning Season 15 ESEALAN. After the events that unfolded on Saturday I had honestly written IBUY off and resigned to the fact that the American-CS scene just couldn’t cut it with the European juggernauts. My thoughts were that complexity was the only American team that could compete with the Euros, but even at complexity’s best, they still weren’t able to take the gold at major tournaments. Saturday night I had began the narrative process in my head about a blog centered on American teams underperforming or outmatched. Fortunately I and almost everyone else were truly surprised at what occurred on Sunday.

I’m not sure what exactly happened but IBP found their mojo Sunday morning. Apparently they didn’t hear the talk about IBP underperforming again or maybe they did and they decided to play with house money. Regardless I was shocked to see IBP advance past complexity in the lower bracket finals. There is certainly some history between these two teams but prior to IBP’s ESEALAN win, I believe the general perspective was that complexity was the better team. Thus my heart sank a little when IBP surpassed complexity. I had an immediate fear that IBP was going to come up short against Titan (like they did previously in the tournament) and this time in devastating/embarrassing fashion (16-6, 16-4,etc). To me it seemed like the classic case of two teams (complexity, IBP) that know each other quite well and have epic battles only to have the victor go on and face another opponent (Titan) and get rolled. It turns out IBP had other plans. They deserve major credit for winning 3 best of 3’s when the odds were completely stacked again them.

Congrats again IBUYPOWER, enjoy the win, but remember it is much easier to get to the top than to stay at the top.

Just a little food for thought: Let’s suppose that NiP and/or fnatic came to ESEALAN. Would IBP even have been given the chance to make a comeback? If we look at previous results (i.e. dreamhack) the answer would be no. IBP started off slow and failed to advance from the group play in that event. As much praise as IBP deserves, they need to work on getting “hot” from the very beginning. Otherwise they could completely miss the opportunity to shock the world.

#MURICA

        - Jeremy ‘McCl0udY’ Muller

Thank you for your time. I’m hoping to write a CS:GO/Gaming related blog once a week.