Our special article series continues with an interview with Zombreyy – a creator on Twitch who streams a variety of tournament, server and SMP content.
Who is Zombreyy?
“From a livestreaming point of view, I really like playing on servers that involve PvP, like MCC Island or Hoplite, and competing in Minecraft events, like Klyx Games, Blissful Championship, and Tipsy Tourney,” Zombreyy says. “My proudest achievement probably has to be getting into Hoplite Champions. My original team was me, flowtives, OGQndres, leekleeklive, and Sapnap, but Sapnap subbed out for Baablu. Honestly in terms of PvP there’s people in that event who are very very good, like it’s actually insane their skill level.”
“I was trying to find my team and I came across the Arctic team,” Zombreyy remembers, “that consisted of Greninja, conexion, Speedsilver, acho, and JudeLow… like it was instantly done for me. That event was so much fun, it was the first event I competed in, and just being able to compete against so many awesome creators… I was so nervous going into it, but people like AssassinJillian, they made it feel really welcoming.”
“I’ve also been getting into the Twitch SMP lately – it’s been fun being able to meet new people and try new things.” Whilst Zombreyy’s main platform is Twitch, they’ve also been trying to get more into making content for YouTube. “I think YouTube is a lot harder to get into, definitely – just trying to get myself in a mindset to do that.”
On misogyny in Twitch and game chats
‼️WARNING‼️ This section contains discussion of graphic and disturbing comments that have been sent to Zombreyy. Whilst censored where possible, this content may by unsuitable for some readers.
“I think being a woman in the Minecraft space, for me personally on Minecraft servers, like some things will happen and I don’t think it’s okay for them to happen,” Zombreyy says. “On Minecraft servers that I’ve played on in the past, there would be people who would come into my chat and call me things, just saying stuff that would not be okay in any other person’s chat. Like ‘stupid **** dies first every round’ and ‘she’s actually talking about me, she wants my ****’ and ‘would you do [sexual act] for $50’.”
“Somebody messaged me in the game ‘can I eat your *****’,” Zombreyy recalls. “They did get punished for that, but I don’t feel like punishments for that specific Minecraft server are enough. The same person commented in a different creator’s chat, ‘turn down the music I’m trying to [sexual act] to your voice. Oh my bad I thought I was in Zombreyy’s stream.’ Like what do you mean, ‘my bad’?!”
“When I would play on the server, I would sometimes start crying on livestream over what would happen to me, and people just flocked to my stream to watch it happen,” Zombreyy says. “Like somebody coming to my chat like ‘yo, stop throwing please, why are you sad, don’t ruin morale’.”
It hasn’t just been comments from other players that Zombreyy has had issues with, but also from server moderators. “I would go to report people or express my concern over the way the server was run, and it felt like I was not being taken seriously, like I was being taken as a joke. It made me feel anxious and isolated. There have been mods and hosts that have been accommodating and understanding, but it’s very few and far between.”
“There have been people making comments to me in the general chat of the Discord server, saying ‘oh this person and Zombreyy are best friends,’ or ‘this person has a crush on Zombreyy’. It’s just completely uncalled for, like I don’t know who he is, I don’t talk to him.” Zombreyy recalls a time when a group of teenagers added them to a Discord group chat, and immediately made weird comments over Zombreyy being their girlfriend. The case was completely dismissed by the mods, who advised Zombreyy to just unfriend or block them, and referred to the case as ‘just another unneeded ticket.’
“The person who called me the ‘stupid ****’ that dies first every round, like recently their Discord, and I think the account too, has been unbanned,” Zombreyy says. “Is that really how we should be going about things? We should be curating a safe community.”
Of course, misogyny can be found in many places, and isn’t limited to specific Minecraft servers, streams, or Discord communities. Even after having left the server’s community, Zombreyy still faces harassment. “For a while, people have been making meme coins about me. I just figured dumb kids doing dumb things online and being weird, but I need to defend myself against that time and time again. It’s not me making them, I’m not going out of my way to involve myself in cryptocurrency, I don’t mess with that. Yesterday someone made a meme coin that said that I was taking my clothes off live on Twitch. I find it to be really gross and disgusting, and experiencing that is awful. I just wish people in the Twitch and the Minecraft space treated women better.”
“Hannahxxrose really inspires me, I would watch her content a lot – that’s how I got into Hoplite, just watching her content,” Zombreyy tells us. “Just seeing the things that she goes through and all that kind of stuff in terms of how people treat her, and the way she handles things. I think she’s very admirable in the content space.”
Zombreyy’s advice for women looking to get into streaming: “One of my biggest pieces of advice would probably be to keep yourself safe, and to take it one day at a time in terms of making content. If you keep on pushing, keep on trying, then good things will come your way.”
If you’d like to stay up to date with Zombreyy’s content, they can be found on Twitch.
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