I’ve watched some here and there, but having to try to catch them when they stream has put me too much in the mind of old tv and catching shows when they air. Watching the recording afterward is maybe good for some white noise, but it’s clearly not the intended experience I think.
10 years ago I was like “why tf would I want to watch someone play a video game when I could just play it myself?”
Now I’m like “why tf would I play this game when I could just watch someone else?”
I guess I’m still interested in what’s going on in gaming in general, but I don’t have any desire to go through all the bullshit of a modern AAA game with a huge repetitive open world, dozens of half assed shallow mechanics (rpg/perk system, loot, crafting etc.), homogenized design, predatory DLC/mtx, and all that. I’d rather play Factorio and watch a streamer play whatever hot new game people are into.
This is another huge aspect of why I watch streamers. I love games, but some just aren’t for me. It’s great to get to experience something I normally wouldn’t with a community hyping it up and what not. Great point.
At this point, I know there are so, so, so, so, SO many good games out there from 1977 onwards that I can just play whenever, that I lost interest in checking out new games. Maybe for the graphics, but unless there’s a quantum leap in gaming (like, Matrix-like immersion without the dying), then I’m not interested.
And I don’t exaggerate when I say 1977. Have you played Atari 2600’s Phoenix? Shit is addictive!
Plus all the hundreds of thousands of homebrews.