I meant to write about this when we launched Emperor of the Fading Suns Enhanced last year, but releasing Machiavelli the Prince Enhanced last week reminded me of it – all the people who claim defunct Twitch accounts to use them for their own skeezy purposes.
Right after launch, we received AI-generated emails from people claiming to have Twitch accounts and wanting to stream the game. At first glance, these look pretty good – several thousand followers. Dig a little deeper and you quickly see that they have not streamed in three or four years.
I know there are game devs who give keys to anyone who asks, believing that the few legit requests outweigh all the illegitimate key resellers. However, I find it especially objectionable that people are setting up these retired Twitch streamers to take the blame. I doubt any of these scam emails actually have access to the Twitch accounts, and are instead pointing to them to give them a cloak of legitimacy. Still, indie devs who give the keys are likely to blame the streamers when it gets resold, not their own naivety.
A lot of Twitch streamers do have a reputation of asking for free copies and never streaming the game. I am very happy that I have found a lot of legitimate streamers, both in the Stream Atlanta community and beyond, but I understand why so many indie devs are leery. I wish Twitch had a way for streamers to keep their accounts but have a big “On Hiatus” sticker for any who have not streamed in six months of more. However, there is definitely no incentive for Amazon to implement this easy fix.