The House of Representatives has historically been known for its outstanding priorities, A bill was passed on March 13 that may ban the short video application TikTok from being listed in the United States The application has ended 150 million users in the United States As of last year, more than a billion people around the world used it. TikTok is primarily used for entertainment, networking, and news, and for many creators, it is the primary (if not the only) source of income. The outrage over the app and subsequent legislation stemmed from claims by the U.S. government that the Chinese company posed a security risk.
If the bill passes, the company would have five months to part ways with its Chinese parent ByteDance to avoid being removed from U.S. app stores. This will be a huge blow to how millions of Americans connect with their communities, learn about current events, and discover creators from the internet. Like it or not, TikTok has become the backbone of 2024’s infiltrated online culture, which even includes video games.
I’ve been using TikTok for about four years now, and in addition to it being a great tool for my work, it’s also proven to be one of the best places for video games’ natural memetic tendencies to flourish. These include streamers who play games on the platform, as well as inside jokes that break out of the gamer bubble and become mainstream.Do you think most people out there Genshin Impact What fans will know Cardinal Analysis Mechanical Speaker What if Ray Chase’s rhythmic lines hadn’t become an audio phenomenon on the app?Or a bunch of normal people will know about Sigma Overwatch 2sound and imitate when they hear a song They like?
But it’s more than just memes. TikTok has become a place for people who play and make games to connect, share jokes, history, and cultivate it in an easy-to-understand format. There’s a reason people turn to TikTok to teach and learn about topics like game design, content creation, and even guidance on how to complete tasks in your favorite games. Some of us are visual learners. Even as someone who writes for a living, I often use TikTok as a place to watch demonstrations of how to complete difficult tasks or navigate maps in video games.
Part of making videos of people playing games is to show something, but a lot of us just like to show off the cool stuff we do.How many Video of players torturing Koroks when did you see tears of kingdom Launch in 2023? Many of these originated on TikTok and spread as the community played the game together. Emerging games are primed for this kind of virality, and platforms like TikTok are exactly why they have such widespread impact on entire communities.
As an avid fan, I also have to give props to those creators who are looking for AMVs on YouTube to satisfy my inner teen.My heart flutters when I see the tribute edit Baldur’s Gate 3The cast will be accompanied by swelling music like Florence + The Machine’s “Which Witch.” It’s like an algorithm hand-crafted a video for me and delivered it to my door.
But perhaps TikTok’s greatest gift to video games is that it’s become a platform for smaller developers to showcase their games to people who wouldn’t see them on the big stage. summer game festival. It’s a place where they can speak freely about issues within the industry and potentially reach more people than elsewhere.Trip Cat, the developer behind Potion: a strange story, After a video was made, the game went viral, racking up 10 million views after being pushed down the Steam New and Trending charts after several delistings in EA’s shadow. command and conquer Play now. Potion: a strange story Almost lost a lot of popularity, only TikTok gave it a second chance.
When the platform that facilitates your connection with others may disappear, every community must consider this. TikTok has its issues, like the recent influx of store ads on user feeds, but it has become so central to how we talk about and share our passion for gaming that I wonder what could fill that void. Twitter is no longer available, YouTube is still primarily associated with long-form videos despite attempts to capitalize on them with Shorts, and Instagram has always been a month or so behind the cutting-edge trends spawned by TikTok.
A potential ban on TikTok would have far-reaching consequences that extend far beyond one industry.What if we lose TikTok because the US government decides to take the time to focus on some very real issues like its Continued funding of Palestinian genocidewhich will leave a loophole in the operation of the community.