Always struck me as hypocritical that watching movies was always put on a pedestal as if sitting around for 2 hours mindlessly consuming the latest Tom Cruise flick is any more productive than playing a video game. At least there is brain activity involved with gaming.
watching movies was always put on a pedestal
TIL
At least in my experience, parents seem to criticise their children playing video games, whilst watching TV themselves. In fact I'd rather my children play video games than binge Netflix or mindlessly scroll TikTok or watch YT etc.
Yeah I never heard a parent put movies "on a pedestal" and in fact watching TV/movies was only slightly less criticized in my house growing up
As a kid I'd use that against my parents when I had to get off my SNES. They'd be all like, "quit playing games, you'll rot your brain", and if be like, "How is this any different than watching TV?". It never worked but today I feel a little vindicated.
Sort of ironically, my first real world full time job, when I got hired, the owner had asked if I played video games, and he was then later telling a bunch of people that he thought I'd be smart and good with computers, drawing a correlation to gaming. Idk if his thought process was correct, but I am decently bright and I am pretty good with computers, so that's something.
drawing a correlation to gaming
A lot of PC gaming at the time required a level of computer literacy that generations on either side would associate with compsci students, or at least dedicated hobbyists. If you didn’t specify a console, that may’ve been his assumption.
There's brain activity involved in watching movies too*. Just because you're not changing it doesn't mean that you're not emotionally and intellectually engaged.
You're right that gaming as an art form and pastime doesn't get the respect that it's due compared to the ones that were already popular when boomers were kids, though..
*even if it's one that stars Kevin James, Rob Schneider or Adam Sandler in his signature role "Angry Dumb Guy"
I don't mind playing but watching sports is boring AF.
I agree that just watching a random sport or 2 random teams can be boring. It becomes interesting when you feel a connection to the team or athlete. If you go and watch live, it also becomes a community thing.
Personally, I used to train football (soccer) in my local team in a small town and everyone basically knew all the players.
Football becomes more interesting when you throw a beer can at a player, who also works at a pizzeria, and he takes a sip and throws it back.
That took a weird turn at the end there.
I'm the opposite. All the focus on the people and the random facts of their lives and trying to constantly manufacture some sort of sob underdog story around various players is boring.
I can appreciate a good game, one that's close and exciting and played with skill, but the whole sports culture and focus often feels like celebrity gossip, but for men.
Which is also why esports are boring to me too, despite my love of video games (and even watching people play video games, like let's plays). Esports just brings that whole sports culture and it's a huge turn off for me.
Same here. I never got the appeal either.
Of course it's been a major popular interest during a lot of human civilisation (chariot races in the roman world werea huge thing), so we're visibly not in the majority.
Yea but most of human civilization didn't have easy access to futa porn, so it's not like they had anything better to do with their time.
I'm not into sports or futa porn. What can I do with my time? :(
Stare at the wall like usual, I guess
You could participate in the other beloved human pastimes:
I am a sports fan, so take my opinion with the bias it deserves. I find that sports have a decent learning curve, understanding the rules of the game and how players and teams are doing things within those rules is fun and interesting to watch. Sports is also based on a foundation of vested interest. For me, my vested interest is watching teams whom I have grown up supporting, for others, it's gambling and having a win case to cheer for.
If you don't know much about the sport and have no reason to cheer for something, I can absolutely see why people would find sports boring.
I played football 🏈 in middle school and high school. Watching it is okay to me but I won’t do it voluntarily.
Even worse, if I’m forced to watch sports too many times I go crazy wanting to play. In my 20s , friends were into World Cup ⚽️, and day off, sunny outside, cool breeze, and we’re in a bar watching a game on TV. I snap and start going to pickup soccer games in the city. Same thing in my late 30s: my sons peewee football games drive me crazy, and I have to start joining local rugby league practices.
Finally, in my early 40s, I had the money to do a dream: motorcycle racing. But it’s so hard to get to do it even with enough money: join club, wait for track day and so on. I was still trying to lose weight to buy one of those back-protector suits when I discover Moto GP. And suddenly, something clicked. I finally understood how some people can watch sports. I never did made it to the track, but I can watch a motorcycle race on TV and really enjoy it. Without going crazy.
Let other people enjoy things.
My 5 years old can make 100 push ups, if nobody looks.
Even wolves lmao really tried to act like a kid there
I'd rather play (the real) football, than watch it, and I don't even like it.
Watching is also free
Yes your 5 year old nephew is very insightful
"That's not the same!"
It really isn't. If you want to play sports, you need people to be at the same location and you need to have a field/court/whatever and your health. So you can see why people watch sports to vicariously enjoy themselves. How is going from watching someone play games on your computer to playing games on your computer the same?
Well, you need to buy the game, you need the hardware to be able to run the game especially if on PC and it's a demanding game, some games are online only so if they're a console player instead of PC then they need the annual membership also, also if it's an online game then you might be able to do fine with random players but you may also need a serious group if you plan on ranking up in level. Watching gameplay at Grand Champion vs playing at Gold isn't the same thing, and is usually less frustrating. Not to mention that highly ranked players can teach you how to improve and adapt in your own gameplay.
When it comes to single player games, like speed running, I'd rather watch a clip of the one time a speed runner was able to pull off all sorts of tricks with near flawless execution and get the random chances of various things occurring required for a good time than play the same game for 20 hours a day for 3 years straight to maybe accomplish the same thing.
Also, some people are just entertaining whether they're playing a game or just waiting for a game to load. I may not agree with what others find entertaining, but it's subjective so whatever. Others may have injuries maybe in their hands or nervous system preventing them from being able to play well, though it's highly commendable for those that have found workarounds to be able to play (like rigged up controllers for their mouths or to workaround physical deformities preventing them from using a regular controller).
I get why people play and why people watch for both videogames and sports.
My 5yo loves video game videos on YouTube.
Particularly Mario Odyssey hacks. But also getting into the real difficult Mario Maker courses
Kid has completely destroyed up my YouTube algorithm. It's part of the reason I signed up for nebula.
He loves playing games too, though.
Still I wish I could get him off YouTube. There's so much crap on there and he doesn't know what's what. He knows now he's not allowed to watch YouTube without an adult in the room, but even when I'm in there, I don't know what the hell is going to be in the video that he clicks. There's no TV-Y7 or TV-G ratings on YouTube. And there's so many lies and fake stuff. Kid was heartbroken when he found out that a Mario Movie 2 trailer was a hoax.
Kid has completely destroyed up my YouTube algorithm. It's part of the reason I signed up for nebula.
Just FYI you can either use YouTube kids, or just make another account to easily keep separate profiles.
There's no TV-Y7 or TV-G ratings on YouTube.
YouTube kids is.
It's a sport now, so watching to learn how to improve your skills makes sense. I must admit, I have recently begun to enjoy watching videos of people playing Rust, but I have only played it a couple times and did horribly. Until I get the time to commit to playing for hours on end to sharpen my skills to achieve the results they do, I am just enjoying watching the journeys. I must note, growing up when my brother and I would rent video games from BlockBuster, he would always choose 1 player games like Metal Gear Solid, so I became accustomed to spectating.
it is not just that. watching someone play a game (be it video games, sports or board games, whatever) is different from watching them watch a movie or read a book. games can be experienced in unique ways, and once you get the experience yourself you may enjoy saying other people experience it in different ways. sharing fun is nothing to be ashamed of.
the only thing to watch out for is not letting the filter of enjoying something through other people's enjoyment be a replacement for you enjoying things on your own in general. you should be able to do that for your own benefit.
I think there’s a lot of skill in what people do to make a video game and I can appreciate that.
A lot of people watch sports for the same reason that they appreciate skill.
It’s really not that big of a stretch in comparison. I’m actually surprised I’ve had to connect these exact same dots for a lot of sports fans. You can argue physical skill but on the flipside with games There’s the story. There’s the art. There’s the code.
This is why I liked the mythic quest series. It drives home that there’s people (a lot of people) plugging away behind the scenes to make some masterpieces
Same with watching movies. Cinematography, acting, directing, story, effects. Many human made things involving skill, teamwork and effort to appreciate in our life surrounding us.
And we listen to music for these same reasons too. We don’t just go out and have to make music just to be enthralled by it.
I don't watch or play sports.
This clearly means I win in some manner or other.
I play my games, don't ever watch Twitch, or sports. What would his rebuttal to me be?
"You like to watch actors act, why don't you go act." Or more generally "You like to watch X performer perform Y, why don't you go perform Y."
Spectating and performing are two categorically different activities.
Or simply "Don't yuck my yum, asshole."
If you're watching actors act to enjoy their acting, you're weird
I watch gandalf fight demons because I can't
Put me in the ring with a balrog, please god it would be way cooler than watching it in CGI
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