Popular Twitch streamer Benjamin ‘DrLupo’ Lupo has shared his reasons for avoiding the chat when streaming on Twitch, due to the number of people criticizing his gameplay.
DrLupo has become one of the most followed accounts on Twitch, among the ranks of many other high profile streamers. He’s become known for his philanthropy, even announcing that he’d be donating all future tips on his channel to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
He has also been vocal in the past about the issues of toxicity in Twitch chats. In late October, one of his moderators shared a document online that showed the lengths they were going to in an attempt to combat racism and toxicity in the chat, in response to claims DrLupo wasn’t doing enough.
But now, the popular streamer has revealed that the level of toxicity in his chat and on social media, is making him not want to look at it at all, intentionally playing games where he can’t look at the chat as an excuse to avoid it.
“I’m gonna be a hundred thousand percent honest with you,” he began. “You know why I play Tarkov so much? Because I can’t look at chat.” Though he goes on to reveal that “the problem now with Tarkov, is I’m good enough at it that I do have time to look down at chat, and it’s people telling me I’m f***ing missing stuff.”
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In response to the suggestion that he should start closing chat, the streamer said “but then why the f**k am I live-streaming? Why don’t I just become a YouTuber then, right? Every facet of everything that I do at this point, in whatever game I’m in is constantly ridiculed and judged, no matter what.”
Lupo was playing through the new Destiny 2 raid in the Beyond Light expansion, and predicted people would give him a hard time about that too.
“Here’s what I know is going to happen,” he continued, “for the next week, there’s going to people who come into chat and say ‘wow, you couldn’t even complete the raid the first night, LMAO’. And I know I’m going to get tired of that sh*t, and I’m going to snap at one of those people.”
One of the key issues with Twitch and streaming in general that popular creators regularly highlight is how toxic the chats can become, making it difficult for creators and fans to enjoy their time on the platform-negativity free. Though whether this is an issue that can ever truly be solved is uncertain.