The Lone Minion

Yes, it’s been quite a long while. I’m not going to try and play ‘catch-up’. Instead, I’ll get right to it. I’ve been streaming. That is to say, I have been struggling with streaming. Not so much the technical side of it, but the social side of it. I’m quiet and nervous. I managed to make a couple friends but then lost them. Now, it’s rare if I even speak let alone turn the webcam on. I’ve read up on a lot of the different aspects. Enough to know that everyone seems to agree on some pretty elementary rules.

I wanted to stream Minion Masters. It’s an easily picked up deck building game that is “dangerously addictive fast-paced hybrid of deck builder, MOBA, and tower-defense.” I was better than okay at playing and was angling form the side of being a novice or noob, whatever. I was trying to bring in other gamers like myself, noobs, people who just played for fun, etc.

So, the most agreed upon  rules for streaming are as follows :

• Get set up with a webcam and microphone.
• Engage your viewers, especially your new ones.
• Have a schedule. (you may need to try different time slots)
• Play with your viewers while streaming (again- engage them)

So I thought I was doing all of this in the beginning. The first problem I ran into was making an announcement in game that I was willing to team up with anyone to help them complete daily quests. I was immediately flooded with friend requests and people up in my chat box to the point of panic. I couldn’t respond to all of them fast enough. Even worse, the first two I did manage to talk with and play with very quickly blew me off. I kind of got the impression they were looking for something but not knowing what the ***k it was, I lost them completely.

In the next few days it was really quite until someone actually spoke up and we connected over the game. He was a Master and tried to teach me a lot. Unfortunately it was more than I could digest. All the pain meds seemed to have slowed down by ability to process any new information. But that didn’t matter. He was into having fun more than winning and we began making some pretty cool decks to troll with or just experiment with to see how they would play.  It made the streaming less stressful and more enjoyable. But I wasn’t getting any new followers. My followers seemed to peak at eight-teen. Then, after a few weeks, the Master I had been playing with kind of dropped off and I was back to square one.

For some reason, it was harder to connect with anyone now. I just kind of played the game and kept quiet, waiting to see who would join the channel to watch. I had a lot of lurkers but no one wanting to engage in anything. I kept this up long enough to merit some prize packs I could give away on my stream. I’m still sitting on those. I don’t know why it is so difficult.

So here I am. I have issues with the webcam, my age (though I have run into quite a few people my age who game, they just don’t stream by choice) and with trying to stay positive when facing constant rejection or just the dead air as it were. I was never looking to have a million viewers or subscribers Nor was I thinking I could get rich off of this. I really wanted to just have fun and engage with other gamers. Pick there brains for tips, talk about the game or games, do some co-op gaming, and just chill. Now it’s just ‘passing time’.  I’ve recently started streaming some other games hoping that a different game might bring a different group of viewers but have had no luck. Just more lurkers.

I get ‘lurking’  because I used to do it. I guess, you either get past it or choose to remain. I don’t know how much longer I will keep this up. I keep hoping the ‘tide will turn’ as I very, very slowly improve in my game play. For now, I have my lurkers.