I’ve spent boatloads more time watching football than playing football, too.
Also, with Rainbow 6: Siege, there’s so many ways to play the game that I love watching videos to get ideas for new strategies to try.
Lastly, contrary to popular belief, a lot of games actually require thinking about what you’re doing. Time spent playing is not really time spent spacing out so I will happily watch videos about a game I like to play when I don’t have the energy to actually focus on playing them.
This brings back a college memory - one dorm I lived in was so boring I once drew a crowd of 5 while playing solitaire in the common room. It happened another time when I was making a Halloween costume by drawing a giant Jack of Hearts on a bed sheet with markers, holding the actual card up in my hand as a guide - but that one was more understandable.
This is not at all surprising. Almost all hobbies and sports are like this.
The only difference that makes this interesting is the fact that you could be gaming while watching about gaming, which is untrue for many other hobbies.
Not really interesting. Gaming is often stressful and requires more though / action being put into it. Also there is the matter of skill - it’s way more fun to see someone completely anihilate the other team, than to go out and get killed yourself. You can also go through a story based game without having to actually play, and you get most of the experience. You also need to count in people watching other people’s guides, especially for strategy games. For other hobbies it’s often about actually doing something and feeling the rush, or by occupying the hands and chilling out. You don’t get the rush of driving a car by watching someone else do it. You don’t get your hands occupied by seeing someone knit. Also, gaming provides instant feedback / dopamine. Watching it does that with even less effort.
I don’t find gaming stressful at all, I just honestly don’t have the time for it. Gaming means my butt needs to be in the chair doing nothing other than playing the game. Watching/listening means I can be doing dishes, folding laundry, or even commuting to work. Very rarely am I totally focused on watching/listening to someone playing a game, and I’m never involved in the chat.
If I had the time, I wouldn’t watch nearly as much, but I don’t, so watching is my surrogate.
Thats technicaly correct for me .I often play eu4 while i watch eu4 and spice it up with a bit of music in the background.
Alghtough i do only watch gameplays of games im really into ( eu4 ,against the storm ) but generaly not skilled ( or patient )enough to do whatewer crazy shit the streamer is doing, rarely gameplays of games where plot is important in any way and when id do usualy its speedruns.
I stream a 25-year-old MMO, EverQuest, about 8 hours a week and lots of viewers just want to live vicariously through my moment remembering when they were doing it themselves without committing 500-1,000 hours to level a character.
I also watch other people play other class types of endgame content to do the same.
I’m not the most engaging streamer, but I enjoy answering questions to my 2-10 viewers. I also enjoy when another streamer answers my own questions.
I don’t understand watching streamers with 4,000 viewers spamming kewk emojis though.
I played Quarm until just before Kunark came out. Haven’t played since Kunark but continue to support Secrets on Patreon. She’s putting so much work into it. How’s Kunark doing?
Lots of VP raids these days and there was a kick-ass event for the one year anniversary where we got to play in Plane of Justice for a month with all kinds of fun loot. Raids are instances now, with open world raids still around as well. So there’s none of that P99 FTE sweat going on. Basically, if you raid, you’ll get gear. No bottle necks for epics anymore.
Never watched a stream, never really understood the motivation. But i also don’t consume social media (besides lemmy) or such and am generally anti-social, so that might be that.
I would be infuriated if those people wouldn’t do what I would do. Also the chat is… Annoying.
I do shit with my life other than gaming. If I want to experience a cool game without spending the money and without investing the time to get good at the game, it’s a no-brainer to watch a playthrough done by a professional gamer and a professional live commentator like the best streamers are.
That makes sense. As someone who never saw the appeal in watching sports, this is probably the same league.
But somehow it’s like watching porn when one isn’t in the mood for actual sex 😁
Commentator: “Here’s my 100-hour video essay on what King’s Duty 8, an award-winning game, could have handled differently, with another 40 pages of annotations.”
Game Developer at 4:50 PM: “Ok whatever, we didn’t fix the cutscene bug but at least it doesn’t crash. Time to go home and not think about video games all weekend.”
Game Production Manager: “Nobody is going home until we get this bug ironed out. You don’t have to come in this weekend if you don’t want, but we won’t renew your contract if you didn’t.”
It’s time for game publishers to think about in-game video as something beyond marketing alone," said Rhys Elliott, games analyst, MIDiA Research.
‘‘By reclaiming video engagement, publishers have the potential to unlock new revenue streams, like advertising, and drive growth.’’
Reminds me of the business plans of the business guys from Ready Player One. “We estimate we can sell up to 80 percent of a user’s visual field before inducing seizures.” 😂
Reviews have actually saved me money. Time is limited, so I’m thankful to be able toto watch a review and be able to use that to help me make a decision about a game I’m on the fence with.
Just have a friend who tells me the whole time what games are supposed to be bad because of wokness and stuff. He isn’t even interested in them in the first place, so it’s kind of annoying.
I don’t watch streams, but I do watch a lot of Let’s Plays (i.e. Materwelonz, WoolieVersus). Sometimes to watch them play games that I normally wouldn’t, sometimes to listen to their insights at certain hype points in games I previously played, and usually due to loneliness (i.e. parasocial relationships).
Regarding the last point, it also tends to be the reason I gravitate towards games with strong story, or MMOs. Feeling like I belong to a community keeps the loneliness at bay. Outside of games, I like to be in crowded areas, though not necessarily interacting with anyone.
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I’ve spent boatloads more time watching football than playing football, too.
Also, with Rainbow 6: Siege, there’s so many ways to play the game that I love watching videos to get ideas for new strategies to try.
Lastly, contrary to popular belief, a lot of games actually require thinking about what you’re doing. Time spent playing is not really time spent spacing out so I will happily watch videos about a game I like to play when I don’t have the energy to actually focus on playing them.
This brings back a college memory - one dorm I lived in was so boring I once drew a crowd of 5 while playing solitaire in the common room. It happened another time when I was making a Halloween costume by drawing a giant Jack of Hearts on a bed sheet with markers, holding the actual card up in my hand as a guide - but that one was more understandable.
Plenty of people have a twitch stream open whilst playing a game.
Hi, I’m plenty of people
What’s your mom?
Weird! 🤷♂️ Do they watch the twitch stream when their game is loading?
No, they stare at both monitors simultaneously like a Chameleon.
“She’s got Marty Feldman eyesss”
It’s like having the tv or radio on whilst doing something else.
This is not at all surprising. Almost all hobbies and sports are like this.
The only difference that makes this interesting is the fact that you could be gaming while watching about gaming, which is untrue for many other hobbies.
Not really interesting. Gaming is often stressful and requires more though / action being put into it. Also there is the matter of skill - it’s way more fun to see someone completely anihilate the other team, than to go out and get killed yourself. You can also go through a story based game without having to actually play, and you get most of the experience. You also need to count in people watching other people’s guides, especially for strategy games. For other hobbies it’s often about actually doing something and feeling the rush, or by occupying the hands and chilling out. You don’t get the rush of driving a car by watching someone else do it. You don’t get your hands occupied by seeing someone knit. Also, gaming provides instant feedback / dopamine. Watching it does that with even less effort.
I don’t find gaming stressful at all, I just honestly don’t have the time for it. Gaming means my butt needs to be in the chair doing nothing other than playing the game. Watching/listening means I can be doing dishes, folding laundry, or even commuting to work. Very rarely am I totally focused on watching/listening to someone playing a game, and I’m never involved in the chat.
If I had the time, I wouldn’t watch nearly as much, but I don’t, so watching is my surrogate.
You don’t watch football while playing football? What else is the jumbotron even good for?
Kiss Cam, and wacky mascot antics. At least that is what I’m led to believe. Never actually been to a sporting event with a jumbotron.
They’ll also show replays of important plays, often in slow motion so the fans can get frustrated when a call doesn’t go their way.
I ain’t gonna tell nobody how to live their life or nothing, but, uh…
Cool 😎
Thats technicaly correct for me .I often play eu4 while i watch eu4 and spice it up with a bit of music in the background. Alghtough i do only watch gameplays of games im really into ( eu4 ,against the storm ) but generaly not skilled ( or patient )enough to do whatewer crazy shit the streamer is doing, rarely gameplays of games where plot is important in any way and when id do usualy its speedruns.
This applies mostly to young gamers.
I stream a 25-year-old MMO, EverQuest, about 8 hours a week and lots of viewers just want to live vicariously through my moment remembering when they were doing it themselves without committing 500-1,000 hours to level a character.
I also watch other people play other class types of endgame content to do the same.
I’m not the most engaging streamer, but I enjoy answering questions to my 2-10 viewers. I also enjoy when another streamer answers my own questions.
I don’t understand watching streamers with 4,000 viewers spamming kewk emojis though.
You play live service EQ or P99 or Quarm?
I’ve played them all. EQ definitely the game nearest and dearest to my heart.
I stream and play Quarm exclusively. Best balance of nostalgia and community. <3
I played Quarm until just before Kunark came out. Haven’t played since Kunark but continue to support Secrets on Patreon. She’s putting so much work into it. How’s Kunark doing?
Lots of VP raids these days and there was a kick-ass event for the one year anniversary where we got to play in Plane of Justice for a month with all kinds of fun loot. Raids are instances now, with open world raids still around as well. So there’s none of that P99 FTE sweat going on. Basically, if you raid, you’ll get gear. No bottle necks for epics anymore.
Most of us are ready for Velius, but having fun.
I’ve been really into Meridian 59 lately, but haven’t been playing in the past couple of weeks. Thanks for the reminder.
Never watched a stream, never really understood the motivation. But i also don’t consume social media (besides lemmy) or such and am generally anti-social, so that might be that. I would be infuriated if those people wouldn’t do what I would do. Also the chat is… Annoying.
The wisdom of streams is simple.
I do shit with my life other than gaming. If I want to experience a cool game without spending the money and without investing the time to get good at the game, it’s a no-brainer to watch a playthrough done by a professional gamer and a professional live commentator like the best streamers are.
That makes sense. As someone who never saw the appeal in watching sports, this is probably the same league. But somehow it’s like watching porn when one isn’t in the mood for actual sex 😁
Definitely fall into this category. Commentary/ video essays about games are my go-to for background noise.
Commentator: “Here’s my 100-hour video essay on what King’s Duty 8, an award-winning game, could have handled differently, with another 40 pages of annotations.”
Game Developer at 4:50 PM: “Ok whatever, we didn’t fix the cutscene bug but at least it doesn’t crash. Time to go home and not think about video games all weekend.”
Game Production Manager: “Nobody is going home until we get this bug ironed out. You don’t have to come in this weekend if you don’t want, but we won’t renew your contract if you didn’t.”
Lmao, what a takeaway. Guy is struggling to earn that paycheck.
Reminds me of the business plans of the business guys from Ready Player One. “We estimate we can sell up to 80 percent of a user’s visual field before inducing seizures.” 😂
And videos complaining about videogames.
Thank god we have YouTube videos that tell us what games to like and what games to hate. Imagine we would have to make this decision on our own.
Reviews have actually saved me money. Time is limited, so I’m thankful to be able toto watch a review and be able to use that to help me make a decision about a game I’m on the fence with.
Yeah, reviews can be really helpful of course.
Just have a friend who tells me the whole time what games are supposed to be bad because of wokness and stuff. He isn’t even interested in them in the first place, so it’s kind of annoying.
So I vented a bit, sorry.
It’s getting really fucking annoying to look at steam reviews and discussions and running across several “is it woke?” posts.
Often times, it will be “one black NPC in a historically white environment, one female in a combat position, it’s been ruined by wokeness.”
Or often “two non-essential NPCs are in a gay relationship, stay away” when they could be entirely avoided by accident.
It’s disappointing.
Oh, you’re right about the wokeness thing. I really just look at a review for info about gameplay and plot quality.
Yeah cause I’m too busy to game frequently, but I can watch something while being productive.
I’m always “why am I wasting time watching this when I could be playing a cool game?”
because i’m at work. or tired as fuck at the end of a long day.
I don’t watch streams, but I do watch a lot of Let’s Plays (i.e. Materwelonz, WoolieVersus). Sometimes to watch them play games that I normally wouldn’t, sometimes to listen to their insights at certain hype points in games I previously played, and usually due to loneliness (i.e. parasocial relationships).
Regarding the last point, it also tends to be the reason I gravitate towards games with strong story, or MMOs. Feeling like I belong to a community keeps the loneliness at bay. Outside of games, I like to be in crowded areas, though not necessarily interacting with anyone.