Twitch streamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins has criticized how other Fortnite Battle Royale influencers are behaving, as they continue to protest the direction Epic Games is taking.
Why are people criticizing Epic Games?
Many prominent members of the Fortnite community, including entertainers and professional players, have recently censured Epic Games for the way they are handling their game. Many of these complaints can be traced back to March’s v8.20 update, and Epic’s reluctance to add a FOV slider to Fortnite Battle Royale.
These complaints were magnified on April 26, when Epic announced their latest ‘Competitive Update’, which received overwhelmingly negative feedback from many notable community members. However, Ninja has since hit out at many of these influencers, suggesting that the way in which they are criticizing Epic is hollow.
Ninja criticizes complaining streamers and YouTubers
On April 26, while streaming Arena mode in preparation for the Fortnite World Cup, Ninja was discussing the recent backlash over Epic Games’ ‘Competitive Update’.
He appeared to suggest that influencers who are overtly critical of Fortnite’s recent decisions should stop playing the game, as that would make more of a statement to Epic, rather than continuing to play the game but saying negative things about it.
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“No one’s forcing anyone to play this game,” explained Ninja. “No one’s forcing anyone to stream this game. Guess what? Everyone makes their living off it. They’re gonna continue to stream, upload YouTube videos, tweet out clips, compete in tournaments. If you really feel so strongly about it, stop playing.”
Ninja went on to suggest that the way these influencers are affecting their audiences is also negative: “Instead what happens is everyone uses their audiences that they have, on Twitter and social media and Twitch, and they’re doing what they’re doing right now; complaining so much and bringing all of their audience to think the exact same thing.”
In spite of the negativity that has surrounded their game for a while, the latest updates from Epic suggest they have no intention of changing the direction in which they are taking.
Whatever happens next, it is clear Ninja thinks more of a statement would be made if people were to simply boycott the game for a while, rather than spread negativity throughout their audiences.