You & I - Thoughts with Baun

One thing that has always interested me is relationships between people. I don’t just mean romantic relationships, although those are interesting as well, but just the simple interactions between people as a whole. When it comes to the gaming, gaming community, and content creator world relationships take whole new levels of complication and I want to talk about that today. So strap in… here we go…

Games and Communities

I’ve played video games since I was a very young child but I feel that the relationship between games (their devs and publishers specifically) and their players has gone through a monumental change in the last so many years. While there are many factors I attribute to this change I specifically think various forms of new social media being the main culprit.

Videos games have never been more a part of our daily lives and as the various social media platforms get involved in our lives there is a natural correlation there. Companies now cannot just throw product at us and assume they’ll get no kick back. They also don’t have to just rely on focus groups and in theory can get closer to their players/consumers.

The good of this is that now gamers and the companies/people who make those games can speak on a personal level. They can meet to play, share ideas, and even talk about problems. We have never had more of an opportunity as players to impact the games we love directly and not just with reviews that MAY impact the game 4 years later.

“…even from occasionally “toxic” communities you can get amazing results and bounce backs from games in bad shape…”

Unfortunately like with most things there are bad sides. There has likely never been more toxicity between players and from players to devs/publishers/community managers. In fact most games now have people specified to be the middle man between the community and their devs for these very reasons. Done correctly you get situations like R6: Siege and The Division where even from occasionally “toxic” communities you can get amazing results and bounce backs from games in bad shape.

My point here is that these relationships are no different than those between two regular people on the street. It’s still humans interacting with humans… those humans having every one of their previous experiences and opinions on their plate. We have to remember that when having conversations and even arguments on these topics. While there are bumps in the road I think it’s moving in the right direction… it’s exciting to see where it goes next.

Streamers and Communities

The relationship between streamers and the people who watch them I think is unique because anyone can be a streamer and at the end of the day there is little, if anything, that separates the two. While there are a few examples of the biggest streamers who are truly on “another level” I think most streamers recognize their inclusivity into their communities. There are many facets to this part of the equation and I want to briefly cover them all.

Streamers their viewers are the first group. I have experience here with my small stream and is one of the biggest developments as I see it. At the end of the day this is gamers interacting with gamers. The thing is that to me there are 2 types of streamers… gameplay based and community based. While most streamers fall somewhere in the middle I think most lean more one way than the other. Both of these angles have a ton of merit and I am excited to see how this relationship develops.

“…anything that depends on popularity, money, and egos will sometimes go sour…”

Streamers and streamers are a more… interesting dynamic. For the most part it’s a cooperative and fun relationship between gamers. But inevitably anything that depends on popularity, money, and egos will sometimes go sour. What complicates the issue even more is manufactured drama and controversy that can happen mirroring what we’ve seen with YouTube creators and in mass media as well. These are likely the most complicated relationships but will impact the entire platform as we move forward.

Last is the relationship between streamers and game devs/publishers. This is obviously a thing and we often see streamers openly talk about with sponsored content with new games or large games with big updates. What is more complicated is people accusing companies of quietly paying off content creators to boost product awareness and opinion. Even at this point there are people accusing The Division of bribing and paying off reviewers and streamers to play the game. Is it possible? Sure. Is it right to boost one's own view count with unproven accusations like that? I’ll let you decide.

I Digress

So, what was the point of this? I’m honestly not sure. This series is mostly for me to talk about stuff that matters to me or is on my mind. These relationships likely include you in some way and I thought giving all of them some attention may be thought inducing. I think it’s a very complicated, fun, and sometimes maddening situation we find ourselves in that is going through a lot of change very quickly.

I am happy to take many roles in this world and am excited to see where I stand a year from now, 5 years from now, and maybe even longer. Will I no longer be a streamer? Will I be full time? Will I not even play games anymore? What about yourself? Whatever happens I am excited to take the journey and I hope you are as well.

Until next time.