Variety runs
Games played start to finish, from a library that was bought, borrowed, or found in a bin. No capture rig, no studio — a PlayStation and one camera.
THE STATEMENT
2nd String Gaming gives overlooked players and creators a fair shot.
We build an accessible community where every player belongs, and we reinvest part of what this thing earns into autism research and programs shaped by autistic voices. That is the whole mission. Every other page on this site is a way of keeping it.
Overlooked does not mean outmatched.
02
THE NAME
Second string is the part of the roster nobody films. It is the player who shows up to every practice, learns the whole playbook, and waits. Most of the people we want on this channel have been there — in games, in work, in rooms where someone else always got picked first.
The name is not self-deprecation. A second-string player is ready. The only thing missing is the call. This channel exists to make that call, out loud, on a schedule.
What runs on the channel
FORMAT / VARIETY
FORMAT / BUILD
Build streams
Design work on the clock and on camera. Conceptual for now — the brief is invented, the thinking is real — until 2SG has a design studio of its own. The false starts stay in.
FORMAT / COMMUNITY
Community builds
Chat sets the brief. What gets made is decided live — the room picks it, the build happens off stream, and the result comes back when it is done.
What we commit to
01 / GEAR
When the gear changes you see the receipt, not a reveal. Merch is the exception — a new drop gets a proper reveal, because the merch is the product.
STRAIGHT ON BOTH
02 / ACCESS
Voice and camera optional. Captions ship with produced video. No information carried by colour alone.
DOOR OPEN
03 / PLEDGE
Next year’s pledge percentage is published before the current fiscal year ends, and the figures for the year just closed go up beside it. Both live on a public pledge page.
BEFORE, NOT AFTER
04 / ENTRY
Every giveaway carries a free path worth exactly what a paid one is worth.
ALWAYS FREE
THE OPEN ROSTER PLEDGE
Reinvested, not rebranded
2nd String Gaming, LLC pledges 2.4% of its yearly profit to neurodiversity-affirming autism research and to programs shaped by autistic people.
Autistic people are not a monolith and this channel does not speak for them. The pledge funds work that autistic people lead or shape.
HOW IT IS PAID
The amount is calculated on a completed fiscal year and then given away in three equal donations, one in each of the first three quarters of the following year. The fourth quarter is our planning quarter and carries no donation.
The recipients are being chosen now and will be named before the first donation is made. The shortlist is public:
- Autism Research Institute
- Autism Science Foundation
- Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative
It is a commitment against annual profit, not a per-item donation. Full terms are in the Terms of Use.