Since Sekan’s been home with me on his mental health leave, streaming has been a big project for him. He’s been treating it almost like work, building a schedule and doing his best every day to spread a positive message around men’s mental health.
A little while ago, on a particularly inauspicious night, he was playing Demonologist on his stream with a friend, a scary game where you have to identify types of demons and ghosts in a haunted building and then exorcise them. Definitely sounds like my type of game, right?
But when something unexpectedly pulled him away from his desk for a while, he asked if I could play the scary game and cover his stream for him for a little while until he could get back. And of course, I said yes, because that’s what you do.
So I got to learn a few things about streaming that night.
It’s a lot of work.
I’ve always been a highly introverted person. When I did a Myers-Briggs test in 2018, it came back that I’m about 78% introvert.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m antisocial; I really enjoy social interaction and spending time with people, and in a similar vein, it was a huge thrill to get on Sekan’s stream and be in the spotlight for a little while. I’m usually the person who likes to sit backstage and make the magic happen from behind the scenes.
What it does mean is that extended periods of socialization mean I need to recharge. So spending a long time on a stream, constantly socializing, did leave me feeling like I needed a nap, even before I was done covering for him. I found myself pulling out the extra social battery power to keep going!
Overall, though, I did enjoy it, and it sort of piqued my interest in doing it for myself.
It’s not easy to balance.
Streaming is a surprisingly demanding thing to do; you have your game going and everything that happens in it, but on top of that, you’re also paying heavy attention to what’s going on with the stream itself.
You’re watching chat, you’re interacting with people, you’re responding to questions and requests, you’re moderating messages in case something you don’t want there comes through.
It’s really intensive, and my poor little brain at times did struggle with doing both. I have a lot of respect for the people who can get on and do that every day for hours at a time, especially with competitive games, because I managed about half an hour before getting overwhelmed!
People like to take part.
One of the things Sekan has set up on his stream is a plug-in called Sound Alerts, which lets you pick different sounds that people can play on your stream. And of course, because he likes playing spooky games, he has a few in there that play jumpscares.
Yeah.
Turns out, people love to do that to him—and by extension, me when I’m playing already-scary games on his computer. They got me a few good times, and I am just so, so glad those moments are preserved in video format forever!
One thought on “3 things I learned being a streamer for the night”
That’s so fun you got to try streaming and the game sounds totally the opposite of what I would play but sometimes they are most entertaining lol.
I agree with the points you made about feeling struggled and overwhelmed. When I streamed, 30-40 mins was definitely my sweet spot before I was exhausted mentally and physically. I also really enjoyed it though.
Maybe you can make a fun compilation of jump scares for your youtube channel? lol
Vikki
cuteek.com