 So I'm gonna start today by talking about a topic that is near and dear to my heart and I've always felt that as someone who has a platform who has an audience as small as my audience may be that I owe it to my audience and I owe it to my followers to make a difference and We can't always do it monetarily wise right like I would love to donate all the money in the world to help Everyone who needs it, but I have to take care of my family first and foremost So and I understand that from your guys's perspective if you can't donate if you can't do this to help me out and help other people out I get it. There's other ways to help besides money and today. I want to talk about Toxicity in the video game community and no as Nintendo fans. We're not immune to this now I'm going to admit this topic was slightly inspired by a new video by Richard review tech USA So if you don't like rich and you don't like review tech USA, you might not like what I have to say here He did a visit video called ageism and other stereotypes on YouTube drive me nuts, but here's the thing He was just talking in a general sense about how people dismiss opinions because of how old you are people create stereotypes around you Based on your age based on your looks based on whatever and for the large part I agree I get that here sometimes there are people that dismiss what I have to say because I am fat I'm obese, you know, you might not think I look obese, but technically I'm obese. I'm five five and I weigh over 200 pounds That's obese There's obviously worse levels, but that that's just the way it is for me right now So the people make fun of there's people that say I sound like a 17 year old or a 15 year old But I'm a 31 year old and they say it's not just the tone of my voice which I understand My voice has largely stayed exactly the same sounding since I was a teenager to today Helps that I I'm one of those kids that had puberty way too early Long before I was even 10 years old. So it you know, it is what it is my voice didn't change as I got older, but Some people just say Sometimes I sound whiny sometimes I sound ranty sometimes I sound this sometimes I sound that and a lot of that I think is just because of how my voice sounds right People who think I'm a kid and hear this like whiny rant kind of sounding nasally voice They start to think that that I'm just this person that has no logic and has no reasoning and obviously any of you guys out There that actually listen closely to what I have to say Know that there's things like when I get accused of hating on NBA 2k 80. Oh, he hates NBA 2k 80 That's not what I said at all, but you have to Listen closely to what I'm saying to get that people who think I hate switch need to listen closely to what I'm saying People who think I hate 3ds, you know, listen closely to what I'm saying But they don't because they hear this nasally whiny thing They think I'm some kid and they just quickly dismiss me and it's really weird to be dismissed because people think you're younger than you are And then when they find out you're older Then get dismissed again because they find her. Oh man, you're over 30. You obviously can't connect with me I'm a teenager or I'm in my 20s, you know You you can't possibly understand as if my 20s were so long ago and is and is and as if I don't vividly remember my entire Teenage years at this point in my life And I have kids of my own so I even understand kids that are under 10 these days, but Yeah, it's it's a very interesting thing that he talks about how Stereotypes and ageism and how people dismiss you, but I think there's a greater issue Out there and this affects more than just gaming, but we're gonna keep it to gaming because we're a video game channel So we're gonna specifically stick to that and there's a lot of toxicity in the gaming community That I just don't think really belongs and I understand why some of it exists people who like to troll people who? Don't Whenever they hear an opinion that's opposing to theirs. They feel like they're being attacked Which is really interesting because I've never you know I'm not gonna say it's never happened to me in general I've always been our person that if someone has a different opinion than me Yeah, I don't feel like I'm being attacked for what I think But sometimes it is like how it comes across You know you see in our comment section at times too like when someone No, we have a particular commenter who likes to always trash on the Xbox brand all the time this generation and When anyone opposes him or presents Valid arguments in the opposite direction if he almost feels like he gets offended that they think that way and I'm sure he doesn't I'm a personal level. I'm sure he's fine But this is the kind of thing where people just when they hear opinions that are in opposition to their own and they can't fathom How someone could think that way they just feel like they're being personally attacked because opinions are very personal I know we don't always act like opinions are personal, but they are Opinions are based on our own thoughts and our own experiences So as an example if you have negative opinions of iPhones and Apple products Someone who has positive experience with it you two are not going to mesh well together Because you are ingrained in your thought process of how bad Apple products are and they are ingrained in the thought process of how great Apple products are neither side can see the other side of the coin and I feel like that's something I pride myself with this channel Is I try to see both sides right like as I'm critical of NBA 2k 18 I also praised it for other aspects because there are things I feel like it does well And there are people who like the frame rate is not going to bother and I recognize that and I said that For some people they can't even see the difference between 30 FPS and 60 FPS and that's fine. I recognize that's a thing In fact, I used to be that way when I was younger It took a lot of years before I started really noticing the difference between higher frame rates and 30 FPS But honestly that's on the lighter side of things The community of gaming is very toxic. It's not just Specific to any platform PC Xbox PlayStation 4 Nintendo None of none of that matters the toxicity exists everywhere and for anyone who wants to try to argue otherwise They have just been very insulated. I am guessing Having been part of the Nintendo community for God 20 plus years at least I mean I've been gaming on Nintendo systems for 30 years But you know if you talk about the online communities Have been involved in them since at least the founding of Zella domain back in 1998 I've seen a lot of toxic comments about any opinions that disagree with people and It's it sucks Toxicity sucks and I've seen it on the Xbox side. I've seen it on the Sony side. I've seen it as a PC gamer It's Ultimately, I think what's the greatest plague in the gaming community is the toxicity that can surround video games Can surround our human nature to always want to be right and I feel like That's really the biggest issue with toxicity is that we always want to be right or Conversely if we don't feel very good about ourselves say I have a lot of self-doubt. I am not very happy with myself it makes me happy to put other people down and That that's you know a lot of people always look at bullying and they think of the victims right the people who are being bullied I was bullied heavily growing up But no one ever thinks about what is going on with the person who's doing the bullying because oftentimes They are bullying to make themselves feel better about themselves. They are There's something fundamentally going on with the person doing the bullying that everyone's ignoring Because they feel so bad for the person who's being bullied and I've learned this as I've grown up right that bullies And and people who who be mean to entertain themselves. There's often something else going on in their life Sometimes they don't even sometimes they're not even aware of it It's a subconscious thing that makes them feel like they need to do this to feel good about themselves And it's even true with trolling right. I used to troll a ton. I was a huge troll and some of it's obviously I'm Meant in in good humor, right? I'm not doing it to get a reaction I'm just doing it to be playful to be fun But why is that fun to me? Why am I not just happy with the life I have? Why do I feel like I need to make other people I need to trick other people or make other people feel bad To make myself feel good. I it's a weird psychological thing and there's a lot of research on this And while the internet, you know, you could say it's just the way the internet you got to have a tough skin This is just the way it is. I think all the internet did was Show that this is how people really feel and this is how people really act and it's just bringing us together and I realized that obviously being able to Comment under the gaze of you know being anonymous helps a lot as well, but it's It's still like these thoughts are still going through people's mind Like they still have the desire to do it even if they don't want to attach their name to it because they know it's wrong so I I think toxicity is something that It's never going to go away. There's always going to be sexism racism Negative remarks and people are always going to call me fat and even if I wasn't fat but let's say that I was just as skinny as I was back in high school was rocking the six pack and I was what people might consider good-looking They'll find other ways to dismiss me either because of my age or they don't like my glasses or like my haircut Or they just don't like that. I'm white. That'll that'll become a thing suddenly. It's There's all these pseudo reasons that people will come up with to dismiss what you have to say Just because they can't come up with any logical arguments against you and you see this a lot of time in politics You see it in You know any serious conversation about anything Outside of gaming you'll notice that some people instead of trying to refute your points and come up with logical counter arguments and facts and Research they'll just find the easiest common denominator to try to discredit you in a way as if me being fat and me being 31 suddenly discredits my gaming opinion as if me having 20 years experience covering video games as a press member as a member of the media and me having a 30 plus years of gaming suddenly is completely irrelevant when talking about video games As if the most relevant thing we're talking about video games is my age and my weight Or even how skillful I am that's been a big man It's coming lately There was that media member who posted up a clip of them playing Cuphead and they really struggled to get past the tutorial And it started this whole debate about you know members of the media not being good at video games And how can they review video games? How can we trust them if they can't even? Understand the basic concepts of playing a game like Cuphead and how can we trust them if they're not good at the game? And it's like man Is that really what we're devolving into that that we're judging people based on how you know Their ability to cover video games their ability to review video games and if they're actually good at video games I'm not good at every game. I play you guys have seen this You're probably seeing it right now in whatever game I chose to to mirror with this that I'm not good at every game I get better with games as I play them more and I'm sure I would struggle with Cuphead 2 right away And then I would get better and better and better the more I play it I probably went to struggle with a tutorial. There was some pretty basic gaming concepts in there that That that person was struggling with and I've seen this in person when I went to E3 a couple years ago There were people struggling with some of the basic concepts in Breath of the Wild that I definitely wasn't struggling with but I Didn't judge them as bad people because of it or you shouldn't be in this industry because of it It's just I don't know their background. Maybe that's not the kind of game. They usually play right? Maybe they're maybe they're a puzzle gamer, you know, if they're a person who plays a lot of puzzle games that's normally what they review and For other reasons like they didn't have enough people on hand or whatever They had to go and cover Cuphead while they're gonna be completely out of their their norm Right, and they're probably not the person that would be reviewing Cuphead in the first place. So I Feel like when we have a lack of information we just cling on to Common things that make us feel better about ourselves People have been wanting to attack gaming media and people want to attack youtubers Then they're always looking for excuses and sometimes we give them some pretty good excuses PewDiePie Lately has given a lot of ammo to people who want to tear it on youtubers and that sucks when that happens, but We have to take a step back from all of this and realize that being toxic being mean to people is Not the proper way to approach anything in life Let alone when we're talking about something as simple as an entertainment medium that we call video games some of us It's a passion some of it's a hobby, but regardless video games are a form of entertainment And we need to stop being so toxic to each other over varying opinions I understand there are plenty of you out there that are going to hate NBA 2k 18 There's plenty of you that are gonna love NBA 2k 18 There's plenty of you that hate the switch. There's plenty of you that love the switchers plenty of hate Xbox and love Xbox I hate PlayStation 4 love PlayStation 4 think PC gaming is dumb love PC gaming and that's all fine I'm not saying we all have to sit around a campfire singing kumbaya holding hands and roasting marshmallows and having some s'mores together because We all get along And we all have know the same taste the thing is we're all humans, right? We're all different and because we're different and because we have different, you know Things in our brains and different experiences and different aspects of video games that we like We need to just become more accepting of people that like things that we don't or have opinions of things that we disagree with I don't expect everyone to agree with all the opinions I throw out on this channel and I throw out opinions every day I don't expect people to agree with them if they do great if they don't that's cool I I'd like having conversations I'd like when people disagree with me because it opens my mind up to the other side But see I learned years ago probably a good five or six years ago that it is better to be open-minded About the other side of things then instantly close it off because you Vietnamese disagree I think Mario plus Rabbids Kingdom metal is one of the best if not currently the best switch exclusive game out there There are going to be people that disagree with me on that front and instead of just shutting them off Oh, you're wrong because I don't agree with you. It's gonna be one of those Well, let me hear your counter arguments. What what are the game? Do you think is better or why do you think Mario plus Kingdom? Rabbids Kingdom metal isn't good. I want to hear those arguments I want to hear the other side of the coin because I feel like it enlightens me. It it it makes me more Intelligent on the topic that I'm talking about because oftentimes when we close ourselves off to our own thoughts and our own opinions It doesn't enable us to grow as a person and I feel like when it comes to toxicity in gaming And I'm sure you guys know what I'm talking about. There's hundreds of millions of examples many of you have probably gone through it It sucks and it really sucks because I turn to video gaming as a form of escape from my life and my life wasn't that difficult I'm not saying I had crappy parents. I'm not saying I have a crappy childhood But you know when you're a kid and you're a teenager and you think everything's against you video games are my way to escape and it's it's weird to see a medium that I turn to to Help pick me up off the ground to help me get through things in life As I've gotten older time to turn into this medium where everyone's just looking to tear down somebody else for thinking differently than they do And that just bugs me so bad when it comes to video games But yeah, you guys let me know what you think about toxicity in the gaming community And there probably isn't much we can do about it, but I'm still really interested in your guys's thoughts on this topic Anyways, I am the tender of a chance from the tender prime if you like this video You know what to do and if you dislike this video hit that dislike button Subscribe for more and I'll catch you in the next one