Why I'm Leaving Twitch
This post has been a long time coming.
I can be an incredibly stubborn person when it comes to my creative work. I’m open to collaboration, but I have incredibly high standards of how I think this sort of process should work. I’ve left jobs that paid well because my expectations were not being met. I’ve also abandoned projects that were good because they were not great. It’s a mixed bag.
In 2014, I started streaming on Twitch. I have a voice as a gamer and media critic and it was seemingly a perfect venue to grow those brands. I could play the kind of spooky indie games I loved for a live audience. I could bounce ideas off of them to see what they liked and explore different perspectives on the media. More importantly, I could have fun doing what I already loved and draw more people into the whole creative process.
In reality, that first run was hell. I had a great core audience that grew to about 100 followers who consistently tuned in for whatever I streamed. They were amazing. Some of them still follow me today on various social media. I appreciate them. They made me last as long as I did.
The platform itself was the problem. I would routinely be trolled or even harassed by a certain contingent of gamers who thought video games were only for a certain kind of person. I did not meet that mold, so I was treated poorly. I remember being attacked for everything from my weight to my hair to my teeth to my speech impediments. Some of these people would sexually harass me, either saying what they would do to me if they saw me in person or why no one would ever want to do incredibly explicit things to me.
I should have walked away right when that started, but my audience was growing and I was starting to earn some money on the platform. I’m tougher than you’d think and can take a lot at this point. I’m better at setting boundaries now, so this isn’t a skill I have to use as often.
Twitch failed me on numerous levels. One, no systems were in place back then to protect streamers. You could ban someone and they’d be back in 30 seconds with a new account. Two, the level of support you did receive was a matter of if you were a partner or not.
Partnership was the only way to directly monetize a stream when Justin TV switched over to the Twitch brand. The old guard running the site were very particular about who they allowed into the program. I was not one of the favored ones and never made the cut. Every time I applied after more than doubling the requirements to join the program, I was rejected. There would either be no explanation at all or the goal posts were moved again.
Without partnership, I couldn’t make enough to justify staying on the platform. I have a policy that has served me well in my creative work: if I can’t afford to hire someone at a fair rate to work with me, I don’t. I could’ve lasted longer on Twitch back in 2014 if I had the means to hire moderators; I didn’t. Twitch, as a platform, stopped that from happening.
Cut to the pandemic and quarantine. I went back to streaming. It took me all of two weeks to meet affiliate requirements. I picked up a couple subs here and there, got some tips, and invested in some emotes and nicer graphics to stream with. It felt great.
The Twitch of 2020 felt like a more inclusive environment. People I’ve known for years in various marginalized groups had a steady side income from Twitch, if not a full career streaming. LGBTQIA2S+ streamers, disabled streamers, and BIPOC streamers were able to succeed. I felt like I could make it work.
I will not go into my family’s personal business directly, but it is part of this story. I had to stop streaming in February because of a family emergency and we’ve only just reached the point that our lives have any sense of normalcy again. I wanted to come back sooner, but I didn’t have the time.
Now I’m glad I didn’t. A few months ago, a newer and more vicious form of hate raids appeared on the platform. The worst kind of comments I got back in 2014 would be spammed thousands of times in minutes. They were specifically targeting marginalized creators.
Twitch finally made a move to be more inclusive by adding categories for different identities, like race, sexuality, gender identity, and disability. Those tags were then used to attack creators in those groups.
There are creators on the platform who are doing amazing things to try and support creators being targeted. Twitch, on the other hand, hasn’t. They swear they’re working behind the scenes to make things happen, but I’ve heard that before. I heard that back in 2014. I heard that back in 2020. And I hear it again now.
Yesterday, 9 September, I officially started the process to cancel my affiliate contract with Twitch. I will not be responsible for potentially bringing in revenue for a platform that does not really support its creators. I’ve been switching my support for anyone I subscribed to from Twitch to other platforms like Ko-fi, Fanhouse, or Patreon. I’m stubborn like that. Those creators that are staying on the platform do not deserve to be punished because of Twitch’s incompetence.
As for me, I’ve been streaming on Trovo. It’s a smaller platform somewhere between Twitch and Mixer. I like the features. The customer support is great. They work to uplift smaller streamers and provide many monetization streams on their platform. I’d appreciate your support as I sort all of this out. A follow makes a big difference right now.
