Have you finished binge-watching “Tiger King” on Netflix? Watched all of your favorites on Disney+? If you’re running out of ideas for things to do as you shelter-in-place, you might consider watching or playing video streams over Twitch.
Twitch is a free video-streaming service targeted to gamers. It includes options to put money toward supporting a streamer and in exchange for original emojis that the streamer creates exclusively for their supporters.
Live streams can run three to four hours and can be re-watched anytime on the streamer’s profile page. My recommendations are “The Dragon Feeney” and DGR Dave’s “Super Mario Maker 2” streams. Both submit 20-30-minute episodes of their best content to YouTube. DGR Dave uploads to YouTube more often than “The Dragon Feeney.”
“The Dragon’s Feeney” streams a playthrough of “Super Mario Maker 2” on Twitch
I recommend watching the “Super Mario Maker 2” streams. The content of each level is forever changing with levels randomly generated and created by other gamers. I follow “The Dragon Feeney” and DGR Dave because they have fantastic personalities and family-friendly content. They both have a variety of shows and post to Twitch Live at least twice a week.
During the streams, viewers can interact with the host as they play through the game. At some point, the host may ask which direction the audience thinks the player should go. The personality of the host has a lot to do with how well their channel is received and the number of viewers it attracts. Each streamer has its level of professionalism.
“The Dragon Feeney” has her variety of content, including no skip challenges in which she cannot skip a level, but instead must keep going until her lives on the board run out. “The Dragon Feeney” also has episodes where she’ll grab a handful of level codes that her community submitted for her to play on during the stream.
DGR Dave is known for running two popular types of episodes: The “Trolled” series and “Stealing Friends’ World-Record Times” series. The “Trolled” series features Dave playing levels in which the creator intentionally makes it appear that the player is going the right route, when they most likely are not. “Troll” leads to hilarious soft locks and forced death zones. “Stealing Friends’ World-Record Times” is a friendly competition where DGR Dave attempts to achieve the lowest finishing time rate among the playing levels of his Twitch friends.
“Super Mario Maker 2” is a game on Nintendo Switch in which levels can be created by anyone with access to the game. There are no-plagiarism and no-offensive-material guidelines that each player must acknowledge before uploading their online game level. The levels are in the form of the original “Super Mario Bros” franchise.
There’s an online section for multiplayer games and for playing other people’s levels that can be randomly generated, selected from a playlist or searched for via level code.
Other games you can consider watching include “Overwatch,” “Minecraft,” “Fortnite” and “Animal Crossing.” Twitch also has an “In Real Life (IRL)” section, for content not related to gaming, in which the viewers can interact with the show hosts. The programs include music and performing arts, sports, crafting, food and beverage and just generic chat content.
