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Gaming becomes career in SA
Can one become a professional gamer in South Africa? Julia Robson tells ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK how she did it
The Twitch experience
Twitch is a live streaming gaming platform, playing host to hundreds of thousands of gaming content creators, and streaming hundreds of genres of gaming to a dedicated and involved gaming community.
“Twitch TV started as a platform where gamers could share gaming content live with people interested in seeing a specific genre of games,” says Julia Robson. “Its popularity grew as the popularity of gaming and esports grew. Many streamers became affiliated with high-end brands, which boosted their popularity in the mainstream media. After a while, they were getting to stream to hundreds of thousands of viewers.
“Essentially, it’s a place where like-minded people with gaming interests meet and interact with gaming content creators in real time. It is creating content out of a gaming experience, for anyone from esports personalities to professional players, game devotees, artists, all the way to talk show hosts.”
Many careers are being created on Twitch, says Julia.
“It’s only recently been deemed a platform that has done its part in helping creators get recognised and made a revenue service available to content creators. You can apply to be an affiliate and, depending on your hard work, you can become a partner. Your revenue stream increases as your popularity does.
“I am a Twitch affiliate, a hopeful, as many are. It is a little harder in South Africa to break through, because we are a little more disconnected from the international scene. We have slightly more challenges to face to reach a certain level of popularity, but I have a very loyal fan base of about 8000 followers. We enjoy playing games every second day for about four hours. Anyone who joins my stream can play with me. No matter how long you’ve been on chat, everyone is welcome.”
Click here to read about how high women can go in e-sports.
