Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 13 released a video of his interaction with some online video gaming influencers, recorded at his residence in March. Mr. Modi met Tirth Mehta, Animesh Agarwal, Anshu Bisht, Naman Mathur, Mithilesh Patankar, Ganesh Gangadhar, and Payal Dhare, all of whom go by different stage names online.
The outreach to gamers comes as a record number of 1.85 crore 18–19 year olds are registering to vote in the general elections in the coming weeks. Gaming is among the most popular video categories on YouTube in India.
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Mr. Modi played Raji, a multi-platform adventure game available on PC and gaming consoles, made in India. He also played Stumble Guys, a multiplayer survival royale game. On a virtual reality headset, he played Beat Saber, a rhythm game.
The Prime Minister had a discussion with the influencers on their career choice. (“We spend 6-7 hours on practice,” an esports gamer told him.)
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Gaming vs gambling
Mr. Modi discussed the distinction between gaming and gambling, something that video game developers have been keen on disambiguating over the last year. “We need to separate [real money gaming] and skill based [video] gaming,” Mr. Agarwal, also known as 8bitthug, told the Prime Minister.
“There’s no need for regulation,” Mr. Modi said of the video gaming industry. When Mr. Agarwal spoke further on the need to separate real money gaming from video gaming, the Prime Minister asked the gamers to send in suggestions in writing.
