The survival MMO Rust is booming on Twitch. Now, German streamers have also discovered the game and started a Rust event on Saturday evening. On the first day, Trymacs, Papaplatte, and Dhalucard achieved strong numbers, but the German Rust adventure began with a difficult scene: a discussion about sexual harassment emerged.
What’s going on with Rust? About two weeks ago, the US influencer group “OfflineTV” founded a private server in Rust and invited 50 streamers. It became a huge hit on Twitch.
In Rust, players can kill each other or peacefully coexist, create intrigues and alliances, PvP and roleplay: It is a gigantic sandbox.
When 50 streamers play together and each brings their fan base, it’s an event. Some streamers become villains, others become heroes: The viewers have something to watch. That’s a formula that works and can be copied.
On January 3, the largest Spanish Twitch streamers joined forces and created their own Rust server. The success was phenomenal.
Now, on January 9, the German Twitch scene followed suit with a “Rust event.”
This is how the event went: The event started at 5 PM and lasted until midnight. The most successful participants were:
- Trymacs – 31,703 average viewers
- Papaplatte – 26,761 viewers
- Dhalucard – 11,059 viewers
- Rewinside – 6,083 viewers
- PietSmiet – 5,696 viewers
- Amar – 4,590 viewers
Of the 5 largest German streamers, 2 were involved.
Typical scene from Rust: Trymacs with a mix of roleplay and theft:
“Do you want to sit on my face?”
This scene caused a stir: During the Rust event, there was excitement about a scene. The streamer Tinkerleo shared a clip. She begs not to be killed.
You then hear a voice asking: “Do you want to sit on my face?” Later it turned out that it was Twitch streamer Daannyy, who considers “Do you want to sit on my face?” to be an inside joke.
The streamer then reacts in disbelief and anger. She can’t believe he’s serious. And is subsequently killed. You can see in the stream that this scene affects her and ruins the fun of the event.
This was the discussion: Even that evening, the scene sparked excitement on Twitter. Tinkerleo showed the scene. She was particularly upset that people came into her Twitch chat afterward, telling her not to be so sensitive. They said it was meant to be funny. Because she didn’t understand it, it resulted in a lack of respect for women in the “gamer scene” (via twitter).
Tinkerleo shared some nasty comments. The streamer said it was sexual harassment and neither funny nor humorous.
Essentially, Daannyy was defended by people saying that you shouldn’t judge the “streamer without knowing him. Those who know him know that it was meant to be funny.”
One of the largest German gaming influencers, Hand of Blood, then intervened. He explained: girls are cool, but it is evident that they are regularly harassed. Such behavior is simply unacceptable. A public discussion is needed.
Additionally, Daannyy himself spoke out. He said he had cleared things up with the streamer. He apologized and fully recognizes that it was a sexist inside joke that was completely inappropriate (via twitter).
What’s behind it: The idea of these streamer events is to bring together many different streamers, interact with each other, and entertain the viewers. This was the great success formula behind Among Us and now Rust.
There’s a synergy effect: viewers get to know other streamers and might watch them as well. In the USA, this idea led to massive growth for some streamers.
This works as long as handpicked streamers from a circle come together with similar values and core views.
But when different streamers with very different backgrounds meet, conflicts arise, which in this case are particularly drastic and ugly. What is considered “funny” in one community is clearly sexual harassment in a broader public context.
Sexism in gaming is a current topic
Since 2020, sexism in gaming has been a major issue. The “#MeToo” movement reached gaming in June 2020 with some delay.
In the second half of 2020, a movement in gaming emerged: many women shared their experiences of sexual harassment. As part of these discussions, some streamers were banned, a marketing agency and a large WoW guild disbanded, and Ubisoft announced an internal investigation and a change in company policy.
We conducted an interview with streamer Gnu on this topic on MeinMMO.
The fact that the German Twitch scene repeatedly has a problem with sexism is evident in the discussions surrounding the biggest German streamer MontanaBlack. He has clashed multiple times with some statements:
Twitch star MontanaBlack compares women to dogs – here’s how it happened
