Special announcement regarding livestreams

Those of you that follow me on X or YouTube, have likely noticed that I have updated my branding and promo art over the last several weeks. This has been done in anticipation of the following announcement: Effective immediately, my gaming livestreams have moved from Twitch to Rumble.

This is a decision that has been in the works for some time. If you’re a long time reader on this site, then you know that I try very hard to keep the content on this page neutral and appealing to all audiences regardless of age, nationality, or political affiliation. I have always believed that gaming should be looked at as an escape from the stresses of day-to-day life. In my opinion, there’s no place for personal politics in this hobby. With this in mind, I have become very disappointed at the recent trend of politicized content found in both games themselves, and coming from various developers via social media. It has gotten to the point where some game developers have openly expressed a desire that gamers who do not share their political philosophy are not welcome to play their games. How did we get to this point? To me, this line of thinking is both pointless and poisonous. As poison often does, this toxicity has spread outside of just social media. Now, entire organizations are mirroring this behavior.

I don’t typically discuss this sort of thing. But, I’m going to break one of my cardinal rules for a moment and get personal. I am a political conservative. I have been since I was a young adult. Now, if you don’t share the same political ideology as me, that’s totally fine. You’re still welcome here. I write about gaming and nerd culture. Nerds can be both liberal and conservative. In my experience, nothing can bridge gaps and bring people together like gaming. It doesn’t matter what we might disagree on, we can both agree that The Legend of Zelda or Final Fantasy are fantastic video games. That being said, even though I don’t talk about politics on my site or on my streams, I don’t have any problem with someone who does. As a conservative, I am firm believer in free speech – which brings me to my point.

Recently, platforms like Twitch and YouTube have taken actions against streaming personalities that express an opinion that goes against the “liberal norm”. I understand removing someone that creates hateful content. I have no problem with that. Outright hate speech is never acceptable. But, when you have to start debating “what is hate”, you are treading into dangerous waters. You can analyze anything long and hard enough and eventually come to a particular conclusion. That is what I’m seeing in the industry today.

Recently, we have seen the release of a number of games that are filled with things like gender-ideology and post-modernist concepts. That’s fine. If a game developer wants to make a game like that, that’s up to them. But, in the same mindset, if a game reviewer or streamer mentions it, or finds the inclusion of a “non-binary” or transgender elf in swords-and-sorcery style game a bit odd, they are suddenly ostracized or outright banned from the platform. What people have to remember, is concepts like these are still relatively new to the mainstream culture and, even if you don’t want to admit it, they are controversial. Like me, most gamers play games as means to escape. So when we see this sort of thing, there’s nothing wrong with discussing it.

To be very blunt, I feel that the people in charge of Twitch are living in an echo-chamber of wokeism and left-wing superiority. Twitch has began to penalize certain streamers for simply expressing opinions that go against the “values” that Twitch have coronated as “proper”.  Enter: Rumble.

Rumble was founded in 2011 as a video platform catering to smaller, independent creators. During the COVID pandemic, many creators who expressed skepticism at the mainstream narrative regarding treatment and prevention found themselves banned or demonetized from platforms like YouTube. Rumble welcomed these creators with open arms. As a result, Rumble slowly began to earn the reputation as the “YouTube for free speech creators”. In the last four years, Rumble has continued to gain more of both creators and viewers.

After the 2024 presidential election in the US, I found myself browsing Rumble more frequently to see what political conservative streamers were saying. I wasn’t even there for gaming. But I couldn’t help but notice Rumble had their very own “gaming” category. After perusing the content in this category, I was shocked (in a good way) at the quality of the content. There is some AMAZING stuff on Rumble. Check it out for yourself, if you don’t believe me. Also, I was surprised at just how active the entire gaming community on the platform seemed to be. Yes, the overall traffic on Rumble pales in comparison to what you see on Twitch or YouTube. But the engagement is out of this world. I was floored. This revelation prompted me to seriously consider making this switch.

Then, last week, the bomb dropped. Dr. Disrespect, the famous streamer announced he had signed a deal with Rumble. His contract not only sees him streaming exclusively on the platform, but it also makes him a co-owner and the head of Rumble’s future gaming initiative. Dr. Disrespect is another personality that has been both banned from Twitch and demonetized from YouTube due to a variety of allegations. The allegations against him that have been investigated with no charges filed. Yet, the majority of the media seems hellbent on assassinating his character. It is cancel culture in action. For what?

The writing is on the wall. The majority of Americans are still normal, civil-minded people – the election proved that. I, myself, am a normal, everyday person. I may be a straight, white male. But I don’t care what you believe, what race you are, or what your sexual preference is. Mind your business and I’ll mind mine. This has always been the way I operate. Yet, every time I go on social media or read an article about something that interests me, I’m told that I am a bad person.

Most of you know that I have had a lifelong passion for Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve played D&D since the early 90’s. As a result, I love Gary Gygax and all of his contributions to the hobby. Yet, just the other day, one of the head brass at Wizards of the Coast made it very clear that he feels Gygax was a sexist racist and he loathes that fact that Gygax’s name is associate with the hobby. This designer goes on to state that he wants modern D&D to appeal to a younger, woke audience and he has expressed his distaste for us old older “grognards” and the fact that we complain about the recent changes that have been made to the game. So, what? I’m a bad person because I like 1E D&D? Because I scratch my head at the removal of things like half-elves or racial ability modifiers? That makes me a racist? I think not.

In a nutshell, I’m tired of pretending that all of this somehow, ok. As a creator myself, I have always been accepting of everyone no matter what. I expect the same courtesy, but it is obvious that I will not receive it from places like Twitch. As a result, I have removed myself from the offending platform and migrated to a place the celebrates free-speech. I hope you will come with me.

I predict that under the guidance of an industry professional like Guy Beahm (Dr. Disrespect), Rumble is going to improve by leaps and bounds in just a matter of months. Some of the obscure technical issues that plague the platform are going to be resolved faster than you can blink an eye. And creators and fans are going to flock to it.

Most people are normal. We just want to entertain and be entertained. We’re tired of the endless drama and finger pointing. We’re tired of having to hide the fact that we vote a certain way.

My site has been and always will be neutral and accepting. But I am no longer going to support intolerant platforms or corporation.

Rumble is the future.