Nomadic Gamer

Streaming

Gaming

Did I mention? Affiliate!

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I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think I ever mentioned here on the blog that I finally made affiliate on Twitch a few weeks ago! That means people can subscribe to my channel for a fee and receive some extra perks. If you happen to have Amazon Prime you get a free Twitch subscription with it, which comes in handy.

Right now the perks are far and few between aside from helping support my love of streaming, but I’m hoping to create a few custom emotes and all that good stuff with time. Again it depends entirely on life and llama bean who has been fairly reluctant to give me any alone time these days.

You can also donate bits towards my stream, or forego Twitch as the middle man all together (they get 50% of all donations) and donate through my streamlabs page (it’s linked in my Twitch profile). I’m incredibly excited that I was also able to raise the funds needed to purchase a new gaming chair, so that should be arriving before too long. All in all the community has been incredibly supportive of my endevours, and I appreciate it more than you can ever know.

If you don’t happen to catch my streams when they’re live you can watch them after the fact on twitch as a highlight, or you can watch them on my YouTube channel. I tend to update them later in the evenings, or the next day.

Once again, it wouldn’t have happened without the help and support of all of my viewers / readers / friends here and across all social media platforms that I tend to frequent, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is nice to feel like I can succeed at being more than just a parent when parenting makes up 99.99% of every single day. Streaming is one of the few things I get to do that’s a bit selfish and just for me (even if I do have llama bean sitting on my lap or bouncing around me screaming into the mic the entire time). Once again, thank you. <3

Gaming

An Extra Life Weekend

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This weekend was one that I certainly won’t be forgetting any time soon. The Combat Wombat Extra Life team did amazing, and almost reached our total goal. I had a pretty low threshold for my own goal, but I reached it and that makes me happy. After all, every little bit helps. I was raising money for the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation – a place very near and dear to my heart since Leo was in the NICU for three weeks after being born and if we had any issues he would have been sent there. They do great work. Anyway, I streamed some RimWorld and then my husband donned his Daddy costume and played Dream Daddy: A Dating Sim on stream. You can catch the videos of that over on my twitch page and my YouTube channel. It was hilarious.

I’m so proud of our community. We don’t always play the game games or have the same interests but it was absolutely amazing to come together for an event like this. When I wasn’t streaming or watching my husband be silly I tuned in to the other Wombats and friends who were participating. You all did wonderful and I hope everyone had fun.

There’s still time to donate over at my page, and you can also check out the Combat Wombat team page for progress. I’m already looking forward to playing next year. I did intend to get some Fortnite played but I had to quickly change my plans because my Llama Bean had other ideas. Ideas that involved him sitting on my lap, and typically that means one hand to hold him and the other hand to game with. Fortnite is one of those games where you need both hands.

Did you raise money for Extra Life? How was your experience? Let me know in comments, and as always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Oh, and another HUGE thank you to everyone who donated. You guys, are amazing. This smile I have today is because of you.

Gaming

How Streaming Helped my Mental Health

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I haven’t been streaming for that long, but honestly it couldn’t have started at a better time in my life. Sure, I have a brand new baby boy, my husband is away at depot for 6 months, and I can barely form a single complete thought let alone carry on an adult conversation – but streaming has been one of the best things I could have done.

Why? Because it’s something I’m doing for me.

Four times a week, for an hour each time, I stream video games. I’m on a RimWorld stint lately because it’s pretty easy to play with a toddler in my lap or if I have to randomly AFK. I try my best to stick with a schedule which is currently 14:30-15:30 mon-tue-thur-fri. My streams are not long, and I’m not incredibly popular but I do have an absolute blast every time and I am incredibly thankful to those people who stop in, even just to say hello. At the end of my streams I have the biggest smile on my face and it’s because of each and every single person who has made an effort to be there for me. I really can’t express just how much this has helped me.

When I first started streaming I was in a pretty dark place. I was suffering from Postpartum, and I was very lonely with my husband gone. I tried streaming at night when logically I had more “free” time, but it didn’t work out because I’m on duty 24/7. I wanted to remind myself that I was MORE than just a mother. That I was an actual human being, with interests, friends, and passions. One of those passions is video games and even more than that one of those passions is other people and interacting with them to the best of my introverted capabilities. So I stream.

I feel really good when I stream. I love sharing what’s going on in my small home, I am proud that I’m able to remain calm and collected when something happens either in game or out. I feel like I’m able to transition between watching my llama bean and interact with my stream audience at the same time. I love having discussions with them, I love sharing my enjoying of whatever game I happen to be playing. I love that my little guy babbles into the microphone and shares his thoughts, too.

For that one hour I am something more than just a milk supplying caregiver. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my son, I love my family and I am incredibly blessed to have all of this in my life and I realize that, but you can get yourself caught up in a particular headspace where you’re not feeling very appreciated – and streaming makes me feel appreciated.

So even though I don’t have a lot of spare time, the streams are hectic, and some days I wonder why I’m bothering, I’m really glad to be streaming.

If you haven’t checked out one of my streams yet, please do! You can find me as Stargrace over on twitch and I upload my videos to YouTube after each one. If you happen to be a streamer let me know, I try my best to grow our community and catch other streamers when I can. I realize we should all be supportive of one another, and it really is a lovely community.

Gaming

A Tentative Stream Schedule

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I’ve been testing out whether or not I can realistically stream on a schedule if my kid is around and underfoot. Lets face it, life happens. We’re busy people and there’s stuff going on. If I stream while he’s asleep I would have to run to and from the bedroom with many AFK breaks during the stream, not ideal. He’s not a great sleeper. Of course with him under foot and awake that presents itself with a whole new round of situations, like the fact that he typically wants to be up at my desk with me so he can see what’s going on and grab various things (microphone). I’m still currently trying to raise money for a computer chair because it’s not fun to game on a giant yoga ball and it’s awkward to hold my kid up on that, too. If you want to donate, you can do so from this link here. I appreciate it more than I can express. I’m trying to get an actual gaming chair rather than just a computer chair that falls apart after a few years. I want this one to last me.

Since my husband is still away for a few more months and it’s just me and the little guy it’s important to carve out some ‘me’ time, and that is increasingly hard to do. Streaming is something I enjoy, and I want to make time for it so this is my weak attempt. It hasn’t been going poorly, but it is an interesting situation that is pretty fluid and changes from day to day.

I’ve stuck to playing RimWorld because it’s a game I know and a game that’s easy to walk away from should I happen to need to go grab a snack for the little one or free him from some sort of trouble (he’s into everything these days). I tend to stream for anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour and I don’t typically go over the 1 hour mark since real life doesn’t exactly grant me blocks of time any larger. It’s a good balance really, not too long or too short – the problem is it doesn’t give people a lot of time to stumble into my stream randomly and start watching. If you want to watch, you’re better off having some sort of schedule. Turning on notifications from twitch helps, too.

For now my tentative schedule is as follows:

  • Mon-Tue: 2:30-3:30pm PDT
  • Thur-Fri: 2:30-3:30pm PDT

I may have to start a bit later on some days but I won’t typically start any earlier. This is a block of time that’s after the naps, after a snack, and seems to work well. This week is the first week that I’ve stuck to the schedule, and I’m enjoying my adventures in RimWorld. If you happen to miss a stream don’t forget you can watch the highlights on my twitch page, or you can catch them later on in the day on YouTube.

You’ll hear my son getting into things and being a butt on stream – but as a friend says, it gives the stream flavour. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Gaming

Mixer – The New Beam

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Yesterday the Microsoft owned streaming platform formerly known as Beam was re-branded as Mixer. I joined Beam quite some time ago but I haven’t actually gotten around to streaming on the platform even though I have spent a number of hours watching others use it to stream. The interface is sleek, there’s almost zero delay between the stream and your chat which makes things incredibly nice when it comes to interaction.

None of that is the main reason I like this particular platform though.

As a gamer, community is key to me. When a platform I use gets shut down, it bothers me. Imzy is one such platform though they were not for streaming (you’ve probably never heard of it and that’s OK). Forge is another streaming platform that I used to use but it has changed and redesigned itself so many times I find it unreliable and I don’t have very much faith in it (plus it no longer does what I wanted it to do). The fact that Microsoft owns Mixer sits very well with me because they’re an established company with money at their disposal. It gives me a little tiny bit of confidence that Mixer (even under a new name) isn’t going anywhere, and that they’re invested in the product.

If you’d like to follow on Mixer you can find me there as Mixer.com/Stargrace – the same handle you can find me as pretty much everywhere. If you’re on Mixer, let me know your user name so I can give you a follow back! I spend a lot of time looking for awesome streamers to watch and I’d love to see more of my friends streaming. You’d be surprised at the things other people find interesting enough to watch (as I say this, I’m watching a stream of a seagul nesting. Yesterday I spent the better part of the day with a stream of puppies playing in the background).

If you’re trying Mixer for the first time let me know what you think of it! They’ve just announced a ton of new features including co-streaming, which is really neat to see in action. You can just invite whomever you wish to co-stream (for a maximum of three invites, four streamers total) and the chat channels will merge while the display shows each streamer. Perfect for matches of Overwatch or Mario Kart.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

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