Casting Minecraft

A while back, my roommate and I decided that we wanted to start casting while we played through some custom maps for the oh so popular game "Minecraft". You hear people talking about how you can make money off the advertisements and get social recognition for your work and become a celebrity, but you have to wonder how many of those people actually achieve what they hope. I can only name a dozen or so popular casters for the Game Minecraft. That means either not many people try casting, or the more likely case is that they never gain the popularity they hope for.

When we started casting, we looked at it and decided "it's just for fun". We don't hope to make money, we do it because it adds an element to the experience. Sure playing maps made by others is fun, that's why the map makers make the maps.  They don't make them to make money, they volunteer their time.  When it comes to casters, its not as clear.  The map makers openly volunteer to make a map knowing they wont necessarily be paid, but the casters can be viewed as volunteers of entertainment, or actors.  So how do you tell?  Are they entertaining hundreds or thousands of viewers? Is it their content entertaining them or is it the map (made by someone else usually)? I figure the group might weed itself off. Perhaps the viewers will only watch the casters who are actually acting, putting on a good show.  The ones just going through the motions probably won't last.  You don't see too many of them around. Most casters that have thousands of subscribers make their shows unique from others, adding their personalities in.  What they say regularly becomes ingrained in the viewers head and their tales pull them back wanting to see what they do next.  Anyone could try to play through a map, why watch someone else play it, unless your watching for the caster.

I've found I hardly care what the casters I watch are playing, I'm just interested in listening to their "broadcast".  And the ones who seem to genuinely enjoy casting for the sake of it, are more entertaining.  They don't care how many viewers or money they get, just that they can make a few people smile.