For me, it is any city/building construction game like City Skylines, Two Point Hospital, Planet Zoo etc.
Speed runs to games I know how to play.
That’s basically like watching sports. Sure I can play tennis, but watching professionals play is more entertaining.
Do I really want to see how shit I am at a game? Lol
Speed runners ain’t even playing the same game, it’s fascinating to watch.
Don’t gotta bring your ego into it, it’s a single player video game lmao
I’m from an Era when most games were single player and didn’t hardly have any sort of story. The only reason you played those games was for the challenge of beating them. You didn’t play Mike Tysons Punch Out for a story. You played it to try an beat Mike Tyson and win the game.
I started playing games on MS-DOS. Lol.
I understand enjoying the challenge of a single player game.
Speed runners are doing an entirely different thing. It’s an art form.
But you like what you like. If you don’t like it, that’s no business of mine.
Most horror games. My startle threshold is through the floor, even when I know a jumpscare is coming it still gets me a lot of the time. I also hate feeling panicked and chased.
Imo horror games are best enjoyed in a group anyway. Get the ballsy yolo friend to stream for everyone else
Hot potato couch co-op is the best, because you can jumpscare your friends irl before the game does it and laugh about it, then everyone laughs harder when the game scares the crap out of you…
I’m the same way. I think it has to do with being the one who has to make the decision to keep moving forward as opposed to just passively observing
ManlyBadassHero anyone?
Same. I love watching people play games like Amnesia or the SCP ones, but I could never play them myself.
Anything with a mechanic where every choice matters and will affect the next 50 hours of gameplay, and where it’s possible to choose wrong. That’s a lot of pressure, and I’d rather someone else deal with that.
Also, anything that’s 100 hours of gameplay and 10 hours of story.
None.
I have absolutely no interest in watching someone else play a video game, excluding short clips of gameplay to get a feel for the mechanics.
I was talking to a friend about a parallel topic yesterday, regarding movies/TV shows about video games. I argued that it’s like watching porn when you can be having sex - I’d much rather be in control than watching an idiot fuck it all up.
In porn, don’t you WANT them to fuck it all up???
“oh no baby, I’m cumming so hard I just sharted on the dog” as the dog starts to bite the guys sack, the camera falls over, she’s screaming and he’s losing a heavy amount of blood, the emergency services arrive and the video ends with their OnlyFans link
And I’m like “…and I paid pornhub for THIS?”
You know for a god dang fact that’s someone’s kink.
Lmfao
I watched some gameplay of Shattered Pixel Dungeon, just to help me not suck at it. It’s a roguelike with a damned steep learning curve. 25 short dungeon levels to get through and it took me like 42 attempts before the first time I beat it.
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Starcraft. I still love playing through the campaigns and coop, but I don’t have the time or energy to keep up with the 1v1 anymore. Used to play it a ton back before Legacy of the Void, but you basically have to treat that game like a second job in order to be competitive and not get destroyed most of the time. I remember going like 3-4 days without playing back then and it’d take me 3-5 hours to get back up to my usual level of play.
It’s still a lot of fun to watch pros or high level players play the game though, at least IMO.
This completely. I miss playing, but I have a job and responsibilities and not enough time to practice or follow the meta. Love watching really skilled players play though.
This is how I feel about Ultima Online. I played 20 years ago as a teen…I do NOT have the time for it now.
Not a Starcraft player, but in my experience (Age of Empires, Overwatch) the solution is to stop caring about your rank and just focus on improving where you can.
Oh I agree, I play Overwatch casually and couldn’t care less about my rank, in fact I exclusively play quick play even after 150 hours. But Starcraft is inherently competitive to me due to its 1v1 focus and even without caring about my rank I still find it too stressful and hard to play without a ton of time invested. When I do play it, I prefer to play the campaigns or coop. 1v1 is too time consuming even without caring about rank and only playing unranked.
I typically don’t watch playthrough videos, but I would say games that require more time or skill than I can offer. If the video creator can take a long, challenging game, and make a video of the highlights and random silly things they encountered while cutting out the monotony that happens in between, I’ll enjoy the video.
For example, Elden Ring. I played it for an hour and decided it wasn’t for me, but the kids will watch Elden Ring videos, and I’ll watch with them and learn about and experience that game without wasting my time playing something I don’t enjoy.
Age of Empires 2. It’s like watching a live chess match. The more I learn about the game, the more my own gameplay feels clumsy. Thankfully, the aoe community is larger than ever, even though it’s been 20 years since release.
The same goes for me and Total War. I love battle strategy but I am just no good at it haha. Some of my favorite streamers will occasionally play them, which is good enough for me
DauT is my spirit animal
Competitive games and broken games (in the se se that there are glitches that can be expolited for fun)
I’ll never be on that level, So i prefer to watch them.
imo you don’t have to be good at those games to still enjoy them. I loved playing counter strike, and I never made it out of the lowest possible rank.
Yeah, i agree. I fact i play Rocket League casually with friend. But seeing people playing in another level it’s like seeing another dimension of the game that always surprises me and i never expect what may happen.
that’s fair and understandable
for a bit a few years ago i watched a ton of minecraft experts create very advanced things that i never would’ve been able to. eventually i had seen enough.
You know what I did in minecraft? I dug a hole. Then I dug it downwards. It was like 60x60. Just a square hole. And next to it was a tall tower. I’d get that cobblestone from diging, and used it to build a tower. Then at the top of the tower I built a sky highway using cobblestone roads, and track.
I want actual trains in minecraft. Old timey steam trains. But a minecart and redstone is all I have.
You know what I did in minecraft?
Yes, I actually knew that.
I read the first two sentences and diggy diggy hole started playing in my head. Thank you for that. I haven’t decided if I’m being sarcastic yet.
Dig a tunnell, dig dig a tunnel.
Dig a tunnell, dig dig a tunnel.
Dig a tunnell, dig dig a tunnel.
Quick before the hyeenas cum!!!
Hmm.
I think that there are a couple of ways to look at this.
First, there’s just casually looking over someone’s shoulder.
I haven’t done this for many years now, but I don’t enjoy playing jumpscare games – don’t enjoy being startled – but I don’t mind watching someone else play one, can enjoy the story.
I was, years back, at least okay at FPSes, but never outstanding. I had a friend who was really solid and didn’t mind having people side-seat driving, and I enjoyed that.
Second, there’s outright collaborative play, but where one person has the controls. I think that this often comes up a fair bit with adventure games – I read about a number of guys talk about playing a game with their wife, but where they’re doing the clicking. Adventure games aren’t much about the control, but figuring things out and experiencing the story. I think that the experience watching and thinking it through here can be pretty comparable to playing. Maybe more fun if there are some tedious bits that you can just skip.
Third, there are professional streamers. That’s a whole 'nother ball of wax.
Cataclysm: Dark Days has some streamers like Vormithrax that amount to being the tutorial to the game for many players, because it’s so stupendously complicated and ever-changing, and he verbally walks through what he’s doing.
There are e-sports players. I don’t really like playing Starcraft or DoTA 2 multiplayer, but I can enjoy watching a presented event.
I understand that there are some “gamer girl” streamers; obviously there are people who enjoy that. I’ve never looked into it, but I imagine that it could be entertaining in a way that the game alone isn’t.
I remember once watching a fighter pilot watch an arcade-ish air combat game (IIRC either something in the Ace Combat or Project Wingman series). They were commenting on tactics, realism, and plane capabilities. Again, interesting in a way that the game itself isn’t.
Jump scare games, definitely. And survival horror, like that Alien game where you walk around and hide. Yeesh. Stuff like that. Also racing sims.
Elden Ring and most other soulslikes - I don’t have the skill, time or will to “git gud” at them, but they are a beautiful spectacle and a joy to watch, especially when watching someone who plays really well.
Dwarf fortress, I love to see how and what people build and the emergent chaotic stories when a giant or vampire or whatever shows up.
Literally none. I enjoy interactive entertainment much more than passive consumption.
Any of the 4x/grand strategy type games (e.g., Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron, Civilization). I don’t really enjoy the menu management of some of those games and the density of information and mechanics is anxiety inducing. However the emergent narrative those games provide really interests me so watching someone else play is the best way to access what I enjoy about those games.
