The concept of watching games is nothing new, as anyone who grew up as the younger sibling of a gamer can tell you. The game also underlines another new normal - how video games have become intertwined with video streaming over the past decade, with YouTube and Twitch growing so popular among gamers that they now exert influence over the entire industry.
To those not native to social networks, this might seem like an unnervingly postmodern, even dystopian subject for a game - aren’t the tales of influencer burnout harrowing enough without being turned into a cutesy video game? But this is the world we live in: a 2019 survey showed that more than half of the 2,000 Gen Z and millennials surveyed want to be influencers. It’s my first time streaming a video of myself playing games online but luckily I’m not pitting myself against the big stars of YouTube and Twitch this time - no, this is NewTube, the fictional streaming platform in Youtubers Life 2, a new simulation game where you play a video content creator who climbs the online rankings to become the most famous influencer in town. I’ve set up my gaming corner with a comfy chair and the camera positioned just right.
