Indieview #4: Ashewyn, Streamer
Welcome to the fourth week of Indieview! Indieview is an interview series with a special guest who works on personal or business projects related to games, whether they’re an artist, a composer, a streamer, a writer, or otherwise.
This week, I’m joined by Lynn, who might better be known be her screenname, Ashewyn. Ashewyn is a Sweden-based streamer who you can regularly find on Twitch, where she plays pretty much anything that she wants to! Ashewyn is also a great voice in talking about mental health, and how it’s important to balance that with streaming.
Mitch: What do you think, Ashe? Would you say that’s right?
Ashe: That’s a really nice take on what I do, everyone views it a little differently. Yes, mental health is very important to me, when someone walks into my community not only do I want them to feel welcome, safe, accepted, but I want them to feel like they’re in a support structure that can help them on a day-to-day basis.
Be it with just entertainment that makes your day just a little brighter, or talking about the topics that really matter. I’m always making sure my community takes care of themselves first. Aside from that…I love challenging myself with games and speedrun Dark Souls on the side. Did I tell you I also cook on stream and sometimes build IKEA furniture too?
Mitch: Are those cooking lessons, by any chance? I need them! Okay, so here’s an easy one! How did you get into streaming?
Ashe: Yes, I love teaching people how to make new foods! Just don’t take the cursed mountain dew recipes we watch on stream seriously. As for how I got into streaming, I became aware of justin.tv back in 2009 but didn’t start frequenting Twitch until I actively watched League of Legend championships in 2013. Back then I just graduated from college, and a viable streaming computer and internet connection wasn’t as easy to come by as it is today, so my dreams to become a fledgling league of legends streamer was just never going to happen! In 2017, I found myself in a dip in my life where I felt I was hitting blocks in my personal growth and was feeling quite isolated after a big move (I’ve moved a lot in my life).
This time, I had the means to stream, and while yes a part of me was satiating my curiosity of whether I could make it on Twitch, my goal was to challenge myself and grow as a person. I wanted to put my character to the test, I wanted to grow more confident, more capable of dealing with hard situations, I wanted to form a good sense of discipline, and I wanted something to build and grow with. It was the perfect thing, and oh boy have I come a long way. And while it changed my life, I stay for the people and I missed everyone so much when I took time away to focus on my career.
Mitch: I haven’t known you since the start of your streaming career, but I’m happy to hear that it’s had such a positive impact on you. Now, a not so easy question! What’s the key to maintaining a lovely community? It’s something I’ve always noticed about yours. Is it the custom emotes? It is, isn’t it?
Ashe: C’mon Mitch, it’s why you stayed isn’t it? I mean look at them, they kind of peer into your soul a little bit and convince you to stay don’t they? Haha. I think it’s because I stay true to myself and my values, and I extend that to my community. I am someone who is unwilling to compromise what makes me feel comfortable for the sake of entertainment, and that is not to go to say anything about people that I do. I just value authenticity, warmth and most of all respect. I like to think I attract people who want a place like that to belong to.
Mitch: Having been in the chatroom in a few of your streams, people always say hello to me! It’s always so lovely, hahaha! You’ve spoken about mental health several times, and I want to say thank you for doing so. It’s inspirational, and personally has helped me, too. What tips do you have for streamers who might be struggling to balance streaming regularly with their mental health?
Ashe: Anything to make people feel that they can conquer their struggles! It’s not a fight we have to do alone. The biggest tip I can give to anyone streaming: you don’t have to be online (streaming) around the block, every day of the week. While streaming has it’s thrills, it’s easy to get swept away and burned out before you know it. Games become unappealing, going live becomes a chore, you feel incredibly tired after streams. Streamers often feel that they need to be on otherwise they become irrelevant and viewers will find the next big channel.
And while there is truth to that, our content can become worse if we wear ourselves thin trying to hold on to what we have built. I recommend a healthy 3–4 days a week streaming (for fulltime streamers), and using the remainder of the days to create evergreen content that helps you pull those viewers in even when you’re offline. Streaming is essentially about you and is an extension of yourself. If you are unwell, it’s likely the health of your stream will be too. Take mental health days, and more importantly mini vacations! Streamers deserve vacations too.
Mitch: Describing streaming as an extension yourself is a really good way to put it. I hope that more streamers are able to find that balance. What games would you recommend that tackle the topic of mental health well?
Ashe: Oh, another hard question! I think you and I had a good conversation about how any game can have significant meaning and impact. We definitely like to identify with the games that we play and take inspiration from fictional characters.
That being said, games that tackle mental health topics:
My personal favorite- Night in the Woods. One of the most moving games I’ve ever played, you’ll find yourself relating to the characters in this game. It’s about a girl called Mae who drops out of college when she begins to feel disconnected with life and the people around her. She returns home in hopes to find herself again. It highlights how life is not linear, and no one is perfect. And in that imperfection, we can find peace and acceptance if we truly search for it.
Celeste: a girl called Madeline finds herself taking a trip to climb the great mountain, Celeste. On this journey, Madeline hopes to conquer her inner demons, and inner demons does she face. It’s a beautiful journey where you really feel the weight of the climb alongside Madeline, both in the increasing difficulty of the game, and the narrative.
And while there are so many other great mental health games out there, these ones are my favorite, as the characters are incredibly human and relatable, and you can almost feel yourself work your issues out alongside them.
Mitch: We did! That conversation inspired this question. Celeste is great! Night in the Woods is a game I’ve been meaning to get to for ages — I’m sorry! You used to want to be a doctor, and you support Doctors Without Borders as a Humble Partner, which I think is brilliant. Could you tell me more about that, please?
Ashe: Well now you have one more game for your backlog, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Since I could remember, I had this desire to be a doctor. I think it’s a mix of my nature and growing up watching a whole lot of ER/doctor shows! I always thought those dreams would pan out, I even went for the whole pre-med track in college, sadly things didn’t pan out for a whole host of reasons. I found myself getting invested in humanitarian efforts, especially while being attuned to the state of the world and becoming increasingly aware of those who don’t have access to the basics that we do, to survive.
It’s sad to see people still die of issues that we don’t even think about anymore in first world countries anymore. Doctors Without Borders is one of the few humanitarian organizations that I believe act impartially, and make sure anyone in need receives help, even in the midst of strife. While my dream is to one day be out there helping on the frontlines, the least I can do is make sure to support them from afar!
Humble Bundle is a digital storefront that allows you, the purchaser, to choose how to distribute the funds of your buy between developers and charities. As a Humble partner, I set my charity of choice as Doctors without Borders, all purchases that are made through my links will go to support them at no expense to the buyer! It’s really a win-win situation!
Mitch: What’s next in the story of Ashewyn? What are your hopes for the next year? (maybe 2021 too, as 2020 is, uh, yeah…)
Ashe: I’m really enjoying full-time streaming and for the foreseeable future I’ll be most likely putting all my energy into it. Have I mentioned I want a room dedicated for streaming? On a personal level, I can’t wait until 2021, hopefully the world is in a better state and I can travel and see friends again! I had so many plans to attend events all over the world this year, and go to many concerts.
Mitch: Ooh, I wouldn’t mind a room like that myself. And, you know, to actually stream. But this isn’t about me, its about you! Five of your favourite games. Go!
Ashe: Maybe you should play your five favorite on streams then! Also, do you know that you have a knack for asking me very difficult questions? Off the top of my head… ICO, Devil May Cry 3, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Yakuza 0, and Dark Souls. Mitch, why only 5?
Special Mention: Return of the Obra Dinn- beautiful deduction game that has you solving the mystery of what happened to all of the passengers of the ship, Obra Dinn.
Mitch: Why only 5? It’s the rules. I don’t make them. All of those games are ace, and Devil May Cry 3 tends to get in my top ten, haha. Back to emotes… your custom emotes are great! Tell me about them!
Ashe: Aww shucks, thank you! Emotes are actually extremely hard to make. You either follow the trend of upcoming and popular emotes or you look towards inspiration for your interests. I base my emotes on my personality and how I express myself as a person! I find that makes for really interesting emotes and it’s easier for me to conceptualize with an artist. I pick some of my dominant traits like being cheeky, stubborn and goofy, visualize what those emotions would look like, and there you go. I then have a huge reveal stream where I show people how to best use the emotes, and we all kind of meme with them. It’s great when you can expand how many ways people utilize them, and when people can truly feel that they are “so ashe”.
Mitch: What games are you looking to stream in the near future?
Ashe: I’ve been on a huge Zelda dive. I missed out on the chance to experience this series growing up, aside from the N64 titles, and now I get to correct this! You have no idea how many would envy the chance to wipe their memories regarding these games and experience them for the first time. Plus some members of my community are playing these titles along with me? It’s amazing. Right now we’re on Wind Waker and we might dive into Breath of the Wild, Minish Cap or Twilight Princess next. I love the darker titles. Other than that, I’ve never played a single Final Fantasy game, so I’m considering FF7R!
Mitch: You should definitely give FF7R a go! It’s so good, Ashe. So good. That might be a PS4 exclusive right now, but what equipment do you use for streaming? I know you recently got a new PC!
Ashe: Oh boy, my new computer. I’m still over the moon about it. I have pretty much everything a well set up streamer has. My favorite pieces have to be my Shure 55SH mic (the classic Elvis mic), my Elgato stream deck, and a ring light. As for my computer, my community supported me in making this computer build possible: Asus X570 plus, Asus 2070 RTX, and Ryzen 3900x. I had a blast putting it together on stream.
Mitch: What advice would you give to people looking to get into streaming? Don’t worry, I’m just taking notes…
Ashe: There is no one size fits all approach to what streaming should be for you. Don’t try to 1:1 copy others, everyone streams for different reasons, and what works for someone doesn’t work for someone else.. like streaming with cam on. Identify if you’re streaming as a hobby or to grow a channel, and start visiting other people. Watch as many streamers as you can and see how they do things, and make your own adjustments. You are a unique individual, focus on your strengths and what you can bring to this wide world and just roll with it! It all comes with time. My discord has a very friendly channel for those that want to ask streaming related questions, I recommend finding these types of places and just asking questions. Most importantly, if you start streaming, please never tolerate a viewer that crosses your boundaries, especially if they are your only viewer. Respect yourself first and foremost!
Mitch: Before we start wrapping up, I need to know something, Ashe. What is the story behind your Donald Duck plush?!
Ashe: Haha, oh my. It’s no Donald Duck plush… here let me give you the full image. This hideous, yet lovable duck is from my childhood. I was a very quiet child that never asked for anything, my parents had bought this plush as a gift to my cousin. It was nothing pretty or even remotely desirable, but once I laid my eyes on it, nothing could stop me from having it. So I blurted out “Billy!”, despite its obvious feminine appearances, and begged my parents for it. We were pretty inseparable from that point onwards. Last year when I visited my family home, I stumbled across Billy again, and I snapped a photo of her. A friend and I joked about what a fantastic look Billy has and how that would make for a perfect emote. Now Billy sits comfortably in my tier 3 slot, to all who wish to embrace her, and quite a few do which makes little Ashe very happy.
Mitch: I love that story, and darn I want that emote. I hope Billy will always be well loved, as all plushies should be! Where can people follow you and your work? (I want to note here that Ashe is the person who introduced me to Medium — thank you!)
Ashe: No, thank you, Mitch! It was nice to have a writer take a look at my work and give me an honest opinion of my piece. I’m just starting off on Medium but please give me a follow, I hope to talk more about mental health in correlation with games! However, I’m mostly active on Twitter, Discord and Instagram, where I’m usually talking about posting about food or real life things. And the most obvious mention, my Twitch page, I’m positively weird and making people hungry all the time! It’s great.
Mitch: Note: Ashe’s Instagram will make you hungry. Is there anyone or anything you want to plug here? Go ahead!
Ashe: I’ll be starting a patreon soon to make audiobooks of public domain books! People have told me that I have a nice reading voice, so please keep an eye on it in the future. I also have a merch store on redbubble where my best seller is this cute shirt of my cat, Katarina. While not a plug, I wanted to thank my community, mods, friends and family for helping me make streaming possible these last three years. I’ve come such a long way because of them, and some of them have helped me in my hardest moments. They know who they are. It’s honestly amazing how fortunate I’ve been to meet so many incredible people through the world of Twitch, including you Mitch!
Mitch: Aww, thank you, Ashe. It’s been my pleasure knowing you. Hey, Ashe, what are your turnip prices?
Ashe: 33…Do you know that my turnip prices have never spiked in over 2 months of playing? I’ve had fun recreating rooms from games in my home, like the RPD from RE2 remake!
Mitch: Those prices are sad… if you’re ever looking to unload some turnips, I can let you know if I get good prices.
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I hope you enjoyed Indieview #4, with Ashewyn. I’ll be back with another Indieview next week, so I hope to see you all again then!
