The hamburger Maximilian “Trymacs” Stemmler is one of the biggest German streamers on Twitch. When he plays Fortnite with young fans, they often get really excited. However, he has now realized how it must look from the parents’ perspective, who must be wondering which 28-year-old is talking to their children.
What does Trymacs do in Fortnite? The streamer enjoys playing the colorful battle royale with randomly assigned teammates and uses the sometimes absurd interactions for content.
Fortnite is well-known to be especially popular among younger players, but their behavior sometimes feels a bit much for Trymacs: he complains about the lack of upbringing. For this reason, he has now started rewarding good behavior.
What kind of rewards are those? The idea is that skills and fair play pay off for the players: If Trymacs wins the round with players he is sure are not intentionally trying to get into the stream, they are supposed to receive €50. However, especially with younger players, Trymacs is not so strict about the win condition and simply rewards them for playful performance and good behavior.
He even promised a boy an expensive gaming PC, even though the duo only came in 13th place. So it’s actually a nice format. However, this has now become uncomfortable, as not all parents are thrilled when their children receive monetary gifts from an adult man.
Other parents take a more relaxed view of Fortnite:
Young gamer apparently gets stress with parents
How does this work? Trymacs looks for random players, plays a round of Fortnite with them, and chats with them during it. This is often cool for the younger ones. Many of them know Trymacs and are excited to be able to play with him.
Even if they do not actively follow the content creator, they often realize that he is a bigger streamer and that thousands of people are currently watching them. If there’s a gift at the end, the joy is often great: after all, you can buy cool skins or V-Bucks – the in-game currency in Fortnite – with €50.
Trymacs usually gives away money in the form of PlayStation credit, Amazon gift cards, or Paysafe cards. For this, he asks the young players for an adult sibling or parent who can process the payment.
What went wrong now? The streamer wanted to gift his 8-year-old gaming partner a skin from the shop, but this failed due to the two-factor authentication. He then wanted to make the boy happy with €50 PlayStation credit.
For this, the 8-year-old was supposed to get a parent. He called for his father, and then things took an unexpected turn. The boy explained that he is not allowed to accept the gift and quickly dismisses Trymacs. Whether he can play together again on Tuesday, he does not know.
The streamer visibly feels uncomfortable about the situation: He suspects that his young teammate has gotten into trouble with his parents. It seems he hasn’t quite thought about how the situation must look from the perspective of the custodians: Here, a “strange stranger from the internet” is talking to their children, sending them friend requests, and making generous gifts.
You can watch a clip of the action here:
What’s behind this? Whether the parents actually had a problem with the situation or if it was simply time for dinner cannot be verified. However, Trymacs seems quite shaken by the interaction. After all, he probably did not want to get anyone into trouble.
“He got into trouble because the parents think I’m some weirdo from the internet,” says Trymacs, feeling down.
His viewers find the whole thing rather funny. They write F in the chat, and in the YouTube comments under the clip, you see laughing emojis. But some also have understanding for the parents. Because actually, behind the concern of some parents lies a real problem:
Especially with regard to social media, there is a warning about grooming, but there are also risks in a game like Fortnite, which has a very young player base. Many parents limit and check who can contact their child.
Earlier in the stream, an older player had joined and said he was playing on his son’s account. He apparently found it strange that Trymacs asked his young player about school, and he wanted to ensure what was going on.
This father seemed to know Trymacs, which is why it turned into a cool multi-generational lobby rather than an uncomfortable situation.
But even independent of the monetary gifts, another problem is emerging: Because Trymacs exposes his young players to thousands of viewers. Several children mention that they receive dozens of friend requests while playing with the streamer.
He does warn them not to accept these requests, but he cannot prevent it.
Today, on Tuesday, January 17, Trymacs is scheduled to play Fortnite again. It remains to be seen whether he can play again with his young buddy or if he will rethink his format after the uncomfortable interaction.
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