Hailing from the Tulsa, Oklahoma area, they’re a husband-and-wife streaming team that’s been going for just over half a year. While they enjoy newer games, like Red Dead Redemption 2, they also favor classic titles from the Mario and Zelda series. So, you can expect a bit of variety from them. Ultimately, whether you’re interested in starting a channel of your own or just watching, Cameron & Nora Gaming has helpful insight.

Cameron and Nora On Video Game Live Streaming

Getting to Know Cameron and Nora

SG: First and foremost, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your channel. When did you first get the idea to start streaming together and how long has your channel been going now?

C&N: We started our Twitch channel in response to one of our favorite YouTube couples playing a game on stream – and they weren’t great at it. Nora thought the game looked fun and wanted to see it played without the person she was watching getting distracted or dying constantly. So, that’s how we did our first play through of the game, Subnautica. It’s also something fun we can do together, and we’ve noticed that there aren’t too many two-person streams out there. So, we thought we could hit a niche market. Though we started in July 2021, we didn’t get super into upgrading it and giving it attention until August. But since then, we have gotten over 200 followers and, on average, 15 subscribers a month. And the channel is still growing.

SG: Obviously, game streaming has become quite popular as a form of entertainment, and there are a lot of people out there doing it. So, what about your channel sets you apart from the rest? Overall, what would you say makes you unique?

C&N: There’s two of us! That’s a huge thing that a lot of other channels don’t have. We play a lot of two-player games. But then, there’s one player games that we trade off playing and will compete with each other on. We think it’s a fun experience that other channels don’t get to offer unless they do a joint stream with others. But we get that on our channel all the time!

We also engage with our viewers and offer them the opportunity to engage back with us. In fact, they can use their channel points, which are free, to activate sound boards and change how our voices sound live.

SG: On a more personal note, when did each of you first start gaming, and if you remember, what were the first titles you played?

C&N: We both started gaming really young – maybe like six or so. Nora started with Tetris, whcih she played with her mom. And Cameron remembers playing the combo Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt on NES with his dad.

SG: Obviously, you already mentioned having the ability to play two-player titles on your channel. What would you say are some of your personal favorites to stream?

C&N: One of both of our favorites, but Nora’s especially, is the Subnautica series. She loves that open-world environmental exploration with the story leading that way. It’s an amazing game if you’ve never played it. Cameron’s favorites are some of the old-school games like Super Mario World, Punch-Out, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Minecraft. So, we have a pretty broad range of games that we play on our channel. And we’re always open to suggestions.

SG: Apart from titles you’ve streamed, what are your individual favorite games of all time?

C&N: Oh, man. That can be a long list for Cameron. Kingdom Hearts, Grand Theft Auto series, anything Legend of Zelda, Skate 3, Skyrim, Fallout series, The Warrios on PS2, so many others. If you wanna hear them all, come over to our stream and I’ll tell you a bunch of games you shuld play.

For Nora, her favorites are Super Mario World, Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, and Subnautica.

Starting a Video Game Live Streaming Channel

SG: Now that we’ve learned about you both, why don’t you tell us more about your channel. Anyone who’s ever tried starting a channel, blog, business or anything of the sort knows it can be difficult from concept to reality. What does the process of actually getting a video game live streaming channel running look like?

C&N: It definitely has been an ongoing process since we first started the channel. We began with our cellphone on a tiny handheld tripod on our living room table. That had a terrible camera angle, and we only had one gaming headset to pick up both of our audio. Slowly, we’ve invested money into it piece by piece and have gotten it to a pretty decent production value. Of course, we are always upgrading and adding to it to increase the production. Our current goal is for better audio. And that is a whole thing in itself.

We basically have a setup that we build and tear down every time we want to stream. It hangs out in the middle of our living room. We actually built a retractable green screen for a fraction of the cost using green felt and long pieces of wood. It also took some PVC pipe, eye hooks, chain, a healthy amount of hot glue and green paracord. But it works way better than you’d expect. So, you don’t have to have a lot of money to get a great result.

SG: What are some of the particular challenges you ran into when first starting out that you didn’t anticipate?

C&N: Time and dedication. There were a lot of things that popped up when we first started streaming. And it can be really difficult to dedicate time every week when you have normal adult lives. We have had to make it a priority to stream. And sometimes, you aren’t really feeling it going into one. But there’s a point when you’re playing a game or doing an art project on stream and someone is interacting with you a bunch. And it’s actually a really great feeling. It’s like you’ve made a new friend. But also, you know that even if you had a bad day, you get to do something with your partner, and everything’s about to get much better.

SG: Alternatively, what are some of your biggest successes? And moreover, how do you gauge success for yourselves and your channel?

C&N: I don’t know if other channels have this, but we do have goals for ours. They’re usually small, but hey, that makes them so much better when you hit them. Our overall long-term goal is to have an average of 100 viewers on our channel. But we know to get there, we have to hit others along the way.

One of our first goals was to have five people chatting at one time. We would push so hard to engage the audience, sometimes having four peoploe and knowing there was a fifth person there and just needing them to say, “Hi.” Now, we have all sorts of people that come and chat with us. But at the time, it was a great goal to shoot for.

We’ve also had big ones like reaching a hundred followers and getting Twitch affiliate. We absolutely lost it when we reached those goals. In fact, we even did fun things like firework poppers and a giveaway once we hit those landmarks. We both know if we keep pushing, we can make it as far as we want.

SG: Overall, what’s been the most rewarding part of streaming for you both individually and together?

C&N: The most rewarding part is getting to spend this time together and watch something we’re creating grow. Cameron really enjoys building the stream and updating things within it to make it look as professional as possible. And Nora loves learning and getting to experience something that’s always been an interest of Cameron’s. She has also enjoyed getting the connection during COVID while being stuck at home.

Through this entire streaming process, her brother and his wife have been our biggest supporters and it has brought us closer to them and to each other.

SG: Obviously, your channel has seen a bit of success. You’ve met some of your goals, and you’re striving toward others. For anyone looking to get into video game live streaming, what would be your most helpful advice?

C&N: Research. You are going to put a lot of time into this – most likely an equal amount of time off stream as on. Researching will let you know you’ll need to find things like Reddit, Discord, and Twitter, which support small streamers. Watching other streamers and getting a reputation with them will help you not only grow your channel but also theirs.

Only put into the stream what you can afford. Build it slowly – you’re not going to be huge overnight. It takes time, so do what you can to make your stream the best it can be. Watch those crazy videos of how to grow your stream in 2022 or whatever. But know that you may only get one piece of useful knowledge from one video. Then, learn how to find what that info is. Don’t give up and have fun. If you’re not having fun, then who will want to watch that?

The Basis of It all

Ultimately, the last question Cameron and Nora asked is the most important for video game live streaming. “If you’re not having fun, then who will want to watch that?” In fact, at the end of the day, that’s the crux of most things in nerdom. Sure, things can be artistic or weighty, abysmally serious and hard to grapple with. After all, one of our most recent posts centered around dealing with death. But at the same time, entertainment shouldn’t be stressful or unnecessarily antagonistic. It should be a place where people can come gather, have fun and grow together.

Do Video Games Stunt Ethical Maturity?

Admittedly, as described by a Harvard Medical School article, experts are divided on the issue, with some saying video games can impact individuals’ moral development. On the other hand, a Bournemouth University study proposes that while video games can impact a youth’s ethical development, they have little to no effect after the age of 18. Yet, for the most part, those who see no inherent moral harm within video games remain on the defensive, only going so far as to say they don’t negatively impact players. Contrary to the concerns of many individuals, there is an argument to be made that video games can be used in a way that helps players develop a more robust sense of morality. At least, in a philosophical sense, video games can be viewed more as a potential aid to moral development than a hinderance.

As a disclaimer, this is not to suggest that young children should be allowed to play any video game they please without fear of impact on their moral development. Rating systems like the ESRB exist for a reason. And it seems obvious that some games contain content which younger audiences don’t need to be exposed to.

What Hath Aristotle to do with Video Games?

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who lived in the mid-fourth century B.C. He was the tutor of Alexander the Great. But he’s most famous for establishing the Aristotelian tradition that’s still studied widely today as the framework for centuries of western thought. In other words, his ideas were essential for the development of western culture and society. A man of many ideas, Aristotle held to the notion that the primary role of art was cathartic. Now, when most people hear the word, “catharsis”, they probably think of it in terms of emotional cleansing. Something along the lines of how crying at a movie can feel good. But in Aristotelian terms, catharsis refers to feeling the correct emotions at the right time and in the right circumstances. And the way art can help with this is quite interesting.

If part of ethical development is learning to experience emotion correctly, it seems people would have to place themselves in various situations just to understand how they should feel about the things going on. Stated differently, emotional intelligence is rooted in experience. So, if a person wanted to know how they should feel when a loved-one dies, they would need to experience the death of someone close. The problem with this view is that it’s essentially wrong to be put into some situations. For example, it would never be right to participate in murder just to know you should feel disgusted by wrongful death. It would be wrong to set my neighbors house on fire to understand arson is wrong. And that’s where art comes in.

In Aristotle’s world, one of the primary art forms was enacted drama — plays. And in those plays, audiences could witness certain events carried out in a fictional environment which never would have been ethical to experience first-hand. The hallmark of a rational person, in this sense, was the ability to express emotion toward events correctly. So, the person who felt sadness at the death of a heroic character could be considered more rational than the person who felt apathetic. And in that was, they were seen as more ethically mature.

But taking this idea further, it would seem participative art would have even more of an ability to help people develop into ethically mature individuals. That is, forms of art which allow the person to make decisions that impact the art itself in some way, rather than simply observing. After all, having first-hand experience of decisions and their consequences is often a better learning experience than watching someone else do so. And jumping forward thousands of years from Aristotle, that’s exactly where video games come into the mix. Because, as many of us are well aware, games have become increasingly focused on decisions and outcomes.

Moral Decisions in Gaming

Moral alignment systems have been a part of gaming since at least the early 2000s, perhaps best seen with titles such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. In this classic RPG, true to Star Wars lore, it’s possible to make different in-game decisions that affect your light or dark side alignment. However, while the implementation of this alignment system hearkened toward a future where decisions could drastically alter the outcome of the narrative, essentially all paths led to the same place. More or less, in KOTOR, player decisions impacted the ability to use certain powers, since each force ability had an alignment toward the light or dark side. For example, a character attuned to the light side of the force would have an easier time curing wounds. However, one who had embraced the dark side would find force lightning to be a useful tool in their arsenal. So, while KOTOR implemented a very visible morality system in its player choices, those decisions failed to heavily impact the narrative elements of the game itself.

In some sense, the visibility of the morality system in KOTOR (a literal meter that showed how far the character leaned toward one side or the other) could be responsible for the lack of real feeling in the game’s alignment system. Players can experience the real weight of their in-game decisions best when the outcomes of those decisions aren’t marked as either a light or dark path. Such is the case with the Mass Effect trilogy, where choices can impact the course of the narrative immensely.

SPOILER ALERT: Perhaps the most striking instance is when Shepherd must determine whether to side with the Geth or Quarians in Mass Effect 3. If the Geth are chosen, the entire Quarian fleet is destroyed, and a companion that’s been with the player with three games kills herself. But if the player chooses to side with the Quarian fleet, another companion dies. Either way, the decision is extremely difficult, especially since the outcome can’t be discerned beforehand. Still, it can easily be inferred that whichever side is chosen will lead to a negative consequence for the other. So, this type of moral quandary presents a prime opportunity for reflection and assessment. The ability to feel through this scenario is reminiscent of the Aristotelian notion of catharsis.

Even so, with the Mass Effect decision described above, the results are almost instantaneous and allow the player to simply restart their latest save if they don’t like the outcome. More recent games have done away with this type of immediate gratification, not always letting the player know what the outcome of decisions will be. Instead, they reveal that information only when it’s too late to simply go back to the latest save point and try again. A good example is Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, one of the most recent releases in the Assassin’s Creed series. For all its flaws, it has an immersive decision scheme throughout that can lead to wildly different endings.

SPOILERS AHEAD: There are at least six decisions that must be made throughout the narrative in a specific manner to see the best ending. In one scenario, the wayward sibling is persuaded to return to the family, and in the other, the player character kills the sibling. And it is this type of morality system that seems most rewarding when it comes to ethical development.

Video games that can present decisions as lifelike as possible have the best chance of leaving a lasting moral impression on those who play them. Particularly where choices can be made freely and when consequences aren’t always obvious. And in an Aristotelian framework, these have the best chance of aiding moral development.

Some Final Thoughts

Just like the real world, the ethical situations within games are not always appropriate for kids or young teenagers. So, it’s ultimately up to guardian figures to determine what their children should and should not be exposed to. As with anything, video games can have a positive or negative impact. And while they can help in moral development, they should never be viewed as the sole means by which anyone should come into their ethical framework. At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of parents and guardians to help youth understand the implications of their decisions. Perhaps the best path forward is one of open discussion, whether the situations revolve around those found in video games or real life.