Today, I am making one of the biggest announcements I have ever made since I started streaming on Twitch.
As of this moment, I am launching the official blog of the Phillip Plays community! This website will be the voice of the community, a way to spread the love, and a growth mechanism for our Twitch group.
My Story
Long before I ever streamed on Twitch, I worked as a writer for online publications. The outlet I was most involved with was a little online magazine called Waking Times.
I eventually got hired on as an editor in 2019. I was starting to really build up this website as well, growing traffic a heavy amount in 2020 and publishing more original content.
Unfortunately, this was during the height of the covid lock downs and both Facebook and Google decided that they didn’t like our reporting, so we were cut off from our primary sources of revenue and distribution.
The entire alternative media sector experienced the same thing. If you didn’t play ball with government and corporations, your company was financially destroyed. This was an active and pretty successful censorship effort against independent journalists.
Moving to Twitch
Throughout my life, I have only really wanted to be a handful of things: a badass truth-telling writer, a gaming content creator, a musician, and a father.
After knocking off the first from my list, I gravitated toward Twitch. My original intention with Twitch was actually to just play a game to make myself comfortable while I trained my speaking skills for making podcasts in the future.
I’ve mentioned on stream how bad I was when I started – I would mute the mic for most of the stream and only unmute to say a few words when I could muster the courage to. It was really, really bad content but it got me to the point where I could start holding conversations with chat on stream.
In August of 2021 I made the decision to start Phillip Plays, my new gaming persona, with the mission to spread the word about freedom-tech and loosen the grip that these power-drunk social media companies have on us.
My past experiences and this vision for a free and open internet were the ideological foundation which motivated my entrance into Twitch streaming. Not a lot of people know this and it probably isn’t something Twitch particularly likes.
Friends and Love
Since then, the friends I have made and the fun I have had on Twitch have blown away my expectations millions of times over. I never would have expected to have made so many good friends because of streaming.
I thought that I would spend some time playing video games with very little success, maybe muster up the speaking skills to launch a very unsuccessful and dull podcast, and then give up and live a humble life working a job I didn’t like.
I’m not touting any kind of wild fame or fortune on Twitch, but I have been astounded time and time again at the level of support you all have shown me in an enormous variety of ways and I feel like I need to find a way to repay it somehow, like by helping others grow and building something we can all be proud of.
The Blog
Since its inception in 2016, this website has mainly been a dumping ground for all of my content so I didn’t lose track of it. It was growing steadily until the end of 2020, but as you know forces outside of my control put a stop to that.
At this point, I am finally ready to integrate the shadow on the wall of the past year and a half with the Twitch streamer who my new friends and viewers know. As the logo illustrates, I am bringing writing and gaming into harmony.
This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time but felt like the time wasn’t right until this moment. Right now, I am officially re-launching this website as the official blog of the Phillip Plays community!
By the People, For the People
This blog will be by the people and for the people of the community, highlighting fun moments we shared on Twitch, sharing interesting stories about gaming, and much, much more.
Right now, the blog is categorized into three main areas: Gaming, Culture, and “Wow!”
Gaming is pretty self-explanatory, culture has to do with entertainment, the Twitch platform, and our community. “Wow!” is anything and everything that will make you say, well, Wow! As more content is published, more categories will be added.
A few focuses of this blog are as follows:
- Showcasing independent game developers and giving them a platform to spread the word about their creations.
- Sharing interesting gaming news, level-headed cultural commentary, and notable moments on Twitch.
- Introducing the community to new and interesting ideas and information they may have never encountered before.
- Giving the community a voice in a way no one else can.
- Supporting free speech and privacy-centered tech.
- Promoting the growth of everyone in the Phillip Plays Twitch community.
Despite the name, this is your platform. The blog is not a place for only my voice, but for all of our voices. If anyone would like to write for the website, feel free to send a DM! I would love to hear from you!
You may have also noticed that at the top left corner of the screen (as well as on the Watch page), you can see a number of live Twitch users. This is YOU!
If you are a streamer in the community, I have likely already added you to the list – every time you go live, your stream will appear on the website. This way, the more the blog grows, the more our entire community grows!
Because of my experience as a writer, I think that this is one of the few areas where I can provide something beautiful nobody else in our community can in quite the same way.
I hope you will join me.
Follow the blog on Twitter. Join the Email list.
About the Author
Phillip Schneider is a Twitch Affiliate, gamer, and writer with a particular love for retro games of the 80’s, 90’s, and 2000’s. Favorite game ever? Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon.
This article (Welcome to the Official Blog of the Phillip Plays Community) originally appeared at Phillip Schneider and may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author credit, and this copyright statement.