Welcome to Streamers on the Rise, where we find streamers who are growing their channels, content, and audiences in extraordinary ways. Each week we’ll talk with a creator about what goes into livestreaming–both on and off camera.
You might as well embrace it: In Grand Theft Auto, everyone’s a little bit Joffrey.
That’s what dasMEHDI says–and he would know, considering he’s been in the GTA roleplay space for a hot minute.
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For those who’ve read this far and are confused, some quick context:
- Grand Theft Auto is a video game where you can get very good at doing very bad things
- Joffrey is one of Game of Thrones‘ most spoiled, selfish, and sadistic characters
- and GTA roleplay is where people log in to GTA and really commit to the whole shebang, creating a fully immersive storyline populated with fleshed-out characters who interact with other players.
A couple years ago, dasMEHDI wasn’t sure he was digging the GTA space anymore. As he puts it, GTA roleplay can sometimes be “ruthless,” with players letting their characters do in-character things that might seem kind of (to be frank) dickish IRL. But hey, you’re playing a game about carjackers and murderers! Still, dasMEHDI says, sometimes people would come into his chat and didn’t seem to get that “everyone’s a Joffrey in GTA roleplay. To a degree.”
“The thing is, Joffrey doesn’t see that commentary for a year, like the guy who plays him, for at least a year later. Whenever the season airs. When it does, it’s like all things come his way. The thing is with this space, it’s in real-time,” he says. And that commentary started to wear on him.
So, seeking a fresh start, he went over to stream on Facebook. Now he’s making his return to Twitch, and says thanks to the break and a change of mentality, “I get back to Twitch and my issues of the past no longer exist.” What’s more, he found that a significant portion of his 407,000 followers were ready and waiting for him to make his return. He’s gone from having 500-1,000 viewers on Facebook per stream to a minimum of 3,000 on Twitch, with some streams reaching 6,000-7,000 on average up to 12,000 at their high points.
For dasMEHDI, returning to Twitch (and expanding from GTA to other games, like the highly anticipated space RPG Starfield) is exactly the kind of reboot he wanted–and when it comes to being “dasMEHDI 2.0,” he’s “very much reinvigorated being back.”
Check out our chat with him below.
I may have streamed a lot since being back on twitch. I think my first stream was the 4th? pic.twitter.com/aK7NA1wdPP
— dasMEHDI (@dasMEHDI) August 30, 2023
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: Pretend somebody’s watching this or reading this, and they’ve never seen your stuff. Give me a little bit of an intro about you and where you’re from and how you got started.
dasMEHDI: Absolutely. I go by dasMEHDI. I guess the easiest background would be, I used to be in the software space, an area called distributed computing. I worked in big tech for a while as a technical lead, finally at a startup. While at that startup, I decided to give streaming a shot. Primarily because it gotten to the point where finding friends to game with–coworkers would have family and other obligations and I’d get back from work and be like, “You know what, I want to game a little bit,” and it would be difficult to find some people to game with.
I was like, “You know what, I’ve been watching other people.” Streaming had only just started up. It was a new idea, but the whole concept of having a chat room interact with you while you play was intriguing. I think I launched up one day and I got a handful of viewers and fast forward a bit, I got into the GTA roleplay space and things just blew up from there.
Obviously, it wasn’t an overnight success by any means, but it was a slow and steady growth that went from being a bit of a hobby into becoming a option for me. I still remember the first time I got partnered, and this is way back before there was the affiliate program and whatnot. It was a very cool moment as I had gotten the partner checkbox and same day I went to work. Even before I knew I had gotten accepted, I had someone from my office come on over and say, “Hey, congratulations.” I’m like, “What are you talking about?” He’s like, “I just saw that checkmark on your page.”
Tubefilter: Oh, very cool.
dasMEHDI: It was really cool. It was two simultaneous experiences. One was this guy watches my stream. What the hell? The second was, holy crap, I got partnered. I think about a year later I decided to go full-time and here I am seven years later, something like that. Maybe six. I lose track of time after a while.
Tubefilter: Was there a particular point that made you go full-time? Was there an income amount, or a follower number, or were you just ready to go for it?
dasMEHDI: Definitely the latter. I don’t want to get too much into it since it was very corporate-related, but I was at the startup and I had gotten a point in my software career where I was just cranking out a ton of hours and really putting my all and there were failures outside of my direct influence, I guess. I’m trying to find an obfuscated way to describe this.
Tubefilter: I get it.
dasMEHDI: I actually got a good way to put it, which is: I was at a startup. I thought it was going to be worth billions. But, instead, it was very much not the case. I think the big key moment was I got brought into an office–the same day I got partnered, mind you.
Tubefilter: Oh no.
dasMEHDI: I got brought in, and I get this, “Hey, we’re a startup. You’ve got to take this as your priority,” or whatever. I’m like, “Bro, this guy just heard the conversation from my coworker and is freaking out about my hobby.” Like, what is this guy doing right now?
Tubefilter: The insecurity.
dasMEHDI: Yes. It was very insecure. I’m like, “Listen, I got like maybe 50 viewers, 100 viewers.” I don’t remember what the number was to being partnered, but I was like, “It ain’t a big deal. I’m doing it. It’s not affecting this.” Not to mention I was one of the early guys at the startup, but that conversation in and of itself made me realize a couple of things. One, I don’t want to work here anymore. Two was man, I’d like to own my destiny. I’d love to start my own place, whatever that might be. Then it was six months later when I realized the trajectory of this startup was not going to get to where the original vision was, I just left. I had enough savings and security where I was like, “You know what, I can do this for a year, and I’ll go find another job somewhere else at a company that fits my vibe. Plus, I get a little mini vacation.” It turns out it wasn’t much of a mini vacation, but you know–
Tubefilter: I was going to say, I love that you thought streaming was going to be a vacation.
dasMEHDI: It was, and in many ways it still is. This month I’ve put in 320 hours.
Tubefilter: Yes, totally vacation. Super easy. Man, so what’s your streaming schedule like? Do you have a set schedule?
dasMEHDI: I do. My schedule tends to be 11:00 AM, and then until I’m satisfied, I guess. [laughs] Sometimes I’ll go to like 8:00, sometimes 9:00.
Tubefilter: Oh, wow. Long hours.
dasMEHDI: Oh yes, yes, but the thing is it still is vacation because I don’t need to put in the 300 hours if I don’t want to. I get a lot of that, like, “Man, how do you do this?” I just really enjoy it. Whether it’s roleplay or some dope game I’m really into, I have no reason to stop, really. I will say, because of what I have turned into a very strict schedule, which may not seem like it, but I always take off Thursdays. And prior to returning to Twitch, I would normally take off Wednesday, Thursday, or Thursday, Friday, or the last three, four days of the month.
While I ultimately do more hours, I also almost every month have a span of days off to do whatever my heart desires. Whether it’s like take a trip the night before, go somewhere for like three days, and then get back well rested back to the grind for a month. It’s–
Tubefilter: That’s good. I’m glad you’re getting an actual vacation in there.
dasMEHDI: Yes. [laughs]
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Tubefilter: I wanted to talk about you leaving Twitch. What year was that? What made you move to Facebook?
dasMEHDI: Absolutely. It was 2021, so about two years and one month ago. There’s a number of reasons. At the time, I want to say the GTA space had– I don’t even want to say the GTA space. How do I put this? Twitch moderation and I think some of the communities were…They got into a certain point, the space, GTA roleplay, it can sometimes be very ruthless, and the best way I tend to describe it as is, it’s like watching Game of Thrones, and if you’re not a fan of Joffrey…Everyone’s a Joffrey in GTA roleplay. To a degree. In turn, they got a lot of people that don’t like Joffrey, got some issues with Joffrey.
The thing is, Joffrey doesn’t see that commentary for a year, like the guy who plays him, for at least a year later. Whenever the season airs. When it does, it’s like all things come his way. The thing is with this space, it’s in real-time. I think the space had grown so much, and even the viewership was still getting accustomed to what is GTA roleplay. I had gotten a bit exhausted with it to a degree, and I was just like, “Hey, I can just go over there and I can chill.” I don’t want to go into the other details like what Facebook could have been and all these other things because I don’t think that’s my place or anything, but that was, I’d say, a big driving factor. I wanted to try out another platform and see if I could escape that.
I will say it also gave me an opportunity to really learn. Up until that point, I had still had the mindset that I had when I had like 6,000 or 8,000 viewers on Twitch which was every message mattered. What that meant is that if it really was just one guy in a chat room who may just say some wild thing, it would be, I get triggered by it. There’s no other way to put it. What was cool, and I know this might segue a little into something else, but what has changed, is that while being on Facebook, I allowed myself to get back into what it meant to play a role, to create an experience.
My mentality changed. I get back to Twitch and my issues of the past no longer exist. I’ll sit here with 6,000 viewers and people will just say all kinds of stuff, and I’ll be telling them, “Listen, man.” I think that’s on top of the fact that Twitch has added many features in the moderation space that I was just begging for, like you ban someone, they’re gone. Someone does some wild spammy thing, we’re not spending five minutes figuring out how to stop it. I think with the combination of the tools and that break away, I’m back with a much different outlook and it felt really good, quite frankly.
Tubefilter: That’s good. I’m glad. I haven’t played GTA seriously, but I have friends who are fairly big Final Fantasy roleplay streamers. The amount of hate they get for in-character actions that are consistent with their characters is…Well, just like you said, everyone can be a Joffrey, and it’s like, “Guys. It’s okay for this character to be mean. It’s what he is.” Anyway. You mentioned moderation tools. What other changes have you enjoyed since you’ve been back on Twitch?
dasMEHDI: I’m still discovering new things every day. Transparently, I took two weeks off prior to coming back to Twitch. I had a day extra. A day before I went live, I had a little mod meeting and I was like, “Oh, I didn’t see these tools right away.” I got partner the night before. I’m like, “All right mods, what are we going to do?”
I’m clicking through the menus I’m like, “Oh, my god, they got this research tab now so I can see when it’s a good time to stream X, Y, and Z,” which they didn’t have previously. They got better discovery statistics. The analytics are things that you used to have to go to an outside source for, and even then, that can only go so far since it’s getting it from an outside source. You’re not getting reaction times like, dah, dah, dah, dah. I’d say certainly the reaction tools was the biggest–and ads actually have value now.
Tubefilter: I’m glad to see that it’s paying off on your side. Especially with analytics, that’s something I haven’t had anybody talk about before–on Twitch at least.
dasMEHDI: Oh, yes. I’m a bit of a dork. I think may be because I have a software background or I was a big fan of stats back in college. Even today I like to think in stats. For me, I think oftentimes some of my biggest successes have been from analyzing data. A good way to put it is, you could want to play five games and there is sometimes the mantra of like, “Play what you want to play, we are here to watch whatever.” Simultaneously, you could think of that, but do you want to play the game you most want to play for five viewers or do you want to play the game that you wanted to play anyway for 200 viewers? I think the option becomes pretty easy, especially if you get enjoyment from the interactivity. I think between looking at things like SullyGnome and even these analytics, it can actually help you make the little tweaks needed to get go in the right direction. I’d love to see more of that come onto the dashboard but we’ll see in time.
Tubefilter: Looking at your Twitch, obviously you play a variety of games, so I was curious how you decide what you’re going to play. Do you try to balance like, today I’m doing one thing, tomorrow I’m doing another thing? How do you structure?
dasMEHDI: It’s a very cerebral thought process that I’m actively thinking of. I think with GTA roleplay being in its own niche on Twitch. In other words, when you go there, you’re there to watch a TV show that just happens to be played through a video game. It is going to be so diametrically–it will have such a very vastly different demographic than those that are on the platform for like, let’s say, esports-related stuff, and then a very different demographic for those who are watching full playthroughs of games or whatnot. The crossover is, I don’t think–it’s not even anywhere close to one-to-one. However, that doesn’t mean variety can’t be done. I know this is a bit of a complex answer.
Tubefilter: No, you’re fine.
dasMEHDI: The way I look at it is, if you want to migrate that audience, they have to want to see you check out this new thing. In a way, as influencers, we sometimes will market things, right? You’ve also got to market yourself, and market yourself not only to new audiences but sometimes the same audience. You have to try something else. How I tend to do that is, we got Starfield coming out on Friday. I haven’t played anything else since being back on Twitch. My audience is used to me jumping onto another game. For the past week or so, I’ve been introducing them to the game, and surprisingly enough, a lot of them didn’t really know much about it or may have just read an article here or there.
Sometimes we forget, as influencers, we’re super in the know about every little detail, but our viewers may just tune in for us, and maybe someone’s got a full-time job and they don’t really play games themself much. Having done that introduction, we’re really showing them, “Hey, this Friday we’re doing this. It’s going to be really exciting. Here’s some of the things we’re doing.” What’s happening is, I’m getting them excited for a different type of content that they have not experienced on my channel–therefore, setting me up for much higher success come Friday and ensuring that excitement continues on.
Tubefilter: Man I hope Starfield is good. It’s one of my most anticipated of this year. I wanted to go back for a sec to you returning to Twitch and how that’s gone for you in terms of audience-building. Did you have a lot of people greeting you?
dasMEHDI: I didn’t know I had as many people on Twitch waiting for me to come back as I did. That first stream back was very unexpected. I’m going to be a little bit spoiled, I’d say. To give an idea, I’d average anywhere from 500 to 1,000 viewers on Facebook on a really good day. Here, I’m averaging at minimum 3,000 would be the floor number, and then 6,000, 7,000 at peak. Even up to 12,000. I’d say it’s hard for me to answer that question only because I’m still in that honeymoon phase, right? I’m almost getting what feels like just like free views because of the comeback.
Tubefilter: Hey, hey. “Free.” Come on. That’s based on your past years of work.
dasMEHDI: Yes, that is true. What I will experience I think is, as that honeymoon period ends, and even just based on much past experience when I was back on Twitch, way back, I’d say discoverability…Unfortunately, we all succumb to the algorithm on the Twitch front page. If that algorithm just happens to recommend a new stream, that’s how you might get a new view in. The GTA space has a much more connected community. Every time you’re interacting with someone, it’s an opportunity to sell yourself. Though I will say that is very bad form in roleplay if you’re low-key. Altering your roleplay to advertise.
But my point there is people will wonder, “Man, I wonder who that character is. I wonder who that character is.” There’s a lot of that sharedness, but the discoverability is very difficult. You can get on TikTok, you can get on YouTube Shorts, it’s its own problem of things. I’ve never personally found there being much of people who watch your Shorts, did they come to the Twitch stream? I don’t think so. I haven’t seen it myself. I know it exists. Honestly, I think the best way I can say is I don’t think I’ve ever solved the discoverability problem outside of interacting with other streamers.
Tubefilter: Yes, totally. Collaboration, I feel is still an underrated aspect of Twitch. Collaboration is default on YouTube, where YouTubers are always like, “Oh, I want to do a collab.” A collab is very normal on YouTube and I feel like on Twitch it can be intimidating or difficult for streamers to connect with one another in that particular way.
dasMEHDI: I wholeheartedly agree with that. Yes.
Tubefilter: I’m wondering if there are ways to facilitate or normalize that. Aside from having people talk about it.
dasMEHDI: Just off the cuff, I think for most streamers, their stories are probably very similar in that they wanted a game. They’re like, “You know what, let me try streaming.” Their primary interaction is with their chat room. It’s almost like where every other streamer is a bit of a stranger in a different room, and are you going to go knock on there? It’s like living in an apartment. Are you going to go knock on some random person’s door? I don’t know. I think there’s tepidness that is naturally on the screaming space. Breaking through that barrier can be very tough. Hey, do I want to bother this guy? Are they going to take it the wrong way? Are we going to click? You know what I mean? There’s a lot of things that are just not normalized, but who knows? Maybe someone will make one of those, I don’t know, streamer dates or something. In a platonic way, of course. Where it’s like maybe, hey, we’ll find you a random streamer around that we think you’ll click with and you guys should play this game for two hours. Who knows?
Tubefilter: See, that’s such a cool idea. It’s got to happen.
dasMEHDI: Absolutely.
Tubefilter: Do you have any plans or goals over the next year? I know you said you’re in this honeymoon phase, but anything that you’re hoping to do? Anything you want to try?
dasMEHDI: I am a man of many ideas. You can see my setup right here. No one’s seen this on stream yet. I put it together a year and a half ago. The light colors change. It’s a pretty nice camera. I got an over-the-top camera right over here that can swing around and do a– I have these bursts of moments for cool ideas. I do plan this is I do want to introduce some new content. I do want to get a bit into the React space. I have found that my audience enjoys my takes on things and my reaction to things. That’s a nice little break away from what I currently do. I’d like to experiment in that space. What else? That’s where I want to try to experiment with.
Try to get a little bit more cam action with different genres and see how it goes. In other words, adding more of my personality beyond just the voice as I think my camera comes on maybe once a year at best.
Tubefilter: Wait, really?
dasMEHDI: Oh, yes. I’m strictly microphone.
Tubefilter: That’s shocking to me. You’re so easy on camera in this interview, I figured you’re on camera all the time.
dasMEHDI: No, my audience has not seen this camera yet. I set it up like a year and a half ago. Maybe even two years. I think it’s because I do GTA roleplay so having a camera’s odd. I just don’t turn it on. I’m just not used to it. It feels like it’s going to be a lot of work.
Tubefilter: Is there anything else you wanted to talk about, anything cool that’s up? Anything you want people to know?
dasMEHDI: No, not in particular. I guess I’m very excited to see where things are going to go. I’ve been very much reinvigorated being back and for me, this is like dasMEHDI 2.0. It’s the beginning and I’m very curious to see what my next couple of years look like.
