This is probably a self-serving post if I am being honest. I just thought that it could be fun to go through what my streaming and content creation journey has looked like as an older gamer. For reference, I am currently 50 years old and I began to stream about 11 years ago in 2013. It is pretty wild when I think about it that way. It all started because I had heard about a charity that tied into gaming and streaming, Extra Life (which is a fantastic charity that supports kids and their families and you should totally check them out!). I am a gamer and I love interacting with people and meeting people so I figured, why not give streaming a shot? At the time, I had nothing but my trusty Xbox One. Ok, to be fair I had other consoles but in terms of what I played most it was my Xbox. The Xbox also had the Twitch app which made it easy at that time to stream directly from console to Twitch, very easily! And that, my friends, is where I began my journey.
After creating a Twitch channel and playing around, I actually gave it a shot and started to enjoy myself. As with most of us, it started with friends watching but I really loved it. I had found an awesome group of people online that were set out to help streamers grow and it happened to actually be a legitimate place versus a scam or engagement farming tactic. Lift Gaming was the site, and I met some fantastic people that I am still friends with to this day. Lift taught me most of what I know about streaming and helped my small channel grow a little bit. After streaming to Twitch from my console, I decided to invest in a laptop that would allow me to get fancier with things. I began using that to add fun things like overlays and alerts and it really opened up possibilities for me. Combined with an external capture card, I was able to stream from my PlayStation 3, Nintendo WiiU and Xbox One which was super exciting! The hardest part at that time was managing party chat, and having that output to my stream. For many this isn’t an issue, but I game with my wife a ton and I wanted her to be part of this as well. I may go into this in another blog at some point but using Skype along with some magic at least made it possible. The guys that ran Lift Gaming somehow got an interview with the gentlemen that came up with a new streaming platform. Two young men, Matt Salsamendi and James Boehm, came up with the streaming platform, Beam.
Beam set out to reduce the latency using their “Faster Than Light (FTL)” technology. It was an interactive and fun concept, and I was hooked. I had nothing against Twitch at all, but this just felt like my kind of vibe. It felt like a fun place to get in on the ground floor of. I looked and could not find the exact date, but I swear to you all this had to have been around 2013 or 2014. The dates I see online reference 2016, but I am positive Beam was a thing before that.
Eventually, Beam was purchased by Microsoft and it was rebranded into what was known as Mixer. I really loved Mixer. I was so proud to have the “founders badge” from being a Beam OG and myself, along with many others from Lift Gaming, fell in love with the platform. Many people did, and eventually Mixer had an Xbox app that allowed streaming directly from console. The platform was beloved by many with it bringing more of a cozy, community feel to it. Mixer just felt like what could have been a great alternative and competitor to Twitch. At that time, I wasn’t streaming very much. Many reasons for that but suffice to say, I didn’t get to use Mixer nearly as often as I would have liked as a streamer. I would say from 2014 until around 2019, I was more of a stream viewer. And in 2020, Microsoft decided to shut down the platform altogether. I was SUPER bummed about this. As a viewer, Mixer just had a great experience and feel to it. And I was honestly pissed I didn’t get to stream to it more than I did. This is around the time I thought, ok, it’s back to Twitch for me.
And in 2020, I did actually start streaming just a little bit more. Raising money for charity, and having a great time gaming. I mean, like most of the world at that time, everyone was using their time during the pandemic to create more content and connect with people safely! I actually purchased a new computer in 2020 and received both a PS5 and Xbox Series X throughout the year. And before I get any comments, my wife is amazing and I don’t deserve her. This is where things start to get weird for me. Don’t ask why, but I just wasn’t feeling Twitch and around now is when YouTube Gaming really began to become an attractive option for me. I enjoyed making videos and clips of things I thought were funny or entertaining so I thought, why not go somewhere that can allow me to do both? I think I spent the next 2 years going back and forth between Twitch and YouTube. I honestly am not sure why. I was able to achieve affiliate on Twitch some time in 2022, as a matter of fact. I mostly would stream on Twitch but always had this desire to go to YouTube for gaming and that cycle went on until the spring of 2023.
Enter, Rumble. Rumble is a new’ish streaming platform that has actually been around for a while but just started jumping into pushing their gaming content more. It is a very polarizing platform, I will be up front and acknowledge that I understand that and I understood what I was getting into. Or so I thought. The platform prides itself on free speech and being the “anti YouTube”. Anyone that knows me, knows that I am neither religious nor political. I am an easy-going dude that is extremely open minded and live by the “live and let live” mentality. Regardless, much like how I felt about Beam and Mixer, this felt like a great chance to get in on the ground floor of an up and coming platform. At first, I very much felt Mixer vibes with the community. Every feature seemed exciting and the opportunities felt amazing! I thought ok awesome, I can stream and upload videos like I hoped I would do on YouTube and keep all of my content in one place. As a matter of fact, within my first 2 weeks of streaming I was raided by the CEO and some others and received over $1,000 in donations! It was so exciting, and I stream for charity so it instantly allowed me to meet my charity goal for the entire year. And make no mistake, I donated every cent of what I was given. Things seemed awesome and despite me losing some viewers who are friends because of the nature of the platform (it is EXTREMELY political and right wing), I stuck with it for a while. In the Summer of 2023, we moved to another state and my streaming was put on hold but to be honest, I was already done with Rumble. There are many reasons for that, but I decided to just take a break altogether.
In late 2023, I noticed that it seemed like Rumble was starting to add features and actually change some of the ways they were handling things. I also saw that they were about to launch a round 2 of their “small creators partner program” which essentially rewarded you with $500 if you were accepted, and met the requirements. All I had to do was stream for 10 hours across 5 days per week for a month. This was a LOT for me, but I thought ok, this might be an easy way to raise more charity money. I was accepted into the program and my hand to God, I felt like things would be different this time around. I was all in. Everything was awesome at first and for probably the first 3 weeks of the program I was seeing growth like never before and having an absolute blast. Yes, streaming that often was a grind for me because I normally stream 3 days a week at most, but it was great. Then, I started to notice certain things. My follower count more than doubled, but I started to notice that they were very obviously bot accounts. The platform had long been rumored to view bot their own creators and while I have no proof of that, it is fairly obvious. The most egregious thing however is, the absolute blatant favoritism that they display. The platform has certain streamers that they consistently “push” to the top of their front page which equals more views. More views equals more ad revenue, etc. Well friends, I for sure was not one of those people. That really isn’t what upset me, but it was absolutely discouraging as I was a Rumble Partner, I expected to get SOME love throughout the program. I don’t regret my time there, I learned a lot, but at the end of the program I was done. My advice is, avoid that platform at all costs because it is fake engagement with some very egotistical people who will pretend to befriend you.
And as of the end of the program, somewhere in mid-March of 2024, I left the platform for good. I decided to return to where it all started and head back to Twitch. And that is where I am today. If I am being honest with myself, I should have stuck with Twitch the whole time. I can admit that I made rash and hasty decisions over the years where streaming was concerned but I know deep down it should have always been Twitch. Twitch catches a lot of crap from people, and I do understand why. But in the end, it’s hard to match the features and user experience on the platform. I am not leaving at this point. I think I am sticking with it on Twitch and will stay here until I am just done creating overall. I am having a blast with it, have upgraded my overall stream and do my best to hit my 3 days a week (Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday) for a few hours to have fun with my pals and raise more money for charity. If you made it this far, just know that every part of YOUR journey is what shapes you into what you eventually become. Make mistakes. Learn from them. Improve yourself. Most of all, enjoy the damn ride!
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