One of the world’s largest independent broadcasters, Twitch streamer Lirik, did an AMA with other Twitch partners yesterday. As one of the most successful there has ever been, he has some interesting things to say about the service, where it’s headed, what it’s like having such a massive influence and much more.
Pick one of the best PC games ever to play if you start streaming.
Here’s the full VOD. Warning: there are some embarassingly terrible questions in here, but a few gems I’ve summarised below.
There’s also a fairly alright write-up on Lirik’s subreddit. Here’s what stood out to me:
- There’s a market for streamer interaction games, where chat and such can directly influence what happens within it. This is probably part of the future of Twitch.
- Growing streams is far more difficult now than it was in the past, and the normal advice of being active, regular and engaging isn’t some great secret. Play new games and plan around the larger streamers.
- Having so much influence is odd and takes care, as does having such a loyal fanbase. Things can get toxic with giveaways, charity streams are great but links posted into chat can take websites down. Deliberately starting drama with other streamers is not a good way to go.
- He’d like to see better subscriber features and in-built viewer highlighting on the service.
- Twitch isn’t going anywhere. Esports continues to grow, and that will keep bringing in new viewers to the service. There needs to be new, popular streamers regularly He doesn’t plan on going anywhere for a long time, though.
Have a look at Lirik’s Twitch channel if you like, where he streams every day but Thursday. As far as the multi-game streamers go, he’s pretty good, and regularly streaming whatever the hottest new thing is.