What's that? I can't hear your justified complaints!
So I don't partake in streaming. I've not reached that level of my descent into narcissism where I believe other people will want to watch me play games in their free time whilst I natter away at inconsequential garbage. But despite my tone, that's not born from any moral objection I have against those that do, but simply because I don't have a rig powerful enough to do so. Although with the absolute impossibility it has been trying to get my hands on those new consoles, I'm reaching the point where I'm bookmarking 'build your own PC' guides. The 3090 can't still be that expensive, can it? (Woah yes it can, nevermind. 2 thousand? What the heck? You want a lease on my soul and my firstborn too, Nvidia?) Still, I watch some streams every now and then, get involved in the excitement of watching gameplay from folk with more charisma than I, and so I am familiar enough with that sort of world to know what a seismic and unexpected shake-up it is to have Streamlabs get outed as a terrible platform that everyone with a conscious should abandon post-haste.
To be clear, I know enough about how important they are, not how they work. (Go to a streamer for that intimate knowledge.) But as I understand it, Streamlabs and OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) are platforms that facilitate video recording and live streaming. Which isn't to say that one couldn't stream without their help, but the standardised quality of what a stream should be and how it should work was set by the standards that OBS helped establish. They made it accessible to the everyman to create quality-looking set-ups with elements, integrations with the streaming platform and a streamlining of the fiddlier parts of running a professional stream. And as you can imagine for a type of media which has steadily become a profession for a few lucky people out there, such accessibility is literally essential for their daily lives. As such it should come as little surprise that these sorts of platforms are considered essential tools for the aspiring streamer out there, the thing they must learn how to walk with first before they can run and fly as a wisecracking, wit-spewing, internet streamer. (At least that's the norm for game streaming, I'm not as familiar with other... types of streaming...)
OBS is the OG in this regard. (or OBS Studio, as it is now officially known) It's free and open-source, which basically means that everyone who worked on it did so with the passion of wanting to make streaming more open for everyone and actively wants to encourage others to hop onto that mission with their own expertise. As you can expect, they survive off of donations on Patreon and don't try to skim anything off of the users or viewers. So you don't really need a degree in basic narrative composition to see where this is going right? I mean if life simulates art, and you know how any story goes, then you know where I'm going with this next, don't you? I'll give you a really big clue, OBS aren't going to the bad guys in this story. Which leaves only one other type of streaming platform that I've already mentioned, conveniently enough. Streamlabs.
So in comes TwitchAlerts, I mean Streamlabs. (Wow, that first company name was really short-sighted. That's probably the most well-advised name change I've seen in years.) They essentially are a company trying to do what OBS does but with more of a streamlined set-up, and here's the part where my knowledge falls away, because this comes down to preference from here on out. I've heard some streamers lament that Streamlabs is an overall lesser experience with worse functionality and even if you buy into it's premium subscription service, you can never get your hands on customer support. Again, I must impress, this is second hand and anecdotal, but I've heard voices who I respect enough to, whilst maybe not believe their every word to the letter, at least retreat to the old proven adage of "Where there's smoke, there's most likely fire." So Streamlabs isn't as lovingly made as OBS is. Good thing they launched StreamlabsOBS together then, right?
Not too long ago, another streaming service called Lightstream posted a meme pointing out the fact that Streamlabs appeared to have totally ripped off the design of their website and... yeah, if you look at the images it's pretty clear to see how that ain't no coincidence. Point in case, they even went so far as to copy the testimonials at the bottom of the page word-for-word only changing the context to make it about them. (That's... just impressively lazy for a plagiariser) It was on this day that another shoe dropped, on Streamlabs' one remaining good foot, when OBS, saints that they are, spoke up about the fact that StreamlabsOBS had absolutely nothing to do with them. Oh yes. Streamlabs had recognised the reverence that the streaming community had placed on OBS, all that trust, and decided to just steal their name out from under them. In the words of a demonic court jester- "Awow!"
OBS, being sweethearts far too good to be subjected to this nonsense, reached out to Streamlabs quietly in order to request they changed their name to prevent any mistaken collaboration, but were met with pure silence. This name change happened in early 2019, by the way, so Streamlabs had plenty of time to check their inbox. As a consequence, OBS' team have reported several instances of aggrieved customers calling up OBS to complain about their Streamlabs issues and then getting angry at OBS for the issues with Streamlab's software, how screwed up is that? It all worked out in Streamlabs' favour, however, because they managed to fool the entire world for a least a couple of years by just keeping quiet. Now, however, they've been outed as bullying a non-profit enthusiast project for clout... yeah, that's going whack your popularity a little.
Funnily enough, it wasn't too long after all of this came out that Streamlabs magically renamed themselves back to just 'Streamlabs'. (Funny how that happens.) But that hasn't really been enough for them to save face. Suspicions were already on the company due to the apparent unreliability of the service and way that the app does every legal thing in it's power to stop you from unsubscribing, from telling you that the service is down when you first press, to highlighting the 'keep me subscribed button' and greying out the continue, to throwing a giant screen of text at you on the final hurdle whilst scribbling the 'cancel anyway' button in small hyperlinked text that is coloured a very similar colour to it's backdrop, isn't contained in a button like every other option before it was, and is on the left hand side of the context box whilst every other option has been on the right hand side. (There's got to be some consumer laws against that nonsense.) But hearing this just confirmed the heavy suspicions that these guys are disingenuous and crude busybodies that none one with an informed view of streaming will want to associate themselves with.
The worst part of this, at least from Streamlabs' point-of-view, is that streaming isn't like Youtube or Tiktok, with their thousands of content creators all operating on their own little islands from one another. Streamers tend to be tight knit, and travel in their extended circles even when streaming by themselves, so news of a disreputable member of the typical streamer start-up pantheon is going to spread. Although I can't say that this is a miscarriage of justice given the generally mean and dismissive attitude that this company treated it's contemporaries with. This is literally how I'd expect Dick Dastardly to run a streaming platform. (That's 'Wacky Races and Catch the Pigeon' Dick Dastardly, not 'surprise 3rd act weirdo main villain in that scooby Doo movie' Dick Dastardly. It's mean spirited, but not cartoonishly evil just yet) So now this company is learning that most salient and heartfelt of moral lessons that has been passed down from culture to culture, hegemony to monarchy, theocracy to democracy, and now from individual to company: don't be a dick, man. Sheesh.
No comments:
Post a Comment