I never once thought, until a few weeks ago that I would ever be streaming games on Twitch. A few years ago, you could say I looked down on streaming. I immediately assumed (from the worst examples that I saw) that it was all just self important people feeding their egos and girls looking to exploit lonely boys on the internet.
I used to be far more judgemental of many things, but as I grow and continue to challenge myself, I find that I’ve misunderstood a lot or that there are different ways that I can approach things that feel a lot better and can bridge a gap.
As with many things, streaming is just a tool, and how people use it can create a vastly different experience for the streamer and for the viewer. I discovered one Japanese streamer playing Mario RPG who has created a tiny group of friends who joke around and cheer each other up. I feel really happy to join and support this community which usually sees 10-15 viewers in the chat on any given night. She isn’t pretending to be anyone, she is just having fun with strangers as she plays games.
Just because I see some people build “personalities” that are clearly not really them, just because I see people pretending to care about each individual when really its all perfuntory, doesn’t mean any of it has to be that way.
Of course, you are fighting an uphill battle if you try to change the entire culture of a platform by yourself. But what if you aren’t fighting anything, you are just climbing the mountain to see things from a new angle, and to come back and share what you saw?
I am not expecting to make money at Twitch. I hope I do but that feels a bit far away to me still. I am not hoping to gain a massive following. My goal there is the same as my goal at youtube and twitter, just to grow my ability to build bridges to different communities.
My decision to start a Twitch actually made a lot of sense. I’ve loved games since I was a kid and I know enough about many JRPGs to talk in depth about them. I live in Japan where many of them were created and know a lot about the cultural differences between the culture that created them and many other cultures of the world.
I’m also what I might call “a student of the universe”, which is a non-demnominational way of saying that I look for hints in life to try and understand a greater picture on my own, but woth inspiration from all traditions. Many JRPGs (and anime for that matter) are created in the same line of thinking.
Final Fantasy uses the gods of various religions as summons and incorporates and plays with ideas like Gaia hypothesis and string theory for example. The Persona series uses Tarot and many other forms of occultism which I have my reservations about at times, but the series transparent influence helps us understand other media that is less obvious about it’s occult influence, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is CLEARLY influenced by the occult but not as straightforward about it.
Learning, or even getting a feel for certain symbols can help us understand more about the forces that drive humanity and how our cultures have evolved over time.
It’s fascinating when you realize that Mother Mary and Guanyin Boddhisatva represent the same energy, or that fans of Luffy from One Piece are honoring the Hindu god Hanuman or when you realize that older traditions may have influenced our current ways of seeing the world, even when they are not apparent in our daily lives.
You can even begin to see the hidden rituals that fill our daily lives, from the time we start work to the way we dress differently in different situations. JRPGs have made me more aware of so much and helped guide me to ask important questions.
And so discussing these kinds of things while practicing Japanese and teaching English vocabulary all while playing games and making friends? Uh yeah, sign me up.
Basically one of my biggest struggles in the past few years has been to find a way to balance all the things I’ve wanted to balance. This seems like a perfext fit.
I don’t know how it will pan out, it’s hard to get people who are around when you are around, especially when you don’t have the easiest time making a set schedule. But things have gone well.
I got 3 followers right off the bat, had a slow week and then got another two followers last night. Not so many random people pop in, but they do. And as more people start conversations, it’ll make it eaiser for them to want to join.
Last night 
It was axtually really fun. I don’t feel self important or like I am taking advantage of anyone. I don’t feel it was just a way of killing time. I just feel like I am slowly creating just one more place for people to gather and discuss topics that they care about.
I hope people can have lots of discussions about cultural differences, their own experiences, and their own understanding of film, games, anime or whatever is going on in the world. Welcome welcome to join me.
I’m about to start streaming again in 30 minutes. I’ll be practicing Japanese vocabulary but would love to talk about Japaneae culture or your culture and our experiences traveling or anything like that.
You can find me here:
