Thoughts on Variety Streaming so Far

I posted this as a Twitlonger but I wanted to make a text post about it here as well--Let me know what you think!

-------------------------------------------- It's been a couple days, so I figured since I had the day off I'd put together my thoughts about Dark Souls and Variety in general.

First off, the biggest question that a lot of people have asked and are probably wondering is if I will continue doing variety games after Dark Souls. The answer is yes. I plan on playing Dark Souls 3 after I finish the first game. Beyond that, Witcher 3, Bloodbourne, A Way Out, Getting Over It, Dark Souls 2, Super Seducer, and Path of Exile are all on my shortlist with many of them already in my Steam library. I'm even considering making a private league in PoE a few weeks after the new expansion with prizes and everything, more on that tomorrow. It's been really fun to be able to step out of WoW and actually play games. I'm also taking suggestions on new games.

Secondly, I'm sure many people are also wondering where that will leave WoW. To be honest, I'm always going to love WoW and I'm always going to play it. It doesn't matter how dogshit the game is. It'll probably always be my "default" game. In the same way that a lot of other streamers use IRL or Just Chatting, that's basically what you can expect in regards to WoW.

The truth is that I was going completely crazy streaming WoW. There's only a small amount of things outside of new content that appeals to people on a large scale. Nobody cares about Mythic+ and even less people care about watching it. Same goes for mythic raiding.

While doing my usual WoW content is enjoyable for me, it can get repetitive and that's what bothered me the most. Even watching videos is fun, but when that's all you do every day for the whole stream, that's too much.

I'll keep streaming WoW as my main game between other games and also to relax and do my usual WoW content. I love doing mount-offs and transmog contests. I even love running Throne of Thunder for transmog and bullshiting with chat.

I've read a ton of posts about my Dark Souls play-through, mostly positive and some negative so I figured I'd take this time to explain the thought process behind my decisions.

The main goal with my Dark Souls stream was to make it as enjoyable and satisfying for people to watch. That's why I went in completely blind and didn't look up anything at all during the playthrough, even the supposedly simple things like bonfires and inventory weight etc. I think for the most part it was a good decision although I've seen it has caused frustration with some people.

Truthfully and honestly, I'm not used to streaming games. I'm so used to being in my streaming state of mind that I never think about actually playing the game. While I'm playing WoW, I know basically everything in the game so I can play it on autopilot and also I don't really care about my performance in the game. No one watches my stream because of my WoW gameplay so why care if it's not perfect?

WIth a game like Dark Souls however, there is a different expectation and focus than there is with WoW. In short, I'll try to do a better job understanding the basics of the game so that the frustrating parts are centered around the challenges in the game rather than the gameplay itself.

That being said, I don't intend to change a lot of the things that I do. An example is using 2H weapon. I feel that using a 2H weapon is more interesting and engaging because the outcomes of playing with one are more severe. That was a completely intentional choice. Same with not taking advice for the most part. I read chat a lot and I'd be lying if I said I didn't see to do a plunge attack on the Tarturus Demon but I chose not to do it because I thought it would cheapen the experience. Same thing with the gargoyles and summoning an NPC to help me at the bonfire. The shortcut right before the gaping dragon is another example. There have been a number of hints that have gotten through from chat I simply ignore because I feel they would make the run less organic and unique.

For a bit of context, the last console game I played seriously was Halo 3 and the last RPG I played seriously was Oblivion. That's why I went with the keyboard and mouse setup instead of controller. I might change that in the future but I simply feel much more comfortable playing that way because I have so much more experience and muscle memory with it.

Overall, I think the Dark Souls play-through has been a massive success and I'm really glad I decided to do it, in a lot of ways it has revitalized my enthusiasm with streaming. I'm extremely grateful that so many people were willing to support me and I don't say that enough.

As for getting hints and help, I don't really mind if people spam the anti-help messages when people are posting spoilers for where to go. There might come a point where I need to ask for help in finding something or where to go next, but I don't want to do that unless I've seemingly exhausted all other options.

I do however want to tighten up some aspects regarding chat that I feel negatively effect the stream. Mostly this comes down to two categories: spam and general negativity. The first one which is the easier to explain is spam. I want to do a better job at stopping people from posting entire paragraphs of the same question copy-pasted over and over. It's annoying,makes reading chat more difficult, drowns out any normal conversation, and forces anyone who wants to interact with me to do the same thing unless they want their message buried.

The second thing, general negativity, is a bit more complex. I think that on Twitch in general, there's a subset of viewers who cultivate negativity in chat by intentionally trying to say things that are obnoxious to either the streamer or the rest of chat. I don't feel that those types of people have any value to the stream and in fact I consider them a detriment. I've gotten a lot of messages, recently especially, from people who enjoy my stream but sometimes choose not to watch solely because of my chat.

I haven't really decided on how to root out the problem and deal with it, but it's a conversation I'm eager to have with you, my community, on what the best way forward is. A simple example is the HaHaa emote (I think that's what it's called). It's used to convey cringing at something and I find it difficult to see how it adds anything positive to the stream. Plainly, I don't ever see a use of the emote that isn't in a negative connotation towards someone or something. I haven't decided entirely on if I'm going to get rid of it or not, but I'm curious to hear what your opinions are about the subject. While it's "my" stream, it's yours as well. We have built this together and I don't want to take it down a path that puts me at odds with my audience.

Anyways, if you got this far, I'm sorry lol. I thought it was important to make this post to give you all an update on my thinking towards the stream. Between now and last month, I feel 100% better and it's with all of your support and care that I can say I feel that way. Hopefully this alleviates some concerns with variety, Dark Souls, WoW, and the stream in general :D