The Red Bulletin August 2020 (US)

last name really Munition?” I’m like, “Yep,
totally. It totally is.” I have a pretty unique
[real] name, and so it’s dangerous because
it makes it easy to find more information.
If you give people three pieces of a puzzle,
they’ll find out everything else.
Why is it important to you to protect
your identity?
I think people who have an online
personality, and even just private users
of the internet, should read more about
info security and social engineering, and
how easy it is for someone to go from
knowing one thing about you to knowing
everything about you. They can find
your home address, your phone number,
your family’s addresses, your relatives.
There was a story of a YouTuber couple
who hid in the closet after one of their
fans broke into their house. The guy had
a gun and was going to kill the boyfriend
because he was jealous. That kind of
thing can and has happened. You never
know when you’re going to meet
someone who seems normal but isn’t.
You can see the signs when you’re in
person, especially as a young woman.
You learn the signals and what to avoid.
But online you don’t have that. It’s hard
to have intuition about who’s got good
intentions. Sometimes I feel bad because
people who are just generally curious
will ask, “Oh, where did you grow up?”
I’m like, “Why? Why do you want to
know?” That goes back to my paranoia.
You’ve shared your relationship status
with your followers. How do you make
the calculation between what’s OK to
share and what’s not?
It depends on who is asking, and if I feel
like they can use that information for
something else. My brain kind of has a red
flag where I’m like, “That information
isn’t going to help you find my channel
more interesting. It’s just not relevant.”
Do you ever have a hard time toggling
between your two identities?
Yes. Sometimes I forget what my real
name is. I almost responded to an email
that I was sending to my mom with
[Anne Munition] because I’m so used to
putting that in my emails.
You’ve written about the importance
of having a backup plan—why is that
important to you?
There are a lot of people who dropped
out of high school or college and got into
streaming full-time. I think that’s pretty
dangerous. I discovered streaming after
I got my degree, and I’m still practicing
graphic design and video editing. So if
I don’t want to stream anymore I could
work in video editing or for a company.
People have said, “Oh you’ve just been
streaming, you’re screwed if your
channel dies.” That’s not true because
I’ve been developing relationships with
Corsair and Intel and Red Bull, and now
I have all these personal connections. It’s
obviously not a guaranteed job, but it
gives you a leg up.
Has your passion for gaming changed
over the years?
It comes and goes. It’s like anything you
do every single day. Even if you love it,
it’s going to become tedious over time.
And I’ve been doing this for six years.
When people are like, “Oh, it’s easy. You
“A lot of streamers are afraid of
being too harsh with their
audience. I won’t tolerate people
treating anyone with disrespect.”
When she’s not social distancing, Anne says in-person interactions at conventions are a huge
boost to her confidence. “People are genuinely excited to meet you,” she says.
just play video games,” I’ll say, “Yeah,
I love pizza, but I don’t want to eat pizza
every single day for six years.” Going to
conventions helps me feel revitalized.
Because here’s the thing—when you’re
online you have positive and negative
experiences. When you’re in person, you
almost always have positive experiences
because people who go out of their way
to go to a convention want to meet you.
Those are the people who are really
kind. So when you go home you’re like,
Oh, this is great, everyone loves me,
everybody’s super nice, and I want to
play video games.
Given this time of social distancing,
how are you doing?
Because the conventions I typically
attend throughout the year are
(rightfully) being canceled, coupled with
the stay-at-home restrictions, I do feel
like my mental health has taken a huge
hit. Part of what makes streaming so
difficult mentally is dealing with the
vocal minority of toxic people who are
empowered by the anonymity of the
internet. Attending conventions is the
polar opposite—you’re mostly meeting
people who are genuinely excited to
meet you and it’s a huge boost to my
confidence, which takes little hits each
day. From my perspective, things haven’t
changed too much, but I have had a lot
of people thanking me for streaming
consistently during the quarantine to
provide some respite from the constant
barrage of negative news online.
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