8 ms·

A Former Twitch Employee Has One of the Most Reproduced Faces

75 points by JacobAldridge 11y ago

myth_buster 11y ago
I was under the impression that Yao Ming held that distinction.
- baldfat 11y ago
  No the kappa is strong in Twitch. I swear I will see kappa on my death bed.
irl_zebra 11y ago
It appears that while he technically may have one of the most reproduced faces, it's only because his face is an emoticon on Twitch that is constantly used, something like 800+ times/minute. So those unfamiliar with Twitch (like me) would have never seen this face or recognize it. Also, fivethirtyeight is using the phrase "IRL." Is this in the dictionary or something now? I thought it was slang and not generally used in more reputable sites.
- cheepin 11y ago
  They used it in the same sentence as the emote itself, so I'd imagine it's not meant to be taken too seriously. The Kappa face is not generally used in more reputable sites, but this is a internet subculture piece, so I think it fits.
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  > Also, fivethirtyeight is using the phrase "IRL." Is this in the dictionary or something now? I thought it was slang and not generally used in more reputable sites. Like HN usernames?
  - mmanfrin 11y ago
    Kappa.
- rconti 11y ago
  Yeah, I was going to say "this makes me feel old", but I've never been a gamer so even in my younger days I would have been unfamiliar with this level of "popularity". I think the Internet encompasses so much of life now that being neck-deep in tech is no longer enough to guarantee you'll feel plugged in to all of the latest trends/memes.
- ufo 11y ago
  To give an idea how much Kappa is spammed in Twitch chat, here is a wordcloud from the chat of a popular Twitch streamer: http://i.imgur.com/ntoEaLt.png http://i.imgur.com/ntoEaLt.png Kappa dominates over all other emotes and even simple words such as "is"
  - JoshTriplett 11y ago
    Part of that is because people will spam a wall of emotes in a single line, and many such lines.
- xiaoma 11y ago
  Now that the internet very much is a part of real life, I believe the more appropriate word is AFK: DeSeno guest-starred in fewer than 80 selfies at TwitchCon, which makes his face far less popular AFK than online
  - ufo 11y ago
    I think AFK is more appropriate for when you are away from the keyboard while logged on to something (chat, a game, etc).
fdang 11y ago
never seen him before but I've seen Benjamin Franklin's today. I'm on Twitch too. I just ban anyone who starts spamming emoticons. because that's who I am, an oppressive moderator.
swang 11y ago
Imagine having your likeness frozen in time becoming this famous. Look at his photo in 2015. It is obviously him but he grew out his hair, looks thinner, and he's aged (6 years!), then you see his own self on his shirt. I mean its a bit different than being famous and having a famous photo taken of you. Most of the time the photo is famous because the person _and_ event are famous. But with this, it almost becomes a completely different person/thing when the "famous" aspect is just some random photo taken of you. The question I have is does he own any rights at all to his likeness (from 2009) being reproduced? Twitch took that picture, and they own the rights to that photo taken, so I guess that part of it belongs to twitch. But now people are making statues of him and taking large photos of his head to eSports tournaments, so what rights does he have to say, "Whoa, those busts are cool, but I'm really uncomfortable with that. Take it down please"?
- emmett 11y ago
  Technically he uploaded the picture himself when he was working at Twitch (then Justin.tv) -- it used to be an employe e benefit that you could add your face to the emoticon list. As to how Josh feels about it, I leave you with this link to my TwitchCon keynote presentation: http://www.twitch.tv/twitch/v/17714623?t=37m0s http://www.twitch.tv/twitch/v/17714623?t=37m0s
bmsleight_ 11y ago
The Head of State in the UK, (aka The Queen), has quite a few reproductions. Every item of money (coins and notes) and a lot of stamps. http://www.royalmint.com/discover/uk-coins/circulation-coin-mintage-figures http://www.royalmint.com/discover/uk-coins/circulation-coin-... - more than 50,000,000 coins in circulation. Then add notes and stamps, plus other commonwealth countries, plus tourist items....
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- rconti 11y ago
  Sentence #5: "Outside of the queen and the other famous people on currency, how did DeSeno’s face become perhaps the most reproduced one in human history?"
  - Keyframe 11y ago
    How about Colonel Sanders or Che Guevara?
ilitirit 11y ago
If I'm not mistaken it was popularized by the Fighting Game Community (FGC). There's a related subreddit (r/Kappa). PogChamp and Bible Thump (which are also on the list on the linked page) were also popularized by the FGC. The interesting thing is that in terms of viewers, Fighting games have a substantially less proportion of the total audience compared to MOBAs and FPSs. It's possible that FG viewers just spend much more time chatting than other spectators because the average Fighting Game match goes by in about 2 minutes. Besides trolling, r/Kappa is also known for sponsoring many FG players to get to tournaments around the world, so you might come across players who list them as a sponsor (in the same way you'd maybe see someone sponsored by EG - Evil Geniuses). In "twitch speak" the term can in some ways be used to indicate sarcasm, as replacement for "j/k", or just trolling in general. eg. "This stream's quality is fantastic kappa!"
- crazypyro 11y ago
  I think you are overestimating how much of the popularity came from the FGC. All of the popular emotes represent pretty common reactions, especially with respect to watching e-sports. BibleThump is a crying eyes, which is pretty much the best emote for sadness or, more commonly, faking sadness. PogChamp is a guy screaming so when people are demanding stuff (e.g. "FIX SOUND PogChamp") its an obvious choice, but it can also be used for things of excitement, so it has a lot of uses. I think, even without the FGC, the emotes that have risen to the most used would've been very similar, if not the exact same.
  - ilitirit 11y ago
    > I think you are overestimating how much of the popularity came from the FGC. I'm really not. PogChamp is Gootecks, host of Cross-Counter and FG player. The meme is based on an ad they did for MadCatz Fight Sticks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkBDZ8Davvg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkBDZ8Davvg "BibleThump" started out as meme involving an incident with streamer Spooky and FG player Wolfkrone. http://36.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7921h1cU41qcriw6o1_1280.png http://36.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7921h1cU41qcriw6o1_1280.p... BibleThump resembled Wolfkrone in that image so literally thousands of viewers started spamming it with the text "spooby pls" on Spooky's chat whenever something went wrong, or the stream was going to end. That is why you'll often see people type "<topic> pls biblethump", eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_C79cFhoM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_C79cFhoM
crazypyro 11y ago
I've pretty much assimilated the word Kappa into my vernacular, just because of how popular its become in competitive video games. Its almost like the old /s that was popular on Digg, where it makes it way more obvious when you are joking about something, which is crucial in conversations where you can't see the other persons face. "You suck" and "You suck, Kappa" have completely different meanings. Its a little weird to use in real life and I only use it in private or joking with friend, but I've even got my girlfriend to understand the meaning and occasionally use it herself, even though the only video game she's ever played is The Sims.
wnevets 11y ago
and my hate for twitch chat related memes only burns hotter. Who needs to be original when you can just spam a meme?

75 points by JacobAldridge 11y ago

myth_buster 11y ago

I was under the impression that Yao Ming held that distinction.

baldfat 11y ago
No the kappa is strong in Twitch. I swear I will see kappa on my death bed.

irl_zebra 11y ago

It appears that while he technically may have one of the most reproduced faces, it's only because his face is an emoticon on Twitch that is constantly used, something like 800+ times/minute. So those unfamiliar with Twitch (like me) would have never seen this face or recognize it. Also, fivethirtyeight is using the phrase "IRL." Is this in the dictionary or something now? I thought it was slang and not generally used in more reputable sites.

cheepin 11y ago
They used it in the same sentence as the emote itself, so I'd imagine it's not meant to be taken too seriously. The Kappa face is not generally used in more reputable sites, but this is a internet subculture piece, so I think it fits.
JoshTriplett 11y ago
> Also, fivethirtyeight is using the phrase "IRL." Is this in the dictionary or something now? I thought it was slang and not generally used in more reputable sites. Like HN usernames?
- mmanfrin 11y ago
  Kappa.
rconti 11y ago
Yeah, I was going to say "this makes me feel old", but I've never been a gamer so even in my younger days I would have been unfamiliar with this level of "popularity". I think the Internet encompasses so much of life now that being neck-deep in tech is no longer enough to guarantee you'll feel plugged in to all of the latest trends/memes.
ufo 11y ago
To give an idea how much Kappa is spammed in Twitch chat, here is a wordcloud from the chat of a popular Twitch streamer: http://i.imgur.com/ntoEaLt.png http://i.imgur.com/ntoEaLt.png Kappa dominates over all other emotes and even simple words such as "is"
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  Part of that is because people will spam a wall of emotes in a single line, and many such lines.
xiaoma 11y ago
Now that the internet very much is a part of real life, I believe the more appropriate word is AFK: DeSeno guest-starred in fewer than 80 selfies at TwitchCon, which makes his face far less popular AFK than online
- ufo 11y ago
  I think AFK is more appropriate for when you are away from the keyboard while logged on to something (chat, a game, etc).

fdang 11y ago

never seen him before but I've seen Benjamin Franklin's today. I'm on Twitch too. I just ban anyone who starts spamming emoticons. because that's who I am, an oppressive moderator.

swang 11y ago

Imagine having your likeness frozen in time becoming this famous. Look at his photo in 2015. It is obviously him but he grew out his hair, looks thinner, and he's aged (6 years!), then you see his own self on his shirt. I mean its a bit different than being famous and having a famous photo taken of you. Most of the time the photo is famous because the person _and_ event are famous. But with this, it almost becomes a completely different person/thing when the "famous" aspect is just some random photo taken of you. The question I have is does he own any rights at all to his likeness (from 2009) being reproduced? Twitch took that picture, and they own the rights to that photo taken, so I guess that part of it belongs to twitch. But now people are making statues of him and taking large photos of his head to eSports tournaments, so what rights does he have to say, "Whoa, those busts are cool, but I'm really uncomfortable with that. Take it down please"?

emmett 11y ago
Technically he uploaded the picture himself when he was working at Twitch (then Justin.tv) -- it used to be an employe e benefit that you could add your face to the emoticon list. As to how Josh feels about it, I leave you with this link to my TwitchCon keynote presentation: http://www.twitch.tv/twitch/v/17714623?t=37m0s http://www.twitch.tv/twitch/v/17714623?t=37m0s

bmsleight_ 11y ago

The Head of State in the UK, (aka The Queen), has quite a few reproductions. Every item of money (coins and notes) and a lot of stamps. http://www.royalmint.com/discover/uk-coins/circulation-coin-mintage-figures http://www.royalmint.com/discover/uk-coins/circulation-coin-... - more than 50,000,000 coins in circulation. Then add notes and stamps, plus other commonwealth countries, plus tourist items....

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
rconti 11y ago
Sentence #5: "Outside of the queen and the other famous people on currency, how did DeSeno’s face become perhaps the most reproduced one in human history?"
- Keyframe 11y ago
  How about Colonel Sanders or Che Guevara?

ilitirit 11y ago

If I'm not mistaken it was popularized by the Fighting Game Community (FGC). There's a related subreddit (r/Kappa). PogChamp and Bible Thump (which are also on the list on the linked page) were also popularized by the FGC. The interesting thing is that in terms of viewers, Fighting games have a substantially less proportion of the total audience compared to MOBAs and FPSs. It's possible that FG viewers just spend much more time chatting than other spectators because the average Fighting Game match goes by in about 2 minutes. Besides trolling, r/Kappa is also known for sponsoring many FG players to get to tournaments around the world, so you might come across players who list them as a sponsor (in the same way you'd maybe see someone sponsored by EG - Evil Geniuses). In "twitch speak" the term can in some ways be used to indicate sarcasm, as replacement for "j/k", or just trolling in general. eg. "This stream's quality is fantastic kappa!"

crazypyro 11y ago
I think you are overestimating how much of the popularity came from the FGC. All of the popular emotes represent pretty common reactions, especially with respect to watching e-sports. BibleThump is a crying eyes, which is pretty much the best emote for sadness or, more commonly, faking sadness. PogChamp is a guy screaming so when people are demanding stuff (e.g. "FIX SOUND PogChamp") its an obvious choice, but it can also be used for things of excitement, so it has a lot of uses. I think, even without the FGC, the emotes that have risen to the most used would've been very similar, if not the exact same.
- ilitirit 11y ago
  > I think you are overestimating how much of the popularity came from the FGC. I'm really not. PogChamp is Gootecks, host of Cross-Counter and FG player. The meme is based on an ad they did for MadCatz Fight Sticks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkBDZ8Davvg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkBDZ8Davvg "BibleThump" started out as meme involving an incident with streamer Spooky and FG player Wolfkrone. http://36.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7921h1cU41qcriw6o1_1280.png http://36.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7921h1cU41qcriw6o1_1280.p... BibleThump resembled Wolfkrone in that image so literally thousands of viewers started spamming it with the text "spooby pls" on Spooky's chat whenever something went wrong, or the stream was going to end. That is why you'll often see people type "<topic> pls biblethump", eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_C79cFhoM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_C79cFhoM

crazypyro 11y ago

I've pretty much assimilated the word Kappa into my vernacular, just because of how popular its become in competitive video games. Its almost like the old /s that was popular on Digg, where it makes it way more obvious when you are joking about something, which is crucial in conversations where you can't see the other persons face. "You suck" and "You suck, Kappa" have completely different meanings. Its a little weird to use in real life and I only use it in private or joking with friend, but I've even got my girlfriend to understand the meaning and occasionally use it herself, even though the only video game she's ever played is The Sims.

wnevets 11y ago

and my hate for twitch chat related memes only burns hotter. Who needs to be original when you can just spam a meme?