A Twitch Hilarity

As some of you know, I regularly stream Friday evenings on Twitch. I’m not especially good at video games, but I do love them, and streaming is a fantastic way for me to share my love of these games with a small community of folks who care to watch along.

It should be noted that my personality is dialled up to a thousand while I game. It’s not that I’m not myself. I am very much a goofy, silly, sometimes incredibly dense person in real life. When I’m comfortable with the people I’m with, I’m continually cracking jokes or playing the goat. I love to make people laugh.

To that end, my goofiness, silliness and idiocy are exaggerated when I’m streaming. I’m playing a caracature of myself. It’s all in good fun, and people seem to like it well enough.

I don’t have a huge following, but I do have a few regulars who drop by to hang out and watch me be a jester for a few hours of a Friday evening.

I’ll be happy if I get more folks regularly dropping by, and if I can ever earn any real income from it (I’m currently an affiliate, so I do get a few coins tossed my way every so often), I won’t say no. But that’s not the point of my streams.

Now, being a woman on the internet, I do get a few creeps who drop by every so often. I’ve had men beg me for a full body shot (my camera shows me in the top right corner; just a wee little thing as the game is the main focus), and even one guy two weeks ago who demanded I show him my panties. My moderator (thank you so much Jaggy!) usually takes care of these twits quick smart.

This Friday went a little differently… at my request mind. You see, there was a person who dropped into my chat to… uh… try and give me direction (at first) and then to complain that my camera field was too small (?). Listen, I’m not quite sure myself. They did start off by telling me not to sigh so loudly. My dude, loud is part of the brand. I drink, curse, and am loud (and silly).

Then this person started going on about how my camera was too small and that I was “hiding in my own picture.” I don’t know what that means, either, but they kept repeating that. Like, they were really bothered that the square showing my face was so small compared to the rest of the stream, I guess… even though the game is the focus.

I did what you’re not supposed to do. I engaged. Listen, it was a lot of fun for me. I was and remain genuinely interested in the psychology of folks who interact with something only to complain about it. Good person, this is offered to you for free. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. Don’t engage. Don’t tell the provider exactly why you don’t like it. Just move on and find something you do like. End of.

But this person was so insistent. Not to mention just a little hypocritical. After all, their username was nothing but a series of numbers and they didn’t have a profile picture, so… I suppose it didn’t help that I was engaging with them. But I was wildly entertained and very fascinated.

In the end, my moderator did their job and ended up banning them from the chat… before I was quite finished playing with my food. It was the right thing to do, but I was so interested.

They didn’t answer any of my questions, incidentally. All that happened was their repetition that I was “hiding in my own picture.” I asked them why they were bothered, and if they were so damned bothered, why they didn’t just move along to a stream that was more to their tastes.

No answers given. Just a bunch of complaints about how my stream was set up. It was all so bizarre (and hilarious to me).

I suspect that he wanted to upset me; to make me feel low and perhaps in so doing, make himself feel better. It didn’t work. I’m too old for that kind of stuff to bother me. My younger self might have struggled, but I’m well past that now.

Anyway, it was weird.

Thank you to everyone who stuck around while I stirred up trouble, and thank you to Jaggy, who moderates for me, who nipped it in the bud and sent me to bed at a more reasonable hour than would otherwise have happened.

Of course, thanks to everyone who drops by my streams to enjoy my ridiculousness.

Slán go foill!