At OffKai, Main Stage How has content creation changed? Feat. 2 “senior” VTubers https://www.offkaiexpo.com/event/how-has-content-creation-changed/

• (responses paraphrased)
• This is Lime’s first convention talk.
• Presented by:
  • Limes
  • Matara
• Limes:
  • I find it difficult to give advice because if I were starting today, things would be so different.
  • Started on a site called linestream.com which had no discoverability.
  • Was looking for a place to hang out in 2011.
  • Streamer was showing a game, finished playing and asked if people wanted to play L4D.
  • In the shared communication chat for the channel, ended up meeting the channel VineSauce.
• Matara: You could just play games with people for two weeks
• Limes:
  • You would call dibs on a game to play a game on stream.
  • Group split because it was hard to play the same games as others.
  • I streamed Mother 3 as a guest streamer and was offered a permanent streaming position.
  • Felt like she had to be the cool girl to fit in, so she lowered her voice. Was also sad and tired in university.
  • Streamed for two years on the vinesauce channel. Didn’t really make any money
• Matara: When was this?
• Limes:
  • Around 13 years ago, in 2012.
  • People looked down on making money in streaming and didn’t believe it was possible.
  • You also just had to trust that if a charity was happening, that the money was being sent because no one worked directly with nonprofits.
  • There wasn’t much moderation or oversight, so there was more toxicity.
  • Livestream.com was not very good, so they moved to Twitch.
  • Ended up making their own channel to avoid the game calling thing.
  • Enough people got annoyed that there was a joke to rename the channel to “can you stop”.
• Matara: I wanted different time slots, and that was hard if you shared the same channel.
• Limes:
  • Reaction to splitting off was mixed.
  • Some people would follow with usernames thatbwere just taunts/namecalling, so had to turn off follow alerts.
  • On Livestream you needed to verify to have more than 50 people watching.
  • You could only get word out by posting on forums or reddit
  • Use ProCaster, but it crashed all the time. It got the nickname “ProCrasher”
• Matara: Tell me about your solo channel. How did you build up to being full time? There wasn’t much money in streaming back then, even for big streamers. Sponsorships were looked down upon.
• Limes:
  • I did not make enough money.
  • Was asked by parents to get a job because they were not making any money.
  • Got a full time job at Twitch
  • Made help articles for Twitch, which is why some of the pictures have her emotes in them.
  • Twitch implemented prime subs and gift subs, and suddenly you could make a decent amount of money.
  • Used to stream as a team with VineSauce even though they had separate channels.
  • Didn’t take sponsorships until the year before last. Still felt like it would be a sellout.
• Matara: How did you transition from working at Twitch to streaming full time?
• Limes:
  • COVID. Why pay a lot of money to live in London, when you can stream anywhere? Moved back to hometown and added more hours to stream because didn’t need to commute anymore.
• Matara: In corpo, if you were not ontop of all of the anime and all the streams, then you were a fake fan
• Limes:
  • Did VTubing for face reactions. Liked being a slob, not having to get dressed and etc. Didn’t have other VTuber inspirations.
  • Popped out of a logo to play a game, and that was their debut.
• Matara: What made you decide you would do it fulltime?
• Limes:
  • Between job and streaming, it was 16 hours a day. Had faith that they could increase how much they made streaming
  • Happy they stuck with it, feels like a much stronger person now.
  • Happy with where they ended up
• Matara: Anything else to mention before Q&A
• Limes:
  • Wants to learn how to do a concert.
• Q&A:
  • When was the exact moment that forced you to go fulltime, big name VTubing.
    • Limes: When I was commuting to work, going back home, looking after my ferrets, and streaming. Twitch rolled out madatory midrolls that you could not turn off. Tried to fight it, couldn’t say anything about it during the backlash. Realized that they could never give up the stream, so they didnt have a conflict of interest for when Twitch did things they did not agree with.
    • Matara: Seen clips of Hiruyu Coco translated into English, thinking “If I ever get out of this low point and I get to do this, I will give it my everything.”
  • What do you do if someone you love wants to move on and do something different?
    • Matara: Yeah, it sucks when your Oshi does something different. You don’t have to love the new stuff, and the old stuff is still authentic. As a creative, the reason you have an audience is because you’re able to show up every day and write from the heart. You have a different authenticity that resonates with you as you grow older.
    • Limes: Terrified that they would lose people, and some did leave, but also gained more people. Just had to keep doing what they loved. Just be true to what you believe in.
    • Matara: Be a little more selfish.
  • Have you heard about the critically acclaimed maplestory? What was your favorite class?
    • Limes: I played a bit, but I was a ragnorok online kind of girl. mabinogi, flyff.
    • Matara: Liked cleric. For RO, liked sniper. Whitesmith for War of Imperium.
    • Limes: I really liked DEX Monk.
  • What is your favorite collaboration that you’ve done?
    • Limes: I have a lot of favorite developers. Never thought I might be able to work with developers likr Capcom. Did a collaboration with Monster Hunter. Another would be for Harvest Moon: Back to Nature.
    • Matara: Being a VA for Nikei (?). My favorite collab was with Limes where they were supposed to play a zombie game together but it broke and did glovetastic (?) instead.
  • If you could only collab with one streamer for the rest of your streams, and each of your streams had to be a collab, who would you pick? You can’t choose each other.
    • Matara: Top three; Omily, Mint, Brickeys (?)
    • Limes: My friend Hackerling (?). She is so supportive and flexible.
  • I also stream, and by hour 4 I am wiped. How does Limes maintain energy to stream 6 hours, 5 days a week?
    • Limes: Practice, honestly. You get used to it. Can’t do marathons anymore. Part of it is that they just genuinely love what they are streaming. Also be relaxed about it. Streaming feels like hanging out and unwinding, instead of being stressful. If you enjoy it, then you just need to build up the stamina for it.
    • Matara: Also, four hours is perfectly fine. If it works for you, do four.
  • After COVID, how did you select which elements you liked between the western or japanese subcultures?
    • Limes: There was not much info about VTubing. I wasn’t too worried about research, just wanted to be myself. Asked someone to do the VTuber art and rigging and learned from them. Had to look up what “graduate” and “oshi” meant. didnt know much about the culture. Anime girls are cute!
    • Matara: Got lucky with corpo work. Japamese corpo is defjnitely focused on idol culture, but independent japanese streamers are moving away from that. Do what you want to do, what you think is best. Times are changing.
  • Has the growth of content creation and a loss of a more 1-1 personal connections been good or bad overall? What’s your favorite 4X
    • Limes: During the era of VineSauce, it felt like a home. As an indie, I could field more 1-1 questions, but when you are bigger you have to respond to the vibe of the chat more than you respond to individual messages. Tiny streams do have a different vibe, but you can keep some level of feeling tight knit.
    • Matara: Civ Call to Power, Beyond Earth.
    • Limes: Age of empires 1 and 2
  • Did you have any skills that transfered form your old jobs that you still use in your streaming work?
    • Limes: My first job was actually at a call center. That phone manner actually helped. Working at Twitch helped with familiarity of internal systems. Doing tech support also helped. Pretty much everything helped in some way.
    • Matara: Dropped out of HS and did bartending. The skills transferred; always been a yapper. Even if you are shy, talkative, extroverted, people will like that personality. Anyone can be a streamer.
  • At one point did you start getting approached for vusiness deals and opportunities?
    • Matara: Yes, at a certain point cons will get in touch with you. But you can still get involved and put yourself out there. Reach out to cons, maybe a volunteer you met works at another cons. You have to do a lot of the legwork.
    • Limes: I agree. Smaller streamers than me have made more or have better presence than me at cons because they worked on it. Put yourself out there!
    • Matara: You might not get paid opportunities right away, but you have to keep putting yourself out there.