TimetheTatman
Activision
This is the legend that will never end. More and more high profile content creators continue to weigh in on the recent Nickmercs controversy, where Activision streamer removed his Call of Duty Operator skin from sale despite anti-LGBTQ comments he made this week.
First, Dr Disrespect said he was leaving the game (again) unless Activision apologized and returned the skin. Now Nick’s friend and co-creator TimtheTatman is publicly asking Tawag ng Thanhalan to remove his own The skin of the operator is “in support of his friend.”
Before this, Tim took a video to address Nick’s comments, saying that he spoke to him, but the video didn’t really say much. Now, it’s clear that he’s thrown behind Nick to the point where he’s asking Activision to stop selling his own skin, no doubt a financial hit for him to some extent. I saw Ninja retweeted it, and it became clear where the other streamers in Nick’s orbit stood.
At the time of this writing, Call of Duty has not responded to Tim’s request. Again, it’s hard to know exactly the ins and outs of how these creator Operator contracts work when it comes to their real-life likeness. In Nick’s case, there would likely be a clause that would allow for its removal in a situation like this. As for Tim, could he just…walk away from it? Activision spent time and money creating that skin in the first place, after all. Maybe they never thought someone would ask questions so that their skin cannot be sold. I’m very curious to see what they are doing here.
This continues to be a wild story as Nick has been the most watched Warzone streamer of late by a pretty wide margin. That’s why he got his own skin with Tim, when they chose high-profile, recognizable, Call of Duty creators. Again, Nick wasn’t banned from the game, nor did he lose the ability to stream it, it was just skin deep, even though it did spark a national culture war and center around the gaming community.
Today, millions of these streamers’ fans, many of them children, are watching Nick make no apologies for his comments and his big-name friends are lining up behind him. Nick’s statement on “Leave the little kids alone,” posted on a video showing violence against LGBTQ supporters, is an extension of a certain Republican talk about what should be “ repair” of minors through the idea of teaching acceptance of LGBTQ children and adults. In contrast, LGBTQ supporters found themselves suddenly siding with Activision, of all companies, which has not had a great record in this area before and is perhaps the single biggest glorifier of the military industrial complex in the last two decade in entertainment media. Strange times.
We’ll see what Activision does with Tim’s request. Stay tuned for updates.
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