Maximilian “Trymacs” Stemmler from Hamburg is one of the biggest German streamers on Twitch. When he plays Fortnite with young fans, they are often very happy. Now, however, he realized what the whole thing must look like from the point of view of the parents, who are probably wondering which 28-year-old is talking to their children.
What is Trymacs doing in Fortnite? The streamer likes to play the colorful battle royale with randomly assigned players and uses the sometimes absurd interactions for content.
Fortnite is known to be particularly popular with younger players, but their behavior is sometimes a bit too much for Trymacs: he bemoans the lack of education. Because of this, he has now started rewarding good behavior.
What are these rewards? The idea is that skills and fair play pay off for the other players: If Trymacs wins the round with other players who he is sure are not trying to get into the stream, they should get €50. Especially with younger players, Trymacs doesn’t take the win condition that seriously and simply rewards them for playful performance and good behavior.
He even promised a boy an expensive gaming PC, although the duo only finished 13th. Actually a nice format. But that got awkward now, because not all parents are pleased when their children receive gifts of money from a grown man.
Other parents take a more relaxed view of Fortnite:
Young gamer apparently gets stress with his parents
How does that go? Trymacs looks for random players, plays a round of Fortnite with them and talks to them. This is often cool, especially for the younger ones. Many of them know Trymacs and are happy to play with him.
Even if they’re not actively following the content creator, they’re often aware that they’re a larger streamer and have thousands of people watching right now. If there is a gift afterwards, the joy is often great: after all, you can buy cool skins or V-Bucks – the in-game currency in Fornite – with 50 €.
Trymacs usually gives away the money in the form of Playstation credit, Amazon vouchers or paysafecards. To do this, he asks the young players for an adult sibling or parent who can handle the payment.
What went wrong now? The streamer wanted to give his 8-year-old game partner a skin in the shop, but the 2-factor authentication failed. He then wanted to make the boy happy with €50 PlayStation credit.
The 8-year-old should get a parent for this. He called for his father, then things took an unexpected turn. The boy says he can’t accept the gift and quickly brushes Trymacs off. He does not know whether he will be allowed to play together again on Tuesday.
The situation is visibly uncomfortable for the streamer: he suspects that his young teammate got in trouble from his parents. It seems he hasn’t really thought about how things should look like from the parents’ point of view: A “strange stranger from the internet” talks to their children, sends them friend requests and gives them generous gifts.
You can see a clip of the action here:
What’s behind it? Whether the parents actually had a problem with the situation or whether it was simply time for dinner cannot be verified. However, Trymacs seems pretty taken aback by the interaction. After all, he probably didn’t want to get anyone into trouble.
“He got in trouble because the parents think I’m some weirdo from the internet,” says Trymacs.
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His viewers find the whole thing rather funny. You write F in the chat, you can see laughing emojis in the YouTube comments below the clip. But some also understand the parents. Because in fact there is a real problem behind the concern of some parents:
This is grooming: Grooming is the targeted contacting of adults with minors. Perpetrators try to build a relationship with minors by flattering them, listening to their problems – or even giving them gifts.
There are warnings about grooming, especially with regard to social media, but there are also these risks in a game like Fortnite, which has a very young player base. Many parents therefore limit and check who can contact their child.
During an earlier round in the stream, an older player said he was playing on his son’s account. Apparently it seemed strange to him that Trymacs asked his young teammate about school and he wanted to make sure what was going on.
That dad seemed to know Trymacs though, so it turned out to be more of a cool multi-generational lobby than an awkward situation.
But even regardless of the monetary gifts, there is another problem: Because Trymacs reveals its young teammates to thousands of viewers. Several kids mention receiving dozens of friend requests while playing with the streamer.
He warns her not to accept these requests, but he can’t prevent it.
Today, on Tuesday, January 17th, Trymacs is said to be back with Fortnite. It remains to be seen if he’ll be able to gamble again with his young pal, or if he’ll reconsider his format after the awkward interaction.
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