On March 21, 2022, Frank “djayYAMS” Oyola finished a full eight-hour shift repairing hospital beds. On his way out, he emailed his boss a resignation letter, shook his coworkers’ hands, and left his job of 13 years. When he arrived home, he booted up his Twitch stream titled “I quit my job.” That day became the first of his career as a full-time DJ in Final Fantasy XIV.
Yams’ friend and fellow FFXIV Twitch DJ GT “SWAGE” Sills loved music from a young age. He performed musical theater in middle school and sang in a chamber choir in high school by day, traveling to countries like Austria, Greece, and Italy to sing with them. But by night, SWAGE played in a punk band covering GG Allin songs. His polarizing musical background led him to a career as a DJ, spinning tracks at events like Coachella and Electric Daisy Carnival before finding his way to DJing in FFXIV.
SWAGE, who lives in California, and Yams, a proud resident of the state of New Jersey, are known together to their communities as SWAMS. The two met shortly after they started DJing in FFXIV and streaming their craft on Twitch. After bonding over their mutual love for punk rock musician GG Allin, they became inseparable.
Unlike other content creators, Yams and SWAGE don’t focus on gameplay or clearing content. Instead, they park their toons in venues, player-owned plots that are decorated as clubs complete with a bar, dance floor, and spot for the DJ. Then, Yams and SWAGE go live on Twitch, angle their in-game cameras to the dance floor, and use professional controllers to mix songs for those dancing at the venue. It’s akin to a metaverse but in FFXIV. In fact, SWAGE sometimes enhances online voice chat by meeting in-game; we even met in the MMO to chat about his career.
DJing in FFXIV isn’t just a hobby for the pair. Yams can afford a comfortable life without roommates and SWAGE supports his family—his wife and two infant boys—through Twitch as their main source of income. Together, the two help foster a shared community of FFXIV Twitch DJs, a small yet welcoming group of people. This is in no small part due to SWAMS’ positive influence on the FFXIV clubbing scene, both together and individually.
What the heck is a Final Fantasy XIV club?
“Who would think, in a world full of catgirls and flying whales, friends can come together to embark on a musical journey across the realm,” SWAGE’s video about his upcoming virtual tour says. He’s referring to houses that players buy and turn into club venues. They hire a designer to decorate the house and a promotions team to advertise it, bring in staff to role-play, and pay a DJ to play at their events.
The DJ then arrives at the venue and directs their character to the stage in front of the guests. Then, they go live on Twitch and perform using their professional decks and computer software. The venue owners, officers, and sometimes the DJs themselves will put in the chat which DJ is playing, and people are encouraged to click the link and listen along to the streamer instead of in-game music. There are plenty of dance emotes players can pick from to make their character dance, and they often do so with a group of friends or with their Free Companies (FC).
Some DJs like SWAGE have dedicated dancers to enhance the viewing experience. Dancers coordinate dances while the DJ plays music and will follow them around from venue to venue. SWAGE pays his dancers for their time in Gil, the in-game currency, but many of them simply do it for fun.
DJs also typically have managers. Yams and SWAGE both have someone who manages their calendar and books their sets, which can last anywhere from half an hour to as long as the DJ wants to go. Performances are paid for in Gil, and DJs have different rates. SWAGE charges anywhere from one million to one and a half million Gil per hour for his sets, while Yams is a bit more flexible with his pricing.
A niche streaming focus brings in a steady income for two FFXIV DJs
SWAGE, who lives in Los Angeles, and Yams, who lives in northern New Jersey, are full-time DJs in FFXIV. The two have very different approaches to the ways they build their communities but have found success on Twitch, both boasting over 10,000 followers and an average of 100 to 200 viewers each time they go live for a set.
As far as their approach to generating income on their channels, what you see is what you get. Neither has a strategy, they just press the “Go live” button and are able to be themselves and make money doing it. Both Yams’ and SWAGE’s channels are built on being a little lewd. SWAGE calls himself the “uncouth catboi”, and Yams has taken to calling his racy alter-ego “Yaddy”.
On the djayYAMS Twitch channel, one of the staple channel point redemptions is to make Yams’ character do a themed dab. On SWAGE’s channel, for 10 million points, he will get a tattoo of your Twitch handle on his butt. While many of his community members are over one million, no one has come close to the 10 million needed for him to get inked yet. But he swears he will.
Each Twitch channel has its own vibe, and both generate enough income to live off of through Twitch subs, donations, bits, and gift subs. Yams owns his home in northern New Jersey, and although he lives a frugal lifestyle, it’s still a comfortable one.
SWAGE also lives comfortably with mostly Twitch income but will sometimes take audio tech gigs. Although those gigs pay well, they’re far and few between. SWAGE says his Twitch income is far more consistent. They each have a merch shop as well, but the majority of their income comes from the support of their communities, bolstered by their support for each other.
Love at first twerk: The beautiful love story of Yams and SWAGE
Yams and SWAGE aren’t married in real life, but they might as well be. The two bonded over American punk rock musician GG Allin, their incredible ability to keep a conversation for hours on end, and FFXIV.
“I was aware of him from day one [of streaming in FFXIV] and I was like ‘this guy’s the man,'” SWAGE said. “I would raid [his Twitch channel] a lot because I would end and he would start up [his stream].”
Yams says it was “love at first twerk” for him when he met SWAGE. It didn’t take long for the two to become in-game engaged, especially with the community cheering on their bromance. The romance waded into uncouth territory when SWAGE’s cat-girl character, a race called Miqo’te in the game, stepped on stage and twerked on Yams, who then popped “the question.”
“Cat girl SWAGE came and just started twerking, I was like ‘oh hell yeah, yo, let’s do it let’s become ceremony of eternally bonded,’” Yams said.
The Ceremony of Eternal Bonding allows two people in the game to get in-game married. They have to embark on a series of quests to strengthen their bond, and then they can invite friends and hold a ceremony where they exchange rings. Afterward, the two can use their rings to teleport to each other without a fee. Yams and SWAGE had their Eternal Bonding ceremony in August.
From in-game love to matching tattoos
The opportunity to meet in person happened in October with TwitchCon San Diego 2022. The two attended the con and had a few sets in-game and out of the game at an Airbnb they rented near the venue, and SWAGE took Yams to his first studio.
“It was cool because I had never been to a studio before,” Yams said. “You’re in a soundproof and sound treated room, and I’ve never been in one before … You could almost hear your heartbeat because it’s just that quiet.”
While in L.A., Yams got a SWAMS tattoo, and SWAGE scheduled his tattoo appointment for November where he’ll get a matching one, cementing their camaraderie forever.
When Yams returned to New Jersey, the two continued their long-distance bromance. Shortly after TwitchCon, Square Enix announced the return of the FFXIV Fan Fest, a convention where FFXIV players gather to watch live presentations and participate in game-related activities. It takes place in Las Vegas in July 2023, and the duo is looking to DJ in an official capacity during the con.
#SWAMS4FanFest
SWAMS created the “#SWAMS4FanFest” hashtag in hopes that they’ll be invited to DJ during FFXIV’s fan convention, and it often pops up when a viewer mentions the event in their chats. The two have reached out to Square Enix to offer their services and DJ parts of the event in an official capacity.
Square Enix has been unable to host an in-person Fan Fest since the pandemic started, but the event is finally making a return this year. The company hosted an entirely virtual Fan Fest in 2021 without attendees. Next year, the company will host one Fan Fest in Las Vegas and one in the U.K., as well as one in Japan in 2024.
Yams and SWAGE are already planning events around Fan Fest regardless of whether they play at the event. Because SWAGE has worked EDC, which is typically held in Las Vegas every year, he’s trying to nail down a venue to host an event where several other DJs will likely join in on keeping the party alive.
Until then, the pair can only stoke the flames of their bromance in-game and on stream. They’ll often hang around after their back-to-back sets and sometimes pop into each other’s chats or play a game together. The pair will have to wait until July next year to meet in person again when they go to Fan Fest.
Because the community is so small within the game, many fans know each other from the clubbing community, and DJs are right at the center of it. So not only will Yams and SWAGE be able to embrace for yet another event, they’ll be able to interact with and meet their community in a more intimate setting when the event does come around next year.
