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Let’s Talk About Playing Games As a Career

Career

Thinking in Playing Games As a Career?

I was minding my business coming home from work when my 10 year old nephew told me he had some news. He informed me that he had started a YouTube channel and he wanted me to check it out. I felt my heart began to race due to this turn of events. Yes, I am well aware that this is the era we live but I didn’t think this is where he would be going. My nephew loves games the way that I love games. I am probably the person who got him into playing games as a hobby. But here he was starting a YouTube channel about Bey Blades and Google Play Games. It was then I knew we had to have “the talk” so I said, ” Let’s talk about playing games as a career”

Playing Games As A Career Is Not That Easy

Twitch Logo
Image Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Twitch_logo.svg

I did mention my nephew was 10 right? Asking about what he wants to do when he grows up is not a far fetched question. Trying to gauge if that future included playing games as a career needed to be put into perspective for a child so I would attempt it. There have been several articles around lately discussing the issues with choosing to live as a video game personality. One such issue is not knowing when to turn off the camera.

“Several said that, starting out, depression, anxiety and sleep deprivation plagued them, all stemming from the nagging fear that fans would forget about their channel as soon as it went off-line.”

A lot of people underestimate the physical toll that streaming on Twitch or YouTube can take on your psyche. When I was explaining to his mother, my sister, I likened it to working on commission. If you don’t work you don’t get paid so having it as a viable career is daunting.

A lot of full time streamers deal with a myriad of things when starting out. In an article posted via Kotaku mentions “Several said that, starting out, depression, anxiety and sleep deprivation plagued them, all stemming from the nagging fear that fans would forget about their channel as soon as it went off-line.” In the era of fads and videos going “viral” one day off line can derail days and weeks of work. That is not healthy in any respect so boundaries need to be set and kept. This is not something she would be able to shirk off when it came to a kid.

The Price of Living The Streamer Dream

Brian Poshybrid Vigneault
Image Caption: http://kotaku.com/in-the-wake-of-marathon-streamers-death-twitch-communi-1792650183

All of this came on the heels of another shake up in the Twitch community. A relatively small streamer named Brian “Poshybrid” Vigneault was conducting a 24 hour charity stream and died after taking a smoke break. This caused a conversation to be had in the streaming community about healthy stream practices. Because let’s be frank, most streamers are not healthy if they play games “all day”. Most streamers start off as regular people who would love to be paid to play games. In the regular scheme of things, a play session can be hours of sitting in front of a screen or monitor only getting up for food or the bathroom. On a day one release most of us don’t even do that.

Most streamers start off as regular people who would love to be paid to play games. In the regular scheme of things, a play session can be hours of sitting in front of a screen or monitor only getting up for food or the bathroom.

There are so many different things that go into choosing to stream or make YouTube videos for a living. I follow a lot of content creators on Twitter so there is constant conversation about YouTube algorithms and missing subscribers. Low views mean less money and that is the commission/entertainment lifestyle in a nut shell. It’s become sad to watch YouTubers that I followed for years become cynical, burnt out and jaded from trying to do what they love which is play games.

Bringing It Full Circle

My nephew is bright eyed and bushy tailed. He has no real idea how any of this could potentially work. In the meantime, I am encouraging him to continue to learn about YouTube while finishing his home work. I am working with my sister to help establish rules so that he is safe while exploring playing games for entertainment. It’s starting early folks, but playing games may not be as fun or easy as we all thought it was.

Do you stream content on YouTube or Twitch? Are you a content creator of any kind? What do you think about playing games as a career? Let us know in the comments section below.

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