Interview with Twitch streamer Super Skuj
Me: How long have you been streaming?
Tim: Umm, probably about 4 years, started sometime in 2013.
Me: What persuaded you to start streaming?
Tim: Well I used to uh, watch a lot of streams really, you know and it looked like fun, thought maybe I give it a try. Wasn’t sure what I was going to do at first with it so I just kind of did a bunch of different stuff, but eventually I settled on speed gaming.
Me: So um, why did you choose speed running?
Tim: Well one of the main reasons was because I could stick with the same game for a long time and it was really hard to decide what games I wanted to stream when I was doing a lot of different things. You know I don’t have to buy new games to play on stream or anything like that, I can just stick with one thing. So that was a strong factor, plus its uh, it’s fairly competitive without being um, directly head to head competitive so it gives you some motivation to improve yourself without really uh, you know, being too harsh or whatever.
*4:00 into the interview
Me: What do you define as like, a successful streamer?
Tim: Oh man, well its very personal. Some people don’t stream to try a get a lot of viewers or to try to make any money doing it. It’s purely just so they can show what they’re doing and if they’re happy doing that then you know, that’s really the most important thing. They make their own goals and if they achieve their own goals then that makes them successful.
Me: Do you notice any patterns between those with more followers that would be like commercially successful rather than like small time streamers? Is there any patterns in between?
Tim: Um, well yeah there is. Personality is a big part of it, some people are just so much fun to watch you know? And you know who they are, you know that person is going to be successful just by watching them or that they have the potential to be successful. Anyway, there is a lot that you can do outside the stream also and it’s hard to identify how much work a person puts into like networking or things like that. It’s hard to say exactly, but there is somewhat of a pattern or a recognizable correlation I guess.
Analysis of interview
Tim’s responses throughout the interview were essential in my understanding the point of view of someone with an established stream. The first couple of questions I asked were to get an idea of Tim’s background history as a streamer. I wanted to know basic information about what influenced him to start streaming and why he chose the specific game “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past”. It was a combination of not wanting to continually spend money on new games and not wanting to directly compete head to head that led him to the speed running community.
Tim’s response on how he defines a successful streamer is meaningful in the way that he approaches his own stream. He does not view success as popularity or making money as a streamer. Instead Tim views success as a streamer setting a goal for the stream and achieving it. This idea contrasts to my previous idea of success for Twitch streamers where I defined success as being able to stream without having another job to gain income. This idea that happiness as a priority rather than money speaks to an ideal that streamers with smaller audiences may hold.
One other thing that stood out to me during Tim’s interview was when he stated that “Anyway, there is a lot that you can do outside the stream also and it’s hard to identify how much work a person puts into like networking or things like that.” This line helped me realize that there are a lot of things that go beyond the stream that effect how the streamer acts. It also caused me to brainstorm various ways to measure the amount of work that happens off the stream and how that would relate to the idea of screen work or creativity.
Since my first question resulted in a different idea of success than I had, I asked Tim about the patterns he thought would translate into a commercially successful stream that received a large audience or could be large enough to make money. Tim recognizes that there are some basic elements to a stream like networking or having a great personality that can boosts someone’s stream. But he also recognizes that there are other patterns or correlations that occur between the high audience streamer that at the moment he could not identify.
This interview taught me to not tunnel vision into one perspective of Twitch streamers and to try and consider all perspectives. It also taught me to be a little more specific in my questions in order to get answers that may be more helpful in my research.
