TikTok Ban Update, Jiggle Physics In Gaming, and FaZe Banks Kicks Out Clan Members

Today’s edition is brought to you by Fanatical - Fanatical is on a mission to help gamers from all over the world find amazing games at amazing prices. Fanatical lets you quickly find what you want from a selection of over 10,000 officially licensed digital games from over 1,100+ publishers. SEE LATEST DEALS

Happy Tuesday, Streamers!

Is it just me or have video game adaptations finally been redeemed? Sure, they can’t ALL be masterpieces. However, we definitely have left the era of “god awful adaptations”. The Last of Us, Sonic The Hedgehog, Mortal Kombat, and Super Mario Bros. have all proven successful, spawning sequels or more seasons. Add Fallout to that growing list of worthy adaptations.

I spent my weekend binge watching the Fallout series and as someone who has never played any Fallout games, I thought it was pretty great! I may join the legions of new Fallout gamers and pick up New Vegas or Fallout 4 to get that first-hand Fallout experience.

Opportunity for Horror Streamers

This is a first for me!

I had indie developer Perspektik slide into my DMs on Twitter to share a few Steam codes for their psychological horror game Exanimum: The Silent Call. Check out the trailer here.

I’m not getting paid to promote this. I just really like the idea of supporting indie developers and would love to do that for this team.

I only have a handful of codes, so if you’d like to be considered here’s my ideal Twitch streamer:

• Primarily creates content around horror games

• Plans on streaming this games within the next 30 days

• Willing to share an honest review on Steam to support the devs

If this sounds like you, DM me on Twitter with your media kit.

If you know a rad horror streamer, share this with them!

This is first come first serve so act quickly.

That’s all for now! Enjoy the rest of the content below.

Dim

DON’T MISS OUT: If you’re viewing via email and notice this edition is getting clipped. You’ll miss a few important updates unless you switch to View on Browser using the link in the top right corner of this email.

In This Edition

• Tuesday ToDos

• This Week's Top Stories

• Twitch Platform Updates

• YouTube Platform Updates

• Creator News

• Streaming News

• Gaming News

✅Tuesday To-Dos

Every week I bring you🖐️ actionable tasks to help you improve your content. See what’s new this week 👇

1. 🚜Join - Southfield has reopened its Creator Program and is accepting new applications. Check out this chaotic farming game. Fill Out Form

2. 🏆Challenge - If you’re looking for some content ideas for your stream look no further than Astra’s 30-day content challenge! This 30-day challenge encourages creators to try out different ideas which is a great way of inspiring content ideas when things get stale. Try It Out

3. 🐝Register - If you aren’t familiar with Stream Bee, it is a analytics tool for Twitch streamers. Track your growth across all platforms, get insights on what to stream, and earn some free game keys! Learn More

4. 🇵🇸 Support - itch.io is raising $500,000 for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. You can purchase an indie game charity bundle featuring over 200+ video games including 50 from LGBTQ creators. Donate Now

5. ✍️Apply - If you haven’t already you NEED to apply to the Lurkit Creator Program. You’ll get exclusive campaigns, VIP-access to events, exclusive discounts, and more! View Program

🥇This Week’s Top Stories

TikTok Ban Becomes Law

Well y’all, it finally happened.

President Biden has officially signed off on legislation that will force TikTok parent company ByteDance divest from its U.S. subsidiary within the next 12 months.

As expected, ByteDance will be challenging this law in the courts which could lengthen this process even further. The company has found success in court in the past, but this will be the first time it challenges federal legislation. Either way, ByteDance has already expressed that they would rather shut down TikTok entirely than sell it off.

If you’re a creator building a following on TikTok, your gut reaction might be to panic.

But don’t worry, its not like TikTok will get Thanos-snapped out of existence tomorrow.

We can expect legal proceedings to last at least the next year if not longer giving TikTok creators plenty of time to pivot and invest in other platforms like Instagram and YouTube.

I did find an interesting tweet featuring Senator Pete Ricketts perhaps being a little too transparent as to why Congress and the President are so hellbent on getting rid of TikTok.

Don’t be fooled by news outlets screaming about how U.S. citizen data is at risk on the platform. This all comes down to control. If the government was truly concerned about data privacy, they would be more focused on domestic companies like Facebook and Google who actively abuse user data.

This hypocrisy is even more prevalent today as young Americans participate in Pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country. TikTok continues to be a critical channel to reveal the atrocities of the Israeli government and raise awareness about the genocide that is currently taking place in Gaza. The U.S. government wants to silence the opposition to their pro-Israel stance.

Apparently, in America, free speech is protected until its critical of Israel.

The banning of TikTok is just the latest example of how fragile our first amendment rights are.

Does A Farming Sim Really Need ‘Jiggle Physics’?

That’s the question that many Twitch streamers asked over the weekend after a tweet from an upcoming game titled Farm Folks published this now deleted tweet.

This tweet prompted streamers, many of who were looking forward to the release of Farm Folks, to share their concerns with developer Crytivo about the kind of mixed message this was sending to its intended audience.

Initial backlash from the community was met with a rather lukewarm response from the Crytivo community manager and CEO. You can see their comments in the Discord screenshots below.

They didn’t find any fault in the original tweet and went with the “sorry, if it offended you” canned response. This, of course, didn’t go over well with the community and led to another attempt at an apology.

Unfortunately for Cryptivo, the damage had been done.

Not only did the original tweet and response upset many cozy gamers, but their subsequent apology also upset those that had no issue with the ‘jiggle physics’.

The hyper-sexualization of the female body has always plagued the gaming industry. So many games use female characters as nothing more than a bit of ‘eye candy’ for the male gaze. Just this past week we got the scantily clad female protagonist, Eve, in Stellar Blade which has also had its share of discussion about the developer’s decisions around her appearance. Many have pointed out that while the game itself is pretty decent, it does little to position its lead as anything more than a bland puppet more in keeping with an male-controlled action figure than a fleshed out character.

I think its also important to note that sexualization isn’t inherently bad.

Context matters.

There are plenty of examples of games that respectfully use a female’s sexuality to empower that character rather than use them for the pleasure of gawking male gamers. Games that come to mind include Bayonetta, Hades, recent iterations of Lara Croft, and even characters from Final Fantasy.

Sexualizing the female characters in a cozy farming sim just makes me scratch my head. Is that really what Cryptivo thought their fans wanted? What other purpose does this serve other than to objectify the characters in the game? What is worse is that it was played for laughs by the original author of that tweet.

I think Teresa Lynch, a media researcher who conducted a 2016 study about the sexualization of female characters in gaming, put it best:

“Women don’t like to be seen as sex objects. When they don’t feel like game content positively reflects [their sex], they’re not interested.”

Its really that simple.

• Zach Bussey pointed out that a new experiment is promoting Creators' subscriptions during ads instead of Twitch Turbo promotion.

• The new TikTok-style feed has been released on the Twitch mobile app. How many clips you can view per session is limited.

• Say goodbye to Hype Train emotes. Twitch is introducing new "Category Collection" emotes.

• On the newest episode of YouTube’s latest podcast, Release Notes, Rene Ritchie (aka the YouTube Creator Liaison) shares several improvements to streamline the podcast experience on YouTube Music. Updates include support for 3rd-party RSS podcasts, enhanced download options, and customizable playlist sorting. Watch Video

• YouTube posted $8.1 billion in ad sales during Q1 of 2024 surpassing expectations by a wide margin. Read Article

SPONSORED BY

Wishlisted over 3 million times by Steam users

A strategy game for PC that combines deep, organic and realistic city building with large scale, tactical battles.

🎙️ Creator News

• MatPat returns with the debut of a new apparel brand called Lumen. Visit Store

• Sketch, a rising name within the sports streaming space, announced the Houston Texans’ NFL Draft Pick over the weekend. See Announcement

• More drama in FaZe Clan after FaZe Banks abruptly cuts several creators including Blaze, Booya, CBass, Cizzorz, Faxuty, Flea, H1ghSky1, Kalei, Nate Hill, Nio, Proze, Santana, Sway, and Testy. Some of those that were kicked expressed outrage on Twitter about their unceremonious departures. See Announcement

• MrBeast partners with Zynga’s Socialpoint studio to introduce MrBeast-themed challenges in Top Troops, a new mobile strategy game. Read Article

• Logan Paul responds to a lawsuit accusing Prime Hydration of containing harmful ‘forever chemicals’. See Response

🔴Streaming News

• StreamElements shares a special edition of their State of the Stream report sharing insights about the livestreaming landscape in Korea since Twitch shut down operations in February. Read Report

• Twitter CEO, Linda Yaccarino, revealed that Twitter is building an app for your smart TV. See Tweet

• Patreon responded to the news of a TikTok ban saying it “would be devasting to a ton of creators” despite being critical of the vertical-video platform in the past. Read Article

• DreamHack Melbourne addressed concerns about multiple reports of creators that were intentionally disruptive throughout the event going as far as harassing visitors. If you attended and would like to report an individual you can email them at [email protected] or DM on socials. See Tweet

• Instagram shared that there are over 2 million active subscriptions to creators on its platform. They announced several new tools to help creators continue to grow. See Post on IG

🎮 Gaming News

• Super Smash Bros. turned 25 years old this past week. Yes, you may cry. In a recent article, IGN poses the question: could the next installment capture the same magic (and success) as Ultimate. Read Article

• Manor Lords sold 1 million copies in just ONE day and hit a peak Steam concurrent player count of 170K. Insanity. This tactical strategy game joins Palworld and Helldivers 2 on the list of surprising hits of 2024. Read Article

• Jackbox Games announces they will be releasing an adult-themed edition of the popular party game called Jackbox Naughty Pack later this year. See Trailer

• Bethesda continues to capitalize on Fallout’s popularity with a “next-gen” update for Fallout 4. The patch includes performance improvements for current-gen consoles, ultrawide support, new storylines, cosmetics, and weapons. Reception has been mixed so far due to persistent problems. Here is an in-depth review from GamingBolt. Watch Video

• The next Fortnite Festival season features Billie Eilish and an all-new Festival Pass. See Updates

• Nintendo issues a takedown notice concerning all Nintendo-related Steam Workshop content forcing titles like Gary’s Mod to remove 20 years worth of mods. Read Article

🥳You Made It To The End!🥳
Have A Cookie
🍪

Did you enjoy this week’s newsletter? If you did, I’d love if you would take a second to share this newsletter with at least one friend this week. By doing that once, you’d not only be supporting the newsletter, but you’d also help your friend be better informed about everything happening in the gaming / streaming space. Look at you being such a good friend!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope to see you next week!

-Dim

Disclaimer: Some links in this post are affiliate links. I only suggest products I believe in and personally use myself. If you have questions, please ask. Thanks for your support!