The following blog is about a dark and sad message that I saw on a Twitch.tv chat on December 4th. However, before I explain exactly what happened, I’ll have to give a bit of background on everything that I’ll be talking about in this stream.
Throughout my life, I was always exposed to gaming in one way or another. Be it through my first console–a Super Nintendo– back in the day or through friends and even family that played games, sometimes semi-professionally. It was and still is (to a certain degree, because college) a hobby of mine and a subculture that I’m part of. Since I lack time to play anything nowadays I decided to watch other people play through a platform called Twitch.tv.
Twitch is a website that allows users to stream live video games. You create an account, turn on your webcam, and start playing games. People who watch your channel will see you as well as what you are currently playing. There are multiple ways to interact with the streamers, the two main options are through the chat box or donations. Very popular streamers who have thousands of viewers watching them play will more often reply to the donation messages since the public chat box is just too crazy. These donation messages appear on the screen and are read aloud by an automatic text-to-speech software.
On December 4th, I was watching a guy nicknamed Reckful play. And during his stream, this donation was received.
Source: Own Screen Capture.
As any website that allows users to talk or comment, Twitch is also full of “trolls.”That is, people who will often say anything to watch the world burn. Twitch in particular has probably even a higher percentage of trolls active at all times simply due to the nature of the gaming subculture. Furthermore, it is almost common practice for many to try to “trigger” whoever is streaming by trolling them. Therefore, a big part of the streamer’s ethos (and necessary competency) is how he/she handles trolling or deflects it in a way that the “community” approves.
However, how do you handle a message like this, when you are in front of ~18,000 people in a live stream? If it’s real and you discarded it, someone has just committed suicide and you did nothing. If you overreact in the slightest way or become emotional, you WILL get more messages like this. Also, it is important to understand that streamers (especially the ones with thousands of viewers) are often “partners” in Twitch. Being a partner means that you have to stream at defined times, a certain amount of hours per week, comply with several rules, etc. It’s a job, and several streamers make a living out of Twitch. Why is this relevant? Well, after the message showed up in the screen, several users suggested using the information attached to the donation (using the email to obtain an IP address and then a physical address) to determine where the user lived and use this to call 911. Reckful didnt’ know how to do that. Now the question became, should he still release the email to the rest of the viewers (something that’s strictly against twitch policies) so that somebody else would found out his address? If it’s a true emergency, he would be doing the right thing, if it’s not, he will be banned from Twitch because somebody trolled him.
In the end, Reckful decided to not release the information but he still tried to contact the user with no success. After a bit of searching, it was found some supporting evidence that the user who sent the message had some signs of depression.
After doing a bit of research, users were able to match John Rigley to John Zylien Rigley, the same who posted this message in /r/Needafriend. Source: Own Screen Capture.
Apparently, as told by Reckful, somebody in chat from Australia was able to contact Rigley’s parents and tell them about the situation. They found him unconscious in his room after over dosing.
I think that Reckful handed the situation very well and I admire the steps he took (within reason) to ensure the safety of this user. It was a tough call to make and it made me reflect a lot on the importance of staying, first of all, professional when you are working (even if your job is to play games). And second, it made me think of values and ethically-challening scenarios. For instance, if you were making $100k per year and you receive a call asking you to do something that would get you fired but perhaps save a person in danger (you don’t know the person and it’s a 50/50 chance outcome), would you do it? I think that sometimes you need to keep your head cool and think rationally, as tough and hard as this may be.
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