Apparently watching people play video games is a thing - a BIG thing at which people make money. I knew of Pat and Jen and had only begun to grasp that they are now separated, which many children (including one of mine) took far too personally. I understood their appeal to kids who are learning a game and figuring out what one can do with it, and I understand the appeal of watching someone you already like, for other unrelated reasons, doing something via "live" video, be it gaming or whatever. I also understand a world where rival knitting sites have online wars and multiple social media accounts are devoted exclusively to publicizing images of the forehead of a single member of a Kpop act. However, I still struggle to understand the appeal of watching other people play a game that you could just as well be playing yourself. Are the games so astonishingly complex and interesting that watching them is like watching talented people play chess? Are we learning? Are the people who do it somehow far more intriguing and attractive than I am able to grasp from this distant vantage point, such that it makes perfect sense to pay them money to appear on video? Is this a more temperate, chaste echo of sites where people pay to chat with others for prurient purposes? Or is it a way of pretending to have friends of a sort, with whom you would hang out and play video games if only you weren't solitary and reclusive, or simply didn't want to have to get dressed and bathed? Perhaps this explains the exponential growth of such things during the pandemicc?
Anyway, I am wondering for how long this will be a lucrative enterprise, because I see a new and extremely lazy career beckoning to me. The amount of money the gentlemen of my own age spend on things like phone app games alone - not fun games, but horribly boring, Sisyphean games for which one must work and work tirelessly with the constant risk of senseless ruin if the wrong move is neglected. Maybe the allure of watching people play videogames is something vaguely akin to the fun of watching people play RPGs, if the players are amusing enough, but even then wouldn't it be more fun to be playing yourself? Or is it that so much time and effort has to be invested to get to a certain place in a game, that even if you're not really "learning how" to play by watching, you're "learning how" the game turns out if someone puts in that much extra? I don't know. I puzzle over it all but, as I say, it sounds like a nice job. The long-term financial security of the job seems limited?
Watching people play Video Games
Re: Watching people play Video Games
Why are so many adults in this country obsessed with watching umpteen hours of football every week? Why sit on your ass and watch a sport you could just as easily go out and play yourself? Why do we watch gymnasts? Or ballet? Why was I so taken with watching a whole season of that Lego competition, when I have literal buckets of Lego at my disposal that I could be playing with right now? Who watches golf or bowling? These are sports that anyone can do without needing a ton of people or even breaking a sweat. How can there be so many shows about baking things? Do you know how many podcasts and YouTube channels out there are dedicated to hearing other people play roleplaying games? What's the point of devoting hours to that when you could just play D&D yourself?
I'm baffled by a lot of these things, and don't really see the appeal a lot of times, but my best guess is that people like watching highly skilled people doing things that they themselves cannot.
Then there are the people like PewDiePie and Markiplier and Jacksepticeye and a whole host of others who are more casual gamers. Some of them are truly horrible humans. Others are not. In my limited experience, what I think they all have is the ability to entertain as they play. And the best ones have the ability to make you feel like a part of something special while you watch them. A community thing. I've watched enough of them to know that there is some real entertainment in there. Usually not so much the gameplay, but the running commentary that goes with it. It's not entertainment I ever actively seek out, but I get the appeal.
But my kids also dig high end, super skilled gameplay. They try to explain to me why the speed-run or kill-combo or whatever is so impressive, but I am not familiar enough with modern video games to really appreciate it.
Bottom line though, I imagine it takes as much effort, time, skill, talent, and pure dumb luck to make real money in this line of work as it does in art or sport or music or acting or writing, etc. I know I couldn't do it.
I'm baffled by a lot of these things, and don't really see the appeal a lot of times, but my best guess is that people like watching highly skilled people doing things that they themselves cannot.
Then there are the people like PewDiePie and Markiplier and Jacksepticeye and a whole host of others who are more casual gamers. Some of them are truly horrible humans. Others are not. In my limited experience, what I think they all have is the ability to entertain as they play. And the best ones have the ability to make you feel like a part of something special while you watch them. A community thing. I've watched enough of them to know that there is some real entertainment in there. Usually not so much the gameplay, but the running commentary that goes with it. It's not entertainment I ever actively seek out, but I get the appeal.
But my kids also dig high end, super skilled gameplay. They try to explain to me why the speed-run or kill-combo or whatever is so impressive, but I am not familiar enough with modern video games to really appreciate it.
Bottom line though, I imagine it takes as much effort, time, skill, talent, and pure dumb luck to make real money in this line of work as it does in art or sport or music or acting or writing, etc. I know I couldn't do it.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Watching people play Video Games
Yes to both of these. You learn techniques by watching. If it's a strategy based game, you start to learn how professionals rank characters, equipment, in-game objects to gain the maximum value. Magic the Gathering has had games streamed for years now, and the fact that there are video game versions of it available now make it flashier and easier for people to both stream and tune in to watch going on. I've certainly picked up skills from watching this values. For example, in a draft event, many content creators will not just pick the cards they want, but tell you why they pick one card over another. This is especially helpful to understand why a weaker card may be selected because of synergies that exist with other cards. Or during a game, you may make a play that seems sub-optimal in the short run, but you are waiting for a long-term solution and need to understand how to make the more patient play.
But let's steer away from that and move to another game. Did you know that a lot of modern day video games with storylines have scripts that far exceed the length of your typical big-budget movie? Actually, did you know that their overall budgets often rival those of typical movies? They're made to be stories that are more interactive than those of movies. But what if you want to get into the lore of Assassin's Creed (first title that jumped in mind)? You have a laptop, but your PC is designed to be a gaming rig. You don't own the console the game is made for. But you want to be involved in the story. Well, you can read a plot summary on Wikipedia or GameFAQS, but that's really not exciting. You can purchase the things you need to update your computer, or you can go out and purchase the console and the game - either option is likely to cost you a couple hundred dollars. And then there is a time investment of learning how to play the game, obtain the skills in the games, deal with making a lot of games etc. If you're not interested in the gameplay experience, but you really want to find out about the story... seems like watching some YouTube videos is a satisfying way to get that fix. And if you make some money off of that, more power to you! Or, if you pay someone to do that - then you're paying someone for creating content. Good on you!
Re: Watching people play Video Games
Okay, I think I understand now: in addition to the "being entertained if the person doing the talking is entertaining", there is also an aspect of learning or watching a skilled player, and furthermore, access to things you wouldn't be able to easily see or experience if you didn't watch someone else doing it. So these things do make sense to me, in the same way that you might want to watch a good chess player, or like Mike's example of golf.
What remains puzzling to me about these things is that I would almost always rather play something myself than watch someone else do it for me, even when that person is an expert. It's like, you watch the expert to learn something, but then you want to go apply it, right? I've watched golf on TV and it's interesting to see how professionals play, but I can't see wanting to watch it for more time than I would invest in playing, if that makes sense. I watch cooking shows, but it's because I want to eat things I like, and learn more, and I would not want to watch people cook more than I am cooking myself. This example speaks to me because my kid watches baking shows and I'm like, OK, now that you've seen it, which things are we going to try? Do we need tools? Ingredients? She's baffled, like why would she be attempting to bake something in real life? I am equally baffled at her bafflement, like why wouldn't we want to EAT a thing instead of wishing we could eat it?
It's kind of the opposite of things like football, because I literally cannot play football. I like to watch football, certain Olympic events, etc specifically because I could never do those things even if I tried, and it's awesome to see people do it. But like, I can play Animal Crossing on my own, you know? And people PAY to watch other people play Animal Crossing! So I'm like, okay, why not pay me? I will let you watch. I am not willing to sell access to everything, but to my Animal Crossing escapades? Prostitute me and let the cash rain down!
What remains puzzling to me about these things is that I would almost always rather play something myself than watch someone else do it for me, even when that person is an expert. It's like, you watch the expert to learn something, but then you want to go apply it, right? I've watched golf on TV and it's interesting to see how professionals play, but I can't see wanting to watch it for more time than I would invest in playing, if that makes sense. I watch cooking shows, but it's because I want to eat things I like, and learn more, and I would not want to watch people cook more than I am cooking myself. This example speaks to me because my kid watches baking shows and I'm like, OK, now that you've seen it, which things are we going to try? Do we need tools? Ingredients? She's baffled, like why would she be attempting to bake something in real life? I am equally baffled at her bafflement, like why wouldn't we want to EAT a thing instead of wishing we could eat it?
It's kind of the opposite of things like football, because I literally cannot play football. I like to watch football, certain Olympic events, etc specifically because I could never do those things even if I tried, and it's awesome to see people do it. But like, I can play Animal Crossing on my own, you know? And people PAY to watch other people play Animal Crossing! So I'm like, okay, why not pay me? I will let you watch. I am not willing to sell access to everything, but to my Animal Crossing escapades? Prostitute me and let the cash rain down!
Re: Watching people play Video Games
But if you're having people pay to watch you play simple games then you generally need to be extremely entertaining in some way while you do it. More than that you have to do a ton of networking and self-promotion. You have to watch a lot of other streamers and interact with them. And you probably have to go through all of your own videos so you can edit them into highlight reels for YouTube and other platforms in order to draw people in. Plus a bunch of stuff I wouldn't begin to imagine.
My son works his ass off as a Twitch streamer. He's driven and dedicated and far more charming than I could hope to be. He does the networking. He builds and manages online communities. He has high end equipment in his home. But it's all part-time. He has a real job, so this is his hobby-time. He was playing the games and running the communities anyway, so why not try to monetize it? After all that, he makes enough money each month to almost pay his internet bill. Well worth it to him, but not life-changing, quit-your-job money.
My son works his ass off as a Twitch streamer. He's driven and dedicated and far more charming than I could hope to be. He does the networking. He builds and manages online communities. He has high end equipment in his home. But it's all part-time. He has a real job, so this is his hobby-time. He was playing the games and running the communities anyway, so why not try to monetize it? After all that, he makes enough money each month to almost pay his internet bill. Well worth it to him, but not life-changing, quit-your-job money.
Any time the solution is "banjo rifle", I'm in 100%.
Re: Watching people play Video Games
Dude your KID does this???!! Okay, I need to see it! Is it, like, safe-for-work, in the sense that work happens with an audience of my kids now? You are making this whole letting-people-pay-you to play games sound like WORK, and worse yet, like work that requires technical abilities and equipment. What kind of dream-killing nonsense is this? I want to see him do it though. I'm not even going to notice the whole "you have to entertain people" requirement because that's unreasonable on its face.