Why I Watch People Play Videogames On The Internet

[Megalith]

You would think that many do this as a means to better their gameplay, but apparently many viewers are simply lonely. Wait a second, don’t games have multiplayer modes now?

That’s what happened to Alyssa Sedillo, a twenty-something from Colorado who cops to watching LPs regularly. “Thanks to my depression, I struggle with being alone, but Let’s Plays help me feel like there is someone else in the room talking to me,” Sedillo said. “The Let’s Play community has also brought me closer to people both online and off,” she said. “LPs are something my sister and I share, even though we’re living several states apart. LPs allowed me a connection to some of the more introverted students I encountered while working in public schools.”

 

[Mistral]

Well, I watch Lets Plays (mostly Blinds) on youtube pretty much daily but only game myself once or month or so. And even then it's just some old advenrure game.

 

[M76]

I usually can't tolerate more than a few minutes of let's plays at once. I don't watch it for entertainment either. Solely for the purpose of researching games before buying them.

 

[lostinseganet]

I have grown a passion for watching other play from playing in arcades, and coop play. I like enjoying interactive media in a group setting. Stuff like Twitch makes that happen where I can give input and react to others reacting to the player's reactions to us all reacting to each other

 

[Ur_Mom]

I usually can't tolerate more than a few minutes of let's plays at once. I don't watch it for entertainment either. Solely for the purpose of researching games before buying them.

I am similar. Watch to get a perspective on the game play. I'm using it as a review. It's actual, real world game play. Not hand picked game play from the good parts.

I have grown a passion for watching other play from playing in arcades, and coop play. I like enjoying interactive media in a group setting. Stuff like Twitch makes that happen where I can give input and react to others reacting to the player's reactions to us all reacting to each other

I loved watching others at arcades. Still do if I can find an arcade. Because those were challenges. You could talk to others and make friends. Online? Even with Twitch, it's still a bunch of anonymous people that even if I follow, it's not really too social. I'm not the most social person in the world, but I really do prefer face to face contact. My wife notices that I talk to people a lot more around arcades, video game stores, etc.. Just have something in common, and it's great.

 

[westrock2000]

This isn't to be unexpected. These young adults have been taught not be aggressive in life, and there is no financial opportunity for them. That's why they are depressed and living their life through the lens of others. They do not trust other people, nor do they want to be around other people. This online stuff is a fantastic outlet for them, but it is unhealthy for our society.

Start looking around at stores like Best Buy or restaurants, or places you first had a job at. You will see a few teenagers, but mostly you will see middle age and older adults. I work for a very large tech company and I was hired in at the age of 19 in 2001, right in the middle of the dot com burst. They hired a bunch of us. Lots of young adults were entering the work force. Now I'm 35 and I'm still one of the youngest people doing my line of work. It was like time just froze in 2001, and things haven't changed. We are now starting to worry about the future of the work force. People are retiring/dieing, but they are replacing them with people that only have another 10-20 years left. We need to be bringing in young adults that have 30+ years left in them.

 

[Prisoner849]

I would then say the same thing for people watching sports on TV. Watching other people play games isn't exactly a new phenomenon; we've been lonely since television began.

 

[DrLobotomy]

Ugliness is directly related to loneliness. Unless you are so ugly that you are cute.

 

[westrock2000]

I would then say the same thing for people watching sports on TV. Watching other people play games isn't exactly a new phenomenon; we've been lonely since television began.

Your point is valid to an extent. But traditional sports do have a basis in the real world. You can't exactly encourage physical development using Call of Duty. There is a primeval foundation for sports.

EDIT: I have no interest sports BTW.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

I don't have enough time to actually PLAY the games I want to play, let alone watch others play games.

Don't people have jobs/families/responsibilities to deal with?

 

[big_aug]

I like watching people play. It goes back to my childhood. When we'd have birthday parties and such, we had to take turns playing. You had to learn to enjoy the game just as much while watching someone else play it.

I like competitive, skill based games and enjoy watching people play competitively or just "seriously." I also loved sports and was a very good athlete. The same things that helped me perform well in sports also apply to gaming.

I actually enjoy watching gaming more than I do "real" sports now. I'd much rather watch a Starcraft II match at Dreamhack than the
Superbowl even though I'm "supposed" to like the sports and played football in college.

 

[melteye]

I don't have enough time to actually PLAY the games I want to play, let alone watch others play games.

Don't people have jobs/families/responsibilities to deal with?

It's up to people how they spend their time. We're posting on a forum here...

Don't be jerks people.

 

[Exavior]

I just paid to watch people play games on stage this past Friday in Chicago along with 2999 other people, What does that make the 3000 of us that did that?

 

[Ducman69]

I've said this before about Pewdiepie. He acts as a reliable non-judgemental and himself dorky (perhaps intentionally an act) big brother character for lonely young robots.

I enjoy the Lets Play videos as it exposes me to games I hadn't seen before, in 100% realistic user state rather than BS marketing trailers that are nothing like the game.

 

[Darunion]

entertainment is entertainment, how many of us have spent too much time just wandering on youtube links? Hell I am reading posts on a forum about a topic someone wrote about what they like for entertainment, ffs lol.

 

[Prisoner849]

Your point is valid to an extent. But traditional sports do have a basis in the real world. You can't exactly encourage physical development using Call of Duty. There is a primeval foundation for sports.

EDIT: I have no interest sports BTW.

I am talking about the act of watching others engage in activities, which is all any of this is. What such action might lead to is extrapolation; a separate discussion really.

The activity of watching someone play a video game as opposed to watching someone play golf are equal. That one may lead to the viewer engaging in golf and the other to playing a video game are again no different fundamentally; both can motivate, both require specific skill sets.

Personally, I can't get enough of watching Quake duels and see zero difference between watching that and watching sports on TV.

 

[big_aug]

I am talking about the act of watching others engage in activities, which is all any of this is. What such action might lead to is extrapolation; a separate discussion really.

The activity of watching someone play a video game as opposed to watching someone play golf are equal. That one may lead to the viewer engaging in golf and the other to playing a video game are again no different fundamentally; both can motivate, both require specific skill sets.

Personally, I can't get enough of watching Quake duels and see zero difference between watching that and watching sports on TV.

I think people find it strange based upon how easily one could actually play the game instead. If you are watching someone play PC games from your gaming PC, people think that's weird. There's a lot more involved in playing a round of golf. You don't just double click and you're all the sudden on the golf course on a beautiful day.

Not saying it's correct. I watch gaming a lot. Just saying that's probably why people can't grasp it.

 

[chenw]

There is a difference between playing a game, or playing a game as well as the streamers/professional gamers play, in exactly the same way that people can do most of the sports that are shown on TV, but they can't play it as well as their national team for example.

It's equally a valid argument of say, why watch someone play football when you can play it yourself? Not everyone is as good at football as the pros, same is applicable for videogames, your average joe probably isn't as twitchy as your pro CoD player, or know LoL as much as the pro players, etc.

This is completely different from those who are physically incapable of playing a game (paraplegic, loss or lack of limbs), but whatever argument you can use here is as applicable to watching sport as videogames.

 

[Prisoner849]

I think people find it strange based upon how easily one could actually play the game instead. If you are watching someone play PC games from your gaming PC, people think that's weird. There's a lot more involved in playing a round of golf. You don't just double click and you're all the sudden on the golf course on a beautiful day.

Not saying it's correct. I watch gaming a lot. Just saying that's probably why people can't grasp it.

Yep, for us, it's that easy, but not for everyone. In fact, playing golf is easier for a lot of people.

Anyhow, some people can't afford certain games or maybe they don't have systems that can play them, so they enjoy them vicariously. In the end, it's just entertainment, as any other form of pastime. I don't get people who watch sports myself but to each their own.

"Only a fool looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart." ~ Ulysses Everett McGill

 

[burton14e7]

I enjoy watching Lets Plays on Youtube and occasionally twitch, mainly for watching eSports tournaments. But most Twitch streams are just filled with toxicity and annoying high school college kids vying to be the most annoying and toxic, it hurts my ears.

 

[NickJames]

I have grown a passion for watching other play from playing in arcades, and coop play. I like enjoying interactive media in a group setting. Stuff like Twitch makes that happen where I can give input and react to others reacting to the player's reactions to us all reacting to each other

Unless that chat has like 2000 people where the only visible message is *********LOLPENISPENISPENISPENIS************

 

[MrE]

My kids love watching others play games online, though I can't stand the over dramatized screaming/jump scare type stuff the streamers seem to be into. Hearing the same scream the 432nd time while the kids watch on the iPad downstairs makes me want to kill the wifi connection.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

My kids love watching others play games online, though I can't stand the over dramatized screaming/jump scare type stuff the streamers seem to be into. Hearing the same scream the 432nd time while the kids watch on the iPad downstairs makes me want to kill the wifi connection.

That's why we have a headphone requirement for youtube watching

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

It's up to people how they spend their time. We're posting on a forum here...

Don't be jerks people.

I'm not being a jerk. I'm simply stating that I don't understand it. I haven't made any value judgments

I mean, it's not for me, but its really none of my business what other people want to do with their time, as long as it isn't harming me.

I just find it incomprehensible.

 

[twonunpackmule]

I rather read the twilight series than watch a let's play. The only time I watch someone play something online is for walkthrough purposes. If I'm trying to find something, or whatnot.

 

[Araxie]

lol my time its just too much valuable to be wasted watching other guys playing the games I like?. the only videos I ever watched someone playing a game was Brent and then it was no more than couple of videos like 3 or 4 years ago..

 

[dgz]

I only watch tournaments because the people are 100% guaranteed to be the best. I have zero interest in watching noobs trying to play games, even less so hearing about their thoughts on the game. Fuck that.

 

[singe_101]

Even compared to comedians' podcasts, their full time job along with gigs, Sean Plott is funny.

 

[mastaBlasta]

There's nothing wrong with any of this. That is, until you start doing it because you want to escape reality. Then you have a problem, and "escapism" is not going to do anything to improve your situation.