Saturday, September 26, 2015
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Monday, September 21, 2015
Life can be so weird
This is kind of a spur of the moment post.
I really didn't have any plans of writing, and I certainly don't have a whole lot thought out as I start this, so there's no real way to tell how it's going to turn out.
A lot has happened in my life. There have been minor changes, big changes, and holy-shit I didn't see that coming types of changes. I've grown up a lot in the last 10 years and have learned to take on a new perspective on any number of things that can and probably will happen.
The thing about life is you can never really tell what's going to happen. Even the most stable of individuals will likely have to deal with some kind of adversity at some point. Many will handle it just fine, but some will completely crumble under the pressure, thus changing their lives forever.
As some may know, my 4 year relationship with Rachel ended recently. I'm not going to hash out a bunch of details because that wouldn't be fair to Rachel and frankly much of it is the business of no one. Was there frustration? Yes, on both sides. But in the end, we have a child together, and that child is still there even if the relationship isn't. Kylie doesn't disappear because we couldn't make it work.
I don't want it to be like how it is with her other ex, where he's a turd and makes things difficult. Truth is, she's not difficult to work with. We've already discussed a number of scenarios involving dealing with Kylie once we're living separately.
Simply put, it makes more sense for the parents to work together as opposed to against each other. But most struggle with doing that.
But I'm not going to spend a ton of time talking about domestic relations and what could be in regards to my relationship with my ex. What you need to know is it needs to be civil and anyone who comes into my life is going to have to understand that.
Dating is going to be the more tricky thing when the time comes right. Whoever I date is going to not only accept that I have a child, but that my ex is still part of my life being the mother of my child. They aren't going to just be impressing me, but they'll have to impress Kylie. Time is going to be limited and if the woman can't handle that, well, then it isn't going to work.
I'm not going parade one woman after another into Kylie's life. I'm not going to be making rush decisions in regards to dating. Everything will have to be meticulously planned out and the woman will have to realize that my child comes first, no exceptions.
The main thing I've come to realize now is that I'm very ho-hum when it comes to dealing with stuff like dating or anything else potentially stressful. If it's something out of my control, I'm not going to spend a lot of time fretting about it. I will worry about what I can control and go from there.
I'm not going to fall over myself trying to impress a woman. It isn't about that. I'm not going to stress about if I'm going to be able to go out much. It's simply not that important. If someone likes what I'm doing or something about me, great. If they don't, well, keep on moving because I don't have time for that mess.
Seriously though, life can hit you hard and fast. One minute you're thinking about a child-to-be, contemplating how life is going to change, next you're contemplating what life as a single dad is going to be like.
How you handle those changes that come at you will ultimately determine how the situation turns out.
I know this isn't the longest post I've written, but an old friend said hi to me tonight and reminded me how much I used to enjoy writing. I can't promise this means I'll write more, but it was nice to be reminded that some people have really enjoyed my little blurbs from time to time.
I was specifically reminded of the Christmas Lists I used to do each year. I haven't done one since 2011.
It might be time to do a new one.
It might just be time to start anew overall.
I really didn't have any plans of writing, and I certainly don't have a whole lot thought out as I start this, so there's no real way to tell how it's going to turn out.
A lot has happened in my life. There have been minor changes, big changes, and holy-shit I didn't see that coming types of changes. I've grown up a lot in the last 10 years and have learned to take on a new perspective on any number of things that can and probably will happen.
The thing about life is you can never really tell what's going to happen. Even the most stable of individuals will likely have to deal with some kind of adversity at some point. Many will handle it just fine, but some will completely crumble under the pressure, thus changing their lives forever.
As some may know, my 4 year relationship with Rachel ended recently. I'm not going to hash out a bunch of details because that wouldn't be fair to Rachel and frankly much of it is the business of no one. Was there frustration? Yes, on both sides. But in the end, we have a child together, and that child is still there even if the relationship isn't. Kylie doesn't disappear because we couldn't make it work.
I don't want it to be like how it is with her other ex, where he's a turd and makes things difficult. Truth is, she's not difficult to work with. We've already discussed a number of scenarios involving dealing with Kylie once we're living separately.
Simply put, it makes more sense for the parents to work together as opposed to against each other. But most struggle with doing that.
But I'm not going to spend a ton of time talking about domestic relations and what could be in regards to my relationship with my ex. What you need to know is it needs to be civil and anyone who comes into my life is going to have to understand that.
Dating is going to be the more tricky thing when the time comes right. Whoever I date is going to not only accept that I have a child, but that my ex is still part of my life being the mother of my child. They aren't going to just be impressing me, but they'll have to impress Kylie. Time is going to be limited and if the woman can't handle that, well, then it isn't going to work.
I'm not going parade one woman after another into Kylie's life. I'm not going to be making rush decisions in regards to dating. Everything will have to be meticulously planned out and the woman will have to realize that my child comes first, no exceptions.
The main thing I've come to realize now is that I'm very ho-hum when it comes to dealing with stuff like dating or anything else potentially stressful. If it's something out of my control, I'm not going to spend a lot of time fretting about it. I will worry about what I can control and go from there.
I'm not going to fall over myself trying to impress a woman. It isn't about that. I'm not going to stress about if I'm going to be able to go out much. It's simply not that important. If someone likes what I'm doing or something about me, great. If they don't, well, keep on moving because I don't have time for that mess.
Seriously though, life can hit you hard and fast. One minute you're thinking about a child-to-be, contemplating how life is going to change, next you're contemplating what life as a single dad is going to be like.
How you handle those changes that come at you will ultimately determine how the situation turns out.
I know this isn't the longest post I've written, but an old friend said hi to me tonight and reminded me how much I used to enjoy writing. I can't promise this means I'll write more, but it was nice to be reminded that some people have really enjoyed my little blurbs from time to time.
I was specifically reminded of the Christmas Lists I used to do each year. I haven't done one since 2011.
It might be time to do a new one.
It might just be time to start anew overall.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
The Ups and Downs of Social Media :: Part 3 :: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Previous entries in this series: Part 1 Part 2
The rise of social media, Twitter and Facebook in particular, entered us into a period of unprecedented access, not just to every day Joe, but movie stars, musicians, sports athletes and more.
Unlike Myspace, in which a large collection of friends meant little, a large following on Twitter actually carries some weight. Having tens of thousands of followers meant every tweet was being seen by an extraordinarily large number of people, especially if you were commenting on a subject of issue.
Interactions between various levels of celebrities and non-celebrities became more common-place, which allowed people to see their favorite personality as more of an every day normal person, rather than whatever they actually were. Many celebrities embraced the interaction with their fans and have used social media to connect better with their fans.
It can be a wonderful thing.
Imagine you tweet out to your favorite sports athlete and they actually respond. It seems like such a small thing, but you can sit and tell your friends that your favorite player, even if it were only one tweet, responded to you.
In the gaming forum, developers, publishers, and so on have embraced social media as a way to promote their game by communicating directly to the people who would be most interested in buying their game. Meanwhile, gamers can express their concerns about a game/product/or service with the responsible party and actually get a resolution relatively fast in some cases.
In my own experience, Twitter has immensely helped in resolving issues ranging from my cell phone service (T-Mobile's help account is very useful), my tv/internet service (Time Warner's hit or miss, but they typically at least try), to shipping issues. More often than not, when I've had a problem, someone's responded to at least check into the issue.
The previous types of interaction are part of the "good" side of social media. The interactions with other people can be tremendous. I've definitely enjoyed a majority of the sports aspect of Twitter, as the Cleveland fanbases are pretty solid when it comes to tweeting, even if they get a bit irrational at times. Some of my favorite accounts are those that specifically tweet only about sports.
I've had any number of people tweet at me with suggestions when I've been stumped by something, or just mention that I'm struggling with something. There are a lot of awesome people out there who just want to help, even if they're dealing with their own issues.
Unfortunately, it's not all sunshine and roses. With the good, there often comes the bad, and in this day and age of your voice potentially reaching thousands, if not more, there are many who take pleasure in trying to tear others down.
The bad side of social media is that there are some who are always miserable and will try to rain on your parade. They don't see the good in any situation and simply exist to remind you that not everyone thinks rationally.
For instance, they tend to come out when their sports team is losing. Optimism is replaced with doom and gloom and all the players and coaches need to be fired. They moan about the quality of the team they're watching and think anyone who sees the good is an idiot. They will go so far as to tweet directly at players and badmouth the performance they just watched.
Of course, the gaming community isn't immune to it. Your choice of game, console, or graphical design can become the basis of an attack. On YouTube, people will comment that your video was trash or that you should just stop making videos. If you stream, especially if you're female, you will eventually get inflammatory comments directed your way.
Most people are just being nuisances though and are relatively harmless. They say their obnoxious things and move along. I've even had someone on Twitter demand an apology because I disputed something that he said. I laughed, said no, and never heard from him again.
Unfortunately, there are certain individuals who take "trolling" to a different level. They don't just stop at name-calling, but take it much further. They wish injury, or worse, death on a person because of a disagreement or something else that's trivial. They harass you until you are forced to stop going on your account.
These types of individuals represent the ugly of social media. They are the people who use it simply to spread their hate messages and can be absolutely vicious.
I used to follow someone who had to put their dog down, and one notorious troll essentially called them stupid for caring about an animal so much. Some will tell a sports athlete to go die just because they played poorly. They don't just say nasty things, but come across as absolutely meaning the words they say.
They are the type that take it personal when you decide that you like something that a company did just because they have unwarranted hate towards that company. This is especially true when it comes to "console wars," where people pledge allegiance to the gaming console of their choice (or PC if they are in the "PC Master Race"). If you like Nintendo and they don't, they attack you just because you didn't choose a PS4. It's insane, it's unnecessary, and I keep hoping for it to stop.
Don't even get me started on the gamergate crowd.
They are relentless and if you block them, they will make a new name and continue the harassment. They are the worst of the worst and have no interest in actually engaging in a healthy debate. They make observations and opinions without actually gathering any facts, but who needs facts!
In the end, social media allows us to interact in ways that we never could before.
The question is, how are you using social media?
The rise of social media, Twitter and Facebook in particular, entered us into a period of unprecedented access, not just to every day Joe, but movie stars, musicians, sports athletes and more.
Unlike Myspace, in which a large collection of friends meant little, a large following on Twitter actually carries some weight. Having tens of thousands of followers meant every tweet was being seen by an extraordinarily large number of people, especially if you were commenting on a subject of issue.
Interactions between various levels of celebrities and non-celebrities became more common-place, which allowed people to see their favorite personality as more of an every day normal person, rather than whatever they actually were. Many celebrities embraced the interaction with their fans and have used social media to connect better with their fans.
It can be a wonderful thing.
Imagine you tweet out to your favorite sports athlete and they actually respond. It seems like such a small thing, but you can sit and tell your friends that your favorite player, even if it were only one tweet, responded to you.
In the gaming forum, developers, publishers, and so on have embraced social media as a way to promote their game by communicating directly to the people who would be most interested in buying their game. Meanwhile, gamers can express their concerns about a game/product/or service with the responsible party and actually get a resolution relatively fast in some cases.
In my own experience, Twitter has immensely helped in resolving issues ranging from my cell phone service (T-Mobile's help account is very useful), my tv/internet service (Time Warner's hit or miss, but they typically at least try), to shipping issues. More often than not, when I've had a problem, someone's responded to at least check into the issue.
The previous types of interaction are part of the "good" side of social media. The interactions with other people can be tremendous. I've definitely enjoyed a majority of the sports aspect of Twitter, as the Cleveland fanbases are pretty solid when it comes to tweeting, even if they get a bit irrational at times. Some of my favorite accounts are those that specifically tweet only about sports.
I've had any number of people tweet at me with suggestions when I've been stumped by something, or just mention that I'm struggling with something. There are a lot of awesome people out there who just want to help, even if they're dealing with their own issues.
Unfortunately, it's not all sunshine and roses. With the good, there often comes the bad, and in this day and age of your voice potentially reaching thousands, if not more, there are many who take pleasure in trying to tear others down.
The bad side of social media is that there are some who are always miserable and will try to rain on your parade. They don't see the good in any situation and simply exist to remind you that not everyone thinks rationally.
For instance, they tend to come out when their sports team is losing. Optimism is replaced with doom and gloom and all the players and coaches need to be fired. They moan about the quality of the team they're watching and think anyone who sees the good is an idiot. They will go so far as to tweet directly at players and badmouth the performance they just watched.
Of course, the gaming community isn't immune to it. Your choice of game, console, or graphical design can become the basis of an attack. On YouTube, people will comment that your video was trash or that you should just stop making videos. If you stream, especially if you're female, you will eventually get inflammatory comments directed your way.
Most people are just being nuisances though and are relatively harmless. They say their obnoxious things and move along. I've even had someone on Twitter demand an apology because I disputed something that he said. I laughed, said no, and never heard from him again.
Unfortunately, there are certain individuals who take "trolling" to a different level. They don't just stop at name-calling, but take it much further. They wish injury, or worse, death on a person because of a disagreement or something else that's trivial. They harass you until you are forced to stop going on your account.
These types of individuals represent the ugly of social media. They are the people who use it simply to spread their hate messages and can be absolutely vicious.
I used to follow someone who had to put their dog down, and one notorious troll essentially called them stupid for caring about an animal so much. Some will tell a sports athlete to go die just because they played poorly. They don't just say nasty things, but come across as absolutely meaning the words they say.
They are the type that take it personal when you decide that you like something that a company did just because they have unwarranted hate towards that company. This is especially true when it comes to "console wars," where people pledge allegiance to the gaming console of their choice (or PC if they are in the "PC Master Race"). If you like Nintendo and they don't, they attack you just because you didn't choose a PS4. It's insane, it's unnecessary, and I keep hoping for it to stop.
Don't even get me started on the gamergate crowd.
They are relentless and if you block them, they will make a new name and continue the harassment. They are the worst of the worst and have no interest in actually engaging in a healthy debate. They make observations and opinions without actually gathering any facts, but who needs facts!
In the end, social media allows us to interact in ways that we never could before.
The question is, how are you using social media?
Friday, August 28, 2015
Thursday, August 27, 2015
When playing games becomes a job
I was going to continue with my social media conversation today, but I've decided to pursue a different topic based upon what my streaming friend Jon decided to do with his stream recently.
Live-streaming and recording game play has become an increasingly popular thing for gamers to do. The most successful people have managed to make the practice of sharing their gaming experiences a full-time, and lucrative, job, but it's a relatively small segment of the population that's been that successful.
For the rest, it's a struggle to find a foothold, even if you manage to become partnered and make a little bit of money. Some are trying to make it a full-time job, others, such as myself, do it strictly as a hobby. Many though have unrealistic expectations of what's going to happen and fail to understand how much work it takes to grow a successful gaming channel.
I wanted to talk about this because Jon recently made a decision to make the chat in his stream subscriber-only, meaning those who aren't subscribed to his stream can watch, but they can't actively participate in the chat. It wasn't an easy decision for him to make, but he laid out his decision in a VOD (video on demand) on his Twitch profile that was well-thought out and helped me understand why he was making his decision.
It's easy for me to be okay with it though. I've been subscribed to his stream since he was partnered last summer and will stay subscribed as long as he continues to stay active with it. Yet I can understand why those who were unable (or unwilling) to subscribe might find this upsetting; Jon's chat is one of my favorite parts of the stream. I've known many of the active members since I started watching him 2 years ago and they've been a tremendous help anytime I've had a computer-related question or issue.
However, it may hurt his audience in the short-term as people are turned off by the notion of not being able to chat unless being subbed. His decision is sound though.
I won't get into too much detail about why he made the decision, but he essentially has a one year time frame to grow the channel or he may have to walk away. For more details, you're going to want to watch this as he lays it out clearly and even gets a little emotional about 30 minutes in, which was very touching and clearly was touching towards the people watching him live.
This post isn't just about that kind of decision. I fully support any streamer that makes a decision that they think is best for their channel. As Jon said, you can still watch the stream at high quality for free, you just can't chat unless you sub. I know other streamers have either made their chat sub-only permanently or have select sub-only streams.
No, this post is about how difficult it really is to operate a stream or gaming channel and grow. A good portion of people who watch have no clue how much work goes into it, how much money these people are investing in this. Some have put thousands of dollars of their own money into PC/recording/editing equipment in exchange for only getting a few hundred follows (or subscribers on YouTube).
The first problem is there are a TON of people trying to record and stream right now. The idea of putting your gameplay up on the internet caught on a few years ago and has exploded recently as the tools to do so have become relatively affordable. Most anyone with a decent PC can download recording software for under $50, a microphone for under $100, and OBS (streaming software) for free and get up and running with YouTube and/or Twitch (or any other streaming service that's available).
Many see the bigger names apparently raking in the money and think that they can do the same. They start streaming/uploading their games and wait for the views/follows/likes/subs to start rolling in. When the success isn't instantaneous, many just stop out of the blue and cease video production. They learn it isn't as simple as recording or streaming some gameplay, that there's actual work involved.
Yes, it takes work to put out high quality videos and streams. You have to have a machine capable of maintaining a good frame rate while recording/streaming, good internet for uploading your content, and some artistic ability to create overlays and such. For YouTube, you need to be able to at the very least do basic editing and be able to create decent thumbnails. For Twitch, the overlay is more important. It also helps to have a web cam, a "bot" to handle advance chat options, and a good set of moderators once you become more popular.
It's a lot of work and it's very time consuming for most, which often leads to people becoming burned out when the growth isn't as fast as they would have hoped.
Let's be honest. If you put hundreds of hours of work into your channel and you weren't seeing any growth, you'd probably become frustrated and wonder why you should even bother to continue going forward. For me, this isn't really an issue. I'm not doing this full-time and have no plans or aspirations of doing it full-time. It's strictly a hobby and nothing else.
But for people like Jon who are trying to make it work full-time, lack of growth can become increasingly frustrating as time goes on. You start to wonder why you're even bothering and the pressure to do better makes the games themselves less fun.
I've seen it with Jon. He doesn't appear to be having as much fun as he did a year ago. The pressure of trying to get his channel to grow has been wearing on him for a while and once you get in a funk, it becomes very difficult to break out of it if things don't turn around quickly. I'll give Jon credit for fighting through it, but it's not easy to do and he seems to be hard on himself, which isn't a bad quality at all.
Most people don't think about playing games as being stressful, they don't think it can burn you out, but in reality, if it's what you're doing to try and earn a living, it becomes a job, and jobs can become stressful no matter how "fun" they might be.
Imagine you HAVE to stream or upload videos 4-5 days a week, every week, and if you don't, you lose your audience. Imagine if you miss a couple of days, people stop watching your content and never come back. Imagine if your audience wants you to play certain games in order to stick around.
It can become pretty stressful very quickly, and that's without the rude viewers who show up simply to harass you until you finally ban them, only to have them sign up under new names and continue the assault. Imagine if people are telling you awful things about your content, or worse, you and/or people you know.
Now, it's not necessarily going to be always be that bad, but it could happen and I've seen a few people give up YouTube/streaming because they couldn't handle the noise. I've seen people burn out because the pressure of keeping up daily content became too much for them to handle, or they actually got sick of playing games and trying to keep them interesting.
I myself, even only doing YouTube on occasion and just starting up with streaming, have grown tired at times of it. I burned out on Minecraft a while back and have struggled to consistently get back into it even with new updates pushing across recently.
My reasons are more due to having a 40 hour work schedule and a two year old I'm often chasing when I'm off work. It leaves me a small window at night to do my recordings/streams, and often I'm just tired and don't have the energy to make content, which sounds absurd since it's not the most strenuous thing in the world.
But trust me, it isn't that easy. You have to be into the game you're playing, be up to recording/streaming it, and if you record it, you have to have the motivation to sit and edit the footage into something interesting. If you're like me, you also have to go through and do noise removal because you have a noisy PC fan, which adds to the process. Then you have to wait for the render to finish up, compress it (if the file is big), and upload it with a description and thumbnail ready-made.
It's time-consuming, and when you don't have a lot of time, it can make you feel a little pressure to go a little faster, which sometimes leads to mistakes.
It's why I am constantly telling people who have no kids and can afford to work on videos full-time to appreciate it and enjoy it as much as you can. That time isn't always there forever and before you know it, you're trying to do as much work in a smaller window of opportunity, which can deter you as well.
I know I've made it sound like a chore, but it's still something that I enjoy doing. I don't have the same time as others, and I certainly don't have the same resources, but I make the most of what I have and when I do record/stream, I try to enjoy it as much as possible.
For example, my third stream was me playing "Goat Simulator." I didn't have many viewers (in fact, I don't think it went above 3 at any point and virtually no one chatted with me), but I enjoyed the hell out of the game regardless and if anyone did watch, they got to see me run around with an NPC glitching into my goat most of the time. I eventually gave the character the name of Jerry and turned it into a game of "what can we do with Jerry next."
My next stream was "Borderlands," which garnered me a few more views (as high as 10), and a new follower and again I enjoyed it despite not garnering a lot of attention.
But it can be frustrating for those who want to see their channel and brand grow and make something of it.
Live streaming and recording your gameplay has become a very popular thing to do over the last couple of years. While some have become successful, many struggle to retain viewers. Here's to hoping if you're considering jumping in you keep your expectations reasonable.
Live-streaming and recording game play has become an increasingly popular thing for gamers to do. The most successful people have managed to make the practice of sharing their gaming experiences a full-time, and lucrative, job, but it's a relatively small segment of the population that's been that successful.
For the rest, it's a struggle to find a foothold, even if you manage to become partnered and make a little bit of money. Some are trying to make it a full-time job, others, such as myself, do it strictly as a hobby. Many though have unrealistic expectations of what's going to happen and fail to understand how much work it takes to grow a successful gaming channel.
I wanted to talk about this because Jon recently made a decision to make the chat in his stream subscriber-only, meaning those who aren't subscribed to his stream can watch, but they can't actively participate in the chat. It wasn't an easy decision for him to make, but he laid out his decision in a VOD (video on demand) on his Twitch profile that was well-thought out and helped me understand why he was making his decision.
It's easy for me to be okay with it though. I've been subscribed to his stream since he was partnered last summer and will stay subscribed as long as he continues to stay active with it. Yet I can understand why those who were unable (or unwilling) to subscribe might find this upsetting; Jon's chat is one of my favorite parts of the stream. I've known many of the active members since I started watching him 2 years ago and they've been a tremendous help anytime I've had a computer-related question or issue.
However, it may hurt his audience in the short-term as people are turned off by the notion of not being able to chat unless being subbed. His decision is sound though.
I won't get into too much detail about why he made the decision, but he essentially has a one year time frame to grow the channel or he may have to walk away. For more details, you're going to want to watch this as he lays it out clearly and even gets a little emotional about 30 minutes in, which was very touching and clearly was touching towards the people watching him live.
This post isn't just about that kind of decision. I fully support any streamer that makes a decision that they think is best for their channel. As Jon said, you can still watch the stream at high quality for free, you just can't chat unless you sub. I know other streamers have either made their chat sub-only permanently or have select sub-only streams.
No, this post is about how difficult it really is to operate a stream or gaming channel and grow. A good portion of people who watch have no clue how much work goes into it, how much money these people are investing in this. Some have put thousands of dollars of their own money into PC/recording/editing equipment in exchange for only getting a few hundred follows (or subscribers on YouTube).
The first problem is there are a TON of people trying to record and stream right now. The idea of putting your gameplay up on the internet caught on a few years ago and has exploded recently as the tools to do so have become relatively affordable. Most anyone with a decent PC can download recording software for under $50, a microphone for under $100, and OBS (streaming software) for free and get up and running with YouTube and/or Twitch (or any other streaming service that's available).
Many see the bigger names apparently raking in the money and think that they can do the same. They start streaming/uploading their games and wait for the views/follows/likes/subs to start rolling in. When the success isn't instantaneous, many just stop out of the blue and cease video production. They learn it isn't as simple as recording or streaming some gameplay, that there's actual work involved.
Yes, it takes work to put out high quality videos and streams. You have to have a machine capable of maintaining a good frame rate while recording/streaming, good internet for uploading your content, and some artistic ability to create overlays and such. For YouTube, you need to be able to at the very least do basic editing and be able to create decent thumbnails. For Twitch, the overlay is more important. It also helps to have a web cam, a "bot" to handle advance chat options, and a good set of moderators once you become more popular.
It's a lot of work and it's very time consuming for most, which often leads to people becoming burned out when the growth isn't as fast as they would have hoped.
Let's be honest. If you put hundreds of hours of work into your channel and you weren't seeing any growth, you'd probably become frustrated and wonder why you should even bother to continue going forward. For me, this isn't really an issue. I'm not doing this full-time and have no plans or aspirations of doing it full-time. It's strictly a hobby and nothing else.
But for people like Jon who are trying to make it work full-time, lack of growth can become increasingly frustrating as time goes on. You start to wonder why you're even bothering and the pressure to do better makes the games themselves less fun.
I've seen it with Jon. He doesn't appear to be having as much fun as he did a year ago. The pressure of trying to get his channel to grow has been wearing on him for a while and once you get in a funk, it becomes very difficult to break out of it if things don't turn around quickly. I'll give Jon credit for fighting through it, but it's not easy to do and he seems to be hard on himself, which isn't a bad quality at all.
Most people don't think about playing games as being stressful, they don't think it can burn you out, but in reality, if it's what you're doing to try and earn a living, it becomes a job, and jobs can become stressful no matter how "fun" they might be.
Imagine you HAVE to stream or upload videos 4-5 days a week, every week, and if you don't, you lose your audience. Imagine if you miss a couple of days, people stop watching your content and never come back. Imagine if your audience wants you to play certain games in order to stick around.
It can become pretty stressful very quickly, and that's without the rude viewers who show up simply to harass you until you finally ban them, only to have them sign up under new names and continue the assault. Imagine if people are telling you awful things about your content, or worse, you and/or people you know.
Now, it's not necessarily going to be always be that bad, but it could happen and I've seen a few people give up YouTube/streaming because they couldn't handle the noise. I've seen people burn out because the pressure of keeping up daily content became too much for them to handle, or they actually got sick of playing games and trying to keep them interesting.
I myself, even only doing YouTube on occasion and just starting up with streaming, have grown tired at times of it. I burned out on Minecraft a while back and have struggled to consistently get back into it even with new updates pushing across recently.
My reasons are more due to having a 40 hour work schedule and a two year old I'm often chasing when I'm off work. It leaves me a small window at night to do my recordings/streams, and often I'm just tired and don't have the energy to make content, which sounds absurd since it's not the most strenuous thing in the world.
But trust me, it isn't that easy. You have to be into the game you're playing, be up to recording/streaming it, and if you record it, you have to have the motivation to sit and edit the footage into something interesting. If you're like me, you also have to go through and do noise removal because you have a noisy PC fan, which adds to the process. Then you have to wait for the render to finish up, compress it (if the file is big), and upload it with a description and thumbnail ready-made.
It's time-consuming, and when you don't have a lot of time, it can make you feel a little pressure to go a little faster, which sometimes leads to mistakes.
It's why I am constantly telling people who have no kids and can afford to work on videos full-time to appreciate it and enjoy it as much as you can. That time isn't always there forever and before you know it, you're trying to do as much work in a smaller window of opportunity, which can deter you as well.
I know I've made it sound like a chore, but it's still something that I enjoy doing. I don't have the same time as others, and I certainly don't have the same resources, but I make the most of what I have and when I do record/stream, I try to enjoy it as much as possible.
For example, my third stream was me playing "Goat Simulator." I didn't have many viewers (in fact, I don't think it went above 3 at any point and virtually no one chatted with me), but I enjoyed the hell out of the game regardless and if anyone did watch, they got to see me run around with an NPC glitching into my goat most of the time. I eventually gave the character the name of Jerry and turned it into a game of "what can we do with Jerry next."
My next stream was "Borderlands," which garnered me a few more views (as high as 10), and a new follower and again I enjoyed it despite not garnering a lot of attention.
But it can be frustrating for those who want to see their channel and brand grow and make something of it.
Live streaming and recording your gameplay has become a very popular thing to do over the last couple of years. While some have become successful, many struggle to retain viewers. Here's to hoping if you're considering jumping in you keep your expectations reasonable.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
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