So I finish a long days work, grinding out 10 hours in the heat, cold or wet, the first thing I should do when I finish is sigh and get in the shower, right? Wrong the first thing I do is motor my way into my stream room, my pc boots up rapidly, I choose the perfect playlist for the evening, I set the wall lights to match the atmosphere and mood, knowing in approximately 15 minutes ill be in a whole new world, I'll be a whole new person, and ill be conversing with a whole crazy community of people that wait for a notification saying I have arrived.
All the gear yet little idea
After all the excitement of finishing work, setting up the system, and yes finally showering, I grab my best, comfiest, nerdiest t-shirt or hoodie I can possibly find, set up each of each of the screens to best suit the way I stream. The middle and biggest screen will be where all the action takes place, the reason my community come to my stream, it will be what I'm playing, watching or listening to. the left hand screen will be sideways, the make for a much easier and bigger surface to read the chats, giving me the best chance not to miss any comment and converse with everybody. and finally the right hand screen will be all the background business, my streaming app, my music and any wonderful magical thing you see happening on stream.
The community
Some people stream for a living, making a full time career out of it, and it shows in their streams, They will make it quite obvious and clear from the get go, and there's nothing wrong with that, they should be supported as it is a career, a passion and a hobby. My reason is you guys, the community. I have a full time job where I am on the clock 24/7 on paper, no matter what the situation in the world, so I don't need to stream for a living. I'm here as a safe haven, to share interests, to make friends and to enjoy our time together. The community I've built for myself over the passed year is probably about 150 regulars, And they all have different situations, but one thing in common is they know they can ask me anything, they can private message me just for a chat. The last year has been hard for people, and some people just need their own little world to run off to, they need to escape the horrors of the world, they need to vent and that's what I'm there for.
The Stream
My spare time is spent as a pretty intense gamer, I used to be on a professional E-sports team before I chose a more mature and fulfilling career path. So my stream can range from playing the newest games, doing walkthroughs or troll play throughs of other games. I like to bring the nostalgic games back, from the very first Pokémon and Mario games to the most recent releases, just to give people that warm fuzzy feeling of the gold old days. I'll do just chatting streams and cooking streams just so people can feel involved in my life, Most of my community knows everything about me, they know how I cook, how I clean, what makes me happy and what makes me sad, and I try my best to learn everything about their lives, we're basically a family.
Monetization
Being partnered on some of the biggest video uploading and streaming sites, I obviously make money. I get donations and Subscriptions and may run the odd add here and there, But I try to take every penny I make through streaming and give back to the community. I've done numerous charity streams and the charity is voted on by my chat, and every penny in that stream is giving to the communities charity of choice. Back to peoples situations, some people watch streams because the games that are being released are too expensive these days, and it breaks my heart, I buy numerous game codes, and do give always very regularly, just to give us much back to the community as possible. If I'm playing a free to play game with add on, I buy the add on codes. I've literally been roasted so hard by friends in real life and on stream at how many give always I have, but my response is always the same "It's the communities money"
Why should we support streamers?
This is a question a lot of you probably ask to yourselves or others supporting streamers with donations or subscriptions, The answer isn't a very simple one. Like I said previously, this is a career choice for some people, Some people spend years building communities, some people are just starting out with nobody viewing or chatting, their just playing a game they love, and broadcasting it, These are the guys you should support, the newbies starting out. When I started out I had nobody for about 3 months, and all it takes is those few people starting conversations and starting to bring the streamers personality and liveliness out. No matter how big or small the streamer, we all want the same thing, a safe haven, a secret escape where we can be our selves, where we are not judged and a community we can bond with.
About the Creator
L A Lewis
Just a guy, his imagination and desire to tell a story.
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