This year at TwitchCon, the show floor is playing host to a handful of box-shaped, see-through “Streamer Zones” where people can stream for their usual online audiences and also a real life one sitting mere feet away. If you’re used to streaming from the comfort of your own bedroom, it can be terrifying.
It’s one thing to stream for hundreds of people who are some variation of Way Over There, but it’s another to have 30+ people staring holes into your back as you sit at a PC and do your thing.
“The World Is Watching,” read Intel-sponsored signs hanging ominously above each booth, like something out of a dang Black Mirror episode. Sometimes, people approach the glass and peer in with their faces nearly pressed against it.
Occasionally, you see messages like this in chat:
“Hi from outside your booth,” is a heck of a thing to see during a high-pressure in-game situation.
It’s hard to stay in-the-zone when you’re in the bizarro twilight zone that is The Streamer Zone.
I spoke to Franplayshalo, a high-ranked competitive Overwatch streamer, as she wrapped up a session, and she told me that it was definitely a unique experience.
“It’s a lot of pressure,” she said with an exhale. “At first I was fine, but then one of [the Twitch staff] told me there’d be people watching out there, and my nerves shot up.”
As a highly competitive player and performer, she wanted to make sure she lived up to expectations. It took her a bit, but she found her footing.
“After a few games, I was like ‘OK, I can do this,’” she said. “‘It’s like any other day at home.’”
And then she got greeted by a small crowd of appreciative fans she knew from her chat. Probably not something that happens very often at home, but nice nonetheless.
Comments
7 responses to “TwitchCon’s Glass ‘Streamer Zones’ Make Streaming Nerve-Wracking”
Did the upside down translator not work in this article? We need all our content flipped because we live in the underside world.
And here we have captured the elusive streamer, and placed them in a representation of their natural habitat… We kindly ask you to not tap on the glass or offer them food.
If you have spare newpaper, you can leave it with us for when we change their bedding.
Alternately you can roll it up and smack them if they misbehave.
So essentially they are treating streamers like zoo animals instead of humans.
Only fair with the way some of the act and behave.
Well they are performing monkeys for our entertainment, except in this zoo the patrons throw shade at them.
Great, it’s not like the perception that streamers are there purely to do what you want for your own entertainment was bad enough, they’re now reinforcing it by boxing them up and putting them on show like zoo animals…
Every time I feel like I want to start streaming I just spend a few minutes in Twitch chat and that drives those feelings right away.