UPDATE: Curry has responded to the report on Twitter of her reasons for slowing down videos saying that "there was no 'onslaught' of patronizing comments!" She went on to explain that the sole reason she is shrinking her output is due to health reasons. "Most people on my channel are very nice," Curry went on to make clear.

The original report can be found below.

If ever there was a time to come together and be kind to each other, it's now. But it seems as though there are still people out there who just don't give a damn how they make others feel even in the midst of a global pandemic that continues to take the lives of the young and old. Skyrim fanatic and YouTube sensation Shirley Curry is one of the kindest and purest streamers around but lately, even she has succumbed to the parasites that plague the YouTube comment section and announces that she needs to take a break due to the upsetting and patronizing comments she has been dealing with and how it's seriously affecting her health.

Skyrim Grandma, aka Shirley Curry, had only celebrated her 84th birthday last month with her fans and looked to be in great spirits but now, we see quite a different side to Shirley and it breaks my heart. In a video posted at the start of this month, Shirley, as usual, greets her fans with a "Good Morning, Grandkids" but this time it lacks her normal cheery voice. Instead, Shirley speaks solemnly and states right off the bat that "it's not going to be a happy video". Curry continues to speak honestly about her frustrations over comments she has received criticizing her gaming ability and knowledge of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and because of this, her health has suffered causing an overload of stress.

“My blood pressure is going insane. My stress level is way too high. And I’m going to have to take control of it. Some of the comments are stressing me out way too much,” Curry continues “I know that I shouldn’t let these things stress me out, but they do. That’s just the way it is. From now on I will respond to very, very few comments. I will be deleting a lot of comments.”

The real crux of the matter of Shirley's frustration is that, even though she knows every inch of Skyrim and knows how to play it, she has people telling her she should be playing differently, or backseat gaming, while other comments tell her to go and play a different game as she's not playing it how they think she should. As any fan of the lovable grandma will know, Shirley enjoys making up her own stories as she travels the Skyrim world and roleplaying different characters and even though the vast majority of viewers truly love her style of playing, others will always think they know what's best for her.

“If you want to do those things go on and play your game, and let me play my game, and if you don’t like that go watch somebody else play their game. I don’t have to be reminded and told all the time which games to play"  she says. “I look at all the games, I’m a gamer, if I wanted to play them I would be playing them. I don’t have to explain myself”.

To try and help ease her stress brought on by these comments, Shirley has had to take the difficult decision to take a two-week break from YouTube and try to start a new streaming schedule which she hopes will be less traumatic than her previous daily uploads and tailored to help prevent previous assholes from having a voice.

Last year, Shirley finally had her dream come true when Bethesda invited her out to the studios where she got scanned using photogrammetry technology – which takes scans of real-life objects and translates them into high detail 3D – so that she can be added as an NPC into the series she loves so much. Initially worried that she may not be around long enough to enjoy The Elder Scrolls VI as by then she will be 88 years old, Shirley was still over the moon at being given the chance to be immortalized into the game. This opportunity came to pass due to the overwhelming outpour from the gaming community who set up a petition to add her to the game themselves with Reddit user and modder phantom-scribbler taking the lead.

I hope that Shirley can continue to do what she loves and that this break will help ease her stress levels so that we may see her smiley face and wholesome content back on our screens again. As easy as it is to tell others to ignore hateful comments, it's not so easy for many and can cause a great deal of stress and pain. The bottom line here is: always be kind.