Idle Streaming Community: Twitchy, Tasty

[TychoCelchuuu]

For the list in the OP: I don't have a schedule, and pretty much all I stream is RTS shoutcasts (gameplay commentary), mostly for CoH 2 (Company of Heroes 2).

 

I'm not worried about having a successful channel because I already have a successful YouTube channel and Twitch is just a place for people to watch me record those videos live, but I do get the sense that having a schedule makes it easier on your viewers (I've only streamed like, 3 times and people have already asked me what my schedule is like). I think it helps to have at least a vague schedule (I stream these days) or to have at least one committed time per week (I stream Saturdays at X GMT) even if you don't have a rigorous schedule or anything like that. But then again I am not an expert at this.

[Treasure Goblin]

36 minutes ago, Problem Machine said:

Okeedokee. For the past 5 or 6 people I haven't really had a strong idea what to put for stream content or schedule info under the channel link, so if anyone has any preference what should go there just let me know and I'll edit it in. Also if someone happens to know a way to do this that simultaneously doesn't require constant maintenance from me and isn't especially vulnerable to vandalism, do let me know.

 

So I've been thinking about scheduling, and I know that stable schedule is supposed to be one of the keys to a successful channel, but -- do you think people might be into the idea of a channel that could stream at literally any time on the clock? Because with my sleep issues that's the most likely form any kind of regular streaming would take, and I'm wondering if I could turn those lemons into lemonade. Or maybe I'll take another run at scheduling myself, I was just curious how people would react to a channel that said "streaming schedule: ?????????????"

 

I actually don't mind because that's the way I conduct myself a bit at the moment!  Because we're all in different time zones playing at odd hours sometimes is more beneficial?  It has been for me anyway.  Also when I'm more busy once I'm back to work and study my streaming will be pretty irregular because it will all depend on my workload on any given day.  Regular streaming times are good but at the same time I'm sure there are a lot of people like me who just hop on when they feel like watching a stream and see who is playing at that time.  

[sclpls]

For the OP list: no schedule. I'll be streaming Souls games, roguelikes, mayyyybe some DOTA casting, and at some point I'll stream a Dishonored 2 no powers run.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Oh, just noticed I never added myself. No set time for my stream, and I'm mostly using streams as a fun way to play games I wont otherwise. So I guess the only theme is "first (often somewhat blind) playthroughs."

 

https://www.twitch.tv/superbiasedman

[Feeona]

@Problem Machine

 

Could we do something with a google doc that you'd appoint the people streaming ability to edit the sheet so you wouldn't need to micromanage all the data?  Said sheet can then be linked from the first page.

[evilskillit]

For a bit more info, I don't have any particular schedule either. I don't stream terribly often actually. I work regular day shift hours so it'd be evenings on weekdays and whenever on weekends. But it doesn't really matter to me either. I'm not looking to make this a thing. I just stream for fun and company, and figured this would be a good way to make sure if I do get someone to come hang out it'll be someone decent to talk to.

 

Edit: Streamed some Helldivers last night. Probably a bad game to stream in some respects because it's really hard to look over at chat while you're playing it. But that's what I'm into at the moment. Will probably stream some more at some point this week.

Edited January 4, 2017 by evilskillit
more info

[eRonin]

I borrowed a capture card from my friend and streamed a game from my Wii U for the first time today! I had a bunch of audio issues initially since getting video across was pretty straightforward, but the audio component wasn't quite as straightforward. ALSO I don't recommend using the same monitor to both play the game and manage the stream, haha. I brought my TV into my tiny bedroom to play on but I later tried to see if my laptop could handle a stream and I think it's up to the task, so I think I'd rather go with that. My motivation for streaming my Wii U mostly stems from the fact that hardly anybody has one and so I want to expose more people to some of the cooler games I like on the console. I streamed some Xenoblade X today for about two hours, wherein I immediately realise that the combat is completely impenetrable for anyone who is new to the game. I hadn't played in about half a year and I was definitely kind of shocked with just how full-on it is for a viewer.

 

Anyway the VOD is here if anyone wants to check it out: https://www.twitch.tv/superhiero/v/112797454

[Rilen]

@eRonin Woah! I went to the VOD marker and after a few minutes felt like I needed to sit down, there was so much going on! The game looks great, though, I was commenting that I was not familiar with it and when you had talked about streaming it I weirdly had been picturing Chrono Trigger. Waaay off base.

[Cordeos]

It came up in slack that we should do some Coop streaming. Perhaps establish a set of times, and pick games based on who can make it?

I would love to play some Payday 2, Astroneer, Portal 2, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, L4D2, Borderlands 1 or 2 and Just Cause 3 multiplayer.

I am usually available Sunday-Wednesday evenings CST. I could swing some weekends if this becomes more of a regular thing.

Thoughts?

 

[SuperBiasedMan]

I was also floating the idea of playing a game with people, but I was thinking a tabletop game. A game that's simple to learn and play, like Dungeon World (which folks may have seen on the Waypoint72 stream).

 

I'd only plan on it being a one shot to keep it simple. No idea about scheduling yet, but let me know if you have any interest at all and we can try find a shared time that suits us all. It'd also be very new player friendly, so don't worry if you've never played before.

[Problem Machine]

I could get into a coop thing, though I only have like half of those games. I'm not sure about the logistics of doing a board game stream though.

[SuperBiasedMan]

if you mean the technical logistics, I was planning on streaming footage of our Roll20 game with players' voices on Discord/Skype.

[ratamero]

I was thinking about jumping back into Elite, and have other 3 people to fly around with me would be pretty good! I'm available evenings (GMT/CET) and weekends in general

[Cordeos]

21 minutes ago, ratamero said:

I was thinking about jumping back into Elite, and have other 3 people to fly around with me would be pretty good! I'm available evenings (GMT/CET) and weekends in general

Only reason i didn't say elite was that I am a total noob

[darthbator]

I actually only stream my game development. However I've gotten into the habit of obsessively recording all of my gameplay and I'm posting that stuff basically every day into youtube. I also have a bunch of martial arts stuff up there that's set to private that I've been looking to do something with. I've also long wanted to try and produce some of those neat game analysis videos I see people make using my raw archive footage! So I guess I do more of a "traditional youtube" thing then game streaming. I guess I could get into that too?

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6RSK-HM9v8gQ7D7JzIFG9g

[BillTheCat]

I'm going to stream every Mass Effect game on the weekends starting tomorrow. Time: afternoon Eastern US time. Come hang out http://www.twitch.tv/billthecat  

[Zeusthecat]

I'm hoping to get back into occasionally streaming some of the games I'm playing. Not sure that I've actually streamed anything since some of my LucasArts replays and a Far Cry 2 playthrough a couple years ago so I'm not exactly an experienced entertainer. Right now I'm tentatively planning on being super cliche and streaming some Minecraft with my friend, probably this Friday or Saturday night if I can get the details worked out. If it goes well I'm hoping to take it one step further and stream some of our gameplay while I attempt to play in VR using the Vivecraft mod. I've been meaning to do this for awhile and I'm partially posting this to give myself the kick in the ass I need to follow through and actually do it.

 

Here's my channel if anyone is interested.

https://www.twitch.tv/xxzeusthecatxx

[Problem Machine]

Good, getting our cat count way up here. Added, followed, hosted, etc.

[agorman]

I occasionally do some streaming at twitch.tv/gormanate if anyone is interested in watching me play Dark Souls 2! I'll add and follow you all.

[Zeusthecat]

On 1/18/2017 at 1:34 PM, Problem Machine said:

Good, getting our cat count way up here. Added, followed, hosted, etc.

 

Thanks a lot! I set my stuff up to auto host you as well but I'm not sure if I did it right. I'm not quite fully understanding how team hosting works versus auto hosting or how you even join a team. Anything else I need to do beyond just adding your name to the auto hosting list? 

 

My friend and I managed to successfully stream a couple hours of minecraft last night and I feel like it went pretty okay. I was a bit worried about the volume mix being a little out of whack with us chatting over Skype but OBS seemed to nail everything pretty well at the default settings. On the video side I ended up streaming at 2500 bit rate, 720p/48fps and the quality seemed acceptable but I'm tempted to bump up the resolution and bit rate. Is that still considered fairly standard these days or is it all 1080p/60fps?

 

Looks like we're gonna give it another go tonight here in the next hour and a half or so. We're either gonna venture out from our base on our horses in search of a jungle biome or we'll scour the nether for more nether quartz which we need to finish a temple thingy we are building.

[Problem Machine]

We don't actually have a team set up since a partnered account has to create the team, we're just all mutually following and hosting each other. Maybe eventually one of the thumbs will see fit to create an official thumbTeam, or one of the channels will get big enough to get partnered, or someone with an existing partnered channel will take an interest in our little project.

 

Apparently my streaming a week or so ago ended up weighing a bit heavily on the household bandwidth cap, so I probably won't be able to stream more until next month. Once that rolls around I'm hoping to get an actual schedule going, basically trying to tie all my obligations together to keep me locked into being awake and aware by the early afternoon so I can commit to doing regular things during those hours. Also, though this isn't strictly related to stream stuff, taking a sleep test next week, and what that reveals may also help me stick to a regular schedule, both streaming and otherwise.

 

I can't remember if I've talked about this at all here, but what I'd eventually like to do is do a split gaming/creative stream. Either I'd start the stream with gaming and segue into art, music composition, programming, etc, or I'd have certain days be creative days and other days be gaming days. Ideally I'd like to do something where there's chat interaction, where chat can throw out ideas for music themes or character designs or whatever and I could try to compose/draw/whatever those. It's an idea that is appealing in principle, but I'm not sure if it'd work without a critical mass of audience under it to keep the energy up. Eventually, once I get work flows set up and get more comfortable with an on-stream presence, I might even be able to do live game dev.

[SL128]

Problem solved

[Zeusthecat]

Hey @Problem Machine, I spent some time watching some of your archived Dark Souls 2 Twitch streams and just wanted to echo what others have said. Your commentary while playing is sharp and on point. Great job and keep up the good work!

 

I tried watching some of the more "popular" streams and I honestly can't stand most of them. Too many bros and gimmicky shit seems to be sitting on the top of the pile and I guess I'm too much of an old old man. So I'm going to try to make more of an effort to watch more of the fine work various folks around here are doing.

[Salacious Snake]

I just made a new twitch account to get away from the crappy old username I was stuck with. Now it's my crappy real name!

 

https://www.twitch.tv/jd_cohen

 

I followed everyone in the top post. I'm probably just going to stream some PS4 games; right now I'm into Steep. Microphone action may be limited, since I'm not in a good environment for it. I can't run wires across the living room with a toddler and dog running around, so I'll just be using a headset for now. Looking forward to watching people play video games!

[SeanMay]

Hey! I have barely streamed, but I'm thinking about starting, maybe this will push me to actually do it.

 

https://www.twitch.tv/lumiras85