Notes

Four Reasons You Are Not Streaming On Twitching Effectively
In the year that John Hopstad first descended into the virtual world of Dark Souls in 2013, his mission was to save a dying world. It is known due to its harsh and demanding gameplay, Dark Souls is a game that's popular to stream live: if you're likely to die many times over, then you could as well perish with some digital business to ease the mood. What Hopstad did not know was that this was the beginning of an even more challenging journey to establish connections with other people. Hopstad is streaming his content to almost no one over the past five years, and isn't alone in this pursuit.

Twitch is the most popular live streaming platform on which users play games, create crafts, and showcase their everyday lives, is home to over two million broadcasters every month. The number of viewers increases every year due in part to how easy it is now to live stream, and also platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube also increasingly encourage people to share and watch live streams. By pushing an icon on your game phone or console you can broadcast whatever you're doing in that moment with friends and strangers alike. The rise of famous (and profitable) influencers who are on platforms like YouTube and Twitch is also making the idea of being an influencer online to be a dream. Parents have reported that their children play with toys to a nonexistent audience and that teachers have reported that their students frequently say they want to take up YouTubing as a career. But when seemingly everyone wants to take video or stream live who is actually watching the videos?

When seemingly everyone wants to record footage or streaming live, which one will end up watching the footage?

A career in the world of platforms such as Twitch typically requires you to broadcast to a small audience. Discoverability is an issue: when you log into Twitch, the most visible streamers are those that already have a significant following. Although there are tools available to locate lesser-known streamers however, the majority of streamers who start with no built-in audience from other platforms, or supportive family members end up staring at a big big zero on their viewership count. The lonely stream hell could last from a few days, weeks, months, sometimes even years, depending on how luck plays out. According to people who have gone through it, lacking an audience is one of the most demoralizing experiences you'll encounter online.

"It's quite exhausting playing to an empty space every day with no results," one Redditor wrote on a thread now deleted on r/Twitch.

"It's fucking hard to stay optimistic when you're doing this 5 days a week , especially when it feels like nobody drops through," another Redditor wrote in a separate thread after having spent months streaming to nobody. "I've come to a realization that streaming isn't working for me."


"Been streaming on and off for 4plus years, and each time I return, I have months where for the majority of time I'm not streaming to person," another Redditor wrote. "It's tough."

Sean Burke, a streamer who was broadcasting popular games like Overwatchwithout an audience He says it's easy to be taken personally in the event that no one attends your show. "It was sometimes depressing," says Burke, who managed to stream live throughout.

Live streaming, if it's a practice, the person behind the camera is the one who produces. Although there are things you can practice and improve your stream's popularity, the success of a streamer comes down to the extent to which people appreciate them or find you fascinating. "I was initially unable to comprehend the viewership numbers to mean that I was the issue, that I was not funny enough, or that I wasn't good enough at playing games." After a year of hard work He estimates that he is now getting about 10 viewers concurrently per stream.


The lack of an audience is one many of the demoralizing experiences that you will experience on the internet.


The veteran streamers usually have a list of talking points to offer assistance to novices. I've seen this advice repeated many times across social media platforms. It's like this Be yourself. Enjoy yourself. Set a schedule and stick to it. Make sure you have a proper technical setup. Practice your commentary, and vocalize your thinking. Make sure you play games that aren't saturated with other streamers already. You can trick your live stream with plug-ins and overlays that can make it more enjoyable for viewers, such as mini-games in which viewers must keep their virtual pets in the game. Get on social media and share your stream. Network by joining other people's streams and becoming their friends. The most difficult advice to follow is that an aspiring streamer needs to be on the move continuously even if no one else is watching, just in case someone happens to appear.



"Think of it like you're taping the talk show and you're the host," Redditor Neon_Nazgul wrote in a thread offering tips to streamers who are frustrated. "Sometimes there's a studio audience and other times you're filming something the audience will watch later." Although this is absolutely true, it's also a one of the reasons that streaming without a large audience so difficult in the first place. It's a solo practice in which you must pretend that you're listening to someone, but have no idea how it will take until someone shows up or even if they will.


Broadcasters are able to follow the standard advice but not build their following, which is being lost among streamers who are also hopeful. Some turn to schemes that give the appearance of success you can pay for bots to populate your stream, thereby pushing your profile higher in the Twitch directory or collaborate with other marginal streamers in order to increase their subscriber numbers through "follow4follow" groups. Streamers even create broadcasts where the only purpose will be to have hundreds other users beg to follow them in the chat. More often than not it isn't working for everyone in the process, since no one is gaining a real viewer , even though the statistics suggest otherwise.

"I tried the follow4follow strategy... however, nobody ever did the next step and viewed my channel," Twitch user Flummoxkid states. "Nothing but a bunch of hollow followers. The streamers who cultivated the F4F channels I watched did a 180-degree turn and tried to get legitimate once they made partner and they have a very low number of viewers. I was foolish enough to believe that people would actually return their favor."

Despite the psychologically demanding nature of trying to be noticed on Twitch Some users persist despite the harsh criticism of the one. The reasons for this are diverse I've spoken to people who seem believed that sharing their games is so easy, they should do it if they're already playing games. "It's better than sitting in a dark space by myself in silence," wrote Twitch user jostlingjoe in the Reddit discussion about the best way to handle being unable to view viewers.

A lot of people are seeking something more. A streamer that I talked with who stayed for three months without a viewership, MaverickRPDM, says that they continued to stream live games without a single viewer because they saw it as a form of self-improvement. "Streaming has made me more fascinating, more quick witted and more outgoing and extrovert," MaverickRPDM says. "It has helped make me feel more at ease being me, and by virtue of that has helped me become more authentic, and more often, and even outside of the stream."

The most important reason of people who stream for extended durations without user is the chance to meet similar people."The reason I began streaming was because I was kind of looking for connections with other people," said Richard Szelesy, a streamer who's been mostly broadcasting high-end games to no viewers. Szelesy says he grew up being lonely, and mainly spending time at the computer in front of computers. "[I streamed ] to escape loneliness and depression," he said. While he has mostly been streaming without an audience, occasionally an unintentional person will pass in and stay. Even if this person never comes back -- and often do not -- the little spark is enough to keep Szelesy running.


"I was looking for human connections."

"Weirdly being an adult, I am more comfortable in creating romantic connections than making new friends," Szelesy says. "I don't be able to decide where to begin! How do I approach an uninvolved person and say "Yo, do you like Dark Souls?'" Twitch also gives a way to eject himself from disagreeable people. "[It's] way easier to just call out or remove the kind of people who seem cool, but say racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/etc shit."


Hopstad who has been spending long hours streaming with nobody, claims that he's a socialist who is concerned about the minimum wage, and Twitch provides him with a platform to express his opinions that he isn't able to do in his real life. "I'm not social, so I don't search for occasions to discuss things, like on message boards, specifically things like politics. I'm used to going through a day without speaking or engaging or interacting with anybody," Hopstad said. "Twitch definitely helped me try to overcome my introverted character, but I'm beginning to think I'm becoming more comfortable just being alone for the remainder the time."

Although the bleakness with no users on Twitch may be depressing but those who stay to it are pleased that they made it. Many streamers can recall exactly the moment when their view counter went between zero and one.

" https://www.click4r.com/posts/g/3021041/never-lose-your-cronus-zen-again watched, it was almost surreal," Szelesy said. "Twitch is designed to increase the number of people with a good reputation and, if someone stumbles across you, they've been considering whether you could be the kind of person they wanted to watch. Although these views or interactions don't always lead to even followers, let alone more profound relationships, it's usually amazing, since they found me in my secluded spot here and decided to meet up."


After months of being without an viewers, finally getting people to view you is nerve-wracking as thrilling. You've prepared for it, sometimes for hours ,and now it's time to show. Someone is on the other side. They're here to help you. What can you do?

"I am able to recall the first time I was a time watching and the moment it happened," said Reddit user TheWhiteLatino69 A streamer who initially began streaming on Twitch to ease through a rough time. At the beginning, TheWhiteLatino broadcasted without an audience to help create the illusion the appearance of hanging out with other people. "I was streaming Subnautica for 0 viewers of course and I glanced at the chat to see an 'hey!. Then I realized that it all the sudden struck me that I was not alone anymore I noticed that there were eyes on me. I was becoming more anxious as the stream progressed and I was nervously chatting with them. It's one thing to pretend you're talking to someone , but it's a different thing to actually talk to someone who is actually a human being ... [It] really threw a wrench into me."

Based on conversations I've had with dozens of streamers taking that first plunge in the event that you're not certain who will be watching is as if you're throwing your message in a bottle into the sea. Perhaps someone will discover the bottle. Perhaps the bottle is at the bottom of the sea. We all gamble in our individual ways when we reach out on the internet, whether using Tinder or using a hashtag to look for people with similar desires. Perhaps we feel more alienated than ever before, or maybe we find people who make everything worth it.

Lolimdivine A Redditor who says they've have spent about eight months streaming to no one, is adamant about the community they've created after they've gotten over the initial hump.

"My regulars and I always talk about our lives, and we know a lot about each other," lolimdivine said. "It's like we have our own internet family of sorts. I consider these people to be my family, not as mere users. We welcome everyone with open arms from all around the world, and recall things about those who are only able to visit every once in a month. It's amazing that Twitch can help people overcome lonely or friends groups." A lot of streamers I talked to told me that they were drawn to Twitch after finding a personality that kept them entertained during difficult times like the loss of a beloved one.

Khryn_Tzu, an Twitch streamer who spent days without viewers, is coming up on their one-year anniversary on Twitch. It's an important date, since without Twitch Khryn_Tzu would not have met a particular viewer.

"Lots of days, with zero viewers, just doing my thing, and learned the best practices, and I am," Khryn_Tzu said. "Then it happened. There was one viewer. They were there for the entire time. They didn't speak for a few streams, but they kept coming back. Then one night I had to go AFK and I put on Metallica. Then out comes a song that says 'Good choice of music. I like Metallica. It was a thrilling feeling to have someone completely unknown to me in my world for MY content. It was a difficult for me to push."

Many dream of having an audience in the thousands, this one person ended up making all the difference in Khryn_Tzu's life. "We began talking, and then began chattering, and she was sure to start welcoming people and speaking to them whenever they showed up," says Khryn_Tzu. "Soon people would stay... and it became so much more than that. The viewers who come in? They are your friends. Sometimes, even more. That first viewer? We are dating now and I couldn't be happier."

Most people don't end up finding a love interest on Twitch however for a lot of others, that's not the point






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