My history with Twitch and streaming and hopefully future.

Alright.  It is a bit weird perhaps that I am documenting my "history of involvement on the Twitch site" before I dive into my history with video games.  Especially since the latter is a lot more lengthy and in-depth for the most part.  However, in discussing the former, I wanted to address some plans, ideas and general observations for the future.  (Both future of my own Twitch channel and me being on Twitch and just some observations about the future of Twitch in general.)

The Past
I've been active on Twitch since around February of 2015 and I had a "justin.tv" account years ago and forgot my login on it.  (Also I'm pretty sure I deleted the email associated with that login.)  Truth be told, when I first stumbled on to Justin.TV it was by accident and I vaguely recall stumbling on to UStream around the same time frame. I was never very active on JustinTV or UStream and thus the memory of my time being on those sites are a bit fuzzy at best.  Before that, I had 3 YouTube channels. One of those channels was for my "film school" portfolio work and was deleted in 2011 due to matter that I will not discuss here.  The other two channels were my personal channel and  a channel that was to be part of a digital media project that was later cancelled (and the channel deleted). 

As I mentioned, my journey on to Twitch began around February of 2015 because I was looking for information on a game (Elder Scrolls Online).  I quickly saw the potential for a lot of other content being viewed there.  Since then, I've been in and out of several different communities, made numerous acquaintances, and even a few friends.  There has also been a handful of "people I'd like to think of as friends but I honestly can't be certain on".  When I first ventured on to Twitch though, it was not to be a streamer myself.  I dabbled in it a few times to test the waters but had not planned to do anything on a regular basis.  At best, my original plan was to learn the mechanics of it and utilize that knowledge in the future.  For example, I've known way too many people in the local Film and TV market not to mention music market who could benefit from doing some gaming streams as a means to raise money for their other projects. (The producers and director on the film "Congratulations" did something along this line to help with 'extra funds' for their film.)

As many have seen over the past three years, Twitch has grown in various and crazy ways and continues to grow.  I think it will continue to grow and even if some of that growth is awkward and perhaps a bit painful in place, it will be growing for the better.  And along with that change and growth, particularly in some of the Creative areas and IRL channels, the interest in stream as grown a great deal.  I started making somewhat of an effort to do some degree of streaming in 2016 but was not willing to fully 'commit' to it due to the mess going on with my health issues. 

As I mentioned in the previous blog, I began having issues again in 2014 and by time I'd started seriously thinking about doing the streaming stuff on a regular basis, the issues were getting progressively worse. By the end of 2016, I'd decided to make a go of doing the streaming thing part-time but all of that changed rather fast.  After several months of getting a schedule down that I was reasonably happy with and actually starting to get a bit of traffic, I wound up hospitalized in May of 2017.  It was determined that I have a 'severe lung disease' and the process was began to put me on disability over the following months after that.

The Present
Currently, I am looking at Twitch as a means to continue doing creative and digital media content since I'm basically being told my days of busting my butt for 8-12 hours plus on sets are basically done.  While I am more comfortable behind the camera, I am trying to get more comfortable with being in front of it with all the awkwardness that comes with it.  I've also been getting more comfortable moderating for a few friends' channels.  My buddy "Failed_Hero85" (aka Isaac) began streaming his WWE 2K games universe content in the summer of 2017 and that has been a fun and learning experience.  (Both for him as a content creator and me as a moderator.)  I've also been moderating some for a young lady named "Angelic Devil Girl" who is working to grow her channel as well. Both have made affiliate and are doing their own things with their respective channels. Since January of 2018, I've been trying to get my schedule for streaming back in order and managed to make affiliate in March of 2018.  I'm potentially interested in moderating for a few other channels but I always want to continue to do things with my own channel.  I tent to lurk in a lot of channels that I go into more often than not after saying a quick hello.  I'll try to talk if spoken to in chat or by the streamer but more often than not, I am lurking and piddling with other stuff.  

The Future
I am not where I technically "want to be" with my channel though probably not in the ways that a lot of you might be thinking.  In fact, I'm willing to wager it is not what you are probably thinking.

What is troubling me is more from a "technical and design perspective" and some other "layout" perspective.  I think a good way for me to explain it is "I am a 'writer / director / producer' trying to do the 'set designer' and 'art department' work as well as a few other departments and it is a bit new territory for me".  I'd love to have some input on some behind the scenes things from some of the "bigger name folks" without being demonized by the streamer or other streamers as breaking the "almighty Twitch etiquette" regarding not promoting channels.
(As a side note, there's a handful of streamers who I already make an effort to promote on my Twitter channel, my Twitter and Instagram feeds, and in other avenues. And this blog will have a lot of links to people's Twitch channels and Twitter feeds with their permission in the future.)

Let me elaborate on what I need.

• I'm wanting to do some more "talk show" and "podcast" style streams and not just 'game streams'.  The biggest problem with this is trying to get it set up in OBS to allow multiple camera sources to be on the stream at once.  I've tried using Skype which didn't work out well for video chat.  Trying to look up YouTube videos has been a huge headache, especially regarding Skype.  There are a LOT of videos with seemingly outdated information or badly explained information regarding Skype and OBS compatibility.  I need a more streamlined way to get my guests in and out of the interviews that are not being done in person. (Doing some live or pre-recorded in person interviews is an eventual channel goal.)  I've tried Discord voice chat and it worked well for just audio interviews but it requires the other person to get into discord. This is not always an option given some people's relative unwillingness to download Discord due their unfamiliarity with it.   And this is just ONE of the tech issues I'd like to get resolved before trying to 1) market myself as a full time streamer, 2) contacting potential interview people to schedule stuff, and 3) try to do more interviews on Twitch.  There are some other things as well.
• I'm extremely finicky about any sort of art work and layout design on my channel.  I've commissioned a few things but most of it has felt very temporary.  And some of the stuff, I have flat out regretted as I've changed my mind on it later.  I'm especially finicky about overlay stuff as I am intending to do a combination of "game streams" and "talk show" / "podcast" / "IRL" streams.  I've some broad ideas but need a bit of assistance fine tuning them.  I mentioned 'set design' and 'art department' as a point of reference.  I know the elements I want in the design of the channel... rather it is overlay or emotes or info panels or sound commands... just don't necessarily have an idea of how I can implement all of it and still create a specific "brand identity" for my channel.  I've minimal interest in using green screen.  I do know this much.  This is largely just a personal preference.
• I'm extremely interested in some sort of "affiliate-ship" or "partnership" and maybe even a "sponsorship" from a company at some point in the future.  To be honest though, I am more interested in doing stuff on my channel to "put over" companies and business with whom I enjoy their product or otherwise do business with on a regular basis.  This is especially true with local companies to the "Metro-Atlanta" area as well as other parts of the State of Georgia and the Southeast US.  I love the idea that I can use my channel to help get some local artists, musicians, and businesses some attention that they would not be otherwise getting.  The question for me is to how to best go about doing some of this activity.  I'm almost certain there is some sort of "written protocol" as much as there is "unwritten protocol" about other stuff.  More importantly, I'm looking for a good way to explain to some of these folks who may not be overly familiar with the platform that there are potential benefits.

Here's the most important thing for me: I want to create a channel with content that I am proud of and maybe a community around that.  Twitch is a growing platform.  And I believe it will continue to grow and streamline the various branches of its content.  Sure there will always be gaming channels but the creative content will continue to grow not just in the music area but in other areas.  For example, I could completely see a scenario where Twitch could have a short film festival in the future.(Something I would love to work with Twitch to co-ordinate if we are keeping score.)

With regards to my own channel, I'm not looking to be the biggest channel on Twitch.  I'd rather be the "little cult classic indie film with the loyal following" than the "tent pole summer blockbuster"...
but hey whatever happens, man.

I'll update again with various projects that's I'd like to work toward in my channel. 
Till then... Cheers.