mnanand
Disciple
Disclosure: Everything written is personal opinion. No hurt / offence / condescension of any kind intended towards anyone.
Intro:
As an offshoot branch to my sensory overload thread, this one speaks to all the gamers. Over this past year of self-isolation for many of us, media like video games have helped us a lot as a diversion from all the covid anxiety. Single player titles are short and sweet, open and shut experiences with most playthroughs topping out at a 100 or so hours. I want to highlight the other section, multiplayer titles here, MMOs (massively multiplayer online) titles in particular. Such titles have no exhaustive playthrough time and are literally never ending. And most popular game streamers are using these titles as a staple of their offering. The stuff below is long and touches on a lot of topics, pls bear with me lol.
Context:
So with such a long stay at home isolation period over the past year, I lost any incentive to touch the library of single player titles I own. It takes a certain mood of freshness and curiosity to truly appreciate the narrative experiences those titles have to offer. MMOs as grind fests on the other hand are like fast food, you can mindlessly invest time In them and still have a good time without any pre requisite mood. Since June of 2020 (thank god it’s over, lol) I’ve spent a good amount of time playing Destiny 2. It has a decent story and lore, both PvP and PvE modes (Player vs player / Environment) and is a overall good time killer. And there’s literally mountains of quests and things to do in that game. So much so that I had to refer to yt vids and guides for many of them. And in this process I found active consideration for live streamers streaming all kinds of stuff. I will circle back to my picture, after describing the two main platforms most streamers use.
Youtube:
It’s a no brainer for any kind of video content for anybody seeking info about anything. Most gaming ceremonial stuff throughout last year got streamed there: award shows, product reveals, in depth live interviews etc. But with regards to India and game streaming compared to other markets, there are very few streamers and even less takers for the content. I don’t see the appeal of single player game streams (regardless of indian or foreign origin). Why would anybody need a nosy interpretation of a title that you yourself can enjoy and evaluate at your own pace. Of course if one doesn’t own the game and just wants to experience without spending money, it’s understandable and all good. And Multiplayer streamers in india, mostly stream pure PvP titles like pubg, fortnite, cod warzone, apex legends etc.
I have a personal gripe with such titles. A gamer friend of mine constantly keeps inviting me to come and play games like those with him and I jokingly reply everytime saying: I’m not interested in kundi chasing games (kundi is slang for ass in tamil). And that’s what PvP games are in my opinion: ass chasing extravaganzas. Group of 100 landing and sniping each other’s asses to measure who has the biggest schlong and the fastest twitchy fingers. People boasting about and jerking off on their own KD (kill /death) ratios, the amount of toxicity some folks display there is downright stupid. I’m like: dude, it’s a game meant to be had fun with, just because you have better reflexes / hand eye co-ordination and got a chicken dinner or a podium finish doesn’t mean you conquered life. The country did not progress by your win. *facepalm* lol. (e-sports is a completely different realm that i am not talking about here). Then there’s female streamers (both indian and foreign), forgive my ignorance if I sound offensive, but let’s face it: the only real reason people watch them is in hopes of some distraction from the rabid lack of female contact prevalent amongst the guys here and abroad in general, notwithstanding any measure of skill, they display while streaming any kind of title. And the only singular exception PvP fun I had was with my friend in Battlefield 1 conquest mode. Which brings me to PvE and the other platform.
Twitch:
It’s an all-western market with a variety of content available but gaming being the majority. I found there are 3 types of streamers there:
1) The chill relaxed calm guy:
This guy is always calm, speaks gently and rarely smiles outside of having an inexpressive pumpkin face. Such folks are really patient and considerate.
2) The bold ‘wing it’ guy:
This guy is loud, brash, edgy and not afraid of using cuss words and F bombs every 5 mins. He is not patient with most viewers he tries to help. He comes off as offensive but somehow manages to keep the stream relevant and functional.
3) The upbeat friendly guy:
This guy smiles a lot, talks a lot and is very enthusiastic regardless of what happens while playing. His enthusiasm compensates for the viewer’s lack of vigor and general dull mood. He is quite patient with any viewers he tries to help, but doesn’t go the full distance as the chilled guys. Most successful streamers are type 3 or a mixed combo of 2-3.
While playing destiny I referred to a guy’s yt guides and ended up following and watching him on twitch and joined his discord too. He goes by the name ManoDestra777. He’s a type 3 guy, quite fun to hang out watching. There’s him and some other folks who I ended up following that focused on the PvE content of destiny.
My experience:
Destiny has a PvE endgame content called raids. A 6-man non match made activity where people must co-ordinate over voice chat and be quick with puzzle solving to progress through multi stage encounters and defeat a final boss to get some of the rarest prized loot in the game. They take any number of hours to complete depending on the skill of the players. To the point that experienced people who have done it multiple times are called sherpas. And they guide other newbies thru the raids. I think other MMOs might have similar content idk. Most streamers are skilled and act as sherpas helping out viewers while they stream.
So I’m an introvert and a loner in real life with social skills not being my strongest suit. I am a single player completionist and like to explore every last bit of content in every title. I was reluctant to raid with any LFG (looking for group) citing specific requirements and general fear of being at the receiving end of toxic insults. I got to raid once without voice with a few others on the Destra guy’s discord server. It was taxing but worked out in the end and the folks were really considerate. So for lack of any other game to really invest time in while under lockdown, I clocked up a good number of hours in the game while watching the streamer and chatting with him whenever he went live. Now that the in real life activities are picking pace for me and all others in general, I found myself too distracted by the urge to watch him or invest more long amounts of time in this game. Never going into addiction, I was under full control all the time. And I decided its for the best to leave all this behind and shift focus back to real life stuff. I unfollowed all of em, left their discords and am back to single player titles, occasionally doing a weekly quest back in destiny.
The other side:
Streaming as such sounds simple enough. Play a game with the skills you have while chatting with folks watching you do it (on or off camera, both work). But like everything else, it requires time, and patience and sheer dumb luck. I have been told twitch partners and equivalent successful ppl on other platforms earn 1 dollar per unique view per hour on all their streams. Even having 50 people watch you, that’s a fair amount of money and there are veteran streamers with counts in 500s or thousands even. (PvP folk like shroud, ninja etc.). Twitch has this feature where a streamer after ending his stream can host another guy streaming around the same time and that guy can keep the chain going. So at one point I felt the envy of fueling and being a part of this; Watching a guy play a game, (when you can play it yourself), try and post relatable comments in his chat with other folk (mostly American) feeding him money while doing this and then be passed around like a joint in some delinquent American prison lol.
But in all fairness, this envy is misplaced. I could never imagine to even consider live streaming while multi tasking so many things they do effortlessly. playing with skill, keeping the live cam and lighting adjusted, manage sounds and notifications and on screen prompts, reading and responding to chat etc. All of this amounts to effort and they get rightfully compensated for it. But the envy still lingers somewhere, doing all this and getting paid while having fun instead of being stuck in a mundane 9 to 7 everyday job.
Conclusion:
Even with all the inroads gaming has made in this country, (people still ask: are you a child to be playing video games at this age? I respond in my mind: at least it’s better than all the brain cancer inducing indian tv shows and movies you watch lol). I feel with general indian lifestyle, gaming in general and MMOs like destiny and being involved in streaming communities for a long time, it’s all a hard sell. Its more attuned towards western lifestyles and sensibilities. As a real life loner, I really had fun being a part of a community (even if only virtually) and I wish I could have stayed, but real life is demanding and it’s not entirely feasible to manage both at the same time. I’m curious, have any of you had a similar experience and what do you think of all the aspects of gaming and streaming and these rapidly growing platforms.
If not anything else, hope you had a fun read. I’m all out of creative juice after all this typing lol
.
Intro:
As an offshoot branch to my sensory overload thread, this one speaks to all the gamers. Over this past year of self-isolation for many of us, media like video games have helped us a lot as a diversion from all the covid anxiety. Single player titles are short and sweet, open and shut experiences with most playthroughs topping out at a 100 or so hours. I want to highlight the other section, multiplayer titles here, MMOs (massively multiplayer online) titles in particular. Such titles have no exhaustive playthrough time and are literally never ending. And most popular game streamers are using these titles as a staple of their offering. The stuff below is long and touches on a lot of topics, pls bear with me lol.
Context:
So with such a long stay at home isolation period over the past year, I lost any incentive to touch the library of single player titles I own. It takes a certain mood of freshness and curiosity to truly appreciate the narrative experiences those titles have to offer. MMOs as grind fests on the other hand are like fast food, you can mindlessly invest time In them and still have a good time without any pre requisite mood. Since June of 2020 (thank god it’s over, lol) I’ve spent a good amount of time playing Destiny 2. It has a decent story and lore, both PvP and PvE modes (Player vs player / Environment) and is a overall good time killer. And there’s literally mountains of quests and things to do in that game. So much so that I had to refer to yt vids and guides for many of them. And in this process I found active consideration for live streamers streaming all kinds of stuff. I will circle back to my picture, after describing the two main platforms most streamers use.
Youtube:
It’s a no brainer for any kind of video content for anybody seeking info about anything. Most gaming ceremonial stuff throughout last year got streamed there: award shows, product reveals, in depth live interviews etc. But with regards to India and game streaming compared to other markets, there are very few streamers and even less takers for the content. I don’t see the appeal of single player game streams (regardless of indian or foreign origin). Why would anybody need a nosy interpretation of a title that you yourself can enjoy and evaluate at your own pace. Of course if one doesn’t own the game and just wants to experience without spending money, it’s understandable and all good. And Multiplayer streamers in india, mostly stream pure PvP titles like pubg, fortnite, cod warzone, apex legends etc.
I have a personal gripe with such titles. A gamer friend of mine constantly keeps inviting me to come and play games like those with him and I jokingly reply everytime saying: I’m not interested in kundi chasing games (kundi is slang for ass in tamil). And that’s what PvP games are in my opinion: ass chasing extravaganzas. Group of 100 landing and sniping each other’s asses to measure who has the biggest schlong and the fastest twitchy fingers. People boasting about and jerking off on their own KD (kill /death) ratios, the amount of toxicity some folks display there is downright stupid. I’m like: dude, it’s a game meant to be had fun with, just because you have better reflexes / hand eye co-ordination and got a chicken dinner or a podium finish doesn’t mean you conquered life. The country did not progress by your win. *facepalm* lol. (e-sports is a completely different realm that i am not talking about here). Then there’s female streamers (both indian and foreign), forgive my ignorance if I sound offensive, but let’s face it: the only real reason people watch them is in hopes of some distraction from the rabid lack of female contact prevalent amongst the guys here and abroad in general, notwithstanding any measure of skill, they display while streaming any kind of title. And the only singular exception PvP fun I had was with my friend in Battlefield 1 conquest mode. Which brings me to PvE and the other platform.
Twitch:
It’s an all-western market with a variety of content available but gaming being the majority. I found there are 3 types of streamers there:
1) The chill relaxed calm guy:
This guy is always calm, speaks gently and rarely smiles outside of having an inexpressive pumpkin face. Such folks are really patient and considerate.
2) The bold ‘wing it’ guy:
This guy is loud, brash, edgy and not afraid of using cuss words and F bombs every 5 mins. He is not patient with most viewers he tries to help. He comes off as offensive but somehow manages to keep the stream relevant and functional.
3) The upbeat friendly guy:
This guy smiles a lot, talks a lot and is very enthusiastic regardless of what happens while playing. His enthusiasm compensates for the viewer’s lack of vigor and general dull mood. He is quite patient with any viewers he tries to help, but doesn’t go the full distance as the chilled guys. Most successful streamers are type 3 or a mixed combo of 2-3.
While playing destiny I referred to a guy’s yt guides and ended up following and watching him on twitch and joined his discord too. He goes by the name ManoDestra777. He’s a type 3 guy, quite fun to hang out watching. There’s him and some other folks who I ended up following that focused on the PvE content of destiny.
My experience:
Destiny has a PvE endgame content called raids. A 6-man non match made activity where people must co-ordinate over voice chat and be quick with puzzle solving to progress through multi stage encounters and defeat a final boss to get some of the rarest prized loot in the game. They take any number of hours to complete depending on the skill of the players. To the point that experienced people who have done it multiple times are called sherpas. And they guide other newbies thru the raids. I think other MMOs might have similar content idk. Most streamers are skilled and act as sherpas helping out viewers while they stream.
So I’m an introvert and a loner in real life with social skills not being my strongest suit. I am a single player completionist and like to explore every last bit of content in every title. I was reluctant to raid with any LFG (looking for group) citing specific requirements and general fear of being at the receiving end of toxic insults. I got to raid once without voice with a few others on the Destra guy’s discord server. It was taxing but worked out in the end and the folks were really considerate. So for lack of any other game to really invest time in while under lockdown, I clocked up a good number of hours in the game while watching the streamer and chatting with him whenever he went live. Now that the in real life activities are picking pace for me and all others in general, I found myself too distracted by the urge to watch him or invest more long amounts of time in this game. Never going into addiction, I was under full control all the time. And I decided its for the best to leave all this behind and shift focus back to real life stuff. I unfollowed all of em, left their discords and am back to single player titles, occasionally doing a weekly quest back in destiny.
The other side:
Streaming as such sounds simple enough. Play a game with the skills you have while chatting with folks watching you do it (on or off camera, both work). But like everything else, it requires time, and patience and sheer dumb luck. I have been told twitch partners and equivalent successful ppl on other platforms earn 1 dollar per unique view per hour on all their streams. Even having 50 people watch you, that’s a fair amount of money and there are veteran streamers with counts in 500s or thousands even. (PvP folk like shroud, ninja etc.). Twitch has this feature where a streamer after ending his stream can host another guy streaming around the same time and that guy can keep the chain going. So at one point I felt the envy of fueling and being a part of this; Watching a guy play a game, (when you can play it yourself), try and post relatable comments in his chat with other folk (mostly American) feeding him money while doing this and then be passed around like a joint in some delinquent American prison lol.
But in all fairness, this envy is misplaced. I could never imagine to even consider live streaming while multi tasking so many things they do effortlessly. playing with skill, keeping the live cam and lighting adjusted, manage sounds and notifications and on screen prompts, reading and responding to chat etc. All of this amounts to effort and they get rightfully compensated for it. But the envy still lingers somewhere, doing all this and getting paid while having fun instead of being stuck in a mundane 9 to 7 everyday job.
Conclusion:
Even with all the inroads gaming has made in this country, (people still ask: are you a child to be playing video games at this age? I respond in my mind: at least it’s better than all the brain cancer inducing indian tv shows and movies you watch lol). I feel with general indian lifestyle, gaming in general and MMOs like destiny and being involved in streaming communities for a long time, it’s all a hard sell. Its more attuned towards western lifestyles and sensibilities. As a real life loner, I really had fun being a part of a community (even if only virtually) and I wish I could have stayed, but real life is demanding and it’s not entirely feasible to manage both at the same time. I’m curious, have any of you had a similar experience and what do you think of all the aspects of gaming and streaming and these rapidly growing platforms.
If not anything else, hope you had a fun read. I’m all out of creative juice after all this typing lol
.
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