The gaming industry is one of the most profitable sectors in the world. Twitch streamers are some of its biggest earners, raking in hundreds or even thousands per day through donations and subscriptions. However, this has led to monetization scandals on Twitch with some streamers exploiting their community for personal gain rather than staying true to what they said they would do when it came time to charge money for content.
Twitch streamers have recently been exploiting their communities by monetizing. The “twitch monetization calculator” is a tool that allows users to see how much money they could make from the Twitch platform.
Following my favorite Twitch streams is one of my favorite pastimes. Whiskey Ding0, an active vtuber (totally unrelated with our site) who has an incredible amazing power to get his chat to recreate the rave from the second Matrix film, is now my favorite streamer. It’s just continual high energy that allows you to unwind while immersing yourself in the joy and excitement of what’s going on. It’s a lot of fun and well worth subscribing to.
Content producers deserve to be compensated for their efforts to amuse us, and it’s humbling to consider that we may all donate what we believe is fair compensation for our own appreciation of their work. While subsequent leaks have shown that this is a substantial sum, it is still reasonable when we consider that it was split among millions of individuals who derived personal pleasure from their job.
However, there is a point at which the connection between the streamer and the viewer transcends its limits, and when commercialization is introduced, both parties suffer.
Giving with Humility
Whiskey Ding0 receives a lot of love from his community, and it’s hilarious to see him squirm when someone sends him a large gift. It’s even more humbling when he quickly emphasizes the need of just donating what you believe is fair and only if you have extra: he’s OK if you don’t follow or subscribe; he just wants to enjoy you and doesn’t want anybody to suffer.
Many streams do this, and it’s unjust to single out one; but, it’s my most noteworthy example, and we should all accept the bounds that artists set for themselves in terms of support — give what you can, only what you feel comfortable giving, and only what you can afford to give.
Money, on the other hand, may become addicting at times. Seductive. Powerful. It has the potential to cause issues. Someone who pays you a lot of money may seem like they have more say, power, or influence over you than others, particularly if the money is recurring and noncompliance leads to them moving on to the next person who would break under their gifts. An absolutely revolting problem that streamers often experience, particularly early on when significant contributions are still in the low three digits.
However, this may also happen in the other direction. When a streamer’s engagement with their audience crosses unhealthy bounds and they begin to abuse or monetize their audience’s parasocial ties. In return for money, you may become closer to the creator.
There are many different types of creators.
Patreon and Discord
A user’s monthly donation to a streamer is usually between $5 and $25. Some users would contribute little amounts, while others will make a few $4.20 payments to have a hilarious line read out, and a few individuals on larger broadcasts may drop 50 tier 1s, particularly during a birthday or holiday streaming event. When they’re not broadcasting, many streamers want to keep their community going.
The celebration has to come to an end, but many streamers want the conversation to continue. Discord is the tool of choice in this case, with the streamer often present in the discussion. Successful broadcasters grow their Discord communities, set boundaries between themselves and their communities, and monetize Discord itself as time goes on.
This is where things get interesting: successful broadcasters who want to profit from their communities.
Monetizing Parasocial Relationships & Garo
Some of GaroShadowscale’s “whale tier” subscribers on Patreon have just come to light. These two levels cost $250 and $500 a month, respectively, and offer the ability to break the normal streamer/audience member barrier for a short period of time each day.
For $250, you may DM Garo once a day and get a response, as well as one 20-minute private call every month. At $500, you’ll get a monthly 20-minute private VRChat session, as well as the ability to DM Garo twice a day and get two answers. After the broadcast on VRChat, both levels feature a virtual embrace.
That’s right, for $500, you can have 20 minutes of the creator’s time each month — but hopefully that’s not why you’re contributing.
This is when things start to go nasty, and they do so rapidly. These advantages are widely seen as the price of friendship, and they are frequently offered without charge as a matter of customary politeness. For example, a buddy may send a message to another friend and receive a response without having to barter.
In this situation, a streamer offers to enable someone in a parasocial connection to breach conventional boundaries and obtain a limited normal bi-directional relationship with the streamer in return for money, with the streamer requiring an ongoing subscription to keep the barriers broken.
Putting a paywall around these types of activities is not a healthy standard, for both the community and the contributors, as well as the streamer themselves, who now have to fulfill a restricted connection with someone who has paid them for the “luxury” of doing so.
The Oppressive Drive to Optimize in Capitalism
One piece of the puzzle is the connection between the content developer and the viewer. Putting a paywall in place to reduce the barriers between a creative and a community member is uncomfortable at best and exploitative at worst, but it’s indicative of a larger problem.
Optimizing a community for money and monetization above relationships is a bad idea since it encourages undesirable habits in order for the business model to operate. To make charging for a chat with a content creator even somewhat reasonable, the content creator must make themselves exceedingly unreachable. The perks connected with these levels also offer people a voice on a platform that the content producer has built; this may be difficult to manage when someone cross-promotes using their gift.
Garo is accused of charging people for virtual hugs and inciting his followers to engage in “cult-like conduct” in the example above. According to screenshots, Garo has urged his streamers not to publicize their birthdays, that other content makers are not permitted in some parts of his Discord because they are competitors, and that he has engaged in other what may be considered unethical community activities.
Furthermore, Garo’s Discord server rules emphasize the importance of the community not forming friends with one another or playing games together unless Garo is there. This is ridiculous for anybody to endure on a Discord server in which they are actively engaging, and I’m not even going to touch on it except to say that you should never allow a Discord server decide who you play your games with.
The Social Media’s Voice
The anecdotal evidence of cult-like conduct, in my study, is exaggerated; yet, the concerns about how the group is developed and handled are still true. The other actions, if accurate, are all signs of seeking to grow stream income via harmful channels by focusing on monetizing the relationship with the content producer.
The inevitable swirl of seeking to optimize the stream for profit creates a hotspot of attention in all of these circumstances. Those who see the conduct as toxic continue to discuss it on social media, prompting overreacting individuals to exaggerate many of the above-mentioned notions or apply certain toxic principles universally, claiming that the whole streaming community does this one thing in particular.
While these donation tier incentives aren’t ideal, it’s important to remember that they’re contributions, and the awards provided are only suggestions. They’re also likely a lot of work for the streamer to support. A community that has organically formed around poisonous incentives will need more work to maintain than one that has grown around a healthy connection with its founder.
Humility and caution
Communities thrive when people work together to improve themselves. When it comes to joyful stream raves, personality cults are fantastic. When it comes to connecting with one another, they aren’t so terrific, especially when that relationship is being abused for money. As a result, it’s critical for streamers to maintain appropriate boundaries with their communities while being accessible. It’s also critical that subscribers pledge to donate just what they can afford and only with the intention of voluntarily supporting the channel, rather than exploiting the connection for the sake of support.
This isn’t something that happens overnight. They are planted in the ground, nourished, and watered, and they grow in the direction in which they will eventually finish. In these communities, you can’t look at this as a basic issue where someone has crossed a boundary in asking for help and the community refuses to help. It’s far more systemic than that, instead.
Communities that Grow Ignorant of Toxic Behavior
I’ve discovered that practically everyone wants to do their maximum best and that almost no one wants to be poisonous. Toxic habits are often motivated by self-hatred for previous toxic acts. So no community chooses to engage in these types of activities on the spur of the moment, and they nearly never do so with the sole aim of being poisonous.
They’re like tomatoes growing without a wire cone to hold them off the ground in the garden. Tomatoes that have been properly cultivated yield a lot of fruit. This means the tomatoes will not grow upright and will begin to weigh and expand the bush horizontally, spreading the tomatoes out and making them vulnerable to ground-based issues like as snails and spoiling.
To stay healthy and flourish in the correct direction, communities need a gentle guiding hand. They can and will grow and flourish without such guidance, but some of it may be rotten and spoilt, tarnishing the crop as a whole. A great leader would want every follower and subscriber to enjoy their content as well as their time together as a farmer would want every tomato grown on the vine to come out perfect; a great leader would want every follower and subscriber to enjoy their content and each other’s time together as a farmer would want every tomato grown on the vine to come out perfect.
Keep in mind that you can always toss a primo sub at a creator you like. Each Amazon Prime membership gets one free one every month.
The Secret to Success
It requires a lot of things for a community to function well and flourish in a healthy way. Two that are important to our issue today are that the community’s leadership must be focused on the community rather than money. The other is that the community as a whole has to have healthy boundaries with the content providers it follows.
That implies you must respect the guidelines set out by the content provider while dealing with them on their platform. Respecting their personal lives and recognizing that showing love on stream does not imply agreement to anything. It also implies that you should support your favorite streamers, but only if you can afford it and never for the sake of monetary gain. It’s also a good idea to include a thank you with the prizes.
The only exception is stuff, which you should only buy if you feel compelled to do so. Never enable a streamer to take advantage of limited-time promotional products and FOMO, since this is never in good taste. Cr1TiKaL is a wonderful example of someone who worked hard on this. Their band published a vinyl album that sold out rapidly, and they moved swiftly to acquire a second pressing, despite the fact that ordering vinyls is difficult right now.
Remember that in order for things to work out well for everyone, everyone must do their part online. When a creator is doing anything that seems to be incorrect, never be hesitant to speak out and dispute or question them. Never be scared to express yourself to them. In particular, rookie creators who are just getting started. Assist them in moving in the proper route so that they may be supported by their followers and provide them with great material.
“and today’s top donator is”: how live streamers on twitch tv monetize and gamify their broadcasts” are some of the ways that Twitch streamers exploit their communities. This includes using donation options to make money, as well as having a “Top Donators” list during streams.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the highest paid streamer on Twitch?
A: The highest paid streamer on Twitch is currently Pokimane.
What percentage does Twitch take from streamers?
A: Twitch takes 30% of the money they make from subscriptions, meaning when a streamer makes $10 in one month, it gets split between Twitch and them with $3.33 going to twitch.
How much does a Twitch streamer make per ad?
A: It depends on how many ads that streamer does and the quality of those ad sales. Some Twitch streamers make upwards of $3,000 per day from advertising alone.
Related Tags
- twitch monetization requirements
- twitch earnings leak
- twitch income leak
- how to monetize your stream
- psychology of twitch donations