YouTube and Twitch are destroying gaming

YouTube is rife with spoilers days before a game is even released to the public. Even if someone is not actively searching for spoilers, there is a good chance that he or she will be spoiled, at least slightly, by a thumbnail, or a title. I have had to unsubscribe from channels because they did not respect the sanctity of a spoiler-free mind.

Even if a game is 20 years old, you should never spoil a game without warning, because someone somewhere could discover and play that game and that pivotal moment could change his or her life for the better. There are games that are old, that I eventually want to play but can't get to, because of the limited time and money that I have. Just because a game is old doesn't give people the license to spoil it for everyone else. Think about something other than your views and subscriber-count for once.

YouTube and Twitch are also promoting spectating instead of participation. Why is videogaming the greatest form of entertainment there is? It's because it's an interactive medium. So why are so many people watching games now instead of playing them? It's conditioning. It's so easy to watch someone else play a game now, whether it's on YouTube or Twitch, that these spectators get fooled into thinking it's almost as good as the real thing - as actually playing the game themselves. How wrong they are.

Livestreaming is also destroying gaming by infusing capitalism into multiplayer gaming. Why do people pay subscription-fees to play with a certain person? It makes no sense. Remember when playing online multiplayer was free? Sure, you can still meet random players, join groups on forums, and whatever for free, but the fact that people will pay money to play with a person blows my mind and deeply offends me. It is essentially capitalism at its worst. It is kind of like gaming turned into prostitution, which is basically what capitalism is anyway.

Watching gaming on YouTube and Twitch is not necessarily a bad thing. What we need to do is watch with a purpose. If you're a content-creator or livestreamer, think of the viewer more.

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