Ever since my sister, Jackie, was young, she has always loved video games. Ironically enough, you could say I was her first viewer. I always loved to watch her play games like Zoo Tycoon, Nancy Drew, Legend of Zelda and many more. There are certain people that are naturally good at video games, and my sister is one of them. She’s solution-oriented and can always see things from unique perspectives, which makes for a great gamer. With a charismatic personality and an affinity for gaming, she made for a great streamer. I hopped on a call with my sister and learned some more about streaming.
Her Campus: What do you on Twitch?
Jackie: So, the basics of twitch streaming involve playing games, providing running commentary about the game you play to keep people engaged, hosting multiplayer games, talking to people in chat and general content generation (coming up with challenges, events, etc.).
HC: How long have you been streaming on Twitch?
Jackie: I have been streaming on and off for about seven years now. I’d say it’s been three years since my last major hiatus.
HC: How did you get into streaming?
Jackie: I got into streaming while playing Guild Wars 2 with some friends. As we were running around and exploring, I was just kind of narrating our actions, and one of the people I was with asked if I had ever considered twitch streaming. I was like, what’s that? And after looking into it more I decided to give it a go.
HC: Can you explain the difference between Twitch affiliate and Twitch partner?
Jackie: A twitch affiliate is like an “amateur” twitch streamer and a partner is a creator who has grown their channel enough to be recognized by twitch. Obviously, plenty of affiliates stream professionally, but that is the general distinction made by the site itself. A partnership comes with some perks, like better sponsorship opportunities, benefits at events and better ways to reward your community for supporting you—such as giving them more emotes to use in your channel.
HC: What’s your favorite thing about streaming?
Jackie: My favorite thing about streaming is getting to talk to a huge variety of people from all around the world. Streaming allows you to create a big, connected community full of people you would never have gotten the chance to meet otherwise.
HC: How do you build a safe community?
Jackie: Honestly, building a safe community can be really hard. It requires diligent monitoring of your chat and offline communities (such as Discord and Twitter). Luckily, Twitch has extensive moderation tools to allow streamers to remove anyone from their community at any time and for any reason.
HC: What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into streaming?
Jackie: Honestly, if someone wanted to get into streaming now, their experience would be very different from mine, since I started so long ago. But my biggest piece of advice would be to have no expectations going in. Hard work and dedication can take you a long way on Twitch but like any other job in the entertainment field, luck is also a big factor. If you go into it just hoping to have fun and meet some people, you can evolve your goals to match the growth of your channel. If you go into it with the expectation that you will make big bucks, you will be sorely disappointed.
If you want to keep up with Jackie or as she’s known on Twitch, Tempest in a Teacup, you can follow her on Twitter @tempestteacup_ or watch her on twitch @tempestinateacup.
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