Streaming Update - Birthday Stream!

This streaming stuff just keeps adding up.

For my birthday, I got actual paid subscribers to my Twitch channel. There are two ways people can subscribe - they can spend real money through their Twitch account or they can use the one free subscription through Amazon Prime. During my morning birthday stream, Sophie Fatal came in the room and subscribed (real money) and then bought six gift subscriptions just to make my day. Then two more friends subscribed over the course of the day, and two other friends used their Amazon Prime benefits to subcribe later on in the day.

When I posted about it on Facebook, I was asked how the Amazon thing works. This is what I wrote:

Follow one of my links to my Twitch channel. Sign up for an account if you want to. If you have Amazon Prime, you can link your account. Then... well, watch all the people creating content for each other. While it's mostly a community of gamers playing their games with commentary, there are artists and writers who share their efforts. There are people who just get on and chat. The appeal is that there's a chatbox next to the video, and people watching can comment while the person is broadcasting, and the person broadcasting can respond to the comments in real time if they want. So you can develop a close-knit community.

The DC Universe Online community has become a friendly bunch, most of us, and when we finish our streams we tend to raid (send everyone watching) other channels playing DCUO. It was after spending a lot of time in one Twitch stream, and getting a great deal of support from them during my illness, that I decided to try streaming myself. So far, three weeks in, I've really enjoyed it. If nothing else, it allows me to talk too much, like my online namesake Tegan.

Twitch Affiliates don't get a lot of money, but if I manage a few more subscriptions I can at least pay for the emotes. And I could unlock the other four possible emote slots. See, Twitch wants to make money, so the incentive is to get emote slots which are unlocked with "Sub Points". Sub points are earned by getting subscriptions, which makes money for both the affiliate and Twitch.

• A Tier 1 or Amazon Prime subscription = 1 sub point = $4.99 or one free for every Amazon Prime subscription
• A Tier 2 subscription = 2 sub points = $9.99
• A Tier 3 subscription = 6 sub points = $24.99

The first additional emote opens up at 15 sub points. Then up to three more at 25, 35, and 50 sub points respectively - for a total of four extra emotes based on subscriptions. All the subscriptions giving points must be active at the same time - so it's not a matter of one person subbing over time - the total points of active subs must add up to 50 to unlock all emotes. Once an emote slot has been unlocked, it stays unlocked. So I only need to get 50 sub points once to get all slots.

As of this writing, I have 11 sub points, so I'm only four regular subs away from getting another emote slot. Being a bit aspie, I had to do the math. Please skip the rest of this paragraph. For one emote slot, I need four regular or two T2 or one T3 subs. For two emote slots, I need 14 regular, seven T2 or three T3 subs. For three slots, I need 24 regular, 12 T2, or four T3 subs. To open them all, I need 39 regular, 20 T2 or seven T3 subs. When I lay it out that way, it really seems incredibly unlikely that I'll ever make that final goal. Bummer.

I've continued to rank up a brand new stream only DC Universe Online character. The only offline stuff I've done with the character is rearranging stuff in his bank. As of today, I got the character to level 30, which is the maximum "level" in the game. From here on out, he will advance via gear improvements, which are called "CR levels" or Combat Rating levels of the best gear you have acquired. However, I haven't finished all the tutorial levels, so I'll probably complete those on stream. It took me 12 streams to get him to that level, with a lot of goofing around - I was not power leveling the character.

I've also finished my play through of The Room Two. I will soon start The Room Three, which I don't believe I managed to finish on my last attempt. I will probably start playing that on Monday. I still haven't decided what to do tomorrow. I have both the DC Legends mobile game and Among Us set up, as well as Doctor Who Infinity, but I'm not sure which one I'll be in the mood to do.

I set up some special audio channels on my PC, but I abandoned the effort when it became clear that Windows and various apps weren't going to respect the settings I put in. I was trying to route all my sound through a virtual mixer, but some apps ignored it entirely, others refused to use the correct input and Windows kept resetting the ones that worked until I rebooted the computer. The idea of having to reboot the computer before each stream was soul-crushing, so I scrapped the entire thing.

I'm also still learning how to use OBS to stream. It's not complicated, but it's not intuitive or straightforward, either. So I'm learning, and that's keeping me happy and focused. Things I need. When I think about my mental and physical state only one year ago, I'm stunned that I survived and am doing something new. It's a surprise.

Lupus Saga part 2: January 19, 2021

I am officially in complete remission from kidney disease.

My doctor gave me the good news in our virtual appointment last week, and I'm thrilled. It doesn't change everything, because I'm still suffering from lupus, but it does allow me to loosen up my diet restrictions slightly (I can reintroduce some forbidden foods as special treats!). I was cautioned not to go crazy, and I don't intend to, but it will be nice to have a piece of bacon again.

Now my biggest concern is the lupus, which continues to attack my joints. The rheumatologist noted swelling in some joints but said my lupus seems to be taking a fairly classical route, which means the usual treatments will hopefully help. Although a whole category of treatments is cut off due to my reactions to one of the medicines they tried during my kidney failure. Still, she said they would start to work on upping my dose of the latest new medicine, and if/when that happens it'll be another couple of months before we know if it's working.

I have good days and bad days. The bad days tend to be marked by horrible pain that makes it difficult to move at all, while the good days are marked by horrible pain that I'm able to fight through and move when I need to. Exercise always seems to help, but it is very difficult to start exercising when the pain is bad. I send prayers of thanks for my sister every time I get on the exercise bike she gave me or use the lift chair so my knees don't hurt so bad.

The doctors are pleased that I'm exercising daily, but I need to ramp up the amount of exercise I do. I'm trying to get on the exercise bike the moment I'm dressed first thing in the morning - and get at least five minutes in. I want to then start adding a couple more short sessions of exercise later in the day. And my doctors said I should start walking again, even if I have to use the cane. I also need to figure out some exercises for my upper body, as my shoulders are often very sore.

I've been streaming almost daily since the start of the year, although this past weekend I was in too much pain to get more than a few test streams in. I don't have a lot of viewers, which is fine, but I'm an affiliate so I have my own emotes. I can use them anywhere on Twitch, and anyone who subscribes to my channel can use at least one of them (all if they subscribe at the highest level). In the event I get some subscribers, I hope to make a few more emotes. But I have to get "subscriber points" to earn emote slots, so I don't expect that to happen any time soon.

My three Twitch emotes. Regular subscribers get access to "SUS".

The best thing about streaming, for me, is figuring out the tech and learning how to do neat new stuff. I have a good teacher at Sophie Fatal TV. Sophie's husband is a tech wizard who also runs online clinics on how to set up OBS (the software people use to stream) and make it do cool things. With his help I've been able to sort out some of the early issues I had and now am expanding into other things. Like a new opening and closing for my stream just in time for my January 20th birthday!

After someone asked me if I intended to put my Twitch videos on YouTube, I remembered that I have a YouTube channel. And so my streams are being archived at my YouTube Channel and I've got a playlist for DC Universe Online going, and a complete playlist for The Room as well as a playlist for The Room Two. I expect I will be terribly embarrassed by those vids as time goes on.

My mother is home from the hospital, but is in a halo brace. I urge you to not Google that if you don't know what it is, because the images will disturb you. My sister is sending the entire family regular updates with photos. I worry about my mom every night, but there's not a lot I can do from here.

Inkwell has finally decided that my lift chair is great, and now is willing to sleep in it. This means I have to evict him from my chair each morning - a chore made difficult by his general cuteness and the way he purrs loudly when I enter the room. But it is my chair, and I need it, so he always loses the battle in the end.

Full Kidney Saga (Start Here)

Full Lupus Saga (Start Here)

Streaming Update - Wha... Revenue?

I'm officially a Twitch Affiliate now, and have been having a fun time with the settings and stuff. No one has subscribed yet, which doesn't surprise me, but I did make some revenue - to my shock.

I have made four cents. Because at least two people watched ads.

I'm not sure how many ads that translates to, but I was actually shocked when the revenue showed up. I knew Twitch runs ads during streams, and I know I technically get some portion of it, but knowing and seeing are two different things. So, it I keep it up at this rate... er, um 13 streams equals 4 cents, minimum $100 in order to get a check, um, if I keep up a daily stream... it'll be 89 years before I see any money.

Well.

Okay, I guess I'll hope for some subscribers then, instead.

In the meantime, I'm still working on getting emotes. We'll just have to see how that turns out. When I get them, I will certainly post them here... and if you join my Twitch channel as a subscriber you can use them anywhere on Twitch.

Lastly, I'm posting my streams on YouTube as a sort of back-up. I posted my entire playthrough of The Room, and my ongoing playthrough of my new villain on DC Universe Online. I expect I'll be incredibly embarrassed by these in a couple of years. The streams go up on YouTube about a day after I've streamed them.

My birthday is January 20th, and I think I may have to figure out something special for that day on my stream. The whole world will also be celebrating, so that's good. But I gotta think of something fun for me to do. Maybe I'll try video for the first time? I'm not sure my system could handle it, but maybe... just that once...

Anyway, that's streaming life. I'll be posting a lupus update soon. I hope. I have two more doctor appointments this week, so I'm waiting on what news may come out.

Streaming Update - The Emote Challenge

Yesterday morning I got my Twitch Affiliate invite after my morning stream, and immediately started to fill out the paperwork. It'll be a few days while tax information is checked, but I anticipate it going forward nicely.

I made the mistake of mentioning on Twitter that I was going to need an artist for my emotes. I should have realized that digital artists have searches set up for just that sort of comment in the hopes of landing a gig. After getting 24 artists in a matter of a couple of hours contacting me, I decided I needed to get very serious about it and decide on my standards. The worst thing (or the best) is that every single artist who contacted me was GOOD. I mean, really good. Some of them stood out as excellent, but all of them were absolutely worth paying for work. But I can only afford to hire one. ACK. Torture.

Anyway, I expect three things from a potential artist. Since most of these folks are young and just starting out, some of them had none of the things. Part of me wants to help them by explaining exactly what a potential client wants, but I'm a creative type myself and I know such advice can be hard to take. Still, I figure if I post it here, and maybe drop them the link, there's a tiny chance they will follow and get my perspective. And maybe it will help them in the future?

So. Three things important for an artist trying to sell their work:

• One: A portfolio. This is just a set of sample images of your previous work, preferably showing the range of what you can do. Best practices is to have a website for the work with watermarked images (light watermark, but enough to prevent theft). Acceptable is to have files to send to potential clients. Most of the artists who contacted me had something, although I was a bit taken aback at the slapdash nature of some of them. It is worth investing a little time in making sure your portfolio is complete, accessible and accurately reflects your work.
• Two: References. I want to know you can deliver the goods, and the best way to prove it is to have someone you've already done business with tell me that you can. Not one of the people I contacted to ask for references knew what I was talking about, which just tells me I'm old. But once I explained it, people quickly got back to me. In the case of Twitch emotes, a shout-out on Twitter from a streamer is just about the most perfect reference ever. Links to the streams of Twitch users of artwork are good, as well, but a direct mention is best. Unlike many business dealings, I don't need a letter with a glowing recommendation - just some proof that your work is out there.
  • A caveat: new artists are going to have a little problem with this, and the best way for them to get around it is to simply be honest. Admit to the client you haven't made your first sale. Surprisingly awesome things can happen when you are honest.
• Three: A price chart. Yeah, I want to know what you charge for your work. And this is hard for both the artist and the client. But clients are going to want to know what they need to budget for your work, and that requires at the very least a range or a base price. So an artist who says they charge X dollars for a simple design with the price going up depending on complexity is far more likely to get my business than an artist who says they will "work with me." I honestly don't know what "work with me" means, and it doesn't inspire confidence. Give me a base price and THEN say you will work with me, and I will be more likely to move forward.

All of this doesn't help me with my present conundrum. I've got multiple excellent artists that I'm chatting with, and I can't make up my mind which one I want to go with. And I'm terrified that, once I've chosen one, the work won't be what I want and I'll feel some horrid regret. Worse, I've had to turn down several excellent artists that had work I loved, but didn't fit what I want. I tell myself that they contacted me, unsolicited, so I can't allow myself to feel too strongly for their feelings. This is the business, they know what they are in for. But they are all so GOOD. Like I said, torture.

Maybe Twitch will reject my application and spare me this decision?

Anyway, I don't want to waste any artist's time, so I'm going to try to put together very nice rejection letters to some of the artists, while keeping their information just in case. At this point, I don't know if I'll turn up an Ace on the first try, or end up giving several artists a shot before finding the perfect one. All I know is I want to be fair and I want to be kind and I want a kick-butt set of emotes that make me happy every time I see them on my stream.

Wish me luck and wisdom, for I will need both.


Update: Wow. I put together as nice a rejection letter as I could manage and sent it to some of the unlucky folks - all of whom I might consider going to in the future if the current options don't work out. Well, all of them except one now. One of them responded with accusations of wasting her time and leading her on. Because I asked for a portfolio and then - because I liked the work in that portfolio - asked for a little more information. In short, the artist made it past my first filter, and would have been high on my list of people to try if the current front-runners don't work out. But now she's off my list entirely because of her incredibly unprofessional and rude response.

In the same time period, two of the others I decided against got back to me with "no problem!" responses. Both of them are now on my list for potential artists in the future, and I'll be taking a second look at their portfolios, as well.

Streaming...

Wow.

Just. Wow.

So, I knew the DC Universe Online streaming community is strong and supportive. I didn't realize just HOW strong and supportive it is.

I started streaming, almost on a whim, on December 31st. On December 30th I had no intention of ever streaming and would have laughed at the thought of it. Me? Streaming? Yeah, right. So I was as shocked as anyone when I had a bad pain day and turned my attention to Twitch and the mechanics of streaming and decided to give it a whirl. Just to see.

My computer is decent, but I decided to not try to capture myself on video, since I wasn't sure it would have enough power to capture the game I was playing and my face at the same time. So my stream is an audio stream, mostly. I created a stream avatar that sits in the corner for some streams and responds to commands in the chat, so at least there's something there besides just the game. And suddenly four days had gone by and I was streaming a little every day...

Now I'm actually a streamer, having streamed for five days in a row (!!!) and gotten enough followers to qualify as an affiliate. I don't have all the other requirements yet, but I have the followers and that's half of the hardest part.*

Why does this matter? Well, if you become an affiliate, you can start to make a little money with Twitch (and I do mean little) and, more importantly, can make emotes for people to use in your channel and other channels. And I like emotes. There's one I very much want to make, and I think I will be able to find something that works. Heck, just look on Etsy for "Twitch Emotes" and you'll see a bazillion excellent artists offering custom work for decent prices. The very little money I make will no doubt pay for the few emotes I want.

Now I just have to keep it up. I will continue for a bit and see what happens, and if people continue to watch/listen I'll enjoy it. For my part, I'm now thinking of ways to keep the streams from becoming too confusing with me blathering about nothing for an hour. I'm also thinking of other games to play besides my morning DC Universe Online stream. I'll be playing DCUO at 10 am every morning for an hour, and then at 2 pm I'll play something else for an hour. I'm going to limit myself to an hour due to my health issues, but I think I can manage it.

Here's the link: Realtegan on Twitch. I don't expect anyone to watch or follow, but feel free to drop by if you want.

* To become an affiliate, you must (in the past 30 days) stream at least 8 hours on seven different days. You must have 50 followers and average at least 3 viewers.