Games are highly interactive. Mediums with interactive capabilities usually have a much higher entertainment value than their counterparts, like, let's say, video.
You can watch a video of someone playing football, or you can play football yourself. Which one would you say is the more rewarding experience?
Games are very easily accessible and most cater to an massive audience by design. If you can watch a video on your device, there's a reasonably good chance you can also play a game on the device as well.
My question is; Why would anyone watch a video of a game, or more accurately, watch a video of someone else playing a game, rather than play it yourself? There seem to be so many people that are interested in videogames, just not to play them themselves, which is to me very confusing. My opinion is that these people don't like games. What's your two cents? Discuss!
>Medium difficulty; Absolutely no streamer or content-creator mentioned by name. >Hard difficulty; Use your head before you post
You can like a game but not want to play it, or enjoy sharing experiences with other people.
Luke Jackson
hoes mad
Jonathan Adams
I don't have friends so it's fun to watch a personality I like experience a game I like for the first time or if it's a game that allows for creativity, see how they approach it in contrast to myself. Watching someone else playing a game either in person or in a video can also just be inherently enjoyable.
Angel Green
barriers for entry include >price of hardware >price of game >motor skills/general aptitute
boons of watching a lets player >surrogate friend weirdness >"humor" >being "in the loop" with said lets player, whatever value that has
conclusion: I hate it
Liam Bennett
Yup. I'm spending 16+ hours a day on WoWC starting next week. Got over 100 cans of pepsi max, 24 coke zero energy, and something like 5kg of various candy and snacks in a box. My only objective is play and try not to die irl.
Dominic Watson
Would it be fair to claim that watching a "Let's Play" or Playthrough would be the equivalent of watching a movie trailer? Some seem content that plowing through a "Let's Play" translates perfectly to playing the game yourself. An example discussion: >I like game A >I like game A too! What did you think of X? >I'm not sure I haven't played it myself, I watched [streamer]
Friendly reminder that you need to be atleast 18 years old to use Yea Forums, and if you're from Reddit, you can get the fuck out regardless.
Anthony Evans
I watch people play games because I want to see what they've done differently. I don't watch games I'm planning to play because that's spoiling shit. I prefer commentary-less videos to podcast type stuff.
Charles Morales
You can watch movie games without having to buy or even pirate them.
Ayden Parker
Certain games aren't done justice even with cutscene after cutscene because of terrible bitrate restrictions
Juan Moore
You make good points, thank you for your attention.
What I'm curious about is; what would you say is more enjoyable between watching someone play, and play it yourself? Woul you say there is an distinction between the two?
You're right when you point out that that there is value in seeing others approach the same "problems" in order to see what they do differently. It can be downright inspirational at times, but does those moments validate watching an entire "Let's Play" series?
The social aspect is at the core here, and while I feel sorry for you not having any friends, alot of e-personalities capitalize on this faux sense of belonging. I believe this is a very strong contribution to why this is so wide-spread.
Owen Jenkins
I think the parasocial relationship aspect is indeed the crux of the phenomenon. In response to your question regarding whether playing or watching is more enjoyable, I'd say they're completely different experiences. A clumsy analogy could be comparing cooking a meal to eating fast/frozen food. Cooking requires effort but can be enjoyable and very rewarding whereas the alternative is easy and relaxing.
Dylan Reed
>You can like a game but not want to play it, or enjoy sharing experiences with other people.
If I'm interpreting you right, wouldnt liking a game & not wanting to play it, be like claiming that you like a movie but haven't seen it? Do you possibly mean: "I've seen bits of [game/movie] and from what I gather, it seems ok but I don't want to play/watch it? I apologise if I seem daft, would you please elaborate a little?
When it comes to sharing experiences, it's only natural. What I'm trying to get at is; can that desire overshadow the appreciation for the actual game/medium to the point where it's just an accessory to that social exchange?
Jackson Clark
Games and movies are not the same, so it's a false equivalency. Ideally a game is a movie with more layers, so watching a playthrough of a game would be like watching a movie based on a game.
Joseph Thomas
I appreciate your post, however I disagree strongly with the barriers, which is why I took the time to point out the accessibility of games in general. Take it into consideration of most past time activities and you'll see that in comparison, games are very available for more than one reason.
On the other hand, you being something pretty important up, and that's the social part.
Isaiah Stewart
I take it most of us "watch games", I do too! I'm not vehemently opposed to watching recordings of people playing computer games.
Judging by your answer, would you say that you spend a large portion of your free time (compared against time playing yourself) watching someone else play?
Hunter Reyes
Playing a game for only 10-20 minutes during a lunch break/whenever you only have a short amount of time sucks and I always have to force myself if I don't have more than an hour have a proper go.
Watching someone who is ideally funny or knowledgeable play a game for 10-20 minutes is a good way to enjoy an aspect of video games when you don't have the time or effort.
Cameron Gray
I'm sorry, but I don't agree there. While I can get your point of view concerning the equivalency (games and movies aren't the same) even agree to a certain extent, I certainly don't agree with the second part of your statement. One of the reasons why games and movies aren't the same are exactly those layers (namely interactivity) which you mentioned. Removing those layers leaves you very far from an complete experience. While the comparison using a movie is crude, I would like to use it again: Imagine removing a channel of color or perhaps audio from the movie. Would you not agree that it would strongly skew the experience? That is the analogy I'm trying to make with games. Games are far from "ideally movies".
Landon Garcia
Very good post, thank you. Depending on the games, I can certainly relate to the feeling of not wanting to intiate something if you only have a short time available.
Asher Powell
Because you can watch people who are really really REALLY really good at a game do things that you could never dream of doing without 10000 hours of dedication
Charles Martinez
In cases where I already own the same game as the channel, I'm looking at their (usually blind) experience and cross-referencing my own. >"How did they handle this one section? Did they ever stumble into that secret? What kind of cute outfit did they put their charas in!?" Even if I've long since read every book and burned every book within a game, seeing someone wander around a place I know by heart... just gives a nice fuzzy feeling?
Isaiah Peterson
It's just the personalities playing the game. It's like a talk show, you're watching the host discuss stuff with someone. Similarly you're watching x guy do entertaining things in a video game
Nicholas Gray
That was another point I was gonna make. Watching a casual playthrough is typically only worth watching if you're super into the game and interested in someones first impressions of it.
Watching someone be good at something is fun even if you only have a basic idea of how the game works.
