I'm not a big fan of MatPat, not even much of a fan for a lot of Youtubers/Twitch content-wise, whether or not I feel like they don't represent what I enjoy anymore or because I can't stand for the things they do, but I think this is an interesting video (Hell, it's not even a theory video) discussing how the lacking effort of good PR and perception buries a lot of good that digital content creators do, specifically Youtubers and Streamers, underneath the bad press of the relative few. It also extensively covers a lot of the direct influence content creators have had in just the last year via charity drives.
On ERA there's a lot of talk about the toxic gaming culture among a lot of streamers and creators, in fact recently there was a thread by @ASaiyan about the accountability of Youtubers, but it's interesting to note the flip-side of that coin and talk about the good that content creators in gaming or otherwise have been doing. It's a discussion where there are obvious reasons why the bad press is happening, because there are very much a lot of problems with content creator culture and especially in gaming (MatPat admits the term "Youtuber" and "Youtube Gamer" is becoming PR Poison), but the main situation is that it affects all the good creators can do on their platform, and entirely unrelated creators and channels have to suffer for it.
Highlight Points:
- Google categorizes channels like The Game Theorist (11 million subs) at mid-tier and have entirely different divisions that provide a separate contact team for "Gaming-Tier" creators and one that provides for the "Top-Tier" content creators, despite numbers on paper for gaming dwarfing several "top-tier" genres.
- Jackscepticeye and Markiplier raised +$2 million combined in donations in 2018 (Markiplier's 500k Donation Drive in February is separately mentioned).
- $12 million of the +$20 million donated to charity through content creators in 2018 (as researched by MatPat through hundreds of submissions) were from Video Game Donation Streams, a fair amount of that money coming from hundreds of smaller channel streams.
- Influencers granted more than 400 Make-A-Wish Foundation requests.
- Ad pulls and over-correction towards digital creators and digital entertainers that are not even close to the current child predator debacles on Youtube is (in his opinion) a double standard due to how those same advertisers and media have no qualms of propping up Hollywood peeps like Johnny Depp (highly publicized allegations on domestic abuse) or Bryan Singer, director for the Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody (allegations of sexual abuse towards minors).
Worth noting, there is also a segment on Pewdiepie and his own charity efforts over the years, which also mentions the recent $250k he raised for Indian Childs Rights in response to his own sect toxic and racist fans. Whether or not you have discontent or hatred for Pewdiepie for the things he's done or what content he puts out (personally not a fan in any sense of him), objectively you can commend his charity efforts. In the case of the examples in this video there, giving is giving, and that's still good. For what it's worth.
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