As some of you may have noticed, I have been on stream hiatus for about a year now. Granted, I did do a handful of streams for Mount Mercy regarding my internship, but my personal brand did not grow from this project. I am planning on returning, with some big, transformative plans.
I am not currently well enough equipped to stream in any way serious currently. I have just been going off my Xbox One, but that system is failing, and I don’t have a PC at the moment. I just graduated Mount Mercy University with a Bachelors in Journalism, and am waiting to upgrade not only my PC, but my internet connection, until I can land a job, get a place and afford to spend money on a real streaming setup.
When I do return, like I said, I have some things in mind. Many of these ideas came from pro streamer advice to plan ahead for what would happen if I got Twitch Affiliate, or Partner even. I am not foreseeing these things entering my life anytime soon, even when I do get my stream up respectably. However, I can start fleshing out some of these ideas now.
One idea is to do streams with guests. If I could get a camera up in my living room, we could do it together and really have some fun. Guests I could get on even as a amateur streamer include chefs, a bevy of interesting artists of all kinds including comedians, musicians, streamers and more, I could also have family or close friends on to give a more personal look at me, and more guests possible.
Another idea is cooking streams of two varieties. First, streams where I try to cook something out of one my cookbooks and see how good the cookbook is at teaching you. Second, is having professional cooks and chefs on to make something special for us. I love food, and I would love to make these ideas happen.
Finally, is the big one. The idea that could really take my brand to the next level. I have dealt with an indescribable amount of conflicts relating to mental health my entire life, and studied psychology on the side at Mount Mercy to further my understanding on the human psyche. I would like to put this to good use, and thought, what if I analyze games from a mental health perspective? Using tools of literary analysis and psychology I learned in school and in life, I could dissect a game and come up with different takes on what a game says about mental health, not only of the characters in the game, but the player themselves. I think there are a lot of people talking about how videogames impact mental health, I think my idea could provide some answers, raise some questions, give a fresh take on streaming, and do so much more potentially.
I will not play all games this way. I experimented with the idea while playing Control, which I absolutely love by the way; it is a fantastic game in all respects, and the process was doable, but somewhat more exhausting than normal gaming for fun. So, I will have streams where I do either a mental health analysis, or just play for fun. If it is for analysis, I will end up taking all my VODs of a specific game and pasting them together on YouTube where they will be archived. This will be important as my brand grows, because more people will notice and watch my analysis, which is work to be sure, if they don’t have to catch it live.
These ideas will all become more realized as time goes on, I spend a great time thinking about my stream, as streaming is some of the most fun I have ever had, let alone in regards to video games. I will continue to post here about video games and tidbits from life during my hiatus from Twitch, don’t worry.
HereticDerek 