What is Twitch?
Founded in June 2011, Twitch is the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers, video game culture, and the creative arts. Each day, close to 10 million visitors gather to watch and talk about video games with more than 2 million streamers.
Streamers use broadcasting software of which most is free to use. The most common being OBS or Open Broadcaster Software. This software allows the streamer to broadcast their desktop or games that they are running on their machines to their twitch channel for people to view. To learn more about how to stream, i suggest a simple google or YouTube search as the best way to learn.
In order to view a stream, all you need to do is go to twitch.tv and search for a channel to watch either by searching for someone's twitch handle or simply clicking on a game in a list that interests you for which you will then see a list of streamers playing that game. You can then just simply click on them to watch.
Each streamer also has a chat associated to their channel. This enables viewers to interact with each other as well as the person streaming. In order to participate in a chat however you must create a twitch account, which is free and easy to set up. Also if you have an account, you can follow your favourite streamers, enabling you to find them quicker and instantly know if they are broadcasting live or not.
A lot of streamers prefer to play with friends or a group of people as this makes the stream that little more entertaining as there is more going on as you will be able to hear the other players voice comm's as well as the person streaming, something to be aware of should a friend of yours invite you to a game which they are broadcasting.
More often than not, if a viewer hits the follow button to a streamers broadcast whilst they are live, they will receive a notification alerting the streamer that they have a 'new follower' which will also pop up somewhere on the stream for all to see. Something also to bare in mind, as this will also display your Twitch username, most people are fine with this but if you prefer not to have your username broadcast then i suggest you 'follow' them whilst they are not live.
All in all Twitch is a list of channels of people playing games and community interaction between users, whether they are other streamers or just gamers enjoying other gamers company who have the same interest.
These are the basics of what Twitch is, there are a lot of other features available should people want them."
As part of this and to make it easier we have set up a Dead Men Walking Community https://www.twitch.tv/communities/deadmenwalking, which will have all our member that have applied streaming on, so it easier to find the game or member that you wish to watch. This will make the process so much easier for all. As we can have many people streaming at the same time.
The dMw Twitch Channel www.twitch.tv/dmwgaming (http://www.twitch.tv/dmwgaming) will be showing the official night game streams.
How does this affect me?
For those that do not wish to be Streamed there are the channels on TS that unless they are labelled up or in the Twitch Channels (VC's recorded/streamed), You will not be recorded or streamed. It is important to us that every member feels comfortable and happy to play in the same way as before. Just make sure which channel you are in.
If you have any questions please drop the Council or your GL a message.
So reality it doesn’t affect you but you should just be aware that what you do and what you say are out there for the world to see.
The most immediate and obvious thing is that we seriously ask you to remind yourself of the player standards at dMw and to remember your actions and comments reflect on you as an individual and us as a community.