Dan on Twitch

I'm surprised this surprises you.

I guess this is what happens when you ask what butter is on a live stream.

"I never ate visible butter until I was in my 30's."

Get that $$$

Dan is a pro wrestling character, always has been

I've only read the OP and am not going to attempt to read anyone else's posts, but: I agree entirely. While some of it is funny, Twitch and it's monetization practices have always been sketchy as fuck. If you absolutely must pay money to someone on Twitch, there are hundreds of talented streamers who stream every week to 10 viewers, who could use that a lot more. Consider donating to them instead. Your dollar will matter a lot more.

I like Dan. I knew nothing about this website before he and Jason came over from GameInformer. I hope he's having fun. That said, I can not watch Twitch streams. It just reminds me of porn cam sites. It's super weird to me how that model has bleed out into game streaming. Honestly, just in general, I think it's kind of weird when viewers are able to engage so directly with content. Especially as it is being made in a live fashion.

I'm convinced Dan's life is the result of making a wish, and the trash fire that is living on this rock the past few years is due to it being a particularly nasty djinn.

Dan's streaming? Thanks for the info! I fully intend to throw him some change. He's entertainment personified.

To me this isn't any different than something like Dan hating on anime for years and then going full hog on DBZ. It's just Dan, he's a giant hypocrite and I don't mean this as an insult. That's just Dan.

I get that it might seem skeevy (as Dan would say) to see streams get pauses where money is asked for (since the only time Giant Bomb has done it is in Big Live Live Shows), but that's just what you get when you mix Dan and Twitch. I do understand it, Dan being on Twitch sort of highlights the unsavory parts of both Dan and Twitch. Parts you wouldn't like to acknowledge or think about. But it is what it is, I guess?

Also, I don't think those jabs at Patrick were supposed to be insults, to me it seemed like Dan having fun whenever he acted like he didn't know a close personal friend of his.

Dan is a salesman. A lot of his later years Giant Bomb tweets were when a live stream was going to happen or related to Panning the Stream. It was primarily work related and personal ventures. More in the earlier years at Giant Bomb, he was writing books. I can't remember if one of the Air Force Gators came out around that time, but Anxiety as an Ally and The Dumbest Kid in Gifted Class came out, I think, when they were still in San Francisco.

If you were to tell me when he left Giant Bomb that he would be doing stuff on Twitch, and go down the subscriber / buy me a pizza rabbit hole, I would probably not be surprised. Although, it seemed like one of the reasons why he was looking to do something outside of Giant Bomb was because he sounded like he had enough of the showmanship. He was putting on...game shows...whatever you want to call Burgle My Bananas...but he seemed to, I guess, mellow out when he was in New York. He wasn't starting up (friendly) Internet feuds anymore. There seemed to be fewer stunts on the east coast. He started to tweet less in general. It seemed like he didn't want to be "on" like he was. From that perspective it is a little surprising to see him go so hard into Twitch stuff, and the pay me for fart noises / pay me to slap a name tag on my head.

With that in mind, a lot of Twitch stuff is a nightmare. At least the name tag stuff is more dumb / less serious. I can't speak to the sound bar comment made by the OP, but that just seems more along the lines of if you think that's gross, then just don't give him money when he says stuff like that and just be a regular subscriber if you want to keep supporting them.

In terms of what I think of his Twitch stuff in general....Eh. It's not really for me. It's a lot of the same Dan notes: Mario Party, Punch Out, Mario Sunshine, etc. There are newer games in there, but a lot of it is what you would expect, with more sound effects. I watched a bit of them making their list of 100 favorite games, so there is some stuff I enjoyed. (I also just don't watch a ton of Twitch stuff in general, so me saying I didn't really stick with watching so-and-so stream doesn't mean a whole lot.)

@davidfox1983: Obviously YMMV about whether or not you like what he's doing, but I'd argue that Dan asking for and getting free stuff is EXACTLY on-brand for him. The only difference from before is that he's the brand and his subscribers are, well, him.

Whatever else Dan may have said or believed about YouTubers, his rivalry with Patrick was clearly good natured, and he's not the only one on staff who referred to Patrick that way. I'm pretty sure Patrick was on every E3 show since he left GB. You think he'd keep coming back if he and Dan legitimately had issues?

I tend to not like a lot of YouTubers, streamers, and the like. I simply don't watch the ones I don't like!

Exactly. Dan mocked anime for years and then had a podcast where he talked about watching an anime show. He has since watched more anime for his podcast with his wife. This type of behaviour has always been his thing. He makes fun of something, realizes it's actually something he would like, then goes 100% in on it and likes it.

I watched Dan's stream some last night. It's a fun stream. He said that at GB he had minimal oversight but still some oversight, but with his stream he has no oversight so he does whatever ridiculous things he can come up with so long as his community likes/tolerates it.

He also seems to have gone full carny with his stream but is fully self aware about it, which makes it pretty funny. Someone in Twitch chat described his "Victory Screen" (which has all his sticker prices on it and plays obnoxious music) as horrible and he basically laughed and agreed.

Does he shill nonstop? Yes, but it's part of what his stream is. He's basically taken all the ridiculous marketing shit that WWE and other wrestling organizations have pulled in the past (You gotta love the glove!) and applied them to a Twitch stream. People clearly enjoy it enough to pay money and he seems to have fun doing the streams so I don't really see the issue. All of the money-related stuff is entirely optional and he even says as much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction

@peacebrother:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction

(edited to include affected link)

Definitely not for me, but it looks like he found some whales and built himself a milking machine. I'm sure they're very happy together.

Holy lord that Press Your Luck thing Dan has going on is terrific.

$$$ HYPE CAM! $$$...$$$ HYPE CAM! $$$...$$$HYPE CAM! $$$...$$$HYPE CAM! $$$...

Here at Frontier Dodge, we will give you a sheep with each used car purchase! And a Goat and sawdust with it for the tranny, if you are still not satisfied with our unbelievable deals!

Kind of hard to tell where the Andy Kaufman lets off and something else perhaps begins... What I remember was reading that he was upset about GB Beast not taking more chances.

Well. I'm almost tempted now myself to watch a bit of his show. It might be educative. Flat off, I started off not liking Dan, but I still watch the Metal Gear series w/ Drew from MGS through 4. And I liked much of his contribution at GBE.

'Good at self promotion'...Hope he's okay.

Most likely is.

he's making money and clearly having fun, you sound like a cop

Lots of people here expressed their views a lot more eloquently than I can so forgive me if I can’t do it as good

But honestly, not too surprised with his shift, he was always a showman and an entertainer but also can be dismissive at first glance which he had outright admitted and said he got this habit from his father, I remember one interview a while back where he had said he could have never seen himself going solo and prefers to work with a team and collects a check.

To now he’s a one man streaming army, and this is just his side gig.

Dan has always been known to shift his opinions once he properly understands a thing, and he outright admits this as well.

As for the goading people into spending money, it’s no where near as heinous or as cynical as you make it sound, and he always makes it a point that he prefers the amazon prime subscription than people giving him money and stuff like setting bit goals is probably cause he sees people doing this on other streams as well

Also you gotta take into the mindset of the people watching as well, and NOT in a bad way but some people there just kinda love being a part of the theatrics of his streams, he has people there that have easily donated hundreds of dollars already and they all never complain or try to act entitled about it and dan always is very transparent about everything, and never once has pushed people into spending money

(he outright told one of his highest spending viewers that he completely understands if you have to scale it back, and outright told him that to basically chill on spending money)

I tune in for all his stuff when I can and watch the archives and honestly, some weeks it’s more entertaining than the solo GB content that was here before GB restarted doing group content

,but this idea of what your saying (or at least how it comes off) like dan gave up his integrity when becoming a twitch streamer I humbly completely disagree with,

he was always a showman and entertainer and found an audience that loves him for it, and also extremely self aware, as usually during the late late streams where he’s just chatting with the crowd he actually addresses a lot of these criticisms you wrote about and talked about it with them.

(Unfortunately with twitch’s 60 day archive policy some of those videos are now forever lost so I have no direct video I can point you to)

The man helped changed peoples lives with introducing meditation and talking about anxiety and how he coped with it (I remember seeing someone at pax come thank him for talking about anxiety and how his book helped his wife so much and the guy nearly teared up on the spot talking to dan) , sure he’s not above criticism but he’s more than allowed to have his fun and he totally keeps it transparent with his crowd.

This is really weird. He has a full time job and streams on the Twitch. So what? He has at most 300-400 people watching him at any given moment. That's nothing compared to most major Twitch streamers. If people want to give him money that's on them. The idea that we're talking about what Dan does with his free time (which from what I've seen of it, seems completely on brand for him) when he moved on from the site is kind of strange in my opinion.

Dans antics was only fun to watch when he was with the gb crew by himself its just cringey

Yeah, he needs a straight foil. Like someone to explain to him what a mortgage or a funicular is.

I'm happy that Dan is doing well. He's always hustled.

But I watched one stream and don't plan to go back. Twitch's live "give me money" approach almost seems like a PBS fundraising special. It just feels gross to me and I can't separate that from the actual content. My thoughts just go to "why on earth did you spend $10 to make a sound?" I guess it's the same sensation as getting an email read on the podcast. You're part of the show! For 5 seconds...

Granted, I just don't like gaming content that relies on the chat. It's why I stopped watching GB during all the solo streams. It seems like you have to be there live or else you're listening to a one-sided conversation between the streamer and some anonymous discussion you can't see. Which is why I'm glad GB went back to group streams, because it's what they're best at (with the occasional Party of One stream).

Anyway, if it works for you, go ahead and enjoy it.

Here's a thing I don't understand every time I see a thread raising objections to the opinions/behavior of the staff/former staff.

Just... Don't watch? Go somewhere else? Find a different source of entertainment that you enjoy? I dunno, that just seems more productive and enjoyable than writing a forum post about how much you don't like what someone is doing. It's weird that we've reached this point in internet culture where people would rather complain than seek out a different thing that actually makes them happy.

This whole thread and the OP post are so bizarre. I hope you guys realize how weird it sounds to crusade against a guy doing a dumb Twitch stream.

But some people in the GB community having insane reactins to Dan and thinking he's some malicious figure is nothing new. Its as silly as ever tho and here its back even if Dan isn't around anymore.

@csl316: Yah the Twitch model always seemed bizarre and kind of gross to me personally. People playing a game and every 40 seconds glancing to the side and answering chat questions while making sure to thank for every single donation or whatever they call it just seems so nuts.

I mean Twitch is like anything else, you can all of that too aggressively and make the show suffer if you are not good at it. Most of the streamers I watch regularly just play the games and like..chime in with Hey thanks for the Sub or Thanks For the Bits and move on.

It's not much different than early GB days with "Question from the chat!" level of interaction.

@efesell: In the same way that there are YouTubers who cynically game the platform and those who actually produce worthwhile content. You'd be hardpressed to find an online platform that doesn't seem to encourage grifters. There are plenty of twitch streamers - big and small - who aren't gross about it.

I've only seen a few clips of Dan on twitch (as a result of reading this thread) so I don't think I can really judge. It's hard to know the true context of a clip that came out of an hours long stream. I have to say I find this a bit off-putting though:

Ironically doing the thing is still doing the thing.

That said, I'm not his audience so it doesn't really matter if he does things I don't want to see.

@efesell: Holy shit, that clip is a nightmare.

Y'all are no fun at all.

@efesell: I legit loled.

i mean, if dan is leaning into twitch with his whole-ass- and people are having a good time and no one is getting hurt- i'm not sure what the problem is.

then again, i don't watch solo streams pretty much ever (i get bored v. quickly, and interaction with twitch chat doesn't interest me).

My issue is less how Dan has monetized his streams and more the community and group of Twitch chatters he has attracted with his antics. They spam the same emotes non-stop and goad other viewers to join Dan is participating in drinking games. Time and time again, his chat just seems mean. There have even been times when Mike Mahardy reads out fairly unkind comments from the chat. Its has the alpha male bro humor I do not want to experience on a website that empowers people to chat using anonymous accounts with very little accountability.

And look, I get it, get PAID if you can on Twitch. Dan is a businessman and knows how to play the game. So, good on you, you're getting paid. I'm just never going to be one to support him moving forward.

That's the actual issue I've had with his streams yeah. I think his audio goofs are kinda funny in concept but every member of any audience thinks they're the funniest person in the room and it turns into a nightmare.

As for the toxic portions.. you gotta really set boundaries early and be willing to enforce them pretty harshly otherwise Twitch chats spiral fast.

I love with the bots are on topic.

@zombiepie: I feel like there's no reality where Dan without the good moderators of Giant Bomb plus a donation funded economy doesn't end up with a full nightmare community.

The sweet spot for a twitch audience is a handful. Once you get into dozens, you're swamped in memes and people desperate for attention.

The internet was a mistake.

Totally agreed. There's a lot of very judgmental people in this thread who seem to paint with a pretty wide brush regarding Twitch streaming. Most twitch streamers, especially smaller ones, aren't nearly as shilly and gross as people are suggesting. Dan's take on it is basically a parody of the actual gross, cynical streamers. The gross, predatory streamers exist but they are the exception, not the rule.

The other thing that pops to mind is that people are being dismissive about paying Twitch streamers but it's like... have you ever been to a concert or anything? Most live entertainment breaks down to quite literally being you paying money to be in the same room as someone and sometimes interacting with them. Or if you go to a convention and pay money to get a picture with an actor from your favourite show. Twitch is no different than any of this. It's still paying for entertainment but just a different medium. GB is not really any different than Twitch in most regards. GB interacts with chat on pretty much all premium streams.

The other other thing is that being a good streamer is actually kind of hard to do well since you are basically doing a solo performance for a live audience and need the skillset to be successful at this. One of my favourite newer twitch streamers is actually a British synth pop artist who had to cancel her latest tour because of the virus. She played games as a hobby so she decided to try Twitch out to make up for her lost tour income (she's transparent about this) and her stream has been excellent so far. Her skills with interacting with and handling a live audience are better than most Twitch streamers and only a couple months in she already has built a following and community, all while never being pushy about subscriptions or anything. It turns out if you provide an entertaining stream, people will want to give you money. That's how most successful Twitch streams are, not people being pushy and shilly.

What @zombiepie said is where I'm at with how he's embraced Twitch. It just sucks to watch because Dan still hasn't seemed to developed a good sense of awareness for when something has gone to far in a direction. A number of things he's done since he started streaming have made it harder and harder to watch, but it was the first time he did the game show name tag shit that I just had to stop all together. It's just a grift now. Dan really does need other people around him to ask the questions he doesn't seem to ask of himself.

Dan has transitioned amazingly well to his podcast/streamer setup. Not sure what you're on about. Unlike Jeff and Brad, which really do feel hypocritical in the way they have always thoughtlessly blasted "streamers/youtubers" (as if everyone is cut from the same cloth), Dan never felt critical of that lifestyle and was tongue-in-cheek with Patrick (and so many others). The way he's committed to outlandish stream concepts is admirable and something GB is lacking lately. Not to mention his movie streams have been a blast and it's nice to have him stream conferences and remember what it was like when this site had someone with actual enthusiasm for new game stuff.

Most impressive is how Dan manages to cultivate a really positive, wholesome community and large numbers without falling into some of the pitfalls many other streamers do. I've been critical of GB this year (though they are getting back to the sort of content I expect and like lately with actual QLs and group streams) and for large parts I started watching Dan and other streams instead of GB for the first time. When GB was depressing as hell 24/7, it was nice to watch Dan stream and have actual fun instead of Alex joking again about how the world is ending and how disappointing every game is.

@efesell: that clip is funny and it’s 100% Dan but it’s also true that you’re still, you know, doing the thing you’re ostensibly mocking and keeping the cash along the way. I think Twitch is VERY different from taking a question from the chat every 10-15 minutes.

@humanity: I mean sure there are degrees to it. There's quite a difference in "BUY MY BOOK, BUY MY BOOK" and taking questions from the chat but at the core of it all you are engaging with your audience because your audience is important to your job.

@shindig: Well this has nothing to do with the internet really. Any large group of people that you make no effort to impose order on is going to do this. You can have a Twitch chat of hundreds but you have to be willing to like.. put in the work it takes to manage those people.

Are we talking about Dan Ryckert, the number one gamer on Cameo?

@efesell: Sure but it's a revolving door that could see anyone walk in. Depends what you're offering, I guess. Building up the audience is easily the hardest part of streaming so I can see why some people just let chaos reign.

I'm sure a lot of Dan Twitch viewers are perfectly fine. But if I may paint with an incredibly broad brush, I think a lot of the Dan superfans that comprise his ~500-2000 audience of Twitch subs//frequent donators/active Twitch chat users are some of the same people who:

• hatepost on GB forums and comments just to say "GB East has really gone downhill since Dan left, not sure why I even sub anymore", and
• assume that Dan staying silent during political-ish discussions and not giving on-air political opinions on GB shows must indicate that he strongly disagrees with the rest of staff but is keeping his mouth shut

Generally, Dan and his trolling attracts a certain segment of toxic fans that are actually much more toxic and mean than he is. Dan has a shtick of bombastic showmanship, casual ignorance, like-what-you-like, Midwest simplicity, but some of his fans warp that into some kind of more mean-spirited, "fuck 'em" attitude.