Streamer Spotlight aims to highlight Twitch casters to promote their personality, game, and content over what game is currently trending. Streamer Spotlight will focus on interviewing several casters, looking into what specific brand of entertainment they are willing to give to the audience. While the spotlight focuses on gaming casters now, we’re open to interview anyone who has the motivation to share their passion with the world as a caster.
Mrhappy is a Twitch broadcaster and YouTube content creator focused on providing commentary and guides on MMOs and RPGs, primarily Final Fantasy XIV. For his Twitch stream, he tries to make everyone feel welcome and answers almost any question the community might have. Whether its Final Fantasy XIV or any other game he is playing, he will always make sure that every person who visits the stream feels like they are a part of the stream.
Introduce yourself!
My name is Michael Poveromo, more commonly known by the alias of Mrhappy1227. I am a Twitch broadcaster and YouTube content Creator focused on MMOs and RPG content, with my primary title being Final Fantasy XIV.
How long have you been streaming for and how did you get started?
I officially became partnered in May of 2014, but I had been streaming seriously since August of 2013 with sprinkles of streams prior to that.
What made you determine that you should make the jump to streaming full time?
Streaming full-time was always a dream once websites like Own3d and Justin.TV started to pop up. I lost my prior job due to the company downsizing after being acquired, so I was just between jobs making YouTube videos really. I didn’t really get my chance to do it full time until I became involved with a charity known as Save the Children. An organization that worked with them called Gaming For Good was doing charity streams non-stop and I had been selected to do overnight shifts. With that I had reached a point where I got into my first MCN on YouTube (Union For Gamers) and began pursuing full time content creation. In August of 2013 I took myself to Twitch and strived to make it work. With many hours and the support of my girlfriend and the community, its just become reality since then. I’m blessed to have had so much support going into this and it still shocks me to this day that I get to do what I do.
You do Youtube, podcasts, and Twitch and I know there is so much more but could you give an idea of how much preparation you do for a week’s worth of content?
Preperation for a week’s worth of content? Oh boy. It depends on the week really. Some weeks I plan out all of the content the week prior knowing what is coming while other weeks are a lot of on the fly decisions, mostly because nothing exciting or important is happening and I just need to react to what does happen. For Twitch thats usually deciding on a few games to play across the 49ish hours I usually stream a week. If there is a big launch there is a good chance I am doing multiple 10+ hour streams that week as well.
The podcast I do is on FFXIV, so I just pick and choose things to talk about based on recent news that week. As for YouTube while some ideas are done ahead of time, a lot of YouTube is reacting to launches or news I’m interested in and just recording quick news videos. I’d say minimum time per week spent on videos is probably 4 hours a day. Busy weeks its pretty much every hour I’m awake and not streaming though, and light weeks its more like 2 hours per day. It varies quite a bit.
I know from your previous videos that you played World of Warcraft previously but what made you jump to Final Fantasy XIV?
Well I played Final Fantasy XI, the first FF MMO, for almost 7 years. FFXI and FFXIV are nothing a like, but I’ve had a lot of loyalty to the Final Fantasy franchise that I didn’t necessarily have with Warcraft so it was an easy choice. Also, the story of Final Fantasy XIV was an epic one. I mean the story of its development. It became what is possibly the worst MMO of all time and then try to relaunch three years later as a completely remade game is unheard of. I knew I had to be a part of that!
What gave you the idea for State of the Realm?
State of the Realm is inspired by two things. The first is the podcast I did prior called “XIV Nation”. I loved doing that show and wanted to produce a similar show once that one had ended. The second place its inspired from is the similarly named “State of the Exile” podcast. That was a podcast on Path of Exile that fellow content creator ZiggyD was on, whom I had done content with prior. Outside of the namesake, I enjoyed the synergy of the hosts and wanted to replicate that with our show.
Are there plans for another show or is State of the Realm it?
State of the Realm is probably the only show I plan to produce myself for quite some time. There IS another idea thats been floating around for quite some time, but until we manage to pull all the pieces together I don’t want to make any promises! The next show wouldn’t be about FFXIV but gaming in general.
At this point in time, what do you think of the game in its current state?
The game is in what I’d call a “stable” state. Its not doing anything huge to draw in the crowds outside of expansions but its always on the MMO community’s radar. It holds a pretty steady player base with the frequent updates it has and the quality of the game is overall high. It did have some blunders this expansion: content known as the Diadem (which has since been reworked and re-released to slightly more success) and Lords of Verminion., as well as raids that alienated a lot of players caused a lot more player backlash than when it relaunched in ARR. That being said they have recently done a lot of good, with fresh new content and story that makes the next 3 month wait for Stormblood much easier to cope with as a regular player.
(Mrhappy with Yoshi-P)
If you had the power to put or fix something in the game, what would it be?
If I had the power to fix something…honestly that is a tough one. I do love the game but I am also highly critical of certain aspects. I guess if I had to pick one thing I’d like to make the raids more cohesive. Currently each section of the raid is broken up into its own instance, so there is never that feeling like you are adventuring into this dangerous place. You enter, kill boss, exit. I’d want to create a real sense of immersion and adventure and connect it all. As a backup, make the Glamour system (which is similar to WoW’s transmog) less cluttered.
Elysium had two groups place in the top 5 in the world race for Alexander Creator Savage. My server (Famfrit) also has seen a resurgence in raiding since it was one of the small servers affected by Gordias and Midas. What are your thoughts about Alexander Creator Savage and being part of Elysium, do you feel like you’ll ever return to the world progression race?
Alexander the Creator is the perfect level of raid content in terms of an MMO. Its a manageable number of bosses at a difficulty that, while difficult, is within reach of the player base. I do think it could still improve though. With only four bosses there is less room for difficulty to scale up as you progress through, and the hardcore raiders are finished with it quite fast. They seem to want to address the Hardcore Raiders in the expansion, but I still feel the number of bosses in general is low.
As for my return to world progression, I don’t think I’d ever seriously be able to compete again. At best I could progress super fast and stream the whole thing, but honestly streaming the raid content if you’re competing for World First is generally a no-no. I’ll hold my World Sixth on A3S on week 2 with no i200 weapons with pride!
My experiences in the different e-sports and other titles have led me to believe that different kinds of content can be produced. Do you feel like there is something missing in the FFXIV community content-wise?
I feel like FFXIV is missing a lot of PVP content creation. People may upload matches or stream it from time to time, but there isn’t really dedicated content for it. This is mostly due to FFXIV’s PVP not exactly being viewer friendly. Tons of skills, high barrier for entry and limited variety. They said they are going to massively overhaul PVP based on feedback from e-sports organizations and communities. After that we may have some room for more content to be produced here.
What advice would you give to someone starting to get into streaming?
My advice: do it as a hobby while working a normal job at first. Don’t jump in blazing with no following and try to go from 0-100. Thats a quick way to destroy self-confidence and burn yourself out. If you are currently between jobs, make some time each day and do it, though still as a hobby. Only try to go full-time if you’ve set up all the pieces: partnership, following and you’re income is steady enough doing it. Once you’re full-time it is a totally different experience that I could talk about for hours. Most importantly though, remember to have fun, because if you’re having fun you’re viewers are likely to be having fun with you.
Any parting thoughts?
First of all thank you for doing this interview with me! It’s always a pleasure to do things like this so I was happy to have the opportunity (no pun intended). Second, I hope people continue to enjoy FFXIV for a long-time to come. I love seeing new people try out the game and hopefully with Stormblood we’ll see a lot of new faces and the revision the development team has promised. Please look forward to it (please don’t sue me Yoshi-P).
Any shoutouts?
Shoutouts to the community, DREAM, that my girlfrend and I founded. So many of you have gotten partnered on Twitch and we are super proud of you. Shout out to Elysium for not only being awesome to raid with all these years, but for being great friends. Shout out to my community for helping me, even when the chips are down. Finally, shout out to my girlfriend, who believed in me all these years. She made her confidence my confidence, and without that I don’t know I would have lasted through the hard times. I love you babe.
Thank you for your time and safe travels in Stormblood!
Mrhappy’s Social Media:
https://twitter.com/mrhappy1227
https://www.twitch.tv/mrhappy1227
For Geno’s Twitter:
https://twitter.com/genocast