Dan on Twitch

So you shouldn't thank people who randomly give you money because they like your content? That would just be super shitty to not shout out people who are supporting you IMO. When you stream you are the brand, he isn't under giantbomb or game informer anymore so he is working directly for his fans now. It's very different working for yourself than working for a company, it's now his responsibility to keep his fan base happy.

Also, he also stated he hates gaming podcasts, and did one for like 5 years lol. He doesn't watch youtubers but he now is one, same thing. You cater to your audience because that's who you work for.

You know, I just had a thought. For those who don't like Dan's money-hungry Twitch streams, how do you feel about people who send mail to Giant Bomb? I understand the functional, literal difference--GB doesn't ASK for mail.

I'm asking how people feel. Do you feel there's a meaningful difference here? What's the difference between sending a person/team of people who make enough money to live in some of the most expensive places in the country items they could buy if they really wanted to, versus gifting Dan subs or whatever on Twitch?

@bladeofcreation: Reading email from podcast listeners (or even questions in GB chat) versus reading donations/Twitch sub messages is very different.

When selecting emails, Brad/Abby/Ben basically just pick stuff based on the discussion merit of the email.

When selecting donations/sub messages, oh wait let's stop right there, you don't select. The Twitch status quo is that you acknowledge basically every donation and sub message, and the only ones you don't read are the one that are objectively way, way, way too offensive. So idiots that just have a lot of disposable income and have an attention-seeking behaviour can just keep getting their dumb thoughts acknowledged and read aloud by their broadcaster of choice. It's a problem across the entire Twitch platform tbh. I wish Twitch was more akin to like, a busker or pianist at a bar, where there's a tip jar and maybe the performer acknowledges the tip with a simple nod and that's it, but instead every Twitch broadcaster feels obligated to read out every dumb user name and message because it gets better engagement due to weird parasocial interaction conditioning.

@bisonhero:There are plenty of streamers who treat it the way you're describing.

It's really amazing how different twitch chat behaves based on who the streamer is. Chat tends to mirror the personality of the streamer in someway.

EDIT: I want to clarify: I'm not making a judgement about Dan or his viewers. I have no experience with his twitch streams. I find the large discussion about the relationship between streamers and viewers interesting, which is what I'm commenting on generally.

@bisonhero: I dunno, you forgot to put away the broad brush you mentioned earlier I think. Plenty of streamers run their channels in literally the exact way you wish would happen.

@efesell: It was hyperbolic of me to say “every” Twitch streamer reads out all their dumb sub and donation messages, but from my Twitch browsing I’d say it’s a significant majority.

a lot of disrespect for the hustle going on in this thread

this thread seems really possessive y'all

Wow this BS is still going. I guess the Judgey Joe demographic of GB didn't come out of the woodwork when this thread first went up.

One thing is to rag on how most Twitch streams are organized but to act like Dan has to conform to your ideals while simultaneously providing you content that can be consumed freely whether you want or not is utterly bizzare.

Dan continues to be able to effortlessly troll a whole lot of GB fans.

@bladeofcreation: I don’t think you can even compare Twitch callouts which happen continuously throughout the duration of the stream to reading 3-5 emails at the end of a 3 hour long podcast.

Yeah, I don't really get the surprise at Dan behaving like this. He was always a shamelessly hyper-consumerist, wacky-zany dude who thrived on attention and refused to question or criticize the things he loved. In a lot of ways he was always kind of the polar opposite of the core of GB, who love games, sure, but also have a really strong sense of professional ethics and refuse to give people and corporations passes on shitty behavior just because they made a fun game.

I mean, Dan went to work for WWE of all places, which kind of says it all. WWE exploits the ever-loving shit out of its workers (sorry, I mean "independent contractors") without even providing them with health insurance as they rip their bodies apart for its profit. It has also twice now accepted tens of millions of dollars to pimp Saudi Arabia as some progressive desert wonderland when it's being run by misogynistic oligarch zealots who financed 9/11 and are currently committing genocide against the Yemeni people. Like, it's not a left/right political thing to say that WWE treats people like shit and is involved in a lot of really, really sketchy business. I get that Dan loves wrestling and always has, but man... it's a really bad look.

Nobody's hands are clean, I get it. We all do dozens of things each day which make us complicit in child labor, sweat shops, political repression, and other forms of exploitation. I just think that the GB crew (and probably by extension the people who enjoy the site) are generally fairly reflective and uncomfortable about that fact and have certain boundaries they're not comfortable crossing without serious explanation. Dan doesn't, and I don't think that necessarily makes him a bad person or anything; I just think it comes as a shock to see the full depths of his uncritical enthusiasm for some kinda troubling stuff so openly after he had spent so many years working within this site's culture. He's never lied about who he is, and I don't think this Twitch thing is even a little bit out of character for him (it's small peanuts compared to the WWE position anyway, in my opinion). I (and I'm sure a lot of other people) grew to like Dan when he always had a chorus of saner voices ready to call him out for his excesses, and I'm not really very interested in watching him on his own. Twitch streaming culture also just comes off as kind of narcissistic and obnoxious to me, so it was a hard sell to begin with.

@bisonhero: I don't really disagree with what you said, but I'm asking about actual mail, not emails.

Can't be mad at Dan because I respect the hustle. The man has to pay his bills, after all.

@bladeofcreation: Ah, my bad, I misread your original post. “Mailbag” might’ve made the meaning more clear.

The mailbag videos are weird, but frankly half of it reads like “people sending in random gaming memorabilia or other weird items they don’t need and GB also doesn’t need.” Whereas Dan is doing his side hustle on Twitch and literally shilling for donations to purchase stuff he wants. I think the circumstances are quite different.

@bisonhero: You're right, I'll edit it to say "Mailbag" since that's what those videos are called. I think there's some really cool stuff, especially some of the custom-made things people have sent in over the years, but I agree most of it is weird. And also that it's different in context.

I've tuned into some of his earlier streams but many of the things that would occasionally rub me the wrong way about him at GB seem to be just on display full-time now.
Don't get me wrong, get paid. But the way he goes about it is just not how the streamers I do enjoy watching operate. I don't care about calling out subs, bits, follows, almost every streamer does that; but going the extra mile to have these charity stretch goal-esque donation rewards that is a little much for me personally.

It's got me thinking differently about some of his work at GB, though. Like, you left Giant Bomb of all places to do this? I'm sure it's working out for him as he loves wrestling, video games, and... money, I suppose, but I'd be lying if a lot of the thoughts voiced in this thread didn't cross my mind recently.

But honestly, who cares, If he's happy doing this then I hope he doesn't change a thing. I was never a big enough fan of his to get invested in this sort of thing.

Just putting it out there; this is a bizarre thing to have an opinion about.

His streams aren't for me but I have no issues with him going down this path. The whole issue with it seemingly being a complete change from how he acted at GB is the whole difference between being out on your own on Twitch/Youtube vs being paid a salary by a company. Streamers make their money by engaging the viewers to sub/donate which can be achieved in a bunch of different ways and Dan has found something that works for him. It's easy to say it'd be cool to just watch him sit and play games and have a good time and there are streamers who do that but they aren't the ones making good cash out of it which is what Dan is clearly after.

There's infinite hours of content from so many different places out there that it's just up to you to find what appeals to you and I don't think it's worth spending any time thinking about something that isn't for you.

I just did watch a bit of his show, and I have to admit, he cracked me up a bit. (Most of the time, he had that effect). Shoving down McDonalds and pasting stickers I guess he was paid for on his head and chair, He made two comments that stuck with me;

One was to the effect of keeping up his 'dignity' after leaving the industry, in the eyes of his peers.

The other, after consuming more fries and nuggets, Dan then made an off to the side comment about shitting his pants last night.

Okay, guy.

Dan Ryckert does what Dan Ryckert do, fam. Simple as that.

I used to perceive Twitch in a negative way until I realized that I was just envious that these people figured out how to get paid for doing very little. Most streamers don't make anything, but Dan already had cultivated his name on the internet and immediately had an audience - effectively cutting out the years of self-promotion that other streamers are required to endure to be able to make a little scratch. If I were in his shoes, I'd do the same thing.

Dan's "Oops all Mario" stream was ruined by all those moronic sound effects he lets people play

Yeah, that'll happen.

I love the "validate my opinion of Dan" thread. Its super healthy and doesn't at all feed into the worst trendies of the community. Can't wait for the "Abby is steaming on Twitch" thread.

@plan6: Seriously. It's embarrassing.

@sombre: Nah, opinions are great. You can stick things up them and it feels really good when someone licks it.

The issue is more the people who very clearly can't fathom that not all content is being made for them exclusively. I dislike the "standard" twitch streamer. A lot of other people love it. That doesn't mean I need to make a thread or come and complain every time someone who I like does something I don't.

It is an OBSCENE amount of entitlement. These dancing monkeys need to dance for me and nobody else and if they do the exact same shit they were doing here they are sell outs (still love how that guy never drew the connection between Premium and twitch bits...). And if they are interacting with the audience and reading donations they are EVIL!!! And fuck them for having zany sound effects rather than overlay shenanigans. Real entertainers do overlay stuff.

Way too many people can't seem to fathom that it is very okay for content to be made where they aren't the audience. It sucks when it is something you were excited for but... the world doesn't revolve around you and isn't meant to finger your opinion constantly.

@gundato: Nail squarely on the head

This thread is mostly a venn diagram of people who miss Dan and dislike twitch monetization culture.

I miss Dan, but I’m ok without watching his Twitch because Twitch isn’t really my thing. I can see why people who miss him a lot and dislike aspects of Twitch are in a personal hell.

But it’s hard for me to blame Dan for engaging in the Twitch hustle. His whole career has been building his brand. Of course he’s going to make money off it.

Also don’t count other people’s money. It’s just a bad idea

But if we did, I wouldn’t be surprised if WWE pays people such as Dan like crap with few benefits.

Or maybe Dan appreciates the core concept of making money while you can. He’s a hard working dude after all.

I definitely see it as the latter. Especially when it's making money from a hobby he already likes a great deal. Providing that doesn't become hard work, he's golden.

My wife was in a band a few years ago and some of our friends complained that local bands(aka, my wife's band) really pushed their merch during their sets. And my response was always the same, "Respect the hustle. Existing costs money." The same thing applies to Twitch, if not more so. Respect the hustle because life is expensive.

Here's the thing I love about Dan's twitch presence, despite not wanting to actually watch any of it. Dan is a pretty established name in the circles that would frequent a Twitch channel, he could just be playing games like any dime a dozen streamer and he'd probably do fine. Maybe even avoid a few people making annoying threads about it on certain websites.

But nah that's boring shit he is going whole ass into it when it is not the least bit necessary and I respect committing to a bit, even if it's annoying me on a personal level sometimes.

It seems like a lot of people here just don't like or want to understand how Twitch works. This whole thread just feel like a bunch of old guys upset things have changed and don't like it.

While a bit muddied the original conceit of the thread was that Dan has gone full streamer after having openly criticized that world for years working on the other side of the fence which is a fair criticism. The guy can do whatever he likes and no one is asking him to “dance like a monkey” to a very specific tune. It’s just that the Twitch hustle is inherently gross for many reasons that we have publicly observed over the years with cases of popular streamers mocking their audience if they didn’t sub etc etc. Dan doesn’t engage with that level of grossness but he’s still in the same ball pit.

I have never seen a streamer mock someone for not subbing to the channel if you have that's just handy in helping you curate a list of people to not support.

Follow more small to mid sized folks building up fun communities.

Sprinkle in some jealousy as well. Dan wins cause Dan does, period.

This.

You can ask people like Jim Sterling how much even a sarcastic "smash that like button and subscribe" can help boost numbers. The Twitch ecosystem, and streaming in-general, is all about engagement with your viewers, it's LITERALLY all that it's about when you're first starting out. And while Dan is starting out with a helluva leg up with previous streaming experience AND a few built-in audiences, he's no fool (despite frequently playing up otherwise).

Frankly this rings about as true as super-reductive posts about how music today "just isn't the same" as it was when I ~16-24.

RedLetterMedia and Team Fourstar are two of the only outfits I can think of that got REALLY successful on Youtube without leaning hard on the "culture" (calls to action and such) of Youtube, and they both did it through incredible viral word-of-mouth before "the right way" was set in stone.

Dan's just doing what Dan's been doing since he marched into a Gamestop and told them they should make his MGS-flavored ad: he's hustling.

I seriously don't understand this thread. If you think that criticising Dan's stream is an automatic source of jealousy, entitlement, or a call to action for him to change, then - genuinely - what the fuck are you even doing on this website? Do you angrily comment on all the negative game reviews to complain about them being jealous of the game developers? Do you think that a negative take on a podcast is them demanding changes to a game? Of course not - so why are half the posts here equally as dismissive about any criticism of Dan's stream?

People are allowed to not like things. People are allowed to say that they don't like things. I don't like what I've seen of Dan's stream. That doesn't mean I'm entitled for not liking a thing. That doesn't mean I'm jealous of his success. That doesn't mean I'm demanding he change his stream to something I like. That doesn't somehow mean I don't understand how Twitch works, as if it's some mental challenge to understand why people would pay for video content.

If you want to disagree with what people don't like about Dan's stream, or draw comparisons between his current stream and his Giant Bomb stuff as counterexamples, then great! But don't just dismiss the very idea that someone might think a stream that constantly loops back to advertising ways to pay Dan is gross. And save the bizarre and grotesque misrepresentations about what people that don't like the stream 'really think' or whatever.

Thank you @stalefishies.

People pontificating their opinion about other's opinions was getting pretty rough.

This whole topic is weird and people are reading a lot into it. Dan is a professional and we don't know anything about him off camera. He's made a career of being on camera a lot, sure, but the guy is a human being and there sure are a lot of people here talking about how they know him or how he used to be. No one on this forum knows him, just the product he puts out. This whole topic is just skeevy

@stalefishies: Thank you for saying what I was thinking. Conversation here is falling to quickly to acting holier than thou. Like do we really need so many comments trying to one up the OP by telling them they're bad for wanting to discuss their distaste for Dan's stream.

They had a point to ponder about and wanted to discuss it. If you think it's a weird topic to talk about just take the advice you're giving to OP and move on. No need to gang up on the person.

Well, I guess his wrestling gig is on hiatus, and he's nothing if not resourceful when comes to side hustles and earning a living.

No one is forcing anyone to watch Dan on Twitch. Didn't mind this being a small sounding board for Dan's adventures in live streaming, but not gonna let it turn into a dumping ground for arguments everytime Dan does something people disagree with.

Enjoy it? Watch it. Don't? Then don't.