groze: If the Stream Team thinks they're the only ones who make up the GOG twitch community, and that makes it "a positive community", completely forgetting about all the regular viewers who are sardonic and caustic and not positive at all, then, yeah, this is a very fractured community, and the "higher ups" are clearly deluded, only seeing the colorful and the positive about things.
outstarwalker: So you want them to do sardonic, caustic and not positive streams to feel included?
Was the team a lot more cynical and negative about stuff back in the days, which is why you felt included?
To be very honest here, when I started doing more streams on my own channel and eventually shifted the hours so I only streamed on GOG twice per week and on my channel on all other days, I felt like my own chat was way more positive and I sometimes felt unwelcomed by some viewers of GOG channel when I came back to do my regular streams. Or, if not unwelcomed, then just burdened with the general cynical rule of the chat.
People were, and in some part still are, way more negative about games, bugs, technical issues, or any changes that we tried to mix up in regular stuff to make it more interesting. It sometimes felt similar to GOG forums.
This is by now greatly reduced by introducing many different people from other corners of Twitch to the channel which brought fresh names, never-seen-before nicknames and variety to chat. Moderation also tries to get rid of political talk (that absolutely doesn't belong to Twitch chat) and people with swords keep their guard not to start any rufus in chat with regular users. This makes the whole chat experience way nicer.
But yeah, I guess also unwelcoming for people who want to argue with other chat members or talk about politics, not sure.
Outstar, first of all, let me just say that if I was one of the people who made you feel unwelcome or burdened or pressured (which I'm assuming I was), it was never my intention. I always had the utmost respect for you, you're a way more accomplished person than I'll ever be, while being a lot younger. And I'm not being cynical or ironic or passive-aggressive. And I understand where you're coming from, I completely get what you're saying. And you're right. Absolutely right.
Sometimes it must have been hard to stream on GOG, that much is clear. But it goes both ways. I (and some other viewers) also felt like a burden to the streamers, and stopped watching some streams, even though I liked the streamers and/or the games being streamed, because I didn't want to be a force of negativity among all the flowers and rainbows (and lewd jokes that I generally find cringe-inducing, but to each their own) and it was clear to me that some streamers didn't feel too well or comfortable about having me on their streams.
I'd meant to reply to your first post, but I wanted to give you a proper thought-out response, instead of just this. I read your Medium article as soon as you shared it on twitter, and it made me feel bad when you mentioned the people who unjustly review your tenure as GOG twitch manager -- in case you put me in the same category as the people who do that, let me explicitly make clear I think you did an awesome job as Stream Team manager, and that I do genuinely wish you the best of luck with any future endeavours you decide to embark on. It's true that I believe the GOG twitch channel is not in a very good shape, and that it had been in decline way before you left, but I don't think it's your "fault" for a second. It's no one's fault, and I know you did all you could do to make it work. People need to move on with their lives, stuff happens, it's not my place to know. It's sad, but it's the way it is.
I'd also like to address this "GOG Forums vs. GOG twitch" chasm that apparently exists. It does, to some extent, but sometimes I think both Forum and twitch people make it worse than it actually is. Plus, we all supposedly should have something in common, which is our support of GOG and DRM-free, even if some of us are positive, some are negative, some are sycophants and some are paranoids with persecutorial delusions (which I admittedly am).
I don't want to talk politics on the GOG channel, that's not the point. I don't believe in avoiding issues, and I honestly think that the current state of western society and most of the world comes from the fact we avoid discussing important matters just because there'll be "nasty arguments". But I've always respected -- and enforced, to the extent of my non-mod, non-sub presence -- GOG's channel rules, which clearly state political and religious talk is not allowed.
At the end of the day, I don't think anything will come out of this discussion. I'll keep watching the GOG streams, most streamers will keep pretending they don't mind me being there, sometimes failing to look annoyed when "missing" my messages (or actually missing them, being a streamer is not as easy as some viewers think it is). Megapieman used to say that if you didn't like him, you could always watch other streamers. That's still very much true. And that's still the strong suit of GOG. Like Chai said, this is an awesome event, and I do hope some of these streamers join the Stream Team for good, because I liked some of them a lot. And I hope that streamers I hated join, as well, because a significant portion of the GOG regulars would like them on board, too.
