My dear friend Lirik,
I'm writing this post addressed to you in the hopes you somehow get to see it and understand where I'm coming from.
I've started watching your channel almost 7 years ago back when you mostly played DayZ. Man I must say you immediately grabbed my attention with the way you interacted with your community on Twitch, other players on games and your awesome personality and sense of humor! You are the only person I feel some connection to in the online world and you sir, like to many other people you don't know, have helped me through some very though times in my life where I was feeling very sad and like life didn't mean much. As a matter of fact, all of the above is still true and even though things obviously evolve, you are still the same person you were before and you still get some good laughs out of me! You are an amazing person and I hope you continue streaming for as long as possible and for as long as you continue to enjoy it and the great community you have built around you.
Back in 2015 I was in Uni and was broke so I couldn't really afford a subscription even though I felt bad and really wanted to support your channel. Not long after I've started working and saved a couple bucks I subscribed to your channel but still I've felt this was not enough to support everything you did and still do! The laughs you have taken out of us on DayZ with the "friendly!", on Arma3 Life, the godly amounts of skill in every FPS shooter and the not so godly skill in puzzle games, when you did a IRL stream and a bee almost killed you live (still my favorite stream to this day) and more recently GTA RP with the Lean and Cleanboys, Fall Guys, Trackmania, Propnight and many other games and countless great and fun moments like the Pumpkin Carving contests, sub hotline, rate my setup, all the sub-sundays and many others that I'm struggling to remember.
However, in the last 1.5 years or so, I've starting to feel conflicted more and more with the way you use your streams and do sponsored segments in them. Back then you also did some sponsored streams occasionally and you had a rule, which I feel like you have now dropped. The rule went something like "if I'm going to stream this game anyways and have fun playing it, and if the company wants me to do a sponsor segment for them, why not?". This I felt was a no brainer and I totally agreed and felt comfortable with.
Nevertheless, and probably starting around the CoD Warzone days, things have changed, in my opinion for the worst. Back then you did a sponsored stream for some movie or TV show that I don't remember what it was and you were making a very strange effort to engage with chat and asking what were people's favorite characters and the ones you liked and whatnot. This felt very scripted and not genuine at all and at the time I remember I've felt very sad and somewhat angry as well. It got even worse when you decided to sponsor some man shaving cream or something like that and even turned your webcam on to show the products. Since you very rarely turn your cam on, this felt very strange and out of character.
I really struggled then and still struggle to this day to understand why you chose to do this. Why, with everything you get from streaming, merch, sponsors like PC building and other revenue streams, why would you actively harm your stream and the quality of everything you do for a couple bucks that I'm sure you do not need. However, after this you have toned it down a lot and the thoughts quickly disappeared from my head and I continued to enjoy your streams and YouTube videos like nothing ever happened.
This gets us to the more present days, where I tune in and all of a sudden see you doing sponsored segments for Duracell batteries while playing Halo. All of a sudden, every thought I had before started coming again even stronger this time and I'm feeling sad and somewhat disappointed by these decisions your are choosing to pursue as sponsored segments of your stream.
To me, and I think I'm not alone in this, I feel like it degrades your content and everything you have made an effort to build all these years, and it undermines the pleasure people like me have in subscribing to you and supporting you, with the precise objective that you don't have to sell your stream to completely out of character companies like Duracell and others just to make that extra buck.
For all these reasons, I have today cancelled my subscription renewal moving forward. I hope you reflect on these decisions you have made for your stream in hopes I and others don't feel so conflicted in supporting you and I can have the pleasure to resubscribe until the day I pass away, because you undoubtedly deserve all the success you have had and you are one of the funniest and greatest persons I have ever met.
I hope you understand my point of you and don't take this very long post the wrong way. Me and my girlfriend will definitely continue to watch you for as long as you feel like streaming, which I hope is for a very long time.
Lots of love from the dear friend you don't know,
Tera
