The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) concluded yesterday, but fellow streamers, and fans alike, are still reacting to Dr Disrespect getting banned after live-streaming on Twitch from a public bathroom. E3 is an annual gaming event that takes place in June, and is organized by the Entertainment Software Association. The event took place in Los Angeles, California at the Los Angeles Convention Center, although fans were also able to stream the event from home. Twitch also has an annual fan convention, TwitchCon, which was held last year at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, in October.
Twitch is a live-streaming video game platform, and a subsidiary of Amazon. Users can talk to their audience while gaming at the same time, but the platform is also used for music broadcasts, other creative content, and "in real life" streams, which are similar to the "vlog" phenomenon of Youtube. Although the platform has been around since 2011, Twitch has impressively risen in popularity over the years. Following in Youtube's footsteps, Twitch offers users the opportunity to capitalize on their content, and to make streaming a career. Much like the YouTube Partner Program, Twitch has both a Partner Program for users with large audiences and an Affiliate program for smaller users, and is rising in popularity as the leading game streaming service in the world. More recently, Twitch tested a subscriber-only live stream function, which could change the game for big users on the platform.
A reporter for Kotaku announced that on Tuesday at E3, a popular Twitch streamer named Guy Beahm who goes by the online alias "Dr DisRespect", made a critical error in judgement that cost him his channel. The error in question was his decision to walk into a public bathroom, and continue streaming and filming people from inside the bathroom. Part of the outrage comes from the speculation that one of the people caught during the stream may have been a minor. Not only was he banned from the platform, but he also had his E3 badge revoked. Even more shocking is the realization that Dr DisRespect has done this before. Streaming from inside a public bathroom is something fans have seen him do on at least four separate occasions without consequences. Dr DisRespect is already a controversial figure on Twitch, known for making tone-def judgments such as using a mock-Chinese accent, or threatening violence, albeit jokingly, towards the lead developer of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Although the behavior he demonstrated may not have been entirely unique for him, this did not stop many other big Twitch users from weighing in on his error in judgement, and people are relatively in agreement about his mistake.
User Jaryd ‘Summit1g’ Lazar said, during his own live-stream, "I think I’m getting viewers because Doc got banned,” expressing how Dr DisRespect's mistake may be unintentionally beneficial for other streamers. He added, “This is working out for me really well. Listen guys, if [Dr Disrespect’s] Champions Club is no longer available, then the only place left is the 1G Squad. We’ll accept you, I guess. For five dollars.” Content creators often have a name for their fan-base, and Champions Club is what Dr DisRespect calls his fans.
Streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins commented on Twitter, “It’s a no brainer, dude. I love him, but when you break the rules you get punished. It’s that simple.” Another streamer by the username TimTheTatman had a similar take on the situation, “It was the best content I’ve ever seen—until he walked into the bathroom. When he first started walking into the bathroom, I said to myself, ‘There is no way—no way—he’s gonna let that camera follow him in there.’ And he just went in, and I don’t know who the camera guy was, but he’s getting close [to people]. And then after they left, I was like ‘OK, thank god, we’re out of the bathroom,’ but then he walked back in with the camera guy. What are you doing, man? I love Doc. I would like to think it was just a lapse of judgement.” Other users, while largely in agreement with these statements, were even more shocked and aggressive in their response, such as Ezekiel III, who also weighed on Twitter, "Doc is [a] f-cking moron, I enjoy people who are crass, tasteless, and fearless. What’s unforgivable is total stupidity. This was SO dumb even I wouldn’t have done it. The thought process behind this must have been written on a napkin with sh-t stains on it."
Many users think the ban on Dr DisRespect's Twitch channel will be temporary, however, because not only has he taken a hiatus from the platform before due to similar lapses in judgment, but last time it happened he came back even stronger. When he returned the last time, it brought him nearly 400,000 viewers. So while he may be banned at the moment, Twitch is known for giving their bigger users multiple chances to return. Fans will have to wait and see how long this ban will be for, but in the meantime, Dr DisRespect is likely planning his next controversy, or at the very least, strategizing his return to Twitch.
Source: Kotaku