Have you heard the term “male-heavy” or “female-heavy”?
It’s commonly used when there are more men or more women in a certain group.
While some places have a decent mix of both genders, others definitely don’t.
Like, there are a lot of men in engineering or electronics, but nursing and early childhood education are packed with women.
It’s not like someone deliberately arranged it, yet people naturally divide by gender. Ironically strange, isn’t it?
The world of internet broadcasting wasn’t much different. While the streamers vary, the audience’s gender ratio is still skewed, so you could safely say that most viewers are male.
That’s also why some folks think that if you’re a woman, don’t even dream of streaming.
Unless you have some extraordinary ability to catch people’s attention, it’s not going to be easy to attract the interest of that predominantly male audience.
Once upon a time, I shrugged that thought off, but now, I actually resonate with it. Honestly, I’ve benefited quite a bit from the shift in gender dynamics.
In the early days of streaming, a skilled female user like Camilla, who played consistently for several seasons, managed to bring in quite a few viewers. Sure, there was a lot of groundwork before that, but if it had been a guy, the impact wouldn’t have been nearly as great.
Anyway, back to the point.
The fact that my new trainee, nicknamed “Cutie Camilla,” turned out to be a girl caused quite a stir.
[Wait, she’s a girl?]
[Didn’t see that coming! LOL]
[Isn’t this a voice changer?]
[There’s a host already; why bother with another woman? LOL]
[It’s just surprising, okay?]
[Big sis!!!]
[What’s the point? It’s not like it’ll benefit us!]
[What’s the big deal about a girl? The host is a woman too, you know?]
[So Camilla was real, huh?]
[Wait, the one who kept calling me “older sister” in the chat was her?]
[Older sister! ㅠㅠ I can do Camilla too!]
[I don’t think so.]
[The host actually has quite a few female fans, you know?]
[Over a thousand games played this season by a female user (Bronze)! Not an easy feat…]
[She’s some kind of teacher-level demon, wow!]
I was surprised too, but honestly, the gender of my trainee isn’t a big deal for me.
I mean, I’m not teaching by checking gender, and to be fair, the factors I mentioned earlier are way more important.
But it seems the viewers didn’t share that mindset; their reactions were definitely more welcoming this time. Seriously, they can’t help but lose their minds at the sight of a girl.
Just earlier, they were all about being dismissive and wanting me to find another trainee!
“Come on, just pick again already, will you?”
Well, it was a good thing. I was worried that my student might be intimidated by the angry chat, but it didn’t seem like that would happen.
“Ah, yes… it’s Koja!”
“No, that’s my mistake… If there’s anything uncomfortable in the chat, please let me know separately. I’ll take care of it.”
“Um… it’s okay. It’s a bit overwhelming though. Hehe, hardly anyone is swearing anyway…”
[Nice voice!]
[Much better than collabing with the recent trainee ^^]
[Now that I think about it, almost all of Kayak’s students are women.]
[A woman-friendly streamer, huh?]
[Kayak aiming for the Minister of Gender Equality and Family position ㄷㄷ]
Ignoring the nonsense in the chat, I asked about some important things to know before starting the lesson.
“By the way, how old are you?”
“Uh, age… do I have to say it…?”
For the first time after the call was connected, hesitation showed. Sensitive about age? I thought about it and realized it could certainly be a thing. There was no need to dig into an uncomfortable topic, so I changed the question.
“No, not like that. I’m just curious about how our Riri usually lives.”
“My, my life? More than that, what is Riri—”
“I shortened Cutie Camilla, is that a problem?”
“Uh, it’s like a nickname, right? If you call me that, I’m fine with it.”
[Why does it sound like she doesn’t really want to say it? LOL]
[Riri is like, ‘WTF, just give me a completely new name!’]
[This person also has bad naming sense, for sure ㅇㅇ]
[Already giving each other nicknames ㄷㄷㄷ]
[Something about polar bears and global warming…]
[Oh, come on, it’s the innocent streamer and fan relationship!]
[By asking not to ask her age, she must be a bit older, huh?]
All good. The fact that my face is set as the profile and the current response definitely showed she was a fan.
Should I be happy to have a fan, or not? Being cruel to a fan who says they like me isn’t easy, considering I’m human too.
“So, you’re curious about my life? Why…?”
“Oh, it’s not about privacy or anything. Just yesterday, you played 14 games in a day, so I was wondering if you usually play that much.”
The average game time in Abyss is between 20 and 30 minutes. Due to the nature of the game, there isn’t really a set endpoint. Sometimes it ends really quickly, and rarely, it can stretch beyond an hour.
Excluding those peculiar cases, assuming a 30-minute play session for each match, Riri played the Abyss for a total of 420 minutes yesterday.
That translates to about 7 hours. If we add an estimated hour for matchmaking and dodging, that makes it a total of 8 hours.
Some might ask if it’s possible to play that much on a good gaming day, but the real question is whether one can do that every day.
It was a question to understand her usual routine, how much practice time she gets, and how much time she could invest in gaming.
However, her reaction was different from what I expected. Like earlier when I asked about her age, she seemed to hesitate and stammer.
“I usually play that much, yeah….”
“So, do you normally play about 8 hours a day?”
“Sometimes 10 hours, and umm… when the teacher starts the broadcast, I either turn it off or play next to it….”
[Why is this person so persistent? LOL]
[Is this person being interrogated?]
[The dignity of the viewers is being obliterated live…]
[Look at her getting gloomy, LOL]
[Teacher is truly a villain.]
[Wow, that daily routine is something else, LOL]
[I’m getting hit while I’m in the middle of a split-decision, please stop…]
[Now I suddenly relate, this viewer gets my thumbs up, LOL]
[Is it really that fun to tease the unemployed?]
A long stream of comments from the viewers.
“Ahh….”
It was then that I realized why Riri had looked so down.
*
“Hey, you might be unemployed, but so what? People can be without jobs. You all know that. Being jobless isn’t something to be ashamed of.”
<<Someone donated 1000 won!> -Please stop hitting me… They were encouraging her, but why was she acting like that? At one point, I was also stuck in that job-seeking phase, so I had a pretty good understanding of those feelings. Our Riri’s situation was a bit different from the usual unemployed folks, though. “So, it’s not really a problem for your livelihood?” “Yeah. It’s a situation where it doesn’t matter if I don’t work.” To summarize, her father’s business was doing well, so she quit her stressful job and started focusing solely on watching my broadcasts and on the Abyss. The viewers felt a sense of betrayal when they thought she was one of them, only to find out she was in a different situation. “Actually, that’s a good thing. You can focus entirely on gaming now.” "That's great. It means you can focus solely on the game, right?" "Yes...! I can play as much as I want except when I'm sleeping!" "Perfect, fantastic. Are you watching my broadcast right now?" The screen displayed the earlier session again. The stats of Cutie Camilla were laid bare through the tracking site. It was quite striking how completely it was drenched in red. Noticing my screen, Riri hurriedly continued talking. "Teacher, that's not it! I'm in Bronze, but there's a reason for that—." [Oh, I'm sure there's a reason!] [I have my reasons....] [I feel like I might need to reason with her - message deleted] [But being in Bronze is a bit much, isn't it?] "I'm not trying to say anything bad, I'm just curious about how the rating came out like this." It wasn't flattery; it was genuine. What teacher would criticize a struggling student, especially when they intentionally took on someone who was struggling? That would be just crazy. This was merely a process to closely examine the student's condition. Those short numbers couldn't reflect the essence contained within. It felt better to just watch a game rather than speculate. "How about you go for a rank match like you usually do? I'd like to see how you play." "Yes, yes…!" * If you tackle things one step at a time, a path is bound to become visible. That's how life and the world work. No matter how hopeless the problem seems, if you just start from a small part, it will eventually unravel. I kept this truth in mind. It was the wisdom of life I gained after quite a few years. However, perhaps it was due to the years I’ve lived, their density, and my lack of experience. I had no clue where to even begin with this issue. "...Why did you go in just now?" "I thought I was alone. It was a kill opportunity, and I kept giving chances…." "You died just now like before. It was a similar situation to earlier—. Wait a second. Don’t chat, please. Don’t fight with your teammate…." "I'm sorry, but you kept saying things... The way you spoke just now…." A lack of learning ability and a lack of teamwork with teammates...? While sorting through the additional minor issues swirling in my mind. There was too much to point out, so I eventually opened up notepad.
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