Dream, a YouTuber with over a million subscribers who is most known for his Minecraft videos, may have just taken the largest and most important step of his career on Sunday night.
He didn’t work with any famous people or endorse any products. Instead, he did what may seem like a simple gesture: he revealed his true identity to his massive fan base.
What made it so peculiar was that nobody had ever seen him before?
Dream had hitherto been unseen by the public save through his avatar, a white mask with a black happy face scribbled on it.
Since he posted his unmasking video, his name has been trending on Twitter, and the video already has more than 29 million views, so the reveal has made quite an impression.
The silence and awkwardness of the moment were striking. He was sitting in the bed in a small, pitch-black room.
Dream, who has become one of YouTube’s most popular content creators after spending hundreds of hours editing and publishing videos, seems slightly uneasy about being filmed.
As he told it, he wasn’t used to the way the video reflected the stream, so when he reached behind him to point at a sign in the backdrop, he pointed in the wrong direction.
Right now, he looked like any other kid. His followers, however, have been anticipating this news for years, so the reveal was a big deal for them.
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Who is Dream?
American YouTuber “Dream,” whose real name is Clay (last name unknown), is 23 years old and famous for his videos based on the survival sandbox game Minecraft.
Dream’s extensively edited films, in which he superimposes cartoonish sound effects and music over his gaming footage, have made him a viral sensation, setting him apart from traditional Twitch streamers who describe games as they are played.
He helped found the DreamSMP community of Minecraft video makers, where he and his peers engage in role-playing scenarios with overarching tales to create videos with a sense of serialization and drama.
In 2014, Dream started his own YouTube channel. Still, it wasn’t until about three years ago that he saw significant success after posting a video about his search for PewDiePie’s Minecraft seed.
His “manhunt” videos, in which his opponent is trying to murder his character. In contrast, he tries to complete the game as rapidly as possible, which is currently his most popular type of content.
In less than two years, Dream went from having one million subscribers on his main account to having over thirty million.
After being recognized as YouTube’s top newcomer in 2020, his popularity skyrocketed, and he eventually became the second most popular content producer on the entire platform.
In that same year, he also co-founded the DreamSMP, a community of creators that share a Discord server and has become something of a breeding ground for some of YouTube’s most promising newcomers because each member has amassed a sizable following.
These accomplished individuals get together and use Minecraft as a blank slate upon which to create whatever narratives and characters their hearts desire.
One of the largest and most productive fandoms of the late 2010s and early 2020s is based on Dream and the other members of DreamSMP.
DreamSMP isn’t simply a successful YouTube channel; it also draws from a complex web of fan activity that includes Tumblr memes, Discord server discussions, viral video edits, and fan-created artwork.
An imagined romance between Dream and fellow DreamSMP member GeorgeNotFound was the subject of 2021’s highest-rated fic on fanfiction archive Archive of Our Own.
Both Dream and the DreamSMP are frequently discussed in the online community.
Dream and his roommate Sapnap, who frequently appears in his videos, rank fifth and eighth, respectively, among the most talked-about producers on Twitter.
When Dream became a viral sensation, its author was hit with a barrage of criticism.
In 2020, he became embroiled in a cheating scandal that culminated in the publication of a 14-minute video and research report summarising a two-month inquiry into his speedruns by the team responsible for moderating Minecraft records.
Some people have accused Dream of cheating in speed runs because the study demonstrated the enormous improbability of some of the runs owing to the random elements of specific things in Minecraft.
Dream refuted the accusations at the time, and he still hasn’t admitted to any wrongdoing to this day.
Recently, in an interview with YouTuber Anthony Padilla, he addressed the backlash, saying, “I handled the issue terribly.
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I remember saying something like, “You people are stupid, blah blah blah,” when it first came out.
When asked how he thought he should have handled the situation, Dream said, “I should have shut off all my devices for a couple of days and been like, OK, let me not react with emotion.”
Dream still faces issues that are rooted in the larger fan community.
The majority of his supporters believe he hasn’t done enough to prevent online harassment by his fanbase in the past.
Why did Dream reveal his face?
According to Dream, he showed his face because he wanted to meet up with friends, like the streamer GeorgeNotFound, and get out into the world.
He can now do more work away from his desk in person, such as meetups with fans and other creators, now that they recognize him.
Dream said in his interview with Padilla that he was excited about the opportunities that would arise from finally revealing his face, such as working with Mr. Beast, a popular YouTuber, and filming TikTok videos.
What’s the big deal about Dream showing his face?
Dream’s appearance has been a mystery for years, as admirers have speculated endlessly.
That charisma, coupled with his massive following, fueled a sort of self-supporting hype machine of voracious fans who wanted a big reveal.
Can you picture this? The breakout star of a generation is the second most popular creative on a major platform and a huge source of entertainment.
The only thing keeping him from being one of the most famous people ever is the fact that his followers have never seen his face.
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But now, finally, all those admirers can stop wondering. The creator also fully capitalized on the reveal of the character’s face.
Prior to revealing his face to the general public, he built up to the reveal by showing his face on the video to major creators first, after which people posted reaction videos.
In addition to other well-known DreamSMP members like TommyInnit, major influencers like Addison Rae posted videos reacting to the face reveal.
Both the previous mystery and the media circus stirred up a tonne of hype.
TikTok was flooded with ecstatic fans who indicated how “proud” they were of Dream’s face reveal, and also individuals who just wanted to get in on the fun for seemingly no reason.
On the flip side, some individuals on Twitter started a hashtag to poke fun at the developer for his appearance.
Why did Dream hide his face?
In the interview he gave to YouTuber Anthony Padilla, Dream said that he actually didn’t aim to be an anonymous YouTuber at the start.
He had begun by drawing a simple avatar inspired by a matched Discord graphic his ex-girlfriend had made. But once he began uploading video content, his channel quickly gained traction.
This phenomenon spread rapidly and eventually became mainstream in fan culture. His words ring true: “It wasn’t a deliberate action; it all happened so fast.
In his interview with Padilla, Dream presented the choice as somewhat fortuitous, but in his unmasking video, he offered a different explanation.
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Although he has achieved a degree of fame comparable to that of a celebrity, he explained the disguise as a method for others to recognize themselves in him.
In effect, the mask turned him into a receptacle into which anyone might cast an aspect of themselves. Anybody can do it, and this channel is proof positive of that.
The person behind the mask might be anyone, and I don’t want my identity to be revealed, he explained.
Why? Because it’s true, and it’s possible. Furthermore, if you want to, you can. “Dream could have been anyone from any place.”
Source: Polygon
