Community Spotlight: Sir Squeebles

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http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev ... squeebles/

There are many streamers out there who have been spotlighted over the past few months. EVE streaming is catching on quite readily, with channels drawing in hundreds or even thousands of viewers at a time. But there is one consistent streamer who provides... something a bit more. That more is not merely epic fights or deep instruction into the intricacies of EVE. But that's not what we mean here.

Sir Squeebles's stream is known to be a little bit more wild, more unpredictable, and a little more hilarious than others.

 



Early Years

The young, unknighted Squeebles had previously only dabbled in video games as a social activity. He had never picked up a controller or sat to play a game unless it was with someone else. For him, gaming was the exact same as going to the bar for a beer; more a platform for enjoying the company of others. Despite this, he was educated as a Computer Engineer and was often drawn into discussions about games. EVE Online kept coming up and his brother and friends started playing, so eventually he was drawn into the game.

He started off as many of us do, but killing asteroids and making ISK with real life friends. However, his daily playing time failed to adequately overlap with his friends', so he broke off to find a corp of his own. Somehow, he ended up in Australian corp. For a few months, he continued to mine until he mistakenly got blown up in his beloved new cruiser. Docking up, he vowed revenge and began a fairly serious trading operation used solely to fund it.

After a year of playing, he realized he was the only one of his original social group to still be playing. Yet he found he still enjoyed it and, before the end of 18 months, he had 4 accounts and was largely focused on PVP with industry done on background alts. From there, he moved to nullsec to participate in some large-scale shenanigans before eventually becoming burned out and switching back to an industrial focus. He ran an industrial alliance for a while before being bitten by the PVP bug again.

He went into mercenary work in Empire space for a while, took a month-long break from EVE, and then came back. He started poking around lowsec off and on with someone from a previous mercenary corp. The friend joined up with a nullsec group, but Squeebles stuck in low sec.

After a while, the friend joked that Squeebles should stream lowsec PVP so that he could see actual fights again. And so it began.

 

 

Reinvigorating Stream

Though his start to streaming was an impulsive decision, it has actually leg to a revitalization of Squeebles's desire to play EVE. In addition to showing the game to others, it was a way to enjoy EVE without being 100% dependent on whether or not he got a killmail. It was, in some sense, a return to the social approach to gaming he's taken all of his life.

He streams whenever he plays EVE. Some people may get flustered that he doesn't have a schedule even though he has numbers to support one. But he appreciates the freedom that having a schedule would remove. If his dog dies, his wife leaves him, and his Star Wars1 collection is damaged by a leaky roof, he wouldn't want to let people down by taking the evening off. Thankfully, he is increasingly consistently streaming in the evenings of EST on weekdays and midday on weekends.

He also lacks any specific content he streams. He never knows what might come up that day which sparks something in his EVE-filled brain. One of his typical moves is to run funny fleets, like mining barges, but other themed streams are just things that were mentioned or discussed earlier in the day. His Dungeons & Dragoons roam, for example, spawned out of a conversation he had on corp comms one day. Anything that makes him laugh in real life, he tries to apply to making him laugh in EVE.

 



Dungeons & Dragoons - The Full Adventure

 

Not for Everyone

Of course, the stream is not for everyone. From the beginning, he opted not to market himself as a solution to anything or as a one-size-fits-all stream. He makes it clear that he's not a Customer Service Representative, he's just a normal person playing a game for fun.

At times, this can manifest itself in the form of trolling someone in stream chat or ranting about the topic of the day. Anyone who knows the stream knows he loves a good, passionate rant here and there. Just the fact that he's not willing to “accommodate” demanding and/or critical viewers sets him aside from some others, who try very hard to accrue and retain viewers. He has no interest in monetizing the stream and at this juncture, he doesn't care who or how many people are watching. That shows, with some people occasionally feeling like Squeebles is a maniac.

Thankfully, most people don't leave feeling hurt (everyone agrees he's a maniac). The vast majority of his viewership are a fun, witty, and supportive group. Not only has he received a ton of help over the past year to create content, but he's genuinely proud to see people in his in-game and stream channels answering the questions of newer players. It's immensely satisfying just to know that the community has attracted people with a helpful mindset, regardless of whether they're there for his person flair or just the highlights of Titans shooting his Orcas.

 

Goods and Bads

Sir Squeebles didn't realize people could enjoy watching him play a game. He's seen people in chat say things like “I'd definitely watch Squeebles play other games too” and it still comes as a shock that he's part of this little community of pseudo-strangers who want to play games with him! He's not sure it'll ever compute in his brain, but he loves it.

He had sworn he was never going to run a corp again, but his stream has led him to creating UHURT. He's also leading a New Eden Open team thanks to his streaming. It is something he never would have considered had he not been doing it.

His biggest memories are his “firsts”. Such as the reaction in his stream chat the first time he was hot dropped or the first time he got his fleet members a capital kill. Things that gets his viewers or fleet participants super excited are what he loves most. The individual events come and go, but remembering the excitement of others sticks.

His viewers can likely give more answers to memorable moments, but he does have a few of his own. There is a particular Stabber Fleet Issue fight against a Proteus that sticks out. Additionally, a fight in Naguton was fun. As mentioned earlier, there is the D&D Fleet. He also got to stream an officer-fit Bhaalgorn loss. There are many others that he's sure he'll regret not mentioning, but there are too many to choose from.

There are challenges too, however. There are the obvious ones, like stream sniping, denial of fights, local trolling, stalking, stream coaching, and angry mails. But the not-so-obvious one is the expectation. When he clicks “start streaming” he suddenly has 250+ people watching. He has a compulsion to apologize when he doesn't get good footage, worrying that someone will think “I should look at EVE”, find his broadcast, and leave unentertained. That makes him a bit nervous, but it has never dissuaded him.

 



Fighting Provi Block

 

The Future

Squeebles says he could write a dissertation on the future of streaming in EVE and his own stream.

He is unsure what the future holds for himself. When he started, it was him holding a microphone as a few people watched quietly. Now there's hundreds of people watching and interacting. Even if they were to remain mostly-silent, their collective opinion would shape the stream as much as Squeebles. It's become a community, not just one man drinking beer. While he sometimes has ideas he wants to commit to, for the most part he allows viewers to shape the content.

He sees EVE streaming continuing to grow. Though he does not use integrated Twitch streaming, he loves that the concept allows anyone who doesn't need the bells and whistles to do it with little extra effort. The more he asks people, the more he realizes how mind-blowingly cool it is for prospective capsuleers to be able to open Twitch and suddenly be in the midst of the most complex and developed gaming group in the world.

They cam see local standings, hear the fleet discussing tactics, Proviblock forming to defend itself, people waving to the stream in local, and much more. They're immersed in something that has existed since before some of them needed to shave. He estimates 85% of viewers will be drawn in, with at least 85% of them giving EVE a try.

 

 

Final Thoughts

Streaming EVE takes a lot from the streamer, but offers a very worthwhile reward for viewers. Sir Squeebles would like to say it's been an immense pleasure (and continues to be) to get to know so many people from the stream. Good roams and bad roams can be equally enjoyable based purely on the general attitude and fun of the fleet. From trivia to big killmails, they entertain themselves and cultivate an atmosphere that's welcoming to anyone with moderately thick skin and a good sense of humor. He's proud and honored to see the stream isn't just a projection of himself any more. He likes sitting atop the rusty, autocannon-fit throne, but he can't entertain hundreds of people consistently in a game with so much left to chance. The stream has reached a point where it can entertain itself and for that, they're all thankful.

Also, he belches exclusively on stream. He apologizes to any significant others who heard it from the other room and found it repulsive.

Lastly, he would like to say screw EC and don't camp gates, kids. Stay in school and drink plenty of beer.

 

 

1. Sir Squeebles would like it known that he does not actually have a Star Wars collection, but respects that the Bill of Rights allows others to if they so choose.