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Popular Twitch Streamer Man vs Game Admits to Taking Speed
- Thread starter RiccochetJ
- Start date
Fried Food
Banned
do people still do speed? But yeah this knowledge makes his videos way more interesting to me. Thats kinda messed up but thats how it is.
I just got to the part in the video where he admits the drug use and music choice for that moment is perfect. Hope things turn out ok for this guy
I just got to the part in the video where he admits the drug use and music choice for that moment is perfect. Hope things turn out ok for this guy
J
JeremyEtcetera
Unconfirmed Member
This is a good reason(among many) why I think it's better to roll (stream) with a crew(or group of friends with similar interests) who can rotate into streaming when the last guy wants to take a break, instead of being a one man show. Being an entertainer for others is stressful enough as is. Putting everything on your shoulders alone, and having that being your main or major source of income sounds insanely stressful.
Sub_Level
wants to fuck an Asian grill.
Nope. The third guy, Knight, came back. He is streaming right now, as a matter of fact.
Yeah drk put in some crazy hours but I think that was mostly for the MGSV release. An in depth run will usually run around 18 hours. I don't see them go past that too often, but they do on occasion of course.
Tetsuo9999
Member
I have one of the oldest gaming channels on Youtube, so I've seen things change. Back then competition was low, and most content on Youtube was copyrighted stuff like shows and movies. Things started changing around when Google bought the site; more original content and the birth of the clickbait era. Now it's much, much harder to be successful on there without selling your soul and creating clickbait thumbnails, reaction images and other misleading things. Many of my friends got banned numerous times back when copyright enforcement was more strict, and many never came back.
I often struggle with the fact that I don't do any of that stuff, yet I struggle to make enough to afford upgrades for the channel. I deal with long bouts of depression over it since I'm told that I create good content, but I can't get enough people interested to make it sustainable. I often feel bad that I've had to start a fundraising drive for upgrades numerous times when I've been doing this much longer than the big guys have been, and the constant reminders that I create good content. There is also an immense pressure to keep playing the same game endlessly, which is what the top streamers/channels have to endure. It's not uncommon for the big guys to lose more than half of their viewership simply for trying a new game out. It can definitely turn a favorite game/franchise into something not as enjoyable. The guys who have viewers intelligent/understanding enough to let them switch games are the lucky ones, honestly. The ones who are typecast to a single game are the ones I feel bad for; feeling pressured to play something you've grown tired of just to keep food on the table can't be healthy.
I often struggle with the fact that I don't do any of that stuff, yet I struggle to make enough to afford upgrades for the channel. I deal with long bouts of depression over it since I'm told that I create good content, but I can't get enough people interested to make it sustainable. I often feel bad that I've had to start a fundraising drive for upgrades numerous times when I've been doing this much longer than the big guys have been, and the constant reminders that I create good content. There is also an immense pressure to keep playing the same game endlessly, which is what the top streamers/channels have to endure. It's not uncommon for the big guys to lose more than half of their viewership simply for trying a new game out. It can definitely turn a favorite game/franchise into something not as enjoyable. The guys who have viewers intelligent/understanding enough to let them switch games are the lucky ones, honestly. The ones who are typecast to a single game are the ones I feel bad for; feeling pressured to play something you've grown tired of just to keep food on the table can't be healthy.
BLOODED_hands
Member
It's kind of what makes him different from other and older streamers. Sure he doesn't play his games but he will sure as hell interact with his chat and he does it better than most other streamers I've seen.
Whaaat, I thought he said he was a retired streamer :/ (regards to Knight)
It's good that he's back but that's just rubbing me the wrong way tbh.
@Tetsuo, that sucks dude. I hope you are in a different field now. Content creation seems to be a hard field to get in and I congratulate people who can make it huge while playing a variety of games (the GoldGloves, Liriks, DansGamings, ManVsGames, etc.)
Richard Lewis had a great bit on this recently about Twitch especially, they were talking about viewbotting and got into a discussion about this very issue, a huge number of streamers who have a very good "product" cannot market said product because streaming has become more top heavy. Back when JTV was launching there was 2 pages of games (jtv was not a gaming stream service, gaming was merely a subsection of a wider stream, mostly it was used for radio broadcasters and liveblogs) you could get top the top with a hundred of so viewers.
A good example is people heres general disdain for shows on CBS, easy shows, cookie cutter, canned comedy that is safe, safe and easy and because its CBS there already exists this inbuilt audience that comes to the network to see comedy, gets comedy. Now take Arrested development or Futurama, timeless shows, incredible, cancelled, Deadwood, cancelled, if being "Good" was a barometer for success in life we would know it by now, being good is not enough. Twitch has become and will become incredibly hard to start on, its not impossible, but its incredibly hard. So how do you do it? Well as I said in my prior post you need a point of interest, you need to be selling something people cant get, either through qualification (A pro player), personality, affiliation (with another streamer or avenue within a scene), opportunity (Streaming a new game early, before anyone else), persistence (Such as lethalfrags 2 year challenge), sex (boobs) and im sure a few others but its 4am here and im tired.
None of these things by themselves will get you a career in streaming, it will get you a start but I can tell you of so so so many people who had all of these things and are now defunct, a quick rundown.
Pro player:
As I mentioned before, being a pro player will garner you viewers if your pro scene is established, if you are a member of the LCS you will, generally, get viewers, if you are CSGO player on FPL, DOTA pro. A HUGE caveat, unless you are in the top 1% of pro players you are not going to get a huge amount of viewers (If being "Pro" is your only selling point). Once you stop being a pro player, your value has dropped, even if your play is at a consistent level, because in the minds of people you no longer bring the professional value, people want to see you on the higher stages, not playing ball in the park.
Personality:
Personality is great, but are you good? As interesting as it might be sustaining a career as a bad player is going to present an enormous challenge, anyone who has been in a twitch chat has seen backseating, the scurge of many streamers (I could write an essasy on streamers who have actually nuked their own streaming career turning on their viewers). Personality is also exhausting, 6-10 hours a day, marathons, can you imagine having to be "on" all the time, its unfathomable, its draining.
Affiliation:
This is the trend in becoming associated with other streamers, happens in all walks of life, happens on twitch too, especially when it comes to channel groups. Affiliation is nice, it can be a great start but boy oh boy you can get found out quick, people will not watch because you cant sell affiliation, you need something more, amazingly Amaz is one of the streamers who became big through affiliation by beating Artosis a number of times using an underpowered class in HS on his stream, he was known as a troll, streamed for the change of it, boom, now hes huge (With effort of course)
Opportunity:
Insofar as attempting to level the playing field id say opportunity is the best thing you can take, often aligning it with novelty (For example streaming a new game for a marathon). If you can find a niche game that blows up you can often gain quite a nice share of the market, if your other ducks are in order and you deliver a good product. Its incredibly difficult of course, who knows what games will blow up? It is not a long term thing you can hang your hat on, its a start, you have to evolve your stream unless you want to make your sole business model dependent on a single game.
Persistence:
Insofar as creating a "community" and general sustainability this is the one that tends to forge careers, as surprising as this would be to most people the streamers I have known from the very early days actually float around 2-3k viewers, which in terms of market share is actually low, but they float it, it doesnt really go down, it doesnt go up and what these streamers do is manage to garner a community of followers who follow them. Honestly this is so difficulty to do and in order to talk about it id need to go into how adversity has created these communities, they become little subreddits of twitch with their own mannerisms, it can often be very daunting to outsiders. These people stream every day, same time, same place, their communities know when its happening, they are also very vocal outside of their streams and engage, you really must embrace the idea that you are creating a hub of people that support you and in turn you are there for them, its an arrangement.
Sex:
This ones just crazy, I love it, mostly because im a drama whore and love reading all the stuff that happens behind the scenes. Sex sells, sex is also hilarious, is it sustainable though? Jury is out frankly, my gut says no but I dont mind being wrong, what does happen general is fluctuations of interest and communities that are very defensive verses a larger general twitch populace that loves to troll it. Often these streamers have no particular talent for the games they play, but do have a talent for playing the viewers and good luck to them, its a skill and if it works it works. Mostly they survive on donations and the donations can be absurd. What I would say to anyone getting into this now is that, as a novelty, having nothing other than a body to show is not going to work any more, Girls stream in very large numbers now, the market for bodies is decreasing if having a body is your only point of interest. Of course if you can have a body, flirt and bring skill to the table, thats a nice package.
Im going to bed
Northeastmonk
Gold Member
It's an old school term for pick me ups. I remember kids use to find the higher dosages of their meds because it picked them up. They called caffeine pills speed. They sold their own prescribed medications back in the early 2000's. We all sorta got older and quit versus the latter. Most people see the latter before it becomes too big of an issue. I'd say if he quits then he'll need to be accountable of it.
I may sound like a complete stranger right now, but with addictions it feels like people can relate to the idea that it's just that. It's an addiction and it's something to get away from. Speed or whatever he is using is being used in the wrong way. I think he can fight it and maintain the life he wants. What I see is that he feels overwhelmed by everything and it's costing him his own personal happiness. He's a very mature person for admitting it. Years ago we shrugged off things because we didn't understand addiction.
I personally see drug abuse such as Adderal to be harmful to the gaming community and it was harmful when I was a teen. Kids use to do it to become skinny and stay active. Enhancing your body shouldn't be something you use drugs for unless it's a healthy way.
I wish I could warn anyone out there thinking of doing it. There's no real benefit once you crash and it doesn't take long before you realize that you're doing more harm than what you did it for to begin with.
Thanks for this. Worth quoting.
Lirik has a pretty set schedule so that he doesn't get burnt out. Usually only streams 5-6 hours a day and always has set days off during the week. The only time he really deviates from his schedule is for a group night stream or special charity/24 streams he does sometimes. Granted he also has the viewership to be able to stream when/as much as he wants, most people don't have that luxury.
BLOODED_hands
Member
Definitely Mr Cola. It's very fascinating learning about streaming. Have a good night dude!
Glad i don't find shit like this entertaining! I'm so selective over who i watch though tbf, none of this over the top hyper bullshit which seems to come with people who have more subs. I settle for much smaller channels that actually have likable casters.
Do hope the guy is getting some help though.
BLOODED_hands
Member
The cynical side of me wants to believe that it's not possible for Lirik to maintain those numbers but I doubt it. Lirik is just a entertaining ass dude lmao. It also helps that he shares viewers with his friends - GoldGolve, Shorty, and Waffle.
It's such an anomaly that he can always maintain 20-30k viewers every stream with every game he streams. Jayson (ManVsGame), has always asked Lirik how he does it and Lirik just tells him, "I don't know dude!"
RiccochetJ
Gold Member
If they get big enough to try it out as a career, what happens to your favorite streamer then?
RiccochetJ
Gold Member
What's your story? If you don't want to talk about it that's fine.
Well I'd hope they stick to the personalities that brought them to the dance. I know that doesn't always happen though for obvious reasons. All the power to them though, I'd just move on.
As far as I understand, it's the regular schedule that does it.
ManvsGame and the other streamers are not always on, when with lirik you know that he streams every week of the year and you can always catch his show at the regular hours. It makes people come back much more easily.
With 5-6 hours a day and one day off, it's pretty much a regular day job.
No, it's essentially adderal. Meth has the extra mythl group that makes it lipid enough to cross the blood brain barrier, hence why it's named Meth and not the best for you.
I've never met anyone who calls meth speed.
My brother in law. He literally just got out of prison last week after his second stint due to ice (which is basically the most pure form of methamphetamine available). Its an epidemic over here in Melbourne. Cheap and incredibly strong.
He would go days without eating, sleeping or even going home. He would Lie to his wife and my wifes family at the drop of a hat and then forget what he had lied about the next day. He would steal anything that wasnt bolted down to pay for his habbit.
Went from a pretty lovable guy to a complete mess with 12 months.
Its nasty, nasty shit when you are hooked. He literally couldnt function without having a bump.
I thought speed = amphetamine =/= methamphetamine?
BLOODED_hands
Member
ManVsGame and Ezekial_III have the charisma and energy to be something else if they wanted to. They can be great tv show hosts or shoutcasters. Those two are so close too so I can't imagine what it's like for Zeke (granted he probably knows about Jayson's problems beforehand) to see Man like he is right now.
@DSix, I can see that. The streamers I watch (fairlight_excalibur, CobaltStreak, GoldGlove, and more that I'm forgetting) all have set times and they stay above the 1k viewership. But compared to LethalFrags, it doesn't hold true for him. I don't understand why it doesn't work for LethalFrags. He's entertaining, professional, his designs are good, but when he plays another game..... His viewership just sinks and it must be disheartening for him :/
@DSix, I can see that. The streamers I watch (fairlight_excalibur, CobaltStreak, GoldGlove, and more that I'm forgetting) all have set times and they stay above the 1k viewership. But compared to LethalFrags, it doesn't hold true for him. I don't understand why it doesn't work for LethalFrags. He's entertaining, professional, his designs are good, but when he plays another game..... His viewership just sinks and it must be disheartening for him :/
Stuff is super common even outside the competitive arena for the crazy hardcore.
Knew a guy who would take speed just so he could powerlevel characters in MMOs when they came out etc. When he unlocked jedi in Star Wars Galaxies he was on for periods that were in no way safe for him
Knew a guy who would take speed just so he could powerlevel characters in MMOs when they came out etc. When he unlocked jedi in Star Wars Galaxies he was on for periods that were in no way safe for him
I stream on Twitch and am a girl. I need to debunk the idea that being a girl an advantage on Twitch. IT IS NOT AN ADVANTAGE. Been streaming for 2+ months now and I don't get some crazy amount of views and followers on my channel for being a girl. Every once in a while I even have random people coming in being rude that I have to deal with. Biggest streamers are all guys on Twitch if you look at the statistics.
Not a fan of what I saw of his stuff last year. Assuming he was on Speed would explain it. I saw him when Bloodborne launched, and he seem to never stop talking. Like, it even came off as he was speaking just for the sake of speaking. It screamed looking for attention at the time, and I assume his personal struggles only fed that longing further. That would explain why he had to drug himself up, to keep that going.
Far more importantly though, I do wish him to be better. I hope he's able to craft a stream of life where he can feel less anxiety on having to entertain and impress to the way he does.
Far more importantly though, I do wish him to be better. I hope he's able to craft a stream of life where he can feel less anxiety on having to entertain and impress to the way he does.
GodParticle
Member
I always found him incredibly annoying. I guess that explains part of it. Can't imagine trying to make a living off of streaming alone
bloodyroarxx
Member
Problem is its such a fickle business you have to have absurdly loyal people to beable to do that.
bloodyroarxx
Member
Even Lethalfrag had to change his lifestyle cause it was causing him issues (he recently took a break to deal with mental health issues) and now is willing himself to take sickdays where as before he pretty much wouldnt.
I wouldn't doubt if youtubers jelly and his buddy take speed as well. Dudes have way to much energy......besides the fact they are annoying as fuck.
But damn that is not a work schedule I want. I thought my 60 hour work weeks were bad.
Edit: Kwebbelkop....is jellys buddy.....dudes are on sonething
But damn that is not a work schedule I want. I thought my 60 hour work weeks were bad.
Edit: Kwebbelkop....is jellys buddy.....dudes are on sonething
Velcro Fly
Member
I've heard popular Hearthstone streamer Kripparrian talk on numerous occasions about how between streaming and editing/uploading a YouTube video every day he had no time to do anything else. This was when he was living in Greece. He has help with stuff now and doesn't stream as much (sometimes he would go for 8-9 hours per night every night of the week). People who think it is some glorious life of sitting on your ass playing video games really have no idea.
During his two year challenge I heard Lethalfrag say a couple times that Kripp would stream as much or more than him which is ridiculous. Although Kripp seems like a super chill dude.
I guess when you get 25k+ viewers per night you have a little more leeway.
During his two year challenge I heard Lethalfrag say a couple times that Kripp would stream as much or more than him which is ridiculous. Although Kripp seems like a super chill dude.
I guess when you get 25k+ viewers per night you have a little more leeway.
BLOODED_hands
Member
Yea, I feel so bad for him
One thing that always worried me is the fact that some of these streamers seems to have a unhealthy lifestyle and are highly dependant on their subs and donations. Doesn't help that they also live in expensive areas of a state and live nearly check to check so they can't afford to take sick days or vacation days because if they did, they wouldn't have any money.
An unhealthy lifestyle coupled with expensive rent or a mortgage and it doesn't bode well for streamers who depends entirely on subs and donations. A caveat of being independent and doing something almost everybody wants to do - play videogames for a living.
I don't know of any other ways for streamers to receive income besides ad revenue or selling out to a company and I can almost guarantee you that most streamers will not do that (spoiler alert: they will sellout lol).
I sincerely hope that these big streamers know how to save and invest their donations and money.
Amphetamines have a long history of use as standard procedure by military aircraft pilots
Andrew Evenstar
Member
love man vs game. don't mind if he does drugs for recreation.
but if he's abusing and it's becoming an addiction and health issue... then I hope he gets the help he needs.
he can be so funny on stream. loved watching him play bayonetta 2 and some other games.
but if he's abusing and it's becoming an addiction and health issue... then I hope he gets the help he needs.
he can be so funny on stream. loved watching him play bayonetta 2 and some other games.
josecitoxnyo
Member
That's lirik now, he was'nt like that before, he rarely used to take a day off. His health was starting to take a hit until he changed that.
AmaterasuOni
Banned
Speed is more common than anyone even could understand. In business world, music, entertainment, sports, everywhere. You need it when there's not enough hours in the day and when that coffee does nothing to you. Money equals speed equals money.
MAN is great, I like him, but he was dying. I'm glad he might get his life together now. At least I hope so. I like him.
Godspeed.
MAN is great, I like him, but he was dying. I'm glad he might get his life together now. At least I hope so. I like him.
Godspeed.
Cracklox
Member
Yo man, from the same part of the world. You're right, bit of a problem here. I just watched a friend go down the same path, and I can't deal with him anymore. 15 year friendship down the drain.His web of lies that I caught him out in, was really quite incredible. Fukker stole my copy of Bloodborne too. Well sort of, I don't wanna waste time with him and he has my copy so I'm writing it off. Likely been sold by now and subsequently burnt anyway. He hasn't gone to jail yet, but its not far off with how he's going
I guess coulda been me as well, as when he started a few years ago I dabbled some as well. I value my sleep too much though. Could do without sleeping for 1 night if it was involved, but not a second, so was never able to partake in the ' x amount of days bender' that were popular amongst friends at the time. I guess like most things moderation is key. The drug actually makes you feel pretty damn good the 1st time you use it, but that's the trap. You keep chasing that high, and then the next thing you know you're awake for the 3rd day straight, and things like psychosis, and the fact you probably haven't eaten much in that time become an issue. It really is an evil drug with hour easy it can lure you in, and then wreck your life.
Slight tangent aside, and on topic I wonder if the streamer guy is understating his problem as speed, when it's actually ice. Not many people use speed anymore when ice is far more cost effective and just as readily available. Either way, it's good that he can admit he has a problem
In a media as fickle as Twitch, I am not surprised that something like this happens...
Some of these people are machines when it comes to streaming and a lot of them put their body through a lot of unnecessary stress. It's a shame, also, that if they take a hiatus, they lose quite a number of subscribes as well as quite a bit of income...
One of my favorite streamers, CilantroGamer, who got to be a pretty big Minecraft streamer up and quit streaming because he was tired of only playing Minecraft and he was going through a hard time with mental health issues. During his time away, he lost A LOT of subs and now when he streams, he can barely pull in 100 viewers when he used to get anywhere between 1K - 2K whenever he streamed.
Sure, you can get a lot of money via streaming, but it really is such a damn fickle market and people who quit their jobs to do it full time really need to make sure they have a back up plan just in case.
Some of these people are machines when it comes to streaming and a lot of them put their body through a lot of unnecessary stress. It's a shame, also, that if they take a hiatus, they lose quite a number of subscribes as well as quite a bit of income...
One of my favorite streamers, CilantroGamer, who got to be a pretty big Minecraft streamer up and quit streaming because he was tired of only playing Minecraft and he was going through a hard time with mental health issues. During his time away, he lost A LOT of subs and now when he streams, he can barely pull in 100 viewers when he used to get anywhere between 1K - 2K whenever he streamed.
Sure, you can get a lot of money via streaming, but it really is such a damn fickle market and people who quit their jobs to do it full time really need to make sure they have a back up plan just in case.
ChosenPredator
Banned
you could tell something was up with him just couldn't pin point what he was taking since he started looking drastically different
Heavy's Sandvich
Member
I won't speculate as to why it's become like this, I don't think it's really due to having a heavy schedule.
You can tell things were spiraling, I sort of think his fanbase were more of a curse than a blessing at times.
He's become unwatchable, especially when he's up for days.
I want him to recover and get back to where he was.
Also, I thought it was pretty disgusting that his ex-wife brought it up on twitter.
You can tell things were spiraling, I sort of think his fanbase were more of a curse than a blessing at times.
He's become unwatchable, especially when he's up for days.
I want him to recover and get back to where he was.
Also, I thought it was pretty disgusting that his ex-wife brought it up on twitter.
bloodyroarxx
Member
As much as its none of my business I wonder was this part of the reason they split?
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
I heard the only thing she said over twitter was that she was concerned for his health. I wouldn't blame her. This needed to come out.