Thousands Of People Are Watching Overwatch's Jeff Kaplan Sit In Front Of A Yule Log
He’s been this way for over an hour, and as word’s gotten out the audience has swelled to over 30,000. As Overwatch’s creative director, Jeff Kaplan has spoken in the past about how dedicated the team is to supporting the game and engaging with the community, even if that means working holidays.
The Twitch stream opened a couple hours ago on an empty chair. A few minutes later Kaplan walked in and sat down. He’s been there ever since, sometimes crossing his legs, sometimes uncrossing them, and always looking, watching, waiting.
And lest anyone think the stream is somehow a small segment of footage on loop, there have been a few weird moments sprinkled throughout, including one where Jeff gets booped by an off camera boom mic. In the other, less action filled parts, you can feel time passing as the rate of Jeff blinking changes. Three different blinking speeds, we’ll call them long stare, short stare, and turbo eye lash flicking, have taken shape in the stream like the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.
The Yule Log started as an annual holiday program in the late 60s at WPIX, a TV station in New York, so that the employees wouldn’t have to worry about working. Plus the people of New York City, many of whom didn’t have fire places, could have the warmth of a crackling fire beamed into their apartments. In recent years it’s become a meme of sorts, just like everything else. In 2015 Nick Offerman of Parks and Rec sipped whiskey for forty five minutes as part of one. The absurdity of it was supposed to help sell Lagavulin.
The Overwatch fans who have flooded the Twitch chat have been similarly intrigued and confused by the spectacle. It’s boring to the point of being impossible to look away. It’s actually the opposite of what this time of year’s supposed to be about. You should be having human interactions with other people. Catching up with family and friends. Not sitting with your phone or laptop transfixed by a motionless Jeff Kaplan.
After all, what’s he doing there? What’s this all about? And most importantly how long will it go on? Like passersby at the zoo, the thousands who have tuned into the stream have set their expectations low. They’re not expecting some big, new Overwatch announcement, or an update on the game’s 2018 plans. The answers they’re seeking are more basic. “Do something,” is a common refrain you can see floating by in the chat log. As well as people begging him to eat some of the cookies nestled alongside a jar of milk on the table next to him.
But so far he’s just continued to sit and stare, perhaps pondering the future of the game or that email he forgot to respond to from a few days ago or maybe just the fact the how many Christmas Eves ago he never imagined where he’d be on December 24, 2017. You can watch along in the stream below:
https://kotaku.com/thousands-of-people-are-watching-overwatchs-jeff-kaplan-1821562770