Twitch is different than YouTube. Twitch chat is infinitely more toxic than YouTube comments are. And their audiences are really entirely different age-wise. From what I've seen, Fortnite's...
Twitch is different than YouTube. Twitch chat is infinitely more toxic than YouTube comments are. And their audiences are really entirely different age-wise. From what I've seen, Fortnite's general 'base' is ~7-13 years old. A generalist YouTuber who's been around for a few years now? Will likely be a bit older than that, a bit less immature.
I've watched the occasional Twitch stream for whatever reasons (primarily game releases/complicated events in games I've found interesting), and it's the single most toxic online communication platform I've ever seen, personally.
Yeah, it does suck - but Twitch viewers are some of the worst; little kids aided by the occasional 20 year old troll who sends your address has a chance of fucking you up for life; add an extra target of vulnerability into the mix...? Not the...wisest thing, in my opinion.
This description makes Twitch sound like a nightmare. A multi-million dollar company has created an environment for children that is so toxic that adults are having to change their behaviour in...
This description makes Twitch sound like a nightmare. A multi-million dollar company has created an environment for children that is so toxic that adults are having to change their behaviour in regressive ways. Are Twitch doing anything to address this problem?
It is a nightmare. I hate the platform but love the content (ok, just some of the content) twitch fans have been calling for a change of leadership for a long time but twitch has no viable...
It is a nightmare. I hate the platform but love the content (ok, just some of the content) twitch fans have been calling for a change of leadership for a long time but twitch has no viable competition so they don't do shit.
This seems impossible, but I believe you. I don't think I'll ever be visiting Twitch as I've never understood the appeal of watching people play video games, IRL, or via stream. Also, these damned...
Twitch chat is infinitely more toxic than YouTube comments are.
This seems impossible, but I believe you.
I don't think I'll ever be visiting Twitch as I've never understood the appeal of watching people play video games, IRL, or via stream. Also, these damned kids need to get off my lawn!
90% of twitch chat is people spamming racist shit it's real time and for big streamers there are thousands of people, it becomes a shit flinging and screaming match most of the time, and chat...
90% of twitch chat is people spamming racist shit
it's real time and for big streamers there are thousands of people, it becomes a shit flinging and screaming match most of the time, and chat becomes impossible to read or follow
I don't think it has anything to do with people writing stories about him and a stream partner. I doubt either he or his wife go searching for Ninja erotica. He just doesn't want his wife spammed...
I don't think it has anything to do with people writing stories about him and a stream partner. I doubt either he or his wife go searching for Ninja erotica. He just doesn't want his wife spammed with pictures or videos/clips of himself and/or another party behaving inappropriately, where even the least suggestive acts can be taken out of context and cause issues.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with someone who is self-employed choosing who he works with. It's a sound decision because he feels it is. He's limiting his liability emotionally and financially, and there's no reason to think he's in the wrong for his decisions. I can guarantee that outside of work, his wife and he have female friends, it's not like he is saying he'll never talk to a female.
And I am also fairly certain that if a guy was acting inappropriately towards Ninja, he'd have no problem ending that relationship also. He's already done it with people who don't adhere to his family-friendly policy.
You might be offended by it but that doesn't mean it's wrong. His reasoning is entirely reasonable given the context. Your comparisons with queer and black streamers isn't fair.
You might be offended by it but that doesn't mean it's wrong. His reasoning is entirely reasonable given the context. Your comparisons with queer and black streamers isn't fair.
You don't need to be in the vicinity of a black person to be racist, the comparison here doesn't stand. If he's straight, then there's little ground to attack him on. While I do find the decision...
I refuse to work with black streamers, because people might conflate something I say to them as being racist
You don't need to be in the vicinity of a black person to be racist, the comparison here doesn't stand.
I refuse to work with queer streamers, because people might ship us”, would you find it equally as morally‐acceptable?
If he's straight, then there's little ground to attack him on.
While I do find the decision conflicting, I can understand Ninja's reasoning. Twitch is worse than Youtube when it comes to it's community, there's a reason Twitch Chat on it's own is a meme. Ninja said that his wife had nothing to do with the decision and it does cut down the drama a lot.
You ever see a popular twitch chat? This middle school level badgering happens all day every day with tfue for example because he plays with a girl like one time. It’s ridiculous and Ninja is...
You ever see a popular twitch chat? This middle school level badgering happens all day every day with tfue for example because he plays with a girl like one time. It’s ridiculous and Ninja is choosing to avoid it altogether. I see nothing wrong with it.
He has every right to do so as well. Reading the other comments here, some of you are misinformed and the Twitch culture is primarily filled with pre-teens and teens who watching Ninja for example...
He has every right to do so as well. Reading the other comments here, some of you are misinformed and the Twitch culture is primarily filled with pre-teens and teens who watching Ninja for example is their version of a soap opera. Anything said even with context, will be clipped and highlighted out of context for view, and just the toxicity that follows is absurd. I think it's fair to say that Ninja, especially being the biggest Twitch channel now, has every right to be cautious and wary not because people think he would flirt or cheat on his wife, but because the community will portray it as so for headlines to tarnish his reputation in the process.
There are two streamers I follow, break and kiwo, separately thier streams are nice, relatively small and respectable chat. The minute they stream together though, chat is filled with the most...
There are two streamers I follow, break and kiwo, separately thier streams are nice, relatively small and respectable chat. The minute they stream together though, chat is filled with the most cringeworthy innuendos, insinuations and inappropriate comments about them. They've both stated multiple time they are just friends but thier banter gets midly flirty and that just serves to encourage their chatters. Don't really blame ninja for wanting to avoid that shit for his wife's sake.
For the record other streamers I watch have similar banter between thier straight male friends and these don't result in nearly the same level of clips/comments/attention from thier viewership.
For the most part I hide the chat because it's completely inane.
Man. I gotta get off Tildes today! I'm getting no work done. I'm disappointed in this language. Seems like he is trying to sound like it's all about respect, but it sure feels like he doesn't...
Man. I gotta get off Tildes today! I'm getting no work done.
I'm disappointed in this language. Seems like he is trying to sound like it's all about respect, but it sure feels like he doesn't trust himself not to flirt with women. Or, if he doesn't trust women not to flirt with him... can't he just say, "I'm here to play"? Women have all of these lines to get men and their unsolicited attention to move on, and don't have the luxury of just saying "you know, to avoid this, I'm just not going to go outside," so maybe that's what's getting to me. "I'm married." "I'm just here to hang out with my friends." "I'm reading." "I'm meeting someone." "I'm late for something."
I know nothing about Twitch, twitch culture, streaming/culture, or video games, really, so I get that maybe the viewers are really shitty people, but it seems so limiting and disrespectful to say "Girls, I know that you want to stream with me because I'm popular and it might help your career/hobby, but I'm really doing this for you."
If you did, you'd realize that what he's saying makes a lot of sense. Has nothing to do with whether he trusts himself to not flirt, or that he doesn't want women to flirt with him. Viewers can...
I know nothing about Twitch, twitch culture, streaming/culture, or video games
If you did, you'd realize that what he's saying makes a lot of sense. Has nothing to do with whether he trusts himself to not flirt, or that he doesn't want women to flirt with him. Viewers can clip literally any moment of his stream---a huge problem when you have a viewership as large as he has. (The #1 largest Twitch channel.) It only takes one misspoken word, sentence, or face taken out of context.
But they can do the same with his male opponents / colleagues. There's probably already a bunch of homoerotic facfic about him. Why is it different? If he's protecting himself why isn't it enough...
But they can do the same with his male opponents / colleagues. There's probably already a bunch of homoerotic facfic about him.
Why is it different?
If he's protecting himself why isn't it enough ignore that kind of comment?
If he's protecting women, well, isn't it their choice to make?
“[Not being connected to other women online,] that was something I made 100-percent sure,” he said. It was his decision alone to keep his streaming partners men-only. “That was not even her. She had nothing to do with it. That was me being, ‘I love our relationship,’ and, ‘No — I’m not even gonna put you through that.’”
In any other context it's practically considered sexism: for a man and a woman to be unable to share the same space alone without it being assumed that they are in a relationship is really dumb,...
In any other context it's practically considered sexism: for a man and a woman to be unable to share the same space alone without it being assumed that they are in a relationship is really dumb, and a stigma that prevents a lot of friendships from being formed, and even business culture suffers as management might assume two workers are flirting when really they're being professionals.
But here it's almost akin to a celebrity just opting not to do sex/make-out scenes with anyone else, because they just don't want to make their spouse uncomfortable/insecure.
If you and your spouse have that kind of confidence or comfortableness in your relationship, have at it, but here it's a "I just don't want to even make my wife the slightest bit jealous." Frankly, I think it's kinda sweet.
I can't speak for him. End of the day, if it makes him uncomfortable then it's his choice. Nobody should ever make anyone feel obliged to do anything on their own damn channel.
I can't speak for him. End of the day, if it makes him uncomfortable then it's his choice. Nobody should ever make anyone feel obliged to do anything on their own damn channel.
Isn't it the choice of both him and the women in question? That is, if they both want to do it then good, they should. If one of them doesn't want to, then they shouldn't?
If he's protecting women, well, isn't it their choice to make
Isn't it the choice of both him and the women in question? That is, if they both want to do it then good, they should. If one of them doesn't want to, then they shouldn't?
I didn't get the impression that he doesn't trust one party not to flirt, see Even appearing with someone of the opposite gender can start the shipping, something that he wants to avoid...
I didn't get the impression that he doesn't trust one party not to flirt, see
[...] when she started playing Fortnite on streams with Kabbani, viewers began to ask: Are they dating? Fans assume Twitch streamers are in a relationship just as often as they speculate on their marital status.
Even appearing with someone of the opposite gender can start the shipping, something that he wants to avoid altogether:
“The only way to avoid that [gossip] is to not play with them at all.”
as he doesn't want to
put you [his wife] through that
As for the people doing this, per your post,
maybe the viewers are really shitty people
With any large group of anonymous people, a small but vocal subgroup can start something, and this goes especially true for Twitch chat, where a small group of people can start spamming something and have it be picked up but other people who just want to participate.
In addition to this, when VRChat was released I started to watch a group of streamers hanging out together. For those who doesn't know what vrchat is. It is basically a roleplay game where you can...
In addition to this, when VRChat was released I started to watch a group of streamers hanging out together. For those who doesn't know what vrchat is. It is basically a roleplay game where you can make your custom avatar and play with your virtual reality headset on as that character. As the nature of twitch, playing together is basically a free advertising for every streamer involved. So when they formed a group together eventually they have started having relationships and for RP purposes, people would start "dating" or "marry" each other. But twitch chat took those relationships very seriously. When a said streamer didn't spend their time with their "significant other" chat would spam things like "why arent you with him/her" "you cheater" "go hug him/her" and just like this wasn't enough whenever the said person was online people would jump on the chat and scream "X is online go join him/her" to a point this becomes so irritating that streamer has to remind people this is just a persona they made all the time. Twitch chat can really be awful at times.
So you literally have no basis to share to us an accurate opinion on the situation, why would attempt to anyway? I have decades of experience with video game culture and I even follow Tyler on...
I know nothing about Twitch, twitch culture, streaming/culture, or video games,
So you literally have no basis to share to us an accurate opinion on the situation, why would attempt to anyway?
I have decades of experience with video game culture and I even follow Tyler on Twitch, everything he is saying is pretty accurate and makes a lot of sense.
This is toeing the "don't be an asshole" line. There's a nice way to say "This thing you're missing is the make-or-break critical piece" that doesn't sound like "Shut the fuck up, I'm a gamer and...
This is toeing the "don't be an asshole" line.
There's a nice way to say "This thing you're missing is the make-or-break critical piece" that doesn't sound like "Shut the fuck up, I'm a gamer and therefore a badass."
Unless you were looking to give an example of the kind of culture found in Twitch, I guess.
In your view. In my view, I see someone cherrypicking one line out of an entire comment, telling that person that their entire opinion shouldn't be shared because, according to him, it has no...
In your view.
In my view, I see someone cherrypicking one line out of an entire comment, telling that person that their entire opinion shouldn't be shared because, according to him, it has no basis (even though they clearly outlined their basis and he quoted from it). And then it's capped with time spent playing video games as justification for knowing better.
If time spent in video games is what makes or breaks someone's credibility on this matter, then I am your GodKing and you should all bow down to me and my opinions. But that's a ridiculous benchmark.
There is no occasion where telling someone to not speak up is polite compared to simply informing them where they've lost a critical thread. It's not even like I disagree, Twitch is a very different beast than anything else. But it costs nothing to be more polite about it rather than jumping straight into stereotypical hostile gamer forum behaviour (and then justifying it with time spent playing video games).
Really, "hostile?" This is the area being discussed, so it's perfectly valid. EscReality quoted the parent comment saying that they didn't know anything about it, and then they back up their...
jumping straight into stereotypical hostile gamer forum behaviour
Really, "hostile?"
justifying it with time spent playing video games
This is the area being discussed, so it's perfectly valid. EscReality quoted the parent comment saying that they didn't know anything about it, and then they back up their call-out with their own knowledge.
Yes, really. I've already provided the explanation. Then I am your GodKing in this matter, and I say it's a stupid benchmark to have since time spent playing video games is not directly relevant...
Really, "hostile?"
Yes, really. I've already provided the explanation.
This is the area being discussed, so it's perfectly valid. EscReality quoted the parent comment saying that they didn't know anything about it, and then they back up their call-out with their own knowledge.
Then I am your GodKing in this matter, and I say it's a stupid benchmark to have since time spent playing video games is not directly relevant to being knowledgeable about Twitch culture. There's another comment thread in here where people are saying following LPs on YouTube is pretty different than Twitch chat. It's like saying you know a lot about postmodernist poetry because you've read a lot of books. And it's inarguably in the vein of your stereotypical "gamer" identity gatekeeping.
This would require the possession of social skills.
Or, if he doesn't trust women not to flirt with him... can't he just say, "I'm here to play"? Women have all of these lines to get men and their unsolicited attention to move on, and don't have the luxury of just saying "you know, to avoid this, I'm just not going to go outside," so maybe that's what's getting to me. "I'm married." "I'm just here to hang out with my friends." "I'm reading." "I'm meeting someone." "I'm late for something."
This would require the possession of social skills.
The thing is the audience for these games is very young, and they can not distinguish between friendly banter and flirting. Even if there's a conversation containing no sexual or romantic...
The thing is the audience for these games is very young, and they can not distinguish between friendly banter and flirting. Even if there's a conversation containing no sexual or romantic undertones, just making the other person laugh is enough to convince some fans that they are dating. This starts the rumor mill and puts stress on ninja and his wife, so it really is a lot easier to just avoid the problem all together.
I think Blevins is going to regret attempting to explain or justify his stance at all. IMO, he should have said, "I have my reasons, and they're none of your goddamn business. If you don't like...
I think Blevins is going to regret attempting to explain or justify his stance at all. IMO, he should have said, "I have my reasons, and they're none of your goddamn business. If you don't like it, tough shit."
But you can't say that to fans, unless you want to alienate them. It hurts their pwecious wittle feewings. Instead, you must cater to them.
That would probably make him come off as sexist. As for catering to fans, that's usually a streamer's entire business model. The "fans" are his customers. They donate, their subscriptions/views...
That would probably make him come off as sexist.
As for catering to fans, that's usually a streamer's entire business model. The "fans" are his customers. They donate, their subscriptions/views get him adspace (or however the sponsoring works for him). If he doesn't have them, he's making less money from streaming. It's in his best economic interest to be transparent about his choices.
He's only streaming with other dudes. No matter what he says, he's going to come off as sexist. Whatever his reasons, the people determined to be offended by his actions will find a reason to be...
That would probably make him come off as sexist.
He's only streaming with other dudes. No matter what he says, he's going to come off as sexist. Whatever his reasons, the people determined to be offended by his actions will find a reason to be offended. Attempting to apologize or explain yourself just makes you look weak.
There are people determined to be offended, then there's the vast majority of twitch viewers--many of whom would totally understand his reasoning here but also be turned off by a "none of your...
There are people determined to be offended, then there's the vast majority of twitch viewers--many of whom would totally understand his reasoning here but also be turned off by a "none of your business so fuck off" behavior. It's not as black & white as you're making it out to be.
Are you saying he's coming across as sexist and weak to you? Seemed the opposite to me. It's pretty sad to think that offering an apology or an explanation would generally make someone seem weak....
Are you saying he's coming across as sexist and weak to you? Seemed the opposite to me.
It's pretty sad to think that offering an apology or an explanation would generally make someone seem weak. That sounds like a terrible world to live in.
I'm saying that when you're in a position where people are determined to think the worst of you no matter what, you shouldn't cater to them by trying to apologize for your actions or explain them....
Are you saying he's coming across as sexist and weak to you? Seemed the opposite to me.
I'm saying that when you're in a position where people are determined to think the worst of you no matter what, you shouldn't cater to them by trying to apologize for your actions or explain them. You should stand proud and defiant.
Welcome to politics lol The person who stands "proud and defiant" ends up getting fed to the sharks. Votership (and viewership) depends on appealing to a large crowd with the least amount of...
Welcome to politics lol
The person who stands "proud and defiant" ends up getting fed to the sharks. Votership (and viewership) depends on appealing to a large crowd with the least amount of exposure possible. Sound clips that make you out to be bad have to be countered by sound clips that make you out to be good. Most people do not have the time to invest to know where you truly "stand".
Who are these people? Who is "them"? Is it his fanbase that you infantilized, or some people on the social extremes who are out to always cast judgement? You first recommend he take this "fuck...
Who are these people? Who is "them"? Is it his fanbase that you infantilized, or some people on the social extremes who are out to always cast judgement? You first recommend he take this "fuck you" approach to his own fanbase. Now you're saying it should be done in response to a few people who refuse to hear him out.
They are not the same groups of people. In reality, fans more often than not jump to the defence of the thing they're fanatical about. It seems like a bad idea to base your position and actions on the few who you never cared about and who don't care about you, and then use that approach on your own fanbase.
Can you imagine if some sports team decided to ban its own fans from its stadium because some other team's subsection of fans across the continent decided they didn't like that first team's logo? It'd be a rather silly overreaction.
Further, why would the apology or explanation be for the people who don't want to hear it? If they're for anyone, it's for the people who are looking to support you.
I think most men look at that sort of thing as a basic risk assessment. If they avoid doing it, then they will never have any problems regardless of the circumstances. I doubt it ever gets to the...
I think most men look at that sort of thing as a basic risk assessment. If they avoid doing it, then they will never have any problems regardless of the circumstances. I doubt it ever gets to the point where they ask themselves if they can trust themselves, or think about their own view of women as a factor. They see the potential risk as something easy to avoid, so they do it. They simply 'nope' out of the equation.
Do we blame the men for knee-jerk self-preservation, or do we blame society for making it appear to be such a risk with all of the sensationalized bullshit and rabid witch-hunting surrounding the...
Do we blame the men for knee-jerk self-preservation, or do we blame society for making it appear to be such a risk with all of the sensationalized bullshit and rabid witch-hunting surrounding the issue? Seems like there's plenty of blame to go around.
I say this as someone who mentors indiscriminately: I definitely understand why people might do that. People are inundated all the time with media talking about the worst possible outcomes that...
I say this as someone who mentors indiscriminately: I definitely understand why people might do that.
People are inundated all the time with media talking about the worst possible outcomes that can happen. I don't think it's fair or reasonable to expect that all people are going to be able to look at all the "news" that we read and say, "that's got an agenda of some kind, and I should probably ignore it".
Unless or until we fix some of the systemic issues with how we take in news and how we learn about the negative things that are observable, we shouldn't fault the people who take in "facts" that aren't real and form world views on them. We have to do something about the sources of those erroneous "facts". This is relevant in a lot of areas:
people do sexist things to protect themselves from being sexist
people form racist / insular viewpoints (eg. "Muslims are awful") based on erroneous information
people actively vote against their own best interests, or against things that they believe, because if their misunderstanding of current politics
I don't think that it's really the fault of the people who do these things, but the school system that allows people to grow up without basic understandings of things, and the media system which sensationalizes and polarizes every aspect of our existence these days.
I understand and appreciate that as well. It's especially prevalent in the industry that I'm in (software development) and I'm lucky to be in a place that is diverse; I've had the opportunity to...
it’s maddening to constantly be on the other end of
I understand and appreciate that as well. It's especially prevalent in the industry that I'm in (software development) and I'm lucky to be in a place that is diverse; I've had the opportunity to work with and mentor several women, and it has been a great experience. I generally feel sorry for people who limit themselves this way from mentorship, but on the other hand if someone is unable to understand why this is a problematic stance to take, then they may not be the best person to mentor someone else in the first place.
That's small comfort, though, especially when it hurts one's career.
It doesn't look like those stats include things that aren't actually charges though. I've anecdotally heard that a lot of male teachers have left the field because it's a ton of work and stressful...
It doesn't look like those stats include things that aren't actually charges though. I've anecdotally heard that a lot of male teachers have left the field because it's a ton of work and stressful to make sure that you're never in a situation where a female student can accuse you of something. They're not really afraid of being arrested or anything, they're more afraid of being falsely accused of something and losing their careers and being ostracized by their friends and family because of it. I could see a lot of incidents like that basically just ending with firings instead of criminal charges. It's really hard to tell if that anecdotal evidence is actually valid or not though, since there aren't really any stats for "accusations that affected someone's life, but were never official criminal accusations". It could also just be that the anecdotal evidence is coming from men that think false accusations are a realistic probability, even when they aren't.
I'm assuming you've never watched a Twitch stream of anyone with a primarily young, straight and white audience?
Twitch is different than YouTube. Twitch chat is infinitely more toxic than YouTube comments are. And their audiences are really entirely different age-wise. From what I've seen, Fortnite's general 'base' is ~7-13 years old. A generalist YouTuber who's been around for a few years now? Will likely be a bit older than that, a bit less immature.
I've watched the occasional Twitch stream for whatever reasons (primarily game releases/complicated events in games I've found interesting), and it's the single most toxic online communication platform I've ever seen, personally.
Yeah, it does suck - but Twitch viewers are some of the worst; little kids aided by the occasional 20 year old troll who sends your address has a chance of fucking you up for life; add an extra target of vulnerability into the mix...? Not the...wisest thing, in my opinion.
This description makes Twitch sound like a nightmare. A multi-million dollar company has created an environment for children that is so toxic that adults are having to change their behaviour in regressive ways. Are Twitch doing anything to address this problem?
Laughing to the bank with all their money
Of course not. Where's the onus for any online media to practice responsibility?
It is a nightmare. I hate the platform but love the content (ok, just some of the content) twitch fans have been calling for a change of leadership for a long time but twitch has no viable competition so they don't do shit.
This seems impossible, but I believe you.
I don't think I'll ever be visiting Twitch as I've never understood the appeal of watching people play video games, IRL, or via stream. Also, these damned kids need to get off my lawn!
90% of twitch chat is people spamming racist shit
it's real time and for big streamers there are thousands of people, it becomes a shit flinging and screaming match most of the time, and chat becomes impossible to read or follow
Twitch chat for small streamers is actually really nice. I think it's just a small very vocal minority who spam on big streams
I don't think it has anything to do with people writing stories about him and a stream partner. I doubt either he or his wife go searching for Ninja erotica. He just doesn't want his wife spammed with pictures or videos/clips of himself and/or another party behaving inappropriately, where even the least suggestive acts can be taken out of context and cause issues.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with someone who is self-employed choosing who he works with. It's a sound decision because he feels it is. He's limiting his liability emotionally and financially, and there's no reason to think he's in the wrong for his decisions. I can guarantee that outside of work, his wife and he have female friends, it's not like he is saying he'll never talk to a female.
And I am also fairly certain that if a guy was acting inappropriately towards Ninja, he'd have no problem ending that relationship also. He's already done it with people who don't adhere to his family-friendly policy.
You might be offended by it but that doesn't mean it's wrong. His reasoning is entirely reasonable given the context. Your comparisons with queer and black streamers isn't fair.
You don't need to be in the vicinity of a black person to be racist, the comparison here doesn't stand.
If he's straight, then there's little ground to attack him on.
While I do find the decision conflicting, I can understand Ninja's reasoning. Twitch is worse than Youtube when it comes to it's community, there's a reason Twitch Chat on it's own is a meme. Ninja said that his wife had nothing to do with the decision and it does cut down the drama a lot.
You ever see a popular twitch chat? This middle school level badgering happens all day every day with tfue for example because he plays with a girl like one time. It’s ridiculous and Ninja is choosing to avoid it altogether. I see nothing wrong with it.
He has every right to do so as well. Reading the other comments here, some of you are misinformed and the Twitch culture is primarily filled with pre-teens and teens who watching Ninja for example is their version of a soap opera. Anything said even with context, will be clipped and highlighted out of context for view, and just the toxicity that follows is absurd. I think it's fair to say that Ninja, especially being the biggest Twitch channel now, has every right to be cautious and wary not because people think he would flirt or cheat on his wife, but because the community will portray it as so for headlines to tarnish his reputation in the process.
Additional comments from Ninja on the issue:
https://twitter.com/Ninja/status/1029128224457072641
@dubteedub ^
There are two streamers I follow, break and kiwo, separately thier streams are nice, relatively small and respectable chat. The minute they stream together though, chat is filled with the most cringeworthy innuendos, insinuations and inappropriate comments about them. They've both stated multiple time they are just friends but thier banter gets midly flirty and that just serves to encourage their chatters. Don't really blame ninja for wanting to avoid that shit for his wife's sake.
For the record other streamers I watch have similar banter between thier straight male friends and these don't result in nearly the same level of clips/comments/attention from thier viewership.
For the most part I hide the chat because it's completely inane.
It would be funny if he was cheating on his wife the entire time.
Man. I gotta get off Tildes today! I'm getting no work done.
I'm disappointed in this language. Seems like he is trying to sound like it's all about respect, but it sure feels like he doesn't trust himself not to flirt with women. Or, if he doesn't trust women not to flirt with him... can't he just say, "I'm here to play"? Women have all of these lines to get men and their unsolicited attention to move on, and don't have the luxury of just saying "you know, to avoid this, I'm just not going to go outside," so maybe that's what's getting to me. "I'm married." "I'm just here to hang out with my friends." "I'm reading." "I'm meeting someone." "I'm late for something."
I know nothing about Twitch, twitch culture, streaming/culture, or video games, really, so I get that maybe the viewers are really shitty people, but it seems so limiting and disrespectful to say "Girls, I know that you want to stream with me because I'm popular and it might help your career/hobby, but I'm really doing this for you."
If you did, you'd realize that what he's saying makes a lot of sense. Has nothing to do with whether he trusts himself to not flirt, or that he doesn't want women to flirt with him. Viewers can clip literally any moment of his stream---a huge problem when you have a viewership as large as he has. (The #1 largest Twitch channel.) It only takes one misspoken word, sentence, or face taken out of context.
But they can do the same with his male opponents / colleagues. There's probably already a bunch of homoerotic facfic about him.
Why is it different?
If he's protecting himself why isn't it enough ignore that kind of comment?
If he's protecting women, well, isn't it their choice to make?
The article clearly states why: for his wife.
In any other context it's practically considered sexism: for a man and a woman to be unable to share the same space alone without it being assumed that they are in a relationship is really dumb, and a stigma that prevents a lot of friendships from being formed, and even business culture suffers as management might assume two workers are flirting when really they're being professionals.
But here it's almost akin to a celebrity just opting not to do sex/make-out scenes with anyone else, because they just don't want to make their spouse uncomfortable/insecure.
If you and your spouse have that kind of confidence or comfortableness in your relationship, have at it, but here it's a "I just don't want to even make my wife the slightest bit jealous." Frankly, I think it's kinda sweet.
I can't speak for him. End of the day, if it makes him uncomfortable then it's his choice. Nobody should ever make anyone feel obliged to do anything on their own damn channel.
Isn't it the choice of both him and the women in question? That is, if they both want to do it then good, they should. If one of them doesn't want to, then they shouldn't?
I didn't get the impression that he doesn't trust one party not to flirt, see
Even appearing with someone of the opposite gender can start the shipping, something that he wants to avoid altogether:
as he doesn't want to
As for the people doing this, per your post,
With any large group of anonymous people, a small but vocal subgroup can start something, and this goes especially true for Twitch chat, where a small group of people can start spamming something and have it be picked up but other people who just want to participate.
In addition to this, when VRChat was released I started to watch a group of streamers hanging out together. For those who doesn't know what vrchat is. It is basically a roleplay game where you can make your custom avatar and play with your virtual reality headset on as that character. As the nature of twitch, playing together is basically a free advertising for every streamer involved. So when they formed a group together eventually they have started having relationships and for RP purposes, people would start "dating" or "marry" each other. But twitch chat took those relationships very seriously. When a said streamer didn't spend their time with their "significant other" chat would spam things like "why arent you with him/her" "you cheater" "go hug him/her" and just like this wasn't enough whenever the said person was online people would jump on the chat and scream "X is online go join him/her" to a point this becomes so irritating that streamer has to remind people this is just a persona they made all the time. Twitch chat can really be awful at times.
So you literally have no basis to share to us an accurate opinion on the situation, why would attempt to anyway?
I have decades of experience with video game culture and I even follow Tyler on Twitch, everything he is saying is pretty accurate and makes a lot of sense.
This is toeing the "don't be an asshole" line.
There's a nice way to say "This thing you're missing is the make-or-break critical piece" that doesn't sound like "Shut the fuck up, I'm a gamer and therefore a badass."
Unless you were looking to give an example of the kind of culture found in Twitch, I guess.
I was more trying to point out that he shouldn't be making assumptions about a topic that he has no basis to comment on.
Nowhere did EscReality use the words you're using; their post was nowhere near what you're saying it is.
In your view.
In my view, I see someone cherrypicking one line out of an entire comment, telling that person that their entire opinion shouldn't be shared because, according to him, it has no basis (even though they clearly outlined their basis and he quoted from it). And then it's capped with time spent playing video games as justification for knowing better.
If time spent in video games is what makes or breaks someone's credibility on this matter, then I am your GodKing and you should all bow down to me and my opinions. But that's a ridiculous benchmark.
There is no occasion where telling someone to not speak up is polite compared to simply informing them where they've lost a critical thread. It's not even like I disagree, Twitch is a very different beast than anything else. But it costs nothing to be more polite about it rather than jumping straight into stereotypical hostile gamer forum behaviour (and then justifying it with time spent playing video games).
Really, "hostile?"
This is the area being discussed, so it's perfectly valid. EscReality quoted the parent comment saying that they didn't know anything about it, and then they back up their call-out with their own knowledge.
Yes, really. I've already provided the explanation.
Then I am your GodKing in this matter, and I say it's a stupid benchmark to have since time spent playing video games is not directly relevant to being knowledgeable about Twitch culture. There's another comment thread in here where people are saying following LPs on YouTube is pretty different than Twitch chat. It's like saying you know a lot about postmodernist poetry because you've read a lot of books. And it's inarguably in the vein of your stereotypical "gamer" identity gatekeeping.
I can't respond to an abstract point. Do you have some logic to this?
This would require the possession of social skills.
The thing is the audience for these games is very young, and they can not distinguish between friendly banter and flirting. Even if there's a conversation containing no sexual or romantic undertones, just making the other person laugh is enough to convince some fans that they are dating. This starts the rumor mill and puts stress on ninja and his wife, so it really is a lot easier to just avoid the problem all together.
I think Blevins is going to regret attempting to explain or justify his stance at all. IMO, he should have said, "I have my reasons, and they're none of your goddamn business. If you don't like it, tough shit."
But you can't say that to fans, unless you want to alienate them. It hurts their pwecious wittle feewings. Instead, you must cater to them.
That would probably make him come off as sexist.
As for catering to fans, that's usually a streamer's entire business model. The "fans" are his customers. They donate, their subscriptions/views get him adspace (or however the sponsoring works for him). If he doesn't have them, he's making less money from streaming. It's in his best economic interest to be transparent about his choices.
He's only streaming with other dudes. No matter what he says, he's going to come off as sexist. Whatever his reasons, the people determined to be offended by his actions will find a reason to be offended. Attempting to apologize or explain yourself just makes you look weak.
There are people determined to be offended, then there's the vast majority of twitch viewers--many of whom would totally understand his reasoning here but also be turned off by a "none of your business so fuck off" behavior. It's not as black & white as you're making it out to be.
Are you saying he's coming across as sexist and weak to you? Seemed the opposite to me.
It's pretty sad to think that offering an apology or an explanation would generally make someone seem weak. That sounds like a terrible world to live in.
I'm saying that when you're in a position where people are determined to think the worst of you no matter what, you shouldn't cater to them by trying to apologize for your actions or explain them. You should stand proud and defiant.
Welcome to politics lol
The person who stands "proud and defiant" ends up getting fed to the sharks. Votership (and viewership) depends on appealing to a large crowd with the least amount of exposure possible. Sound clips that make you out to be bad have to be countered by sound clips that make you out to be good. Most people do not have the time to invest to know where you truly "stand".
Who are these people? Who is "them"? Is it his fanbase that you infantilized, or some people on the social extremes who are out to always cast judgement? You first recommend he take this "fuck you" approach to his own fanbase. Now you're saying it should be done in response to a few people who refuse to hear him out.
They are not the same groups of people. In reality, fans more often than not jump to the defence of the thing they're fanatical about. It seems like a bad idea to base your position and actions on the few who you never cared about and who don't care about you, and then use that approach on your own fanbase.
Can you imagine if some sports team decided to ban its own fans from its stadium because some other team's subsection of fans across the continent decided they didn't like that first team's logo? It'd be a rather silly overreaction.
Further, why would the apology or explanation be for the people who don't want to hear it? If they're for anyone, it's for the people who are looking to support you.
Kind of reminds me of this.
Since #MeToo, the Number of Men Who Are Uncomfortable Mentoring Women Has Tripled
I think most men look at that sort of thing as a basic risk assessment. If they avoid doing it, then they will never have any problems regardless of the circumstances. I doubt it ever gets to the point where they ask themselves if they can trust themselves, or think about their own view of women as a factor. They see the potential risk as something easy to avoid, so they do it. They simply 'nope' out of the equation.
Do we blame the men for knee-jerk self-preservation, or do we blame society for making it appear to be such a risk with all of the sensationalized bullshit and rabid witch-hunting surrounding the issue? Seems like there's plenty of blame to go around.
I say this as someone who mentors indiscriminately: I definitely understand why people might do that.
People are inundated all the time with media talking about the worst possible outcomes that can happen. I don't think it's fair or reasonable to expect that all people are going to be able to look at all the "news" that we read and say, "that's got an agenda of some kind, and I should probably ignore it".
Unless or until we fix some of the systemic issues with how we take in news and how we learn about the negative things that are observable, we shouldn't fault the people who take in "facts" that aren't real and form world views on them. We have to do something about the sources of those erroneous "facts". This is relevant in a lot of areas:
I don't think that it's really the fault of the people who do these things, but the school system that allows people to grow up without basic understandings of things, and the media system which sensationalizes and polarizes every aspect of our existence these days.
I understand and appreciate that as well. It's especially prevalent in the industry that I'm in (software development) and I'm lucky to be in a place that is diverse; I've had the opportunity to work with and mentor several women, and it has been a great experience. I generally feel sorry for people who limit themselves this way from mentorship, but on the other hand if someone is unable to understand why this is a problematic stance to take, then they may not be the best person to mentor someone else in the first place.
That's small comfort, though, especially when it hurts one's career.
It doesn't look like those stats include things that aren't actually charges though. I've anecdotally heard that a lot of male teachers have left the field because it's a ton of work and stressful to make sure that you're never in a situation where a female student can accuse you of something. They're not really afraid of being arrested or anything, they're more afraid of being falsely accused of something and losing their careers and being ostracized by their friends and family because of it. I could see a lot of incidents like that basically just ending with firings instead of criminal charges. It's really hard to tell if that anecdotal evidence is actually valid or not though, since there aren't really any stats for "accusations that affected someone's life, but were never official criminal accusations". It could also just be that the anecdotal evidence is coming from men that think false accusations are a realistic probability, even when they aren't.