In my previous post, I mention about streaming. To be clear, I finished up my streaming challenge of every day streaming for 100 days on October 3rd, 2013.  Right now the focus has shifted to only streaming 3-4 days a week with new release date games being the primary focus during that month.

 

Anyway, my original goal for streaming was to complete Adventure, RPGS (Role Playing Games), and JRPGS (Japanese Role Playing Games). Additionally, I wanted to obtain at least 50 followers by the end of my streaming challenge. Clearly I did not, for I only have 16 followers. Still, a  part of me feels proud by what I accomplished, in what little time I did to promote my stream.

 

The only issue I really faced with my stream was college. I started college about 2-4 weeks ago, ergo my time became  limited in what I wanted to do with the stream. In fact my stream time, in hours, went down from 5 hours to about 1 or 2 hours on days when I had school or when I was studying.

 

I do have some suggestions that I notice people do or that I, myself, should have done in the first place, if I wanted to make streaming a "business".

 

 

In order to stream really good, you need a decent streaming computer. A streaming computer will typically set you back about $700 to $1,000 USD for a mid-high range computer. If you don't want to be set back that much, you could always go to an online store to purchase Avermedia C875, Live Gamer Portable, which should work fine if you own a laptop or a low-medium computer system to capture gameplay from the console (won't work real well if you attempt to stream your computer with a bad computer). If you already have a decent gaming computer with something like a 7950 ati graphics card then just buy an avermedia C985 computer card. Remember, if you do not have a decent streaming computer when you stream then don't expect steller results. 

 

One more piece of equipment you could buy is a webcam. Often enough, people want to see stream's expressions during the gameplay. Some people don't at times still that is short in number compared to people that do.

 

Another thing to keep in mind before you start streaming is to make sure you have a decent upload bandwidth. For 720p streams you want to have somewhere between 3.5+ Mbps (Mega bits per second). Otherwise, a good low quality stream would be somewhere between 1.9 Mbps  to 2.3 Mbps (about 480p).

 

Now, having a good balance of sound quality is difficult. Most people will want to grab a headsete but you  have to spend about $80 to $90 on a usb headset like a G35 logitech gaming headset. Otherwise, just buy a standard microphone like a blue snowball ($59), if you are cheap. If money is not an issue then  get a blue yeti pro micorphone usb ($249) for a really good quality or better yet an Audio Technica 2020 USB ($110) microphone. Furthermore, make sure to also get a pop fliter ($5 to $20) (helps with reducing certain sounds from speaking) and a microphone shock mount ($10 to $50) (reduce shake/random noise on microphone due to unstable placement of microphone) along with a stand ($10 to $50) (hold onto microphone to better direct your voice). Other than that, any headphones will do fine for listening to audio from your computer/console.

 

Streaming your game-play is best used with Xsplit, purchased. Without purchasing xsplit, you get really bad quality for video since you are not using the x.264 codec and it is the same for audio because the codec for audio is really excellent, once purchased. 

 

Remember while streaming to interact with gaming communities which will help you out with your streams. For one, you will be able to advertise to more people about your stream in such a way where getting more viewers is easier to do. Also it would help if you stream day 1 releases. You get a whole bunch of viewers ranging from 20-100 viewers due to that day 1 release streams, sometimes you don't but you have a better chance of getting viewers for streaming that game. Finally, it helps you more when you stream a game that has a big community around it such as battlefield 3, League of Legends, Smite, Dota 2, Starcraft 2, minecraft, terraria, and etc for more viewers. 

 

Last but not least, have a schedule for what days you would stream and stick to it. Try not to stray from that schedule. The people you get to watch your stream would vary, again stick to your schedule and ask your viewers sometimes if you should stream at a better time or what games they want to stream.

 

 

Before I forget, another reason time became an issue is because I had other goals I wanted to accomplish with my spare time. Some of these goals I have talked about in length or in private conversations. For now I can tell you, my goals are focused on improving my Writing, Drawings, Japanese, and Programming. Nevertheless, all goals reflect my desire to learn and develop video games and create animations. 

 

I can say though, I have some milestones to measure my success of learning. One of these milestones for writing is publishing a small collection of short stories. Likewise, I have a deadline to make a comic strip. On the other hand, Japanese measure of success is hard but can probably only be determine if I can read a Japanese children's book. Obviously, for my programming milestone, I have to create a website and a program. 

 

I have full confidence I can meet my deadline. The reason being is I A) don't have a job, B) have time, C) don't have a girlfriend, and D) gave up time to no longer look for a significant other; all of you that do have a girlfriend or a significant other can burn in the fierly deeps of hell where you belong. Hahahaha, I'm just kidding about the hell part. Don't hate me....