Check out my Streams every night (other than Tuesday): https://www.twitch.tv/stoic23
For a long time now, I’ve found it difficult to sit down and play single player games. I will still play the occasional game like the Resident Evil 3 Remake. But there are many games I want to play and don’t have the motivation to get through. I certainly have the time right now with the Pandi resurging.
A large reason for this is my persistent Lyme disease symptoms. I haven’t been too public about it yet, but I still suffer from nerve damage that has affected both my vision and hearing, making it difficult to focus. Even writing these rather simple stream of conscious blog posts is difficult for me. Many days I feel like I’m still in a dream, unable to focus, just able to get through the day completing the most essential tasks. It’s frustrating not being able to tap into that creative well I used to have on demand.
When playing the Remake, I would stream the game for my college friend. It was mainly just for him, and because the game was popular, I was buried at the bottom of Twitch streams meaning no one else would tune in. Afterwards, I thought it would be fun to play Code Veronica, a side Resident Evil game that bridged the gap between the PS1 era Raccoon Trilogy and RE4. My friend had never seen it so I found the game through not entirely legal means and streamed it for him.
RE:CV is not exactly a popular game to stream, so I gained some attention. Twitch streams are broken into categories, as well as live channels, so if you stream a less popular game, you might get the attention of people looking for that specific title. I enjoyed streaming CV so much, I decided to delve into other past horror titles. I already wrote about Horror games help me cope, and how it’s my favorite genre of titles. Particularly the PS1/2 era. Those games always felt so surreal with their low res/poly graphics, weird texture warping, amateur cutscenes and voice acting, and classic adventure game influences.
As I played more classic horror games, like Dino Crisis and Parasite Eve, I started to gain a couple of repeat viewers. I’ve been doing this for over a month now, and it’s become part of my nighttime activities. With not much to do at night, I would stream a horror game for an average of 3 viewers (not a lot but I would get several unique viewers tuning in through other means). I’ve already played through some of my favorite classic horror titles, as well as some new ones I missed. And now I’m moving onto Steam titles I haven’t played before.
This routine has resparked my love for games again. It’s been something I look forward to every evening (except Tuesday which is World of Warcraft night). It’s also made me want to build up my stream production, and take it to the next level as a hobby. I want more viewers to watch me blind play these spooky titles. Sharing it with people is a lot more fun than playing it in my room by myself. It’s not quite the same, but reminds me of college when I’d play a game on the TV while my roommates spectated. Even further back, when I used to play a game and my brother watched. I love having an audience!
This was a bit of a rambly blog post but it’s been on my mind how important these Twitch streams are for me. If you’re reading this, I hope you’ll tune in for one of my nightly streams! I typically stream 9pm-1am EST nightly. Right now I’m playing Song of Horror and White School, two very different titles I plan to write about in the near future.