Streaming

I got into streaming a little bit before COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown. I started off by streaming things like Borderlands 3, a lot of Formula 1 2019 and a little bit of Forza Horizon 4.

The racing games were particularly fun as I was using a racing wheel. The wheel itself is a very modest Logitech G27 that I bought second-hand for around £100 and is an absolute blast!

It's a belt-driven wheel that I would consider to be one of the better "mid-level" wheels available in the belt-driven category before considering making the leap up to a "direct drive" powered wheel.

Once I got the wheel onto the stand, this changed my entire experience of racing. I was able to position it almost perfectly in front of the desk, and I think it added an extra element to my stream.

It helped me to better understand that even though I was having more fun with gaming, that it increased my "viewers' experience" whilst I was live streaming. And that's when it started to click. It's not about how fun I am having gaming, it's about how much fun my audience/community is having watching me.

But the more the viewers/my community had fun, the more fun I had as I was able to bounce ideas off of them. Silly handicaps. Or invite people in to "open lobbies" and race directly with/against them, although this would often work against me as my "average viewer count" would drop, but it was worth it in the long run.

I've always treated streaming as a hobby that I enjoy in my spare time. I'd be gaming anyway, so why not stream it, make some clips, and hopefully brighten someone's day. I know I don't have the time to put into taking it further, nor do I have the skills to "create" the content in long or short form.

Life ... is exhausting!

I feel like this is going to turn in to a saga ...