The online survival game Fallout 76 is about to launch. A three-hour stream featuring star streamer Ninja, the comic characters Rick and Morty, and rapper Logic just aired on Twitch. Reactions have been mixed.
Last night, there was a three-hour live stream of Fallout 76 with a bizarre cast during our sleepy night hours. We summarize reactions and show you clips.
Who was playing?
- Tyler “Ninja” Blevins: He has 10 million followers on Twitch and is the largest streamer in the world. He is something like a super gamer. Blevins is considered extremely ambitious and driven, but appears quirky and relaxed outwardly. The game Fortnite has propelled him to the top on Twitch.
- Rapper Logic: He has been in the music business since 2009 and was nominated for two Grammys in 2018.
- Justin Roiland: The actor, designer, author, and director voiced the cartoon characters Rick and Morty during the stream, who were visible on screen. The two are the stars of a sci-fi comedy series with a unique humor that enjoys cult status.
Bad reactions in the Twitch chat
Eurogamer criticizes technical issues: The site Eurogamer describes it as a “cringe-fest,” meaning a constant sense of secondhand embarrassment, albeit with hints of humor.
The stream was set up so that Roiland controlled the character “DarkWebFlurbos,” who was at a higher level and modeled after the character Rick. Most of the time, this character was the focus of the stream. Ninja and Logic had low-level characters and tended to stay together.
Rick and Morty aimed to “see the bombs drop.” By the end of the stream, they accomplished this, with Rick walking toward the detonation with open arms as another player activated the nuclear bomb.
Eurogamer notes that the three streamers struggled to find a shared chemistry. They had difficulty interacting with each other and responding to what others were saying and doing.
The Twitch chat was full of insults aimed at the streamers and Fallout 76 throughout the entire stream.
Eurogamer mentions many technical difficulties that further disrupted the pacing of the stream. There were crashes that led to long delays. For 10 minutes, there was an overlay issue as well. This is what the stream looked like:
Eurogamer further states that the issues were compounded by the fact that the stream took place on the Xbox One, causing framerate problems. This was also noted and criticized by the Twitch chat.
By the end of the three-hour stream, Rick and Morty had simply glitched out of the screen while Ninja and Logic were cut off mid-sentence.
Main criticism point: Chemistry is lacking
Kotaku points out lack of chemistry: The US site Kotaku strikes a similar note. Here, too, criticism is directed at the lack of cohesion among the individual parts of the stream.
Rick and Morty intended to be funny, but would have struggled to break through with their impro-comedy. Especially since Ninja and Logic did not engage with their jokes. Moreover, Rick and Morty without screenwriters often missed the mark.
In this clip, Rick urges the other streamers to run around naked and only use their fists. However, Ninja talks about another player who is chasing them. Logic has problems with his seating arrangement.
Additionally, Logic seemed to have some difficulties getting along with the game. Loic seemed to be talking more about his chair, breathing, or other things.
Kotaku also notes the negative comments in the Twitch chat but admits that the stream had a few highlights. For instance, Morty recounts that he once woke up at night because Rick was hiding under his bed and constantly burping.
According to Kotaku, one can understand how the combination of Ninja, Logic, Rick, and Morty would look fantastic to a PR team. However, in practice, one must also ensure that the ingredients fit together; otherwise, it could be a mess.
What reddit says: On reddit people especially complain that Bethesda brings in a “foreign streamer” like Ninja to feature Fallout 76. He probably wouldn’t play the game later anyway. PR chose Ninja just to reach his community and get them excited about Fallout 76.
People would have preferred streamers from the Bethesda community.
