Streamer Spotlight: Psyche
Space. The final frontier. Where so many gamers have gone before. That’s certainly the case for Irish streamer, Psyche, who recently celebrated 10k followers.
Psyche and her love of space and sci-fi games takes her viewers on incredible, escapist journeys. From Mass Effect, to Elite Dangerous and No Man’s Sky, Psyche is a fan of space adventures, futuristic colonies, and a dash of alien love.
The main aim of her stream, though, is to cultivate the sort of community she grew up with in her local gaming centre – connecting with like-minded gamers. If that’s not possible in person – especially in quarantine – why not recreate it digitally?
Read on as we discuss sci-fi games, trolling the trolls, and her “wholesomely lewd” stream.
When and why did you start streaming?
I started as a hobby in 2014, but started full time streaming in 2016. When I was a teenager there was a gaming centre, almost like an internet cafe but it was specifically dedicated to gaming, that was in my hometown. I used to go there as a teenager and then I eventually worked there for a while. I really loved it because I would sit in a centre with people who all liked games like I did and we would all talk about them and we would play them together. Then I moved away and after that it closed and I missed it so much! I missed having people that I could talk to about games that got me excited. I saw someone streaming and thought you know what, I could do that and I might meet some people who are like me and that would be really nice. So it was kind of just trying to form a community that was similar to what I used to experience.
What games do you prefer to stream?
I’m a variety streamer but I generally come back to space games or sandbox games or story games. Mass Effect was the perfect series for me to stream because it’s a space-story game, plus I play a lot of Elite Dangerous. Some of the games I play the most off-stream are shooter games, but I don’t stream them because I feel I can’t interact with my audience as much because I’m too focused. The games I stream are games where I feel like there’s a lot of room for me to interact with my community, or alternatively games that have an impactful story where people who are watching can get really invested in the outcome. I think that’s always nice, it’s a shared experience.
You play lots of sci-fi games, where did your interest in that come from?
I’ve always been very, very nerdy but I never got into sci-fi as a young person. It took me until my late teens for me to discover Farscape, which became my favourite series. And then I was obsessed with Cowboy Bebop, I really liked the idea of being a bounty hunter in space or a space pirate or something. I always thought to myself I would just love to go to space but I accept that I probably am not going to get to in real life. So games like Elite gave me the chance to go and explore. What’s really cool is it’s an accurate representation in a game of our galaxy. It’s bloody huge! I get the opportunity to see things that, if I had a telescope, I could totally look into the sky and see the thing I was looking at in the game.
What can people expect from your stream?
I will be perfectly honest and say I’m incredibly inappropriate on my stream! I don’t really have a filter. Sometimes people jokingly tell me that I’ve been spilling the tea on stream because I’ll just say something and then I go and take a sip of my coffee and hope that that blows over quickly! I think it works! It’s things like… I really really love aliens in Mass Effect, I’m absolutely head over heels in love with Garrus and I always make jokes about that. We have commands in my chat that are “this character’s super hot” because every character I encounter I try flirting with them. It’s a combination of that and trying to be an inclusive space that is also wholesome. One person described my stream as wholesomely lewd! We try to keep it positive but also mischievous at the same time.
How do you develop and cultivate your community? How important is that to you?
My community is the most important thing to me. Genuinely it’s the reason I do this, I am so grateful for all the people I’ve met. I try and find a way to make everyone feel welcome and I’ve started trying really hard to remember things that people have said so if they come back later I can ask them how it’s going. I really like the idea of a community who are friends with each other and not just the streamer. I don’t like the idea of me as a streamer being in some way above other people. We’re just a bunch of nerds on the internet playing games, you guys are watching and we’re all making jokes about it. It feels to me more like a bunch of people just sitting in a gaming centre, that’s exactly what I wanted from it.
How do you find being an out LGBT streamer?
I’ve been pretty lucky. It’s weird I was out on Twitch before my family knew, because I’m bisexual but I have been in a straight presenting relationship for a very long time. We met when I went to that gaming centre. I was always very out on Twitch and talked about it a lot. Generally speaking I’ve got a really positive reaction from people, especially with people coming in from the Rainbow Arcade team or the LGBTQIA tag who share with me they just came out to their family and it went really well, or they just came out and it didn’t go well and they want some support. It’s meant that it feels like a community experience a little bit more.
Do you have any specific tactics to deal with trolls?
My tactics aren’t very good! My mods will joke that I like to play with my food. I tend to troll people back, but my mods don’t think that’s a good idea! I have a fun story of one person who came in and made some comment about my body on stream and my reaction was to pretend I didn’t understand what they were saying. So they kept rephrasing it over and over again until I couldn’t keep it up anymore and burst out laughing saying I knew exactly what you meant, I just thought this was funny. That person actually subscribed to my stream! I thought that was a really funny interaction.
Is Twitch supportive of the LGBT community in your view?
I certainly think that they could do more. I feel like they’ve made some really great steps in the right direction, but it’s still far too easy for people to troll and target marginalised groups and not really have any reason not to. They have no deterrent. It’s too easy, for example, for people in the naming filter to sneak in names that are blatantly homophobic or racist. The big one for me is I want to see Twitch hold bigger streamers accountable. A lot of the time you see big streamers who have done something inappropriate get a slap on the wrist and that’s it. But I do think on the whole [Twitch] have actually made an effort and I think it is on their radar and they are trying.
What’s your main goal as a streamer for the future?
I’ve always had it in the back of my mind that if I can brighten one person’s day just a little bit, I feel like I’ve been successful. I know that I personally would’ve benefitted from that kind of interaction and positivity in my life at various points. That, but also growing in a way that allows me to reach more people and meet more people but not losing that feeling of just wanting to have an inclusive space where everyone knows everyone and plays games together and we talk about things that we enjoy. I never want to lose that feeling.
What’s the best thing about being a streamer?
I grew up being really nerdy and the school I went to I got badly bullied for being nerdy. I was known as the girl who played games and the girl who was really obsessed with The Matrix – unhealthily obsessed with The Matrix! I just feel like being able to be not only out as an LGBT streamer but also being out and being myself in every regard feels so good. And that’s the best part, feeling like I’m accepted for being who I am and that I can try and make other people feel like that too if they’re part of the community.
What’s the game that defined your childhood/got you into gaming?
The game I started with was Duck Hunt on the original Nintendo and I totally cheated at it – I was five and discovered you could push the light gun up against the TV and then you always hit the ducks! But the game that really defined me was probably Tomb Raider. I really wanted to be Lara Croft. I played pretty much every Tomb Raider game up until they started becoming more modern. It influenced how I used to play outside, I used to pretend to be [her]. I just thought she was so cool. I still think she’s really cool too!
Are you a fan of the recent trilogy?
I like them. They’re not the same but I still enjoy them. I think they went in a good direction. But there’s something really great about the original games. I know she gets a lot of flack for being a very sexualised character but I aspired to be her, I thought she was so awesome, so powerful, such a badass and she was still really beautiful and I thought that was really cool.
What’s your game of the year so far?
My game of the year wasn’t actually released this year but I played it this year: Outer Wilds. It’s a space exploration game but with puzzle solving and interesting quantum mechanics. Not only was it beautiful and really fun to play, but it really touched me and I cried like a baby on stream when I finished it, I really loved it. It was just an incredible experience and I feel like it was an incredible shared experience with the community that watched it.
To find out more about Psyche, catch her streaming on her Twitch channel, Psyche.
Don’t forget you can vote for your Streamer Of The Year at the Gayming Mag Awards right here!
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