My nephew watches this shit, and on the one hand - he derives a lot of his enthusiasm from it - he was telling me how the tactical shotgun has changed in season 2, who the best players are, what he likes to do in the game, which is all actually kind of adorable - he's just geeking out on the game, but I've seen him watching some of the morons who stream (I couldn't give you names either, and that's because I can't bring myself to care about who they are)... He definitely absorbs and conforms to a lot of the standard behaviour that you see on streams or when he's actually playing himself. In some respects it's probably not all that different from the teabagging and griefing - the meltdowns that have always happened in games - in arena shooters or Team Fortress or whatever - but I do wonder if the mass rollout of voice chat and streaming has commodified and normalised some of the toxic behaviour you get in competitive shooters. He's has to be told quite sternly what is ok and what is not ok.
My sister is quite good at yanking him off his Xbox if he gets out of line or has disappeared in to the game for too long but I've seen him have a tantrum myself and it's absolutely stupid... He knows it's stupid as well. When he calms down he realises he shouldn't have gotten so upset. That's the one encouraging thing. I read Ninja's "weak mindset" comment the other day and it doesn't even hold up for me in the sense of being an aspirational or inspirational sort of comment. Thinks he's a fuckin' Olympian and a philosopher because he plays videogames for an audience of tweens. I'm used to seeing the words Never Settle on clothing and on the Instagram stories of people trying to cheer themselves up after a breakup or something..
While seeking the best for yourself is an admirable sentiment, advocating temper tantrums is a ridiculous position to take and counter to the philosophy of sportsmanship. People do want to win, aggressively so - but the best players also shake hands, congratulate winners and be magnanimous in victory, commiserate losing sides - and admit someone had a great game - through gritted teeth if they have to - because that's what it means to be a decent person - it IS just a game.
On the flip side - when my nephew is having a good game and is patting himself on the back for being "sick", it can be kind of funny to listen to. We burst out laughing the other week because he said, unironically, while playing: "I am a God".
He's a smart kid, he realised what he'd said was boastful / lacking in humility and laughed along too. Which is good.. Confidence is one thing but God help any kids who go to secondary school saying shit like that.
I feel sorry for parents having to navigate this shit. Yes the responsibility for teaching right and wrong is on them, as is the responsibility to not let them disappear for hours on end - to be part-time parented by streams and videogames - but the climate today is one in which thats exactly what kids want, and what their friends are doing.
I'm expecting my first child in June, and I'm both looking forward to fatherhood and the joy of it all, the innocence of childhood, being able to give and provide and share vicariously in all the fun that kids naturally have - but I'm also already dreading the influence of absolute nob ends on the internet. I might join some kind of cord cutting tribe or something.
