The amazing thing about the streaming community is the constant influx of new ways to connect and get involved. It’s still relatively new ground in a lot of ways and as such, new ways of doing it – and new things to do within it – appear all the time. One such tool is Stream Warfare, a site aiming at engaging streamers and their audiences in a new and competitive way. It’s a really fresh idea that encourages community building and we spoke to the man behind it all for a closer look.
What’s the site’s mission?
I wouldn’t say that I set out with a mission in mind, initially my main aim for the site was to give streamers and viewers another way to engage. I spent a fair amount of time interacting with streamers at various levels and found that unless the streamer was open to gaming with their viewers, there often wasn’t much else a viewer could do to interact with their favourite streamer outside of chat (which depending on the streamer and their popularity garnered varying degrees of interactivity).A couple of the streamers I watch fairly regularly would banter about “warring” with each other, which sparked the idea. What if I could join a team of gamers associated to my favourite streamer and help them do battle against other teams and streamers? The streamer could offer a new way to engage with their viewers, viewers could feel they were contributing to the stream community and maybe get to play with other viewers / team members. And while not always gaming with the streamer directly can feel like they are contributing to the streamers gaming experience.
How can people get involved?
By registering on the site, starting a team and declaring war. Although the site was set out to provide a new way for streamers and viewers to engage, you don’t have to be a streamer to start a team or a war. The site can be used as much for managing games with you and your friends as it is to engage with your favourite streamers. If you want to suggest to your favourite streamer about setting up a team, that would be awesome too.
People can also follow @StreamWarfare on twitter, or join the Discord channel which is currently being used for bug reporting and support. We also have a twitch channel StreamWarfare which currently hosts the registered streamers on the website. We’ll be using this for promotion and hosting wars going forward.What’s your background – why are you developing the site?
I have been gaming since forever, my first console was the Atari 2600 back in the 80s and I have been gaming ever since. By day I am a software consultant and I saw this as my opportunity to build something associated to my hobby using the skills I had learned doing my day to day.
I have really started enjoying Twitch recently as a social platform, I have streamed a few times, but don’t feel great in front of the camera. What I really enjoy are the communities on Twitch and the engagement with streamers and other gamers.Do you have any plans for the site’s future?
In the short term it’s mainly squashing bugs. I already have a few feature requests which I would like to add in, at the top is probably including much tighter Twitch integration, maybe building a Twitch extension. In the longer term, I have a few ideas in my back pocket, but really depends on if the site gets enough traction.Is there anything else you’d like us to know about the site or yourself?
I live for people’s feedback, so if anyone has requests or questions or spots and bugs I want to hear them.
Our notes: Stream Warfare looks like it could really take off, so why not get in on the ground floor? Declare war! Who knows – some of the FULLSYNC guys might be getting involved too!
