What YouTube Gaming really means (Opinion)

by Makayla Secrist staff writer

For a little over a year now, YouTube has been my primary source of entertainment. What am I watching? People play video games.

Many would call this a huge waste of my time. “Why are you watching someone play a game when you could be playing yourself?” While it certainly can be distracting when I should be doing other things like chores, the same argument can be made about athletic sports. Why watch when you could play?

Well I do play video games. I play them a lot actually, but the gaming videos or “Let’s Plays” make me part of a community. I get connected with people who enjoy the same games or personality of the person playing the game. This gaming community on YouTube can be just a intricate and exciting as any sporting event for fans.

There’s a game for nearly anyone and many of those same games can end up in some major tournaments. You have esports that are the virtual versions of live athletic sports, platforming games like Mario, role playing games (RPGs) full of epic stories and narratives like The Legend of Zelda, hack and slash that focus more on destroying enemies than plot like Doom, first person shooters like Halo, and many many more. If you can think of something you want, chances are there’s a game somewhere for it.

Then you have the YouTube “Influencers” with their own set of fans and community playing a variety of these games. And like any sport star, they can rally their fans to do amazing things.

One of my personal favorites is Jacksepticeye. An extremely loud, Irish gamer that does quite a bit of charity work over his career. He once had a charity livestream where he and his fans raised over $200,000 in less than FOUR HOURS for the Austrailian bushfires. Gamers are powerful!

YouTube Gaming is a community. It can be a force for good or like anything else, it can be toxic. If you find yourself in a place that is subpar, if you keep looking just a little longer, you’ll find a community just for you. You can be a part of something huge. Something amazing. YouTube Gaming is so much more than video games.