Well hello, it’s day 10 of Blaugust and I must admit, I never expected to get this far! I’ve never even tried to do the daily blogging thing for this event because usually it just doesn’t fit me, but this year, despite not even aiming for it, I’ve been doing it! With one day off, though I can always catch up on that one here or there.

Today I want to talk a little bit about my Twitch streams. I had meant to write this one a little bit earlier as it’s part of an introduction to me and what I do, but other things always come up, don’t they? It’s okay! I gotta follow my muse and what I’m able to do in any given day, after all.

Stream & Community History

First of all, a little bit of history. I’ve had a Twitch account for years. I believe I made it circa 2014? But I didn’t start actively streaming until 2017. This was during my time working at MMOGames (2015-2018).

I wasn’t alone in giving the streaming thing a go at this time. My friends Rinike and Wolfy were also trying it out and as we’d been chatting anyway, we had the idea to form a joint community together. This was intended to be kind of an unofficial stream team, the Discord server we made (the Moogle’s Pom Tavern) was our space for our streams. At least personally, I felt weird at this time having a server all about me and was a little tired of joining so many different Discord servers for different streamers, this felt like a nice middle ground! And for a while it was. We invited other friends doing the thing and hung out there, we raided each other and it was a lovely time.

Sadly, it came to something of an end. Many of us had to put streaming on hold for various reasons. Mine was my mental health being in the toilet. And other events happened. I always hoped I would return to streaming, though I wasn’t sure. Still, without the Tavern I needed a new space to call home and so I made a server for my streams I called the Dragonflight. I invited my friends from the Tavern and elsewhere, over time. I always said that while it was my stream server, everybody was welcome. I wanted it to be a cosy space where you can chat about any of your interests, share cat pictures and just happily exist somewhere, and you know? It really has become that. I’m so grateful to all of my friends for making it so. We talk video games, books, food, music, TTRPGs, creative pursuits, all sorts of things!¹

Making a Proud Return

Earlier this year I returned to World of Warcraft after a 7 month break. I quickly found myself ensconced within an EU streamer community and felt encouraged to give streaming a go again. I’d never fully stopped streaming. I still streamed once or twice each year, whether intending to pick it back up or simply wanting to share a game and say hello differed each time, but this time was different. I started up back in April with some WoW, and I semi-pushed myself to do at least one stream per week. It was easy. Draining, sadly things like streaming and blogging are very taxing on my illness, but enjoyable and rewarding. There’s just something about creating a space which you can decorate to your heart’s content, really make it your own, and fill it with content that is very you that I adore, especially when it comes with community. I’m a fairly lonely person, and online communities are such a vital part of my life. Bringing these streams and blogs back, and somehow keeping them going with some kind of consistency, even if I’m not able to have a schedule, has felt incredible. I am so proud of myself.

What My Streams Are Like

Anyway, I wanted to introduce my streams to you, so let me get on with that.

I am a PNGtuber² who streams various MMORPGs, as well as all sorts of other games! Of course, MMOs are my first love, many of you already know this. But I love sharing RPGs, sims, visual novels, indie games, horror… there are so many video games out there to explore, I absolutely do not wish to feel tied to one specific game. So I call myself an “MMO variety streamer”.

As I live with pretty intense fatigue, and brain fog, I don’t have much energy. But what I can offer is a chill space, with relatively gentle vibes, not much chaos to speak of (though I have my little gremlin moments), where we simply hang out and chat while I play video games. Sometimes I’ll have some low-volume lo-fi music to enhance the cosiness, it depends what we’re playing though. I also like to keep the game music rolling for the authentic experience, first time through something, anyway. I like to hope it’s a comfortable space to be and I pride myself on my inclusivity. I ask people to keep their lewd comments at the door. Some streams go a little nuts in that department which is fine, it’s not for me. I’m asexual, and I don’t have the energy to navigate it. A light joke is okay, but there’s a line. I tend to say “keep it PG-13”, and hope that’s clear enough. We do swear though and so I prefer our community to be over the age of 18. We can also be pretty open about the “real talk”. I have been known to chat about mental health, disability, grief, all sorts of things. Though generally speaking, I try to keep things light so it can be a relaxing space where you feel comfortable chatting or lurking and listening and forget about your problems for a little bit.

Sound like your kind of place? We’d love to have you! You can check out my Twitch channel here. I do share when I go live on Mastodon and Twitter, but the best place to keep up with me will always be in my Discord. I have a channel specifically for posting when I go live, and a role that you can select/deselect as you like that I ping when I do. This just means I’m only pinging those who really want the pings, and you can choose what’s best for you!

As mentioned, I do not have a schedule, though I do try to start my streams between 3-6pm BST. I’m currently experimenting with early evening streams, figuring they may be better for those busy during the day. But as for which days I go live, that entirely depends on my spoon levels. Which usually are not very high at all. I do my best, and it works out just okay for us!

1. There’s always a link on my Beacons page if you ever want to join us. Just check over the rules to get access and give yourself a few roles. 💕 [↩]
2. Similar to Vtubing where you connect up to an interactive character model that represents you, PNGtube avatars are more static, their mouths rigged to move as you speak. You can give them different emotion sets which you can switch to during different moments. And they are a lovely way to add a little more personality to a stream, and help the viewers feel a little more connected, in lieu of using a webcam [↩]