The Power Of Play: An Ode To Twitch Streaming

Written by Natalie Pabón (TheMayhemMermaid)

Recently, I was laying in bed falling asleep to the sweet, sweet sounds of TikTok as I aimlessly scrolled on my phone—when I came across a clip from an interview that Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, known for his work with BBC and his podcast ‘Feel Better Live More,’ conducted with trauma expert and physician Dr. Gabor Maté. Gabor was sharing his experience of how proud he was of everything he achieved during his time in med school, while “wishing [he] didn’t work so hard.”

“People sacrifice their playfulness, their joyfulness, being driven by unconscious needs to validate your existence,” he shared as he explained that this mentality can commonly stem from childhood trauma. To depict his thoughts on this a bit more, he shared the very last line from A.A. Milne’s “The House at Pooh Corner” which reads:

“Wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted

place on the top of the forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.”

As a streamer who primarily creates gaming content, this really resonated with me. Oftentimes, I don’t carve out time for play outside of my stream days. It’s hard to feel the desire to boot up a game when it’s such a huge part of what I do for a living, especially when I often turn on “streamer brain” when I’m playing anything. This is something that I struggled with a lot more when I was a full-time streamer (primarily during COVID lockdown), but it still affects me now as a full-time employee who works heavily in the tech space. Hearing Gabor’s thoughts on this made me shift perspectives and reconsider how I define gaming while I’m “offline.”

Watching this TikTok and taking a moment for self-introspection made me realize that I almost forgot why I started this journey to begin with—I chose to give streaming a try because I love to play. I didn’t start to play (and love it) because I wanted to stream.

Does streaming sometimes feel more like a job than a fun hobby? Sure it does, especially when I’m planning an event stream or doing a collaborative stream with guests, where my attention is more divided than usual and my social battery may drain quicker. Burnout is very real within creative spaces, especially if you work hard but don’t also “play” hard—I think that as long as you create a sense of balance between being in “streamer mode” and enjoying your own company through play, you’ll see offline gaming in a whole new light and gravitate towards it more often. 

Reflecting on Gabor’s thoughts as I wrote this piece made me remember some advice that my sister shared with me when I was a high schooler in the throws of college applications, advice that I continue to share (especially with my creative friends) to this day:

“If you do what you love, you’ll love what you do.”

While this quote is aimed towards the concept of career choices and the impact that what you choose to do for a living can have on your senses of passion and work ethic, it ties into this scenario on a different level. If you play games you enjoy on stream, you’ll love playing them more than playing games you wouldn’t normally play. Why not play some of those games during your downtime too, or only play them during your downtime as a treat?

In a similar vein, I find it to be very common for full-time streamers to hesitate about switching over to a more part-time schedule, despite how much more they can invest into their streaming gear while making the most out of the transferable skills that come from being a content creator. As someone who balances a full-time tech role schedule with a 3-day stream schedule, I get this question a lot from creators who are struggling to make ends meet. It’s totally understandable to feel a sense of defeat and a lack of desire to be creative when your life forces you to have priority towards your livelihood and personal comfort. While I understand that it can put more of a workload on you to balance a stream schedule with a 9 to 5 work schedule, I think that the practicality that comes with a non-creative (or less creative) and more structured workspace can boost your creativity and leave you longing for more opportunities to “play.”

Not only do I challenge my mind and become invigorated by the mental stimulation that my day job provides me, but that stimulation motivates me to seek out more creative endeavors and to do things that allow me to clear my mind from “corporate brain.” I’ve even pivoted to hosting co-working and body-doubling streams once a week so I can build community while getting my day-to-day work tasks done.

On even more of a positive note, I’m on a path of financial freedom through a steady streamline of income, compared to when I was a full-time streamer and wasn’t knowledgeable on brand partnerships. Having that relief allows me to use my time and my “spoons” more wisely.

Spoon theory is a metaphor that uses spoons to represent a finite amount of energy that people have to complete tasks, including mental tasks. This theory is commonly used by chronically ill and neurodivergent folks to help them manage their emotional well-being. The spoons provide a visual representation of how much energy someone has throughout the day. We all start the day with the same number of spoons, but each task causes us to hand some spoons over in payment. Some tasks cost more spoons than others, so it’s important to practice mindfulness!

Regardless of how old you are and what inspired you to start streaming or creating content, make sure you allow yourself to embrace the need for play outside of your stream schedule and daily routines. Keep some games to yourself for when you’re offline so you can have that “you” time. Just as we make time for our work tasks and throw them on our calendars, creating calendar blocks for fun activities will hold you accountable and help you manage your time better. Build that LEGO set, play that board game with your family, hop on Discord with friends and get some dubs on Fortnite. If you haven’t considered creating lifestyle content, that can be a creative avenue you can indulge in that allows you to play while you work.

Whatever allows you to creatively express yourself and to embrace that “little one” that lives within all of us, even when you’re old and grey, make sure to always find your way back to your enchanted place on top of the forest.

Remember to do things that spark joy and spread your light wherever you go.