Episode 21: Gaming Culture with Equipy (12/2/2020)

Callie: In this episode, we talk about a lot of things that might be confusing for people who are less familiar with the internet, video games, or with Twitch. If that sounds like you, head on over to the transcript at www.fastfactsforgenz.wordpress.com, where I’ll have helpful explanations written as you follow along.

Hey y’all. Welcome to Fast Facts for Gen Z. I’m your host, Callie, and I don’t know anything about anything. Come with me while I explore the world, and I’ll tell you everything you ever, and never, wanted to know, through the eyes of Gen Z.

Today’s episode: video game culture and how livestreaming games on the platform Twitch has become both popular and lucrative.

Today is a very exciting day for me, because I’m joined by someone who I admire very much: a Twitch streamer named Maggie –

Maggie: Aww!

C: – but with the screen name Equipy. (laughs) Hi Maggie.

M: Hi! Oh my gosh, that’s so nice! (both laugh)

C: Can you introduce yourself? Who you are, what you do?

M: Hello! My name is Maggie, or Equipy, or Equip. I stream on Twitch: I play primarily Animal Crossing and The Sims. As of right now, I stream every day from like 6pm to 10pm usually, except for Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

~~~Game: Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a single or multiplayer life simulation game released in March 2020 where most of the characters are cute animals. It is generally known as a relaxing or chill game.~~~

~~~Game: The Sims 4 is a single-player life simulation game released in 2014.~~~

C: Obviously, Twitch is a pretty popular site, especially within our generation, but for anyone who doesn’t know, like, what is Twitch?

M: Well, it’s literally a website where people stream themselves doing whatever they want, primarily video games.

~~~Vocab: to “stream” is to record video that people can watch live as you do it~~~

C: Mhm.

M: But there are lots of fun other things! When I try to get people who aren’t gamers into it, I’m like, “One time I saw a fishing streamer!”

C: (gasps) I should show that to my dad!

M: Oh my god, it’s so interesting! Like I found someone who’s a dancing streamer, and now we’re like, buddies! But yeah, Twitch is just a beautiful hodgepodge of many different interests being livestreamed.

C: Yeah, so it’s primary audience is video game… people.

M: Yeah.

C: (laughs) But it’s cool to hear that there are lots of other things that people do as well. That’s very interesting.

M: Yeah!

C: How long have you been streaming, Maggie?

M: I’ve been streaming for… six years? I’ve been streaming since I was thirteen, I am now eighteen. It’s been a while.

C: Wow, that’s a long time!

M: Yeah!

C: Do you think Twitch has changed a lot over that period of time?

M: For sure, I think it’s definitely become… I mean it’s become more popular with Fortnite’s rise, people streaming Fortnite a lot, I feel like was a big spike.

C: Ahh, yeah, that makes sense.

~~~Game: Fortnite is a multiplayer shooter game that came out in 2017 and exploded in popularity during the following years.~~~

M: This year, it feels like it’s grown a lot because of the coronavirus.

C: Mhm.

M: Because lots of people have been stuck at home, so it’s like, “here’s entertainment! Have it.”

C: Yeah! I saw a graph that tracked like average Twitch viewership over time, and around March or April, it just went straight up.

M: Yeah, it was crazy. I’m really glad that a lot of people are finding it now, because it’s like, such a cool thing.

C: Yeah.

M: And, (laughs) I just love it so much! (both laugh)

C: Well you’d have to, to be streaming for six years.

M: Yeah! For sure.

C: How has your own little corner of Twitch changed over that time?

M: So much…

C: Like, when did you first think of yourself as having an audience?

M: Like this year, honestly!

C: Really?

M: Yeah! I started streaming when I was thirteen; I was playing Minecraft, just by myself. No one was watching. Like, maybe one person, sometimes, and I was just sitting there being like, “Oh! Hi!” I’d see someone pop up in chat and I would get scared, I would be like, “Why are you here? What are you doing?”

~~~Game: Minecraft is a single-player or multi-player creation game released in 2009 where you can gather resources and build things and fight off monsters. The art style is cubic, so everything is a square. Everything.~~~

~~~Vocab: There’s a chat feature on Twitch streams where viewers can type messages to the streamer and to each other during the stream. All the viewers are collectively known as “the chat” or “chat” and the streamer will often say they “talk to chat” as they respond to messages people have typed.~~~

C: Aw!

M: Then people started showing up more, and I got used to having people in chat. I think I got better at talking to chat over time with less people, and I think that’s why I’m pretty good at talking to the good amount of people that I have now.

C: Mhm.

M: It’s changed so much. I only became family-friendly in this year also, so that’s been super different.

C: Mhm.

M: Well, actually not that different because I didn’t have a lot of people showing up before then anyway.

C: Yeah, so Twitch has a bunch of, like, tags, so you can categorize your own stream, and you have the family-friendly tag, right?

M: I do, yes.

C: So that means you don’t curse and you don’t do content that’s inappropriate for… children?

M: Yeah. Uhh, yeah, just like, people who are uncomfortable with like, swearing and stuff like that, I guess.

~~~context: Twitch doesn’t allow kids under 13, so my children comment wasn’t quite right. Maggie said that, but it didn’t make the final audio cut.~~~

C: You’ve seen Twitch overall grow, you’ve seen yourself grow, so where do you think it’ll be five years from now?

M: Oh gosh, I have no idea! Twitch is growing so much right now, and with everything going on, like, I don’t know anything! (laughs)

C: Yeah!

M: But it’s really cool and interesting to see how it’s growing, and I would like to see more cool things happening through it. I think that a lot of people right now are doing lots of charity streams, and I know that that’s been a thing forever, but I’ve seen a lot more recently, and that’s really cool. I hope that Twitch does a lot more big charity events. I want them to do like a big week where they just do a huge, charity, all-over-Twitch thing. That would be really cool.

C: That would be so cool! Can you explain the concept of a charity stream?

M: When I do it, it’s a long stream where you’re raising money for a specific cause. It’s just a nice way to use your platform and the community to give back to the world.

C: I think that’s really important! I think that it’s important for people who have platforms and voices to use them.

M: For sure, 100%. I’ve done… oh, gosh, two or three charity streams? Well, technically I’ve done four. (both laugh)

C: Okay.

M: But the first charity stream I ever did, no one showed up to it.

C: Aww!

M: (laughs) I streamed for like, ten hours, just playing Minecraft, and I was raising money for a local food shelter.

C: Aw.

M: My mom came in and donated money…

C: Aww, thanks Mom.

M: Yeah, thank you Mom! But this year, when corona started, I… my birthday was in April. So, like, I turned eighteen, and usually I would do like a, I would go to like Laser Quest with my friends and go play laser tag. But obviously, I couldn’t do that, or see any of my friends at all, let alone play laser tag.

C: Right, yeah.

M: So what I did instead was, I was like, “Wait a second! I have friends on Twitch, I’m just gonna stream for twelve hours!”

C: Oh my goodness.

M: “And do a charity stream to get money to make COVID stop.” (laughs)

C: Yep, good cause, good choice.

M: Yeah! I was like, “I’m sad that I can’t see my friends, let’s try to speed this up to be able to see our friends.” You know?

C: That’s good! That’s really good.

M: That was the biggest stream, like, that I had ever had at that point, I’m pretty sure.

C: Wow, yeah I was about to ask, people came to that one, right?

M: It was insane! It was just so much fun. People who I admire showed up! Like, I love Dungeons and Dragons, and there’s a D&D podcast that I love, and one of the cast members of that podcast showed up and donated $50 and I was like, “Hi!!! How are you??? Hello!!!” (both laugh)

C: That’s amazing.

M: Yeah. We raised, uh, I think $1,500?

C: Wow!

M: Yeah.

C: That’s really impressive.

M: Yeah, I was losing my mind. (both laugh) I had never… I was like, (shy)“Woah, that’s a lot of money!”

C: That is a lot of money! People are so generous. You and many other streamers use Discord to connect with your audience. Can you explain what Discord is?

M: Discord is an app that is used for communicating… like, marketed towards gamers and is pretty, like, mostly game-centered, but it’s honestly just good for talking also.

C: Yeah, it’s like a chatroom.

M: It’s like a chatroom! It’s like a really cool chatroom and it’s really well-designed. I love Discord.

C: Does it help you feel more connected to your audience?

M: Oh, 100%. I love seeing what people talk about. Like, I have a channel… there’s a chat that I made called “school,” because I – I mean, I’m a college student, I don’t know what I’m doing all the time! And there are people who are in my community who are good at the things that I’m studying.

C: Ooh, nice.

M: So it’s like, “Hey guys, do you know anything about Java programming?” And then they’re like, “Yeah, what do you need?” I have an advice channel and a school channel, and in those ones, people are so helpful to each other. Everyone in my community is so nice! And I’m so happy about that. That makes me so happy. I’m so glad there are such wonderful people. It’s so cute.

C: Aw, good! Well, when you cultivate an environment with kindness and generosity, like, that’s going to follow you.

M: Aw, yeah, and it just makes me really happy! It’s so surreal and so cool to me that I even have a community at all. I made a Tweet on Thanksgiving being like, “if thirteen-year-old me had known that she would have a community, she, first of all, wouldn’t believe it and would be losing her mind, and I know that because I’m losing my mind, still, every day.” (both laugh)

M: Legitimately, it’s the coolest thing in the world. I think about it all the time. Like, wow! All these years ago, I was sitting at my mom’s desk, on my mom’s Mac –

C: Aww!

M: Playing Minecraft. I didn’t know how to record audio correctly when I was talking to my friends, so I would open Skype on my phone or on my iPod Touch or something and put it next to my microphone so that the microphone would pick up the audio from my iPod.

C: Nice.

M: So bad!

C: Inventive!

M: The production quality has improved SO much. (laughs)

C: It has, it has.

M: I understand things about microphones now, and I think that’s important.

C: Do you think your audience is different from the broader audience of Twitch?

M: Yes… I think that a lot of Twitch is very very scary.

C: Ooh!

M: I love it, I love the platform, don’t get me wrong. But like, if you’re in a big stream of a not-family-friendly guy playing like a shooter game or something…

C: That’s a different environment.

M: It’s a VERY different environment. And that’s the majority of a lot of the big streams on Twitch. They’re like, Call of Duty, and Fortnite, and League of Legends.

~~~Game: Call of Duty is a multiplayer shooter game franchise with many iterations often abbreviated as CoD. The most recent CoD game, Modern Warfare, was released in 2019.~~~

~~~Game: League of Legends is a team-based multiplayer shooter game that dominates professional video game competitions around the world. It was released in 2009.~~~

M: League of Legends is the biggest game on Twitch.

C: Really?

M: Yeah, and I play that game. I streamed it a few times, haven’t in a long time. When I streamed it, I got more trolls than I ever will playing any other game.

~~~Vocab: People who come into a stream and repeat the same message over and over in chat or send hateful messages to try to get a reaction are referred to as “trolls”~~~

C: Mhm.

M: Yeah…

C: I have seen… I’ve been in a couple of big streams, and the audience and the chat is definitely not as much of a community.

M: Yeah! I think that I’ve made a little corner where it’s safe, and where we have fun. Other streams are really really fun too! Like my friend Kayla – uh, lilsimsie –

~~~Streamer: twitch.tv/lilsimsie ~~~

M: Her streams are HUGE, and also super welcoming, lovely community!

C: Mhm.

M: But it’s massive. And that’s really really cool, that she did that. I’m so proud of her.

C: Yeah, she put in a lot of effort to cultivate a community, even as she grew.

M: I love her so much. It’s funny, because I remember when I met Kayla, it was way before she started Twitch, and in our group chat that we had on Twitter, I would sometimes plug my Twitch.

C: Aww!

M: And I just think it’s really cool that we’re both doing it now, and now she’s supporting me through it too.

C: That’s very cool, yeah. How does she support you?

M: Raids! Raids are so awesome, I make sure that I raid every single stream. Raids are basically when a streamer is ending their stream, you can send all of your viewers off to go watch another streamer, so that someone can just, like, get a lot of people and gain some… if people show up, and they give their spiel and are like, “Hi, my name’s Maggie, and I stream Animal Crossing,” they’re like “hey, I like that, you sound cool!” and then they follow, and you gain that recognition. It’s just nice to be able to, like, show people new streamers and stuff.

C: Mhm.

~~~note: I found Maggie through a raid from another stream!~~~

M: There was this kid… he’s my high school friend’s little brother. He comes to my streams almost every day, he used to. And he was working really hard to get affiliate, he was streaming every day playing Minecraft, and I was like, “I know how this kid feels right now,” like I KNOW that (laughs). One day, after Kayla raided me, so I had a bunch of people there, and I was about to end and I was like, “We’re gonna raid… Quinn.”

C: Aww.

M: “We’re gonna raid him!” And he lost his mind, and then he got affiliated from that!

~~~Vocab: Twitch affiliates can make money from their streams, but you have to meet certain viewership and follower requirements before you’re allowed to become one.~~~

C: (gasp) Really???

M: Yeah.

C: Wow! You had a real impact on another human.

M: I know, it’s really cool! (both laugh) The fact that I’m able to make people happy… that’s all that matters to me. Wholeheartedly. I could be doing Twitch and making no money, and as long as someone’s smiling, I’m okay with it. I’m having a great time.

C: That’s so cute. If you had to describe your audience as a person, what would that person be like?

M: Ooh! Oh that’s so interesting! I don’t know that I can! There are so many different personalities, and everybody mushed together is so interesting… ooh gosh, I don’t know. Gay.

(both laugh)

C: Yeah. Uh-huh.

M: Yaaah. I’m bisexual, and a lot of my viewers are also LGBTQ+, and it’s a lovely little environment and we all just kind of chill and sometimes… before I was out, I did a stream where I made… uh… a Sim, I was making Sims – I love Create-A-Sim, it’s so much fun – and I made a really beautiful girl Sim. And I just started panicking a little bit.

C: Uh-oh.

M: And people were noticing! And I was just kind of like, “Nothing’s… no! She- I just- She’s really pretty, guys!”

C: Gay panic.

~~~Vocab: “Gay panic,” in this context, is used to refer to the stress and confusion a person feels when they find someone of the same gender attractive and are trying REALLY hard not to let anybody else know.~~~

~~~Vocab: “Out” refers to “out of the closet,” the colloquial way of saying that someone isn’t openly gay, so Maggie hadn’t yet told her audience she was bi.~~~

M: She WAS really pretty, I wasn’t lying.

C: (laughing throughout)

M: But I- I was just, FULLY gay panicking on stream and I wasn’t out and people were fully calling me out for it, and I was like, “Nothing’s going on! It’s fine!”

C: Maggie, you did this to yourself! You made the Sim!

M: I knowwwww, she was so pretty, I did such a good job.

C: (still laughing)

M: So proud of myself. So when I came out on stream, everyone was like, “yeah, we knew.” (laughs)

C: Yeah, Maggie.

M: Like, “Uh-huh, Maggie.”

C: Yes.

M: Yes.

C: You want to be an actress, right? You want to be on Broadway?

M: I do! Yes!

C: Very cool!

M: I do want to do that! That would be really cool.

C: I’ve done theater for a long time as well. Do you think your acting training helps with streaming? Or vice versa?

M: Honestly, yeah! I think that, I mean, I’m not playing a character, at all.

C: Sure.

M: If you were to ask any of my friends, like, I am the same person on stream as I am like, sitting on a couch playing Super Smash Bros. Even that… it’s like, I’m an introvert. So there’s also that. So it’s a little bit different. I think that streaming has helped me get over my stage fright, because I definitely had a big stage fright for a long time.

C: Oh wow.

M: And I feel like it’s a lot better now. I love being on stage and I love performing, and the jitters that I get have definitely lessened over the years that I’ve been streaming. Which I think is really interesting, actually.

C: That is really interesting.

M: Yeah. I’m double-majoring in computer science and theater, because I think that if I don’t end up being able to be an actress, I want to make video games. I want to make sure that I’m still doing something that I love.

C: That’s really good.

M: Yeah, I love programming, and so I think that would be really cool. It’s really interesting, because when I was applying to colleges, my college counselor was talking to me and she was like, “You realize Twitch is literally just a blend of the two things that you like. You’re performing and gaming, and those are literally the two things that you’re interested in.” I think that it’s really helped me kind of realize who I am as a person, in a weird way. Yeah! I think honestly… maybe not a good thing, but me getting online at the young age that I did, which, I was on Twitter when I was like eleven.

C: Oh my goodness.

M: I got my account suspended because they found out I was on Twitter when I was eleven, like a few months ago, and I was like, “Shoot!” I got it back. So we’re all good now.

C: (laughs)

M: I got on Twitter because I wanted to interact with my favorite Minecraft YouTuber.

C: Aww! (laughs)

M: And I made some wonderful internet friends back then when I was a literal child.

C: Could’ve gone bad. Didn’t.

M: It could’ve gone bad! I’m really glad it didn’t. Ohhh what was I just saying? Oh yeah, my mom! So, my mom, when I was a kid, was SUPER anti-internet-friends. I remember getting grounded when she found out that I used Skype to talk to my Minecraft buddies.

C: (laughs) Ooooooooh.

M: Yeah, it was my first time getting grounded, I was very emotional about it. Still am. It’s just really interesting to see now, literally most of my friends are internet friends, so it’s like, well. Here we are. Can’t ground me now!

C: (laughs)

M: And also, I grew up in a household where video games were not allowed.

C: Ah.

M: And now playing video games is my job.

C: Yeah.

M: I don’t know how that happened. Back in the day, Minecraft had a function, you could just go live on Twitch by pressing F6 on Minecraft.

C: Oh!

M: And so I did that! All the time! I would just play Minecraft, and press F6, and be like, (high-pitched, younger self) “Hi guys! It’s Equip! Welcome back to my YouTube channel!”

C: Aww!!

M: And I would then upload the stream VODs onto YouTube because I didn’t know how to record video. And so I straight up would just do a half and hour stream, and then upload that onto YouTube immediately afterwards. Because I didn’t know how to record.

~~~Vocab: “VODs,” also known as “Videos on Demand,” are the full recordings of a past livestream that can be watched at any time afterwards.~~~

M: No one was watching these videos. Not a single person. And, I don’t know, I was having so much fun! I still have so much fun!

C: Well, you were doing it for a… a school project, right?

M: It was for a school project, this is how I lost all my friends in middle school.

C: Oh! (Maggie laughs) Wait, is that… is that really the story?

M: Kinda! (laughs)

C: Oh!!!

M: Yeah.

C: Oh no!

M: Yeah, 7th grade, my public speaking class. I did a project on how to play Minecraft, and that video was part of the project.

~~~Context: “That video” was a video she did on the controls of Minecraft.~~~

M: In 7th grade, Minecraft was like, like, “You play Minecraft? Ew!!! Stinky!!! Stinky smelly!!!”

C: Aw, well, in 7th grade it’s not cool to like anything.

M: It’s not, no, it’s really not. I just really wanted to talk about Minecraft, I was really passionate about it. I loved Minecraft. Still do. I did that project, and then like, people were just like, so weird to me about it.

C: Aww.

M: I didn’t have many friends in middle school anyway, so it was kinda whatever, and I was just excited to talk about it.

C: I’m glad that your passion for all of this didn’t get crushed by you losing all your friends in middle school. (laughs)

M: Yeah, no, honestly, if anything, it made it bigger. Because if I had friends I would probably hang out with them and not be sitting at my mom’s desk playing Minecraft.

C: Mhm.

M: I love Twitch so much. I’m usually not great at organizing my time well, or doing things on time, but like, somehow… it’s a miracle that I have a schedule, and that I follow it.

~~~Vocab: By “schedule,” she means her streaming schedule/how often she streams. 6-10pm, every day except Tuesdays and Wednesdays.~~~

C: Mhm.

M: For some reason it isn’t. I don’t know why. I’m really good at following my Twitch schedule. I have a schedule, I do it, and I have so much fun. I think maybe it’s because I’m addicted to streaming.

C: Yeah.

M: Yeah, but it adds, like, some kind of structure to my otherwise very unorganized life. And so I think that’s really good for me. Especially in college, it was.

~~~Context: Maggie’s done for the trimester, so she refers to college in the past tense, although she is still a student.~~~

M: In high school as well. If I didn’t stream, it would throw off my whole day. It just adds this piece of time where I know what I’m doing during that time period, and that’s good to know, and I can plan around it if I want to plan stuff. My college essay was about TwitchCon!

~~~Vocab: “TwitchCon” is an annual event where Twitch streamers and viewers can meet in real life, play games, and socialize. This year’s TwitchCon was cancelled due to COVID-19.~~~

C: Really??

M: Yep! Twitch is such a huge part of my life that I felt like it made sense, and since it bridges between the two things that I’m interested in in college, it made sense. And the school that I go to, I had to interview for it. And on my resume, I mentioned all the Twitch things that I do, and the guy at the interview was like… he was so intrigued by it. He apparently played Call of Duty or something, like he knew about Twitch, a little bit. He asked me to explain it to him. Literally the entire interview was not about me getting into college, it was mostly about him asking me about Twitch stuff.

C: That’s great.

M: And I was having a grand old time! I love talking about it!

C: These are questions you can answer!

M: Yeah exactly! I was like, “This is what you want to talk about, okay! I can do that!” It’s weird, I feel like I got into my college because of Twitch. I mean, I don’t know that that’s true, but like, it’s kind of neat if it is.

C: Yeah! That would be really cool!

M: Then there’s the other end of that, where the people at my college are like… I remember, I ran for class president, and while I was outside doing chalk, like writing “Vote for Maggie!” in big chalk, a guy came up to me, and we were talking, and he was in the gaming club, and, yeah, it was so weird. He was talking to me and he was like, “Hey, so like, you’re like, big on Twitch. I was at your stream the other day and you’re like, not doing bad.” And I was like, “Thank you…”

C: “Thanks.”

M: “Thanks.” And he was like, “Why are you at college?”

C: (gasps, then both laughing. This is not where I thought this story was headed)

M: I was like, “Well! I want to do other things! In addition to Twitch!” It’s not like… I don’t know.

C: Yeah. You said something earlier about you having stage fright for a really long time. Were you ever nervous about streaming in the same way?

M: No!

C: Really?

M: Yeah! Well, I think originally, like the first times that I’ve had, like, hundreds of people, I was freaked out a little bit. It’s not different, fundamentally.

C: Right, it’s the same.

M: It’s the same! It’s more comfortable talking to a camera, knowing that there are hundreds of people behind it, than it is to physically make eye contact with people.

C: Ah.

M: And I think that’s partially on my social anxiety for being like, “Haha…” I really do think that I found out more about who I am a lot quicker with the help of Twitch. I feel like, I was just kinda, “I’m here to play Minecraft, I don’t know.”

C: (laughs)

M: And then it turned into me playing the Sims, and it turned into me playing Animal Crossing, and it turned into me running around being an idiot, and I was like, “Oh! That’s my personality!”

C: (both laughing) There are worse ones to have.

M: There I am!

C: There you are!

M: Running around in circles, being stupid. We love to see it. It’s really cool. I’m really happy that I’m able to be an idiot and it makes people happy, because that’s all I want. I just want to make people happy. Because I know that when I was a kid – well, not a kid, but when I was watching Twitch before I started streaming – I know how happy watching… I’m just gonna plug him, 8BitDylan-

~~~Streamer: twitch.tv/8BitDylan ~~~

M: My homeboy, love that guy. He was my favorite streamer when I was younger, and watching his streams always made me really really happy, so I really wanted to be able to do that for other people. And the fact that I am able to now is really really awesome.

C: That’s very cool! I find it admirable in you that you’ve been able to find a very authentic version of yourself at eighteen. I think it’s very impressive that you are… that you at least appear very comfortable in yourself, and have cultivated a community that is supportive and comfortable, mostly, in themselves, at least when they’re hanging out with you.

M: Thank you! That’s very kind of you to say. Twitch is a really cool community-building tool, I feel like. In and of itself, it’s just like… if you feel like you need a community and you want people to hang out with and to talk to, want to make new friends? Come hang out. Twitch’s slogan is “You’re already one of us,” and I feel like that’s-

C: Aw, that’s a good slogan!

M: It’s a really good slogan! And it fits really well. On my channel, it’s like yes, you are! You come in here, you’re just existing, you’re watching? Hey, welcome to the Gamer Gang.

C: Yeah! I don’t want to take up too much of your time-

M: Don’t worry about it!

C: But before we go, is there any project you would like to take on that you haven’t had the time or motivation to do?

M: Oh, so many. (both laugh) So, so many. Not only am I an actress, I’m a singer, like I want to do musical theater, primarily. I have written songs, I want to write more, I want to publish them, I want to do music so much more. I want to make YouTube videos, I want to make a short film. Yeah, I just want to make cool stuff and have a fun time doing it, and I want to be able to reach people and let them know that there are people who will be their friend. You don’t have to be alone. Like, I don’t know, I feel like, just, the internet is a really really cool thing and it’s really nice that there are so many people online all the time. You can find friends, you can find things, you can find your place on the internet. And Twitch is a really beautiful place for that because it’s literally just a bunch of communities thrown onto a website.

C: Mhm.

M: There’s a stream that I follow – I’m plugging this too – TwitchDuckTV! It’s just a stream of two ducks! Running around!

~~~Streamer: twitch.tv/twitchducktv ~~~

C: I love it!

M: They’re so cute!

C: I love that!

M: It’s the best! It’s like, lo-fi hop hop playing in the background, so it’s really chill. I have it up when I’m in my math class sometimes. (both laughing) Just on my other monitor when I’m in my math class.

C: That’s great, I love that.

M: It’s so great.

C: Well, I hope you continue to grow up on your trajectory. You’re doing quite well. You’re doing another partner push, aren’t you?

~~~Vocab: Twitch “Partner” is a step up from affiliate, and it provides more perks for the channel and viewers and more opportunities for monetization. It’s a big milestone!~~~

M: I am! I am reapplying for partner, as of recording this, in two days. This is my fourth time applying for partner, I’m really hoping this time will be it. I don’t like thinking about the numbers at all and it kinda makes you have to.

C: Yeah, so to get Twitch partnered, you have to average 75 viewers a stream, right? For a long time.

M: Yeah, and I’m well over doing that, is the thing. My average right now is 125 or something like that.

C: Oh wow. Nice!

M: It’s great! It’s really cool to see. At the beginning of this year I was averaging 9, so like, big change!

C: Oh! Wow!

M: Yeah, huge change!

C: I didn’t realize that!

M: Yeah, no, I blew up this year, a little bit.

C: That’s crazy! Congratulations.

M: Thank you! And I’m not gonna stop streaming. I love Twitch, and I’m just gonna keep grinding, and if it takes me another year to get partnered, so be it, I’m gonna keep applying. They have to deal with it. It would just be really cool. I’ve dreamed of it since I was fourteen. Just the fact that it’s even possible is insane. And if it does happen, I’m gonna lose my mind.

C: (laughs)

M: If it happens, I’m gonna do like a twelve hour charity stream to celebrate, probably.

C: Alright, well, tell everybody-

M: Thank you so much for having me!

C: Of course! Tell everyone your Twitch username so they know where to find you.

M: Equipy! That is E-Q-U-I-P-Y. It’s an acronym, by the way, and if you want to know what it’s for, you should ask me. I’ll tell you.

~~~STREAMER: twitch.tv/equipy ~~~

C: Alright, thank you for coming, Maggie.

M: Thank you for having me again! Bye podcast! (both laugh)

C: Bye!

C: Thank you for listening to Fast Facts for Gen Z. Head over to Maggie’s channel if you want to check her out, which I highly recommend. I’ll also be plugging her channel on my Twitter @FastFactsPod. If you liked this episode, go ahead and follow this podcast to be notified whenever I release a new one. This is Callie, signing off.