Watching People Play Games

[Penfold]

I love it.

I've come to terms with the fact that if I spend my money on the Uncharteds and the Dead Spaces and the Batmans I will start them then realise I don't actually want to play them.

I can spend hours watching my housemate play Halo, he may think I'm weird or doing a silent protest to get him to turn it off and put the TV on but really I just like watching games. Mostly third person adventure types. I almost bought Arkham City but was satisfied watching someone stream themselves on justin.tv playing it.

Am I a wrong 'un?

Any good sites other than youtube walkthrough videos to watch gameplay? Any multiplayer games that have a voyeur mode or do I need to kill myself then wander round the map?

[glitch]

You're not alone, my housemate loves doing this. So far he's sat through most of Arkham Asylum, Fallout 3, Saints Row 2, Mass Effect, LA Noire and various FPS games. He's good at spotting stuff in Fallout because I can pause it as soon as he makes any noise but he's crap for spotting in online stuff.

It's funny you bring up the silent protest thing, I'm using his big telly in the living room and used to feel guilty about hogging it.

[Big Jack McBastard]

My mate used to like watching me battle against Through the Fire and Flames on Guitar Hero 3, the damn thing requires a tour de force of finger work to even scrape through, he was boggled the first few times. Same goes for Boom Boom Rocket in the later stages, anything with a bit of demanding co-ordination and memory had him hooked. Though granted most of the time both of us were high so that's like shooting fish in a barrel.

He also liked the look of Fallout 3 and Fable 2 but they're things he'd never play.

[biggytitbo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI3tsWus2KQ

[Mister Six]

I'm terrible at both watching and being watched when playing games. When watching I constantly want to shout out that people are doing it wrong ('No, you've been down this corridor before!' 'You missed the chest - turn back!' 'Block when he starts to glow blue then punch him!'), and when I'm not playing games I feel incredibly self-conscious that the people watching are either bored shitless or (when playing the likes of New Vegas and Deadly Premonition) appalled by the shit graphics.

[mcbpete]

I'm terrible at both watching and being watched when playing games .... I constantly want to shout out that people are doing it wrong .... when I'm not playing games I feel incredibly self-conscious that the people watching are either bored shitless or appalled by the shit graphics.

Yep, me too - I'm barely in the living room when my flat mates are in for exactly those reasons. I'd be less self conscious getting caught watching porn than playing on my PS3. That and all the games they have for their 360 appear to be overblown 3rd person yawn-em-ups.

[Big Jack McBastard]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI3tsWus2KQ

That was lovely, could watch that all day.

[turnstyle]

The quick looks on Giant Bomb are always fun:

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/3/

[rudi]

Not weird. Well, maybe, but then so am I.

I can watch people play for hours (although I couldn't watch it on youtube or somesuch, it has to be live and in the room).

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I love it, it's always been something I've found as involving as any other art form.

The amount of genuinely tense times where I've had everything clenched on someone elses behalf is uncountable. Oh and sometimes I've been nervous watching people play games.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I don't like other people watching me play RPGs- having another person in the room while playing Morrowind/Fallout etc puts into perspective how sad I'm being as a traipse across the map looking for a hidden item.

[Jemble Fred]

I have to take the crown here, as I spent very nearly 8 years, from Feb 2004 to a fortnight ago, as Production Editor on Xbox World magazine, my desk being the one right next to our massive 50-inch TV, on which pretty much every major Xbox/360 game of the last decade has been played out from start to end. I find it hard enough to find time to play games at the best of times, but it's more of a chore when you've seen most of the best games unfolding as you try and get on with your work.

Having said that, I do mean to finally start my own Red Dead Redemption game now I've taken voluntary redundancy. I just need to get over the horror of not earning money...

[Slaaaaabs]

The guys at the Yogscast put out a ton of great commentated gameplay, a lot of it is Minecraft but they tend to play the bigger new releases as well...

http://www.youtube.com/user/BlueXephos

The quick looks on Giant Bomb are always fun:

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/3/

Love watching them. Even the ones where they are frustratingly shit at the games are funny.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

When watching I constantly want to shout out that people are doing it wrong ('No, you've been down this corridor before!' 'You missed the chest

I'm exactly the same.

This is also the reason I don't go dogging.

[rudi]

Not the only reason, Hedwig...

[Junglist]

I did, up to the point where my cousin used to invite me round for a few beers, and all he'd do was sit there and play World of Warcraft, constantly telling me everything wonderful about the game, while I sat there in abject boredom, on the verge of smashing his skull in with his Gamecube. One plus point, it did make me exceptionally good at Mario Kart: Double Dash, being that it was the only game he owned that was worth playing. Hour after endless hour.

Luckily he's ended his addiction now, so I might well enjoy it again.

[biggytitbo]

That was lovely, could watch that all day.

It's weird because it's Indiana Jones playing a poor mans Indiana Jones and he's also a 70 year old man playing a computer game.

[momatt]

I love it.

You are the perfect girlfriend.

[VegaLA]

My Ex would watch me play games, she found it more entertaining than the gumpff on TV. I remember we made quite a night of it when I played GTA IV for the first time.

I've taken to watching people play games on YouTube lately, there are some great Dead Island vids out there and recently i've been enjoying Skyrim. I find it also helps with sosme game purchases as I don't trust any of the reviews.

[NoSleep]

Any multiplayer games that have a voyeur mode or do I need to kill myself then wander round the map?

Spectator mode is part of the Quake 3 game engine and all the mods that have been created for it, include a fair few free games; World Of Padman, Smoking Guns, Tremulous, Urban Terror & Open Arena; all downloadable. You can either float around like a ghost or click the mouse to choose which player's POV you observe the game via.

[Dark Sky]

I think it depends on who's playing.  Certainly I have one friend who is big on games and we've played many games together, usually horror ones, and both of us much prefer watching to controlling!  Many playthroughs of Silent Hills involving us throwing the controller to each other like some kind of reverse pass the parcel.  And usually me hiding my face behind a cushion.

Although I love games, there is definitely something extremely stressful about being in control, and the more involved I am in a game, the less I want the responsibility of it.  Whereas if someone else (who is capable) is playing, you can relax more, yet still feel part of the process of the game, as you can comment, suggest, and laugh along.  It's a lot of fun.

Conversely, watching LMC play through the first level of Bioshock where he spent most of the time looking down at the ground cooing at bits of newspaper on the floor whilst splicers crept up behind him to slit him open, was excruciatingly stressful.

[Obel]

I absolutely hate watching people play games. I'm pretty good at games in general so when I'm watching somebody else play my mind is on edge about all the stuff they're getting wrong or not doing as well as I would!

Also I love co-operative games, much rather be playing a game with a friend than alone. Sometimes a co-op mode alone can improve a game from average to great. And when I say co-op I mean on the same box, not over the internet.

I don't really like people watching me play either, just because I feel like I'm being a bore. Though my ex used to like watching me play games, I felt bad ever playing anything when she was around.

[Junglist]

Oddly, I get stressed when others watch me, and lose focus, hence why most of my top, top Trials HD runs have been done in the sanctity of my own squalid company.

[VegaLA]

Also I love co-operative games, much rather be playing a game with a friend than alone. Sometimes a co-op mode alone can improve a game from average to great.

YAY!

And when I say co-op I mean on the same box, not over the internet.

Boooooo!