Re: Games you prefer to watch others play

On Wed, 5 Feb 2025 13:55:28 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
wrote:

I've never been much of a spectator for games, sports included.  I far
prefer to play almost all of them.  I do enjoy some funny clips of Souls
games, occasionally watching vids of people who've never played them, or
watch things for spoilers/guides (generally I prefer text for the info
though it's getting harder to find.)  But still played far more hours of
those than I watched.
>
I've now come across the second game I prefer watching to playing,
actually enjoying watching it.
>
1) Untitled Goose Game - This is the first one.  I only played the demo,
but I could quite easily tell I didn't like actually playing it, too
much puzzles without a clue type stuff.  However shortly after playing
the demo I came across a video of someone playing it and really enjoyed
watching that.
>
2) Cuphead - I only played it briefly, I didn't like the old style
controls and platformer stuff where you had to remember a multitude of
buttons - jumping, dashing, slapping, firing and with 8-way controlled
by the same as direction of movement, super attack and ultimate attack,
as well as two different attacks to switch between.
>
However after setting up a family steam account for my son, he tried
this (his first game on that being Halo Infinite, which I didn't enjoy
watching, and he quit after an hour or two.)  I really enjoyed his
commentary and helping him notice things and giving ideas of what to try
when he was briefly stuck (not spoilers since I didn't play that far.) I
didn't watch the entire time, but I watched most of it.
>
Do you have any games you'd rather watch than play, and if so what are they?

I'm a fan of long-plays, which I often have running on the side
monitor as I work. I'm fairly catholic with what I watch; it can be
strategy, first-person, adventure... I'm not that picky. Usually it's
a game I've already played; a few times it's a game I'm interested in
but haven't gotten 'round to playing yet (it's how I discovered "The
Last of Us", for instance. The long-play showed off enough of the game
that I was convinced to buy the game. In fact, it convinced me to buy
a Playstation 3 ;-).

More important than what game I watch is the style of the video. I
absolutely cannot stand 'streaming gameplay', where the person playing
is doing it live (or recorded live), nattering away as they go through
the game. (Worst are those who scream in terror at jump scares; oh
gog, shut up shut up shut up!) A general rule for me is that, "If I
see a face (e.g., the head of the person playing superimposed over the
game), it's not for me." I much prefer long-plays that have been
edited, either with no commentary or thoughtful commentary that tells
me about the game itself. I'm not watching out of interest in the
personality of the player; I want to see the game.

I don't always watch to the end; no surprise, since even the best
edited games tend to take four or five hours to complete. I don't ever
feel obligated to watch the videos to their end (especially with games
I've already played); they're a diversion, not a main attraction.