Do people still read gaming blogs? Just some hot takes for today - What I think of gaming influencers in 2025
I tweeted this out earlier and I think it's worthy of publishing ---
The other day, I was looking for new podcasts to listen to... Very tiring to hear Xbox influencers trying to defend Xbox's multiplatform stance. So I tried out Sacred Symbols and Kinda Funny podcast. Here's what I thought.
Sacred Symbols - Colin started by talking about some personal stuff for a good hour, just fast forwarded through that shit. I mean, ok I get it, the core audience might be ok with that, but as a new listener it was weird to listen to him talk about, essentially, himself
Kinda Funny podcast - They were talking about the Capcom showcase this week and how it was 'unnecessary' and I was like --- huh.... what is up with these guys. Do they know that some players actually appreciate an update direct from the developer like that? They then spent the next few minutes laughing about some, what sounded like some equipment failure on their set or something, It was funny to them, but absolutely a waste of time for me. Last, I listened to Maximilian, Justin Wong and Matt McMuscles's Triple KO podcast. Now this show was actually worth listening to. Because they were talking about the content and the genre and not talking about themselves or their egos. Which was good. Come to think of it, it almost feels like you can classify these influencers into several tiers. I will attempt to do it in the next possible tweets. 1) Gaming influencers who are doing it to get free shit from companies and to get access to big parties- These are majority of the Xbox podcasts now, and Gamertag radio You can actually tell if an influencer or show is part of this genre of gamer. For one, they only talk about "the latest hot thing" or what their favorite executive is doing. You never hear them do something as involved as grinding on Path of Exile or Monster Hunter or playing something challenging like Street Fighter or Dark Souls
In the past, category 1 of gaming influencer was into stoking console wars, but since those are 'over' now, right now they're more into explaining how you're wrong when you disagree with a corporation and how everyone else is ok with what the big money companies are doing. Kinda Funny falls into this category 1 of podcast too. Clearly, they're in it for the parties and the socializing, and the 'career advancement'. Not into it for the actual activity of playing video games.
2) Shows that are a platform to themselves, "worship me, I am a God" - I think Sacred Symbols falls into this one 3) Gaming influencers that are actually political influencers and not really focused on actual gaming - Sidescrollers and Smash JT fall into this one. Ok talking about category 3 of influencer - I do think the culture war is still going in the USA, which is why creating this kind of content is quite profitable. No matter which side of the fence you sit on. I do wonder about the sincerity of folks who talk with this context. I mean, I play games to unwind and have fun, not exactly to actually change the world or something. So dragging politics into gaming is just divisive, and generally not a good thing. I agree there is too much liberal/blue stuff in gaming, LGBTQ stuff, etc. but I don't need to hear about it constantly. That must be exhausting to listen to all day. 4) Actual video game players talking about their passion - Max, Justin and Matt's TripleKO podcast falls into this one, which I prefer.
Overall, you're free to choose any kind of gaming influencer to follow or listen to. Despite the corporate shilling of those falling under item 1, sometimes you have to listen to them when they snag an interview with someone significant. Item 2 sometimes gets this as well. Item 3 - i guess if there's nothing else to listen to, or Joe Rogan's guest is boring, I suppose Item 3 is occasionally fine. Item 4 , as much as possible, look for that kind of show since it's really about gaming. So it won't irritate you as much if you want something really gaming related. But I wouldn't say any of these 4 are 'bad', it's just, you have to recognize them for what they are, and when you listen, you have to be aware of the slant/bias and let that allow you to have a more balanced view of the hobby we all love.