Keeping It Alive
In the world of streaming, there are times when your channel grows rapidly, and other times when it hits a plateau.
But if that plateau lasts too long, it almost always becomes the streamer's ceiling.
Now in my third year of streaming, I was feeling that plateau very clearly.
"Hyung, are the views on this video about the same as last time?"
"Yeah. For a channel with 190,000 subscribers, the view count is pretty average."
"But just six months ago, we were getting four times this many views."
"That was because the algorithm was riding high. Right now, you're just in a stabilization phase."
"Couldn't it be a plateau?"
My editor replied with a calm, matter-of-fact tone.
"If it stays like this, then yeah, it's a plateau. But if we work hard to make the videos funnier, or if the algorithm chooses you again, it'll just end up being a temporary stabilization phase."
"...Man, this is tough."
"Hey, you've still maintained a steady upward trend overall. Usually, if you can consistently get views equal to twenty to thirty percent of your subscriber count, you're doing pretty well."
"Hmm... I guess so..."
My current view count was hovering around fifty thousand. Honestly, it didn't feel all that great.
Considering how long-form content was declining in popularity, it might still look decent. But back when my subscriber count was surging six months ago, hitting two hundred thousand views per video was the baseline.
"Sigh... Should I try participating in a streamer tournament or something?"
"That's not a bad idea. Or you could join one of those massive multiplayer servers."
"GTO? Eh, I don't know about that."
"Huh? Why not? It's pretty good."
"I don't even play that game. I'd rather look into Decraft."
"Well... keep GTO in mind anyway. The viewer numbers are huge."
"Got it."
After wrapping up the brief meeting with my editor, I casually searched for 'Vini' like I always did.
Vini was Lee Yebin's streaming name. Every time I searched it, I felt a wave of self-loathing, yet I couldn't stop myself.
The moment she saw me succeed as a streamer, she declared, "If you can do it, so can I!" and jumped right in. In just six months, she hit eighty thousand subscribers.
It was incredibly annoying that she caught up to what took me a year in half the time, but honestly, there wasn't much of a gap between us now.
What do I mean by that?
Ever since my growth rate slowed to a steady, gradual climb, Yebin's growth had mirrored mine. It looked like she had hit a plateau now, too.
Just look at her subscriber count.
While my subscriber count was in the mid-190,000s, hers was in the high 180,000s. And it had barely budged from there.
Knowing Yebin was just slightly below me put me in a great mood. Riding that high, I sent her a message on KokoaTalk.
In response to her immediate, bloodthirsty reply, I sent a teasing emoticon.
She was definitely grinding her teeth right now. You didn't even need to see it to know.
Her sharp insult only made me laugh harder.
How is she still this fun to tease after all these years?
Dumbfounded by my calm retort, Yebin left me on read.
Seeing that she wasn't replying, I flipped my phone over with a deeply satisfied grin.
But at that exact moment, my phone buzzed with a KokoaTalk notification.
I didn't have notifications turned on for many people. Just a few MCN staff, some fellow streamers, my manager, my editor, and my family.
Since my family was all at home, it wouldn't be them... My editor? No, if it were him, he'd usually contact me on Concord, not KokoaTalk.
My manager was out, too. He preferred standard text messages over KokoaTalk.
That left either someone from the MCN or a fellow streamer.
I picked up my phone again and opened the message.
The sender was...
It was Marty hyung.
We had gotten close through collaboration streams. Since we shared the same agency and had similar streaming styles, he was a senior streamer I collaborated with often.
Lumensis was a game heavily inspired by Lethal Company, the famous "scrap-collecting game."
It was a four-player co-op game where you scavenge for valuable scrap in designated areas and haul it back to a bus to make money.
The unique twist was the enemies called "Lumensis," which mimic the players' voices. They trick players by repeating things they've said, which made for great content and made the game a popular choice for collaborations.
Sounds pretty good. A fun collab game like this would definitely draw in viewers and boost video traffic.
Ggumyong was a streamer currently doing a "WGM" concept with Marty hyung.
WGM, short for We Got Married, was essentially a virtual marriage concept where streamers acted like a couple. Since it was just a concept for content, they rarely became actual lovers, but it was highly popular because it gave viewers a taste of secondhand romance.
I fully intended to deliver. Plus, editing the video to make me look like a miserable third wheel stuck between a lovey-dovey couple would make for great content.
One more?
"I think you know her." That phrase sent a sudden chill down my spine.
It sounds a bit dramatic, but my instincts were screaming. Don't ask. Don't let him say it.
But at the end of the day, I was just a small-time streamer compared to Marty hyung. I didn't have the power to stop him. I hated my own weakness.
And once Marty hyung sent his next message, I realized I absolutely should have shut him up.
I knew it.
Just as I was close with Marty hyung, Yebin was famously close with Ggumyong. It was even listed as a major point on her NemuWiki page under "Relationships with Other Streamers."
Since Yebin and I had a tacit agreement to act like complete strangers online, the public believed that the streamer "Dodo" and the streamer "Vini" didn't know each other.
Which was why Marty hyung was introducing her like this.
Was it fine?
Honestly, I didn't care. I just had to swallow my rising anger and disgust for one day of streaming.
But I had absolutely no idea how Yebin would react.
So I immediately messaged her.
A picture is worth a thousand words. I screenshotted my chat with Marty hyung and sent it to her.
A brief silence followed.
That silence perfectly summed up her current state of mind.
After a few moments, Yebin's reply arrived, perfectly mirroring my own feelings.
It was mildly annoying to share the exact same sentiment with her for once, but since it was entirely genuine, all I could do was sigh.
Neither of us had any excuse to decline this collab.
Marty hyung had asked because he knew it was my day off. And Ggumyong had undoubtedly suggested it because she knew Yebin was free too.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Checkmate.
That was the perfect way to describe this.
We had moved past a tacit agreement and reached an explicit contract.
We were strangers. Meeting for the very first time.
But could I really pretend not to know her? And could she pretend not to know me?
No, absolutely not. There was no way.
My entire body was already itching to tease her. Pretending to be strangers was going to be impossible.
I just hoped I could control my instincts during the collab this weekend.
So...
With reactions like that, how could I not tease her? Anyone who could resist that would be a saint, not a human.
And if not, well, whatever.