Digital Blackface on NoPixel 3.0
The roleplay community has always been a large foundational part of Twitch streaming, stemming from multiplayer games like ARMA 3, Rust, Ark, and Grand Theft Auto, among others. The first NoPixel GTA V server was brought to life by Koil and a team of community developers, and hosted on FiveM, a “community-driven and source-available GTA V multiplayer modification project” according to the FiveM.net description of the service. In 2015, Rockstar Games spoke out about FiveM modders who used code to facilitate piracy, claiming that these types of services violate the Terms of Service and they took action, suspending the Social Club accounts of the individuals involved. Since then, little has been done to stop the spread of the service, or to stop NoPixel’s digital blackface popularity in the streaming community.
On February 5th, 2021, NoPixel launched 3.0, their third iteration of the server. A few major Twitch creators became the face of the launch early on, including Shroud, xQc, Sykkuno, Sodapoppin, Ludwig, and Forsen. The rest of the server consists of a whitelist of other streamers of all sizes, whom all have different priority levels in the queue system. There are specific parameters for character creation and roleplaying displayed on the NoPixel website. The last section in the server rules is dedicated to “Basic Decency & Respect” that explicitly states that NoPixel “strives to create an environment; a community that promotes a welcoming atmosphere to all members; a community that its members can be proud to say they are a part of. NoPixel takes a hard stance against derogatory terms or actions against its members… (You must) have justification and reasoning for your actions. Simply saying ‘it’s my character’ will not be considered a valid response.” This section of the Terms of Service seems to be the most ignored. Many characters very frequently, unprovoked, refer to female characters with sexist and derogatory terms. Some of the largest streamers on the server have a significant history of problematic characters.
It feels as if the behavior of this entire Twitch community has gone relatively unnoticed and unchallenged, despite their incredible popularity. Following the major world events of 2020, it is hard to understand how the online community has been devoid of talk regarding the extremely problematic issues facing roleplay currently. Many roleplayers on this server play as characters who are of a race other than their own, and more often than not, those characters are of the most extreme and offensive stereotypes of those races. Human trafficking and the sex trade are a huge professional focus of the community. Extreme examples of sexism are rewarded with large audiences and a massive subscriber count. Even transphobia and disabilities are sometimes used as comedic devices.
The most unfortunate part of this situation is the fact that NoPixel and Twitch itself enable the racism and sexism to continue because of the astonishing amount of money everyone is making. There is a huge audience for this type of roleplay. The more offensive the character, the higher the viewer count. This is not a new concept. The level of toxicity among Twitch viewership has been an on-going discussion since Twitch’s inception. With Twitch being held to account and forced to take a stand in certain circumstances, they are choosing their battles very carefully. It creates this massive grey area of ambiguity where streamers can get away with the most offensive and disgusting behavior because they are “in character”. The excuses these streamers have for this behavior do not seem to align with the NoPixel Terms of Service, let alone Twitch, yet it goes unpunished because it is popular among the viewers.
“This is roleplay.” The defense most streamers use for this behavior is that they are acting, playing a character, no different than a voice actor in a video game or animated series. So, who decides what is over the line? Or where the line even is? These questions are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this conversation. Is a white man roleplaying a black stereotype racist? Does it violate the rules? Is a cis man roleplaying a trans woman transphobic? Is a non-Asian streamer who is using an over-the-top Asian accent to voice a character offensive? Would any of this be allowed in any other industry? Or even on any other roleplay server? These are the questions that many minorities who are NoPixel community members and viewers are asking themselves. It is time to decide who is complicit in perpetuating toxicity on Twitch, and to shine a spotlight on those who are making money off of bigotry.