runawaycloud, the Project to Date

Early September Update

Stream aesthetics

I started my research by watching other twitch streamers (mainly OSU because mobile rhythm games are not popular on the platform) to see how others ran their streams and interacted with the chat. I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of kirukakev and how spazza17 interacted with the chat so wanted to incorporate these styles.

Over the next week or two I worked on my streaming aesthetic – I did my first stream on the 26^th of August and quickly decided I wanted to stream using my laptop rather than the phone directly as there weren’t any free customisability options. I quickly discovered that I didn’t feel motivated to stream without a complete setup as I wanted to have my persona meshed out and didn’t want viewers to see the unpolished version of my setup.

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Popular tweet on 9th of Sept

I had my first major stream on the 7^th of September, chatting with a friend who played the game. There was quite a learning curve for interacting with the chat, especially because I was playing competitive song modes, so I didn’t want to be too distracted. I also made the decision to try to stream more regularly.

I streamed 4 times that week and had more viewers and people interacting with the chat which was existing. On the 9^th of September, there was a major season update to the game, here I finally saw the online community come alive and had a lot more people in the stream. I came to the conclusion that my niche is the most active around updates, especially bugged ones.

I’m hoping to do more research onto the mentality of streamers if possible, looking at how others planned and set up their streams – and if they too felt more comfortable once their streams were set up. I also want to see if there is any scholarly research to back this up, as well as the idea of multitasking while playing games or streaming. Finally, I’m intending to keep a close eye on the activities of my niche and explore further about online communities for similar games, seeing if they too are more active around updates.

I’m happy with my aesthetics so far and don’t want to change anything major. I want to see how my interactions with the chat change and evolve over time, and if I manage to grow better with managing my attention – probably focusing on less intensive modes of gameplay so I can split my focus better.

Key Epiphanies

• Want stream aesthetics to be ‘perfect’ before streaming
• There is a major learning curve for interacting with the stream chat
• The Rhythm Hive niche is active during major game updates

Tweet about in-game issue on Sept 8th

I’m planning to focus a lot on auto-ethnography through my field journaling, where I come back to analyse the experiences a few days after the fact, and screenshotting. I also want to partake in a lot of participant observation as I immerse myself into my niche further and consider how my experiences as a content creator are shaping my relationship with the game.  

autoethnograph, autoethnography, bcm241, DA, ethnography, field journal, participant observation, project update, rhythm hive, Runaway Cloud, twitch streaming, twitter