This streamer's Twitch chat can actively ruin his game by activating a modded headset that temporarily blinds him or setting off an IRL jumpscare
Scrolling through TikTok I came across one IrateFrenchFry—the capitalisation is important, they don't rate french fries, though to be fair they're not a french fry either. They're a Twitch streamer of the same name with a degree in mechanical engineering. The reason I stopped on his channel was because I watched as he tried desperately to play Rainbow Six: Siege with a visor falling in front of his eyes, seemingly at random, and completely ruining his game.
It's not at random, though. It's controlled by their Twitch chat—his seemingly maniacal Twitch chat. Every time IrateFrenchFry is trying to be a good teammate on the objective or in a tense stand-off with enemy players, down comes a visor that blinds him.
If you're wondering how it works, here's what IrateFrenchFry told me:
«I programmed a microcontroller board that monitors my chat and looks for certain words. If it sees one of those words it activates whatever function I want.
»For example, one of my scripts monitors the chat for '!blind', if it reads that word then it activates a servo on my headset that lowers blinders."
The gaming headset is nothing special: just your run-of-the-mill Logitech G733, with the obvious exception of the servo powered gizmo on the right ear-cup.
«Mechanically the glasses work through a linear actuator that I 3D printed. The blinder (just glasses that I bought and painted) is attached to that linear actuator to allow them to raise and lower.»
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IrateFrenchFry limits how often the activation words can be said by having it so only his own account can say them in the chat. That means it's not just a dreadful free-for-all. Any more so than intended, anyways. You might be wondering if that means he's just having us on and they're pressing the button for the visor to drop, but no, it's still the Twitch chat, but they have to earn channel points the ol' fashioned way to activate it.
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