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Streamer Brandon ‘DM Brandon’ Nance has announced his decision to quit the scene shortly after he embarked on a controversial rant about the morality of suicide.
Eurogamer reports that the outburst followed a $5 donation on his stream from a viewer who added that watching Nance’s streams had helped them recover from an attempted suicide.
"There are a lot of streamers out there that would appreciate that message. I’m just going to call you an asshole. It’s a selfish, stupid thing to do,” Nance stated. "If you don’t like my opinion about that, you can find someone else to watch who’s gonna tell you killing yourself is okay. Go f*** yourself, kid.
"Everyone has f***ing depression and anxiousness. Everyone has a hard time f***ing waking up, and still a lot of us do it without putting the burden on a lot of other people.”
The full outburst can be seen in the video below.
Nance later said that he’d made a mistake, although fell short of actually apologising.
These are my opinions, and mine alone. It is not fair for a company I work for to be held accountable for the opinions I have on my free time. That is not how it seems to work,” he tweeted. Every word I speak is criticized to the point that it can be taken badly. And while I accept that and the hate it comes with, Hi-Rez shouldn’t have to deal with it.
As for yesterday: I couldn’t believe what I said. Because I didn’t mean it and I certainly did not mean for it to come out as it did. I couldn’t understand how I f***ed that up so badly. The stress levels of trying to juggle this lifestyle while keeping up appearances at events, and everything on top got to the point where I was actually fucking up what I meant to say. But please don’t point your hate at others for my mistake.
Last night, people were playing devil’s advocate for suicide. People were honestly attacking me for saying that suicide is not the answer. People were getting massively upvoted, saying things like ‘Suicide should be a person’s choice.’ I can’t battle things like this, honestly. I don’t know how people’s hate for me in a video game got so great that they’d take the side of suicide just to continue arguing. And that shouldn’t be placed on anyone but me.”
UPDATE: MCV has received the following statement from Hi-Rez:
"At Hi-Rez, we care about our community deeply and we take topics like suicide, depression and mental illness not lightly. All our employees are free in their opinions, but when people don’t respect the values we stand for as a company, we treat it seriously.
"If any good comes from this episode, we hope it shines a light on mental illness issues, and the need for broader education, support and open conversation about how these devastating illnesses are perceived and discussed in our society. All of us have important people in our lives that have been touched by mental illness. How we talk about these diseases is important.
"After yesterday’s event, Hi-Rez has made a contribution to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and they would like to encourage others to do the same."
