i started watching a twitch streamer seriously for the first time today

(joined their discord and everything)

it's weird in a lot of ways

most noticeably the total gamification and financialization of nearly every aspect of the experience — all lining bezos' pockets, of course

(it's interesting as well that gamification is nearly synonymous with financialization these days)

but it's also unexpectedly wholesome

the person i'm watching plays sort of niche, nerdy puzzle games

today's stream had around a dozen people, solving a sudoku variant that a community member made

but it's someone who's clearly putting in work to get larger

which leads to a sort of interesting community mythmaking

where the identity of the streamer is defined almost entirely by the community around them

and the community itself is very aware of that, suggesting and responding in ways that build the streamer into the sort of person the community wants them to be

i don't know how to feel about it, exactly

but i don't have to, either