From Simple Beginnings
As with most content creators, the drive to bring your gameplay to potential viewers was something you can not deny. For me it was helping others in finding things that many others have either ignored or felt that there wasn’t any value to as they were too small to care about.
I can remember when I was much younger getting those magazines geared towards PC Gaming and inside you could find free games that you could copy the code and play. This was back in the day when Qbasic was around and the game I “coded” was one in which you played as an ape throwing bananas that would explode. With the goal being to explode the computer controlled ape on the other side before it took you out. You could think of it as the precursor of Angry Birds or any type of similar games. This was the time of popular games like Myst, Kings Quest and Police Quest. Point and click adventuring was the norm and in my opinion, the heyday of adventuring games.
Many years later I could still recall those magazines and how much information was filled in those pages. The how-to articles were just as interesting as the game or parts reviews. As I was in the age that I could land a job, I applied to many places like Best Buy or the like. Eventually ending up working in the electronics department at Wal-Mart. I was in my element there, not only getting to see the latest technology but to experience the chaos of black Friday, the original Xbox release and to help people find the technology that would fit them the best. I believe that this was the first beginning of my content creation journey.
After spending some time in the retail trenches and floating around other jobs, I found myself within the carpeted cubicles of tech support for a large ISP. Again I was in my element helping those in over their heads with technology. Of course with all positions in which you’re dealing with the general public, there’s those that no matter how hard you try, they will never want your help even if you could get their problems taken care of right then and there. Add in the cultural decline of the workplace with ever increasing micromanaging of processes and the focus on whether you click buttons or sliders over actually helping the customers, I needed to get out.
Spending the next few years was a mixture of all manner of things. I believe that at this point in time I came across Twitch. Instantly I could see myself there and bring my knowledge to others. This was when I started my great streaming experimenting project. Getting into Mixer just after Microsoft acquired Beam and had changed the name. Streaming family friendly gaming that I could share with my daughter and enjoy together. Of course with the news of Mixer closing up shop I started floating around different platforms. Places such as Trovo, Facebook Gaming and Glimesh were destinations that I got into and started to learn more about these alternative places. This was something that I could call upon my past work experience with getting more eyes on these platforms.
Shifting my focus from gaming over to how-to’s and tutorials was a decision I stand by to this day. For me I find more joy in sharing my experience with others and fully enjoy looking into these new, alternative platforms and services.
