The moment that John Hopstad first descended into the virtual world of Dark Souls in 2013, his purpose was to save a dying world. The game is renowned by its violent and gruelling gameplay, Dark Souls is a favorite game to stream live: if you're going to be killed many times over, then you might as well perish with some digital business to ease the mood. What Hopstad did not realize was that this was the start of an even more difficult process to make connections with people. Hopstad has been streaming his content to almost no one in the past two years. isn't all on his own in this endeavor.
Twitch is the most popular live streaming platform where people play games, create art, and show off their day-to-day lives, attracts over two million viewers every month. The number grows each year, thanks to the ease it has become to live stream and also platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have also been encouraging people to share and watch live streams. By pushing the button on your gaming console or phone you can broadcast whatever you're doing at that exact moment with friends and strangers alike. The rise of well-known (and lucrative) influencers on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch has made the concept of being an influencer on the internet aspirational. Some parents have noticed that their kids pretend to open boxes of toys to a nonexistent audience and that teachers have reported that their students frequently say they would like to explore YouTubing? as a career. However, when everyone seems to want to take video or stream live the content, who actually watches the content?
When seemingly everyone wants to take footage or to the live streaming, but who actually ends up watching the footage?
A career in the world of platforms such as Twitch typically means spending some time broadcasting to no one. It is a problem of visibility: when you log into Twitch, the most visible streamers are those that already have a large following. Although there are tools to find streams that aren't well-known However, those who start out with no audiences built-in from other platforms or supportive friends and family are left gazing at a large, fat zero on their viewership count. This lonely live stream purgatory could last from several days, months, weeks, or even years, depending on the luck of the draw. According to people who have experienced it, being without an audience is among the most miserable things that you will experience on the internet.
"It's very exhausting to play to an empty room day in and day out with no results," one Redditor wrote on a thread now deleted on r/Twitch.
"It's difficult to remain optimistic when you're doing this 5 days a week when it seems like no one drops by," another Redditor wrote in a different thread after having spent months streaming to nobody. "I've realized that streaming just isn't working for me."
"Been streaming intermittently for fouryears and every time I return, I have weeks during which the majority of the time, I'm streaming to just anyone," another Redditor wrote. "It's tough."
Sean Burke, a streamer who was broadcasting games of the day like Overwatchwithout an audience He says it's easy to be taken personally when nobody turns up to your broadcast. "It was disheartening at times," says Burke, who managed to stream live through it all.
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If live streaming is an option and the person who is behind the camera is the product. Although there are things that you can learn and master, your popularity as a streamer is determined by whether or not people like them or find you fascinating. "I [initially] kept internalizing the viewership numbers to mean that I was the issue and that I was not funny enough, or that I wasn't good enough at games." After a year of hard work, he estimates that he is now getting about 10 viewers concurrently per stream.
Lacking an audience is one that of the worst things you can experience online.
The veteran streamers usually have lists of talking points on-hand to help out newbies, one I've seen repeated many times across social media platforms. The way to do it is be yourself. Have some fun with it. Set a schedule and stick to it. You must ensure you have a well-constructed technical set-up. Practice your commentary, and then speak your thoughts. Try playing games that aren't crowded with other streamers. Trick your live stream out with plug-ins and overlays that can make it more enjoyable for the viewers, such as mini-games where viewers have to keep their virtual pets active. Get on social media and tell people about your stream. Join other streams and becoming their friends. However, the most difficult thing to follow is that an aspiring streamer needs to be performing every day, even if nobody is watching, in case someone happens to appear.
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"Think of it as if you're taping the talk show as the host," Redditor Neon_Nazgul posted in a post offering tips to streamers who are frustrated. "Sometimes there's an audience in the studio and other times you're filming something that viewers will see later." While https://coderwall.com/p/imn5pw/7-reasons-you-are-not-streaming-on-twitching-effectively is true, it's also a part of what makes streaming without a significant audience so difficult to begin with. It's a solitary practice where you must pretend that there's a person listening, but with no idea of how the time will be until the person arrives, or if they ever will.
Broadcasters may follow all the standard advice but not build a fan base, getting lost among other streamers hoping to make it. Some end up turning to schemes that give the appearance of success You can pay bots to fill your stream, thus pushing you up the Twitch directory, or team up with other marginal streamers in order to boost each other's subscriber numbers through "follow4follow" groupings. Streamers also create broadcasts in which the sole goal is to allow hundreds other people beg each other to join conversations. More often than not it isn't working for everyone in the process, since no one is gaining a real viewers, even though the statistics suggest otherwise.
"I attempted the Follow4Follow strategy... But no one did the next step and checked my channel out," Twitch user Flummoxkid states. "Nothing other than a few hollow follower. Even the streamers who created the F4F channels I followed made a 180, and then tried to get legitimate once they signed a partnership, but they barely get any viewers. I was naive enough to think that people would reciprocate their favor."
Despite the psychologically demanding aspect of trying to get noticed on Twitch Some users persist despite the harsh criticism of the zero. There are a variety of reasons why they do this Some of the people I talked to believe that sharing games is so straightforward, that they should play it while playing games. "It's more enjoyable than being in a dark, dark room alone with no one else around," wrote Twitch user jostlingjoe on a Reddit discussion about the best way to handle having no viewers.
Some, however, are looking for something more. The streamer I talked to who was without an audience, MaverickRPDM, says that they continued to stream live games with zero viewers because they considered it a way of self-improvement. "Streaming has made me more fascinating and quick-witted and more outgoing and extrovert," MaverickRPDM says. "It has made me feel more comfortable being me and by virtue of that it has allowed me to be more me, more often, even outside from the streams."
One of the main reasons for those who stream for prolonged periods of time without a viewers is the chance to meet people who are like-minded people."The reason I began streaming was that I was looking for connections with other people," said Richard Szelesy, a streamer who has been mostly broadcasting high-end games to zero viewers. Szelesy admits that he was a kid being lonely, and mainly being at the computer in front of computers. "[I streamed ] to escape sadness and loneliness," he said. Although he's mostly streaming with no audience, occasionally someone will wander in and stay. Even if that person never comes back -- and they often do not -- the tiny spark can be enough to keep Szelesy going.
"I was kind of looking for human connections."
"Weirdly as an adult, I have a much easier time making romantic connections than meeting new friends," Szelesy says. "I don't know where to start! Do I go up to a random person and go 'Yo, you are a fan of Dark Souls?'" Twitch also gives an option to remove himself from people who are not agreeable to him. "[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 spent years streaming mostly to nobody, claims that he's a social democrat who cares about the minimum wage, and Twitch gives him an outlet to talk about his beliefs which he can't do in real life. "I'm not social, so I don't search for occasions to discuss things such as on message boards, especially stuff such as politics. I'm fine going through a day without talking or interacting or interacting with anybody," Hopstad said. "Twitch certainly has helped me to overcome my introverted character, but I'm beginning to think I'm becoming more comfortable with being completely alone for the remainder the time."
While wandering through the wasteland with no users on Twitch isn't pleasant but those who stay to it are pleased that they succeeded. Many streamers actually recall exactly the moment when their view counter was able to go between zero and one.
"The first viewer felt almost like a dream," Szelesy said. "Twitch is designed to boost those that are established which means that if someone comes across you, they're thinking that you might be someone they wanted to watch. Although these interactions or views don't always lead to even connections, let alone deep relationships, it's usually amazing, since they found me in my secret spot here and decided to meet up."
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After months of having no audience, finally having someone to watch you is nerve-wracking as thrilling. You prepare for it, often for dozens of hours ,and now it's time to show. Someone's on the other end. They're waiting for you. What do you do?
"I am able to recall the first time I was a time watching and when it happened," said Reddit user TheWhiteLatino69, a streamer who initially began streaming on Twitch to ease through the rough times. At the beginning, TheWhiteLatino? broadcasted without an audience to help create the impression that the appearance of hanging out with others. "I was streaming Subnautica with 0 viewers and then I glanced over at the chatroom to look for the occasional 'hey. It was then that it all the sudden hit me, I was no longer alone I noticed that there were eyes watching me. I began to feel more nervous as the stream progressed and I was nervously chatting with them. It's one thing to act like you're talking to someone , but it's a different thing to actually talk to a person ... It really threw a wrench into me."
Based on my conversations with numerous streamers taking that first plunge in the event that you're not certain who will watch it can feel like throwing a message into bottles into the ocean. Perhaps someone will discover it. Perhaps the bottle is at the bottom of the sea. Everyone gambles in their own ways when we reach out online, whether we're swipe right on Tinder or using a hashtag to look for people with similar desires. We might end up feeling more alienated than ever before or perhaps we meet people who value everything. it.
Lolimdivine is a Redditor, who estimates that they've had spent eight months streaming and not interacting with one, says they love the community they've built after they've gotten over the initial hurdle.
"My regulars and me always talk about our lives, and we know a lot about one another," lolimdivine said. "It's as if we've got our own online family of sorts. I see these people as my family and not just as just viewers. We are welcoming people with open arms from all over the world, and keep in mind things about people who can only stop by once a month. It's really an incredible thing that Twitch can help people overcome isolation or friendship groups." Many streamers I spoke to said that they initially began to become interested in Twitch when they discovered a person that kept them entertained during a tough time like grieving the death of a loved one.
Khryn_Tzu, an Twitch streamer who went for weeks with no viewers and is approaching their one-year anniversary on Twitch. It's a crucial date since without Twitch the streamer wouldn't have met a particular viewer.
"Lots of days without viewers. I doing my thing, and learned what works, still am," Khryn_Tzu said. "Then it took place. There was one audience. They stayed. They didn't say anything for a couple of streams however they would come back. Then one night I had the urge to get AFK so I put on Metallica. It was a good choice in music. I like Metallica.' It was a thrilling sensation to have someone unknown to me to stick with me for my content. It had been a hard push."
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While many dream of having an audience of thousands, one person was the one who made an impact on Khryn_Tzu's life. "We began to talk, then started chattering, and she was sure to begin welcoming people and talking to them too when people would show up," says Khryn_Tzu. "Soon people would stay... And it became so much more than that. Who are these viewers that show up? They become your friends. Sometimes more. That first person you saw? We're dating now, and I couldn't be happier."
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A majority of people don't wind with a partner on Twitch, but for plenty of other people, that's not the goal.
