What do you think is the fatal flaw of Lifesteal?
I was originally going to cite Clown and Spoke’s line during the Cleansing in S3 about the inherent cyclic nature of Lifesteal but I really don’t think that’s the answer you’d want to hear, or the answer I’d like to give, to be honest.
I guess I’d have to say to me Lifesteal’s greatest flaw as a long-form content smp would be that they’re real people
Lifesteal exists in an interesting vacuum within the MCYT content space, in that it’s charm almost entirely lies in its ability to function as both a rp smp and a rewarding competitive gameplay loop—there are players who play to tell a story, and players that play to PvP.
The medium of their content requires a large of amount interpretation and creative liberties—while juggling both essentially scriptwriting, playtime (not to mention training, which requires time away from content to get better at the game), and the upkeep of real life. Through this, it can become especially difficult to hit every category expected of a MCYT in a way that means these content creators can also make their living. Naturally, sacrifices have to be made. Even in a scripted SMP server like Unstable Universe, it can feel lacking in a certain luster—that unshakeable feeling that these conflicts are real, as much as you, the viewer, are assured otherwise. It is that quality of real that attract a large number of fans to Lifesteal; and in that same way, the reason many are driven away.
Unlike UU, Lifesteal is streamed almost in its entirety. For creators like PrinceZam, Woogiex, Yungwill, Mapicc, HannahxxRose, Baconwaffles0 it is with an almost uncomfortable dedication that we are familiarized with their (in-game) lives. For those afforded the opportunity to catch these long hours, we see love and friendship created as often as it is destroyed. What should be a punishing cycle of presence and absence—love and loss—is chased after so vigorously not only by the fans, but by its creators as well. As true as it is that Lifesteal remains almost entirely unscripted, it is also a truth that many streamers will often play up personas to the point where personalities completely removed from its original can be formed. It’s theatrical and yet somehow manages to preserve its emotional depth—a product of love not only for content, but for the payoff months-worth of late nights and consistency that only an impassioned story arc can pull off. It is through the same medium that we are allowed one of the most compelling shows of the bounds of human thought and creativity, that we are also unable to experience the fundamentals of good storytelling; coordination. Large production narratives are not constructed this way. There is not any one good carefully crafted character who could have half the mind of any character born of the Lifesteal SMP. This has its flaws.
You cannot make a rewarding story when every character is entirely responsible for what they choose to do, we’ve seen this happen so many times before. With Pangi and Derapchu as early as S6’s orbital cannon plot line (leaking its coords and ruining Yungwills content), or even way the audience itself chooses to interact with these creators (leaking in stream chat). We’ve seen compromises been made in good faith to preserve the integrity of the story, but there is always this underlying feeling of disappointment.
Things are good, but they could’ve been better.
For players like Vitalasy and Planet, who, on the Lifesteal SMP gained a loved for the art of storytelling—it’s disheartening to have content like that tossed aside so easily. But if I were to be specific, I think it’s the emotional demands of such content that doom it so wonderfully. I wouldn’t call it unhealthy exactly; but it is in that same way you grimace at actors who so uncomfortable align themselves with their role for authenticity that we see Lifestealers embody the characters that they play for the audience on stream. I think there are players like Zam or Bacon who do this wonderfully—understand that their conflicts are nothing more than content, who chase and thrive in the never ending suffering—but contrarily, there are also players like Planet and Vitalasy for whom this practice doesn’t prevent this conflict from transcending beyond in-game into real life—who want to make Lifesteal something it is not, a place of friendship and fun, and are throughly narratively punished for it.
I guess the way I see it, Lifesteal is entertainment in that same branch as Hunger Games—a never ending tragedy, capitalizing on the interest in human suffering.
And while I don’t think Zam was wrong in saying back in S4 that all Lifesteal would ever be was suffering, I also don’t think that Vitalasy was wrong in correcting her that Lifesteal could be whatever you made it be. Lifesteal can only exist with the power that you give it, and it’s for that same reason Vitalasy logs off that Zam continues to choose to log on.
