Twitch | Polygamer

Polygamer #105: T.L. Taylor on Twitch streaming

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Ken Gagne

Dr. T.L. Taylor is a professor at M.I.T. and the author of several books, including Watch Me Play – Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming. Her ethnographic research into esports and online game streaming have led her to co-found AnyKey, an advocacy organization that supports diversity, inclusion, and equity in competitive gaming; and to be one of the founding members of Twitch’s Safety Advisory Council.

In this episode, I ask T.L. how esports led to Twitch and vice versa; how an external advisory council can sway an organization as large as Twitch; how one can write a book about a medium that is so quickly evolving; the AnyKey pledge that over 750,000 million streamers have taken; whether esports could survive without Twitch, or vice versa; what gaming can tell us about the future of our country’s culture and politics; and about her current research into amusement parks as commercialized play spaces.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 57:07 — 27.1MB) | Embed

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Polygamer #89: Twitch variety streamer SlyTQ

Posted on May 8, 2019 by Ken Gagne

TQ is a Twitch variety streamer and Take This Ambassador. Her channel frequently hosts charity streams in support mental health, children’s hospitals, and other non-profits close to her heart. This advocacy recently extended to PAX East, where TQ appeared on the panel “Avoiding Burnout in Creative Professions“, speaking from her experience working 60+ hours a week to maintain her channel and audience. In all her work, she focuses on how our differences as people make us better as a whole, rather than something we should have separate us.

In this podcast, we talk about how to launch a streaming career; separating one’s success and failures from one’s self-worth; using Patreon and Discord to build a community; the offline work that goes into maintaining a Twitch subscriber base; maintaining a healthy work/life harmony; avoiding creative burnout; how emotional support animals are different from service dogs; and the games she keeps to herself and won’t stream.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:12:46 — 34.3MB) | Embed

Polygamer #60: Speedrunner Kungfufruitcup

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Ken Gagne

Kungfufruitcup is a variety streamer and speedrunner. In her live Twitch stream, she races to finish video games as quickly as possible, mastering a game’s precise timing and patterns — and the occasional glitch — to break all records. She is also a regular attendee and commentator at Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ), the biannual speedrun charity marathon; and is co-captain of Girls On Fire, an all-women speedrun team on Twitch.

In this episode, Ken and Fufu discuss how to get under the hood and discover the best strategies for speedrunning particular games; what games make for good speedruns (hint: not JRPGs); the sort of tools and exploits that are and are not allowed in speedrunning; the freedom that comes from streaming on Twitch instead of having to edit for YouTube; advice for aspiring speedrunners; whether regular gameplay is "ruined" for speedrunners; how one speedruns for charity, and the incentives one can offer to encourage fundraising; why kappa is banned; and whether or not rabbits make good pets.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03:27 — 29.9MB) | Embed

Polygamer #55: Twitch streamer SeriouslyClara

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Ken Gagne

SeriouslyClara is a Twitch content creator who focuses on indie games. After being "tricked" into streaming by a friend, she came to love the community and the support they offered her in response to her honesty and authenticity. She now streams to her channel’s 22,000 subscribers several times a week, where she plays indie titles and promotes mental health awareness and body positivity. She recently spoke on the PAX West 2016 panel " So You Think Twitch Isn’t For You? Guess Again" and attended the second-ever TwitchCon.

This week, Clara and Ken talk about their mutual love for Owlboy and Skies of Arcadia; the tradeoff of playing triple-A games for a large audience instead of playing indie games for a more intimate crowd; the differences in performing for a live audience on Twitch vs. a delayed audience on YouTube; the challenges of being an introvert in the gaming community; and the societal expectations thwarted by living a childfree lifestyle.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02:20 — 29.4MB) | Embed

Polygamer #35: Susan Arendt of Take This

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Ken Gagne

Take This is a non-profit charity that promotes awareness and education of mental health issues through outreach to gamers. Its “AFK Rooms” have become a staple of PAX East, West, South, and Australia, and its holiday stream gives gamers a community to help them through a challenging time of year. Soon, the organization will offer a scholarship to help those gamers who need financial assistance toward mental health counseling.

It’s been a year since Take This co-founders Susan Arendt and Russ Pitts were on Polygamer podcast episode #7, and much has happened in that time! In this follow-up, Susan and Ken discuss how the AFK Rooms have since expanded to every PAX; how mental health has been represented in some of 2015’s biggest titles, such as Rise of the Tomb Raider and Life Is Strange; the difference between anxiety as an emotion and as a clinical condition; Take This’s new 24-minute documentary; the intersection of horror video games and mental health; and how to balance helping your friends and protecting yourself.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02:42 — 29.6MB) | Embed