Have you ever played football with high school students? It’s not easy. They are young, they are fast, and they know how to play. Sometimes the best thing we can do to support young athletes is stand on the sidelines and cheer them on!
This principal applies to gaming just the same. Students are GOOD at video games. Watching students play video games and cheering them on is an extremely effective way to show support not just for their hobby, but for them as individuals. Well, where and how does one watch a student play video games? Do you have to pay a $5 entry like at a football game? So many questions…
Fear not, we are here to help.
Coming to one of our community events would be a great way to cheer on students in person, but those only happen a few times a year. Certainly it’s important to cheer on students more frequently than that.
Let’s talk about TwitchTV.
Twitch is an online platform for live streaming a variety of activities, but Twitch’s main streaming market is live video games. Every week (almost daily) students are streaming on the Satellite Gaming Twitch channel and YOU can watch!
We want to make this simple, so here is a step-by-step guide on how you can support young gamers from your couch, office chair or cellphone.
- Go to https://www.twitch.tv/satellite_gaming whenever our students go live. You can also download the Twitch app on your mobile device and search satellite_gaming.
You can watch any channel or game, we are just using ours as a point of reference. Try searching Twitch for “Pac-Man” and you’d be surprised at how many people play some of the classics.
- When the page is loaded the stream should start. Some channels will show advertisements.
- You can then do some dishes, watch a tv show on a different screen or even walk away while the live feed is playing. Having the video open raises viewer count, increases the streams position on the viewership leaderboards, and can increase the streamers’ overall experience.
- BONUS STEP: You can create your own Twitch account.
With your own Twitch account you can
- Follow your favorite channels and games to get notifications when they are live
- Chat with streamers and fellow viewers
- “Cheer” with bits (Twitch currency) or donate $ to streamers to honor their hard work
- Subscribe to affiliates and partners to get access to exclusive emotes and features (Satellite Gaming is a Twitch affiliate)
Now that you have a better understanding of what “streaming” is, go try it out! Here is our Stream Team’s schedule so you know when to tune in:
Go cheer on some nerds!
Jamie Lew Harris