Community building

Leona and I gasped as we stared at the views on her Maria Raceway vod.

“It’s over 1000! I’ve never even had a video break 100!” she giddily shouted.

“We can’t rest easy yet. You did gain a few more subscribers and followers on both your Mewtube and Wich channels, but that was likely because you beat Jaime. You’ll have to rely on your own charms and talent in order to keep the momentum going. If you can successfully share your talent, more and more people will learn about you. Though since you have some more followers, why not try tackling a game that recently came out," I stated.

“But what game? I don’t have the money- “

I whipped out my copy of Last Isekai 16.

“Why not try this?”

“But isn’t it really long? I don’t want it to take up all my time.”

“That’s where the schedule comes in. You define your streaming schedule and play or do certain things on each day. Like how you usually stream E-Fortress on Saturdays.”

“I get it. But I’m not playing any other games.”

I then opened up a spreadsheet on my laptop.

“How about this: On Mondays and Thursdays its Last Isekai. Tuesdays can be Pilemen 4 while Wednesdays are Retro. Fridays could be FTP/ online nights, while Saturday can be whatever. Sunday, however, will be Dare challenge and other crazy things.”

“Why Sunday?”

“I’ll admit, I’m taking a page from Valentino on this one, but I think if you dedicate one day specifically to wacky content and dare challenges, it will help.”

“But what if I want to stream the same game two days in a row?”

“The schedule I made was just a hypothetical one. We can change it as you please. You could also do what many streamers do and play multiple games in one stream. Remember how Jaime took a BRB? He stated he was going to play a different game after he came back. Since you stream for 5 hours on average, we should make use of your energy and play multiple games. For today, let’s try starting out with Pilemen before Last Isekai.”

After getting everything set up, Leona began streaming.

“YO! Its your girl Leona! First, thanks and welcome to all the new followers and subscribers! Today, I’ve got a treat for you all. We’re playing two brand new games that were released recently. First up is some Pilemen 4. I’ve never played a game in this series before, but apparently you can jump into this series without needing to play the first three games so let’s go!”

Her viewer numbers had climbed up to 50, and her chat was a bit livelier. Looks like I’d be doing some mod work. The experience was amazing. Leona’s energy brought the game to life.

“Wait, WHAT’S GOING ON!? WHY ARE ALL MY PURPLE PILEMEN DYING!? WHAT! ALL LOST!? UGGH!”

It was an epic fail, but it was moments like those that people enjoyed watching. I immediately clipped the moment. Leona was not the greatest Pilemen player, but she didn’t need to be. All that mattered was that both her and chat were enjoying the experience.

“Wait! Spicy gumdrops!? Is there wasabi in there!? Now I want some wasabi gummies.”

Leona really did have an affinity for wasabi.

“#Wasabimoment,” I typed in the chat.

The other chat members played along, and the chat became filled with “#Wasabimoment”.

“We’ve got a wasabi invasion! Use the power of wasabi to murder that water frog!” Leona roared.

Leona had now gained a meme. Eventually she reached a good stopping point in the game.

“Alright, now I’m gonna take a quick BRB, then its Last Isekai 16.”

As Leona took a break, I stared at the screen. We had been using Wich’s generic BRB screen. It would be nice if we had our own unique title cards, but unfortunately, we both lack the talent to draw them, nor do we have the money to commission someone. However, there could be a way to get some artwork at little to no cost, but we’d be very busy after this stream. Leona returned and began streaming Last Isekai.

“How long is this cutscene chat? It feels like we’re in a movie theater.”

Once she could play the game, Leona got more into the groove of things. However, once she reached a certain side quest in the game, chat got frantic.

“"Don’t do this quest yet! You’ll get rekt!" What’s so bad about it?” she asked.

“NO SPOILERS!” I typed.

Luckily chat got the message, and typed spoiler-free comments.

“I mean, you can try it. But the boss of the quest will destroy you,” one chat member typed.

“Hah! I’ve been cruising through this, let’s see how bad it is!” Leona declared as she began the quest.

The quest itself was fairly easy, however the challenge came at the boss fight. Those devs were some real sadistic bastards.

“Wait is that the boss? It’s just a little red melon guy with a flashlight and a fork. I’ll punt that guy,” Leona confidently declared.

Chat went crazy.

“WAIT! She doesn’t know?”

“Oh boy…”

“Let her cook.”

I knew exactly what was going to happen.

“Hah! Take that! You little shit! Now-WHAT!? WHY IS THUNDER DEAD!? AHH NOW BEUFORT’S DEAD! WHAT THE HELL’S GOING ON! THIS THING IS PUNY! WHY IS IT KILLING ME!?”

Leona looked at the chat as her save reloaded.

“"It’s called a Gourdberry, and they’re infamous for being OP." What the hell is wrong with the devs! That was evil! The quest part was easy, then they stick that monster at the end of it!”

Leona decided to abandon the quest for now in order to level up. She did come back for a revenge match near the end of the stream.

“So, you’re saying this is a timed quest? Well in that case it’s PAYBACK YOU LITTLE SHIT!”

After a few tries, she finally beat the little bastard.

“Never... again! I never want to fight one of those little hellspawns ever again!”

Chat began posting wink emotes, as I cupped my hand over my mouth to contain my giggles. Leona then asked chat if there was anyone to raid.

“Doesn’t look like Jaime’s live, nor is Valentino. Know anyone good?”

As chat began listing names, I tried to scan them as best I could. As long as no one controversial or completely opposite from Leona popped up, we were good.

"How about Astrid?" I typed.

“Astrid? Sure, sounds good,” Leona stated as she initiated the raid.

Astrid was a well-known Swedish Japanese streamer and was very similar to Leona in personality. A good choice to raid.

“We’ve got a raid of 115 comin from Leona. Well time to trigger the counterattack,” Astrid declared as her stream suddenly played a video.

“What’s going on!?” Leona screamed in confusion.

“Relax, many streamers do things like this,” I reassured her.

The meme video ended with a “Thanks for the raid asshole” message. Leona then intently watched Astrid’s stream.

“Wow, this girl’s on the same wavelength as me. We should totally do a collab.”

They probably would hit it off well, but I had no idea if she’d just agree to collab out of the blue.

After watching her stream for an hour, we decided to log off.

“Got to go? Well take care and thanks for the follow, Leona,” Astrid said as she read Leona’s message.

“So, what did you want to do Crowboy?” Leona asked.

“I want to start building up your community. You currently have just a Wich channel, Mewtube channel, and a Lane account, correct?”

“Yep. Are you saying I should get a Zitter or Eyepage account? I’d kind of prefer not to though, those places can be rough.”

I couldn’t blame her. Those places could get extremely toxic at times.

“Don’t worry, you don’t need any of those. While they could help, they aren’t necessary. What I was thinking of was more along the lines of an art Gooroo page for fanart submissions, and maybe your own sub-greennit. Greennit can get toxic, but its far easier to mitigate things there compared to Zitter.”

“Sounds good to me. Though is it free?”

“Yep! They do have premium services, but the free stuff is all you need.”

We then spent the night creating her sub-greennit and Gooroo accounts.

                                                                     ...

A few hours later, Astrid ended her stream and decided to check out Leona’s channel.

“Leona huh? Interesting,” she thought as her grin grew wider.