Stream Big
  • Home
  • Team
  • Stream Big
  • About
  • Contact
  • MOMAM6
  • YearofChallenges

Avoiding A Twitch Blow-Up

4/5/2015

6 Comments

 
By: Iateyourpie

Keeping your cool on stream is one of the most underrated skills to have as a streamer. While some people are able to pull off the angry reaction streamer persona, a lot of people aren’t. I’ve seen countless streamers who get into the habit of getting angry on their stream about something that happened in the game, or reacted in a way towards a viewer in a really harsh way.  As a viewer it’s really awkward. I have countless amounts of streams to choose from, if you’re making the stream awkward, I’ll just go somewhere else. While it may feel great to blow off steam while playing a game, there’s a right and wrong way to do it. 

Don’t get Mad, Get Glad!

As a streamer you have to realize that at the end of the day, you are playing a video game for an audience of people. There are certain boundaries that you need to establish for your stream. As your stream grows and you get more comfortable with your viewers, those boundaries can change. What those boundaries are will ultimately be up to you, but do have them.

One mistake that I see streamers make all the time is they get this idea that they need to comment on every questionable thing that someone brings up in their chat. If you see something that might cause controversy simply ignore the comment, or ban the user if it’s bad enough.  You don’t need to harp on every troll. Just take care of it and move on. You could be 100% right about what you’re saying, but still be in the wrong with how you say it. There are certain streamers that just tend to get upset over the smallest of topics in the chat, or feel the need to go on a 10 minute rant on why one person was banned. Just stop it. Say something once and move on. All you are doing is making it extremely awkward for your viewers, which is going to encourage them to not come back.

If something happens on your stream that makes you want to get super upset, and you don’t want it to show on stream, just take a break. Get up from you chair, go to another room, chill for five minutes and then come back. Blowing up on stream will almost never be worth it.

My Own Experience

Over the three years I’ve been streaming, I’ve been able to keep my calm for about 99% of my streams. While keeping calm is definitely an area I feel I’ve improved on over the years, I’ve still had my slip-ups. There’s one particular stream experience that I still think about to this day where I know I handled the situation the wrong way. I always go back to the experience whenever a situation like it comes up in my stream, and it keeps me from making the same mistake twice.

About a year ago, I was doing a speedrun of Paper Mario and the chat was pretty active and everything was going perfectly fine. At some point during the stream, the chat got into the topic of which football teams had the best chance of making a run for the Super Bowl. Being the huge Green Bay Packers fan I am, I was quick to defend my team and exclaim the reasons why I thought my team was the best. There was a viewer who had been watching my stream for a very long time who disagreed. He started to give his reasons why I was wrong, and why he was right.

(Now before I go on with this story, I just want to say that up to this point in the story nothing wrong has happened here.  We talked about it in our last blog post, but discussing things like this is all fine and dandy. You are free to have opinions, especially on the internet.  What happens next is where mistakes were made on my part.)

Now back to the story. As an avid Packer Fan, I can be a little biased with my team. I tend to overlook their weaknesses, overestimate their strengths, and basically believe they are the greatest team on the face of the planet. So when someone tells me that my team is bad, I might get a little defensive. Instead of just shrugging it off and saying that’s your opinion and I have mine, I started to get really angry with the viewer. I started to go off on them and tell them how wrong they were and kept dragging the topic on and on and on. I didn't do it a nice way either, it was very obvious that I was upset that this person would take the time to say how wrong I was with my opinions. 

I was angry and a complete jerk about how this viewer felt about my team, and it made the whole chat very uncomfortable. This was all over something as stupid as my feelings on how amazing the Green Bay Packers were. (They went on to suck in the playoffs that year by the way, so I was very wrong.) Instead of just moving on with something else, I kept the conversation going and going until it got to the point where I was yelling on stream. Many viewers left the chat that day in a really awkward position. The viewer that I ended up overreacting to hasn't come back to my stream since that moment other than once or twice. This was a viewer that had been around for a while, that I blew off because of the stubbornness of my opinion.  I won’t get that moment back, but I can take that moment where I made a mistake and learn from it. 

That's one of the biggest keys with streaming. You're going to make mistakes when you get into streaming. You're not expected to be perfect from the get-go. The key is to learn from those mistakes and not make them over and over again.

Wrapping it up

Twitch is a gaming site, not a “solve the entire world’s problems” website. Choose your battles wisely and then once you choose them, learn how to fight them without coming across as a jerk. As stated before, you only get one first impression. When you stream, you have no idea how many first impressions you’re ruining by going off on a viewer that you disagree with.

Now I’m not saying that you can’t ever get mad on stream. Video games bring out the best of us. Whether they make you laugh, cry, angry, happy, or sad, they are meant to produce reactions. Getting upset because a game screwed you over is completely understandable, and a lot of viewers want to see how a streamer deals with adversity. But there’s a difference between cussing after a brutal mistake, and throwing your controller at the wall. Learn to find the balance.

Follow us on Twitter so you get all the latest updates!  @StreamBigNET

6 Comments
JTB
4/5/2015 05:08:28 am

Gread read! Raging at viewers is something that should never happen and often stops me from watching the stream again (aka Crumps). I definitely agree with your thoughts on getting mad at a game, especially a speedrun, it's hard to stay 100% positive when something goes wrong since the point of speedrunning is to know everything about the game to ensure nothing goes wrong. I feel your advice on taking a break when stressed out is really underrated for streamers. If your emotions are getting the best of you, then come back either later with a more positive mindset! Otherwise you might find yourself featured on a youtube video with your reputation now tarnished ;)

Reply
iNFlatableThor
4/5/2015 12:32:36 pm

It's definitely an important skill to be able to identify trolls, hate-breeders, or other controversy starters in your chat and respond to them appropriately. This can be a little more difficult to do if you are new and don't have mods to help you out with bans/timeouts or if you display your chat on stream and a troublemaker is spamming hate messages or lewd/rude/crude junk in chat. If such a situation occurred, I would first respond once (like this blog suggests, multiple responses can escalate things) with how such behavior is not tolerated on-stream. Then if the issue persists, I'd time the guy out and then make sure I take a moment to clear the chat window, so rude comments don't persist on-stream, in case you display your chat there.

I saw one less-popular streamer recently get insulted when a troll asked if he had a certain mental disorder, and while this streamer did respond OK ("No, I do not have ___." "That's not the kind of question you ask on stream."), I could tell that such a situation took him aback and that he got a little flustered, so it's worth it to stay cool and collected during those times, not take trolls too seriously, and to laugh off how ridiculous some people can be sometimes.

Reply
Godgers
4/5/2015 02:01:07 pm

"and basically believe they are the greatest team on the face of the planet."
But they are.

Reply
Mike link
4/6/2015 12:58:07 am

Good points. I've never had issues with people in chat, but I am a chronic rage quitter. I frequently start to go on tilt and a game and begin to be hard on myself, displaying anger and lack of confidence. I talk trash about how skill always seems to regress overnight and generally start expressing self condemning thoughts. Instead of turning off the stream at the beginning of being on tilt, I allow it to go on and on, gradually becoming more and more annoyed. The emotions begin to obviously affect gameplay, which perpetuates the cycle. Begin able to keep cool and also remain humble is one of my main goals as a streamer. If I didn't think I 'should' be better at the game already, then my expectations for myself would be closer to reality.

Reply
ppt
4/7/2015 06:51:02 am

I've been thinking a lot about this topic lately.

There's a guy I watch frequently who is a great streamer/runner 99% of the time. He's one of my faves, I'm subbed, etc. But it seems like at least once a stream, he flips out on someone in chat. Or a few people. Maybe someone is backseating or telling him he sucks...these things I can see being a little miffed at, though ignoring or banning them silently is fine. But the rules get murkier--he was playing Bloodborne and getting mad at people who wrote "rekt" or "rip" when he died. Is there a Souls stream where the chat isn't playfully joking about deaths? (or any game? Has there been a time in history when the people watching you play a game haven't commented on you dying in a joking way?) He took it like people were bullying, instead of the playful ball-busting it was "RIP" and "rekt" are now banned words...turns out lots of common words have "rip" in them. It wasn't a whole ton of spam, it was a couple people out of his whole chat, which moves fairly fast.

And worse, when people ask common questions, he responds like "I just said this an hour ago [insert response.]" As if everyone watches 24/7. He responds to every common question every time they're asked, usually annoyed. Other regulars could field these questions or they can be ignored. Sometimes he gets so pissed over one of these things above that he goes sub-only mode. As a sub, those times feel like a party host flipping out and kicking people out-- those left are like "ummmm" and trying to find a non-awkward place to look. Sometimes he goes on passive aggressive twitter tirades about it, as if these little issues are a huge endemic problem in his chat. They aren't.

This guy usually has hundreds of people watching. The frustrating part about his breakdowns is that it's over a couple of people out of those hundreds, many of whom don't realize they're crossing a line. He's trying to make a living and has mentioned he's a "professional streamer" but I think he really shoots himself in the foot by having these frequent meltdowns. Pro streamers don't stop the world because Yolo420 in the chat made some snide remark. As an aside, his viewer count is around the same place its been since I started watching a year ago. He's connected, gets hosts and raids, but seems to not retain anyone. Maybe it's because a noob gets a smackdown when they innocently ask something.

So I guess I'm just reiterating the point: when you blow up on one guy and make new rules based on a few peoples' actions, you're punishing the whole chat and your viewers. And if you are gonna address someone, make sure it's directed at that person, and not phrased like everyone in chat deserves a shaming.

Reply
Marty
5/13/2015 05:26:51 pm

I once watched a certain streamer who constantly belittles and argues with her chat (even subscribers). The most innocent of questions such as "how long have you been streaming" could set off a chain reaction. it got old after a while and I just change to another channel. I can see getting frustrated at trolls. Even with trolls, the last thing you want to do is pause your stream to put a troll on verbal blast. jesh!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    About The Founder -
    Iateyourpie

    I'm a 32 Year Old Full Time Streamer most known for speedrunning. I love interacting with viewers and helping people reach their goals with streaming!

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    October 2022
    August 2019
    September 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    Categories

    All
    Stats
    The Essentials
    Third Party Programs

    RSS Feed

      Newsletter Sign Up!
      - For blog updates, extra tips, upcoming events -

    Sign Up