As some of you may be aware already, as of the 12/06/2018, I became eligible for Twitch Affiliate status, which genuinely shocked me, as I was expecting to have to work for it in July, on the 4th after I returned from my short hiatus (I may still have to do it on the basis of the hours, but hopefully not!), and also discussing things with my friend abut Stormhaven Media as a whole. Anyway, I again want to thank everyone who helped get me to this point, whether you followed me, joined in with the chat, watched my stream for any amount of time, or was even there for almost every stream, or anyone who just dropped by in general, it all helped me to get to this point!
Anyway, besides my gratitude, I thought I'd also make a few important updates. First of all, starting immediately, all gameplay streams have been branded as "Played Up by Stormkeeper Live!", and all saved/exported videos (even the ones made back in September 2017) have now started to follow this format; as I've said before, my next stream will be on the 4th of July, though it may take me another couple of months before you start seeing additional changes come into play. I now need to sort out paperwork with Amazon/Twitch to finalise my Affiliate status, plus I now need to also begin to sort out the bot stuff and the like, as well as tidying up my panels on my Twitch channel. I do eventually want to sort out an overlay for my channel that fits in with my current theme, but I need to work out how they all work first, and how to modify them to work for me!
All of this should go towards helping the quality of the stream improve ever so slightly; I do eventually want to also upgrade my hardware, although it's very likely that won't be till closer to the end of the year, and even then, the first item on the list is a CPU upgrade, so I can play better games. I do eventually want to upgrade my 1050 Ti, but I'm waiting to see what happens regarding the 11xx series of GPUs from Nvidia, as I'd want to at least get myself either an 1160 or 1170 equivalent, whenever they come out... though I may just get myself a 1070 in the interim, just so I can increase the quality and/or resolution of the stream. Additionally, I also want to get a dual monitor setup at some point, ideally the same sort as my main monitor (4k gaming on PC is fairly far on the horizon at this point), so I'm better able to manage my workspaces. For the time being however, I do have a monitor (not FHD, but reasonably close) I can deploy for this use, meaning that my laptop will probably not be needed to help monitor the stream on PC, although it will still be needed when I do PS4 streaming, given my PS4 is in a different room to my PC.
Anyway, over the remainder of the year, I hope to have a more professional streaming setup, in terms of presentation at least, and eventually hardware to match. In the meantime however, I feel like I have a reasonable handle on my current hardware, optimised to what it can handle, as well as providing a reasonable quality stream of 720p @ 2000kbps; I'll be able to up to 1080p when I have a card that can support it, as well as a CPU to back it up. Thankfully, RAM isn't yet an issue, as I have 24GB, which hasn't really been taxed (unless I use Firefox/Waterfox!) so I should be good for the next while at least.
With regards to reaching Twitch Partner, I do have a long way to go, but at least I'm finally in a position to start making money through content creation, and although ultimately, it isn't about the money for me, I still need to try and earn myself some sort of income through my projects so I can keep doing this; I'm sure most streamers (and other content creators) are very much the same in that regard, as earning money through streaming or content creation allows us to continue creating, and doing what we do, whatever that may be. In any case, Affiliate is still only the start for me, I need to also put focus into video and podcast production too, on top of my streaming schedule, so eventually I'll have to work stuff out, which is partly what this month is for... that and the fact that I've got no free time this month to stream!
Anyway, it's getting pretty late, and I need to get myself ready to travel later today. I'd like to again thank everyone for their (continued) support, and I hope that I can eventually make content worthy of an Affiliate.
Until next time... good night, and take care.
