Discuss

Thoughts on Twitch streamers who have no audience?

Do you think it's sad?

They deserve it for being leeches

Those who have those ridiculous overlays while at 0 viewers are pretty sad.

Yea. I mean why even play games if no one is watching.

>click one
>"HEY [user] THANKS FOR TUNING IN"
>Feel too guilty to leave

>tfw no viewers
>tfw no overlay
>tfw literally nothing

I make a living from Twitch. Nothing major but enough to get by. Whenever I stream ends, I always host a stream with like 10 or less viewers that I like. People who don't use facecam for views or play meme games.

It's nothing major, but the people who get it are always thankful and freak out to even get just 100 viewers.

And those people would never get anything if they didn't try. If they're having fun, then no I don't think k they're sad at all

I stream my singleplayer playthroughs, no overlay or commentary, I could care less that there's no concurrent viewers. I'm simply sharing a hobby in a format I enjoy to watch and from time to time someone actually shows up and watches it, like a live youtube video, so it's enough for me.
I mean, if I'm playing and I can stream simultaneously, why not?

I know this feeling exactly. I don't want to leave and them try to talk to me and get no response in chat :(

I wonder how they even grow an audience. getting the first couple concurrent numbers at sub 50 is usually the hardest. anyone feel like streamers just grow in just a snap of a finger?

Those are some loyal fans you have there if you have 100 of them and you make a living off of it

Honestly I think some niggers just bot until they get enough numbers. Many people tag on streams simply because there's a big number of viewers.

Nothing turns me away from a stream and is more pathetic than a tiny ass streamer (like less then 100 followers) tries his hardest to be a "big" guy. Epic gaming chair, $300 mic, banners and overlays he paid someone to make

Probably speedrunning. Speedrun Mario, Dark Souls or Zelda or any other memegame and you get at least 50 viewers. Be good at it and talk with your chat. After you get 2-300 viewers and the first few people 'know' you, you can switch to other games after a few speedruns. Increase the time you spend on other games every few weeks.

I know at least 5 streamers who did exactly that and it worked out.

i want to start streaming my devil daggers runs and get a handcam

i dont care if nobody watches, streaming is just fun for me regardless

Only if they're trying to turn this into some sort of career, like they did some study and have a sort of tick box list for easy success.

If they're just playing games, no I don't think it's sad at all.

>tfw one guy showed up for my lord of arcana stream
I'm basically verified and rich now

This. Hobbyists are infinitely more respectable than people who are trying to make a career out of something like streaming video games.

These people just don't get that with an industry like streaming, you have to start it out as just a hobby and see if you get lucky enough to build an audience from there. Trying to force it by pretending to be something you're not right off the bat literally never works.

>stream something
>one person joins the stream
>they ask me to say something
>as soon as they hear my voice they leave

Please subscribe to my blog

this
One of my friends started streaming and took it super seriously, honestly thought that he would make it big from being lol streamer #1537
That alone pushed me away from streaming until I started doing it myself, I just play games live and type back to whoever talks in chat.

Everyone has to start somewhere. The trick is to just be consistent but also entertaining. You have to provide content that people will want to stick around for. You can tell who's trying to make twitch their "career" when they have 0-10 viewers at most but have all these crazy overlays and notifications and shit. You can ask any big time streamer, they all pretty much started and grew at the same pace where as they peaked at like 20 viewers for many months before going anywhere. Some people think it happens overnight and they're wrong. Also not everyone is cut out for streaming. Having charisma, a personality and being entertaining all play a role. You can't just sit there in dull silence playing your game and expect anyone to want to hang around. Facecams apparently help but again if you're just going to sit there looking like a zombie and talking in a monotone voice the entire time you can't expect people to want to come in and have a good time.

The pic you posted are the ones I think are sad. You can tell he's streaming for the sole purpose of trying to make a living off of it. You can't approach it with that mindset. If it's going to happen, it will. These people are the ones trying to force it.

>TFW Seeing multiple friends on my Facebook feed begging posting their Twitch steams and asking people to watch them

>go to university
>graduate
>salaried for £28,000 first year
>slaray £42,000 by year 3
>4 years later left old job and now salaried for £67,000
I work 4 days a week with 2 of them being from home.
Stay in school, you'll never make it as a streamer.

people who are clearly desperate to start a career out of it are pretty sad, yeah.
but you get the odd guy who just does it after work just for fun and there's nothing really wrong with that

I'm that guy who just does it after work.

No one watches me, either. Can't really say I'm having fun sitting by myself so far, but I'll keep at it for a few more weeks.

Try not to think so heavily about your viewer count. Just see your stream as simply an option for people to hang around if they want. If anyone shows up, it's just a bonus. If you sit there and worry so much about "playing by yourself" you're going to give up before anything even has a chance to get started. You're not just gonna take off in the blink of an eye. If you weren't streaming you'd still be playing games "alone" so what difference does it make if it's still just you there despite being live? Also depends what you're playing and for how long too.

Hey, thanks, user. I kinda knew all of that myself, but it helps to have someone else actually say it to you, y'know?

I'll remember you.

If you were just playing you would also be by yourself, at least streaming you have that chance that someone might show up, interact and have fun with you and what you're doing.

I like to give donations to streamers with little viewers

Not everyone can do that. These people are the craving attention type.

If a streamer with small viewer count has a donation button he shouldn't get them.

I'm about to get high and stream some Battle Chef Brigade. Come over and call me a faggot or whatever. I'll enjoy it.

Believe me, you can. IT is full of retards.

lol they never do, i always have to ask them for a link

I know exactly what you mean and you're right. Sometimes we just gotta have someone keep it real with us. I wish you nothing but success and happiness in your streaming adventures. Sorry that sounds gay as fuck.

You're ok user.
Cheering others and wishing them best isn't nowhere close to being a bad thing to do.

I knew a guy who wanted to be a big twitch streamer. He had no followers. In real life he was a huge leech and a big dumbass, he borrowed money for me because like a dumbass he spent all of his money on anime figures and games instead of food, and no one else would lend him a couple hundred bucks. He then got my money back to me many months later, and admitted he probably wouldn't have paid me back at all if he did not get his tax refund cheque. He later tried to profit off of me by trying to sell me game stuff for a huge mark up, as he told me that he had bought this stuff for $5 but he wanted $50 for it (knowing that I had an interest in that stuff). He also regularly asked me to buy him food, which I did a few times because I felt bad for him initially. When I realized how much his poorness and hunger was caused by his own stupidity and need for anime figures I told him to fuck off and never talked to him again.

What do I think of Twitch streamers? Very little indeed.

>I could care less
So you do care?

> go to college
> graduate to 40k job
> 45k next year
> 49k year after
> 58k third year
> next bump gonna be in the 60s-70s

Don't be. The person doing it is actually a piece of shit who is trying to guilt trip you into not leaving his stream. Anyone who does this doesn't deserve to have any viewers in the first place, most likely he has nothing good to show and that is why they resort to that shit.

I don't know for sure, but I think it works this way: 1. pick a somewhat obscure(new) game 2. put in a lot of hours with competent gameplay 3. follow a strict schedule 4. you now have a fanbase however small that'll stick by you unless you go full retard lazy

I know four separate build that throughout hte last few years have done this and last I checked they all had viewers in at least the hundreds.

Mistype but actually yes, I could care less. Tabbing in to see if anyone sent a message and see the same blank space in chat does hit me more than it should. I guess I'm really craving social interaction.

>Go to college
>Grad program starting sal of $68k including super benefits
>4 years in, now on about $85k

That's not even with promotions, just progression at my level. Once this round of semesters studies are over, I really want to pick up a side gig.

Realistically, what would be the chances of twitch streaming pushing my current sal over 100k (so essentially $15k earnings pa) in a couple of years? It's either that or taking up a part time side job, which I'd prefer not to. It'd be great if I could diversify that income from other sources related to content creation, but I know it'd take time. Luckily, work is pretty flexible and doesn't really care what I do outside it, and the hours are really good.

This.

Not that guy, but it's not completely unheard of. I followed a podcast for years that eventually began streaming and using Patreon, and while there were only around 200 or so people following from every stream and show, that same 200 people were all either patrons or active donators and that was enough to get the show over $12000/month, enough to pay for most of the living expenses for several hosts.

Are you talking about the Dick Show?

>tfw streamed on jtv gaming when there wasn't thousands of channels
>tfw still only got 14 viewers
Feels bad man

but that is what ALL the top streamers say to do

be yourself
interact with your audience
etc etc etc

its just that there are SO MANY PEOPLE doing the same shit your doing too, no matter what your playing.

popular games are shit for views, even if your good, your unknown. i think the worst ones though is when you are playing a game and then someone like Lirik is playing it too. its up on the front page and he has like 99.9% of all the games viewers and he is doing shit all.

0%

if you can't stream 5 days a week for 8 hours, like a normal job, you won't make anything. just forget it and keep your stupidly rich, overpaying, probably gov't job.

this

and that was back when like NO ONE fucking streamed games. i guess it is right place right time and "being entertaining" somehow.

tl;dr
it will never happen for any of us
still don't know how dr respect did it either sans persona because now, you can't do that without being a copycat or some shit.

that's why you've got to have some kind of edge or gimmick over them.
the easiest one i can think of is just being really good at the games you play

I was referencing Laser Time, the site born from the slow, painful death of Gamesradar. I'm aware that the Dick Show had a similar story, but I only know of it through other podcasts that have mentioned it.

>the easiest one i can think of is just being really good at the games you play
What if you're above average player but not speedrunner tier? I mean shit, I can play plenty of games well but I'm no speedrunner in any of them

You mean game, variety streamers are all bad at games

pretend that you don't care about viewers, talk about nothing at all or very rarely till 10+ viewers, start talking to yourself occasionally about what you're doing after that, don't try to engage viewers unless they engage you first

What kind of backwards autismo logic is this?

Just started 1 week ago. No facecam. average 1 hour a day. Can pull 5 average viewers a stream. That tanked to zero as soon as I started playing long duration games(jrpg). It seems like short duration games are better for twitch until you get a good following. I'll test this out until I finish said jrpg because it's my tradition.

Personally I sometimes stream on either Youtibe/Twitch just to keep footage for myself, I don't like wasting data with recordings and I can shorten my clips via these said sites.

>tfw upload speed is not anywhere near good enough for streaming
I don't think I'd be interesting to watch so I guess it doesn't matter

Sorry, but college is a fucking scam. I'm over 18K in debt and I flunked out my first first. Unless you're a math/programming/C++ prodigy, it's fucking pointless.

I found out the hard way that I just can't do math/programming. I tried cheating my in pre-calc but I just figured it wasn't worth it. I tried taking computer science courses but my teachers were shit. I'm a studio art/history major and I don't know what to do.

Fuck it.

But college is mostly a scam.

**first year**

Typo whatever

>tfw got amazing streaming rig but you can't output any streaming quality worth shit unless you're partnered or have a few hundred viewers

Look user, I'm not going to lie - Uni is challenging. Hell, I had to take prescription drugs just so that I wouldn't be so anxious during the degree. But in the end, I got it.

That said, you don't HAVE to go to college. I did an accounting degree, and though I didn't intend to go into a Government job I got it because it was all that was offered to me at the time.

I won't say it's pointless, though I'd love to go back and do another degree. That said, I want to get money more.

The thing with college/uni is that your mileage may vary. It's all about what industries you want to break into after/during your time there.

>unless you're partnered or have a few hundred viewers
I'm doing 720p and I don't have those and judging from what I read, that's enough.

Did you forget your internet connection has to be good enough too?

i stream dota occasionally (on average probably anywhere from 1-4 times a month) and manage to get somewhere around 15 viewers on average and it really helps if you have a "main" game and are actually good at it. i could probably pull more if i streamed at reasonable times and every day but i don't really care about that since its just for fun as dota gets real shitty sometimes

Yeah that's true, people should just be themselves and shit but it just comes off as trying too hard too quick.

>Unless you're a prodigy
Did you expect to be super good at something the first time you did it? You have to practice, idiot. Study and work at shit and actually challenge yourself to improve. Maybe it wasn't for you, but maybe you were just a baby who didn't try hard enough because you thought it was too hard.

I switched from music to marketing to English to cs through out college. I quit music because it was too hard because I didn't want to fucking practice.

Internet connection is no issue for me either. My rig can output a stream of 1440p at 60fps without breaking a sweat. The problem is that if I decide to stream at that resolution, then Twitch will lock the stream to that with no option to downscale the stream for anyone watching, unless you're partnered with Twitch or get a few hundred viewers consistently. What you're forced to do in that case is to downscale your stream drastically to 720p30fps if you ever hope to get any viewers since not that many viewers can actually watch a 1440p60fps stream.

Youtube is a better platform in this case since it will allow these resolutions at no extra charge and it also allows higher bitrate than Twitch, but Youtube won't bring in the views.

>Unless you're a math/programming/C++ prodigy, it's fucking pointless.
>I tried cheating my in pre-calc but I just figured it wasn't worth it
Nigga did you even study? Pre-calc is not even that hard. Though honestly, you may have just chose the wrong major for yourself. You could have gone to a community college first as it is cheaper and then discover what you liked learning first rather falling for the "I HAVE TO DO STEM" meme.

>Only does stepmania

I can see why.

You know Sup Forums can help each other out by following and hosting each other.

>tfw I can't decide between reenlisting in the military to continue to have a steady job and just take a couple classes with TA or go to school full time

I never thought this choice would be so goddamn difficult.

idk twitch is home to some of the most cancerous personalities just being ego fed constantly so its fine if they need a reality check.

I like you, user

Just make a decision that feels right for you and gets you to where you want to go (ie acts as a stepping stone).

Connections and/or luck is all it comes down to.

>be 23
>graduate 2.83 culm GPA
>no internships, etc
>58k first job
>live in own apartment

What y'all fucking doing?

Is there anyone in this thread that works minimum wage too? Literally how do you guys fucking do it, I can never make enough to afford even one $60 game, ever.

The ego thing is all too true. A lot of streamers definitely see themselves on a higher plane of existence than others.

Accounting degree?
Did you go public?
Are you afraid for January?
CPA?

>smart enough
>literally can get hired today if I want to
>$50k range and goes higher after a year or two
>stem job: easy/menial to even boring for the industry
But I'm an autist however 2018 is the year I'll push myself to become a normie. Wish me luck

For the record, I've been at community college for 4 years now to get myself together. Studio Art/History degrees will have to make do for me because others are out of the question. No I'm not a STEM major but that's only because the profs are fucking hacks and don't teach the damn material properly.

What's "TA"?

even the ones with audiences used to not have audiences. So not really?

>Accounting degree?
Yes
>Did you go public?
No, got gubmint work
>Are you afraid for January?
Hell no!
>CPA?
Yes, but it's not the American CPA - it's the aussie one. The american CPA equiv in Aus is CA- but in my job, they dont really care if you have either. Hell, they don't really care if you have one!

The Aus CPA is still a similar amount of units, over 3 years, but you dont come out with a graduate diploma. Although I could probably do it (I did a unit before and passed), if you want to get the most out of it you really need to be in public accounting at the big four, as their internal training is great for the CA. As it stands, I'll just work on being better at my own job - I feel I'm getting better.

Mind you, government tax work is way different to tax work in the big firms so it's not exactly apples and oranges. Still, there's many great opportunities abounds.

If you can't handle entry level computer science courses and high school level math you're an idiot, don't blame the college.

I can do whatever I fucking want and you don't know the teachers at my school.

>All this garbage
>posting fucking meme cartoon
>/r/eddit

People probably noped as soon as they saw his fursona wearing a Dark Magician girl outfit..

Not him but the problem with programming courses or anything related is your professors or teachers assume you're good in math or really have an inkling for it so some average guy will be fucked if he didn't strive harder. However this actually relates to everything and a bit of advice. If you know you're average, study in advance. It's not a crime to study in advance.

the 3 times I had viewers were for 2 of them I was high-ranked and the other one I had early access. Don't do it for money lmao, also do youtube videos if you want lots of views. I was averaging 5k from my guides/gameplay.

>cheating in precalc
>flunked out

absolute brainlet. Just join the Navy so you can have an awesome career without even trying

Who cares?
Let them do what they enjoy
Same with youtubers who get hardly any views on their videos
If they have a good time, it's worth it
Plus if you're sitting playing video games, there's no real reason not to stream it if you think about it, it takes no extra effort and maybe someone somewhere will enjoy it

but yes like this, all the overlays and promotion shit is fucking dumb when you're not going anywhere yet. do that shit only after you get partner, if you even get it.

i've left the stream open in another tab or minimized so they still get the happiness of that 1 view symbol but i don't have to watch it

>fucking hacks and don't teach the damn material properly
user, I really think the problem is you. Give math and computer science another chance except don't take classes for it. Try learning the fundamentals on your own time. There are a ton of free resources online now. Though if you already have come to the conclusion that you aren't cut out for it then I guess that is that.

>Drop out of college after two years
>25 now
>Grossed 80k burger dollars this year
>Most of my time on the clock I'm just browsing Sup Forums
Moral of the story is that plans are fucking stupid, adaptability is key

Idk dude, honestly I miss the military most days (except when my friends have bullshit layouts or recall formations) but getting out was the right choice for me. I would say if you don't intend to do 20-30, get out asap and start building the rest of your life

Wait what?

What kind of job do you have?

>Watch my own stream so it looks like I have 1 viewer

>put all my free time into streaming
>buy new pc parts to handle it
>setup lighting, greenscreen, make art
>stream for half my day
>enjoying it so far even though I average 2 viewers
don't feel bad for people with zero viewers. either they'll realize they fucking blow or they will get viewers. though you always see people saying they've been streaming for like 3 years or more and have like 1 viewer, you check out their channel and it looks like a fuckin cringe thread with a donation button.