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Despite the fact that video gaming is the largest entertainment industry in the world today, a significant portion of mainstream culture still looks down on gaming and gamers.
Despite the fact that video gaming is the largest entertainment industry in the world today, a significant portion of mainstream culture still looks down on gaming and gamers. This is clearly evident in the way that gaming is portrayed in film and television, where it is often mocked and vilified.
Well, the latest pop culture personality to take some shots at gaming culture is Jimmy Kimmel. Specifically, the late night talk show host has taken aim at the recent YouTube Gamingchannel, which launched a few days ago with the aim of providing a Twitch-like streaming serviceon YouTube.
In the video, Kimmel suggests that the channel should be named the “We Should All Be Very Ashamed of Ourselves for Failing as Parents Channel”, and then goes on to explain that he doesn’t understand the appeal of watching someone else play a video game.
“To me, watching another person play video games is like going to a restaurant and have someone eat your food for you. If you like them, play them.”
Kimmel then admits that perhaps his issue with the idea is that he’s just getting old. “When I was a kid, you only watched other kids play video games when you ran out of quarters, and then you’d stand there.”
Before going on to a skit about YouTube Gaming, Kimmel was sure to bring up PewDiePie, who is easily the most popular video game personality on all of YouTube, and pointed that out PewDewPie makes $4 million a year having other people watch him play video games (actually, PewDiePie made upwards of $7.45 millionlast year). “That is precisely how much you would have to pay me to sit through one of those videos,” Kimmel added.
Quite a significant amount of people have taken offense to Kimmel’s tone about one of their favorite hobbies. As of the time of this writing, the clip has a whopping 31,301 dislikes, with only 2,910 likes. Overall, the response to Kimmel’s jokes have been overwhelmingly negative.
That being said, while many gamers staunchly disagree with Kimmel’s opinion on the matter, YouTube Gaming is still an imperfect service, with most of the criticism stemming from its Content ID policy. Unlike Twitch, the copyright policies for YouTube Gaming are a significant hurdle and headache for many, as it allows live streams to be taken off the air at a moment’s notice, as opposed to simply removing archived videos that may have a copyright claim against them.
In any case, it’s clear that a large portion of our society still does not understand gaming culture. However, as gaming becomes more and more popular, expect these antiquated ideals to fall the wayside, as our industry will continue to gain respect from the mainstream. In fact, Jimmy Kimmel’s fellow late night talk show host Conan O’Brien has gained considerable popularity from gamers thanks to his humorous Clueless Gamervideos, which is definitely a step in the right direction.
Do you agree or disagree with Jimmy Kimmel? Do you find it fun watching other people play video games on YouTube or Twitch? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Jimmy Kimmel Live