So it seems the doomsday of Youtube slots channels may be
upon us. Out of all the big popular channels there are but a handful left. Some
will be devastated, others will rejoice at the thought of the days of Youtube
affiliation having finally passed. Where do I stand? Somewhere in the middle..
The morality of the Youtube casino affiliation model has
been debated to the death. I have already written about my thoughts on this so
feel free to read my post regarding my opinion on this. However one of the most
recent channels to be banned was one of my pet peeves, and I’m going to have to
name names to make my point. But whom is it….
(Drumroll……………..)
CHIPMONKZ SLOTS
I’m going to preface this with an important point. This is
not a personal attack. He may well be a nice guy. He seems truly devastated that
his channel has been taken down and I take no joy from that. But in my opinion
he displays exactly the quality that makes affiliation such a seedy and indefensible
business to be in, and it can be summed up in one word.
Disingenuity.
I’ll start from the top. Around a year ago Chipmonkz released
a Youtube video titled “I Quit” where he proceeds to tell his audience that he
had quit his job and was going to start streaming full time for a living. He
stated that it had always been his dream and that he wanted to be able to give
his family everything that he hadn’t had as a child. On the face of it, this is
a nice sentiment. But it did leave me to think to myself, “Is streaming slots really
going to pay more than a full time job?” Must be a lot of money in it, but that’s
besides the point.
I never watched his streams but I couldn’t help myself from
watching his Youtube highlight videos once all the other big channels had been
taken down. You may be thinking that I’m somewhat of a hypocrite, talking about
my own gambling abstinence and my issues with streamers whilst simultaneously
watching gambling content online. To which I say, you have something of a
point. As much as I try to stay away from all gambling so as to remove
temptation from my life, I find myself watching gambling videos as a form of
vicarious thrills. But then again I am a self-confessed gambling addict so it’s
not all that surprising! In fact it just goes to show how addictive gambling
can be where you find yourself watching slots videos from streamers that you
don’t actually find entertaining. But I digress…
When I watched his videos, I started to notice how often he
would plug his casinos at the start, telling the viewers to check out the links
in the description. Intros like “hello and welcome to the video” making it all
feel very business like. The recent addition of trying to “shoot in a bonus” to
come up with some catch phrase so as to build a brand. Constantly referring in
his videos to we. “We need a cash
out today guys, lets hope we can get
a decent hit”. There is no we, unless you want to start sharing your affiliation
revenues, it’s very much just you.
Even saying in his videos “I love you all” in reference to his viewers. No you
fucking don’t love them Chip, it’s just so disingenuous to say you do. To me
however the worst of it came recently in a video where he asked his viewers
basically to tell him how to make better videos. “How long should they be, what
games should I play, how can I make them better.” It may seem innocent enough,
perhaps even a nice thing for his viewers to get what they want. Only that’s
not what it’s about. It’s about appealing to more players, getting more sign
ups. Basically asking people how to grow his channel so he can make more money.
I take you back to the beginning to the “I Quit” video. Streaming for a living,
making money for his family. So how can it be about improving the viewers
experience? The simple answer is that it’s not.
You may ask of me “Why are you writing this about Chip?”. In
truth I don’t think he is necessarily any worse than any of the others, but he
makes it so much more obvious. I wasn’t going to write this, but then today I
saw a video update he posted on his Twitter in regards to his Youtube account
and I just felt like it had to be said. I understand he is obviously upset
about losing his channel. Anyone would be upset at that. It’s what he says at
the end of the video, and I’m going to quote it:
“I’m absolutely gutted
I truly am. I just hope I can get it back because I know my videos bring a lot
of joy to you guys.”
I’m sorry but I just can’t have that. That statement is complete
and utter disingenuous bullshit. He’s not upset the channel has gone because
his beloved viewers no longer get the “joy” from watching them. He’s upset
because its now more difficult for him to grow his channel, to get new sign
ups. You said so yourself chip, full time streaming is about you making money.
Why do you come out with this nonsense about bringing joy to your viewers. I
hear so many streamers come up with this crap about producing videos to “entertain”
their viewers. IT IS NOT ABOUT ENTERTAINMENT IT IS ABOUT MAKING MONEY! And
people may actually have more respect for you if you were to be honest about your
intentions rather than endless disingenuous statements! This is the part that
pisses me off so much, and I suspect it’s the same for a lot of other critics
of affiliation.
I know this may seem personal and I may catch some flack for
it.
And that’s fine.
p.s. still not gambling whoop whoop. Take care people.
