I kinda get the WoW thing, him roaching and being a total ass about it.
But an industry plant would probably get orders from above to shut down that retarded drama shit immediately, issue a heartfelt apology, play that Stijn Heartbound song in the background you know the one I'm talking about, do whatever it takes, because we're bleeDING SUBS
HERE YOU FUCKING RETARD.
But a plant probably wouldn't be playing WoW anyway, or do what Mald does. 12 hours of gaming and YAML every day. To each their own as they say, you do you, mald. A plant would likely be pushing some corpo agenda and is easily spotted and avoidable. That's the problem we're trying to solve here, guys!
Mald is more like a sleeper agent. He got a little push into stardom, and the only 2 times he's been
activated has been the 2 SKG incidents. The rest was gaming and YAML.
But what compels him to wake up?
Money? I don't see it. If you suddenly have 1M subs, fake or not, you have a sustainable business I guess? Just don't fuck it up too much like future mald. But his SKG YT videos came before that, first one Aug 6 2024. I don't see any signs in the stats that his audience punished him for those videos. If anything, there's a temporary boost in twitch followers and viewers around that time? So unless they're paying him big bux this time... and yet... he feels more like a soldier than a slut if you know what I mean.
Is it The Gnome Tapes? Or any blackmail material, even just boring debt? As much as I'd love to believe it exists he never seems distressed, cornered, like someone with no options. I'd also think his leash holders would exploit him more often then.
Is it a long lasting friendship with someone in the industry? 20 years of exp and all that? No, narcs like him don't have friends, and friends don't ask friends to shill ok?
SO WTF IS IT? Why would an indie gamedev shill against game preservation?
Maybe it's gratitude towards someone for giving him 1M subs? Yeaa, we might be getting closer but I don't think it would last this long. And, "with respect," I've never seen mald show anyone gratitude. Or, he actually thanks people for voting for him at the Streamer Awards and his voice cracks up a bit. Or wait is it a tiny laugh?
No, my working theory is that he got hacked. He's a DEF CON regular. I hear it's full of live exploits, so don't connect anything you like to that wifi! But I don't think it's his computer that got hacked (welcome to the Gnome Tapes timeline bud). I think it was his mind.
So imagine a dude. Let's call him Theo. I have no evidence, but
@Cantercoin said "Theo.gg looks like the type of guy who spikes women's drinks when they aren't looking" and I nodded, and besides they (mald, theprimeagen, theo, et al) have hung out in the past, so let's go with Theo. No relation.
Theo is, or becomes an unholy cross between a talent scout and a pickup artist, except he's looking for retards. People with actual mental problems. Exploitable people. Maybe some of his ideas -- Theo's an artist after all -- began when he worked at twitch (oh no I'm already confusing with the real Theo they look just alike) and he had that mentor who had a hobby studying cults or whatever.
Anyway Theo spots Mald and sees something in him -- Theo's an artist after all -- and Mald's the right stuff. The right retarded stuff. Maybe he starts off soft by humoring Mald at DEF CON. "It's amazing you've worked 20 years in the industry dude! For Blizzard! Wow dude!" (under his breath, "in QA *snigger*"). "Oh you stream gamedev! We're all devs here, come meet my friends, we could use another hand!".
Theo later shows him how to tweak mic settings to sound better on stream, and refers him to a clinic that can induce "second puberty". He feeds him stories and observes how they (even the retarded lies) end up in YT shorts without crediting Theo. "He's perfect...". At one point Mald says, "I should probably thank you for all you've done..", but Theo cuts him off, "Thor, don't mention it man. Besides, you're one of us now. A real hacker! *wink*". He senses mald longing for something ... more ... bigger. It's time. He calls up his old mentor from his days at twitch.
"Hi Kyle! What would you say if I told you I could sell you the opinion of a popular streamer without the streamer really realizing they're shilling for you? *unintelligible phone voice* Nonono, we're already
IN phase 2. I'm coming over! Order Chinese! I'm hanging up!". And then they talked and schemed for hours, and they went into Kyle's bedroom and they made sweet gay love into the early morning.
Months later Mald receives a mysterious email with a plane ticket. Theo's been grooming him and telling him something might come up. Something big.
He goes on the trip. A driver picks him up at the airport. After an hour in the car Mald asks the driver, "How long until we get to his estate?", and the driver laughs, "We've been driving across his estate for the past 50 minutes!" (ok stole that one from Ex Machina (2014))
Mald arrives at the mansion and a charismatic older man comes out to greet him.
They talk in his office for less than 60 minutes. Thor feels very important and valued the entire time. Like everything's finally falling into place. He's offered a
boost.
"No strings attached, except... I may from time to time... explain my point of view to you, influence the influencer if you will, perhaps even... correct certain misconceptions you may have. I'm interested in enlightening people to everyone's benefit after all. You see that don't you".
"Yeah". Long pause. Time stands still. Mald admires the man's fursuit.
"One million subs. It's a lot of responsibility but we're all counting on you. You think you can handle it, Thor?"
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(I wanted to include an image here but my image uploads are corrupted/truncated.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GwcFxTuMYmU/...j0AgKJD&rs=AOn4CLBF6vVUTVWQYd7Odg6sDqDWR0NQYQ)
