Blyss Steele has been doing spicy streams since 2018 and has been on Joystick.tv since January of 2021. She’s a retro gamer who enjoys classic point-and-clicks and single-player adventure games and RPGs. She also plays Dungeons & Dragons weekly with the NSFW tabletop roleplaying group LewdTheBodies. She enjoys the silly side of life and is always trying to make her viewers laugh, telling stupid dad jokes and twerking to songs about loving cats. Her hobbies include watching bad horror movies, eating cookies, and getting herself helplessly lost in video games. Let’s find out more about her streaming journey.
Blyss Steele Interview
When and why did you start your streaming journey, and what initially inspired you to join the NSFW streaming community?
Blyss: I had been interested in camwork since I first saw a documentary about it when I was maybe 20, back in 2010. It looked like a lot of fun, and the women interviewed in the documentary were all so intelligent, funny, confident, and self-assured. I was inspired by their badass strength and positive attitudes. Camming was portrayed in the documentary in such a different light than the one we had all been fed about sex workers from a young age, about them being shameful and depraved, or forced to do it in some way, as a last resort, to support a drug habit, etc. One of the women featured in the documentary would even stream herself playing on her Xbox 360 while wearing lingerie, and that really piqued my interest. I’d always loved watching people play video games, way back to when I was a kid and my three siblings, and I would all sit behind my mom in the computer room and watch her play the King’s Quest Collection or Myst while my sister and I would braid her hair. Back in the early days of YouTube I would watch letsplays of the point-and-clicks I’d play as a kid, before the trend of game streaming even really caught on. I thought, “I could totally do that. And I’d be pretty dang good, I think. Especially with my boobs out.”
It wasn’t until 2018 when I was in grad school for creative writing that I finally decided to take the plunge. I feel like at that point, the sex-work-positive waves of feminism were peaking in many communities, including mine, as a late-20s academic in one of the most liberal and culturally diverse universities in the country where everyone’s biggest fear in their lectures was getting called out for their poems potentially being perceived as “problematic”. I felt safe enough then to make the pivot to getting naked in front of strangers for money without worrying about being shunned or shamed by friends and family. Plus, with my San Francisco rent prices being what they were, I felt I could use a little extra income to supplement working as a teaching assistant to the undergrads and a caretaker at a bougie doggy daycare.
When I started, I wanted to play Baldur’s Gate 2 for my audience, but I didn’t even know how to use OBS or capture a game window. Luckily, I was helped out by some very kind and supportive fellow streamers in the Discord server of the first site I streamed on, until I got a handle on the basics of streaming video games. At that point I didn’t even know of any sites that were dedicated to the practice of NSFW videogame streaming.
Why did you choose Joystick.tv as a streaming platform?
Blyss: I was streaming on another random cam site when a chatter told me “the weebs will love you on [the now dishonorably derelict and defunct streaming website formerly known as Plexstorm].” It was there that I found my first streaming home, meeting other NSFW gaming fanatics and finding some really dope communities. Happily, what happened with Plexstorm happened and Plexstorm is now dead, and even more happily, we now have a replacement complete with all the transparency, advocacy, support, and adequacy within the management that Plex lacked!
After Plex died, I was trying to make things work on Stripchat without an actual dedicated NSFW gaming community, when I noticed the Joystick had reached out to me on Twitter, saying they were looking for NSFW gaming streamers willing to try their new site. A streamer friend of mine who had gotten the same message and had tried Joystick out gave a stellar review and encouraged me to give them a shot. I was so pleased with the site’s clean layout, its user-friendly interface, and especially with the devs, and their dedication to making the site for the streamers and by the streamers, taking recommendations and critiques into account and making any changes when needed, rolling out updates at incredible speed, and staying in communication consistently through their Discord. My viewers were so chill and positive. I felt I had found my second, and permanent, home.
What do you enjoy the most about streaming on Joystick.tv?
Blyss: I love how dedicated the devs are to their streamers. They respect their bread and butter, and are ready to advocate for us at any turn. I also love the community, and how Joystick seems to attract all the nice, silly, chill, knowledgeable, and respectful kinds of gaming nerds I believe the site was made for. I always find myself laughing and joking around with my viewers every time I stream, and thoroughly enjoying the chat.
What video games/hobbies do you prefer to stream?
Blyss: I’m a retro gamer for sure. I never lost my obsession with 90s point-and-click adventures I had as a kid, and I’m always on the lookout for more to try out that I may have missed back in the day. Apart from that, I also like to stream slightly-newer-but-still-old games from my teens and 20s like Oblivion, Diablo 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Age of Empires 2. I love making my viewers go, “Oh my God! I remember this game!! Classic!!”
What do you do when you’re not streaming?
Blyss: I play with my four kitties Xiao Yu, Buggy, Cyrus, and Parsons. I watch way too many true crime documentaries and video essays on YouTube. I bike to and seek out nature trails looking for pretty plants and cute animals. I go explore thousands-of-years-old castle ruins here in England. I love old stuff and history and going to see ruins and super old castles, manors, and churches is one of my favorite things to do on a day off. I hope to see a ghost someday.
If you want to support Blyss Steele please make sure to check out her profile. Check out other great interviews of Joystick.tv streamers.