The survival MMO Rust experienced a renaissance after countless streamers shared their experiences on Twitch. MeinMMO editor Noah Struthoff developed into a real Twitch addict during this time.
This is the state of Rust: At the end of 2020, the big English-speaking streamers on Twitch started playing the survival MMO Rust. This suddenly catapulted the 2013 game back into the top ranks of the streaming platform.
A few days later, the German streamers also launched their Rust servers. They too attracted thousands of viewers and thrilled their fans with the streams. This drew me in, and I was surprised at how fantastic I found the streams, even though I usually have no interest in survival games.
In the middle of the night with 3 screens simultaneously
So I normally feel about Twitch and Rust: Admittedly, I know almost all the major German streamers on Twitch and actively follow many of them – but usually on YouTube. I never quite understood the fun of watching streamers for hours rather than catching the highlights on YouTube the next day in 10 minutes.
Until now, I have only sporadically followed the right streams. I would watch for 10 minutes and then turn it off in annoyance.
I also don’t really have a connection to Rust and survival MMOs in general. I never followed such games closely and only had touchpoints with such games while working. However, I didn’t want to spend my leisure time on them.
This is how the Rust project went for me: At the beginning of January, I wrote my first Rust article here on MeinMMO and quickly realized: This project is actually really cool. After that, I diligently watched the highlight videos on YouTube and eventually, I wanted more, so I started tuning into the first streams.
Within a few days, it was all over for me. I became practically addicted to the streams. I had a few days off and during that time, I felt like I was watching 20 different streamers build their bases or raid other groups. Every time the Rust servers went online, I was one of the first to tune in.
The highlight was the astonished face of my girlfriend when she came into my office at half past one in the night, and I was following different streamers on all 3 of my screens simultaneously. My girlfriend is used to a lot from me; after all, I regularly run around the city in sub-zero temperatures catching little Pokémon on my phone, but even she was astonished at this.
What fascinates me about the project? What I find particularly interesting is that you can encounter a multitude of streamers in close proximity in Rust. In other games, it’s usually 4-man groups, but in Rust, you could watch a ton of German streamers together. Big streamers used their reach, and smaller streamers gained a bit more attention as a result.
Furthermore, although all streamers played on the same server, each approached it differently, effectively playing their own game. I clicked through the different streams and observed the various groups. When a fight broke out, I watched both sides and could thus gain insight into both strategies.
I have never seen such a project before, and it really captivates me.
However, I also find it exciting that the different play styles often lead to conflict. Streamers who raid aggressively often come into conflict with streamers who play more passively. Therefore, several different Rust servers quickly emerged in the German Twitch scene:
- The RUSTplatz server around Dhalucard and the RocketBeans focuses more on role-playing
- The “Twitch Prime is free” server around streamers Rumathra, Trymacs, and Rewinside often showcases PvP and there are more conflicts between the teams
However, Rumathra’s server is now offline because it was permanently DDoSed and thus constantly crashed. It was mainly this server that so fascinated me about the Rust project. I can only hope that the server makes a comeback soon so I can spend the next evening in front of my 3 screens.
If you want to learn more about the German Rust servers, then check this out:
Rust: You can find your favorite German streamers on these servers
