Before I start talking about this, lemme plug my twitch lol. twitch.tv/brentonstreams ok cool
I know a lot of people will say "Just keep at it!" which is part of it, but what do you guys think makes a good streamer? I want to know, just because I'm rather curious as to what people like to see.
In other words, what makes you click on a streamer and what makes you keep watching after you click?
good personality mostly, a lot of people think they can just do/say whatever they want and people will like them or that they need to do/say certain things to be good, but just be a person with a good personality.
Some people watch for you, some people watch only for the game play.
Some people won't watch if your splits and/or cam are on the left side of the screen.
Some people won't watch if your splits and/or cam are on the right side of the screen.
Some people won't watch if you have a live notification for follows, donations, etc.
Some people won't watch if your chat is dead.
Some people won't watch if your chat is too busy.
Some people won't watch if you have chat bots.
Some people won't watch if you change games often.
And then some people will watch only if you have the inverse of everything listed above.
tl;dr stream whatever you want, however you want, whenever you want.
I'll always check out a streamer if they're playing a game I like to watch being played If I find the streamer personally entertaining then I'll watch them play games I wouldn't watch otherwise Chat interaction is always a nice touch but I wouldn't stop watching if they didn't
There's 2 thing that get me to keep watching a stream. Playing a game I play/am interested in and just being an interesting person. Both seem obvious but are kind of vague.
You can't predict what people are going to play, and whatever you play is going to attract some people and turn others away, and I think you just have to accept that, nothing will ever please everyone. And the more popular games also have a lot more competition, why would people scroll through all the profiles with hundreds of views to watch someone with 2?
As for personality it's even tougher. Some people act like pricks and I can't watch them. A lot of people are also over the top, loud and obnoxious, and I can't watch them either. I like people who are in character (timmac and Dr disrespect come to mind) and people who almost seem like you know them a little, you feel like you'd happily spend some time down the pub with them (for me grand poo bear and timthetatman come to mind).
Honestly though, you've got to be yourself I think, as cheesy as that is. If you play games you don't actually enjoy, the audience is going to know, and if you try and pretend to be someone you're not (unless it's a character) people will also realise you're fake.
I wish I had the time to start streaming more (or at all) but it's a pretty tough gig to get into now and requires some dedication if you want to be doing it full time.
If you are dedicated, have a good attitude, find a way to be creative/create a niche (What makes your content different from others? What's your draw?), and have decent presentation value (A/V, Internet Connection, etc.) you are on your way to having a decent stream. It takes time, persistence, and a tolerance for failure.
Some people get a huge following through charisma and character alone, but not everyone is born to be that kind of performer. Gotta know what makes you...you. Work off of that and be open to constructive criticism. Being an ass on stream is a very fine line to walk, if you aren't entertaining enough, most people will get turned off.
Unless a stream has breakout success, they build off of the community around a game/activity. Being connected to a community of some kind is huge.