Streamer Spotlight: Casey Explosion
Perhaps the most chilled and relaxed streamer on Twitch, Casey Explosion streams as a sloth fursona. Yet behind that, she’s a streamer who can somehow keep her cool playing some of the most difficult titles, from Sekiro to Celeste!
She’s also a strong advocate for the trans community on Twitch, frequently supporting smaller up-and-coming streamers and taking part in charity events both on her own stream and as part of the Transmission Gaming team.
Plus, with a focus on indie titles, Casey has a TONNE of excellent game recommendations! Read on to find out more…
When and why did you start streaming?
It was a few years back and friends were suggesting I should start streaming. I gave it a go and found myself burnt out very quickly. I definitely felt the need to try and be “on” all the time and I found it very exhausting. A lot of the streaming content at the time was very angry, the sort of angry ranty type of thing. I couldn’t possibly keep up with any of that, I couldn’t feign the excitement. After that initial burnout I was thinking I would be the change that I wanted to see, be the kind of content creator that I wanted to watch – something more relaxing, more chilled out and that isn’t overly aggressive or overly exaggerated. I think that’s helped me a lot because I could be a little more natural. I really got a kick up the butt last year when I helped out on the Hbomberguy Donkey Kong stream. That got me a lot of attention, I was able to really kick start my own streaming.
How do you create that chilled vibe?
Even with some of the games that I play, people say I’m still very relaxed even when I’m playing the most horrific, stressful games. For example, I was streaming Sekiro and people were amazed that I was able to keep cool. For me, I found that sort of gameplay very relaxing in the first place, that feeling of practicing over and over again until I got it right. It had a very almost zen-like quality to the gameplay where I was just totally focused and relaxed in doing it.
What games do you prefer to stream?
I would say that my focus is generally on the smaller titles. A lot of indie games, a lot of AA titles, the mid tier. Basically what I won’t stream are games that I find morally objectionable with how they implement a lot of predatory monetisation, I’m very against that. Games with loot boxes and storefronts that push that FOMO on the players. I find them morally and ethically objectionable. I refuse to stream anything like that. That cuts out a huge chunk of modern AAA titles right away. So basically anything but those. To be more specific, things I’ve streamed in the past: Hades, Shipbreaker, Celeste, Darkest Dungeon. I tend to enjoy some of the harder titles, I like a good challenge!
You stream as a sloth fursona, what’s the decision behind that?
Since I first started streaming and burnt out, and when I picked it back up again I got the fursona. I think that is something that helped me quite a lot with having a very strong persona that’s very identifiable. The sloth fursona was a great help because people I suppose were primed to expect something a little more chilled, more relaxed, not quite as overly excited, or anything like that. I’m a firm believer in the idea that we are who we pretend to be. So the sloth is kind of me and kind of not me. It’s something that I’m communicating about myself. For a lot of furries in general, a fursona tells you something about the person, something they want to project outwardly and communicate. I’m somebody who suffers from chronic fatigue and pain, but people don’t mind if I’m a little out of it, if I get tired and I have to stop as it’s on-brand then. It takes something that is quite true about me and plays it up in a fun way.
What can people expect from your stream?
A nice welcoming community. Something that I try to do is provide somewhere that is quite explicitly LGBT friendly and where you don’t have to worry about the sort of angry aggressive gamer who might be prone to using gamer words or have a heated gamer moment. Something that is chill and isn’t going to be in any way hostile.
How do you find being an out LGBTQ+ streamer?
Generally very positive I find. I don’t really get much aggro on Twitch, but that’s probably because my baseline is Twitter. I have quite a large following on Twitter and I think that’s where the hostility and the aggression can be focused. Compared to some of the crap that I get on Twitter, Twitch is a much more relaxed, lower-key, kind of space for me. I’m very lucky that I seem to have a very nice audience, lots of wonderful people who show up regularly to the stream. It’s just lovely!
You’re a member of the Transmission Gaming team, how has that helped you as a streamer?
They’re a lovely bunch and regularly will do charity marathons for say, Trans Lifeline in the US. I’ve done a few charity streams over the last two years, but with them specifically I’ve been involved in some of their charity marathons. They’ll have an entire weekend and each streamer will get an allotted time. I don’t consider so much what they’ve done for me but rather what I can do to help the wider trans community.
So how does your stream support the wider trans community?
I think in the immediate sense it can be a place for them to chill and relax. I’m loathe to use the word safe space because it’s never going to be guaranteed to be 100% safe with regards to who can pop up in the chat, it’s live. But to provide a place where people can relax and chill and be themselves. There are a lot of other smaller trans streamers who are getting their footing who I’ve been helping out. I do a lot of shoutouts for other streamers and raids, I’ll send my audience over to their channels when I’m finished. Helping out others, guesting on their streams. If they’re running charity streams for a cause that’s important to them I’ll help out there, signal boosting. There are a lot of people who are getting a good start in streaming that I always try to give a helping hand to.
Do you feel a trans tag would be beneficial?
I don’t know because…some trans streamers do get quite a lot of hatred and harassment and I would worry that is something that could be used as a vector for harassment. It’ll depend on how Twitch itself will do in terms of moderation, are they going to have better tools and things like that to deal with any further harassment that might happen as a result of that tag?
What’s the best thing about being a streamer?
Being able to make a difference in some people’s lives directly has been a huge thing for me, because I wasn’t sure if this was something that I would really be able to do so much at all. I originally wanted to do some YouTube videos and didn’t really consider Twitch being the main focus. I completely got overwhelmed with trying to edit and create YouTube videos, going through the scripting and recording. I found I was way over anxious with it. I found doing live stuff instead of pre-recorded suited me a lot better. I don’t think that’s something that, had I gone the YouTube route, I don’t think I could’ve been as helpful to other people in terms of doing charity streams and fundraising. Earlier this year I raised $11,111.11, this fantastic number I was extremely proud of, for our national LGBTQIA+ charity here in Ireland called BeLonG To, our national youth charity. I was very happy I was able to do that. I find live streaming is very conductive to that.
What advice would you give to gaymers wanting to start streaming?
Whenever I’m talking to other people when they’re starting streams something I advise them on is: don’t feel like you have to be constantly monetising what you do to relax, what you do as a hobby, what you do to wind down. These are very important things. My biggest piece of advice would be: keep certain games to yourself, ones that you don’t stream, that you don’t feel if you’re playing you think “damn I should be streaming this”.
What’s the game that defined your childhood/got you into gaming?
When I was first getting into gaming my first computer – people are surprised to know how old I am, I’m ancient, one of those vintage millennials born in the 80s! – my first gaming machine was an Amiga 600. I played a lot of games on that, the likes of Syndicate from Bullfrog Software, Cannon Fodder, Turrican 2. Those kinds of games were a big deal to me. I liked the strategy focus, they’re a little more involved than the other games I was playing at the time. There were a lot of games on the Amiga specifically, games like Zool and Super Frog that I played, they didn’t have that same draw as when I got into Syndicate. I would play that game constantly over and over again.
What’s your game of the year so far?
That’s a tough question because there’ve been so many games this year that have come out and been positively phenomenal. There was a great start to the year with Lair of the Clockwork God, a little indie title that is fantastic, very mechanically inventive. There were a lot of turn-based tactics games that came out this year. XCOM: Chimera Squad, a nice little surprise nobody was expecting. Gears Tactics, that was phenomenal. That was a huge surprise, something they need to do more of – take one IP and turn it into a tactics game and see what happens. THQ Nordic got the license for the Desperados franchise and immediately put the Shadow Tactics people behind Desperados 3 and it was fan-fricking-tastic, such a good game. TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children is another turn-based strategy that I was absolutely impressed as hell with, it’s an anime XCOM made by this small South Korean developer, it’s got a great Sunday morning cartoon vibe to it. Vigil: The Longest Night, it’s that melding of metroidvania and Dark Souls that seems to work really well. Monster Train… Shipbreaker…Cloudpunk…of course Hades…Curse of the Dead Gods… It would be very hard for me to say what’s my game of the year! There are probably dozens! Control came out last year but only got released on Steam this year, so let’s pretend that counts and I’ll say Control!
To find out more about Casey Explosion, catch her streaming on her Twitch channel.
Streamer Spotlight is a weekly column from Ed Nightingale about highlighting LGBT+ streamers who are creating communities that are diverse and progressive.
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