PC Gaming

It's it's fun, and you enjoy it, then yes.

Don't go into it expecting a career, do it for yourself.

And then maybe if you're lucky your authenticity will shine bright enough that it gets a fandom enough to become a community.

If it's as a hobby, and you're enjoying yourself doing it, then it'll never be a waste of time. Keep at it long enough, and you'll get good at it, and maybe you'll be able to get something back out of it one day.

It's still a very saturated pool of interests to stream. A lot of time, you'll feel like you'll get no where and you will. But even so, if it's lets play content we're talking here, just do what you want.

I streamed for a few years and it was fun making friends and chatting. It took a while to gain watchers at first.

Just keep talking and chatting even if no one is there, eventually people will join In to your conversations.

As a hobby, go in without expectations. Share the games you like, talk about things you find interesting. As a small streamer you won't get a lot of viewership right away, but don't worry about it. As long as you're having fun that's what matters.

If it's a hobby. Just go for it. Enjoy it. Please and entertain yourself. If you take folk with you on the journey, great.

I want to know the whole process of what its like streaming games as a hobby.

Basically, you get a microphone, download OBS, set up an account on one or more steaming platforms and just play games. If you're doing it as a hobby, just do what you want to do. If you just want to chill, play games, and talk, do that. If you want to try scripting streams or making it more high production, you can experiment with camera/microphone hardware and live production tools. If you want to try and be an """influencer""" type, you can practice acting, improv, and being more energetic. Its very open ended.

Im not the best at games but i still like them and i think it would be neat to build a community possible, but im still unsure? Im not even sure where to start to stream to a community?

If you want to be successful and/or build up a larger community, you'll need to go to Twitch and/or YouTube. Odds are, it will start very slow and theres no garentee you'll ever build up much of a community. It is a competitve space because its so easy to get into, but if you're doing it as a hobby (rather than to compete or make money), then you can just focus on what makes it fun for you.

If you're looking for specific techniques or tips, to get viewers, I would recommend a couple:

• Stream something unique - if you're the millionth person playing Minecraft, you're less likely to get viewers than if you're the one person streaming Ricochet. Similarly, if you're playing basic Minecraft Survival, you're competing with a thousand others. If you're using Minecraft to act out Macbeth, you'll stand out.
• Try to minimize downtime durring streams: if viewers get bored, they'll be more likely to leave. You can reduce this by picking games with less downtime, planning more thoroughly, or just by being entertaining yourself.
• Try to stream consistantly or regularly: If you have a schedule, people are more able to come back to your streams. It doesn't have to be perfect, but something like, "I stream every Friday at 5:00, and other days as I feel like it" can help.

It doesn't take much, so you should absolutely just do it. However, you should also realize that most of the time you're streaming, you'll have an audience of 0. And when someone does join, they might not stick around.

As long as you don't have unrealistic expectations, I think this could be a cool hobby!

I do it sometimes just to see if I can talk to someone while I play a game I was gonna play anyways. Most of the time nobody shows up or maybe a friend stops by for a bit. It's a nice, comfortable way to work on my social anxiety. I've had fun strangers stop by and complete asshole backseaters. My friends all got way better at it than me, but I don't do it anywhere near as often as them.

Depends on what you mean by "worth it". What do you hope to get out of it?

If it's fun, it is worth it as a hobby. If not, you've learned something.

I have not done it but thought it would be neat. I mean why not if your playing the game anyway and if you have the equipment and such. If I did I figure anyone who watched it would be happenstance though.

It sure is worth it, for fun but for profit is a lot of work. If you like to interact with people while you play it is great. I'm not that good, I do it for fun, and have a couple dedicated viewers and a bunch of random for a time viewers.

Easy enough to get set up with OBS on pc, super easy, barely an inconvenience, so long as your system can support running OBS and everything else and your Internet is good enough.

I just went to YouTube, but there are other options to consider.

If you meet the hardware, software, and infrastructure requirements I say go for it. I actually started because I was bad at bug reporting so I just tell the dev to look at this timestamp to see how I broke your game lol

I can help you set up if you want, but only on pc as I know nothing about consoles

I'd say the easiest/quickest way to start is on a console with a headset and using your phone to manage the stream. Just sit down, launch a game and start chatting to yourself. If you have a console that is?

PC isn't exactly difficult but you'll need to set up and use something like OBS.

I think making and keeping it a hobby you enjoy is the key to success. Don't burden yourself with thinking you have to be popular and just play what you want and when you want.

What's your buy-in cost at this point? Have you already got a powerful xomputer that can game and run OBS? Mic and headset? You don't have to bother with a facecam if you don't want to, but if you want to, you can use something like iVcam to use your phone as a webcam. If you don't have a mic, I recommend Tenor's line of products. I bought a good quality condenser mic with adjustable boom arm for ~$40. If it's something you definitely want to do, there are ways to try relatively cheaply and possibly upgrade your equipment if you find it's a good fit.

It's a way to socialize a bit while gaming for your own entertainment, the goal and focus needs to be to enjoy it yourself, your spectators are just going to drop in and come along for the ride (maybe), try not to completely forget they're there, but don't let it change the way you're playing, just play the game like you would be if some friends were on your couch watching with you. The harder you try to "put on a show" the more awkward and uncomfortable it will be for everyone. That might be something that comes later, as you develop your skill at streaming (yes, it's a skill) but you can't start there.

Treat it like a hobby, it's just something you're doing for yourself, for fun. If other people enjoy it, great, if they don't, big whoop. Maybe you think you're boring. Maybe you are. But everyone on this planet has different personalities and different things that interest them, I don't care how boring you are, there are some people on this planet who will guaranteed NOT find you boring at all. Don't try to be someone you're not to attract people, let the people who don't find you boring find you. There may not be very many who ever show up, but that's pretty common even for streamers who aren't boring. Don't look at it as you failed, look at it as you didn't win the lottery. Because you probably won't. It would be nice if you did, but it's a hobby, not a career. Stick to the hobby.

As others have said, depends on what you want from it. It's not going to be easy to gain a significant following. If you only want to do it as a hobby and have no plans to make money from it, just go for it. You can stream with just obs and a decent microphone. If you want to stream and chat with some people, you will likely be able to do that without too much trouble. It's not super hard to get a person or two to stop by and talk a bit if you're streaming semi-regularly.