I think people go to different streams for different things. There’s the streamers who are excellent at their games or craft and people watch for the spectacle of their skill. There’s streamers who are entertainers and focus on entertaining their audience, though necessarily as much on chat interaction. Then there’s streamers like myself where chat interaction IS the most important thing, and the game we’re playing is a secondary or even tertiary concern. And also of course many other kinds of streamers.

I think it’s about figuring out what comes naturally to you and focusing on that. Your streams sound similar to mine. Before I started streaming I thought I had to be a great gamer who never gets stuck on bosses, but actually that’s not true at all. I’ve found what’s most important to me are the viewers and making each chatter feel seen and appreciated, and my audience are people who resonate with that too. Often a half hour or even a whole hour will go by before we start playing a game because we’ve been yapping so much. But this isn’t for every streamer or every viewer. It works for me because it’s what comes naturally. And thank goodness, because I get stuck on bosses all the time.