6 ms·

Watching people play video games is something I still don't understand.

by wehadfun 10y ago

thaumasiotes 10y ago
Simple concept. You get the benefit of playing through the game without the drawbacks.
- nommm-nommm 10y ago
  What's the drawbacks?
  - krapp 10y ago
    Paying for the game, and in some cases the console it runs on.
  - mastax 10y ago
    My perspective: - Purchasing - Downloading - Installing - Patching - Commitment - Mechanical Skill It allows you to experience the story of a game or the experience of high skill play with little up-front cost or long-term commitment.
    - thaumasiotes 10y ago
      One you've left out: hours wasted farming experience or searching around for whatever you're supposed to do next tend to just be cut out of let's plays. (You still need to suffer through those if you're watching a stream; the advantage of a stream over an edited video seems to be mainly that it provides a social group to hang out with.)
derefr 10y ago
Do you understand watching people play sports?
chippy 10y ago
Give it a try, see if you like it. I'd suggest a variety streamer first. The main thing for me, is that it's entertainment, not really the game itself. Visualise this: Imagine your favourite comedian cracking jokes, now imagine him cracking jokes while playing a video game. Now imagine a chat of thousands joining in and interacting with your favourite comedian. Now imagine yourself talking to and cracking jokes with them. This is, in essence what many popular streams are.
- fragola 10y ago
  This sounds terrible, really! Which makes sense because I do not like Twitch etc. :) The GP is getting downvoted, so I guess a lot of people do enjoy watching games be played instead of playing them. Thank you for providing an explanation. As someone who does not enjoy it, it IS really difficult to understand.
- serge2k 10y ago
  Now imagine he's not funny and he's trying to appeal to kids. This is why I don't bother. I do like speedruns, and I watch some of the cinemassacre stuff on youtube since I do actually like watching those guys.
CroMkd 10y ago
To me, at least for professional gamers, they're really entertaining to watch. They understand the game they're playing completely and are dedicating themselves full time to be the best player. It is something that I admire, plus it gives people that "live" for playing games a chance for a decent life and job.
lbotos 10y ago
It doesn't make sense UNTIL you treat it as a competitive sport. I've played video games in my life but never treated it as something that I should improve my skills in. When I started playing Magic (the card game) I started to watch streams to learn better plays. It's about skill and skill development just like sports.
panabee 10y ago
how about watching people talk? talk shows are some of the more profitable programs in television, but all you're doing is watching people talk. oprah built a whole media empire on talk shows. entertainment is in the eye of the beholder, and when you have ~150M beholders, you can build a pretty good business [1]. :) [1] http://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/tmt-pred16-media-esports-bigger-smaller-than-you-think.html http://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/technology-media-an...
hokkos 10y ago
Think like when you watched your grand brother or friend play a game and gave advice on how to progress. Sometimes it's great to take a backseat and watch others play and say funny things.
ggregoire 10y ago
There are 2 major types of content on Twitch: - competition broadcasting. With teams, pro players, sponsors, shoutcasters, analysts, interviews during the breaks, huge shows, stadiums and fans. It's like watching any "classic" sports on the TV. Can rise several hundreds of thousands of spectators (League of Legends, CS:GO, Dota 2 and Hearthstone mostly). - player stream. Can be pro players during their training or just really really good players who stream all day as a job. On a personal note, I watch them because, as I said, they are really really good and the most popular of them are generally entertaining. The most popular have peaks at 5000-30000 spectators. In the 2 cases, we talk about watching the best players in the world (may be 0.1% of the streamers). The rest of the streamers doesn't really have a public (friends and family probably).
- delecti 10y ago
  I think you're leaving out an important third category of "personality" streamers. People that get views because they are entertaining, rather than because they're necessarily that good at the games they're playing. I don't know what proportion of the whole each of the three makes up, but I would assume that the third category at least the very least merits a mention.
nommm-nommm 10y ago
I never would have imagined it would be entertaining either. Until I ran into this speedrun of Yoshi's Island randomly, it was one of the most entertaining and fascinating things I ever watched. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzYWRTPBSc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzYWRTPBSc
kmnc 10y ago
A shared experience, even if you don't engage with the other participants is what makes it. Knowing that someone else just saw what you saw some other person do.
oldmanjay 10y ago
Commenting merely to say "I don't personally enjoy the topic of this discussion" similarly mystifies me.
grogenaut 10y ago
Watching people play golf is something that ton's of people don't understand. Nor chasing a black thing around on ice with sticks given the ratings. Yet you realize tons of people do watch these things.

Watching people play video games is something I still don't understand.

thaumasiotes 10y ago

Simple concept. You get the benefit of playing through the game without the drawbacks.

nommm-nommm 10y ago
What's the drawbacks?
- krapp 10y ago
  Paying for the game, and in some cases the console it runs on.
- mastax 10y ago
  My perspective: - Purchasing - Downloading - Installing - Patching - Commitment - Mechanical Skill It allows you to experience the story of a game or the experience of high skill play with little up-front cost or long-term commitment.
  - thaumasiotes 10y ago
    One you've left out: hours wasted farming experience or searching around for whatever you're supposed to do next tend to just be cut out of let's plays. (You still need to suffer through those if you're watching a stream; the advantage of a stream over an edited video seems to be mainly that it provides a social group to hang out with.)

derefr 10y ago

Do you understand watching people play sports?

chippy 10y ago

Give it a try, see if you like it. I'd suggest a variety streamer first. The main thing for me, is that it's entertainment, not really the game itself. Visualise this: Imagine your favourite comedian cracking jokes, now imagine him cracking jokes while playing a video game. Now imagine a chat of thousands joining in and interacting with your favourite comedian. Now imagine yourself talking to and cracking jokes with them. This is, in essence what many popular streams are.

fragola 10y ago
This sounds terrible, really! Which makes sense because I do not like Twitch etc. :) The GP is getting downvoted, so I guess a lot of people do enjoy watching games be played instead of playing them. Thank you for providing an explanation. As someone who does not enjoy it, it IS really difficult to understand.
serge2k 10y ago
Now imagine he's not funny and he's trying to appeal to kids. This is why I don't bother. I do like speedruns, and I watch some of the cinemassacre stuff on youtube since I do actually like watching those guys.

CroMkd 10y ago

To me, at least for professional gamers, they're really entertaining to watch. They understand the game they're playing completely and are dedicating themselves full time to be the best player. It is something that I admire, plus it gives people that "live" for playing games a chance for a decent life and job.

lbotos 10y ago

It doesn't make sense UNTIL you treat it as a competitive sport. I've played video games in my life but never treated it as something that I should improve my skills in. When I started playing Magic (the card game) I started to watch streams to learn better plays. It's about skill and skill development just like sports.

panabee 10y ago

how about watching people talk? talk shows are some of the more profitable programs in television, but all you're doing is watching people talk. oprah built a whole media empire on talk shows. entertainment is in the eye of the beholder, and when you have ~150M beholders, you can build a pretty good business [1]. :) [1] http://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/tmt-pred16-media-esports-bigger-smaller-than-you-think.html http://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/technology-media-an...

hokkos 10y ago

Think like when you watched your grand brother or friend play a game and gave advice on how to progress. Sometimes it's great to take a backseat and watch others play and say funny things.

ggregoire 10y ago

There are 2 major types of content on Twitch: - competition broadcasting. With teams, pro players, sponsors, shoutcasters, analysts, interviews during the breaks, huge shows, stadiums and fans. It's like watching any "classic" sports on the TV. Can rise several hundreds of thousands of spectators (League of Legends, CS:GO, Dota 2 and Hearthstone mostly). - player stream. Can be pro players during their training or just really really good players who stream all day as a job. On a personal note, I watch them because, as I said, they are really really good and the most popular of them are generally entertaining. The most popular have peaks at 5000-30000 spectators. In the 2 cases, we talk about watching the best players in the world (may be 0.1% of the streamers). The rest of the streamers doesn't really have a public (friends and family probably).

delecti 10y ago
I think you're leaving out an important third category of "personality" streamers. People that get views because they are entertaining, rather than because they're necessarily that good at the games they're playing. I don't know what proportion of the whole each of the three makes up, but I would assume that the third category at least the very least merits a mention.

nommm-nommm 10y ago

I never would have imagined it would be entertaining either. Until I ran into this speedrun of Yoshi's Island randomly, it was one of the most entertaining and fascinating things I ever watched. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzYWRTPBSc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzYWRTPBSc

kmnc 10y ago

A shared experience, even if you don't engage with the other participants is what makes it. Knowing that someone else just saw what you saw some other person do.

oldmanjay 10y ago

Commenting merely to say "I don't personally enjoy the topic of this discussion" similarly mystifies me.

grogenaut 10y ago

Watching people play golf is something that ton's of people don't understand. Nor chasing a black thing around on ice with sticks given the ratings. Yet you realize tons of people do watch these things.