The Ultimate Guide to Streaming Your Gaming on Twitch

You might not realise it, but there is a huge demand to watch people playing video games online. It’s a concept that sounds bizarre on the face of it. Why would someone prefer to watch other people playing games online than play themselves?

The explosion of the eSports industry has helped ramp up the interest in video gaming, with streaming platforms such as Twitch giving eSports professionals a medium to demonstrate their expertise and grow the exposure of the industry.

SOURCE: Pixabay.com

Today, Twitch boasts over 100 million unique monthly viewers, with two million broadcasters offering everything from laid-back talk shows to professional tournaments. Watching Twitch has proven to be a great way for fellow gamers to learn and improve their skills.

From professional eSports stars to poker pros, streamers can provide a depth of analysis greater than any blog post can. It can also help followers feel like part of a community. For example, thousands of poker fans tuned in to watch a Polish poker player scoop $1 million from a $5 tournament entry to secure the biggest win of his life.

The beauty of Twitch streaming is that anyone can become a gaming celebrity. While only a select few can make it big as an NFL or English Premier League star, anyone with a reasonable and reliable desktop PC or one of the latest games consoles can become a Twitch streamer. Let’s take a look at some of the hardware and software you’ll need to make your video game streaming ambitions a reality.

Firstly, you’ll need a desktop computer that has plenty of memory. Twitch itself recommends your PC has a minimum of 8GB of RAM and operates on Windows 7 or newer operating systems. Don’t worry Mac users – you too can stream from your devices!

If you’re more of a PC gamer than a console gamer, you’ll require a suitable graphics card capable of displaying the latest games in high-definition (HD) quality pictures for streams. If you’re playing and streaming online simultaneously, you’ll also require a high-speed internet connection with fibre-optic connectivity, which is highly recommended to offer the best possible experience for your viewers.

There is an alternative to placing undue stress on your desktop PC when playing and streaming from the same computer. Some of the leading Twitch broadcasters will use one PC for gaming and another for broadcasting.

To provide viewers with the best possible viewing experience, you’ll need a webcam that ideally offers crisp 1080-pixel capture quality. Pick up a gaming headset, too, which will allow you to hear the gaming action and speak to your audience via the microphone.

To get going, you’ll obviously need to set up an account with Twitch. Once your profile has been created, consider including a description of your channel, a custom banner, and an avatar to add some personality that will help your channel stand out from the crowd. Finally, the most important kit in anyone’s Twitch broadcasting arsenal is to have an industry-standard piece of streaming software.

The typical programs used by most Twitch streamers are XSplit, which is a paid service, and Open Broadcasting Software (OBS), which is entirely free of charge. Those wanting to stream their game console action can do so directly from their system, with the free Twitch app downloadable on both the Xbox One and the PS4.

The rest is then up to you. You can build your Twitch audience however you wish. Whether you try and tap into a specific niche or prefer chat show-style broadcasts and interacting with fellow gamers, you have 100% freedom to stream whatever you want.

You never know-if you succeed and build a following, you just might be given a cut of broadcast revenues and make a nice second income on the side. What are you waiting for? Get streaming!

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How To Entice Your Reader To Your Way Of Thinking

Countless writing beginners fight over the right words: for an editorial piece of writing, for an essay or merely a business letter. Even though you understand that your main intention is to convince your reader of your proposition and point of view, there appears to be no magic recipe for effective writing.

You may slap together your hands in discouragement, reckoning “that some people just have it naturally and others don’t – and  I  don’t.” The point is not to give up so soon. The solution to productive and effective writing lies in the convincing factor.

Envision it as pursuing your sweetheart, or promoting your mom to shop for that spectacular prom attire. Much simpler said than done, you might say. Well, here you get the bones of effective writing tactics, to provide you with a confident jump start on your next piece of writing.

1) Work with facts

Truth is indisputable. Depending on your objective assignment, you could be utterly academic, with quotations from reputable sources of information to support your postulates. Irrespective of the venue (cover letter, essay or whatever), effective writing calls for a solid parity of facts and viewpoints.

Are you after the prom dress, a 20/80 balance of facts versus the emotional aspects might just serve the purpose,  e.g., “It’s on sale this weekend, and I will be able to wear it on many other occasions  after  the prom”, supported by the innocent puppy dog eyes and  other sentiments  which move a Mom’s heartstrings. Expressing your case on a lovely e-card might boost your stand with Mom and enable you to meticulously  formulate your reasoning to best effect.

2) Read as much as you can

It’s great advice to anyone who wants to become a writer to study the best writers. Hence you should try to dedicate at least 60 minutes daily to reading. It’s highly recommended to start with fiction  anthologies.

The aspiring writer should study setting, style, tone, cadence,  dialect and character development and their approach to writing from masters like Hemmingway, Camus, Faulkner, Wolfe, Kafka or Steinbeck, to name just a few.

Read whatever you can. It will blow your mind when you realize how much of this reading will permeate your conscious mind and will eventually be reflected in your very own writing. The more you read, the more effective writing skills you’ll amass.

3) Be passionate

When you are excited about a topic, the reader will notice. Use for example only such adjectives that accurately illustrate the nuance of the message you are trying to put across. Consider to get a synonym finder and a thesaurus; it will pay off. Often there exist many gradations to the feeling or the ‘flavor’ of a word.

You can find these nuances in your synonym finder or your thesaurus, those precise words that articulate your feelings. (This practice also helps to build up your vocabulary and to improve your writing style and to refine your effective writing technique.

 
4) Maintain a journal

Even if you think that you’re only interested in learning how to write a successful business letter, you might want to consider keeping a journal. But how can a journal help with effective writing?

With a journal, even though you’re writing it just for yourself, in which you detail everyday events which may be or not of particular consequence, you might just experience that certain patterns begin to reveal in your thinking which in the end will help you to be more effective in your writing efforts.

You may, for example, start to realize that you’ve got quite a great sense of humor or you may find that a prevalent sort of whining tone is creeping into your remembrance. Or you may find that you’re too annoying or too timid.

Gleaning these sorts of observances from your journal will benefit you in writing a better business letter, devoid of whining inclinations while utilizing the affirmative effects of a positive attitude. Besides,  your journal will enlighten you on many things about yourself that will expand your understanding of the world at large.

5) Be serious

Nothing will damage your tryouts at effective writing more than insincerity, or a perceived lack of authenticity. Readers see through an insincere voice in a heartbeat.

About the Author: 

Carol James is an EssayLab psychology department writer and senior editor. She has MA degree in social sciences and is an excellent specialist in this field. Carol works with numerous materials on the subject and is eager to share her knowledge with our readers.

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How To Stretch Your Data Allowance

We take things for granted. 10 years ago, Facebook was a new website and the iPhone was something only half of the population had heard of. A decade on, we have a mental model that includes these things as bedrock features of our lives.

Conversely, we now have problems that we never used to : Managing the data in our phone plans (primarily to avoid paying too much) is a new challenge most of us face. Assuming that your starting point is that you have a reliable provider and a decent value plan, here’s what you can do to extend your data allocation. 

Stretching your data allowance

The amount of video we are watching on our phones is rising every year at exponential rates.Video is anything with a moving image – from a YouTube clip to a Netflix video. Recent evidence suggests that people watch 100% more each year!

Before we get in to extending the value you get from your data, it will help to know how the technology works – at a very high level. There is a significant factor working against you in the background when it comes to the amount of vide you consume on your phone. 

The latest 4G phones have capabilities to get download speeds of up to 100 Mbps of data (that’s a lot!) When you’re streaming a video from a website, if the website you’re using (for example, YouTube) will detect a 4G connection and send the highest quality image possible resolution – because the connection is so good !

Source: https://static.pexels.com/photos/163032/office-pen-calculator-computation-163032.jpeg 

So, the key thing you can do to use less data, it’s to get in to YouTube (or wherever you watch your video on your phone) and make sure it is downloading a lower quality stream. For a screen the size of your phone, 240p should be fine – you won’t even be able to tell the difference.

If there is one other thing you should do to cut the amount of data you use, it’s to install the free Self Service app that your phone company provides. Almost every phone company in the world has one of these now and they’re great. Open it up and you’ll see a simple graph giving you the information you need – the date when your plan renews and the proportion of your data allocation you’ve used. 

Simply having these facts at your fingertips and checking them regularly (I aim to check mine as regularly as I do my bank account – one every couple of days) will have a huge impact on the amount of data you use. Simple awareness of how you are progressing will help you cut down. In the event you are going to go over your allocated data entitlement, you’ll be able to buy more data at the cheapest rate possible, from within the app.

Note : The research suggests that those who use their Self Service Apps are also happier with their phone company. They don’ t have to call customer support as often because they can manage their account from their phones, themselves.

Summing up - managing these things – for cheats!

We’re users, not technical professionals. We shouldn’t have to worry about the amount od data we use. Most people don’t spend long in their settings and neither should they have to. Phones should be designed to do things easily, without instruction.

The truth is that average users can address the data problem in some simple ‘high street’ ways. Upgrading your phone plan can give you the extra data you need, rather than you having to roll your sleeves up and mess around with Self Service apps and YouTube quality settings.

Newer, smaller phone companies often offer the best value when it comes to data. Some also offer helpful facilities that the bigger phone companies don’t. For example, some will give you more data when they raise the data allocation in their plans– without you having to do anything. 

Others offer data rollover or data vault facilities (in which data rolls over eternally – whatever they give you is yours for ever, until you leave!) The reality is that picking the best plan and changing regularly can give you enough data that you don’t have to worry about managing it better.

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