Does ethics have a place in live streaming gaming content? It is an industry which literally mixes business with pleasure. I mean, who wouldn’t want to get paid to play games all day? It is literally the dream scenario for content creators who manage to crack the code in becoming a successful live streamer. These individuals are often charismatic, knowledgeable, good at what they do in the games they play, and frankly are able to influence the viewers who consume their content in a number of ways. This influence however can be unethical at times, especially when money is involved. Whether that be a sponsored stream, pandering to an audience for subscriber dollars, oversharing or even exaggerating the truth to receive donation dollars, there are a number of ethical considerations and decisions that are made by viewer and streamer which are worth discussing.
Streamers are very streaky when it comes to their content. Some months there are few exciting games coming out so they have to rely on their regular group of supporters to stay afloat. But then there are months where new and shiny games come out that captivate the imaginations of their audiences, and this is where the line between genuine enthusiasm for a game vs fake enthusiasm for the money that a game can bring them comes in. I have seen it time and again. Content creators who build a level of trust with their community when it comes to being straight shooters throw all of their integrity out the window when they begin to see that their audience is subbing to them for playing a certain game.
I myself have been this type of streamer at times in my career as well. Although I still love Albion Online to this day as my favorite game of all time, there were times during my streaming where I was what you would call a fan boy rather than just an objective streamer who could see the good along with the bad and talk about the game in a neutral fashion. This temporary blindness to the bad was a result of extremely high viewer counts along with the subs to go along with it. My integrity was definitely questionable during that time because I chose not to cover the game equally in terms of offering constructive criticism. Instead, I choose to be overly positive and optimistic in order to let the subscriber numbers flow.
Now however I can see the fake enthusiasm from a mile away. It is quite easy to spot, especially if you have been watching a streamer consistently over a longer period of time. The key is, how do streamers show their enthusiasm without becoming compromised ethically for being overly positive on a game that really only they are benefiting from due to the financial support. One way to combat this is to seek sponsorship opportunities for their channels in the games that they are doing well in currently. I believe putting the #Sponsored hashtag in a stream tells the consumer of that content all they need to know about the motivations to stream a game.
This is not to say that the perfect combination of genuine enthusiasm and enthusiasm over financial support does not exist. It does at times although that is genuinely rare for a streamer to get both at the same time. It is usually one or the other. I think streamers who have integrity need to clearly spell out their intentions. They need to understand that people are indeed spending their money as a result of their recommendations and if recommendations are being made based off of the euphoria of subscriber numbers instead of a genuine enthusiasm and ethical approach to promoting the game they are playing, they need to be upfront with people about it. This in the long run will keep a streamers integrity in tact, especially with those who will be following that streamer long after the flavor of the month game has come and gone.
Accountability regarding these streamers who constantly sell out to subscriber numbers instead of being honest with their community falls on the consumer at this point in time. It would be pretty hard to create a community of people who hold streamers accountable and would most likely be viewed as highly toxic in nature, especially if members of that particular regulatory body were streamers themselves. It would be like a board of hitmen seeking to ruin a streamer’s career by calling them out to be executed by the court of public opinion. And so instead, it is up to the viewer to see through the shenanigan's that streamers often pull on their captive audiences.
As a final thing to note, I indeed was triggered by certain streamers recently who are in my estimation chasing subscribers as a motivation to write this post. Names will not be mentioned as I believe that would not be in the best interest of anyone. This blog post more so is to make the viewing audience aware that this happens so that perhaps you don’t get burned by someone you trusted. At the end of the day, a streamer is in it for themselves just as you are in it for yourself. We all need to use our judgement better.