Streaming refers to online casino gamers who broadcast their no deposit bonus codes video-game gameplay live to online viewers. The rise of competitive gaming and esports has fueled the evolution of live streaming. It doesn’t sound like an interesting thing to do to watch others play games.
Yet every day, hundreds of thousands of viewers spend a good chunk of their free time watching professional gamers engage in video gaming competitions. Some streamers find a regular audiences of fans while others are content to build small communities. Players can stream with a PC or an updated gaming console.
Why do people watch others play? Analysts believe that the thrill of watching the streams comes from people’s desire to be part of a live, social experience, enjoy the entertainment of watching the games, participate in the chats and admire the skill of the players who are streaming their games.
Most viewers are gamers themselves but their skills are average. Watching the pros ply their skill gives the viewers a chance to watch competitive gaming on an entirely different level – similar to the difference that a guy who likes to throw around a football on weekends in the neighborhood feels when he watches an NFL game.
The social aspect of the streams is also important to viewers and fans. Through the streams the viewers can come together in a social atmosphere so that they can feel as though they are part of a bigger community.
The viewers enjoy an environment in which they become part of an event that’s taking place in real time and the anticipation of waiting to see what will happen next. Gamers can pre-record their videos but the live streams include an element of surprise which is the most satisfying part of the viewing experience.
Finally, the games themselves are interesting and entertaining and the gameplay and plot development change every time the games are played. Many games are’t yet available to the general public so viewers can see what the game looks like and feels like, even if they can’t yet play the games themselves.
Getting Started
If you’ve been playing video games for awhile and you think that you’re good enough to go public, why not give it a try? If you put some effort into promoting yourself and your stream, you will find your audience and build your own community.
You do need a bit of basic technological background to stream because you need to hook up both software and hardware, regardless of the platform on which you want to stream (some options include YouTube Gaming, Facebook Gaming and Twitch).
Before you get started with the hook-ups, you should set your goals. Do you just want to enjoy the fun of streaming yourself playing video games? Do you want to create a community? Do you want to make a profit by drawing advertisers, partners and sponsors?
Start out by setting realistic expectations. Streaming with the pros involves a lot of hard work because, to grow your audience, you want to differentiate yourself from the other thousands of streamers. Consider adding some kind of special talent or entertainment to your streams – add some comic relief if you’re a bit of a comedian, intersperse some demonstrations of some talents or hobbies in your streams, discuss current events with your viewers (if you dare), etc.
Every successful esports streamer has a specific genre of games – or even one specific game -- in which s/he specializes. But all streamers aren’t experts in their field. What the successful streamers have in common is the ability to engage their audience, communicate with the viewers and develop a strategy that makes people want to come back over and over again.
PC
You can stream games on a PC or on a console but we want to focus here on how to stream with a PC. You will need a PC that’s powerful enough to support the software that’s needed to stream. It will need to be powerful enough to serve as a gaming and streaming machine so it needs to be suitable for running games on high settings at a high screen resolution.
You can get away with less but the less professional-looking your streams, the faster you’ll turn away potential followers. Suggested hardware includes full HD (1,920 by 1,080 resolution, or 1080p). You need a computer that’s strong enough to process and push your game streams and will give you a high frame rates in-game for a smoother appearance.
The onscreen gaming resolution doesn’t need to be the same as your stream’s resolution setting. Many streamers choose 720p or 990p so that they don’t overtax their PC and internet connection by streaming in full HD or higher. If you are prepared to invest in the proper hardware you’ll want one that produces the sharpest stream.
High frame rates and performance are vital to competitive multi-player games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Fortnight, Apex Legends, etc. Advertising yourself as a skill-based streamer means that you must invest in the hardware that will allow you to play at 1080p so that you can take advantage of higher frame rates.
The gaming monitor is the next step. You need to pair your setup with a monitor that delivers a high refresh rate. With such a monitor you can improve frame rates even when playing on low visual settings. That’s especially important for esports players because it gives them a competitive edge.
To achieve this, make sure that the graphic card in the PC is strong enough to power your game’s graphics and help broadcast and encode your stream. Some of the best options are the AMD, the Nvidia and the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti.
Game Streaming Service
Choosing the right game streaming service can make the difference between bringing your gameplay to a large audience and being on your own. The game streaming services synthesize and broadcast your games. The biggest service right now is Twitch. It has attracted the largest number of viewers and makes life easy for streamers by streamlining the functionality and onboarding process.
YouTube is also big for streamers and many people prefer it because they are so accustomed to the YouTube tools from other YouTube interactions. The service is known to be highly intuitive.
Facebook Gaming is a growing service that allows Facebook users to build a channel off of their existing Facebook profile. Caffine and Mobcrush are two other platforms which are smaller than the giants but are also favored by many streamers. It’s suggested that you look for a service that has a broadcast function built in to make the streaming process as easy as possible. By simply pressing a button you can go live within a game in seconds so viewers can tune in via your linked account. This functionality is not available for all games. In those cases, you’ll need an OBS.
OBS
If you’re playing a title that doesn’t support in-game streaming, you’ll need to download Open Broadcasting Software. OBS allows you to go live by synthesizing all of your hardware (mic, camera, etc) and software (application or screen to be broadcast, hardware and stream settings, etc).
Doing this makes your streams consistant and gives you full control of your broadcast so you can customize (green-scren effects, intro and outro sequences). You’ll be able to customize and control all of your peripherals via the OBS and will translate any PC (game audio) sounds.
Get yourself a good camera and a good mic and you’re ready to start streaming!
