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CultureTwitchNavy Twitch Stream Spirals Out Of Control Due To Slur, War Crime Jokes [UPDATE]
Up to this point, the U.S. Army and Navy’s recruitment efforts on Twitch have been fraught to say the least, but over the weekend, the latter courted outright disaster. During a Saturday evening stream of Twitch mega-hit Among Us, players named themselves after America’s atomic bombing of Japan in 1945 and the N-word. During the…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 14, 2020 -
CultureTwitchChess Is An Esport, According To Twitch Star And Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura
Sometimes it’s the small sprinkles of strangeness that stand out the most. If you had told me several years ago that 2020 would bring daily disasters of incomprehensible consequence, I probably would have believed you, because we’ve been trending in that direction for a while now. The idea of an esports organization signing a chess…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 14, 2020 -
CultureTwitchTwitch Suspends Leafy, The Banned YouTuber Who Harassed Pokimane
LeafyIsHere is a creator known primarily for picking on other creators. Last month, he was permanently banned from YouTube for repeatedly violating the company’s harassment policies after a series of videos about Twitch star Imane “Pokimane” Anys—one of which kicked off a hashtag campaign around the existence of her supposed, secret boyfriend—as well as a…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 11, 2020 -
CultureTwitchNinja Is Back Exclusively On Twitch
After a months-long period of “will he or won’t he” with two determined suitors,Twitch and YouTube, streaming megastar Tyler “Ninja” Blevins has announced that his post-Mixer streaming return will happen “only” on Twitch. Blevins made the announcement on Twitter today with a tweet and a brief trailer “A new chapter, only on Twitch,” he wrote.…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 10, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsSpellbreak Is Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Battle Royale, And It Owns
I am, by nature, regrettably competitive. I like winning—big fan of not falling on my face and eating shit, here—but win/lose scenarios fill me with anxiety. Spellbreak sank its hooks into me the moment I realized that it made me stop caring about that. I was in the middle of a wild, multi-person melee. Gouts…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 9, 2020 -
CultureTwitchAmong Us‘ Improbable Rise To The Top Of Twitch
When Among Us, a game of deception set in deep space, was first conceived a few years ago, online multiplayer wasn’t in the cards. It wasn’t even going to be on PC. Streamers were the last thing on its developers’ minds. And yet, over the weekend, the game solidified its status as a Twitch phenomenon,…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 8, 2020 -
CultureTwitchStreamers Upset At Twitch For Fixing Bug That Actually Gave Fans A Good Deal
For the past handful of years, Twitch has run an annual “Subtember” promotion that lets viewers subscribe to streamers’ channels at a discounted rate. The longer they opt to subscribe for, the bigger the discount on the first month of a new subscription. This year, it seemed like Twitch had sweetened the deal in a…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 4, 2020 -
CultureValorant Temporarily Jettisons Omen After Accidentally Making Him Godlike
Team-based shooters like Valorant regularly add new heroes, but they’re not generally in the business of banishing them. Unfortunately, after a recent update, Valorant’s shadow-dwelling Reaper riff, Omen, transcended the game’s figurative and literal boundaries, which forced Riot to give him the (temporary) boot. This week, a Valorant patch not intended to make Omen briefly…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 3, 2020 -
CultureOdds and EndsHalo 3 Mod Turns Everybody Into Rats
Halo 3 has a rat. It looks like what would happen if you genetically modified a potato to give it legs. So of course, the rat is beloved by the Halo community. Now, thanks to the magic of modding, you can play Halo 3 as the Halo 3 rat. Originally just a background prop in…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 3, 2020 -
CultureCrusader Kings III, As Told By Steam Reviews
If you want to know if a game is good or bad, you read its Steam reviews—except in the case of Crusader Kings III. If you want to hear a whooooooooole lot about incest within dynastic families, then you read Steam reviews of Crusader Kings III Crusader Kings III, the long-awaited sequel to one of…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 2, 2020 -
CultureTwitchTwitch Employee Accused Of Sexual Assault No Longer With Company
Back in June, Hassan Bokhari, accounts director of strategic partnerships at Twitch, was accused of sexual abuse and assault by a Twitch streamer named Vio. Now, after an investigation that began months ago, Twitch has banned Bokhari from the platform, and he is no longer an employee at the company. This evening, Twitch banned Bokhari’s channel,…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 1, 2020 -
CultureTwitchThe Twitch Viewers Who Dedicate Their Days To Trolling The Army And Navy
Sam is a 20 year-old college student who says he felt deceived by military recruitment efforts at his own high school. Recently, he found a way to push back. He and dozens of others, spread across a couple of Discords, spend chunks of their day trolling the military on Twitch. They harbor no delusions. They…
By Nathan Grayson Published September 1, 2020 -
CultureKotaku Game DiaryWarframe‘s Big Twist Knocked My Brain Clean Out Of My Head
When someone first starts playing a long-running video game, a ritual begins. Friends who’ve spent considerably more time with the game immediately start asking “Have you gotten to [part that is so iconic as to have become revered]?” You reply “No” repeatedly, but that only builds anticipation. Will the moment live up to expectations, or…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 28, 2020 -
CultureTwitchAfter Crucible‘s Flop, Amazon’s New MMO Is Actually Doing Well On Twitch
Up until this week, Amazon Games wasn’t exactly batting a thousand. Its most notable achievement of the year was releasing Crucible, a team-based shooter that flopped so hard it had to be un-released. Its upcoming MMO, New World, is off to a much stronger start, in part because Twitch streamers are involved in a bigger…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 27, 2020 -
OpinionImpressionsWarframe‘s New Flesh Planet Is A Wild But Disjointed Ride
Warframe’s greatest strength is also its most intangible: It commits. Whether it’s the core idea of outer space ninjas who front flip down hallways at a million miles per hour or a full-on Hadestown-style musical intro for a planet focused on labor issues, Warframe is 100 percent all-in on everything it does. So when developer…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 26, 2020 -
CultureTwitchStreamer Drums His Way To Improbable Call Of Duty Headshot
Imagine being the person who got headshotted by a guy controlling Call of Duty with a drum set. What would you do? How would you react? Who would you become? This improbable kill, complete with a perfectly timed cymbal crash that caused several drummers who played for stand-up comedians back when that was a thing…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 24, 2020 -
CultureYou Love But Also Hate To See Fall Guys Players Banding Together To Stop Hackers
Every once in a while, you come across a phenomenon that refuses to fit neatly into the otherwise universal boxes of “You love to see it” and “You hate to see it.” Case in point: Fall Guys players are teaming up to boot hackers into the ravenous nightmare abyss that consumes Guys when they Fall…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 24, 2020 -
CultureTwitchStreamers Furious After Ad Company Uses Twitch Donations To Advertise Burger King
One of the most enjoyable aspects of Twitch is that you can never entirely predict what sort of alchemical chain reaction a streamer and their audience will create together. Recently, an ad agency representing Burger King decided to cash in on this inherent unpredictability, seemingly without asking anybody. Streamers are, to put it lightly, not…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 20, 2020 -
CultureTwitchPokimane’s Apology Video Splits Twitch Streamers And YouTubers
Late last month, drama-baiting YouTuber LeafyIsHere stirred up an internet-wide fuss over the idea that Imane “Pokimane” Anys, the most popular female streamer on Twitch, might have a boyfriend. It was the most recent evolution of a long-running line of thought: women on the internet keep their dating lives secret to fool gullible men into…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 19, 2020 -
CultureTwitchAfter Eight Days Of Trying, Popular Streamer TimTheTatman Finally Wins A Single Fall Guys Match
We live in divided times, but for the past few days, nearly every person living has been united by a single shared goal: giving Twitch super star Timothy “TimTheTatman” Betar shit for constantly eating shit in Fall Guys. Today, he finally won his first match ever. Until the big moment, which over 250,000 concurrent viewers…
By Nathan Grayson Published August 19, 2020
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