The moment that John Hopstad first descended into the virtual world of Dark Souls in 2013, his goal was to save a dying world. The game is renowned for its brutal and demanding gameplay, Dark Souls is a popular game to stream live: if you're likely to die many times over, then you may even end up with a digital business to ease the mood. What Hopstad did not know was that this would be the start of an even more difficult journey to make connections with other people. Hopstad has been streaming his content to almost no one over the past two years. he's not all on his own in this endeavor.
Twitch is the most popular live streaming platform where people play games, create crafts, and share their everyday lives, is home to over two million broadcasters every month. This number is growing every year due to the ease it has become to live stream and also platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have also been encouraging users to share and share live videos. With the push of the button on your gaming console or phone you can share what you're doing at the exact moment with friends and strangers alike. The rise of well-known (and profitable) influencers on platforms like YouTube and Twitch is also making the notion of becoming an influencer on the internet aspirational. Some parents have noticed that their kids pretend to unbox toys to a nonexistent audience and teachers say that their students frequently say they would like to pursue YouTubing? as a profession. But when seemingly everyone wants to capture footage or live stream, who ends up watching the video content?
When seemingly everyone wants to take footage or to streaming live, which one actually ends up watching the footage?
A career in the world of platforms such as Twitch often involves broadcasting to no one. Discoverability is an issue When you sign up to Twitch the most prominent users are those who already have a large following. While there are tools available to locate less well-known streamers however, the majority of streamers who start out with no audiences built-in from other platforms, or supportive friends and family are left staring at a big, big zero on their counter of viewership. This lonely live stream purgatory could last for a few days, months, weeks, or even years, based on the luck of the draw. According to those who have gone through it, being without an audience is one of the most demoralizing things you can experience online.
"It's very exhausting to play to an empty space every day with no results," one Redditor wrote on a now-deleted thread on the r/Twitch channel.
"It's extremely difficult to stay positive when doing this 5 days a week when it feels like nobody drops by," another Redditor wrote in a separate thread, after having spent months streaming with no one. "I've come to the conclusion that streaming doesn't work for me."
"Been streaming on and off for 4years and every time I come back I go months where for the majority of time, I'm streaming to just one," another Redditor wrote. "It's tough."
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Sean Burke, a streamer who spent a full month broadcasting popular games like Overwatchwithout any viewers He says it's easy to get carried away in the event that no one attends your broadcast. "It was sometimes depressing," says Burke, who managed to stream live throughout.
If live streaming is an option one, the person in front of the camera is what is being produced. Although there are things that you can learn and master the quality of your live streamer will depend on how many people love you or find you interesting. "I [initially] kept internalizing the viewership figures to mean it was me who had the problem and that I didn't have enough humor, that I wasn't good enough in games." After an entire year of dedication, he estimates that he is now getting approximately 10 viewers at a time per stream.
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Lacking an audience is one that of the worst experiences you can experience online.
The veteran streamers usually have a list of talking points available to assist newcomers, and I've seen it repeated several times across various social media platforms. It goes like this be yourself. Enjoy yourself. Create a schedule and adhere to it. Make sure you have a proper technical setup. Make sure you practice your commentary and also speak out your thoughts. Play games that aren't oversaturated by 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 fans have to keep their virtual pets active. Get on social media and share your stream. Network by joining other people's streams and becoming friends with them. The most difficult advice to follow is that streamers who are aspiring need to be active at all times even when no one is watching, just in case someone happens to appear.
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"Think of it as if you're taping an interview show, and you're the host." Neon_Nazgul, a Redditor, posted in a thread that offered suggestions to frustrated streamers. "Sometimes there's an audience in the studio or you're recording something the audience will watch later." Although this is real, it's also one of the reasons that streaming without a significant audience so hard in the first place. It's an isolated practice where you have to pretend you're listening to someone, but have no idea of how long it might be before the person shows up, or if they ever will.
Broadcasters can follow all the conventional advice and still not gain much of their following, which is being lost among other hopeful streamers. Many end up using schemes that give an appearance of success: you can pay for bots to fill your stream, thereby pushing you higher in the Twitch directory or collaborate with other marginal streamers in order to increase their subscriber numbers in "follow4follow" groupings. Streamers also create broadcasts in which their sole purpose is to let hundreds of people beg each other to join their chat. More often than not it isn't working for everyone who gets a genuine viewer , even though the statistics suggest otherwise.
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"I attempted the Follow4Follow strategy... but no one ever did the next step and watched my channel," Twitch user Flummoxkid says. "Nothing except a handful of hollow follower. Even the streamers who created the F4F channels I followed did a 180-degree turn and attempted to become legitimate after they made partner and they have a very low number of viewers. I was foolish enough to think that people would reciprocate their favor."
Despite the psychologically demanding nature of trying to get noticed on Twitch there are some who persist despite the harsh criticism of the one. There are a variety of reasons why they do this: some people I spoke believed that sharing their games is so simple, they should take advantage of it if they're already playing an online game. "It's better than sitting in a dark room by myself in silence," wrote Twitch user jostlingjoe, in an Reddit discussion about how to handle having no viewers.
A lot of people are searching for something different. A streamer that I talked with who stayed for three months without a viewership, MaverickRPDM, says that they continued to stream live games with no viewers because they saw it as a form of self-improvement. "Streaming has made me more interesting and sharp-witted and more outgoing and extrovert," MaverickRPDM says. "It has made me feel more comfortable being me and, as a result, has helped me become more authentic, and more often, and even out of the stream."
Perhaps the biggest motivator for people who stream for extended durations without viewers is the possibility of meeting like-minded people."The reason I started streaming was that I was searching for human connections," said Richard Szelesy the streamer who has been mostly broadcasting games with the minuscule amount of viewers. Szelesy says he grew up being lonely, and mainly spending time in front of the glow of a computer. "[I streamed ] to escape sadness and loneliness," he said. Although he's mostly streaming without an audience, from time to time an unintentional person will pass by and then stay. Even if this person never comes back -- and they usually do not -- the tiny spark of light is sufficient to help keep Szelesy moving forward.
"I was sort of seeking connections with other people."
"Weirdly being an adult, I have an easier time making romantic connections than meeting new acquaintances," Szelesy says. "I wouldn't even know where to start! Do I go up to an uninvolved person and say "Yo, do you like Dark Souls?'" Twitch also gives a way to eject himself from disgruntled 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 spent long hours streaming with no one, says that he's a social democrat who believes in the minimum wage, and Twitch gives him an outlet to talk about his beliefs that he doesn't have in real life. "I'm not a social person so I don't seek out opportunities to engage in discussions such as message boards, particularly things like politics, I'm comfortable being able to go through the day without speaking or engaging with anyone," Hopstad said. "Twitch certainly has helped me to break through my hermit personality, but I'm thinking I'm becoming more comfortable with being completely alone for the rest the time."
While the barrenness without any viewers Twitch may be depressing, some who stick with it are happy that they succeeded. Many streamers remember exactly when their countdown of views was able to go between zero and one.
"The first time I watched, it was almost bizarre," Szelesy said. "Twitch is designed to help those with a good reputation which means that if someone comes across you, they were looking and thought you might be the kind of person they'd like to watch. Although these interactions or views don't always lead to even follows, let alone deeper connections, it's always kinda cool, cause hey they found me in my hidden little area and decided to meet up."
After months of being without an viewers, finally getting people to view you can be a bit nerve-wracking as thrilling. You prepare for it, sometimes for hours ,and now it's time to show. Someone's on the other end. They're here to help you. What can you do?
"I recall my very first viewer and how it went down," said Reddit user TheWhiteLatino69 TheWhiteLatino69, a streamer, initially started broadcasting on Twitch to get through a rough time. At the beginning, TheWhiteLatino? broadcasted without an audience in order to create the impression that the appearance of hanging out with other people. "I streamed Subnautica for 0 viewers of course and I glanced over at the chat room to get a 'hey. It was then that it suddenly hit me, I wasn't by myself anymore, I had some eyes watching me. I began to feel more nervous as the stream progressed and I was nervously chatting with the other viewers. It's one thing to pretend you're talking to someone and another to actually be talking to a person ... [It] really threw a wrench into me."
Based on my conversations 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 bottles into the ocean. Perhaps someone will discover the bottle. Perhaps the bottle is at the bottom of the sea. We all play the game in our own ways when we reach out online, whether using Tinder or using a hashtag to look for other people who share the same preferences. Perhaps we feel more isolated than ever or we might meet individuals who are able to make anything worth it.
Lolimdivine A Redditor who says they've spent around eight months streaming and not interacting with one, but they're thrilled with the community they've created after getting over that initial bump.
"My regulars and I constantly talk about our lives and we know a lot about one another," lolimdivine said. "It's like we're our own internet family, honestly. I view these people as my family and not just as just viewers. We are welcoming people with open arms from all around the world, and we recall things about those who only visit every month. It's truly amazing that Twitch can help people overcome loneliness or friend groups." A lot of streamers I talked to told me that they began to become interested in Twitch when they discovered a person that kept them entertained during an emotional time, such as the loss of a beloved one.
Khryn_Tzu, a Twitch streamer who stayed for months without a single viewer and is approaching their one year anniversary on Twitch. It's an important date, because without Twitch Khryn_Tzu would not have met a particular viewers.
"Lots of days without viewers, I just doing my thing, and learned the best practices, and I am" Khryn_Tzu stated. "Then it happened. There was one audience. They continued to watch. They didn't even say anything for a few streams, but they kept coming back. One night, I needed to go AFK and I put on some Metallica. Then out comes a song that says 'Good selection of music. I love Metallica.' It was such an exhilarating sensation to have someone unknown to me with me for my content. It was a difficult to convince."
Many dream of having an audience in the thousands, this one person was the one who made all the difference in Khryn_Tzu's story. "We began talking, and then began chatting, and she made sure that she was welcoming everyone and talking to them too when people would show up," says Khryn_Tzu. "Soon people started staying... and it was more than that too. The viewers who come in? They become your friends. Sometimes more. https://notes.io/qjQcz watched? We're now dating and I could not be more happy."
Most people don't end with a partner on Twitch However, for lots of others, that's not the intention.
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