>>107507784>>107507748I'm not trying to suggest there isn't an element of astroturfing, there undoubtedly is, but Arc Raiders released on 30th October, which appears to be exactly when that spike occurred. Average 24-hour concurrent players in Arc is approx 10x the average 24-hour concurrent players in Tarkov, which was basically all he streamed before that, so for his subs to 6x after exposure to a significantly larger audience is within the realm of possibility. Further compound that by the fact Arc has a much more casual, and probably younger, player base to which he might have greater appeal, and again by it being the flavour of the month, heavily shilled game played by every big FPS streamer under the sun, of whom he can collab and get further exposure, and an abrupt spike in eyeballs and popularity becomes expected. No-one actually plays games anymore either, so there are probably faggots watching Arc who don't even own the game just because it's the current sensation, their favourite streamer plays it, etc. I doubt the Tarkov category receives such tourists.
So, was there a feasible, multi-faceted feedback loop that could have resulted in a massive spike in exposure beginning 30th October?
>Yes.Would that have been further compounded by Embark and merchant guild members who run the Twitch cabal astroturfing him?
>Absolutely.I think whether you watch a peanut play games and make jokes about fucking your dad, or a 2D waifu intermittently bounce 'her' badonkers and murmur uwus into a voice changer, we're all wasting our precious, limited time. And giving money to either is irredeemable. But the peanut had a novel idea, clearly invested a lot of effort and time into its execution (preparing bits and making graphics/scenes/transitions), and consistently went live with it, on every major streaming platform. The closest parallel I can think of is Dr Disrespect when he first appeared. It's extremely unique and becomes less about the game and more about the performance, and doing it within the niche, stigmatised category that is V-Tubers was honestly genius. I don't think it's that surprising he's become massive, and given the initial uncertainty of committing to it, the hours he's live for each week, and the amount of time he would have had to work on the stream offline, it is deserved success, whether you like him or not. Being either perpetually in character or working on your stream would be exhausting, which is probably why most V-Tubers are so inconsistent with their hours. Embark will inevitably kill their game though, so perhaps your vitriol will be realised when that happens.
