My Problem with CDawgVA

I want to talk about a YouTuber called

CDawgVA today. You might think it's kind

of random why I'm covering this situation,

but since it covers a few topics of my

interest such as life in Japan, living in

Japan, IRL streaming, and interaction with

viewers and fans, I thought I would share

my opinion on this topic. So first of all,

if you don't know who CDawgVA is, I don't

know why you clicked on this video, but

thanks anyway. And a quick introduction of

CDawgVA, basically he's a very big

YouTuber and livestreamer on Twitch. He

has a few million subscribers on YouTube,

and when he livestreams on Twitch, and

does IRL in Japan, he usually gets about

15,000 to 20,000 viewers. So he's a pretty

big, big shot in the whole streaming scene

and YouTube scene. He mostly makes videos

about weeb and anime kind of culture and

life in Japan videos, which is why I found

his channel interesting and I enjoy

watching his streams because I'm also

interested in life in Japan. I'd consider

myself to be a fairly casual fan, not

really an avid fan. Been watching him for

maybe a few years now, But his recent

reaction to stream sniping has kind of

rubbed me the wrong way. So if you don't

know what stream sniping is, basically

it's when you watch a livestreamer who's

outside, you figure out where he is, and

then you just find out where they are and

then go and meet them uninvited. Now

usually a lot of livestreamers like to be

sniped and kind of encourage it and invite

snipers to come along and say hi, take a

picture, and even tag along to add to the

livestream's content. But CDawgVA, or

Connor as he's known in real life because

that's his real name, he doesn't like

being stream sniped. Sniped, and he's

complaining more and more recently about

how he doesn't like snipers. He doesn't

want people to come up to him and ask for

a photo, and he even addressed it, made a

public announcement that he does not want

stream snipers to come and snipe him,

which I think is kind of stupid because

from my own personal experience, if you

tell people on the internet, especially

trolls, not to do something, they're just

gonna do it more. So you have 2 types of

stream snipers. You have the nice friendly

snipers who they're just innocent sincere

fans and they want to meet their hero and

get a selfie picture together with them,

and And then you also have your toxic

troll kind of snipers who they just want

to troll the streamer and get a reaction

because they think it's funny. And they

also want to appear in the stream because

they want some kind of clout. And by

making a public announcement to your

massive fan base that you don't like

stream sniping, basically what he's going

to do is he's going to dissuade the nice

snipers from coming up to him because

they're going to respect his wishes

because they're nice people. And you're

going to encourage the toxic troll snipers

because they're going to think, haha, he

doesn't like snipers, so I'm just going to

snipe him more to get more of a reaction

out at him, see if I can trigger him,

because that's fun. So I thought it was a

bit silly for him to make a massive

announcement about how much he dislikes

being sniped whilst he's streaming,

because it's just going to encourage

people to do it more. But what really

pushed me to make this video today is his

reaction to a few stream snipers that

happened a couple weeks ago, which is kind

of funny. I think it's funny that after

his massive public announcements trying to

stop people sniping him, he gets sniped by

a few people who have probably been the

most irritating and weird snipers he's had

ever. So he got stream sniped by a couple

guys who also stream sniped Ice Poseidon.

If you watch Ice Poseidon's streams since

about a month ago, you'll know who I'm

talking about. These guys snipe Connor and

they troll him a little bit, and then

Connor gets kind of angry and upset and

tells them to fuck off. Okay, well, I

don't want to be rude. Yeah, come on,

come on, man. Could you kindly

fuck off? No, I met him like 10 minutes

ago. Oh, now you might think it's

perfectly okay for him to tell them to

fuck off because they were being a bit

rude and they were obviously there to

cause trouble and they weren't really

sincere fans or anything like that. But I

found it to be a bit rude on Connor's

behalf. His constant whining about stream

sniping is starting to make me lose a bit

of respect for him. He can't expect to be

able to go livestreaming outside in public

and not expect fans to come up to him

because he is a pretty big YouTuber. He's

not just some little channel that nobody

knows about. He's massive. When you get to

that level of fame, you can't really

expect to go outside into the public and

not be recognized and not get approached.

When you signed up to become a famous

YouTuber, that is— that's just part of the

job, really. And when you do an IRL public

livestream outside, you're kind of

announcing to your entire fanbase that,

hey guys, I'm right here right now. It is

kind of like an invitation to people to

come and see you because you're telling

everyone where you are. It just makes me

think, if he hates stream snipers so much,

then why even live stream? I'm being

serious here. Why does he live stream

outside in public instead of just vlogging

it? He doesn't like stream snipers. He

barely ever reads the chat. He never

really interacts with the chat much. He

barely ever says thanks when he gets a

donation, and most of the time he's not

even paying attention to the stream or the

chat. He's just chatting to his friends or

whoever he's streaming with. He complains

about snipers interrupting his stream and

interrupting him talking to his mates and

his friends or trying to show people

Japan. Then why doesn't he just make a

video, or why doesn't he just not do

anything at all? Why doesn't he just hang

out with his friends and mates without

streaming it or turning it into content?

It just seems like it would make more

sense if he just vlogged it and made a

video instead of livestreaming it. That

way he can talk to his friends without

being interrupted, he can show his viewers

Japan, and he won't get any snipers. Just

feels like he wants to be an IRL streamer

and reap all of the benefits of being a

popular IRL streamer, such as the

donations and having a massive concurrent

viewership. And the feeling of being

watched by so many people live is pretty

exciting, I have to admit. But then he

doesn't want to accept the fact that

there's also negative parts of that

lifestyle, such as putting yourself at

risk, letting people know where your exact

location is. There could be dangerous or

harmful people that might want to search

for you and do something. But

unfortunately, that's just part of the

job, and you have to accept it instead of

constantly whining about it. And telling

people not to snipe me is not really going

to have the effects that he hopes it's

going to have. In fact, I think it's just

going to encourage more toxic snipers. He

also has this no selfies rule, this very

strict, I'm not going to take pictures

with my viewers if they see me when I'm

streaming. So sometimes his fans do

actually bump into him just by

coincidence. These aren't snipers.

They're just people out and about and they

see CDawgVA and they say, oh, let's go up

to him and ask if we can take a photo.

And now he's saying no to every single

person who asked to take a photo with him,

which I think is kind of selfish. It would

only take about 5 or 10 seconds to take a

photo with these viewers, these fans, and

it will make their day. I mean, they were

polite and nice enough and respectful to

ask for his permission to take a photo.

So I think it would have been nice if he

just took the photo. It wouldn't have

taken much time out of his busy day of

walking around Japan for hours and hours

and hours talking to a camera. It's not

like he's really, really busy when he's

streaming. He's just wandering around

rambling to a camera. It's not like he's

busy to go to some kind of meeting or

interview. He's just copying PewDiePie

with this whole no selfies with fans if

they see me outside in public, which I

think is kind of lame. These big YouTubers

like PewDiePie and other people who have

millions of subs, they get to enjoy a

really luxurious lifestyle and they make a

lot of money, millions of dollars every

year. Thanks to their viewers and fans,

and they can't even do a little thing like

taking a selfie with a fan, which would

only take about 10 seconds. It just seems

kind of selfish and doesn't really seem

very appreciative of their viewers. These

people would be nobodies if they didn't

have their viewers and their fans. They'd

just be working some boring job like

everyone else has to, and they can't even

take a few seconds out of the day to make

a viewer happy and take a photo with them.

It just really rubs me the wrong way.

Imagine Tom Cruise whining about how he

can't go down to Tesco's without being

mobbed by a massive swarm of people

wanting to take photos and get an

autograph. That's just part of the job.

If you didn't want to be super famous and

be a celebrity and have people recognize

you in public, then maybe you shouldn't

have signed up to being a movie star or

being a famous YouTuber. You should have

done something else where people won't

recognize you. But no, you wanted your

cake and you also wanted to eat it.

Unfortunately, that's just not how the

world works. I'm still gonna watch

CDawgVA. I'm still gonna watch his

streams, and I still consider myself to be

kind of a fan. But this constant whining

about stream sniping is starting to get a

bit old, and it's starting to get a bit

annoying. I wish you'd just accept that

that's part of what IRL streaming is

about, and there's not much you can do

about it. If you don't like it, then just

stream inside of a studio.