SWARMivesary

We casted Barrow Hill last night, the very first game that we ever casted, back when it was called Haley and Kyle Play Adventure Games, and we only planned to play Tuesdays and Thursdays.  That was three years ago.  Wild.  We don’t remember the exact date that we started casting, but we know it was sometime in the beginning of August, so we just celebrate all week with games and events.  Tonight is ‘Cavalcade of Terrible Games with Kyle Challenges.’  It should be fun; the SWARM is pretty creative, though I do fear for my nuts.

It’s a strange thing, casting.  When we started out three years ago, there was no Twitch(hereafter known as Shitch).  We were on Justin.tv in the Gaming channels.  There was only about three pages of us, and we regularly pulled in 15-20 viewers, which would put us in the top five most nights. Then, Shitch budded off and took over the gaming section, shit up everything and somehow managed to attract multiple tens of thousands of viewers and many hundreds of casters.  We don’t webcam, we don’t speedrun, and we don’t play competitive games, so you can usually find us with our 4-11 regular viewers waaaaaaaaaay down in the boonies.

I used to get really discouraged when I would look at other casts and check out their numbers.  Girls with webcams rake in viewers, which, on the internet, is to be expected.  Speedrunners and competitive plays are drowning in viewers, for reasons that I understand, but don’t really get.  Most of those people barely interact at all with their chat, and a number of them don’t even use a mic.  It used to get me really down that Haley and I were trying so hard, and it felt like it didn’t matter. 

Then, I got over it.  We have the SWARM.  We have a really nice, really tight, really fun group of friends now.  Not viewers.  Friends.  Casting isn’t like a job for us.  It’s more like pulling out a couch, bringing a few good friends over and playing games and hanging out.  That’s alright for me.  I like the people we have.  I like that most of them have been coming around for over two years.  I like having a place for all of us weird freaks to gather.  For heaven’s sake, Haley doesn’t even call them by their usernames, she’s on a first name basis with them.  That’s pretty neat, I think. 

It’s now at the point, where a lot of the times, I’d prefer to cast a brand new game than play it by myself.  Playing videogames has turned into a neat social activity for me.  That’s all due to the amazingness of the SWARM.  They make playing video games better.  And, I know a lot of people say that they’re ‘community’ is the best.  They are all wrong.  The SWARM is the best, and that’s a scientific fact.  They’re the best because it’s not just a bunch of people who are fans of the same thing.  They don’t give a shit.  The SWARM is the best because it’s all friends.  We all like each other on our own merits, not because of some stupid internet person. 

Hats off to you, SWARM.  You’re the best thing on the internet.

P.S.  It all started with Haley