Jumping Ship.

YouTube Gaming happily repurposes all the golden seeds poached from Twitch's dwindling garden.

I have witnessed a lot of change happen to Twitch over the past year. First shock came when Dr. Disrespect was banned without due process or warning for which he now plans to litigate. It is only right. He deserves justice. The action that was taken hurt him, and his family.

He was playing a role. As he is doing the same on YouTube Gaming. The network was happy to pick him up after he was tossed to the curb by Twitch. He had millions of followers and multiple-thousands of paying subscribers stripped away without warning. YouTube gladly welcomed him, with money in hand. Because the Universe knows, and the Universe listens. The Universe knew that Dr. Disrespect’s livelihood was removed by the click of a button by someone who decided it would be in Twitch’s best interests to ban him without cause or warning.

I can see the conversation clear as day when it happened. I can imagine it went something like this, since I am offered the liberties to dream and imagine conversations that lead to attacking someone’s livelihood. Since no one has come forward to explain the rationale behind it, which will make this supposed litigation by Dr. Disrespect most expensive. But if I were to imagine a conversation happening, for the sake of entertaining myself and getting to the bottom of this matter, which is Justice, and it is happening, just hang with me as there is much more to talk about. This is in fact the tip of the iceberg that sinks the Titanic that is Twitch.tv:

(What follows is a dramatization, and complete fabrication. I was not there to hear the conversation, but I can only imagine if I were there, deciding to ban Dr. Disrespect without cause or due process, that I would be part of a conversation that goes something like this. And remember, this is fiction. By no means is this really the conversation that occurred, and by no means do I wish for anyone to be offended, more than understanding there are consequences that come when interfering with the well being of a family that is otherwise set and good to go. To understand that this not only affects the streamer, but that streamer’s family who is being supported by the income generated by streaming incredible content to viewers.)

(THE FOLLOWING IS NOT REAL. IT IS A DRAMATIZATION. FICTION.)

“That Dr. Disrespect has a disrespectful name, and we are about respecting each and every individual that visits and streams here.” The person about to press the ban button, said.

“You do understand that this man, Guy Beahm, is putting on an act.” One soon-to-be-fired member of the decision-making team said. “I mean, he’s wearing a wig. And he’s dressed in a jump suit like Solid Snake. He drives a Lamborghini Testarossa from the 80s, and has green-screen all over his studio, which is high-production, and designed to give the viewer an experience like they are watching a show from the 80s, where Dr. Disrespect is the man, just like any other WWE wrestler, and his act states that no one else matters, which is why he insists on being called The Doctor, when in fact he is not a doctor at all. He just happens to be a person who believed in himself more than anyone else, and I am talking about the real ‘Guy Beahm’ right now — the 6’8” tower of a man that is perhaps one of the kindest souls when he is out of character, as I met him in person, and have seen a lot of the interviews. He believed in himself when no one else did, and he built an empire with that drive. And you are about to take it all away without due process, and I am not at all in accordance with it.”

“You seem to have a lot to say in defense of Dr. Disrespect.” The person who was about to press the ban button, said. “And you can say that to him anyway you wish now, as you are fired. And so is he.” And the person pressed the button.

That was it. No more discussion about it. Until a year or so later at the start of court proceedings.

But wait, the drama doesn’t end there.

Welcome to Part II.

It begins today, and is happening right now, live as a matter of fact, right here. His name is Tim Betar, who is popularly known as ‘Tim the Tatman’ as he is dressed with tattoos and loves them. He is also a wholehearted, good natured, rough-around the edges, yet totally loving towards others—man.

So I just found out that Tim signed an exclusive deal with YouTube Gaming. He was coming into the deal with almost 4-million YouTube subscribers and so I’m sure the deal is a sweet one. And so that means bye bye Twitch. And I can say, Tim must be happy with his decision right now. I just watched the first hour of his inaugural stream on YouTube Gaming and he got 10,000 subscribers in the first hour alone. With multiple thousands in donations. I would say it was a decent hour of work, as he probably made 100,000 in that hour alone, on top of the millions he must have scored with his exclusive YouTube Gaming contract. And now he can rub this in with Dr. Disrespect as much as he wants, because Tim got shit from Twitch as well. With his use of language. Being told he could no longer say “pussy” (or perhaps it was “virgin”—I don’t know, as it’s all censorship and I can say anything I want, and that’s the point when it comes to live creation) it just becomes a inner-joke between streamers, as they are continually censored and warned, reminded what could be offensive and considered hate speech towards marginalized populations, and what leads to bans, and DMCA this, and ‘clip it and ship it’ let’s ban the world and it’s endless offenders.

I’m sorry, Twitch is a motherfucking place for gaming, is what all streamers should have said. Gaming is paired with locker room talk. It is for old guys like me and everyone is welcome to a good solid helping of it. Because we have no other place to go to be complete fools and breathe. And so that gets taken away with policing and banning, and it leaves content creators, i.e. GAMERS, feeling all sorts of sour.

It gets streamers thinking about streaming on other platforms.

And this means that Tim the Tatman may stream with Dr. Disrespect whenever he likes now. And they are highly entertaining, and they are back. So that’s good news for these streamers. It’s about Justice, remember?

Now you want to know what the final nail in the coffin for Twitch is going to be?

I’ll say it plainly — it’s Twitch’s loss of NickMercs. And it is happening. No question about it now, because he and Timmy are TIGHT. And Nick wants to play with Dr. Disrespect again, and have as much freedom as they want in expressing themselves. It’s not hard to see the wheels within wheels in motion here. It’s pretty obvious.

The “Biggest deal of Nick’s life” doesn’t have to be just because it’s the biggest payday. It’s because it offers complete control and freedom over his purpose, which is to be a kick-ass gamer and entertainer.

I can feel that Nick has been fed up with the censorship and cancel culture and reporting and banning and the protests against this and that and none of these people protesting are gaming. At least they aren’t playing games while protesting. They are just looking into a camera, and complaining about life.

Look, I’m old school. You ask me to define what makes a gamer, I will tell you — if you aren’t gaming like mad, you aren’t a gamer. You can compete, and you can be casual, but it is an obsession that cannot be swayed. Twitch is a streaming platform for gamers, lest everyone forget. I think that is Twitch’s hope, because none of it makes sense from any other angle.

You either go to Twitch to play games, and play them better than the rest, and get credit for it, or you grind until you give up, but either way, you can say you gave Twitch a try. The rest of the stuff is just turning Twitch into a variety television show, and you can get as much of that as you want on Tik Tok, Instagram and YouTube. Twitch cannot hope to compete in that way.

If you show your ass off in a hot tub in a bikini, you’re not gaming. I’m sorry. That’s pornography. I don’t care if you’re dancing DDR in a bikini — it’s not gaming. It’s porn. Same thing with licking ears. It’s not ASMR. It’s porn.

If you play Apex Legends, you are a gamer. If you speedrun games, you are a gamer. If you grind an MMORPG, you’re a gamer. If you play chess, you are a gamer. If you play D&D, you are a gamer. If you’re playing with a controller in your hand, or a mouse and keyboard, or a dance pad, you’re a gamer. But not while you’re in a fucking hot tub in only a few strips of clothing that leave so little to the imagination. That’s porn.

What I am watching with Twitch is a channel that once had potential that is now becoming a castle built of sand, and it’s crumbling. Viewership is waning, and folks are going elsewhere. And it’s because of interference, banning, policing channels, all while cramming ideology down people’s throats and censoring freedom of expression. And I don’t even want to start with the tampon commercials. The viewership is 75% male. What am I to say? I want gaming. No commercials. None at all. I have vowed to never purchase, view, or support any product that is being forced down my throat when I’m watching the last round of a CS:GO tournament, and that shit kills viewership. Really.

This is a result of totalitarian decision-making, and force-feeding ideologies upon a predominantly young, male audience that is looking for an escape, only to find all of these barriers and hurdles that have to be overcome to watch real gamers do amazing things. That’s what Twitch was about, at least when I started watching it back in 2016. I didn’t vote for commercials, because there were none and I was happy. Amazon bought Twitch and added commercials for no one’s benefit other than using viewers to bring in money. The days of commercial-free Twitch was before Hot Tub streams arrived and ASMR ear-licking (which is anything but relaxing, if you ask me, as it is purely sexual.)

Not to bash that form of expression. There are sites well-equipped for such content and I need not go into them. Start with Only Fans. It’s not a site built for gamers and fans of gaming. And so it should be clear by now that gamers are the ones who are jumping ship on the Twitch platform. This means the fundamental core of Twitch no longer has a leg to stand on. Once NickMercs goes, the tower falls.

Expect a diaspora of streamers migrating to greener pastures. And right now, they are greenest on YouTube. May it be a lesson to YouTube and Google to offer these streamers freedom of expression above all else. And the community will thrive. And Twitch will go and become whatever they wish to label as an inevitable train wreck. Hot Tubs, ear-licking and gambling addicts blowing millions daily on online slot machines. With protests thrown in-between. And call to action for whatever cause is brewing. But no gaming. God no, if someone were to win a game more than others, that could be seen as an attack on someone else. You know? Can’t have that.

That’s why I can clearly say, bye-bye Twitch. I no longer have need or want to return. Not when I can watch the three most important seeds of your platform stream on YouTube Gaming. And even if NickMercs doesn’t migrate over, which I’m sure he will, if not now, he will later. In the meantime we have Dr. Lupo to fill the third slot in Apex Legends. Sorry Lupo. I love your content. I am sure you would agree that seeing Nick, Timmy and the Doc play Apex Legends together would be legendary. And you can always join the squad as the fourth in CoD: Warzone.

Cheers to Justice, and the enjoyment of greener pastures, I say. Where your livelihood won’t be taken away without warning. And cheers to Dr. Disrespect, for never giving up even when he was sent to rock-bottom without warning. I say this as one father to another.

-W.V.Carleton