I can't help you much with equipment, but I'd say go for it. I have always enjoyed watching people play games.

Here's how My setup works. I have a Behringer XENYX302 which connects to my computer via USB. I've got the Shure SM-48 microphone connected via XLR. The mixer has a couple of line in ports for connecting external devices, and two audio out jacks. The RCA out is for connecting it to a speaker or other device, and there's a 3.5mm headphone out jack. There's also a 3.5mm audio in jack, but that's in mono so only use that with a microphone. I learned that the hard way. There's also a button that specifies whether you want the audio from your computer to go through the mixer or not. The mixer appears as both an input and output device, so you can mixalmost anything you want. I think it's better than using VB Cable or Virtual Audio Cable. It's not quite as powerful as LoopBack, but that's sadly a macOS exclusive application.

Both the mixer and microphone only cost $50. I also had to purchase an XLR cable for $6 or so and a stand for the Shure for about $14, so the total price for equipment is around $120 which isn't bad at all. If you want the ability to record external devices, throw in the price of one or two RCA to 3.5mm cables. Still, that's a decent setup for well under $200. I think that's pretty cool! It means there's no excuse for all these YouTubers who make horrible sounding videos using crappy laptop or cell phone microphones that echo and pick up everything.

As for servers, that depends on what you want to use. I pay $5 a month for a Linux VPS from Linode. This VPS runs all my game servers, an Icecast server for streaming, a Team Talk server, and anything else I think of in the future. I like Icecast because it uses far less bandwidth than a YouTube stream. I have major problems with streams dropping when I tried YouTube. I could use Ethernet, but running a Cat6 cable to my bedroom from the living room seems like a major pain in the ass.

If you want people to join your streams using a chat app, I'd personally recommend using Team Talk or something else that doesn't require you to give out your personal contact info. Of course, you're free to give out your info, but if there are certain people you'd rather not have such info, using Team Talk, Twitter, Ding, etc would work well. The only problem I've run into is that there's no way to share the audio from your computer without the other people being forced to listen to both your computer and themselves. That's just how the mixer I have works, and I haven't found a way around that yet.

Whether you want to do this is completely up to you. I personally thought the stream I ran last night was a lot of fun. I'm not sure if you were listening to it, but it was still a lot of fun regardless of how many people were tuned into it. If you can convince sighted people to listen, even better. I always like to tell people to pretend you're listening to an audio drama or old time radio show. People who have an open mind might actually enjoy the experience. None of my videos on YouTube have meaningful graphics, and I don't care.

I hope that helps. If you need any more help or want me to go through the specific processes I use, feel free to post here or send me a forum email.

mixer for live sound interface for what you want but some do both fine so these guys know and they say things. Sotware like virtual cable do some thing if ok enough but mixer help. I can do using virtual audio cable use reaper to process me without hardware. well they have you right so i go now i have long time things not come right now easy i lay here in the bed and after liam streamed for 18 heou and i not the whole time there but waked long enough at least for that amount i fery tired so other guys say and i not say now but in time i is back alive again i say if i not hungry now i need software control of it. ok now other guy give good advice so yo uplay games and strem but peraon is important person help make them want stay on your stream you have to watch other mainstream streams hahahahah mainstream streams likelllllllaaaaalalalala hahahaha hehehehe mainstream streams omfg ok i in in in at again watch and they give good personality right so you do it and you get people and peoe stay and good thing happen dont do it right and maybe few say but not all some they have it ability always some not having and some learn ok i after liam now way time too late i leep now good

So I'll chime in with my setup, but I am really the wrong person to ask as my setup is kinda complex
I have a mackie 1202 VLZ Pro 4 I believe. It's an analogue mixer that connects to a sound card ont he PC. yes I could go digital, but I'm old and cranky like that.
Channels 5 6 and 7 all have sound cards on them. 5 is a sound blaster, 6 is the realtech, 7 is a USB IMic, but any card is fine.
My mixer allows me to route channels I do not want going over the main inputs to a alternate set of outputs which I can preview through my headphones.
All the game audio and pretty much any audio comes through channel 5. I put NVDA on channel 6 which I route to the alternate outputs so that no one gets to hear what I'm doing lol. Channel 7 is the IMic which I primarily fire up for skype. I use an aux send connected to the mic in on the USB card to send only my microphone to people on skype.
I have not looked at mixers in many years, so I don't even know what is good or bad as far as digital is concerned.

If you want to stream a game and yourself and that's all, you don't even need a mixer. Hell you don't even need to use an audio repeater but you do need VAC or some equivalent. You can use windows 10 now to redirect apps to a certain output with the caveat that the app will have had to like, initialize the sound system or make sound first. I sometimes also use reaper to process my voice, like add a touch of EQ and compression.

@10, so you're saying that there won't be any latency if I use the method you described? This is why I don't want to use VAC, because the way I do it is to make an audio repeater, and tie the two sources together, i.e., the game and whatever other programs need to be streamed on line 1, and my mic on line 2. Even with the total buffers set down to 100, which I've heard is about as low as you can go before problems start to occur, there is still a slight delay between your keystrokes and when the game receives them, which is definitely not what I want. On the other hand, streaming a game and my voice is really about all I need, so if I can do that without latency, it's one less thing i have to worry about.

At everyone else, Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have a look at some of the mixers which were recommended, although I would be really happy if I don't have to go that route. I was surprised at how inexpensive they are, I thought for sure they would cost a lot more than that. I don't really have the physical space for such a thing anyway, but I'll make it work if I have to. I don't even know if this is going to take off, so it would suck to buy a mixer and then have no use for it. At least having a website and server space could have other uses if this doesn't pan out.

Why don't more applications use Windows WASAPI? It would simplify the process of capturing computer sound. The only programs that do this to my knowledge are Audacity and Gold Wave.