Friday, August 7, 2015

Hard Work = Investment

I've been streaming my video game play on Twitch since January of this year. I also watch other people and interact in some channels. I'm a really big lurker though, but that's just me. One thing I haven't quite understood is some peoples views on how this all works. Any streamer no matter if it's a big time streamer who gets couple thousand viewers in their channel at one time to a new streamer who only gets 0 to 10 viewers in their channel. There is only one way that a channel grows and becomes something great. That is through hard work which is an investment into ourselves. What ever I do to my channel, when ever I stream, the logo's, the images, the panels that tell people more about me and my channel. All of that is an investment into myself.
No matter if your channel is small or large. What you put in to the channel will pay off in time. This isn't an instant get rich quick thing and nothing ever happens that quickly trust me. To grow as a channel you need to be willing to invest in yourself and invest into your channel which ultimately invests into your viewers. Everything is trial and error. Yes you'll make mistakes but the question is will you let that stop you from continuing or will you pick yourself back up and keep on going?
I once had a conversation with someone in another streamers channel. This person said that he stopped streaming because no one ever watched him. I asked why and his response was that he didn't like not having someone viewing him because no views means that his channel wasn't going anywhere. I was a bit shocked. I told him exactly what I'm going to say now.

Anyone on Twitch started off with 0 viewers. I'm not going to name any streamers since I don't have permission to do so but think of the top streamers you know. Also think of smaller streamers you might know. No matter who it is on twitch we all started off with 0 viewers. It is only through spending time talking to ourselves on our stream that eventually viewers start trickling in. We will flux up and down from 1 to 0 to 1 again maybe 2 to 3. This usually happens over a period of days not just one day or an hour of streaming but days of streaming that you will see your numbers go up and down. Twitch and followers and viewers are all volatile and if you rely on just the numbers then your not in it for the right reasons. The reason there are streamers who make it to partner and streamers who fail right out the gate is the reason why you are streaming. If your streaming for the viewer count or the follower count then your not streaming for the right reason. If your streaming for the game play, the community, to interact and share your experience with other people, and just overall love playing video games this is why you succeed and strive within the community. 

I hope this reaches some fresh streamers or people wanting to start streaming. Don't let the 0 viewers discourage you from streaming. Everything takes time and investment. I wouldn't be where I'm at on twitch if I let that 0 get me down and the partners of twitch wouldn't be partners if they had too. Keep striving and your hard work becomes an investment that will pay off with time.

Thank you,
Riku

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Blogging!

I know it's been awhile since I have made blog. I have literally had writers block. Not sure exactly what I want to say about certain games. I really need to get past this block! I love writing about my opinion on games but the games I've been playing I have some extreme mixed emotions about. Keep posted cause I'm going to develop something that will get me past this writers block!


Thank you,

Riku

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Farsky, the deep blue sea

With my game block and writers block I decided to play Farsky an underwater survival game. I don't play to many survival games but I have to rate this one 9 out of 10. To begin it is a very beautiful game. You get to see a large range of ocean life forms and plant life. When starting this game first priority is food. You are given few supplies at first once your submarine explodes. You are given a base but you don't have any materials to build anything. You have a drill so your best option is mining some iron to make a knife for stabbing things. Growing vegetables and cooking them with coal on the stove is the quickest food source usually getting -25% on your hunger. If you kill larger animals like sharks once you cook the meat it gives you -50% to your hunger. There is some dysfunction in the game though. You have options to build things like a stool and a table yet there is no functional use what so ever that I found. Now if they made it to where you could sleep and things like that, I believe that would make it just a tad bit better especially passing the night time. At night creatures get more aggressive and will attack you where as in the day time sharks will mostly leave you alone unless you attack them first. Another reason I give it a 9 out of 10 is the fact that there is no multiplayer function. My friend and I both own the game and we were playing the story mode together. Yet on sandbox mode we don't have an option to play the game together which would be an awesome dynamic to the game. There is plenty room for improvement especially if something along the lines of multiplier is created. Over all though a great game that I would recommend for anyone even people who don't play survivors cause for me it's not like your normal survivor game.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Game and Writers Block

I find myself in a weird position. I have been playing several different games for the past week yet I can't find a single thing to blog about or make a video on. This struggle bothers me since I want to post at least 1 blog a week and one video a week as well. I keep asking myself which game will have content that other gamer's will need to know. Last night started playing a random game I picked up cheap and so far I have actually found several different things I can post about and make videos about. By the end of this week I hope to have at least one of each done. I do apologize for the delay in helpful post, I'll be back on it as soon as I can!

Monday, June 1, 2015

Rune Factory 4 Bachelor's: Arthur Part I

Rune Factory 4
Bachelor's

Arthur Part I

Arthur arrives announcing that he is the Prince that the town had been waiting for, not your character who they immediately started calling Princess. He instantly hands his duties over to you expressing a dire need too work on something more important than his assignment from his father and country. He moves into a room and starts a shop next to the kitchen run by Porcoline. His business is trade and he'll have items available for you to buy and also gives you a forecast for crop growth. Out of all the bachelor's he is the easiest to gain hearts with right from the start. His favorite vegetable is turnips which will get you 484 points with him. Go to the restaurant and make pickled turnips from it and you'll get a whopping 855 points from that gift. It is VERY easy to court Arthur with just these two gifts. 


This blog is just a short introduction to Arthur and how to begin courting him. Once I learn some more details I will post more of his favorite items along with the courting events. Hope this helps some people in the process of courting Arthur.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Thought's on Fable Anniversary

On my Game To Do List one of the series that I want to play this year is Fable. The last few nights I have been streaming Fable Anniversary which is the remake of the original Fable game. Like with any remake they have made some changes to the game like the menu screen. Some changes are good, some not so good. A change that continues to bug me is how some of the characters look. I swear when I played the original Fable they didn't look like that. Maze, I swear has almost alien like eyes.


Other than the odd looks of the character's at time I have found some glitches as well. The game likes to freeze a lot and just do unnatural things. I remember the original Fable having some bugs but you would think the developers would have troubleshooted the game and removed some of those odd bugs. Over all, so far I am highly pleased with the game though. Brings back my original Xbox days. There are a lot of games from the Xbox that I miss and will most likely never re-obtain again. Fable is a great classic and even though their are these bugs and oddities with the game I highly recommend it to anyone who loves RPG's. If you have an Xbox 360 or a PC buying either the original Fable or Fable Anniversary as a download isn't a bad idea, greatly enjoyable game and tons of things to explore and do that a lot of games don't really offer.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Woman In The Streaming World

*Disclaimer: I'm not saying all females do these things and I am not saying that only females do these things. This is just a blog of my opinion of things I have recently noticed a lot of from other female streamers*


Streaming live game play has been a growing community for years now and it's just getting larger. This community is so large that yes some people make a living from it. I myself do some streaming on Twitch TV which is all casual for me. In my free time when I will lurk on other peoples channels or look around to see who else is out there, and if there is anyone I would like to watch when I'm not streaming. I am a female gamer so I like to go and look at other female gamer's since it's nice to meet other gaming girls since we exist even though sometimes that is hard for some people to grasp. Right now there is only 1 female gamer I really watch. She's a wonderful woman who is a new mother and just recently got her sub button on twitch. I feel a great sense of happiness for her in these accomplishments, since this will help her be a stay at home mom and support her family. This woman is very professional, loving and caring. You feel like you are a part of her family.

Yet there are other woman I have found who seem to be in it more for the attention then anything else. I have noticed somethings that are kind of consistent and rubs me the wrong way with some other female streamers. The first thing that really rubs me the wrong way is when these female streamer's show off their biggest donations and how many donations they have received and things like that(this part really applies to any streamer for me). I understand wanting to thank your donors, and show appreciation but I don't think broadcasting who and how much especially large amounts. This is more like bragging and it's even worse when the way you present these donations is calling them "The Biggest D". We all know this is a sexual reference and it's not like we woman don't deal with sexual harassment, sexual degradation or rude comments enough. This is just pointing a large attention arrow right at yourself in a sexual manner.

With the woman who seem to post "The Biggest D" I have also noticed that they like to dress in very revealing ways on stream, doll themselves up and look ultra pretty. I once joined a channel where the streamer starts the channel early while she is putting on make-up. We waited 20 minutes for her to finally start her stream and even then there wasn't any game play immediately. As a female gamer and streamer I don't want people coming to my channel because I'm a female. I want them there because of my games and game play. I want them there for community and Interaction. Dressing up to impress or get attention is something that I do not do, in real life or on stream.

The next item on my list of things I have noticed from other female streamers is drinking while streaming. In the last week I have visited a large amount of female streams and I have seen a lot of beer bottles and wine glasses. Streaming live video there are just certain things that shouldn't really be presented. I am aware that some people like to drink when gaming and I know a few streamers who do that. But they at least don't make it know. These other streamers will put their drinks in a not so noticeable container so they are not flaunting alcohol about on their channel. A few of the women I watched made sure the label of the beer bottle faced the camera every time she picked it up, and another streamer would show off her wine glass. With the combination of alcohol and sexual references on these channels it makes sense why a lot of guys make the comments that they do on female streamer channels. I'm not saying it's right for a guy to make sexual references, harassment or degradation, but with woman presenting themselves in such ways and manners it doesn't help our battle as woman to be seen as equals, and respected.

Now what I mean by equals and respected is that over the ages we woman have always had to fight for an equal grounding with men. We have gotten to the point that we are equals but yet we sometimes make it hard for anyone whether male or female to take us seriously when we do things like the above mentioned. If we present ourselves in a sexual manner and add alcohol to the mix we are not showing that we have respect for even ourselves let alone gaining the respect from anyone who is going to be viewing us on the internet.

With all that I have mentioned above, no matter if you are a male or female reading this post. Reflect on what I have said in a gender neutral way. Because no matter if male or female if you present yourself in the ways mentioned above it will be hard for anyone to take you seriously no matter who they are. Streaming live game play is just for that. The game, the game play and the community. These channels and streams are not for gaining attention by putting sexual references, your pretty/handsome looks, or showing off the fact that your getting smashed.

Respect yourself, respect others and show that you care. Keep it clean and professional.