The well-known streamer Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm stated in 2019 that mobile gamers are not real gamers. Now he played alongside a professional mobile gamer and slightly retracted his statement about gaming on smartphones. However, he did not want to apologize. There is an interesting conflict behind it between “our” mobile games and those from Asia.
This is the statement in question: In June 2019, the streamer announced on Twitter “Mobile gamers are not real gamers.”
The streamer stirred up a hornet’s nest with the tweet. This is a conflict that simmers beneath the surface of gaming. The tweet received over 96,000 “likes” and nearly 17,000 comments and retweets.
Under the tweet, users exchanged their opinions heatedly:
- The Doctor was completely right. Only girls played on mobile, especially Candy Crush – moreover, mobile games are infested with Pay2Win
- Others strongly opposed him: One is a gamer on any platform. Dr Disrespect’s opinion is irrelevant and arrogant.
Dr Disrespect and the Domination of PCs
In this context, the statement came: 2019 was a paradise time when gaming fairs still took place, the real ones with people on-site. The older ones will remember.
At E3 2019, Bethesda showcased the mobile game “Elder Scrolls Blades.” The streamer was outraged: How one could promote such a game in such a luxurious environment.
Dr Disrespect declared: Mobile gamers are not gamers. When he plays, he goes into a “command center” with 3 super monitors. He has two $4000 computers with the latest graphics cards, really cool equipment, and everything.
He portrayed mobile gamers as strange creatures who cling with cramped hands to a tiny device, covering the display with their fingers and whining: “You can’t exclude us, Doc. We are real gamers too! I have an endorsement deal.”
Dr Disrespect’s statement was explicitly about professional players or streamers who are into mobile gaming: With them, he had nothing to do in June.
Dr Disrespect Plays with Indian YouTube Star and Mobile Gamer
This is how he sees it now: On Saturday, Dr Disrespect was on YouTube with Tanmay “Sc0ut” Singh, a big YouTuber in India. Sc0ut is a professional player of PUBG Mobile. So exactly the kind of player Dr Disrespect was mocking a year earlier.
Apparently, Dr Disrespect wanted to use the cooperation to tap into the growing Indian gaming market. In India, they are totally crazy about mobile gaming: PUBG is even responsible for some deaths.
Now the gentleman “My PC is so awesome” sounded significantly more conciliatory. Now it came out that Dr Disrespect also plays on mobile. However, he is bothered by having to place his thumbs on the display, which takes up a lot of space.
During the stream, he somewhat retracted his statement:
“I don’t know if you saw the tweet. But I wanted to preempt the controversy that I said mobile gamers are not real gamers. That was in the heat of the moment. I just want to clarify that.”
Dr Disrespect
The Indian streamer did not address the statement further and just said that it was completely fine. When a fan asked, Dr Disrespect also did not want to apologize for the statement. He does not do such things.
Dr Disrespect and Sc0ut did not have too many topics of conversation. Then the Doctor asked curiously whether there are mobile headsets and if one could play with a controller. Both questions were answered with a “No.” Finally, they spoke about football. Sc0ut was a former professional footballer – Dr Disrespect discovered “this European thing,” football, through his love for FIFA.
Asia vs. the West – Different Gaming Cultures
This is what lies behind it: Dr Disrespect appeared in 2019 in the classic position of the “PC Master Race.” This refers to when PC gamers feel superior to all others: Gaming only works with good equipment, great resolution, and in a professional environment.
Some of his fans call Dr Disrespect in such scenarios a “Boomer”, playfully referring to him as an “old man,” because it seems that he is not open to new experiences.
Dr Disrespect’s view on mobile gaming is the classic “Western view of a core game,” from someone who plays a lot and grew up with gaming.
However, mobile gaming plays a completely different role in Asia than in the West:
- In the West, mobile gaming is on a different track than classic core gaming. Local mobile games are often traditional games that were once played in PC browsers or on Facebook. They are classic games for a quick break. In the West, mobile games often have the reputation of being “shallow casual games” with a tendency towards Pay2Win.
- The Indian gaming market is completely different from the West: there was essentially no gaming for decades because neither PCs nor consoles had established themselves. In India, mobile games have opened up the market. There was no gaming like ours before.
This is a trend that can be seen in all major gaming markets in Asia. The most successful mobile games there are core games:
- the Chinese “Honor of Kings” – the LoL variant is so successful that Tencent has now even convinced Riot Games to develop a LoL Mobile.
- the Korean Lineage M – this has revitalized NCSoft virtually overnight.
- PUBG Mobile in India
- or the Japanese Fate/Grand Order – even if it is said to contain heavy “Pay2Win” elements.
All these games are among the most successful and lucrative mobile games in the world.
Western companies have recognized this trend . Activision Blizzard is leading the way with Call of Duty Mobile and Diablo Immortal.
In the face of a “real mobile gamer” like Sc0ut, Dr Disrespect must then also realize that his statement “Mobile gamers are not real gamers” cannot hold in that form.
The hype around PUBG Mobile in India is tremendous and confuses the local authorities and media. In recent years, several media reports have emerged that seem curious from a Western perspective. The reports recount deaths in India for which PUBG Mobile is held responsible.
The youth of the country is said to be so obsessed with the game that some are dying:
Indian media reports: 16-year-old dies while “forbidden play,” PUBG Mobile.
