Despite its obviously lucrative nature, game streaming platforms like Twitch are still being shaped as an industry. It’s been a rough year for Twitch for many reasons, and it looks like that’s not about to stop.
Twitch provides a platform for players to stream long play sessions of games either alone or with friends. It has become incredibly popular over the years, rising head and shoulders above competitors, however, it’s not without its fair share of controversy. This includes behavior from streamers that has resulted in bans, and more recently, a mass DMCA spurred video deletion. Now, in another controversial move, Twitch has made its Affiliate status purchasable through a Monstercat subscription.
Offered as a solution to the now hugely problematic DMCA takedowns as part of its partnership with Monstercat, and as an incentive to get players streaming, the ability to purchase Affiliate status helps Twitch on many fronts. Players who subscribe to Monstercat for at least $5/month can purchase the status, which provides, among other benefits, a library of music that’s okay to stream with. From Twitch’s perspective, this is a nearly perfect solution open to any kind of streamer.
Players, on the other hand, are not as happy with this development. Previously, Affiliate was a status that players had to work for by reaching certain numbers indicating popularity. Now, many argue, with the option to purchase Affiliate, it devalues the status. This compounds the lack of satisfaction players had with the apology of Twitch’s CEO for the DMCA takedowns. While it may be the perfect solution for Twitch, streamers feel does little to truly help them, as the helpful features Affiliate provides are still gated off. Now they are simply gated off behind a paywall.
There are a few solutions for Twitch streamers to the problems of the platform. Streamer Harmonix outlined safely streaming while playing Fuser, providing guidelines for others to follow. Players can still play music on Twitch, provided they follow the guidelines.
Other streamers are finding more creative solutions to DMCA takedown problems. One streamer mimicked all of Skyrim‘s sound effects herself, earning her instant fame. As long as solutions like this are necessary, streamers will likely remain unhappy. Twitch and its streamers will have to reach some sort of accord soon, or the platform may lose some of its greatest assets.
Source: Kotaku
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