It would not be a proper Geek Week without a day focusing on gaming, and that’s what today is at YouTube Geek Week, Gaming Thursday. To introduce today’s festivities, please welcome to the stage Machinima Senior Director of Original Programming Jeremy Azevedo:

The classic interpretation of the “gamer” in mainstream media has for too long been unfairly and erroneously depicted as an overweight, energy-drink guzzling, cheeto-stained, pasty dork creeping around their parent’s basement, gleefully unleashing vitriolic hatred on the greater Internet community.

At Machinima, we were one of the first to offer a genuine counter-argument to that stereotype, and to instead highlight the incredible passion, the raw talent and the sheer unbridled creativity of the gaming community.

To us, the word “gamer” almost holds no meaning… it’s the equivalent to calling someone a “music listener” or a “movie watcher”. Everyone does it! That’s why it’s so great to see the recent mainstream acceptance of gaming in popular culture, and to be a part of the Geek Week celebration that is “Gaming Day”.

After years of bringing you the best industry news with Inside Gaming and ETC, the best fan films and animation with Machinima and Happy Hour, the best gameplay with Respawn and Realm, and even mainstream online live action digital series like Mortal Kombat: Legacy and Halo: Forward Unto Dawn, we are proud to continue our legacy of sharing with the world our vision of gaming as a the preeminent pop cultural touch-point of a generation.

For “Gaming Day”, we’ve pulled together the best of the best gaming themed videos for your viewing pleasure. Make sure to check out the hand full of playlists today on YouTube!

And just when you think it couldn’t get any better, we’ve created a brand new original video specially made for “Gaming Day”, starring all your favorite YouTube gaming stars including Seannaners, Syndicate, iJustine, Eric Pumphrey (The Online Gamer) and many other surprise guests, with original music by top EDM rising star and self-proclaimed Machinima fan Cole Plante.

Check out Let’s Play IRL: Battle of the YouTube Gamers here:

Nothing we do, however, is worthwhile without you; the viewers, the creators, the commenters, the filmmakers, the fans, the haters, even the imitators. You are who we do this for, and it’s an honor to be a part of it with you.

And fellow Ambassador for the day Polaris has this video in which some of their personalities tell how they got into gaming and how it’s brought them closer to other people, animated in an particularly appropriate manner:

Hey, since it’s Gaming Thursday, let’s watch the opening episode of Season 2 of Freddie Wong’s Video Game High School again, OK? Here:

From Cartoon Network‘s Regular Show, Mordecai and Rigby team up to win the Maximum Glove. Are they ready to be MAXIMIZED? Oh, yes:

In a pretty epic video, Corridor Digital shows us the origin of the Gravity Gun:

Go on an epic journey with the Yogscast crew in the kickoff to the journey of a lifetime, Yogsquest:

IGN is back, with Colin Moriarty and Ryan McCaffrey talking about where we stand with PS4 and Xbox One:

Nerd Alert interviews Ivan Van Norman in a new segment called Player 2:

Cracked‘s Today’s Topic explains why violent video games don’t cause violence themselves… or… well, how real do you want your games to be?:

And any resemblance between this video from Brental Floss and Schoolhouse Rock are purely….:

The Nerdist Channel’s contributions include the first two episodes of COPS: Skyrim, Season 3 and, coming shortly, a new episode of Effinfunny’s Game Off. And there’s more YouTube Geek Week to come, so stick around….