Fortnite streams discontinued as a result of locking V-Bucks to BR mode

Early in the morning on March 31st, 2022, I updated Fortnite & logged in to find out that the V-Bucks I had been collecting for the past 4+ years in Save the World mode had been locked to the Battle Royale mode.  I do NOT play BR & I do NOT spend V-Bucks on the BR store, so this change felt like stealing 4+ years of my life from me...  Earlier this morning, I went on a few rants (over 1 live channel of a former Fortnite streamer who had helped me acquire Affiliate on Twitch as a StW streamer & 2 Discord servers, including the official Fortnite Discord), stating I was done with Fortnite, had left the official Discord & was expecting to uninstall the game by the time I had woken up (expecting) around noon.

After getting some sleep, I was thinking a bit more clearly & decided I would make one last-ditch effort to keep the game in my list of games before I uninstall it, this was to contact Epic Games support & see if they would be willing to convert most of what I had prior to the change into X-Ray tickets (what is now accepted toward llama purchases in StW, V-Bucks no longer being accepted towards them).  In this support ticket, the following was stated:

I noticed when I started StW this morning (not playing the last couple weeks due to health issues) that I got 1000 X-Ray tickets on login.  After some discussion about this on your Discord server, I eventually found that the V-Bucks I had been collecting since I purchased it in 2017 (over 37,000 before this change was made, which collection of these from missions & dailies were the primary reason that kept me playing the game after Twitch dailies were broken in StW in the first year of playability) are now locked to a mode that I don't even play (BR mode). I haven't been happy about a lot of the changes in STW for the last few years, but I continued playing it because I knew I had already spent over $40 for it at full price in 2017 (plus tax, purchasing roughly a month after it was playable), mostly just avoiding the modes I didn't like (which were missions that had the enclosing storm mechanic or didn't allow you to craft your own schematics).

Last night I blew up about this on your Discord server, stated that I was done with Fortnite & left the server (also blowing up about it in 1 other Discord server & chat in a live Twitch channel, that particular streamer not even having the Epic Games launcher installed anymore because he wasn't happy with the StW modes that didn't allow him to craft his schematics, 1 of 3 channels that helped me acquire affiliate status on Twitch while I was still streaming StW with their raids to my channel).  After getting some sleep & calming down a bit, I rejoined your Discord server & decided to make a last-ditch effort to retain those V-Bucks in the mode that I "was" still playing before I uninstall the game and make that decision to ditch the game final.

This request to retain me as a player/streamer of StW (and potential customer on the Epic Games platform) is that you convert 37,000 V-Bucks into 37,000 X-Ray tickets; this will allow me to retain most of what I collected in StW & to be able to use them in the mode I originally collected them for.  I have NEVER spent any V-Bucks on the BR store & locking what I had collected in StW to the BR mode is not going to force me to play it or spend them on that store, it's only going to get me to remove the game from my system & stop supporting other Fortnite streamers on a whole (not just BR streamers, where I already have streams tagged with "Mode: Battle Royale" blocked on Twitch, but the entire Fortnite game, regardless of what mode is being streamed).

I have already moved Fortnite to the "Discontinued steams" section of my Game List on my Twitch channel (with a descriptive reason why this game is being discontinued on my channel) & that is likely to remain the decision if the time & effort I put into StW remains as time I can't get back because those V-Bucks are now locked to a mode I don't even play.  Additionally, I'm intending on make a blog post about this on my Twitch blog explaining why Fortnite will no longer be streamed on my channel (if I can't get those V-Bucks accessible in the mode I play), as well as an addition to my review of the StW mode on my personal site, which is likely to be the final update to it once I'm left with the (expected) decision that all that is left to do with Fortnite is to uninstall it & never look at it again...  Another BBB complaint is also possible if I'm faced with the decision of just scrapping what took over my gaming life for the last 4+ years.

Depending on their decision (whether they decide to make V-Bucks usable on StW again, convert what I have asked to X-Ray tickets or just decide to give me the proverbial finger & reject the request or close the ticket without a response), is going to be the deciding factor whether I even keep Fortnite installed anymore (as well as whether I am even going to consider additional purchases over the Epic Games platform).  If the decision stands as it is now, Fortnite will no longer be played, much less streamed on my channel ever again & this will likely also affect my decision as to whether I ever purchase anything over the Epic Games platform again.

Twitch extensions having issues, possible removal & replacement in the near future

On 2/6/2022, I noticed that both the Game Lists & Exclusive Content for Subscribers didn't appear to be working on my channel anymore (the StreamElements Leaderboards extension is still working however).  I spent maybe an hour trying to troubleshoot the extensions that don't appear to be loading anymore to make sure it wasn't an issue on my side, eventually giving up on trying to troubleshoot them & just marking them for removal at a later date.  I'll be leaving the extensions on the channel for now, but they are likely to be replaced by something else in the near future if they don't start working on their own...

More chat restrictions in response to further attacks

As I stated earlier, I decided to increase restrictions on chatting in my channel as a result of regular harassment when I was streaming (particularly when the game being streamed was Fortnite).  As of 2/4/2022, the minimum requirement in the screenshot on the linked blog post has been updated from a minimum of 1 week to 3 months (if the viewer's account does not have a registered phone number or hasn't been following for a minimum of 10 minutes).  Details regarding what happened on 2/3/2022 to prompt this change can be found in the extended video evidence description at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LGHViVsJPPAyVR5TKqC_REFdJ4ubldF936HRdCpjm2Q (with a list of ALL known accounts, name changes & logged attacks starting on 2/5/2020 with the original situation in the video evidence located at https://youtu.be/B-4jmNFZD-o).

Community tab disabled on YouTube channel

On 2/3/2022, I noticed that the Community tab on my YouTube channel was no longer present (probably gone for some time).  Doing an online search would give indication that this function is only available to those with over 500 subscribers (regardless of whether they had access to it prior or not).

I was using that section for updates regarding the YouTube channel (which has probably all been wiped at this point, can't even see what was on it anymore even in my YouTube dashboard), it looks like I am going to have to do the same as I had to do with Twitch when they removed their Feed function & start running written updates on an external site (which is what is seen here).  As of yet, I haven't determined if I am going to create a new blog for it, I might just create a list of posts related to the YouTube channel farther down the right-hand side of the page.

The YouTube channel is used more for highlight backups of streams on Twitch, but due to health issues that have prevented me from being able to stream much over the past couple years, it's still serving as a place for gaming highlights (or when it's necessary to display somebody for who they are as being a troll or griefer), just more for highlights recorded when I'm gaming (even if I wasn't streaming).

I still want to get back into being a regular streamer on Twitch again, however due to the whole COVID situation, medical resources are strapped tight & I'm unable to get my surgery taken care of (I've been trying to set this up for over 2 years already).  Without going into too many specifics, the surgery is necessary to stop a bleeding issue, which leaves me with a lack of energy as a result of daily anemia from that blood loss.  Until I can get this issue resolved, extended time gaming won't be possible & having to walk away from the PC to deal with these health issues is a common distraction from what would make it possible to continue being a streamer on Twitch...  I might try to do streams occasionally when I feel I have enough energy to do so (I know I've tried setting up to stream in the last few months, but didn't have the energy to do so before I was ready to start streaming), but there's no guarantee on how long I'll be able to stream if I am able to get started, so we're just going to have to play it by ear until my health is good enough that anemia isn't a daily factor in my life that interferes with my ability to get things done...

Internet problems again; further streams on hold...

While I was intending on doing a Dauntless stream later today, I've found that my internet with CenturyLink is again having issues & my upload rate currently is not high enough to run a stream of online multiplayer games (single player games perhaps still being an option).  I did attempt to schedule a repair call with a technician over their online chat, but the chat representative was unwilling to schedule the call & stated that I needed to contact my router's manufacturer (which isn't going to fix anything).  There's also a high probability that even if the technician does come out to fix it, my upload rate is going to be back to a mere 3 mbps, which means I won't be able to stream online games anymore anyways (not until CenturyLink offers a higher upload rate or I ultimately decide to switch back to Xfinity, the latter I've been attempting to avoid after what they pulled with me in 2018).  I've been waiting for Google Fiber to become available in my area to get a decent internet connect at a decent price, but this still remains unavailable in my neighborhood since I moved here in 2016...

So while I was considering a stream today, no stream will be possible while my internet connection is malfunctioning (even if I do get a service call scheduled, it's unlikely it will be fixed while I still have energy to work on the last day of Dauntless before the new season).  I'll be making a call to CenturyLink later today to try & set up a service call to have somebody come & look at the line, but if I can't get anywhere because they would rather put responsibility on my router for the problem (which is only a factor because my CenturyLink modem is in bridge mode, which was necessary because I wasn't able to update my personal site if it wasn't), I will need to make calls to start switching back to Xfinity at the end of this month.

On the plus side, if I do switch back to Xfinity, I should have the upload rate to be able to start streaming regularly again (this is provided I have the health to continue doing so, which hasn't been the case for the last few months).  The bigger issue is I may not have the funds to continue paying that bill once I have to start paying my medical insurance's premiums again (especially after what Patreon pulled with terminating my account), so currently we're just going to have to see where the future of my channel goes based on available ISP services, whether they are functioning correctly, how much they are going to cost if I switch again & whether I can afford those costs (not to mention the continuing health issues I haven't been able to get taken care of due to COVID sucking up hospital resources & preventing me from getting the surgery done that I've been trying to get taken care of for over 2 years)...

Emote reclassification, more emotes available to Tier 1 subscribers

On 11/22/2021, I noticed a notification from Twitch stating that they had given us more emote slots for Tier 1 subscribers, so I decided to reclassify my emotes so that Tier 1 subscribers would have access to more of those emotes when they subscriber (currently 4, with 1 more still & 1 animated I may add later).  The Ammo, SeriousBomb & Fleshpound emotes were moved to being accessible to Tier 1 Subscribers, while I moved the Raven emote back to being available to all tippers of 1,000 bits on the channel (currently including 3 other Fortnite streamers, or at least former-streamers of Fortnite).

Of course there would be a catch in doing this, where like many other things on Twitch have become broke (or previously gained perks being revoked), I found that once again I'm having to go through the initial acceptance period that Twitch imposes on newer affiliates (where I had gained approval to immediate acceptance of emotes over a year ago)...

Note also that the bit leader on the channel has the ability to request an emote resort (allowing access to emotes more to their liking in cheer slots that they have reached).  Unfortunately seeing as Twitch is now making me go through the acceptance process again when I attempt to resubmit emotes to have them resorted, this means that any time I have to do so, those emotes will become temporarily available until Twitch re-accepts the emotes (even if it was supposed to be a simple resort of existing emotes)...

CenturyLink speed changes, continued streaming pending streaming performance tests

Roughly the first week of November of 2021, I noticed that my upload rates seems slower when uploading gaming videos to YouTube, so I decided to run another speed test on 11/8/2021 & found that it appears my speeds have changed (download speeds increasing roughly 10 Mbps from where I should have been, the uploading rate running roughly 4 Mbps higher than what I was originally quoted when I switched back to CenturyLink from Comcast...but roughly half of what I had when they fixed my internet back in July).

While 3 Mbps was not high enough to continue streaming online multiplayer games (what I was getting back when I first switched back to CenturyLink), 7 Mbps might be enough to allow me to continue streaming the games I'd prefer to be streaming (although I was getting 10 Mbps upload when I was with Comcast).  I'll be running some tests when I get a chance to stream again to see if this increase in upload rate allows me to stream at 3000 Kbps (what I prefer to stream at); If not, I'll again be restricted in my streaming capability to only single player games until decent internet is available in my area (that doesn't feel like it costs an arm, leg & newborn child every month...).

 I'm still waiting on Google Fiber to be become available in my area, with any luck, maybe Biden's new budget plans will get these companies to start laying fiber optic cables for fiber internet plans once again (as they stated 4 or 5 years ago when I first moved here, later finding out that those plans were abandoned when CenturyLink changed their management company).