It's exploitative period, but keep in mind they're not selling gifs. They're selling attention. Viewers are told "buy this useless crap, and this cool person will acknowledge me".
Which is kinda what Gabe is getting at in that final panel. Kids need to understand that streamers are not their friends, no matter how much you pay them.
Consider it when you watch some stream and a viewer gifts twenty subs at random. Sure, it might just be a big fan with more money than he knows what to do with. But they might also be a sad person trying to get someone they admire to say "Hey, Vegeta 83, thanks for the subs! I appreciate you!" for a little dopamine rush.
Edited by Kayeka on Mar 10th 2021 at 2:02:24 PM
Redmess
Yeah, that's not really a healthy way to interact with your audience.
Optimism is a duty.
It's what pays rent. Until they land their big sponsorship deal, it's their entire business model.
Edited by Kayeka on Mar 10th 2021 at 2:12:21 PM
Redmess
Yeah, I understand that, but it's also preying on insecure children. It's not a very morally upstanding way to earn your money.
Optimism is a duty.
Oh, I'm sure they're not necessarily bad people. Most probably don't think about the who and the why of their donations. They think about paying rent. How bad can they be?
Redmess
Yeah, this is probably mostly an awareness problem on the streamers' part. It would probably help if they stopped accepting overly generous donations unless they know the who and why. It sounds in this case like Noah was one of those generous donors.
Or only accept anonymous donations over a certain amount.
Edited by Redmess on Mar 10th 2021 at 2:28:17 PM
Optimism is a duty.
Wow, I just realized that prior to reading this, I couldn't even conceive the though of a streamer having kids as target audience (all the gaming streams I watch seem to target adults with retro-gaming nostalgia).
I see the strip also addresses the "children are not supposed to be able to buy stuff online" bit, since the kid evidently worked around this problem.
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
Wow... I haven't looked at this strip in like seven years when I stopped being as on-top of video game stuff. The art style has changed quite a bit.
Redmess
Yeah, I noticed that too. It looks very different.
How come we didn't have a thread for this comic before? I thought this was supposed to be the quintessential gaming comic?
Optimism is a duty.
Prolly 'cause no one got around to it, and there's usually not much to talk about. I mostly just follow them because they keep a tight schedule.
May also be related to the comic having its own comment page and likely its own forum.
I wouldn't know nowadays though, because this forum is the last one I keep watch on regularly. Haven't visited any webcomic forum in ages, like, maybe since the MSPA forums fell.
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
Redmess
Yeah, I've also drifted away from following forums over the years, until I started following this one.
Optimism is a duty.
There is a previous thread actually
but nobody has posted there since 2018.
Oh, bother.
Either this thread or that one should be locked down to avoid further confusion.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Redmess
Let's close this one, then, since the other is the longer one.
And you can thank the forum's terrible search engine for me missing it.
The irony is that I was already following that other thread too, apparently.
Edited by Redmess on Mar 13th 2021 at 12:29:10 PM
Optimism is a duty.
Apparently we did not have a thread for this web comic, so I made one.
The last
two comics
are about Gabriel's kid apparently buying a small fortune in super chats and super stickers from a streamer, which are basically just gifs. And they are expensive, too.
Sounds kinda exploitative to sell kids cheap gifs.
Optimism is a duty.