“…here’s a fun fact: Did you know the real world is broadcasting in 3-D? All the time? I know, amazing!” Yep, this is going to be one of those.
Reader Darius pointed us towards a video that ran today on CBS Sunday Morning, in which commentator and radio host Luke Burbank discusses the recent acquisition of game streaming site Twitch by Amazon. Admittedly not a gamer himself, Burbank finds watching other people play boring, and marvels that it’s a thing. It’s a valid opinion, presented in the most cringe-worthy way possible.
I can understand the lack of enthusiasm over gaming as a spectator sport — some people just don’t enjoy it, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s the assumption here that people who do enjoy watching competitive gaming are sitting around wasting their lives that bugs the hell out of me. The condescending explanation of the real world that follows is the bitter icing on the stale cake.
The hard thing about the real world is that there isn’t a controller for it. You can’t just move people around with your super strength, or jump over things if they’re in your way. The real world is a game you spend your entire life trying to master — and probably never will. It’s full of heartbreak and triumph and genuinely terrifying moments.
*stares at the screen, slack-jawed, game controller slipping out of his hands* I get it! I finally get it! Luke Burbank has opened my eyes to a whole new world — a real world!
Sorry. That was just how I picture the imaginary gamers floating about Burbank’s head are reacting to his piece. The gamers with absolutely no social life or comprehension of a world beyond their beloved digital images. The ones who don’t actually exist.
Luke Burbank on gamers and the game we should play [CBS Sunday Morning]
Comments
46 responses to “CBS Commentator Urges Gamers To Go Play The Real World”
I love that they advertise this to their watchers, through a passive form of media…
aimed at an audience that participates in an interactive form of media.
One engages in active learning, the other doesn’t. Hate to tell them which is which…
Exactly this.
Fuck off! Real Life borrowed the concepts of life and death straight from Steel Battalion but doesn’t fully understand how it was balanced.
While Steel Battalion did carry the risk of deleting your save file when you die, at least you could start all over from the beginning. In Real Life, once you die without ejecting your entire system crashes.
I tried the real world, too grindy, not enough content, found myself doing the same old thing every day, turned into such a job. THEN they nerfed the loot cave and I was done.
Yeah, Mining in Australia will be dead soon.
😛
agreed the resolution and fps might be amazing but the gameplay sucks
Plus the end of Government boss reaaaaally sucks.
And life gives you lemons….that’s some crap loot right there
I love how they talk about watching people play games as boring, well I have the same sentiment with “real sports” but I’m not a dick about it.
Pretty much this 😀
Completely valid comparison – you could tell anyone who enjoys watching football that it’s stupid and they should just go outside and kick a ball for real…
So I do share your sentiment…except I can be a dick about it sometimes…
Does he watch NFL?
Does he watch pre and post game shows?
Is he in a fantasy league?
Not just NFL. This could be aimed at anyone who watches any sport. On TV, or attending.
Football, baseball, basketball, golf, NASCAR… heck, even the Olympics. If you aren’t performing, apparently, there’s no point.
Yeah, I had the same thought. There are millions of people who watch NFL every year on television on their couch… and I find that prospect as boring as all hell.
Many years ago, I bet people were saying the same thing about television… and I imagine in many years time, people will be saying the same thing about something else.
Biased person spouts biased opinion using media. Here’s Tom with the weather.
But this is HDTV! It has a higher resolution than the real world!
Precious Futurama
*wipes tear*
I tried the real world, once. The graphics sucked and the respawn timer was too long.
No guys, play Jesus.
Two words: God Mode
I tried but the two day respawn threw me *right* off…
(Actually closer to one and a half, I suppose… died on Friday afternoon, rose early Sunday morning.)
Real Life: Where you do menial tasks in order to get rewards so that you can better your belongings, provide food for a healthy life and maybe one day settle down to live happily ever after
O.O i should have been told that i cannot jump over my front garden fence because it was in my way this morning as i was heading in the opposite direction to where the gate is, before i went and did it. 😛
Achievement unlocked.
Gawd, it’s just so tiresome hearing that one of my hobbies is a waste of time. I love watching live sport. I love watching televised sport. And probably that’s fine to Luke Burbank. But oh no, other people enjoy doing something he doesn’t enjoy doing… so they’re WRONG.
Get stuffed.
I can’t stand opera. I hate running. I can’t abide rugby league, but I’m not going to sit there and make a video telling rugby league fans what they do is pointless and wrong (especially when I’m in Sydney the day after grand final!!!)… because each to their own. We live in a world where the choices are endless and we can all find stuff we like to do. It’s all a matter of taste. Provided no-one’s getting hurt (well, non-consensually anyway, in case any S&M types are reading…) then butt the hell out.
And now I want to play more Destiny. Just to spite Luke Burbank. Take that, Luke Burbank.
Was going to go see a production of swan lake, but then i realised there’s a perfectly good lake with actual swans right here in town!
I always find this argument hilarious. My aunt once complained I played too many video games. why I played for nearly an hour a day. My retort was you watch TV for 9 hours a day, at least I need to think to play video games rather than passively stare at a screen.
Later she complained I solved all the problems in our (my mums) newspaper before she had a chance to try them. And that I got most of the answers wrong because she couldn’t figure them out. The next week I showed her the answers where right, and she said that’s because I changed them… But I wrote in pen… You got two newspapers.
An uncle once told me that I should be outside playing football rather than watching others play video games (If I left I lost my turn). Later just before the football came on I asked him why he didn’t play football and just watched it on TV. Pointed out it was the same as him saying I was just passively watching. He said it was different, I asked why? The end result my relatives stopped criticising my use of Video Games because when I turned it round on them they couldn’t reply.
Except for my religious aunt (same one as above) who complained playing Diablo 1 was devil worship. And talked about a whole bunch of stuff that wasn’t in the game. She tried to get me to read a book (for little kids, as in a picture book) Diablo came out when I was 16, and so I used the same logic she used and told her how the book trained children to steal. I nor anybody I knew has actually read it but that’s what we believe. And you’ve just been tricked by the book into believing it’s not about that.
I realise others went with the you watch sports why would you ever do that wouldn’t you rather play it angle too.
Should have told her that in diablo, you are a patron saint sent to kill the devil.
A reasonable conversation starts with the concept that you may not be right and that you could be wrong. My religious aunt is not a reasonable person.
Your trying to stop Diablo not help him, became you think you’re trying to stop him but in the end you end up helping him.
And my favourite quote is something along the lines of.
My church says it’s Devil worship how could you know more about this game than they do? Just because they haven’t played it and you have doesn’t mean you know more about it than them.
Other works of Satan include Lego not built to the instructions in the box, Model Airplanes, Dino Riders, TMNT, most cartoons, Mad Magazine, Most books without pictures except the Bible, the colour red and most recently the Internet.
Now if I replace Satan with almost anything else she’d be getting psychiatric help for extreme paranoia that an imaginary creature is trying to get her. But because her beliefs are religiously based she is considered sane.
If there’s one thing I have a lot of experience with, it’s watching people in visual media talk endlessly about their own, uninformed opinions. Let me tell you, it’s boring. There’s a real world out there, full of live people you can touch, smell, and interact with, so why would you want to waste your time watching some old, out of touch dude on a TV screen rabbiting on about “The kids of today”, when you could be out there, listening to everyone else doing the same thing, but without a mute button?
The real world is dangerous, and gross.
Is this the real life? Is it just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see!
I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I’m easy come, easy go
*skips to the good bit* *mosh*
I am willing to give Real Life a 2nd shot if they can patch in save points. Keep screwing up my character build and making wrong story choices
Tried real life skiing on a flat surface, the result was 2 knees that still play up with the aching & mild discomfort, this was at a week long camp in the mountains, luckily I brought my ds with me to play videogames on my lonesome while the students who I went to camp with went out & played.
This is the great thing about skiing. Sitting in a chalet-restaurant eating chicken broth and drinking mulled wine is just as valid a part of the experience. So what if you make it the whole experience…
Oh & don’t forget how much money you have to pay to eat & drink there, ie how much money for a simple coffee
“Real Life” is an awfully grindy, multiplayer only, free to play, pay to win type of game, which I hate. Also I absolutely loath the amount of paid DLC to get any fun content and the endless amount of glitches that no amount of patching seems to fix.
Not to mention the amount of hackers, cheaters and obnoxious people yelling profanity for minor reasons. And don’t get me started about the amount of social media integration that is in “Real Life” nowadays…
hahaha. best……comments…..ever
This life game is horrible, you can’t reload your saves or start a new game. Forget about getting a stats re-roll you’re stuck with them.
Though I hear the reward at the end of the Buddhism quest line seems to be a stat re-roll. But no one in my guild seems to have gotten it yet.The last bit about how exciting the real world is reminded me why video games are awesome.
So if spectating video games is boring, what does that make spectating a guy who doesn’t play video games talking about how boring watching other people play video games is?
In any case, I know how awesome real life is. After all, real life has video games in it!
And these are games where I can fly, kill a dragon, build a space station, hunt down terrorists (in the confident knowledge that no actual civilians will die)…
I don’t think he said anything too cringe worthy. It is just a little time waster opinion piece. He is not insulting or attacking to any sharp degree like crap click bate headline here did.