Asmongold slams Twitch fans claiming he promotes gambling by streaming Lost Ark

Asmongold slammed Twitch fans, claiming he promotes gambling by streaming pay-to-win games like Lost Ark, arguing they shouldn’t look to entertainers to validate their views.

Lost Ark had one of the biggest MMO launches in recent history, smashing records left, right, and center. This boded well for Asmon too, who broke his channel’s viewership record not once but several times.

Even though it’s been an enjoyable ride for him and his fans, some are concerned about the morality of big streamers like him promoting gambling by streaming a game that is widely believed to have pay-to-win elements.

Asmon shut down those claims on stream, though, insisting viewers shouldn’t look to streamers to validate their morality and views.

The conversation kicked off after Asmon came across a thread filled with people slamming him for accepting in-game items from fans. However, he doesn’t think it’s as big of a deal as they’re making it out to be.

“There are a lot of people who are just like I’m going to give Asmon an item because it’s funny, and I’m going to send him a message,” he explained. “Nobody is really thinking about it. That’s the majority of it.”

• Read More: Asmongold explains why Lost Ark will stick around after hype

“There’s a lot of over-seriousness with this kind of stuff. I want to remind everybody this is an entertainment show. This is not a political campaign. This is not a philosophical class. This is just an entertainment show.”

However, things ramped up a notch when a fan left a donation message to raise their concerns about Asmon inadvertently promoting gambling by streaming Lost Ark — an issue that was being discussed in another thread.

Asmon was having none of it, though. “You shouldn’t respect Twitch streamers in the first place,” he said.

“Your respect is misplaced to begin with. You shouldn’t be looking to Twitch streamers for any sort of morality.”

He elaborated further: “You shouldn’t be looking for an online entertainer to validate your moral views on the world. If you want to complain about something, why don’t you complain to the government, so they make it illegal?

• Read More: Asmongold claims Lost Ark’s end-game is better than FFXIV’s

“The government is the only one who has any power over this. Influencers have no power over it despite their name. People will always play the games if they are available. It’s the same reason why people still play slots now.”

Asmon also pointed out the grim reality of the situation. He believes if all countries put their foot down on gambling in games, Lost Ark wouldn’t exist because there wouldn’t be enough players to rationalize its development.

However, since it does exist, he has no qualms about playing it and doesn’t feel like he owes fans a moral obligation not to play it because it has pay-to-win elements — which is something he’s acknowledged in the past.