First Draft
Gaming on YouTube is Changing-But Why does it Matter?
Becoming a gaming YouTuber has always been seen as a difficult thing to do. There’s lots of time commitment that goes into it, as well as having to capture an audience and keep it. So, one can imagine that almost all gaming YouTubers have faced these difficulties. However, there are other difficulties that have surfaced within the past few years. Things like demonetization and a constantly changing appeal has brought many YouTubers to their demise. The problem with this is that these obstacles are not known by the general public, causing a lack of change for the better in the world of YouTube gaming.
Literature Review
Gaming on YouTube has become a very integral part of today’s culture. It has become many influencers’ main and only source of income as they have been able to become extremely successful. When discussing this topic of conversation, there are 3 main groups that come into play. These include the general media, the content creators themselves, and the fans who watch the videos produced by the now called “YouTubers”. When considering the plain facts about the profession, including the creators’ income and fame, is when the general media comes in. They enjoy talking about topics such as the “Top Gaming YouTube channels”, “The highest paid YouTube stars”, and how “e-sport pro video gamers are making millions before 30 and retiring”. A lot of the time, these pro video gamers also have a gaming YouTube channel, such as members of the FaZe and Optic clans. These YouTube channels bring in even more money on top of their winnings from e-sports competitions. The point is, these media companies are mainly focused on the riches and fame that these gaming content creators are bringing for themselves. The media does not consider the amount of work it takes in order to be successful, or the difficulty of abiding to YouTube’s strict guidelines as a platform in order to make money from a video. However, the people making the videos and their fans seem to be much more aware of this aspect. The youtubers are beginning to become stressed out and upset about the amount of restrictions that YouTube has placed on their videos. They won’t want to continue making videos if they’re not going to get paid for it, especially if they believe there’s no reason their videos are getting demonetized. The fans are in a similar boat; they don’t want to see their favorite content creators quit because of YouTube’s guidelines. They also feel that YouTube is being unfair in their practices, and they will support their content creators on almost every subject when concerning this topic. They are fans for a reason so they will be on the same side as the youtubers.
The real issue that surfaces from this conversation is how there is a disparity between the media and the content creators. The media is not shedding any light on the struggles gaming youtubers are facing with demonetization and the amount of work they are having to put in; they are only talking about the success brought out of the struggle, the amount of subscribers, money, and attention they are receiving from their work. They are not putting any pressure on YouTube as a company to make any changes to their guidelines to make them more accepting of content published to their site. Even though content creators and their fanbases seem to backlash ever so increasingly, the general public may not be as aware of the problem as the people involved; this is caused by the lack of pressure YouTube is receiving from the media, allowing this platform to get away with this problem. This lack of pressure is also causing a silence from YouTube; they don’t feel the need to have to change what they’re doing, so they are not going to try and alleviate the problem. There has been plenty of complaining from the users of YouTube, but since the general public is not aware of the problem there is nothing YouTube feels they need to change in order to continue being successful.
The Media
The general media has always been the go-to place to get information about a specific topic for the general public. This causes media companies to have an immense amount of influential power to present information and influence public opinion concerning certain ideas. At the same time, they have the option over what they want to present to the people. How does this pertain to gaming on YouTube? It’s simple: money. Different sources I have found including CNBC, Forbes, and Mediakix show that the general media has only shed light on one aspect of YouTube gaming, money. For example, Forbes wrote an article about the top 10 highest paid YouTubers. While this article did not just include gamers, a large part of the story was about Markiplier, an extremely famous gamer on YouTube. They went on to explain his success story, including where he started out, and how much he is currently making (17.5 million per year). This kind of reporting glorifies YouTube gaming as an easy way to make a lot of money fast. The problem with this kind of report is it fails to mention just how hard it is to maintain an audience and continue to be paid for the videos a content creator makes. It takes a very long time as well as dedication and hard work to get to where Markiplier is at, which Forbes does not consider in its article.
Another example of this kind of this type of media comes from CNBC, who focuses on the world of esports and how many gamers “are making millions by 30 and retiring.” Similar to Forbes, CNBC sheds light on how much money professional gaming can make someone. The problem is that they don’t talk about how if this is being put on YouTube, the gamers may not make the money they deserve from the video. Many competitive games on the market contain very violent and mature content. This kind of content is not monetized by YouTube, not allowing the gamers to make money from the video they upload. This problem has gotten increasingly more difficult to deal with as more and more content is censored and demonetized, which causes gamers to become discouraged and eventually quit gaming altogether. The media could talk about this if they wanted to, but instead they choose to talk about things like money and success, because that is what’s going to make money for themselves. Therefore, YouTube is not taking any heat because the general public is unaware of this, which is quite upsetting for almost any gamer that is trying to produce content.
The Content Creators (Gamers)
When comparing the discourse between the content creators and the general media, I’ve noticed that it’s quite opposite. While the media likes to put their success on the spotlight, the gamers have no interest in doing so. In fact, many are very humble when it comes to their success. What the gamers do talk about much more than the media, however, are the challenges they face as gamers on YouTube, as well as what it takes to be a gaming youtuber. For example, creators such as JackSepticEye have talked about how gaming on YouTube has changed, and how it is much more difficult for him and many others to put out the same content as they have in the past, as well as get paid for it. He includes how difficult it has been for him to continue to produce the same amount of content he has in the past. He also talks about the hardships of demonetization; he says how many content creators have had to stick to just one type of game that is allowed on YouTube and go with that, instead of being able to play a plethora of different games. This problem would be solved if YouTube would allow monetization of all types of games, regardless of what is in it because in the end, it is just a video game. However, YouTube sees no need to do this, as they don’t have any backlash from the media since they only talk about these gamers’ success.
Additionally, other creators such as PewDiePie and Kevin David talk more about what someone needs to do if they want to start a gaming channel. They say what equipment, skill set, and personality is needed to build a successful channel on YouTube. However, PewDiePie had a different opinion in what it takes to be successful on YouTube; he spoke more about how one needs to be different in order to stand out. Kevin David, however, said the exact opposite. He said that one should stick to what works and almost copy what’s already out there. Either way, it is not nearly as easy to make it as a YouTube gamer because it takes so much time, commitment, and energy to really make it. The lack of information on this topic from the media portrays an inaccurate view of what it’s like to be a YouTube gamer, since they seemingly idolize it as a money pool anyone can get into.
The Fanbase
The fanbase is what makes the platform of YouTube work. If there weren’t any fans in support of creators, there wouldn’t be any reason to make content. That being said, the fans can’t completely control what becomes popular and what doesn’t, as YouTube’s algorithm pushes certain content and pulls others. However, the fans can give their two cents on the conversation on gaming on YouTube, how it’s changing, or what’s wrong with it. At the same time, there seems to be a split between the fans; some look just at the numbers and how well a YouTube channel is doing, similar to the press. One example of this is from JackSepticEye when he spoke about the drop in views he had. The said the reason for this was because he had went from making 2 videos a day to just one. Some of his fans, according to JackSepticEye, saw this cut in views and simply said he was no good anymore and they unsubscribed. This is sad because he loses their support, and it sheds a false reality of his channel. This is similar to the media in that they only look at the numbers and level of success for certain YouTubers, ignoring the reality of the situation the gamers are in. This leads to a lack of action from YouTube since there is no pressure from the media.
On the other hand, The rest of them sympathize with the gamers themselves, knowing the hardships they deal with daily. One example comes from a fan named Rafael Rego Drumond. He says “I want to watch videos where the YouTuber is actually having fun. Please take care of yourself first! Mental health comes first!” What this tells us is fans like him care about the people they watch; they don’t want them working as hard as they can to get the top weekly numbers, they only want to see the gamers having fun and being healthy about it. What this quote shows is that the Youtuber mentioned in the quote is not being healthy about his profession since he is having to deal with the hardships of being a YouTuber, which is not at all mentioned by general media, causing a lack of action from YouTube themselves. Another more direct comment about this issue is from a fan called TheWatchingEye, who says “Gaming isn’t dying. Demonetization is killing it. And people being able to claim your content. Combined with Youtube’s horrible system for content creators to fix it.” This quote shows the anger from the fanbase about the actions YouTube has taken on the platform to demonetize different videos, which is one of many difficulties the gamers have to face when creating videos. Since the media has not brought up demonetization or the other problems that gamers face on YouTube, there doesn’t seem to be any change on the platform in the future.
What’s Next?
Since the media has not yet put forward the many challenges faced by content creators, there has been no change from YouTube; it has almost seemed to get worse. Different problems like demonetization and figuring out what is popular for fans are widely unknown by people outside the gaming community. This needs to change. People need to make media aware of the problems as well as YouTube themselves so they can do something about it. It might be hard to get YouTube to change anything if it’s just the people within the community talking about it; that is why the media needs to become a useful tool to make YouTube aware of these issues in order to fix it. The media, gamers, and fans might be on slightly different pages through discourse on this topic, but in order to solve this problem, everyone needs to be on the same page.
Reverse Outline
Intro: Gaming youtubers deal with struggles that go along with making videos, but these struggles are not widely known, causing a lack of change
Discourse analysis: The media, gamers, and fans all have something different to say about youtube gaming, but there is a disparity between the media and the rest that causes an issue with the topic
Media: The media does not explain hardships such as demonetization and other struggles, which causes a lack of action from YouTube
Gamers: The gamers explain the struggles they have to deal with, as well as how hard it is to maintain a status as a youtuber
Fans: The fans are either ignorant like the media which causes the problem, or are on the side of the gamers who understand the problems
Conclusion: The public needs to be informed of the disparity so that they and the media can put pressure on YouTube to fix the existing problems
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