Twitch Streamer Shut Down After Breaking Embargo On Fallout 76

Jesse Collins,

October 16, 2018 3:30 PM

Time2Purge got pretty far into live-streaming Fallout 76 on Twitch before someone reported him for breaking embargo.

Some streamers are known for doing great things. But, some streamers actively try to break the rules, then wonder why they're being punished. Twitch streamer Time2Purge learned just slightly too late that even streamers need a bit of journalistic integrity if they want to survive.

Time2Purge was "stress testing" Fallout 76 live on his stream. Stress testing is pretty common for games that are about to launch that want to make sure it can handle the stress of a lot of players. According to the message on the main menu of the game, the stress test is a "work-in-progress build. Expect performance and graphics issues, gameplay bugs, and deliberate outages." It's pre-beta, so these things are expected. That stress test was held on October 13 for four hours. Pre-order beta allowed those that got into the beta to play that day as well.

One thing that the message doesn't mention is the embargo that players have to acknowledge and accept to play the game this early, which is set to allow streaming and sharing of content starting on October 23 for Xbox One and October 30 for PlayStation 4 and PC. These are the same days that the Beta starts for those consoles. But, Time2Purge was determined to get as far into Fallout 76 as possible while live on camera when no one else was playing it. 

He streamed the stress test live on Twitch through Xbox One from his IITIME2PURGEII account. Ignoring the NDA sometime prior to the video, he starts out on that main menu and proceeds to play for well over 30 minutes. During the video, he leaves the vault and proceeds to get pretty far into the game. 

At around the 6:30 mark, a chat user asks "Won't playing void the NDA?", which Time2Purge repeats outloud in the video and exclaims "I don't know what that means!" After the Twich chat explains, another user asks "Don't you find it strange that no one else is streaming the stress test?"

We Googled it for you, Time2Purge. "NDA - noun. A nondisclosure agreement."

It's clear that Time2Purge broke embargo due to lack of having any idea that there would be consequences for streaming the title so early. He responds that people are probably focusing on Call of Duty right then, but changes his tune quickly, when he realizes that no one else on Twitch is playing one of 2018's biggest games. "Hey, if IGN can do it, why can't I?"

Why? Because they have been given permission by Bethesda, Time2Purge. He looked at playing live early as a public service, so the majority of his followers at that moment agreed that they just wanted to see the game in action. "Do as you wish," one user wrote, "I won't complain that I get to watch, and it's not my account that'll be suspended."

As he got more and more people watching his stream, it was apparent that he had zero clue about consequences. Then, someone reported him. He asked why the person reported him as he continued to play. "Does it make you feel like a big man reporting someone for having fun?"

Not long after, he got a message from Twitch and had a final outburst before he was off the air for good. (Warning: NSFW) "Due to powers beyond my command," he gave his fateful final words, "and some d**kwad reporting me, I've just been told I'm being shut down. Thanks for watching everyone! And to that d**kwad: go s**k a d**k! You just ruined it for everyone!" Womp womp.

The moral of the story is "Streaming is hard, but don't break embargo just because it's 'fun'."

If you want to check out proper streamers doing cool things, check out Ninja being on The Ellen Show. Then, watch DrDisrespect take down an ex-Overwatch pro in Black Ops 4.



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