Koil is more than just an ordinary Twitch streamer. He founded the popular GTA RP NoPixel server, which houses the biggest names in the scene, including Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter, Felix “xQc” Lengyel, and Sykkuno.
But while the influx of Twitch and YouTube stars caused tremendous growth for the server and the streamers who played it, it also created his most significant challenge to date—keeping everyone happy.
“The biggest challenge has been keeping it popular and keeping everybody playing happily,” he told Kotaku on Aug. 18. “It’s challenging to keep everyone happy.”
Koil said the first issue is that the same core group of streamers has been active on the server for years, and not everyone gets along. So, there’s a lot of underlying tension and history between them.
Look no further than xQc’s countless run-ins with police officers. xQc one said the server is in “shambles” because of them and even accused them of logging in en masse to ruin his agenda.
The second issue is streamers get bored of doing the same things, so they act out for content. But that means he needs to make decisions like banning them to keep the peace.
And that leads to the third and final issue—he believes NoPixel viewers often feel a sense of loyalty towards certain streamers, which can sometimes lead to toxic tribalism between their fanbases.
“Some viewers get very tribal about which streamer or group they support and what’s right or wrong,” he said. “Honestly, it’s unhealthy for them and sometimes the streamer. There’s a lot of us versus them mentality.”
He’s learned to ignore it. However, it still creates a lot of pressure when making executive decisions as the server’s creator, especially when combined with the other issues.
In the end, though, he said having stars on the server is a net positive overall because it put the server he worked so hard to create into the spotlight and helped smaller streamers like him thrive.
As for what he’s got planned next, Koil said there’ll be another massive Squid Game event coming to the server soon. He’s also working on a Red Dead Redemption 2 server.
Published: Aug 22, 2022 12:11 am