Hunter Wild - Twitch : Guiding the Streaming Community with StreamerSquare
Between streaming on Twitch, being an activist, and running his company StreamerSquare, it’s amazing Hunter Wild has time to breathe. At the age of 19 Hunter left his career as a fine artist to start his own game development studio, study environmental philosophy, and eventually launch one of the most successful brands Twitch has ever seen. After that, he co-founded StreamerSquare in an effort to give back to the streaming community and guide those who want to bring their content creation game to the next level. I had an incredible hour and a half-long discussion with Hunter about streaming, philosophy, and the future. Check it out below.
Hunter Wild’s Logo
“It’s not about pushing through that content as quickly as possible, it’s about getting into the meat of the game as quickly as I can, and being able to show that to the audience in the community.”
Vinny - How did you get into streaming and how did you start out on Twitch?
Hunter - I was a career painter of fine arts before I started streaming. During that time, I would paint for ten to sixteen hours a day, seven days a week, and then I would take a week, three weeks, or a month off. As I would ease out of painting, I usually found myself playing video games. They became a vehicle for my release and relaxation from a year straight of painting.
During one of these breaks, I stumbled onto Hearthstone Beta. As a kid, when I was in middle school, I played Magic: The Gathering a lot and loved it. I didn't know anything about the professional scene but when I was introduced to Hearthstone, I immediately started hearing about people who were doing this as a career, notably on YouTube.
I wanted to find out everything that I could about Hearthstone because I only had this little window to be able to play the game before I'd go back into painting. So I went on YouTube, found a couple of people who were doing all of these really intense, game-changing plays, and every once in a while, one of them would say, "And if you want to see this live, come check out my Twitch channel." I thought… "That's the weirdest name." Who names something Twitch?
Eventually, I decided to take that leap, click on a link, and check out the website to watch one of their streams. I was immediately enthralled by what that experience was like. Seeing the anxiety and the sweating during those clutch moments was incredible to watch.
As I got to know these communities, I realized these places are vibrant and rich, and I had made friends. I found that the rest of my day was just lighter. I felt more connected to everything I was doing. I felt more excited to have the next day start because it would start with this really beautiful experience.
At that point, I set a plan into motion. On a flight home from vacation, I built an entire business and brand for becoming a variety streamer. Five months later, I was partnered the night before the exact day that I wanted to get partnered for a big event. That was October 2014. It’s been six and a half years of glorious, beautiful, community-oriented joy. 12,000+ hours, I think, of streaming.
Vinny - What would you say was your greatest strength that helped you gain traction and followers over time? It’s always hard starting something new, and here you are six years later still doing what you started. What were you doing that other people weren't doing, that helped bring you to this point?
Hunter - As you may have noticed, I don't shut up, and as a content creator, that can be incredibly valuable. I just roll. This isn't how I operate in social circles, or in one on one settings or in group conversations, I tend to be very reserved and quiet and speak when I have something important to contribute, but there's something that happens for this online persona and performance.
It's not not me. It's authentically me, but it's a different version of me. It's this particular outlet, where I get to flow and roll with everything going on. My brain does not ever shut off and keeps going with these ideas that are all connected. Boom, boom, boom.
This made speaking to an empty room when you start streaming, very easy because I'm entertaining myself. I also have experience as a game developer, too, so that provided some context for speaking to what I was seeing and experiencing.
Something that I definitely cannot recommend, but that I did, was 13 to 16 hours of streaming every day. I wasn't taking days off. I was just streaming. It was really bizarre with my sleep schedule too because I went around the clock for two full days. Every day, the start time was at a different time, the end time was at a different time. I went around the clock for two months of just streaming.
Vinny - How do you curate a Twitch stream? How do you choose the games that you're playing?
Hunter - I have a lot of gaming interests, there’s no shortage of games that I would enjoy and appreciate myself. I assume, just like any streamer, you're going to be presenting and creating the most enjoyable content when it's something that you're loving and engaging with. Everybody loves seeing thrills and big reveals. For my own game selection, initially, it was games that I'd never played before that I was terrified about, like Dark Souls.
Something that I put into a lot of my gameplays is either setting bizarre challenges for myself or setting it on the hardest difficulty. Not because I'm good at it, but because I really love the challenge. I'm not clean-sweeping something on the hardest difficulty, just getting to the endgame in one day. It's a challenge, but it's one that I really enjoy. Because of that, I think I've cultivated a community that also enjoys seeing that happen. A big focus for my content now and for the last couple of years, is on what I call “launch events”. When a game is dropping fresh, I start back-to-back 12-hour streams, for three days in a row.
It’s not about pushing through that content as quickly as possible, it’s about getting into the meat of the game as quickly as I can, and being able to show that to the audience in the community. I'm loving every second of it. I know that I'm going to enjoy this style of game, so I might as well put it on and then go absolutely HAM.
A clip from Hunter’s Youtube channel showing a live-stream of him playing Chivalry 2
Vinny - How do you manage your time? Do you have any daily rituals?
Hunter - Therapy, and as comical as that answer is, it's very true. Therapy has helped me considerably through, from the tail end of 2019 up to 2021. There have been a lot of books that I've read that have totally changed the game. One, in particular, is called The ONE Thing, it’s about prioritization, structure, and value. Regarding rituals, I have something I call “habit stacks” (that’s not a term that I invented). Grouping certain habits together in different parts of my day, helped me orient myself toward the day, get into the mood, keep my eye on the prize, and keep my vision fresh in my mind. The most important start of my daily habit stack is morning pages, which is a free flow, three-page, handwritten journal entry. Absolute God-tier. I cannot do without that.
This particular structure is exactly what I need. My mind is fresh. I just came out of the dream state, I haven't looked at Twitter, I haven't talked to anybody. I'm just flowing with whatever comes into mind. That gets something that's been bubbling up in here in the subconscious, onto process through language and onto the page. It somehow becomes concrete and it feels resolved to some extent.
Meditation gives me awareness and clears my mind for what else is to come for the day. After meditation, I have a bullet journal where there are seven questions that I answer every morning. I look at my schedule, I look at my tasks, and I do goal reviews for the week and for the month. That is necessary for any amount of time and project management and prioritization.
Vinny - What are those seven questions? Do you write new questions every day, or are they some predetermined bullet journal?
Hunter - I created the set of questions from research. I love to research. There’s this wonderment that draws me into, "Tell me more. I must find a competing argument to this and then look at all the stuff that I can."
The first one is a focus. What's my focus for the day? The second one is how I feel and how I think that's either going to impact my day, or what I should do with it and about it. Am I encouraged?
Am I feeling motivated and full of life? Or is today an anxiety day and I'm feeling kind of down? How can I be proactive with the emotional state that I'm just feeling?
This helps me orient the entire day into regret, what I regret about yesterday, and then what was good about yesterday. I usually try and pair those together, like some positive value that's paired with the thing that was really crappy.
Next, I’ll think of one person to reach out to today and make a connection with, and it's usually not somebody new. It might be a peer that I haven't talked to in a few months. The last one is the one thing. If there's one thing that I need to do today, such that by doing it, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary, what would that one thing be? Boom.
Vinny - What brought you to studying environmental philosophy and how does that interplay with your streaming career?
Hunter - When I first started out in college, I completely failed out. Literally every class. I was not built for it. So I took some time off and I started up this game development company.
After doing that for four years I realized that I needed a big change in my life and eventually I felt like I was probably ready for university. Initially, I wanted to study business and psychology, and pair those in together. That morphed into psychology and philosophy, and then philosophy by itself. I looked at a bunch of universities. The list was restricted by what region they were in and whether or not I would like the weather, literally the determining factor. There was one, in particular, that was top in the list in the Netherlands, for environmental philosophy.
I had practiced shamanism for my personal spiritual life and I felt that kind of aggravation that I think a lot of people do currently, and did previously. Back in the olden days when I was going to university, there was a poisoning of this natural gift, of this beautiful, singular world that we had. I didn't really know what to do about it.
I didn't know how to conceptualize it. I just felt angry and agitated and frustrated. My brain wasn't really going in any healthy and positive directions with what to do, so that frustration turned into, “what if I just learned about all of these underpinning qualities that make us think about the natural world in a certain way?”.
It’s important to challenge our assumptions about how to treat an ecosystem, or how to conceive of other life. That lead to the direction of, I want to build this into a sustainable business. I want my businesses to be infused with purpose and reason.
What are our values? How can I explain that to somebody and really get somebody feeling connected to why this business, why we are the way that we are? That was a large part of what drew me into environmental philosophy. I was so enthralled with it that I literally have enough credit hours, specifically in that degree, in that department to have almost two full bachelors in environmental philosophy.
Now, how does it impact my streaming? Through activism. I've engaged with some charitable organizations for environmental activism and education. It's all about that dialogue for me. In the middle of a fight in some game, I will be going on about some environmental ethical quandary.
Philosophy, broadly speaking, is infused in almost everything that I do as a streamer and a small business owner, everything from considering how I want to roll out a particular launch event because of what values I have infused into the business and how I need certain connections to be made with the community, and why that stuff matters and what that's building to… A lot of that comes out of the philosophical thinking that comes from that training.
“If it feels like it's a lot of work to create it, and you're not feeling fulfilled and enriched by that input into those platforms, then you're probably also not creating the best possible content for those platforms.”
Vinny - Who's your favorite philosopher?
Hunter - Nietzsche. I am what I consider to be a deathbed existentialist, which means that I want to live my life in a way that would prevent me from regretting that lived life on the deathbed. If I were sitting there on the deathbed; what would I be regretting? What would I wish that I had done today, that can change what that deathbed perspective is going to be like, which is morbid for a lot of people, but for me, it's really exciting, I have control over that.
I can make choices that are going to determine that outcome. Nietzsche is a nihilist, the originator of a certain nihilistic approach, but in a very healthy and positive way. Not “nothing matters” and all values are out the window, but if you can define your own values from scratch, what does your life look like? You have that freedom. You have that creative control over the artwork in the tapestry of your life.
Vinny - How do you approach being active on other social platforms and using them to feed into your Twitch stream?
Hunter - That’s something that we, at Streamer Square, come back to again and again. It's a very valuable consideration and subject. As these platforms grow and shift, and change their policies and technological affordances, what opportunities remain existing? It's such a fast-paced industry in so many respects.
For me, a lot of this comes back to which platforms are best with who you are, which is such an ambiguous statement to make. You should probably avoid any platform that doesn't give you energy back. If it feels like it's a lot of work to create it, and you're not feeling fulfilled and enriched by that input into those platforms, then you're probably also not creating the best possible content for those platforms.
You have to prioritize and figure out where you're going to expend your energy and where you're going to get the most bang for your buck. A lot of that is definitely about what each platform affords you. Particularly as an individual content creator, I don't have a draw to make TikTok-style content. That to me is not something that I create. I have, fortunately, people who work with me, who help me make that content because they know what they're doing. They know how to convert my personality into that kind of content.
If you can figure out the thing that absolutely just jives with you, when you're vibing with one platform's mode of engagement, that's how you will over time, build the right audience for your style of content. That's the critical piece.
It's not trying to appease an existing audience out there, and reformat your content to fit what they want. It's about creating the things that you're passionate about and letting the right people find that so that they're passionate about it, too.
Hunter pictured here at a conference meet & greet
Vinny - What do you think is the best way to reach out to people and create fan engagement?
Hunter - I have found that it has shifted several times over my career, and is somewhat related to mental health. Certain platforms don't work well with my anxiety. For instance, I will have these moments on Twitter, where for a year straight, I'm slamming out tweets all over the place and putting out videos on there, marketing my brand as one does. Then for six months, I'll tweet twice a week, whisper into the void a little bit here and a little bit there. I believe fluidity should be permissible. I have to have forgiveness for myself, instead of beating myself up about, "Oh, I'm not always performing." That “always on” mentality is very hazardous. I've reshaped this perspective for myself repeatedly over the years, as well as that engagement.
Patreon, for me, is one of the big ones. It's not a social media platform, but it operates in a way that can flow like one. Discoverability on Patreon itself, that's a giant question mark. It's about pulling from other places into Patreon. Likewise, with Twitch, discoverability on Twitch is very challenging. Where can you put that content and that voice out into the world that draws the right people into these other platforms?
Oftentimes for me, it's Twitter. That's where it feels the most natural. Instagram? Somewhat. TikTok, I haven't dabbled in at all. Growing the audience, I think is optimally situated when your footprint expands onto at least a couple of other platforms. You're putting out some content on YouTube? Awesome. There's some discoverability there.
Are you advertising that content in your Discord, where you already have an existing community, who love the stuff that you do? Awesome, but how do people find your Discord? Through Twitch? Through YouTube? If you're relying on the YouTube engagement from the Discord, you still have to have a community that's growing in the Discord. A lot of this is, in my opinion, about a trickle that comes from several different spots.
And as long as you have a really healthy and wholesome commitment to your craft, and a passion that fuels the engines of your content creation, you'll be able to hold on to that drive for yourself and showcase that to any potential audience that might be the right fit, and cross-pollinate from one platform to another and have all of it ideally, blending together into being one whole brand.
Vinny - Where do you see the future of streaming going?
Hunter - VTubing, it's the virtualization of a character. Some people have an entire fully fabricated rich model with all of these different expressions, outfits, and props, with a certain technological engagement that allows the camera and software to read what the actual person is doing. It is a really interesting area of content creation that is growing very, very quickly. A lot of people have started VTuber personas for themselves, to get some off-camera time, because apparently, that can be really rich and invigorating by itself. You get to turn off the camera, and you don't have to be presentable, I don't have to put on the makeup to get the dark circles from under my eyes gone. I don't have to worry about, “Am I wearing a really dirty and grungy hat today”? I just get to sit, and as long as I'm expressive, I don't have to care about how I look.
On the audience side of things, it's this really interesting form of engagement. You get to see all of these quirky little animated combinations that pull you in these really weird kinds of circumstances visually, the composition gets really compelling.
There is a lot that is going on with VTubing and a lot of money to be made through those avenues. There are audiences out there who watch nothing but VTubers, whether it's on YouTube or Twitch. More and more broadcasters are moving in that direction, that’s a really fascinating arena.
“That point on the horizon toward which you're aiming is that vision. As you move toward it, keep moving it. It's not a goalpost.”
Vinny - Do you have any advice for aspiring streamers?
Hunter - For aspiring streamers, the absolute biggest concept to focus on and keep in mind and bring to bear on content creation is vision and voice. That point on the horizon toward which you're aiming is that vision. As you move toward it, keep moving it. It's not a goalpost.
It's not meant to be the place that you reach. It's meant to be the place that you're aiming toward. Through the process of getting there, that's when you create the richest, most important connections and content that you can, which I think also requires that inner voice. Know what it is that really drives you. Who do you want to continue to become individually, and also as a content creator?
As a community leader, as somebody who connects the disconnected, merging those two things, blending those in together, and hybridizing that into a really holistic framework for how you engage with these real flesh and blood people to whom you matter, and who have invited you into their lives, and you invite them into yours. That's where I think so many people will feel the most fulfilled.
That's an underpinning quality for feeling a sense of fulfillment. That's when the connection is just second nature. That requires not losing yourself to the grind, not allowing that inner voice to be subsumed under all of these points of comparison to other content creators.
What are they doing that's so successful? I should try and replicate that. A lot of times, it's a matter of presenting something that people didn't necessarily even know that they wanted yet. That's how you really innovate in the field, is truly following that inner voice towards some point on the horizon. It's very challenging. There's nothing easy about it and there are no shortcuts. It is a haul, but it's absolutely worth it.
That one's for the aspiring streamers out there, as well as a plug for Streamer Square, StreamerSquare.com, where for six and a half years now, we have been continuing to elevate Streamers and their careers. Not through shortcuts, not through here's that "With five easy tricks, you too can be making $300,000 as a streamer."
A lot of it is that ability to decide for yourself what approach to take and how to do certain things. We've got a really big, totally top-secret project in the works now, that will be released this year that I definitely cannot talk about, but I'm really, really excited for. I've also been reinvesting in my own artwork again. Streaming has taken so much of my time that I have not been able to work on my art. Patreon has created this really fascinating space for my audience, to invest in the creative engines of my own soul, and get something out of it. I get to create things that people add into their own lives, that they put up on their walls, and that has been one of the most invigorating parts of 2021. I’m so excited about it.
Vinny - You’re the Bob Ross of Twitch.
Hunter - I think Bob Ross is the Bob Ross of Twitch.
Following Hunter Wild on Twitch
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