Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected].
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
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.