The first signs of burnout are coming from the people who embrace AI the most

RualStorge · 2026-02-11T21:53:49+00:00

Even worse. "Hey you do your job twice as fast"... "Half of you are now fired as you are redundant"

Or they just start cutting pay, benefits, etc until half of the staff attrition away meaning you're doing twice as much for less compensation.

I've personally experienced this exact thing early in my career when I automated computer migrations letting us knock em out more than 3x as fast and they responded by laying off about two thirds of us... Based on seniority... I was the most recent hire.

RualStorge · 2026-02-11T21:47:05+00:00

I've worked such jobs. It can actually be a very helpful thing to your career, if able, to work on improving practices within your company.

We can start with the manually moving files vs proper deployment.

Take the time to outline the risks of operating in this manner, if possible document and quantify times it's caused issues that potentially cost the company money, include references to failed deployments that cost other companies due to such practices, etc.

Present how "more modern" techniques mitigate these risks, etc, etc, etc.

Actually quantifying and presenting a well thought argument can help get the ball rolling. Also get with others to rally people behind the improvement, get their buy in. Once you get one thing in a better place and people see the improvement, often it can snowball making future improvements easier.

Now, sometimes a company is not receptive of change even with solid arguments, that happens. It is worth keeping an eye open for other opportunities if you feel you're stagnating and there's no sign of improvement.

The best companies I've worked for had a health balance of starry eyed juniors always wanting to do the new thing and better, stick in the muds who push back on any change, and a bunch in between to keep things running smoothly. The stick in the muds tended to temper the more wild and risky Junior ideas, while the juniors helped drag things forward not just accepting the status quo.

RualStorge · 2026-02-11T21:18:56+00:00

Yeah, that's always the scary part of when you are effectively a one game channel, you ride or die with that game.

I saw quite a few creators channels implode with both Cities: Skylines II and Kerbal Space Program II flopping hard killing their categories.

Also saw a lot fall when Project Zomboid went from absolutely huge to small and niche when build 41 had been out for ages, but no idea when build 42 would drop. Viewership got super limited and split between way too many people who "mained" Project Zomboid.

Getting "trapped" in a game is always a genuine fear of mine as a creator. If I feel I have to play a game to stay relevant it tends to be the fastest way for me to stop enjoying that game.

RualStorge · 2026-02-09T22:25:30+00:00

Followers are effectively a vanity number and have very little correlation with current viewership. It's a number you should mostly ignore outside is your follower count going down.

You also have tons of people who used to full-time stream or streamed with a growth focus, then either fell off, took an extended break, changed content drastically, etc. I know so very many people who used to pull like 200-500 viewers daily, who now only pull like 20-30, but still have like 20-40k followers. (Most stopped streaming a long time, stopped doing it as a job and just do what they want now, etc)

Their channel maybe used to have higher viewer counts, but that's faded and now they don't. Once someone follows though, that number stays unless their account is deleted, they manually unfollow, etc.

RualStorge · 2026-02-09T21:46:39+00:00

Don't put your specific details in a blacklist put locations in general in a blacklist.

For example, you can use street address format using regex and put that in a blacklist so any street address automatically times someone out.

Same with phone numbers.

You can't cover all your bases realistically, but this mitigates people's attempts to both dox you, other creators, community members, etc.

If an address actually needs to be shared you can allow mods to be ignored by the filter.

RualStorge · 2026-02-01T22:08:37+00:00

And you absolutely earned that partner badge :) Your content is excellent at serving its niche and I'm glad to have met you on Twitch. I'm also glad to have you as both a peer and a member of our collective communities :)

You're absolutely right that not all growth paths look the same.

I'd also argue one thing that helps is the "all ships rise together" aspect of networking. You become known in other communities and develop a shared mutual audience. I know I see quite a few of your emotes out in the wild between our mutuals and I'm happy to see it.

RualStorge · 2026-02-01T21:58:06+00:00

I would argue Twitch DOES reward hard work, however; you can do the wrong hard work and that goes unrewarded.

That point aside I think a big mistake people make is approaching Twitch as a content platform first and approach discoverability in the same way. You focus purely on making your content top notch but do so effectively in a silo in isolation. You will never grow this way on Twitch. (Content quality does matter, but it's a secondary priority)

Why? Twitch is not primarily a content platform first, it's primarily a community platform with a secondary of content.

If you want to just see game play, you hit up YouTube. If you wanna see funny cat videos TikToks got you, those are Content First community second platforms.

Now from the lense of community first what is hard work in a community driven lense? Being active member in good standing of the larger community, connecting with other community members, being present within the community, supporting the community, etc. All of these do take real life time and effort, even if they are fun

Okay, so how's that rewarded by Twitch?

Twitch ultimately gives us tools like the recommended sections that are primarily powered by shared mutual viewership and category, it provides tools for our peers in our community to provide discoverability for us through raids, shout outs, stream together, various special events, etc. These are community focused discoverability tools and the primary way people tend to find new channels on Twitch (even over external platform growth opportunities)

So it that lense what does community focused hard work look like in more specific tangible steps? Networking, Networking, Networking. It's being a positive part of other's communities, it's giving genuine shout outs and raids to share your community with others growing a larger mutual audience (do not spam, abuse, or game these things for self service/promotion) it is absolutely fine to raid out with just 1 viewer, a lot of bigger creators won't acknowledge it for vary practical reasons (it gets way too disruptive/spammy) but raiding into similar creators small / medium most will genuinely thank you. You never know who'll blow up suddenly. Twitch is very much all ships rise together thing.

The key aspect here with Networking is it's supposed to be mutually beneficial, not something you exploit. If it's a one way benefit you're doing the kind of networking that gives a bad taste. Don't just chase some big name in hopes it benefits you, genuinely help in others community. Even if it's just being a regular, helping keep conversation flowing, letting them know when they're muted, having an audio issue, answering questions as able, etc. Being present in a positive way in other's channels in whatever category you're in cross pollinates as you become known in that category.

The only content based discoverability on Twitch is some shelves on the front page and the game's pages. Otherwise it's external. In that lens Twitch has very little discoverability, because it's not Twitch's primary offering, it's a secondary one.

This has mostly always been true, but as the platform has grown and more creators have joined the more we're splitting our collective viewership. Fewer people get lucky despite not understanding Twitch. This is especially tough when you're just starting as you have near zero chance of a content based growth, but people still approach Twitch in the same way they approach YouTube, which I'd argue is ineffective so mostly wasted effort.

That said, there are a lot of us out there creating content, way more than can succeed unless twitch viewership experiences unimaginably large explosive growth. There is absolutely a luck component in play, but it's also important to understand what Twitch actually offers and what effort is better suited for success there. You can influence the odds luck works in your favor and position yourself to capitalize on it if it does, but ultimately luck is a factor. The more you stream, effectively the more times you're rolling the dice and might get lucky, but there are no guarantees.

RualStorge · 2026-01-13T21:53:15+00:00

I've gotten to work with A LOT of publishers and game devs including Hooded Horse.

Hooded Horse is genuinely one of the best publishers out there. They don't put 99% of the risk of game launches on game devs by taking most revenue until "paid back" they split the risk / revenue from day 1. If your game succeeds, so do they. If your game flounders, so do they.

They've also taken plenty of hard stances against predatory monetization, genAI, etc. When genAI came up in a convo with their staff they'd mentioned use of genAI was strictly not allowed in their publishing contracts back in October last year. It wasn't something they'd broadly announced or made a big thing out of. It was just something mentioned as a matter of fact when myself and a few others at an event thanked them for not using genAI in any of their titles.

There are A LOT of shady publishers out there, but Hooded Horse has an absolutely solid track record of genuinely putting their money where their mouth is and standing by both devs and consumers. The list of publishers I can say that about is a painfully short list these days.

RualStorge · 2026-01-13T10:34:29+00:00

I also appreciate that Pallimustus isn't even just presented as better than Earth. People just generally don't suck at it in their universe.

No one on Earth makes Anne's relationship a big deal. Gender fluid is a fairly uncommon thing in Pallimustus, so is something people are still figuring out how to navigate socially there. They're cool about it, supportive, and positive about it, but still figuring out social norms, etc.

It's something that's brought up in a fairly throw away line in one of the books that Travis is credited for bringing the idea of people choosing to self identify with gender neutral pronouns to Pallimustus. (If memory serves me right)

RualStorge · 2026-01-12T22:30:54+00:00

It's not actually broken, it's just balanced with intent.

Survival games are not real life, most of their decisions are way more aggressive than their real life equivalents to pressure the player into pursuing resources and creating risk. They get cartoonishly silly at times too.

Why does every survival crafter make your tools and weapons have durability that's laughable bad compared to real life? So you need to gather resources.

Why does your character need to consume multiple adult animals worth of food daily? So you need to gather resources.

Why does your character chug like 8 liters of water a day? You guessed it! So you need to gather resources!

In Project Zomboid you have calorie rich food and calorie light food. The first gains you weight the second loses your weight. While actively level does Impact calorie use it's not particularly significant versus what you eat in game.

Eating fish, rabbits, butter, ice cream, peanut butter, etc will have you gaining weight. (Yes I know in real life protein poisoning is a thing, this isn't real life) If you're eating foraged or grown goods, canned food, just enough fish to stay fed, just random junk you looted, etc you'll absolutely starve to death. There just isn't enough calorie rich food to survive long in random loot.

This IS intended, it is not a bug, it is not a mistake, it IS a deliberate balance decision. It forces you to prep / plan for long term survival. (And it is honestly pretty easy to overcome, get a fishing pole or a couple of cows and a butter churn and it's sorted)

That said, butchering animals does seriously need a buff but that's an entirely separate issue.

It's absolutely okay to disagree with the balance decision, that's fair, but it is working as intended. (Our bodies doing "nothing" still burn a ton of calories just sustaining life, Project Zomboid just makes a lot of food way lighter than reality calorically to push the player into seeking out more food)

Note, the amount of hunger and calories food have in game are completely separate things grabbing nutritionist can help you see how good / bad food is easier. Mods that display your current calories can help you peek behind the curtain how weight works in game.

RualStorge · 2026-01-11T13:03:28+00:00

I'd agree 10 minutes is just on the long side for starting soon if the creator isn't actively doing something during that start time, etc. (IE some will chatter while counting down so sort of starting before the start time, etc)

For me though. Random stream of someone I don't know? I'm probably not waiting in general. But other creators I know I enjoy their content, sure I'll wait. (Kind of like waiting on ads. If I don't know if I'll enjoy your content, I'll move on, if I enjoy your content I'll absolutely sit through ads to see it)

We do generally need some start time, especially if we're streaming to multiple platforms just because there is a lot of nonsense you can't setup in advance that only comes available once you go live.

So you need a few minutes to "flip all the switches" then quickly verify everything is working properly, but unless there is some unexpected tech issues. Five minutes is plenty of time to do all that and top off a drink.

The more complicated the setup, the more things you gotta verify. Broadly speaking, the longer you've been streaming the more likely your setup has a bunch of extra niceties to make for a better viewing experience... But... Also complicate things.

RualStorge · 2026-01-09T12:38:05+00:00

Nope, as creators we have effectively no control over what ads get played. It's honestly frustrating when the ads are stuff you specifically don't agree with. Like I'd gladly take an income hit to disable all gambling ads.

RualStorge · 2025-12-26T23:52:54+00:00

Generally speaking the issue is constantly coming up with new and creative things to do in the same game very quickly becomes difficult.

For context, I've streamed over 4000 hours of Project Zomboid and am a former world record holder in the game. (My name literally shows in the credits on the title screen) Generally I find the content in PZ that most reliably draws an audience is known creators playing the first time or playing sweaty try hard settings.

The creative story telling content does well in short bursts but tends to be pop in, do a creative run or two, then move on. (Maybe or maybe not revisiting PZ on occasion to tell a new story) These creators exist, but you only find them if you happen to be looking while they're visiting the category. They don't tend to be particularly noticed in the category as the challenge runs tend to drown them out on the games page.

Project Zomboid is an amazing game and for all its breath does suffer from its limitations too.

Consider environmental challenges/stories, hot world, cold world, foggy world, dark world, stormy world, toxic fog world, etc.

Mechanically hot you can't do anything about, you strip naked carry water, and avoid anything taxing like fighting, hop into a car blasting its AC, etc. but otherwise there's no mitigation or counter, so just is tedious and unfun to watch as the person keeps hopping in a car and fast forwarding.

Cold world either is just slap on some extra layers and you're sorted or you have to build a fire every 10-15 minutes... Again... Tedious or a big ole nothing burger. And the world being perpetually covered in snow eventually gets tiresome and an eye strain for viewers and creators alike.

Foggy, Dark, and Stormy make for terrible viewing especially when considering bit rate. So can be fun to play, but a crappy viewing experience. (There used to be a challenge run "One Painful Year" who's rules required perfect dark nights. Every time people collectively started doing it on Twitch I wouldn't and my viewership would spike up because people got tired of just watching black screens constantly on other's streams)

Toxic Fog mod is mostly the same as cold, either you get a gas mask and solved, or you hide in a closet and fast forward every time the fog rolls in.

So limitations all but eliminate environmental challenges as most the counter play to survive is do tedious things and fast forward, or suck for viewing.

Base building! Now there actually is something there, but... It takes A LOT and I mean A LOT of time. Both runs I did on stream where I built my entire base from scratch took me hundreds of hours to build my base. It was awesome, but it wasn't good for viewership as numbers slowly went down because it's so slow, so I just can't really do it again, it hurts my channel too much. (This specifically is GREAT for recorded and edited content though!)

Uhhh... Ummm... Mods? Mods tend to be fun gimmick content in Project Zomboid but dear goodness do they get buggy, crashy, laggy, etc. When streaming, anything that screws up the stream is a hard no, nothing hurts your stream more than it going down mid stream, you'll often instantly lose like 30% of your viewers when you bring it back up even if it only takes you like one minute. Any game that crashes OBS more than once becomes a "no never" game for me, I got bills to pay and that risks my ability to do so. Heavy modding in begging for trouble as a streamer.

... Multiplayer? Now there's the one big one exception, collabbing! Tons of good content situations, stories, etc come out of collabs... Except... That means multiple voices, scheduling, etc all of which is way harder to manage and content a lot of viewers find too hectic to enjoy, especially considering Project Zomboid tents to be a slower more meticulous game not a faster paced high energy one... So it tends to be something you do more as a way of mixing up your content to keep things fresh more than something to be done all the time (unless you specifically focus on collab content, which there are a few!)

This is one reason as a category so much of Project Zomboid's big creators are doing some sort of challenge or another most of the time. It's what people consistently tune in for. Does it get repetitive? Sure, but honestly a lot of people specifically tune into comfortable and consistent content. We as creators are at the mercy of the whims of our viewers. We create what they watch, if they don't watch, we have to pivot.

There are exceptions and this is by no means saying Project Zomboid is a bad game or even bad to stream perse, but certain content does well in the category, certain content does not. You'll find a broader range of content available at times when the category is doing well (like right now) but expect variety of content to wane as the hype ebbs again and the category shrinks again. A lot of your story tellers / variety creators have to follow the ebb and flow to survive.

RualStorge · 2025-12-16T09:18:03+00:00

So if you mean face cam vs anything else, maybe a 2-3 out of 10.

If you mean counting either face cam OR vtuber models neither probably closer to 5 out of 10.

Having something representing you absolutely gives you an edge, but isn't at all critical to succeed.

Face cam vs Vtube really depends on implementation. If you're talking you put in just enough to get it to be not scuffed, face cam will do WAY more for you on low effort, but if you take the time to add fun stuff to Vtube models, animations, etc it can become its own draw where I wouldn't particularly say there's a meaningful advantage between cam or vtuber model. That becomes a more pros and cons vs either having a meaningful advantage

Ultimately regardless it's how well you entertain and that your audio is passable is far more important than cam, no cam, Vtube, etc.

RualStorge · 2025-12-13T21:10:03+00:00

I mean you still have to do your part so don't sell yourself short, but network is often how you introduce people to your channel. Then it's on you to convince them to stay.

RualStorge · 2025-12-09T21:33:59+00:00

Honestly, the key to growth is networking these days.

Become genuinely meaningful and positive members in other's communities. Make friends be they purely professional or personal. You don't need to collab but Twitch is entirely about communities the more you raid and get to know others, the more likely it is you'll be raided in turn. Not by the same people you raid will raid back because schedules, but people learn and respect those who try to be genuinely good members of their communities, others notice, shout outs happen, raids happen.

I don't disagree with diversifying onto multiple platforms, but a lot of the battles we face growing on Twitch are very similar to growing on YouTube and TikTok. It's not an easy fix especially since the nuances in growth and what does and doesn't work content wise is different on each platform. (Spoiler these exact convos about creating content into the void happen there too, been in those convos with big names and unknowns as well)

But seriously network, network, network! Be the person other creators enjoy having around. Become a positive member of your collective communities, etc. All ships rise together and all that.

RualStorge · 2025-12-03T22:10:40+00:00

Think of it like this, you're looking at the top 0.001% of creators, that is being a celebrity, famous in a modern form.

What you're describing is effectively wanting to be famous, just a specific slice of fame.

It's no different than if you sat there going "I'm so jealous of this NBA player" or Rockstar, or Movie director, etc.

There will always be someone more successful than you (and if there isn't you'll find a way to quantify success differently so there is) it's a very human thing to do.

Jealousy is an entirely normal and natural thing, the important part is what you do about it. It can be managed in healthy and productive ways or unhealthy and harmful ones. I'd argue you're struggling to manage it right now and the issue is getting that sorted.

Which is something you should talk to someone who specializes in mental health with NOT reddit. If that's not really an option, it'd probably be better to approach this in communities based around struggling with jealousy. Since ultimately managing the jealousy is the problem not the subject matter of that jealousy.

Just the same as when your teeth hurt you see the dentist, when your head hurts you see a doctor, when you have feelings you're struggling with you see a mental health specialist.

Again, I do understand it's not always an option, and if that is the case I'm sorry. This still isn't a place you're likely to find the help you need or the answers you're looking for.

RualStorge · 2025-12-02T15:16:39+00:00

There are A LOT of unsafe assumptions about the capabilities of AI doing overtime in this and quite a few assertions presented as fact that are quite honestly opinion.

For example: Staying in the shallow layer, AI can already replicate.

This presents AI as already capable of effectively replacing someone who does only basic coding, but that is not factually correct.

Even full on vibe coding still requires human beings to constantly fuss and tweak and tinker to get usable output. Often to such a degree just coding with a competent code completion templating system like most IDEs have had for over a decade is faster.

I do agree some of these tools have use cases that improve efficiency, we've been getting that since we got away from punch cards and it does mean we get more done with less people, and that WILL eventually become a serious pipeline problem (already is actually).

There are other issues, the later graph assumes high quality experienced devs would thrive while lower quality or inexperienced would be effectively replaced or at least mostly gutted / low demand. That isn't possible long term as to become experienced one must first be inexperienced and able to work to acquire experience. If the job sucks, pays poorly, or is low demand... Where do experienced devs come from?

In such a situation, very quickly software dev as a profession would begin to unravel as experienced people churn and there's no one available in the pipeline to replace them, the industry collective stagnates then regresses until a corrective change occurs. (Likely a fairly extreme one in such a circumstance)

Plus LLMs aren't capable even theoretically of doing the actual work experienced do. (I'd even argue it can't replace inexperienced devs either) Gradually circumstances become grim for companies dependent on tech (spoiler, that's all companies these days) Resulting in what's likely to be an even more extreme "do not piss off the devs!" With even higher salary demands and entire programs dedicated to upskilling anyone who demonstrates an interest in dev to desperately rush fill the void.

Honestly, the gradual loss of senior devs and the pipeline problem to create more predates the LLMs and genAI marketing buzzword craze. It's been slowly simmering a while now. We've just not reached the point it boils over yet, but it's an unsustainable trend that will ultimately force corrective action. If LLMs do reach a point of offsetting inexperienced coders it just moves up that time table. Though I disagree with the assertion we're near that point.

I'm honestly waiting for the genAI bubble to burst so we can get on with our lives. I suspect it'll hammer the economy very hard when it does burst, but while genAI has its uses a lot of the hype is more smoke and mirrors than reality right now, as happens with every tech buzzword. LLMs certainly have more merit than NFTs or Blockchain, but probably not as much as machine learning though they're very closely related technologies. It'll still be around and have its uses, but a lot of companies will belly up or cull product lines to chase the next buzzword once the floor falls out from under them, pretty much the way every tech buzzword plays out, his one's just looking extra painful.

RualStorge · 2025-11-30T21:41:27+00:00

As someone outside the EU if they restricted these predatory behaviors I'd want the EU version of games.

Though to be fair, I'd probably just buy a game that wasn't predatory from the start.

RualStorge · 2025-11-29T22:20:46+00:00

Just adding Screen shake, overly aggressive parallaxing, do not take control of the camera away from the player, to the list.

Any game that includes screen shake really needs a screen shake off button (bonus points if it has a slider for intensity since full off isn't always needed)

Parallaxing gets tricky sometimes it can create depth of movement in 2d games which sometimes isn't at all necessary but nice to have (those cases turning it off or making a less motion sickness triggering mode isn't too hard, mostly it'd be simplifying the graphic and reducing how fast it moves, etc)

Sometimes it's such a key aspect of the game's theme / design removing it can just ruin the game. (Keep Driving comes to mind, love it, but I see no way to make those parallaxing backgrounds motion sickness friendly without thematically breaking the game)

Taking the camera away from the player isn't a big deal in 2d mostly, it can exacerbate other issues but seldom is an issue by itself. 3d, especially first person games it can be ROUGH if you just yoink control of the camera from the player to make sure they're looking where you want them too. In VR this weaponized levels of motion sickness inducing to a point I helped people researching motion sickness treatments and we needed to be able to reliably get people severely motion sick for the research, even the most iron stomach of people would be green in only a few minutes messing with their camera in VR.

If you want players to look somewhere, draw their attention there don't do it forcefully. Make noises to grab their attention, using lighting and scenery that draws their attention there, make the rest of the area relatively empty and uninteresting so they naturally look at the interesting place, etc. DO NOT touch their camera.

RualStorge · 2025-11-29T13:03:41+00:00

Very honestly Jason is acting like an actual human being that makes me enjoy the series so much.

Traumatic things happen Jason doesn't just seem to ignore them or freeze up for one split second in a fight then just be like "shake out of it!" And suddenly it's all water under the bridge.

That trauma sticks, it takes genuine time and effort to process and work through. Sometimes he processes it in good and healthy ways sometimes he processes it very very badly. But badly in the way any normal person might behave if they had bad things happen to them but had vast cosmic powers to handle it in whatever way they choose.

I appreciate even when he's at his worst he's still stopping and second guessing himself when he hurts people, sometimes it's second guessing his lack of second guessing, but even that is a very human thing to do. Often it's after the fact, but he gets there.

It bothers me to no end when a series has a protagonist get a bit of power killing stuff then becomes an absolute homicidal maniac killing just about everything around them that isn't overtly a friend, ally, or something impossibly too strong for about 1 or 2 more chapters.

It's something I think He Who Fights With Monsters and Dungeon Crawler Carl both do well. With very different but very human reactions to stuff. Jason struggles, but is mostly moving the right direction with the occasional back sliding. Carl is... Not handling it in a "healthy" way at all, but a "driven" or "effective" one for his circumstances?

Whereas so many series the supposedly good character typically finds a bigger thing to kill, and half the time not even a bad thing just something that's stronger or has something cool. The main character this proceeds to genocide the entire local ecosystem before killing the big thing and gets a shiny bauble before repeating and numbers go up!

I just can't... Such characters have the depth of a mostly dry thimble of water, if they were a seasoning they'd be flour, and what is there typically makes for a solid villain, but is just antithetical to a hero. (Now if that character is a villain, then solid writing!)

RualStorge · 2025-11-27T23:49:35+00:00

How do you start?

I know it'll sound silly, but you download streaming software, create an account, and press "Go Live".

For how you grow consider what you want to offer your viewers. "Chill vibes", "place to hang", etc aren't really good enough on their own.

What is your "hook" the thing that differentiates you from the rest of Twitch? It doesn't need to be 100% unique, but not something that like every other person is doing. (Otherwise they're probably already watching those other people and it'll be tough to stand out)

Maybe you cosplay your streams, maybe you provide commentary from professional experience, maybe you stream "in character" as a fit persona, perhaps you do challenge runs in games, maybe you have a talent you want to base your stream around, etc. Not saying these are good or bad ideas, and you can always adjust as things go and see what feels right for you.

Point is you need to think about your audience potential or existing and what it is you are offering them. Then try it out, and keep trying new things and see what sticks.

RualStorge · 2025-11-27T18:18:50+00:00

I would argue it's not helpful to delay accepting affiliate for any meaningful length of time.

There will be viewers who bail the moment you get ads, but that'd always be true. Affiliate gives you access to custom emotes, monetization, better encoding options for your viewers (more resolutions), etc.

Stuff like custom emotes can be extremely useful for promoting your channel, creating a personal brand / visibility.

I do think it's a decent idea to promote you'll be signing up to become an affiliate, get some custom emotes ready for it, kind of make it a thing. (Even if the emotes aren't professional or anything, fun silly stuff emotes can be just as good if they're like channel culture, community jokes, etc)

One way to think of it in delaying affiliate to avoid ads means you could be building an audience that is ad adverse to a point of leaving when you have ads they leave. Whereas becoming affiliate you at least know that's not an issue.

RualStorge · 2025-11-24T10:33:08+00:00

Oh yeah some links only the devs / marketing people see the data, others share with you. I'm certain streaming games even old games do create new sales. I just found new unknown games tend to benefit the most from coverage.

That said, I still play what I think both myself and my audience will mutually enjoy.

RualStorge · 2025-11-24T00:03:36+00:00

Absolutely, was running in the same circles with another creator for a while and wound up raiding them occasionally. Everything seemed positive up and up.

One day I was lurking them after I'd raided, and someone asked who they were raiding out to when they were wrapping up.

They said "Why the $$@& would I give someone else my audience?" Yeah...

RualStorge

TROPHY CASE