Streaming as a Solo Traveler

The Twitch Playbook: Tips for Twitch Streamers · 207 - Streaming as a Solo Traveler

As we all head toward the new year, you may be planning to take some big trips sometime in the next twelve months. You might be going out of state, out of country, or out of continent. You could be visiting someone, embarking on a cruise, or buying a package tour. Your interests may vary, from museums to scenery to local cuisine. Your group of companions may be large or small. No matter what configuration your trip takes, I’m sure you’re going to have a great time. In past entries like How to Stream While Traveling Anywhere I’ve talked about going live while traveling with someone else. In ones like Travel with an IRL Streaming Backpack I’ve covered the various tech options available, and in the entry Streaming from Japan I covered my specific anecdotes as a Twitch streamer in Tokyo. This time, I want to further explore a particular type of trip that I’ve recently come to love: solo travel. And furthermore, we’ll explore how I take advantage of this method's strengths for my Twitch streams. 

➢ GOING WITH NO PLAN

This year, I’ve been incredibly lucky to have taken three separate trips outside the US, first going to Athens, Greece and then going to Tokyo, Japan twice. I approached all three of these in the same way: simply arriving in one single city and existing. I didn’t plan to go to any other parts of the countries I was in, despite both locations having numerous gorgeous locales outside their capitals rich in history and culture. I didn’t even look at where others would recommend to visit in those cities, other than a few cursory glances. I’d just get a small local hotel room near the center of town (or near a train line) and figure out what to do as I went along. 

As a solo traveler, you can spend as 
much time as you want, doing what 
you want to do.

I realize that this particular method of travel is a major turn-off for many. Lots of us reason that since we only plan to visit wherever we’re going once in our lives, we’d prefer to see everything we can see in a single whirlwind trip. I certainly understand the logic, and I’ve had plenty of amazing trips of that style as well, but there are some distinct advantages to my kind of unplanned traveling. The biggest benefit is also the simplest: when you have no plan, you’re open to many more things. In Greece I found out from locals about events, landmarks and interesting parts of town that easily became my evening or next day’s objective. In Japan, being able to speak the language I was able to get even more spontaneous. I took someone I met in a bar to their first maid cafe, I went to karaoke with a fellow lover of movie musicals, and met friends on the first trip who invited me to events on the second trip. Since there was never anything on my schedule, there were no limits to what I was available to do on a moment’s notice. 

A fear of missing things can always creep up when on vacation to another country. If I’m in Greece, can I really miss out on the amazing history of Crete or the beauty of Santorini? In Japan, do I not care about seeing Mount Fuji or visiting a hot spring? I combat this anxiety however, by simply telling myself that the trip I’m on is only the first trip, not the only one. With Japan, this ended up coming true even within the same year. Greece is less likely on that front, but even if I never came back I’d be more than satisfied with the experience I had. I saw so many amazing things, and I found a lot of places I wouldn’t have found if I were rushing from bullet point to bullet point. 

➢ SOLO TRAVEL STREAMING

My trip to the Mall of America was 
pretty much like this, but with 
fewer zombies.

As a Twitch streamer, it can be very uncomfortable to go live when others are with you, if they aren’t a part of the shows you make. Depending on who your traveling companions are, this may even make you uncomfortable enough not to want to go live at all. Having traveling companions who all have their own interests and desired destinations can also make it difficult to decide what to do and where to go. This can create a lot of tension and indecision among the group, and by the time you’re on the way to wherever you’re going there might not really be enough time for a broadcast. Conversely, as a solo traveler you’re given complete freedom in when you go live, where you want to go and what you want to do. The trip is completely yours, and you can take as much time as you need to fiddle with your stream (something that can be awkward when others are with you and don’t want to wait), talk to chat (outright rude when you’re with a group and having a separate conversation with virtual people they can’t see), and do whatever kinds of show-hosting activities you like to do on stream. 

Interestingly, as I continued making these kinds of shows on my trips this past year, I came to the realization that I conduct my solo travel streams in much the same way that I play singleplayer video games. In an open world game like GTA, Elden Ring or Spider-Man, I’m often more interested in pursuing side quests, appreciating artwork, and reading random text entries that I find than I am in accomplishing the actual objective. My style of solo travel streams allow me the same level of independence and exploration, and that’s why I find them so fulfilling. 

➢ THE OPEN WORLD

Of course, when traveling alone it’s important to be extra careful. Make sure you know how to call the local police, and take a look online at which parts of town you should avoid. Like with any travel experience, it’s also important to pay attention to how you handle your money, and where you keep your money. Pickpockets and scams are common in pretty much all tourist destinations, and you can find out about some of the biggest issues wherever you’re going with a quick online search. I like to keep a bit of ‘emergency money’ in different places. Most stays in my wallet, but I keep a bit of cash in my streaming backpack, and a bit more cash, along with one of my credit cards, in my hotel room, just in case. That way, if something does happen to my wallet, or even to the bag I’m carrying, I’ll at least have something. 

As long as you’re paying attention and using common sense, you’ll be fine. Travel is such a rewarding experience, because you really gain perspective about how other people live. Especially after going outside the country, you may even end up reconsidering what you think of as ‘normal’ when back home. Most of the tips in this entry have been specific to my preferred method of solo travel as a Twitch streamer. But again, no matter how you like to take your trips, or whether you stream while taking them, you’re going to have a great time. There’s a whole world out there to explore. Go out and make some unforgettable memories! 

Read Between the Lines of Your Twitch Chat

The Twitch Playbook: Tips for Twitch Streamers · 205 - Read Between the Lines of Your Twitch Chat

Comments from viewers are a big part of the Twitch streaming experience. In the entry Up Your Showmanship on Stream, I spoke about how you can always give a dynamic response to even the least dynamic chat messages. This is a subject worth exploring a bit more, however. Many streamers take chat messages too literally in my opinion. Just because the question someone asked only really warrants a one-word answer doesn’t mean your answer actually has to be one word. It’s your stream, and you can talk about whatever you want. This person’s question is merely a jumping-off point for whatever you want to talk about. In my view, questions on a livestream aren’t really meant to be taken literally, but rather as a suggestion for larger conversations. In this entry, we’ll look into how you can read between the lines of your Twitch chat.

Many people aren’t naturally very talkative, and this applies to Twitch chat as well. Sometimes they can’t express what they really mean. I often try to see the intention behind whatever the person said, and instead of responding to the question they asked, I respond to the question they wish they asked. Even if someone asks what you think of as a stupid question, it’s always within your power to lift them up, instead of pointing out their question’s flaw and knocking them down. The entry How to Flesh Out Stream Ideas touched on how standup comedians use the philosophy of ‘Yes, and…’ to ensure they’re always building on the jokes of others, rather than shooting down ideas. This is a hugely helpful mindset when dealing with comments on a Twitch stream. 

➢ SPINNING NEGATIVITY

I got a lot of hate when playing 
this one. 

In the past, when I used to work for another company and each broadcast would have anywhere from 100 to 1,000 concurrent viewers, the comments would fly very quickly, and they weren’t always very nice. From early on however, I decided that I would try not to shut down even the nasty remarks. I was trying to help grow the company’s brand, and I wanted to ensure that everyone felt like a part of the show. I also knew that when people say mean things, they aren’t necessarily mean people at heart. So I’d take a comment in which someone said, “You’re horrible at this game. Please stop trying,” and instead of reading the comment word for word, I’d say something like, “[viewer username] sees room for improvement in my playstyle. Definitely let me know if you have any tips!” Not with irony or condescension, but with real genuine interest.

For some reason, people would also get really mad that I had a job where I played video games for a living. They’d say, “This guy is terrible. He’s so annoying. Why did [company] ever pick him to do these videos?” and several much more vitriolic versions of the same idea. This of course hurts to hear, but I’d try to take it in stride. I recognized that these comments often had a deeper unspoken meaning, and I’d respond with something like, “[viewer username] has a great point, I’m lucky enough to get to do what I love each day and get paid to do it!” And then I’d go into a story about how I was able to build a body of work and get hired by a company to make these kinds of videos. I’d give tips for other viewers who might want to start a career doing the same thing. I wouldn’t brag, preach or put down the original commenter, but would actually thank them for bringing up such a helpful subject. 

➢ SPREADING POSTIVITY

These kinds of responses would usually have one of two effects. First, they would often get the original commenter to turn their attitude around. Many people on the internet don’t really consider the consequences of what they say, because they feel anonymous. But when you put their comment in the limelight and give them a bit of attention, they quickly realize that they’re having an effect. Believing the best in someone is also a strong motivator for change. Notice that in the above examples, even though the original comments were pretty mean, I wouldn’t treat the commenter like a mean person. Rather, I treat them as someone nice who maybe asked a question they didn’t intend to be hurtful. I ask the question hidden within their question, rather than the question itself. And psychologically, if others see the good in us, we want to meet those expectations. This causes the chatter to come around, start posting other more positive comments, and sometimes even apologize, even though I never said they did anything wrong. 

Paint the chat however you want. 

The second effect of this kind of response is sometimes even more important than the first. Because of the way I phrase my answer, the chat becomes flooded with a higher volume of positive comments than negative. In the first example, I asked for the commenter’s tips for the game. This often gets other viewers talking about their own strategies, in addition to the person I asked, and populates the chat with more constructive comments. In the second example, by talking about my own tips and tricks for becoming a professional livestream producer and video host, people are more interested in asking about how to get into that world themselves. People in the chat are suddenly engaged in talking about something far more interesting, and might even begin to police themselves. If the original commenter persists in being negative, other chatters (who are now more interested in the new topic than the previous negative one) would actually ask the negative person to stop. By creating a topic where positivity is more engaging than negativity, you’re turning that negative person into a minority within the chat. And it’s much more difficult for that negativity to gain a foothold when nobody else is on their side. 

The way you respond to a comment is kind of like planting a seed. If your most recent response is negative or dismissive, negativity is going to grow. But if you plant the seeds for interesting conversations, you’ll soon see the positive effects of that choice.  

➢ POSSIBLE AT ANY SIZE

Since starting my own personal Twitch channel, these kinds of mean comments very seldom come in anymore. The amount of viewers and chatters is much smaller, and I don’t really have to go out of my way to please everyone watching either. But the same principles often come in handy for me, even at a smaller scale. Whether someone asks a question that only really requires a one-word answer, or they make some unintentionally cruel remark like ‘You look/sound really tired,’ I’m always able to spin it into something more interesting. Don’t forget however, that just because something can be spun into a better topic, doesn’t mean that you have to spin it, or deal with it at all. I put up with a lot when I was working at that high level of streaming, and I found ways to make the job easier to take. But that kind of constant negative bombardment still takes its toll, even if you spin it to make the show itself better. In my personal streams, I don’t care as much whether every single chatter stays around. If someone is being intentionally mean, I will often timeout or ban them. Like I mention often throughout this podcast, stay true to the priorities of whatever kind of show you’re trying to make. And if you want to raise engagement on your streams, try keeping this subject in mind. It’s always better to read between the lines of your chat. 

Customizing an IRL Streaming Backpack

The Twitch Playbook: Tips for Twitch Streamers · 199 - Customizing an IRL Streaming Backpack

In past entries, I’ve gone into my process and mindset for travel streaming. Being able to go to interesting places around the world has always been a dream of mine, and now that I create Twitch broadcasts, I’m able to share that dream with my audience. In the entry Travel with an IRL Streaming Backpack, I went into the specific options someone can choose if they want dedicated equipment for IRL streaming while they travel, and I also detailed the specific kind of backpack I made for my own adventures. 

I built my streaming backpack about five months ago, in preparation for my trip to Greece, and even in that short amount of time I’ve gotten a huge amount of use from this new streaming accessory. As I always talk about in The Twitch Playbook, experience is the best teacher, and I try to stay open-minded about where my experiences can guide various tweaks to my equipment. Each time I’ve gone live with my streaming backpack, I’ve come up with new quality-of-life improvements. These things are the lifeblood of a healthy stream- not huge purchases, but inexpensive (or even free) alterations to what you’ve already been working with. In this entry, we’ll go through some of the broadcasts I’ve done with my streaming backpack, and what alterations I’ve made because of them. 

First off, remember that you don’t need an IRL streaming backpack to do IRL streams. If you’ve never done a show like this before, try going live using the (completely free) smartphone streaming options I talked about in the entry Streaming from Your Mobile Device. But whether or not you own a streaming backpack, or even do IRL streams at all, my various tweaks in this entry can still help your own shows, if you pay attention to the underlying logic. 

➢ GOING TO GREECE

I first decided to build a streaming backpack when I was about a month out from a trip to Greece. I knew I wanted to go live from my vacation, but I didn’t want to keep paying to rent my equipment. And after I decided to build, I took the preparations very seriously. There wouldn’t be any phone support with the rental company this time, or any kind of guarantee. It was up to me, and only me, to make sure everything worked.

Greece was kind of like this, but with 
fewer clouds.

I tried to think of the practical uses of my backpack out in the field. What would cause the most friction? Where could I streamline the process? One immediate thing that stuck out to me was the issue of cables. In order to use a GoPro with my stream setup, I’d need to attach a USB-C cable for power, and a Mini HDMI cable for the video signal. Having two separate cables snaking around my body to plug into the backpack could easily get cumbersome. So I bought a length of sleeve that could wrap around the cables, essentially turning those two cables into one. I then measured the exact distance and position at which the two cables stood when plugged into the camera, and jury-rigged them together so I’d be basically plugging one large object into two ports. It worked perfectly, and saved me a lot of headache. 

The other major problem I foresaw was charging. There are four portable batteries in my streaming backpack, which power the various devices needed to make the stream work. Every night, I’d have to charge those batteries so they wouldn’t die while I streamed the next day. I got a cheap power adapter with four usb ports, along with four long USB charging cables. I then used a set of velcro ties to affix all the cables to each other, so they acted similarly to the wrapped camera cables. I left just enough space that I could break each of the four cables away and plug them into their respective devices. This saved a lot of time and headache in potentially having to deal with four separate charging plugs, figuring out where to plug them in, trying to untangle them, and any number of other issues. My configuration allowed them to act essentially as one cable with four heads, very compact and neat when stored, and long enough to reach even the furthest wall outlet. 

➢ AMERICAN ADVENTURES

Always love getting a chance to visit 
Liberty City.

The backpack worked perfectly in Greece, and my early modifications caught a few of the major potential problems before they had a chance to form. There were several smaller changes I made along the way as well, like stuffing a piece of cloth behind my camera mount to change its orientation, using a black bag to cover my lens while paying with a credit card, and taking advantage of screen sharing software to control my PC at home while going live. I was very satisfied with my performance with this backpack, and had really refined my technique throughout the streams overseas. At this point, the backpack had already paid for itself. Even if I never used it again, it had already cost less than the two-week price of an equivalent backpack at a rental company. So, I mostly expected to leave the backpack in a closet until my next big trip.

But then I had a realization: I’m always traveling for work, so why not bring my backpack along? I don’t typically have a lot of time in each location, but it couldn’t hurt to have just in case. So, after my Greece vacation I started bringing the streaming backpack as a carry-on for all of my flights around the US for business. And despite not often having a lot of downtime on business trips, I found that (with a little creative scheduling) I could make time for IRL shows every once in a while. The backpack uses prepaid SIM cards to go live. It’s easy to buy the dates for data coverage in advance when going on vacation, but not necessarily when you want to do an impromptu stream while away on business. For that reason, I would sometimes do my American episodes totally pre-recorded and non-live. But those ones were a lot of fun as well! Since starting to bring my streaming backpack with me on trips in the past few months, I’ve done episodes from Seattle, New York City, The Mall of America in Minnesota and more. One time I even caught a ghost on camera! (That one’s a long story- extreme sleep deprivation may or may not have been involved.) You never know what use you’ll get out of a tool like this, but simply having it around creates new opportunities for content creation. 

➢ BACK TO JAPAN

The optimization lessons I learned in Greece, plus the impromptu style of my American IRL backpack shows, really came together for my most recent trip. Last week, I returned from another trip to Tokyo, Japan. For anyone who doesn’t know, the entire country of Japan has been entirely closed to foreign travel for the past three years. So as soon as there was a rumor that they’d announce a reopening, I gambled on a flight and hotel room, in the hopes that the country would be open by the time I arrived. As it turned out, I got to Japan on the literal day that it reopened to foreigners. And I had my streaming backpack, with all the wisdom and customizations I’d learned on my previous trips, along with me. 

Footage of me in Tokyo.

This time in Japan, much of my IRL streaming experience felt like a well-oiled machine. I knew when to tilt the camera down while talking face-to-face with a shop employee or entering a bar. I was able to cover the lens efficiently when paying a bill with my credit card. Having more or less conversational Japanese skills at this point, I was also able to politely ask permission to broadcast from businesses, and was often granted access. My various IRL streaming experiences, along with the language abilities (another skill I learned thanks to Twitch streaming) really allowed me to be not just a better IRL streamer, but a better overall traveler. 

In Japan, I utilized my American pre-recorded episode ideas to optimize my shows even further. I streamed everywhere there was internet, but I also recorded each stream locally on the camera. Every morning, I uploaded the previous day’s local recordings to YouTube. This ensured that any part of my stream where the internet cut out would be restored for posterity. 

I also started doing a lot more first-person eating on my streams. In Tokyo, the average size of a noodle shop, or even a restaurant, is incredibly small by American standards. Often it’s no more than a set of stools at a bar, and a wall roughly twelve inches behind your back. Taking off my streaming backpack to set up a tripod for my camera while I ate, like in America or Greece, would be incredibly cumbersome in many of these Japanese locations (not to mention annoying to fellow customers). So instead, I’d simply keep my streaming backpack on my back, and point the shoulder-mounted camera down to look at my food while I ate. I could still talk into my mic and read chat, the only difference being that viewers didn’t see my face while I was eating. Ultimately, I think this gave an even more authentic feel to the broadcasts, because it showed viewers what it’s really like to eat in Japan. 

During this trip to Tokyo, just like my trip to Greece, along with every other day in the last four years, I didn’t miss a single one of my three daily livestreams. And every time I went live from my streaming backpack, it got a little easier. Not because of the equipment itself, but because of the critical thinking I employed while using that equipment. On my IRL streams, just like on my normal Twitch streams, I always try to stay inquisitive. I don’t just assume something is as good as it can be, I always look for a way to make it a little better, or a little easier to use. That philosophy has greatly helped me to customize my IRL streaming experience, and it’s helped me to become a better streamer in general. Even if you don’t do IRL streams on your own channel, I think this same inquisitive mindset can greatly help to boost your shows, either in front of or behind the camera. Small changes can make a big difference on a Twitch stream.

Streaming in the Face of Futility

The Twitch Playbook: Tips for Twitch Streamers · 193 - Streaming in the Face of Futility

What happens when you find it futile to go live? When every part of you feels you have nothing interesting left to do or say, and you just want to give up? This happens to all of us at various points throughout our Twitch careers. Most streamers experience such a feeling when they’re new, because they might be awkward on camera, often making technical mistakes and embarrassing themselves in front of viewers. Then, once we’ve settled into a groove there comes a time when things are a little too familiar. The act of streaming becomes boring, and there’s no longer any spice left. Once we’re established, we can also let our egos interfere with our broadcasts. If everything isn’t up to its usual quality standard, we shudder at the thought of letting ourselves put on inferior shows, and would prefer not to stream at all that day if faced with the prospect. You even might be in one of these situations on your channel right now. My advice for any of these scenarios is ultimately the same: just go live anyway. 

➢ SHARE YOUR JOURNEY

It’s been a long time since I started streaming, but I can still identify with streamers who feel self-conscious about their lack of experience. While I have thousands of video game shows under my belt, I wasn’t so experienced as an IRL streamer until relatively recently. Even since then, I wouldn’t say I’ve done more than a hundred of those shows, so in the grand scheme I'm still pretty inexperienced. I’m significantly more prone to make mistakes when I’m going live from a phone or streaming backpack, as I do for these broadcasts. And that makes perfect sense, because the entire process is different. Similarly, while I studied art throughout high school and college, whenever I do art streams on my Twitch channel I typically try styles and media that I’m not comfortable with. This requires me to get used to making what is often terrible artwork live in front of anyone watching. A few years ago, I also began livestreaming my Japanese studies on Duolingo. I started streaming my learning from the literal first day of my streak, and of course I had to face the constant humiliation of getting a huge amount of the answers wrong every day. 

All three of these shows forced me back into a ‘novice’ role in different ways, and they have all caused me significant embarrassment throughout my time streaming them. In each of these three categories, I’ve often wrestled with the entire identity of what the shows were. What was I trying to accomplish? Was I teaching Japanese to others, when I could barely speak it myself? Did anyone actually want to watch me fumble through horrible timed figure drawings and environment sketches? What was the point of streaming from a restaurant if I was just eating my food, and not showing the place off to everyone watching? These are all legitimate concerns, but I eventually realized they were merely my self-doubt searching for an excuse to make me quit.

I recently played through the Japanese 
version of Metal Gear Solid as well.

I found that it was enough just to focus on my own self-improvement at these crafts. I would stream Japanese learning not to teach others, but to let others watch me learn. I would stream my art practice and IRL adventures for the same reason. I offered these shows (and still do) without expectation, and respect viewers enough to let them choose what they want to do with it. And then a funny thing happened. I really did get better, right in front of everyone’s eyes. Over the course of a few hundred art episodes, I taught myself about Greek pottery painting and illustrated a whole book in that style live on stream. I took my IRL experience and went to other countries. I’ve learned enough Japanese that I play import games that never even got localized into English. These end results are valuable, but the journey itself is valuable as well. I couldn’t see that when I was starting out in each discipline, but now that I’ve reached these milestones it’s become obvious. It’s important to let others see you grow. Not just to help you, but to inspire them. Viewers have contacted me about my Japanese Duolingo streams inspiring them to keep going on their own language journeys. For myself, I’ve been able to go back and watch my art grow from nothing all the way to finished illustrations. Whenever I try new skills on stream, I try to think about these experiences, and how vulnerable I felt in the beginning. Knowing that the journey is worth it helps me carry on, and hopefully this knowledge will help you too.  

➢ MEET IN THE MIDDLE

As an experienced streamer, my instincts also push back against compromising my production value. As I’ve mentioned in many other entries, I often travel for work. Since it would hardly be practical to lug my games PC everywhere, this means I have to go live from a totally different setup, and do different things on stream. When I’m traveling, I go live directly from an iPad or iPhone, with no microphone attached. The audio is pretty poor compared to my normal shows. Internet fluctuation is also a fact of life when staying in hotels, so my streams will often cut out. And on top of that, I go live for much shorter lengths of time while I’m on the road. These three points scared me to death when I was first finding my stride on Twitch. I used to try everything I could to fight against them. I carried a wired mic around with me in my briefcase. I’d get premium hotel internet and stress when there was any interruption. I’d go live for extended lengths of time, even to the detriment of other things I had to do. 

This was grueling, and my limited mindset about travel streams made business trips, which were often in very interesting cities, no fun at all. Slowly, I began to accept that it was okay to have issues like these appear on my broadcasts. Travel streams could just be their own thing, and it’s totally understandable if they aren’t the same quality as my normal streams. This new mindset has freed me up to try more ideas on stream, go live from different places, and most importantly, enjoy myself more when I’m in interesting locations. 

Not this kind of flying. 

You might not be flying around the country all the time like I do, but you may encounter other similar challenges. Maybe your microphone breaks, and you can’t get a replacement until the following week. Maybe your home internet speed drops without warning, and you’d need to stream at a low-quality bitrate if you want to keep going live. Maybe you just have big plans and don’t have time for a full-length show. Don’t let your pride cause you to miss a day of streaming. Just compromise and go live anyway. Use whatever tools are available to you and make a show. Any show. Later, you’ll be thankful you didn’t allow yourself to lapse. 

If you want to keep a habit like streaming, the most important thing you can do is also the simplest: just continue doing it. No matter what it takes. Sometimes that means powering through your inexperience and self-doubt. Sometimes that means putting aside your ego. Trust in your dream, and don’t listen to that voice in the back of your mind telling you to give up or miss a day. In the face of futility, stream! 

Choosing Communication Methods on Stream

The Twitch Playbook: Tips for Twitch Streamers · 182 - Choosing Communication Methods on Stream

There are several ways to communicate the same point to your viewers on a livestream. No method is inherently wrong or right, but it’s more about what you want to get across with the method itself. In this entry we’ll explore a few different styles I’ve used on my stream over the years to communicate the same specific rule, and how each has helped in its own way. 

➢ PLAYING ON YOUR OWN TERMS

To set the scene, let’s talk about the rule I was trying to set up, and why I needed it. As I’ve mentioned in previous Twitch Playbook entries, I like to play games without hearing spoilers. But that description is a bit of an oversimplification, which I’ve used for the sake of writing these entries more clearly. In reality, I like to know literally nothing when going into a game. I don’t look at trailers or screenshots, I don’t watch other streams of the game, and I don’t read anything about it. I enter with as few pre-existing notions of what to expect as possible, and I like to preserve that ignorance throughout the time I play the game. In my opinion, this makes the playthrough more exciting. I may miss an entire section of an open world game if I’m not paying attention, and I could lose my favorite character in an RPG because I didn’t know what was best to do to prevent that outcome. Because my play habits for a game will form essentially in a vacuum, it can make a playthrough much more unique. In 2018, there was a popular story about how the Twitch streamer negaoryx played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for 95 hours, beating most of the major bosses, before ever finding the tutorial and learning to do certain basic moves. This is the kind of thing that can’t happen when you’re receiving help, and it’s the type of thing I aspire to in any playthrough of a game. 

Now, there’s not really a tag on Twitch, or a pre-existing term in existence, to describe this specific kind of playthrough. Most people would hear about the way I like to play and equate it to the closest concept they’ve heard of before: no spoilers. And that’s true, I don’t want to know what’s coming up in the story. But the term ‘spoiler’ is very limited in scope. I also don’t want to hear anyone’s tips for how to get through an area, or hear what weapon they think is best, or even know what kind of choices they made for their own character. All of those things would seem to be okay if someone thinks that I want to play without spoilers, and it’s understandable if they make the mistake. But I needed a better means of communication for my own streams. 

The Souls games have a great community,
but it's not so great for the way I like to
play video games.

There are certain kinds of games where people are much more likely to come in and tell me things, and it can become a big problem. FromSoftware titles for example (Dark Souls, Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and most recently, Elden Ring) have the largest and most aggressive community of people entering a stream and offering unsolicited advice. I guess it’s because those games are so difficult that many people who have finished the game just take it for granted that other players will want any tips they can get. Certain Twitch tags, like ‘First Playthrough’ or ‘No Spoilers’ only attract this kind of attention even more, like throwing chum into shark-infested waters. Some streamers I know, who play games the same way I do, actually refuse to stream FromSoftware games, because it’s nearly impossible to prevent the game’s community from constantly trying to influence the experience. I adore those games too much not to play them on stream, and have gone through many methods to try to communicate my channel’s rules in the past few years. Some with more success than others. Below are a few of the communication methods I’ve tried, along with the pros and cons of each. 

➢ ALTERNATE PATHWAYS

The first, and clearest, way to communicate anything is to simply tell it to someone. This involves verbally saying what you’re trying to say to the chatter in question, and explaining what you’re trying to get across. Assuming you’re being nice about it, this way is most likely to get them to understand your meaning, and it’s least likely to offend them. However, this doesn’t necessarily work at scale. When I play a Dark Souls game for example, someone like this comes in several times every episode, and having to intricately explain the rules every single time someone breaks them can get old very quickly. Plus, this method also requires that the person break the rules before you explain them. Depending on the rule itself, you may not want to wait. 

Second, you can use your preferred chatbot software to set up a command explaining the rule. This would merely require that you or a moderator enter the command in your chat, and then the new viewer would be able to read it for themselves. This saves you the trouble of having to explain the rule every time you want to communicate it, but it also feels less personal. Depending on the chatter, they might even feel like they’re being singled out and attacked. For this reason, you’ll want to use rules commands delicately. 

The unsolicited tips got so bad while I was 
playing Bloodborne that the auto-responses 
were going off all the time.

Third, certain chatbot software can actually auto-respond to flagged terms and instantly spit out a message of your choosing. So in my case, I noticed that if someone heard my rules and responded with, “Got it. I won’t say any spoilers,” that usually meant they were still likely to break my rules, because they thought I was only asking them not to post spoilers. So at one point I had the word ‘spoiler’ and all its variations flagged, which would spit out a “It sounds like you read our rules and thought we’re only asking for no spoilers” message, which would then further explain the rules to anyone who said the offending word. This got messy really quickly, and didn’t make people feel very welcome. I don’t recommend it for arbitrary rules like mine, but you could certainly imagine this method being very useful to auto-ban anyone who says actual bad or hurtful words. 

In addition, you can set up a message for anyone who joins your chat, which they have to agree to before entering. This is usually just white noise to a Twitch viewer, and I don’t think people read them very often, but it may help in certain cases. On top of that, there are tags you can set, which I find are most useful when helping people find a community of like-minded people, rather than telling them what not to do. 

➢ MY CURRENT STYLE

Luckily, the number of people entering my chat just to tell me how to play Elden Ring this year has been much smaller than the amount of chatters who would do the same when I played Bloodborne or Dark Souls a few years back. The way I communicate my rules has changed accordingly. When I was playing Bloodborne and new viewers would almost vindictively come in every few minutes trying to tell me their protips, I had all the strictest tools in place. The automod would instantly warn them if they talked about spoilers, and my human moderators would often have to time out and ban repeat offenders. 

These days, there’s a simple message for anyone who enters my chat, which says, “Hello! I like to play games and know absolutely nothing about them. Here, the only thing we DON'T talk about in chat is the game itself.” I figure this pretty much covers all the bases. When someone does come through and offer help, I try to be diplomatic. Even though they’re breaking my own rules, I thank them for their enthusiasm, and explain calmly about how I like to play without knowing anything. I also tell them I’m aware that’s not how everyone streams, and I know it’s not how everyone likes to watch streams, so I understand if that’s not their thing. However, if they do choose to stick around, I’d love to get to know them. This usually gets its point across, and using this method I’ve found a much higher rate of people who initially came in to offer help actually staying to join the show. When someone does try to offer help even after the explanation, that’s when I’ll post the chatbot message explaining the rules (and the consequences for breaking them again) more fully. Typically, when someone sees this after we’ve explained the rules, they understand where we’re coming from. Plus, seeing there’s a whole command for that specific scenario, they realize how big a problem it must be for us, and they join the chat normally.  

I’ve worked hard to come up with clear communication about my channel’s particular playthrough rules. Even now it’s still not perfect, but I’m proud of its evolution. You may not have the same interest in playing games without getting advice on your own streams, but consider anything you’ve struggled to communicate on your channel. How can the various communication methods I’ve mentioned help you in getting your point across? Are there scenarios where you could do more personal one-on-one explaining, or are there some things that would benefit from the colder strictness of a chat command? No matter what you choose to do, remember that there isn’t just one way to communicate the same idea on stream. You could be just a few revisions away from perfection. 

Break Free from Streaming Expectations

The Twitch Playbook: Tips for Twitch Streamers · 178 - Break Free from Streaming Expectations

 

When you stream on your channel, do you ever feel like your content is missing something? Maybe your shows aren’t getting enough laughs, your graphics aren’t catching the eyes of viewers, or your gameplay isn’t as interesting as you want it to be. I’ve certainly had this feeling at various points in my stream career, and I think it’s common for others to feel the same. In this entry, we’re going to look at three great creators from the worlds of film and video games, and I’ll share how I’ve taken inspiration from each to get myself out of various creative ruts. 

➢ BUCKING THE TREND

It really was a great opening level.

In 2001, Metal Gear fans were excited beyond belief to get their hands on director Hideo Kojima’s upcoming entry in the series. Using the brand new PlayStation 2’s impressive graphics technology, Metal Gear Solid 2 was going to bring a whole new level of visual fidelity for the always-innovative franchise. Fans obsessively played through the game’s demo in the months leading up to the release, in which iconic series star Solid Snake infiltrated a tanker ship sailing up the Hudson River. Imagine the shock then, when players got their hands on the final product, and immediately after the events of the demo Snake meets with disaster and control is switched to a completely new character for the rest of the game! Kojima is a master at this kind of trickery, even having replaced the new character in trailers and promo material with Snake in order to keep the secret until release. This highly calculated bait-and-switch allowed the series to expand its horizons, and even explore the larger story concept of living up to the impossible expectations of a predecessor- a pressure I’m sure director Hideo Kojima was feeling when making the followup to such a smash hit as the first Metal Gear Solid. While the initial shock divided some fans at release, MGS2 is now typically considered among the best of the franchise, as well as one of the greatest games of all time. 

Throughout my streaming career, I’ve often had fun keeping secrets from my audience and springing surprises on my viewers. Whether it’s an upcoming international trip, a new game we’ll be playing, or a feature being added to the channel, I think this kind of showmanship can really enhance someone’s experience as a part of a community. This is another reason to hold off on telling others about your plans like I described in the entry Build Your Twitch Channel Like You’re a Secret Agent. Aside from the motivational boost such a mindset can give, it can allow you to time announcements in much more interesting ways. 

➢ DOING YOUR OWN THING

There’s another creator who’s always loved to turn the tables on us, though he did it for a different reason than Hideo Kojima. Love him or hate him, George Lucas has undeniably made an incredible contribution to popular fiction with his Star Wars franchise. Even from his least-revered entries in the canon, there have sprung unforgettable moments, characters and locations. Lucas began his science fiction megabrand with a humble concept: a new take on the swashbuckling Flash Gordon shorts he loved as a kid. Like with those serialized mini-films, each story of his Star Wars saga would be so different from the next that even when watching them in order, you’d feel you may have missed a few episodes between. 

Not really related, but can we get a
 sequel to this please?

And however we may knock some of his choices, we can’t say that George Lucas didn’t stay true to his original vision throughout his time in control. Upon selling the keys to his kingdom, the series was taken over by creators who no longer had as much interest in pulling from Flash Gordon. Instead they preferred to draw from the well of what Star Wars had already done. And while there have certainly been some excellent films and series created during this new chapter for the brand, it’s generally agreed that nothing can match the pure wonder and creativity of Lucas’ time as caretaker. I think his completely unselfconscious ‘take it or leave it’ attitude about creating is a very admirable trait. In my own streams, I try to take inspiration from George Lucas’ unbridled passion and creativity wherever I can. Sometimes it’s necessary to simply do things because they excite you, without worrying whether others will agree. It’s impossible to make everyone happy anyway. If we’re going to upset a few people no matter what we do, we may as well do what we love. 

➢ STAY UNINFORMED

In the entry Know What Not to Know About Streaming, I told the story of how director Orson Welles managed to create what is generally considered to be the greatest film of all time. He did this not by learning everything there was to know about filmmaking, and not by mastering every aspect of the craft, but instead by cultivating his ignorance of what could and couldn’t be done. By not knowing the limits, he was able to fearlessly attempt the impossible. And time and again, through this method, he achieved several remarkable things. Whenever I feel I’m playing it too safe on my channel, I try to take a page from Orson Welles’ book and simply stop learning. I watch fewer other streamers, I read less educational material about the craft, and I do my best to forget everything I’ve already learned. This strategy has led me to some of my most exciting and creative ideas, because I’m given freedom to go in any direction with my content. 

What about your stream is currently holding you back? Even if you can’t identify the exact problem, it could be that you’re simply playing it too safe. And whether you intentionally try to buck trends like Hideo Kojima, you look to yourself for guidance like George Lucas, or you forget the rules like Orson Welles, there are many ways to expand your creative boundaries. By breaking free from your streaming expectations, there’s no telling where your shows can go.