A Lot of Preparation!

It has been really great to get back to a little bit of gaming but what I have been really excited about is streaming those games and interacting with the audience while doing so. Over the weekend I spent some time trying to look into what I wanted my Twitch channel to do for me, checking out bots, pondering layouts, looking into StreamJar for donations and the like.

I made a huge list of things I want to fix / change / set up.

I think I’ve settled on using Anhkbot for my chat channel, and StreamJar for donations and a few layouts. There are other layouts I’d love to add eventually but I’m trying to go slow so I don’t get overwhelmed. I’m learning the ins and outs of Anhkbot – there’s a 50+ paged document outlining how to set everything up. It’s going to take me a while, to say the least.

With setting it up I also had to create a bot account so they can sit in my channel and monitor it. I know some bots don’t need you to create a completely new account but this way I control what the name of the bot is, which I like. I also want to set up various commands, and maybe one day I’ll get into the more detailed aspects of things like awarding currency to people who are watching in stream that they can spend on virtual things like song requests.

Since my stream is so small for now and only four days a week for an hour, I’m not too concerned. I really want to get myself comfortable and back onto a schedule more than anything else.

The details, as it were, will come as they come.

Have any advice, tips, tricks, or suggestions for me as I hash it out as a part-time streamer? Let me know in comments and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

 

DING! I’ve Joined a Guild!

First of all, I was watching an EverQuest stream today by a very popular streamer who had 7,000+ people watching him play. Even though I was a bit jealous, I was also SUPER happy that so many people were watching him play the game. He’s playing over on the latest progression server (of course) and was playing a necromancer (I believe he may re-roll something new, he was level 49) and it just warmed my heart to see that many people paying attention to the game. The streamer plays all sorts of games, so it’s not like EverQuest was his usual choice. While I may not have the viewership someone like him does, it still made me smile and I hope streamers continue to promote the game. Plus it certainly couldn’t hurt Daybreak to have that sort of publicity.

In my own news, my beastlord headed out to Blightfire Moors once more (har) to take on snakes and rats. Once they started conning dark blue I moved on to gators and turtles. While I was out adventuring I was buffed up numerous times by strangers – FV is an INCREDIBLY friendly server! I was astounded. Plus someone put thorns on me that last for over an hour. I didn’t even know that was a thing.

I started out the evening at level 18 and before I knew it (after using Lesson of the Devoted of course)I had dinged 25. Along the way I also joined a guild!

Emerald Alliances of FV responded to my cry in general channel looking for a casual family friendly guild. There were a good number of people online with 330 total members. Not overly chatty, but it’s still nice to have a home. Plus guilds come with perks like halls. Something I’m going to want to make use of, especially with portals to get around Norrath.

All in all it was a very productive night. Now I’ve REALLY got to pick up my last … 7 levels … of spells and see what skills I’m missing. After that it’s off to the Bazaar for a shopping trip. The guild offered to help gear me up but I would rather take care of that myself. I need a second weapon at the very least.

Don’t forget I’ll be streaming (it’ll probably be a RimWorld stream) Tuesday, 7-8pm PDT and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

An Impromptu EVE Stream

With my little guy out for a walk with his Dad, I had some time to myself and once I finished a few chores I decided to hop into EVE Online and stream for a bit. I knew I likely had 30 minutes or less and wouldn’t be able to actually DO much of anything, but it was still a nice bit of time to relax so I decided to take advantage of it.

While I’m still debating with myself as to whether I want to use Mixer or Twitch as my main streaming platform, I decided for today to stick with Mixer. Troy stopped by the stream and kept me company while we chatted about adventures in EverQuest and how many jumps was ‘too many’. I also mentioned the awesome Twitch streams I had been watching lately, everything from cooking, creating sushi, and metal working. It’s been a pretty good weekend.

I was docked over at my Industry place but completely forgot to actually remove my completed jobs and instead made the 19 jumps over to my mission running area. I’ve been working faction for an R&D agent, and the closest level 2 agent is that far away. The 19 jumps flew by thanks to great conversation and I had just enough time to grab a quick distribution mission and drop off the cargo they wanted delivered before I had to end the stream. You can watch it over on my VOD for the next 14 days, and I’ll be uploading it to my YouTube channel for anyone who misses it there.

I know most streamers go for larger amounts of time, but I’m determined to make it work with my limited time. So far, so good.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

EverQuest Adventures – Into Blightfire Moors (3)

I wasted a lot of my game time trying to decide what to play. Since I’m only streaming Tuesday-Friday, that leaves me with 3 spare days where I’ll probably end up gaming, but who knows. Eventually I settled on EverQuest, once more on the FV server with my wood elf beastlord. I had logged out in the guild lobby so I stuck up a quick advertisement saying I was searching for a casual family friendly guild, and made my way over to Blightfire Moors, a zone off of Crescent Reach.

The snakes and rats right by the POK book conned yellow and red to me, so I brought out my trusty mercenary and started attacking.

I have a bit more gear now but kills are still pretty slow (which is absolutely normal for EverQuest). I popped my veteran reward “lesson of the devoted” which would give me a 30 minute experience buff and went to work.

Ding.

One down.

Ding.

Two down before what was left of my hour ticked by. My beastlord is now at a comfortable level 17. I’m not sure when I get duel wield but I’m looking forward to that. I’m also looking forward to working on AAs once I get to that level. It’s still a long way away but it’s a goal to work towards.

Once I reach level 20 I’ll be able to head to hotzones and get quests for those zones. There are daily ones, and the hotzones automatically change these days, rotating any time the server comes down for a fix. I am too low right now to see what those zones are, but I should be able to reach 20 without too much trouble. It certainly wasn’t a long game session, but two levels is nothing to sneeze at and hey it’s better than getting absolutely nothing done at all.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Streaming? STREAMING!

I’ve never been what I would consider a ‘streamer’ even though I’ve done a handful of streams off and on over the years. I did some videos of Vanguard before they shut it down, a few of the Sims and other odds and ends. Of course now that my time is even more limited I decided that now is when I wanted to dive head first into it. Figures.

I’ve got about an hour an evening of ‘free’ time at the moment that’s pretty much guaranteed unless something drastic happens like my son of 8 months decides he’s just not sleeping (it’ll probably happen). I decided that I’d like to stream from 7-8pm PDT Tuesday to Friday. Last night (Friday) was my first attempt.

I’ve got a twitch account but I also have a Mixer account, and I’ve been having a pretty strong debate with myself over which I want to use as my streaming platform. Twitch is well established, but lacks some of the nice new shinies that Mixer has, including co-streaming, easily accessible teams, FTL interaction with your audience, and a really neat layout just to name a few. I feel that Twitch has gone without any real competition for so long that they’ve stopped providing an innovative product and instead seem to be focusing on what makes them more money (new partnership stuff, etc). Still, there’s something to be said for an established product. For a while I was using Forge and I absolutely loved it, but they removed the streaming aspect, so that idea flopped.

Twitch doesn’t allow me (as a Canadian) to set up donations through them, and I don’t have nearly enough of a following on either Twitch or Mixer to apply for partnership so that’s out of the question. There’s a few pieces of gear I’d like to save up for, including a green screen, a video capture card, and a computer chair. Donations would help a long way, but again these will probably be things that I just save up for and pick up myself. I’ve set up a StreamJar account, the overlays are pretty neat and at least I can do donations through there too.

I’ve been looking at channel bots to use for moderation, and while Twitch has a lot of options Mixer has only a handful right now. StreamJar works but is not a channel bot and doesn’t handle any moderation options, while Scottybot sort of works – I experienced a lot of issues with features not working (auto tweeting, and follower alerts where you can attach a sound / image to a follower wasn’t working for me). Either way, there’s a ton of things to look into and set up before I’ll really feel that I’m up and running. Last night was my very first “official” stream, and I did it on Mixer, where I had a pretty great time playing RimWorld and interacting with a friend as I streamed.

I think streaming is great interaction for those of us who may be very shy in real life. It teaches me not to be so afraid, and gets me to branch out a little from my comfort zone. I know it seems like everyone and their dog takes to streaming eventually, but it’s a lot like blogging. I know with persistence it can pay off, and hopefully others will enjoy my streams too. For now I’m just doing it for me – just like with my blogging. Even if zero people read / respond / interact it’s still a method of venting and being creative.

Once my son is sleeping through the night I may be able to expand past the 1h stream, but for now I’ll be holding steady at the Tuesday-Friday schedule 7pm-8pm PDT. If you want to check out when I’m streaming next be sure to follow me on twitter (I’m @stargrace as always) or if you have any questions or comments feel free to post below!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!