Surely someone would have to be absolutely detached from reality to think the normal spectrum of human emotion should regularly include violence and slurs, especially over something as trivial a video game.
This is why I wrote "There are Twitch Terms of Service that all streamers have to abide by, so if someone says something way out of line I'd recommend contacting Twitch about it."
Big streamers do lose sponsors if they say something way out of line, but using a few slurs like mentioned in original post... I've seen way bigger streamers with multi-billion dollar sponsors use much worse language than that - you're setting unrealistic expectations on people.
I'd recommend checking a few League streams, streamers with multiple sponsors (sponsors bigger than Zenimax)... and see what kind of language is being used there.
Sure, there is a classy way to deal with situations and the... less classy way, but as mentioned: people are not robots.
Plenty of streamers do deal with toxicity daily and do act like professionals... most of the time. I watch many of them.
I've also seen how these people act on a very bad day or when they reach that "tipping point" - people whom you'd never even imagine getting that mad.
It's very easy to tell other people how they should act while you're completely detached from the situation.
Accountable for what?
All I can see here is something about a streamer "exploiting" (something streamers are inaccurately accused of daily) and some angry gamer words.
Where is the context? How was this streamer accused of exploiting? What were the words directed at the streamer? Was it someone from in game who'd been harassing the streamer in game for hours for example?
All missing context.
Yes, I'd consider it very rude if someone just snapped at me like that out of nowhere, but we're missing the context here.
A stream team member is representing the game and ZOS as a company. They are upheld to higher standards than just some twitch streamer. It’s like how teachers can’t post NSFW content on their instagram or business students can’t post about how great day trading is on their twitter… you can, its within your right, but you’ll lose your job because you are not someone a company wants to associate with.
Yep, it's the same if you have big sponsors on Twitch... you can't say just about anything.
What is mentioned here though is still relatively mild, we're not talking about racist or homophobic terms, death threats, doxxing... anything that could actually be considered a "brand risk".
Maybe a lot of people posting here are very mild mannered, but I can promise you people with much bigger sponsors who stake their entire livelihoods on competitive play and being/seeming good at what they do take it a lot more serious when things go sideways and emotions flare up. This doesn't excuse any of the above, but I think we can allow people a swear word or two, no? Atleast in every other category sponsors do.
Over-policing peoples' behaviour only makes them afraid to stream the game, contributes to anxiety and even more negative emotions.
Minimizing what happened by saying it's ‘relatively mild’ completely misses the point. This isn’t just about a casual swear word or two—this was a Stream Team member using an exploit and responding to criticism with outright offensive language, including telling someone to ‘suck my d***’ and using an ableist slur. That absolutely falls into the category of behavior that reflects poorly on the game and its community.
Being in the Stream Team means they’re representing the game, and with that comes a level of responsibility. If a regular player got banned for exploit abuse or toxic behavior, would we excuse it by saying ‘oh well, emotions flared up’? No. So why should a Stream Team member get special treatment?
Also, the idea that holding people accountable is ‘over-policing’ is just an excuse to avoid consequences. If someone is so worried about being held to basic standards of decency, maybe they shouldn’t be in a position where they’re representing the game in the first place.
I was watching at the time, and I completely agree—ZOS needs to address this. Just because they're a Stream Team member doesn't mean they should be able to act however they want. They’re still representing the game and should be held to the same standards as everyone else. This kind of behavior is completely unacceptable, and they shouldn’t get a free pass for something this serious.
Minimizing what happened by saying it's ‘relatively mild’ completely misses the point. This isn’t just about a casual swear word or two—this was a Stream Team member using an exploit and responding to criticism with outright offensive language, including telling someone to ‘suck my d***’ and using an ableist slur. That absolutely falls into the category of behavior that reflects poorly on the game and its community.
Being in the Stream Team means they’re representing the game, and with that comes a level of responsibility. If a regular player got banned for exploit abuse or toxic behavior, would we excuse it by saying ‘oh well, emotions flared up’? No. So why should a Stream Team member get special treatment?
Also, the idea that holding people accountable is ‘over-policing’ is just an excuse to avoid consequences. If someone is so worried about being held to basic standards of decency, maybe they shouldn’t be in a position where they’re representing the game in the first place.
Allegedly using an exploit - only thing we have here is accusation of such... again, something streamers are accused of daily by people. Guilty until proven innocent, is that how this is?
If you think someone exploited, report them - it's that simple.
I can open a random League or CS or even a WoW stream right now and I guarantee you I'll hear something similar to "suck my d***" or this "ableist slur" (good luck watching an Asmongold video without hearing this horrible word for example).
If you don't like how a streamer communicates, don't watch the streamer.
If a streamer goes over the line and breaks existing Terms of Service, report them.
It's that simple.
No one is going to excuse a streamer who actually did exploit and got banned, or if they typed something stupid in game and got banned. They sit out their sentence or are perma'd and hopefully learn from it, same as anyone else. I don't see where the "special treatment" is... unless "special treatment" is that you're now supposed to police the evil streamers' conduct outside of the game as well to a ridiculous degree.
You know what, I'll agree to that the moment everyone making fun of and harassing streamers on reddit, discord, here on forums etc also get similar treatment, how about that?
Absolute insanity.
spartaxoxo wrote: »
We are talking about the use of an abelist slur though, with a very ugly history.
Allegedly using an exploit - only thing we have here is accusation of such... again, something streamers are accused of daily by people. Guilty until proven innocent, is that how this is?
If you think someone exploited, report them - it's that simple.
I can open a random League or CS or even a WoW stream right now and I guarantee you I'll hear something similar to "suck my d***" or this "ableist slur" (good luck watching an Asmongold video without hearing this horrible word for example).
If you don't like how a streamer communicates, don't watch the streamer.
If a streamer goes over the line and breaks existing Terms of Service, report them.
It's that simple.
No one is going to excuse a streamer who actually did exploit and got banned, or if they typed something stupid in game and got banned. They sit out their sentence or are perma'd and hopefully learn from it, same as anyone else. I don't see where the "special treatment" is... unless "special treatment" is that you're now supposed to police the evil streamers' conduct outside of the game as well to a ridiculous degree.
You know what, I'll agree to that the moment everyone making fun of and harassing streamers on reddit, discord, here on forums etc also get similar treatment, how about that?
Absolute insanity.
demonology89 wrote: »If they exploited, report them in game. Simple.
If you're offended by their words, report them through Twitch.
Pain In The Axe wrote: »Some light on the exploit aspect of this since I was there when this all went down
No Exploit occured, was more like a situational bug due to bad performance in cyrodiil(which obviously happens..)
What was happening was that he was fighting outside on Sejanus Porch using rush of agony. The Streamer was trying to do pulls onto a ball group, The fourm writer seems to have been pulled or witnessed someone get pulled through one of the pillars. Multiple people other than the writer of this fourm came into the chat and tried to make a big deal how getting pulled like that was an exploit, we tried explained to them how jankey cyrodiil can be when its prime time and its not intentional if that did happen to them. These people got banned from chat since they wouldnt drop it, and here we are with a fourm thread when the entire crux of the issue wasn't even happening.
This isn't League or CS or WoW and it's not any type of streamer being discussed. You keep mentioning other games, Twitch TOS, sponsors, and in-game TOS as standards that are set. The issue is that are not the only standards.
The individual in question also had to apply and be accepted as a stream team member, much like a job position. This creates another set of standards for community interaction and representation.
I get the impression that the community ZOS attempts foster is not the same as the community League fosters. The purpose of this thread appears to be pointing out the way this streamers behavior is interpreted and questioning if it is considered appropriate for the standards and community atmosphere ZOS is attempting to foster and clarify the expectations ZOS has for their behavior and thus the expectations viewers can have for how they will be treated by the stream team. If ZOS determines this behavior is acceptable, then viewers will have clarification for what to expect. If they determine it is not acceptable, streamers can have clarification for what expectations are for their behavior as well. No one has to be cancelled or scared to stream. If anything it will provide clearer direction for both parties.
Surely someone would have to be absolutely detached from reality to think the normal spectrum of human emotion should regularly include violence and slurs, especially over something as trivial a video game.
Pain In The Axe wrote: »Some light on the exploit aspect of this since I was there when this all went down
No Exploit occured, was more like a situational bug due to bad performance in cyrodiil(which obviously happens..)
What was happening was that he was fighting outside on Sejanus Porch using rush of agony. The Streamer was trying to do pulls onto a ball group, The fourm writer seems to have been pulled or witnessed someone get pulled through one of the pillars. Multiple people other than the writer of this fourm came into the chat and tried to make a big deal how getting pulled like that was an exploit, we tried explained to them how jankey cyrodiil can be when its prime time and its not intentional if that did happen to them. These people got banned from chat since they wouldnt drop it, and here we are with a fourm thread when the entire crux of the issue wasn't even happening.
IIILaaLaaIII wrote: »I wanted to bring attention to something that happened recently involving an official ESO Stream Team member. During their live stream on Twitch, they were using an exploit. I pointed it out in chat, letting them know that what they were doing was considered exploiting.
Instead of addressing the issue professionally, they became extremely offensive towards me. As a young woman, I was shocked when they told me to “suck my d***” and called me “ret*rded.” This kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable, especially from someone representing the game and the community.
This isn't the first time I have seen him say things like this, but this can't be something that members of ZOS's public stream team allows right?
Pain In The Axe wrote: »
[snip]
If the streamer didn’t do anything wrong, why did he take the VOD down? There are tools to recover it that anybody can use.