• @[email protected]
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    1075 days ago

    Always struck me as hypocritical that watching movies was always put on a pedestal as if sitting around for 2 hours mindlessly consuming the latest Tom Cruise flick is any more productive than playing a video game. At least there is brain activity involved with gaming.

      • @[email protected]
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        455 days ago

        At least in my experience, parents seem to criticise their children playing video games, whilst watching TV themselves. In fact I’d rather my children play video games than binge Netflix or mindlessly scroll TikTok or watch YT etc.

        • @[email protected]
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          194 days ago

          As long as they’re not shitty mobile games brainwashing the kids with inappropriate and intensely manipulative ads. If you have kids that are playing lots of mobile games, consider keeping them safe from predatory advertisers by installing DNS-level ad-blocking. RethinkDNS is very easy to set up on Android, and while NextDNS is a bit more complicated, it should work on any platform that allows you to set a custom DNS.

        • @[email protected]
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          44 days ago

          Yeah I never heard a parent put movies “on a pedestal” and in fact watching TV/movies was only slightly less criticized in my house growing up

    • @[email protected]
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      205 days ago

      There’s brain activity involved in watching movies too*. Just because you’re not changing it doesn’t mean that you’re not emotionally and intellectually engaged.

      You’re right that gaming as an art form and pastime doesn’t get the respect that it’s due compared to the ones that were already popular when boomers were kids, though…

      *even if it’s one that stars Kevin James, Rob Schneider or Adam Sandler in his signature role “Angry Dumb Guy”

    • @[email protected]
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      184 days ago

      As a kid I’d use that against my parents when I had to get off my SNES. They’d be all like, “quit playing games, you’ll rot your brain”, and if be like, “How is this any different than watching TV?”. It never worked but today I feel a little vindicated.

      Sort of ironically, my first real world full time job, when I got hired, the owner had asked if I played video games, and he was then later telling a bunch of people that he thought I’d be smart and good with computers, drawing a correlation to gaming. Idk if his thought process was correct, but I am decently bright and I am pretty good with computers, so that’s something.

      • @[email protected]
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        4 days ago

        drawing a correlation to gaming

        A lot of PC gaming at the time required a level of computer literacy that generations on either side would associate with compsci students, or at least dedicated hobbyists. If you didn’t specify a console, that may’ve been his assumption.

    • @[email protected]
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      Calling film watching mindless consumption shows you’re missing the point, perhaps the same way your parents are missing the point of video games. Hell even Tom Cruise is working on a level of craft that no one else in the industry is doing as consistently as him.

      Each medium has their strengths and weaknesses. I love video games, I was born in 85, the year of the NES so I lived my life with controller in hand. I do however recognize games still struggle to keep up with story telling in other mediums, mostly because gameplay and story telling are frequently at odds with eachother. And yes of course I know there are games with good story but rarely to they ever stick with me the way multiple films and shows do every year. Even a story like Last of Us was simply told better as a show. The best part of that show was the Frank and Bill episode, something that simply won’t translate back to a game at all. The only game to really stick deep in my soul was What Remains of Edith Finch. So often I’ll pour hundreds of hours into a game with nothing lasting on the other side. It’s why I’ve given up on grindy games all together.

      Games also have a barrier for most people on the outside. It’s tough to look at an Xbox controller and not get a little daunted by the buttons, sticks and triggers. Credit to Nintendo for historically finding ways to bring the whole family together for a game night. There’s a reason grandma was playing Wii Bowling.

      • @[email protected]
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        44 days ago

        Honestly I would argue that the quality of film and television stories has plummeted in the last 15 years to the point of them being a shallow husk that has been gutted by marketing and greed in the film industry.

        Most films nowadays are glorified celebrity commercials with more product placements and wanky pop references than story beats.

        Being directly in control of the main character puts you in a position to be more immersed in the world and more invested in the characters and story.

        Not that the game industry is perfect but it has more going on than just the grids games. That’s the gaming industry’s greed. Live service games are a plague and the artificial padding is designed to sell you their micropayment currency. It’s a scam.

        There are tons and tons of highly diverse games for many different skill levels nowadays that will introduce modern gaming concepts slowly and build up a players skill level. Not like the nes and arcade days of them wanting your quarters and making impossible to beat games.

        If you need some recommendations on games with an impactful story or that give you an experience impossible with movies I can highly recommend these:

        Journey, Outer Wilds, Spec Ops the line, Toem, Unravel, Kena bridge of Spirits, Night in the woods, Hifi rush, Donut County, Firewatch, The unfinished swan, Jusant, Gone Home, Venba, Dordogne, Hollow Knight, Knights and Bikes, Gorgoa, FAR: lone sails, a short hike, shadow of the colossus, bioshock, Spiritfarer

        • @[email protected]
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          24 days ago

          Great recommendations, I’ve only played about a third of these, I’ll dig in a bit!

          Being a huge Movie and TV buff I’ll definitely push back on movies being shallow husks. The year is only half over and we’ve already gotten a bunch of exellent original movies. Love Lies Bleeding, Last Stop in Yuma County (favorite movie of the year), I Saw the TV Glow, Problemista, Challengers, Ricky Stanicky. Even the franchise stuff has been pretty good, Dune 2, Inside Out 2 and Bad Boys Ride or Die was tons of fun. Last year was even better, I think it was one of our best movie years in a long time. Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Holdovers, Zone of Interest, Society of the Snow, All of Us Strangers, The Killer, Iron Claw, Boy and the Heron, Elemental, American Fiction. All original or adapted from a book. The earlier 2020s were a little softer because we stopped going out in public but even still we got Everything Everywhere, Aftersun, the start of the X/Pearl trilogy, Talk to Me, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Worst Person in the World and my favorite movie of the 2020s Pig.

          TV as well. I feel like there’s constantly something well worth my time. In the same year (2022) we got some absolutely top tier television The Bear, Severance, Andor, The English, SAS Rogue Heroes and House of Dragon. Once again the past year has been full of excellent stuff Beef, Ripley, Shogun, Sugar, Bodkin, Baby Reindeer, The Gentlemen, The Curse.

          I could go on like this for hours but the point I’m trying to get across is there’s a huge supply of good eating but if you only look to the biggest budget commercial products, you’re going to get big budget commercial products. I guess for me watching everything at the Summer Games show left me feeling a little bit empty. Except for Mixtape, that looks fucking sick.

    • @[email protected]
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      295 days ago

      I agree that just watching a random sport or 2 random teams can be boring. It becomes interesting when you feel a connection to the team or athlete. If you go and watch live, it also becomes a community thing.

      Personally, I used to train football (soccer) in my local team in a small town and everyone basically knew all the players.

      Football becomes more interesting when you throw a beer can at a player, who also works at a pizzeria, and he takes a sip and throws it back.

      • @[email protected]
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        84 days ago

        I’m the opposite. All the focus on the people and the random facts of their lives and trying to constantly manufacture some sort of sob underdog story around various players is boring.

        I can appreciate a good game, one that’s close and exciting and played with skill, but the whole sports culture and focus often feels like celebrity gossip, but for men.

        Which is also why esports are boring to me too, despite my love of video games (and even watching people play video games, like let’s plays). Esports just brings that whole sports culture and it’s a huge turn off for me.

      • @[email protected]
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        45 days ago

        I’m not a sports guy but I can agree with this. I’m active (rock climbing and part time work on a ranch) but I don’t personally enjoy doing or watching sports. No hate, it’s just not for me.

        That being said, I’m totally with you on the community aspect. I will go watch pretty much any sports live and I get way into it. It’s less about the game and more about the people around you. I like going and watching both the Astros and the Texans play occasionally and I know nothing about the players or the standings of either.

        I’m really sad we don’t have a hockey team. I don’t care about hockey but my intensity in the stands works really well with hockey.

    • @[email protected]
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      145 days ago

      Same here. I never got the appeal either.

      Of course it’s been a major popular interest during a lot of human civilisation (chariot races in the roman world werea huge thing), so we’re visibly not in the majority.

      • @[email protected]
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        94 days ago

        Yea but most of human civilization didn’t have easy access to futa porn, so it’s not like they had anything better to do with their time.

      • @[email protected]
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        14 days ago

        Chariot racing is basically ye olde Nascar. Of course it was popular. Anyone watching podracing in Star Wars and thinking “holy crap that’s awesome” doesn’t realize it’s basically chariot racing with a slight sci-fi treatment.

    • @[email protected]
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      94 days ago

      I am a sports fan, so take my opinion with the bias it deserves. I find that sports have a decent learning curve, understanding the rules of the game and how players and teams are doing things within those rules is fun and interesting to watch. Sports is also based on a foundation of vested interest. For me, my vested interest is watching teams whom I have grown up supporting, for others, it’s gambling and having a win case to cheer for.

      If you don’t know much about the sport and have no reason to cheer for something, I can absolutely see why people would find sports boring.

      • @pantyhosewimp
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        I played football 🏈 in middle school and high school. Watching it is okay to me but I won’t do it voluntarily.

        Even worse, if I’m forced to watch sports too many times I go crazy wanting to play. In my 20s , friends were into World Cup ⚽️, and day off, sunny outside, cool breeze, and we’re in a bar watching a game on TV. I snap and start going to pickup soccer games in the city. Same thing in my late 30s: my sons peewee football games drive me crazy, and I have to start joining local rugby league practices.

        Finally, in my early 40s, I had the money to do a dream: motorcycle racing. But it’s so hard to get to do it even with enough money: join club, wait for track day and so on. I was still trying to lose weight to buy one of those back-protector suits when I discover Moto GP. And suddenly, something clicked. I finally understood how some people can watch sports. I never did made it to the track, but I can watch a motorcycle race on TV and really enjoy it. Without going crazy.

  • @[email protected]
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    My 5yo loves video game videos on YouTube.

    Particularly Mario Odyssey hacks. But also getting into the real difficult Mario Maker courses

    Kid has completely destroyed up my YouTube algorithm. It’s part of the reason I signed up for nebula.

    He loves playing games too, though.

    Still I wish I could get him off YouTube. There’s so much crap on there and he doesn’t know what’s what. He knows now he’s not allowed to watch YouTube without an adult in the room, but even when I’m in there, I don’t know what the hell is going to be in the video that he clicks. There’s no TV-Y7 or TV-G ratings on YouTube. And there’s so many lies and fake stuff. Kid was heartbroken when he found out that a Mario Movie 2 trailer was a hoax.

    • @[email protected]
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      12 days ago

      Youtube is crack for children. My nephew loves watching Minecraft videos. He doesn’t know what Minecraft is. He mainly watches some animal shows. Every now and then when i check what he’s watching, he watches some content farm shit. One time he watched this video where they just filmed a small child in a mall and made stupid sound effects and fart sounds. The video had millions of views and it was just absolute brain rot garbage.

      It goes so far that he doesn’t even want to watch a movie when he comes over. Watching a great animated movie in a home theater? Uhm, can i watch some youtube instead. It’s a bit freaky. And it’s not like he’s allowed to even watch a lot. He gets maybe 15 to 30 minutes if he behaves

      • @[email protected]
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        12 days ago

        I’m glad my kid hasn’t stumbled into that side of YouTube. It’s part of the reason I don’t want to install YouTube kids. I know the same content is on the main app, but it’s just there on YTKids

        I personally love YouTube and I’d sympathize with your nephew, except I binge on 15-minute-explainers. That shits my lifeblood.

        At least the channels he watches are usually well narrated.

    • @[email protected]
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      Kid has completely destroyed up my YouTube algorithm. It’s part of the reason I signed up for nebula.

      Just FYI you can either use YouTube kids, or just make another account to easily keep separate profiles.

      There’s no TV-Y7 or TV-G ratings on YouTube.

      YouTube kids is.

      • @[email protected]
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        33 days ago

        You can also just create a new channel in your account and it will create a separate YouTube sub account with its own feed.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppetM
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      13 days ago

      Kid has completely destroyed up my YouTube algorithm.

      I ended up having to give my kid my Steam account and I created another one. So my kid’s steam account is almost as old as he is.

  • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppetM
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    43 days ago

    You don’t have to coordinate with 21 other people, and train for fitness all the time to play video games. You don’t even need to leave the couch.

  • @[email protected]
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    64 days ago

    “because I’m not good enough to play football. You’re good enough to play the game”

    there’s a difference between a sport and a media designed to be consumed by the masses, but I give the 5 yr old credit, that’s a good question on the surface.

    Honestly though, more and more games really are probably being designed to elicit streaming engagement because that makes them money so who knows maybe games aren’t designed to be played anymore

    • @[email protected]
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      154 days ago

      That’s a bullshit reason. He’s not saying you should play football on a professional level, just as he most likely won’t play the game on a competitive level. Actually playing something yourself is always better than only watching other people do it.

      • @[email protected]
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        34 days ago

        How? Lol

        Why so aggressive?

        Videogames are a media designed to be played as their method of consumption. It’s a media product. A sport, as a media, is a professional sport. Playing a sport and playing a video game isn’t comparable because they are fundamentally different.

        • @[email protected]
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          34 days ago

          The fuck are you talking about? Playing games is a way of spending your time. Football is a game. Video games are games. Tabletop games are games. There are tons of different games. And with all of them it is an undeniable fact that it is always better to actually play them yourself instead of only (!) watching other people do it.

          • @[email protected]
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            14 days ago

            Bro why are you so angry.

            Media that gets consumed can be games, but sports are not media that’s what I’m trying to say.

            • @[email protected]
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              24 days ago

              That is such an odd point to make. If I film some random people playing football it’s suddenly media? Settlers of Catan becomes something else entirely when I play it on a screen instead of on a table? You’re just not making any sense.

              • @[email protected]
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                14 days ago

                We are talking about the difference between a sport and art. Something developed by an artist for a player to experience as the player vs people engaging with a framework of rules for competition

                • @[email protected]
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                  13 days ago

                  Both are part of the larger group of pastimes. Both have, by necessity, rules. You are constructing artificial rules that make no sense.

    • @[email protected]
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      there’s a difference between a sport and a media designed to be consumed by the masses

      This implies that sports aren’t specifically designed to be consumed by the masses. Sports are like, the epitome of braindead mass appeal. Everyone can do it, they’ve existed as an activity of the average person for tens of thousands of years. You could overthrow a small democracy using the chaos that soccer team fanboys generate throughout the year. I don’t think there’s a single person on this planet who doesn’t know who Messi is

      Sports are far from inaccessible to an able-bodied person unless they’re trying to do it seriously competitively and they’ve been optimized for widespread appeal

      • @[email protected]
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        24 days ago

        There’s a difference between watching a sport and watching someone play a videogame that you can play yourself on a PC in your room alone. It’s fundamentally different to watch a person play a videogame on twitch than watching professional sports on tv even if it’s physically possible to play the sport

        • @[email protected]
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          You can repeat it as much as you want. I’m not sure what your argument is when you say they’re “fundamentally different” – in what relevant way, exactly? There is no more benefit or engagement or whatever that you get from watching people play sports compared to watching people play games. Watching someone else kick a ball around for sport, it’s not exactly a unique experience from watching someone else play finger twister on their keyboard in a game. They’re both literally just pixels on a screen and take the exact same processing power and thinking.

          There are differences obviously, like when you watch sports it’s usually because you’re addicted to whatever corporate team comes from your city/state/province/country, not to watch ball go weee or admire skill or have esoteric analyses of the gameplay, but the latter reasons still exist to some extent. Vice versa for games – usually you don’t watch games for the brainless esports competitive tribalism, but it’s still a big part of the culture.

          • @[email protected]
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            The fundamental difference is That you don’t have to field a team, practice, meet up, etc. to play baulders gate. it was built from the ground up to be experienced by a person the same way you might read a book.

            Watching someone else play it isn’t the same as that same person watching football because a writer, or game developer doesnt write a sport. You aren’t defeating the purpose of a sport when you watch someone else play it, you’re just watching people participate in a framework of rules, not experience a narrative. You are defeating the point of the media when you watch someone else play it through YouTube or twitch. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, like for instance if you can’t afford a game or maybe don’t like playing souls likes but like the story, but it’s not the same thing.

            The comparison should be “you like movies why don’t you watch movies?” But of course, the dad probably does watch movies.

            • @[email protected]
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              The fundamental difference is That you don’t have to field a team, practice, meet up, etc. to play baulders gate.

              You definitely do that for competitive/ranked gaming or esports (well, you obviously don’t meet up in person to play ranked CS:GO but you know what I mean).

              it was built from the ground up to be experienced by a person the same way you might read a book.

              Conveniently, you chose a genre that is literally based off of books. Regardless, games like that aren’t even played like “reading a book”, they go completely differently every playthrough. I don’t see the point you’re trying to make here.

              Watching someone else play it isn’t the same as that same person watching football because a writer, or game developer doesnt write a sport. You aren’t defeating the purpose of a sport when you watch someone else play it, you’re just watching people participate in a framework of rules, not experience a narrative.

              You aren’t defeating the purpose of a game when you play it. Unless it’s a visual novel or something, it’s not like you’re reading a book. Not only are you pretending that all games are primarily narratives with a path that it’s predetermined you’ll take within a short number of playthroughs, but the narratives you are talking about still don’t fit your description. People aren’t all the same and they play games completely differently, unless you have thousands of hours to put into literally every game you’re not gonna experience every unique experience from a game like Baldur’s Gate man.

              You are defeating the point of the media when you watch someone else play it through YouTube or twitch.

              Not at all. You’re not going through a predetermined experience when you play Rainbow Six Siege (ew) or Baldur’s Gate 3 any more than when you play soccer or golf. Chess is technically “predetermined” in a sense that it has a finite number of moves you can take and a finite number of possible outcomes, you can technically “solve” chess, but we’re not gonna pretend like that means watching it defeats the purpose of playing chess. Watching other people use the tools the game gives them along with their own creativity is what makes both sports and games fun. I’m not going to think of everything the same as someone else; and I certainly don’t want to play a few million matches of soccer until I experience every new soccer experience, so why should I be expected to do that with games? Watching someone use some advanced technique to improve their play shouldn’t defeat the purpose of basketball for me, I just try to incorporate that into my play or think “oh that’s neat” or something and continue playing. Watching someone do something creative or something I didn’t know about in a game just improves the experience while also being entertaining.

              That being said, I don’t play games much nor watch games anymore, so maybe the gaming YouTubers have compromised by enjoyment of gaming. But I also don’t watch or play sports anymore, nor film, so it’s probably just the neccessity to have a job keeping me from using my free time on entertainment… no, I’m on Lemmy, therefore I could be gaming right now, so naturally that must mean my gamer spirit HAS been stolen by Twitch.

              The comparison should be “you like movies why don’t you watch movies?” But of course, the dad probably does watch movies.

              Not sure what you’re getting at here.

              • @[email protected]
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                14 days ago

                The fundamental difference is That you don’t have to field a team, practice, meet up, etc. to play baulders gate.

                You definitely do that for competitive/ranked gaming or esports.

                Yeah duh that’s why it’s called eSPORTS I’m not really talking about 1 genre of videogames I’m talking the medium in general so we should limit this to concepts that can be applied universally here.

                it was built from the ground up to be experienced by a person the same way you might read a book.

                Conveniently, you chose a genre that is literally based off of books. Regardless, games like that aren’t even played like “reading a book”, they go completely differently every playthrough. I don’t see the point you’re trying to make here.

                Okay halo 1, the last of us, God of war. Happy now? Not based on a book.

                Watching someone else play it isn’t the same as that same person watching football because a writer, or game developer doesnt write a sport. You aren’t defeating the purpose of a sport when you watch someone else play it, you’re just watching people participate in a framework of rules, not experience a narrative.

                You aren’t defeating the purpose of a game when you play it.

                What?

                .Unless it’s a visual novel or something, it’s not like you’re reading a book. Not only are you pretending that all games are primarily narratives with a path that it’s predetermined you’ll take within a short number of playthroughs, but the narratives you are talking about still don’t fit your description.

                What do you mean? Yes they do. It was an experience that was built by a developer for a player. Experiencing it second hand is a diminished way to experience it. Just because it can be played more than once doesn’t make my point invalid.

                People aren’t all the same and they play games completely differently, unless you have thousands of hours to put into literally every game you’re not gonna experience every unique experience from a game like Baldur’s Gate man.

                It was just 1 example. Holy shit.

                You are defeating the point of the media when you watch someone else play it through YouTube or twitch.

                Not at all. You’re not going through a predetermined experience when you play Rainbow Six Siege (ew) or Baldur’s Gate 3 any more than when you play soccer or golf. Chess is technically “predetermined” in a sense that it has a finite number of moves you can take and a finite number of possible outcomes, you can technically “solve” chess, but we’re not gonna pretend like that means watching it defeats the purpose of playing chess.

                Watching 2 people engage with a framework of rules isn’t the same thing as experiencing an artist’s art, be it chess or football.

                Watching other people use the tools the game gives them along with their own creativity is what makes both sports and games fun.

                Correct. However if someone is watching someone else play a game on twitch that’s a second hand experience. It isn’t how the game is designed to be interfaced with, at least it hasn’t been. That was kind of my last musing in my first post is that that may be changing.

                I’m not going to think of everything the same as someone else; and I certainly don’t want to play a few million matches of soccer until I experience every new soccer experience, so why should I be expected to do that with games?

                Why are you insisting that experiencing a narrative must consist of exploring every branching path of the flow chart of possibility for the game? That’s never what I said.

                Watching someone use some advanced technique to improve their play shouldn’t defeat the purpose of basketball for me, I just try to incorporate that into my play or think “oh that’s neat” or something and continue playing. Watching someone do something creative or something I didn’t know about in a game just improves the experience while also being entertaining.

                Okay. That’s to be expected lol

                That being said, I don’t play games much nor watch games anymore, so maybe the gaming YouTubers have compromised by enjoyment of gaming. But I also don’t watch or play sports anymore so it’s probably just the neccessity to have a job keeping me from using my free time on entertainment…

                The comparison should be “you like movies why don’t you watch movies?” But of course, the dad probably does watch movies.

                Not sure what you’re getting at here.

                Clearly.

                • @[email protected]
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                  33 days ago

                  Yeah duh that’s why it’s called eSPORTS I’m not really talking about 1 genre of videogames I’m talking the medium in general so we should limit this to concepts that can be applied universally here.

                  So you’re admitting your entire argument is “story mode games are different from competitive games”. That’s what you mean when you say that watching games is profoundly different from watching sports. Gotcha. And then you’re pretending that competitive games/gamemodes and other non-narrative/non-art focused games are A. all one genre or only exist as e-sports and B. don’t make up a large portion of the most played and most watched games.

                  Then, you’re pretending that it actually makes a difference to the viewer as to whether or not Alien Isolation is intended to be experienced “second-hand” compared to kicking a ball with some specific time and scoring rules. Clearly the average viewer of bakery simulator streamers or horror game streamers are getting the exact same sort of engagement and experience as someone watching a match of tennis or soccer. The end result, to the viewer, pretty much the same, which makes your “point” moot. The entire point is the experience of watching the content itself. Your idea is that games “weren’t designed” for it, therefore it must be an entirely different experience for the viewer. It isn’t.

                  There is more disparity in how someone feels watching golf vs. American football than there is between someone watching American football vs. Halo Red vs Blue or Overwatch. There is more similarity between watching tennis and watching Omori than there is between watching tennis and watching Airsoft. Sports are often times more different from each other than they are from games, and games are often times more similar to sports than they are to other games. It’s not complicated to grasp, really.

        • @[email protected]
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          44 days ago

          There’s like three leagues in my suburban area, so I imagine quite a lot.

          I believe there’s zero difference between sports and sports other than audience size and length of time the leagues have been around.

          Now a single streamer playing a single player game and mostly engaging with the audience? That’s a different matter, and probably more like drive time radio than anything.

        • @[email protected]
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          Literally like everywhere. If you were American you could replace that with baseball or American football or basketball, or from somewhere else it could be cricket or rugby or something. Regardless of where you are in the world, it’d be harder to not stumble into something sports related than to avoid them. You could go to wartorn Haiti 0.0001 seconds after a hurricane and an earthquake and there’d be groups of people playing soccer on the rubble.

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              4 days ago

              Organized? How exactly? “Organized” varies by regional law or context. If it’s sponsored by a local sport union and the play is based around a set of rules, that would be organized enough for you, no? That’s the assumption I operated off of.

              Why does being “organized” matter in the first place? Something doesn’t need to be professional league whatever for you to view it anyways. Neither sports nor video games.

  • Eww
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    54 days ago

    It’s a sport now, so watching to learn how to improve your skills makes sense. I must admit, I have recently begun to enjoy watching videos of people playing Rust, but I have only played it a couple times and did horribly. Until I get the time to commit to playing for hours on end to sharpen my skills to achieve the results they do, I am just enjoying watching the journeys. I must note, growing up when my brother and I would rent video games from BlockBuster, he would always choose 1 player games like Metal Gear Solid, so I became accustomed to spectating.

    • @[email protected]
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      64 days ago

      it is not just that. watching someone play a game (be it video games, sports or board games, whatever) is different from watching them watch a movie or read a book. games can be experienced in unique ways, and once you get the experience yourself you may enjoy saying other people experience it in different ways. sharing fun is nothing to be ashamed of.

      the only thing to watch out for is not letting the filter of enjoying something through other people’s enjoyment be a replacement for you enjoying things on your own in general. you should be able to do that for your own benefit.

  • Flying Squid
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    44 days ago

    I don’t watch or play sports.

    This clearly means I win in some manner or other.

    • @[email protected]
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      34 days ago

      It really isn’t. If you want to play sports, you need people to be at the same location and you need to have a field/court/whatever and your health. So you can see why people watch sports to vicariously enjoy themselves. How is going from watching someone play games on your computer to playing games on your computer the same?

      • @[email protected]
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        4 days ago

        Well, you need to buy the game, you need the hardware to be able to run the game especially if on PC and it’s a demanding game, some games are online only so if they’re a console player instead of PC then they need the annual membership also, also if it’s an online game then you might be able to do fine with random players but you may also need a serious group if you plan on ranking up in level. Watching gameplay at Grand Champion vs playing at Gold isn’t the same thing, and is usually less frustrating. Not to mention that highly ranked players can teach you how to improve and adapt in your own gameplay.

        When it comes to single player games, like speed running, I’d rather watch a clip of the one time a speed runner was able to pull off all sorts of tricks with near flawless execution and get the random chances of various things occurring required for a good time than play the same game for 20 hours a day for 3 years straight to maybe accomplish the same thing.

        Also, some people are just entertaining whether they’re playing a game or just waiting for a game to load. I may not agree with what others find entertaining, but it’s subjective so whatever. Others may have injuries maybe in their hands or nervous system preventing them from being able to play well, though it’s highly commendable for those that have found workarounds to be able to play (like rigged up controllers for their mouths or to workaround physical deformities preventing them from using a regular controller).

        I get why people play and why people watch for both videogames and sports.

  • Stern
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    115 days ago

    Because the dudes playing Football are the peak of talent and skill for it, and I don’t like getting concussions. The ones playing Minecraft et. al. are largely random dipshits who are good at being entertaining, not skillful at the game itself. Also I don’t get concussions from playing Fortnite, just brainrot.

    • @[email protected]
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      195 days ago

      random dipshits who are good at being entertaining

      Hmm, I wonder why someone would ever watch something entertaining… 🤦😂

    • GregorTacTac
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      145 days ago

      I assume you derived these conclusions from yourself and applied them to the entire playerbases of Minecraft and Fortnite.

      • Stern
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        5 days ago

        Good thing I didn’t say the entire playerbase (more particularly, the subset who streams) when I wrote my comment then huh?

        • GregorTacTac
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          25 days ago

          That makes more sense. You are correct about a lot of those streamers, not necessarily all of them but a majority.

          • @[email protected]
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            4 days ago

            I so agree. I mean I don’t watch streamers period because I don’t have patience for the ads, but my teen gets so excited every time he beats a streamer at any video game (or he beats a “college” team), I’m not going to piss on his campfire

    • @[email protected]
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      125 days ago

      Being skillful at some random computer game doesn’t fill anyone’s pockets.

      Being entertaining, however, brings in ridiculous amounts of cash, if you’re “the peak of talent and skill for it”.