Why do you like/dislike game streaming?

As southernman pointed out, I created a thread talking about your favorite/disliked streams where I told you not to spend a huge amount of time just bashing game streaming generally. I am fine with everyone talking about how much they hate/like streaming on TWBG! I just didn't want that thread drowning in that signal/noise ratio because I know how much many of you hate streaming which I thought was the most likely result.

I like game streaming. I usually use it in the background at work if I'm doing something mindless. If I'm doing real talk part of it is because I mostly interact with my coworkers and my wife in person day to day---I have plenty of friends but we are fragmented around the country and mostly text. It feels good to me to hear a friendly voice doing something I like in the background, it gives me low key good vibes and, yes, parasocial relationship vibes.

On why game streaming, it's probably because I love game mechanisms and I like to watch game mechanisms work even when I am not playing.

Do you and why do you like/dislike game streaming?

I'm not part of the generations that really embrace streamers. I get that my opinion is very "get off my lawn", but it just doesn't appeal to me.

If I had to single out one thing that annoys me, it probably doesn't apply to table top streaming, but rather for video games. It incenses me when these streamers are playing something, and something happens in the game, and their reaction is so dialed up to 11, it's like the moon exploded.

I get that they are all following whatever formula has been laid out for them, and they think that every emotion has to be over the top or it doesn't rate. But I can't stand it.

Like I tell my kids, I come from the generation where multiplayer meant everyone siting on a couch and waiting to play the winner and you really didn’t want to be the one watching instead of playing.

But oddly, I had a friend back in the late 90s/early ‘00s that didn’t like playing games at all but he loved to sit and watch me play through RE3 or whatever. He would literally bring the game over (rented) and get me to play it through. I imagine he is all into streaming now.

I don’t understand the point of watching board game streams at all. I kind of get it with RPGs because they are often professional actors doing improv and some folks like that kind of thing. But I am mostly in Mark’s get off my lawn camp here.

I don't like that sort of streamer---"screamer" colloquially---at all either.

I think another thing that put me into it was two extremely lonely years of driving twenty hours a week back and forth to my job. It meant that about 8 months out of the year I was by myself without too many friends for 3-4 days out of the week. So that's how I got into streaming, but I still watch it now that my life is back to normal isolationwise.

I generally dislike it because I can read more quickly than most people talk, so receiving information via streaming is at more of a plodding pace. Especially since the kind of people who do streaming seem to be the kind of people who express themselves in a rambling and tedious manner. The slow pace makes it less interesting than most other uses of my free time, but requires enough of my attention to make multi-tasking less viable. I can't listen to music while listening to streaming. I can't look at other sites or I miss the visuals of the streaming game. And due to the rambling, it just goes on an on for longer than I can endure.

I don’t typically watch any live streams.

I sometimes watch the EVO Fighting Championships. The live energy is pretty hype, and the tension is very high. The bracket structure creates a great story of comebacks, underdogs, and unlikely Cinderella stories. It’s similar to the super bowl or World Series, except it is compressed into a long weekend instead of the greater part of a year.

I do watch the edited-down videos of a Clash Royale streamer. The live stream (which I’ve checked out) is less focused and more just hanging out. Which is fine, but I don’t really have time for that. The edited videos that he posts to YouTube are a good source of strategies and tips. Plus, he’s funny and my kid likes watching with me, so it’s something we can do together.

For board games, it’s not really my thing. I used to watch the Wil Wheaton Tabletop show; which was fine but also heavily edited to remove downtime. I’d rather learn how to play from a text article, ditto for strategies.

I like it. I always have. It's a fulfillment of a wish I had in my late teens, where I said, out loud, "If there was a TV show that just showed good people playing STREET FIGHTER 2, I would watch it every day. "

And now I can watch it every day.

I don't watch anyone that yells. I watch Zetalot, a quiet Polish guy that plays extremely high level Hearthstone, with a singular commitment to one Hero I have to respect. He also has great taste in music, and that helps a lot. I watch Brian Kibler play HS sometimes too, but maybe 10-15 minutes a month these days. He's in the "Youtube Face" realm a lot these days.

I watch Street Fighter (V now, not 2). Smug is genuinely hilarious. There's a lot of joy there, in the game and in his play.

I like to watch folks play Soulsborne games, especially for the first time, and seeing them get absolutely wrecked.

I don't watch any organized sports, really, but I can see my stream-viewing as a similar sentiment. Watching someone more skilled than I do something I can do. I can throw a ball, but I can't pitch. I can skate, but I can't play NHL hockey. I can play Hearthstone, but I can't be Rank 1 Legend, especially with the handicap of only playing Priest.

I even stream! You can just hit the little share button on the PS4 and it just works. Rare, but it does happen, that an actual human will watch an old doofus play SPELUNKY 2 or THE WITNESS.

That said, I do have concerns about my 10yo, who is in his "Must Watch British Men Play Minecraft" phase. I hope this ends soon.

I have actually watched the odd game stream, not live and only of games I'm interested in. Sometimes the actual gameplay and/or the banter means I'll watch more of it than I normally do as, basically, I do have a lot more interesting things (to me) most of the time ... but I do do it .

jeb wrote: I even stream! You can just hit the little share button on the PS4 and it just works. Rare, but it does happen, that an actual human will watch an old doofus play SPELUNKY 2 or THE WITNESS.

Discord is fun with this feature, you can stream what you're doing on you PC at any time just to other people in the Discord or more broadly. My brother likes watching games more than playing them so we did it a couple times and chatted about stuff while I think I played something boring, Stellaris maybe.

The thing I like about board game streaming is that I’ll learn far more about the interaction and fun on offer in fifteen minutes than I’ll ever learn in the same amount of time in a wavy-hands-game-shelf review. If there is a game I am interested in then I’ll watch the middle segment of Vasel if available as he does a great job of distilling the basic flow of play into just a couple of minutes, then I’ll look for a gameplay session and watch that for fifteen minutes or so post any opening rules waffle. It’s very rare that I’ll watch a whole game, most likely with something really niche on Heavy Cardboard that I’ll never really own - I’ve done that a couple of times while cooking or doing mundane chores.

Video game play throughs are significantly better and more informative than any review I’ve seen, but I really don’t play those much anyway. It’s a process I sometimes go through in order to talk myself out of buying something. My kids are obsessed with a streamer who plays impossible fan-created levels and otherwise tries to break games, I can’t stand it as he’s dialled up to eleven but they find it funny so I figure it’s just generational stuff.

I think stuff like people trying to play QWOP is objectively funny, but otherwise I'd never watch someone play a game when I could be playing the game myself.

Streaming 'personalities' drive me nuts; I'm also not the target demo. I get my parasocial fix from The Last Podcast On The Left.

I used to watch recorded WoW boss fights sometimes, especially if they were complicated fights like Lady Vashj, or if I was going to be raid leader. These were more how-to, though, rather than for entertainment.

As for streaming boardgames or video games, it's usually just not my thing. Wil Wheaton's show is an exception, but that's not far removed from improv IMO.

southernman wrote: I have actually watched the odd game stream, not live and only of games I'm interested in. Sometimes the actual gameplay and/or the banter means I'll watch more of it than I normally do as, basically, I do have a lot more interesting things (to me) most of the time ... but I do do it .

Ha ha - this is brilliant , I just realised that everyone seems to be talking about video gaming streaming - probably the actual topic is about that as well - and I was talking about a boardgame stream ... classic out of touch non-video gamer here.

Firmly in the Screaming at Clouds camp here. I see no point in watching a stream when I could be playing it myself. I'll watch how-to type videos for sections of a game I'm on...maybe.

My wife will gladly watch me play a game for hours which I find odd. I feel guilty that she is passively consuming the game and not playing. It is a weird aspect of our relationship that I am still getting used to.

Boardgame streaming.....that is drying paint level of interest for me. I suppose if I was into chess or Go, it would be different.

I don’t watch much board game streaming, but I do watch some.

I enjoy Calandale, for instance, but more for listening to his stream of thought than the games themselves.

I also find it relaxing to listen to other people doing things or having quiet conversation.