Falstaff
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Twitch.tv
- Thread starter Mick
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Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Speedrunnering is a subset along the lines the pro sports and skill aspect, but its still unbelievably cringe(just look at how many trannies infest the speedrunning community). Titties are titties so no surprise there.
Everyone else though? Some douchebag streaming a lets play of the flavor of the month game? Douche A talking to Douche b c and d while playing the flavor of the month game? Zero difference between him and you. Their popularity is akin to winning the lotto. There are a few true standouts like Kitboga or dare I say codemiko....
As for why its popular with people in general, IMO its like friends as a service. You can find someone who supposedly has the same humor as you do, into the same things you are. You can turn them on and be "apart" of their social experience whenever you want and even be elevated within the social circle by throwing a few bucks at them. All of that any time you want and the second you dont like it you can remove them from your life and go find someone else who better suits you.
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Yeah I actually have never really wanted to be a sports player, and I definitely dont have the build/talent for it either, but I like actually playing games myself. This really wasn't a shitpost trying to talk shit or troll, I just dont understand the overall popularity, but then again there's a ton of stuff about the internet in general that I don't understand.
My daughters generally watch someone play through an entire game and then tell me they want to buy that exact game, it's like: Why play something you literally JUST watched in its entirety IDK..... I can definitely understand the appeal of some streamers personality-wise, but the only thing I find myself watching here and there are music producers. And I only do that to find things that may help my workflow and/or process.
My daughters generally watch someone play through an entire game and then tell me they want to buy that exact game, it's like: Why play something you literally JUST watched in its entirety IDK..... I can definitely understand the appeal of some streamers personality-wise, but the only thing I find myself watching here and there are music producers. And I only do that to find things that may help my workflow and/or process.
Khane
Got something right about marriage
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I tend to watch lower viewer streams of people who are knowledgeable about whatever game I might be currently playing, to gain a better understanding of that game and whatever mechanics it has that may not be obvious.
Low viewer streamers tend to be very responsive to questions asked in their chats
Low viewer streamers tend to be very responsive to questions asked in their chats
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spronk
FPS noob
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The phenomenon is called parasocial relationship, you essentially build a false relationship with a streamer / instagram influencer / twitter user / whatever and one or both of you start to believe you are really friends who know each other, are there for each other, etc. Usual friendship stuff. There is a bit of an actual oxytocin hit (similar to love) when the streamer mentions your name. The more deeper and deeper you involve yourself with the streamer, the easier it becomes to convince yourself its real.
Not really much different from cults, celebrity, etc but far easier for someone to reach millions of normies than ever before. Mostly harmless, but in the extreme cases some people become degenerates just like gambling, alcohol, drugs, porn, etc.
Not to point the mirror too deeply inwards but its not really that different from being "forum friends" and thinking someone you talk to on a forum, irc chat, MMO, or discord is a real friend. Like if you give a shit at all about your FOH like points or whatever they are called... you are involved in a parasocial relationship.
Not really much different from cults, celebrity, etc but far easier for someone to reach millions of normies than ever before. Mostly harmless, but in the extreme cases some people become degenerates just like gambling, alcohol, drugs, porn, etc.
Not to point the mirror too deeply inwards but its not really that different from being "forum friends" and thinking someone you talk to on a forum, irc chat, MMO, or discord is a real friend. Like if you give a shit at all about your FOH like points or whatever they are called... you are involved in a parasocial relationship.
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Malakriss
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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I put on betrayal games like Among Us for background noise and generally base who I watch on 1) lack of injected bullshit and 2) mic quality / audio balance so i can hear everything properly. Will also check out new releases to preview before I buy, tournaments for competitive team games, and some randomizers. Straight up speedrunning is not interesting to me for 99/100 games regardless of who is doing it, at least a randomizer gives a new puzzle to figure out each time.
Prodigal
Shitlord, Offender of the Universe
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reavor
I'm With HER ♀
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wait till you find out that people also donate money, sometimes hundreds or thousands of dollars to these streamers, so that they might briefly look up and say ”hey thanks for the donation, XX, much appreciated” then go forget about the donor.
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Kiki
Log Wizard
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You realize there are professional esports players right? Even if you aren't a pro, are you challenger rank in league of legends? They definitely possess abilities you don't.
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GuardianX
Perpetually Pessimistic
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I was watching that clip wondering if somethign was gunna get in between momma and calf and we were about to see a lion or Hyena go flying 30 feet in the air.
I know there are certain things in nature you don't fuck with ever that you don't often realize how fucked you can get and how quick. Mother's and their kin is one, Moose in nearly all circumstance unless you can kill them, Hippos as well.
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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This argument would hold water if the top streamers were pro gamers and not some of the most vapid retards on earth. Skill the viewer ratio and this idea goes to shit.
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Bears. If you see a cub you need to get as far away from it as quickly as possible. It doesn't matter what kind of bear it is. Just get away from it. Most attacks occur when people aren't paying attention walking through the woods and end up too close to a cub.
Anyway, to the original question - I don't have cable so I keep Twitch on in the background most of the time. If I had cable, I'd probably have something like the History channel on in the background. After awhile you just pick up things streamers say about themselves. I don't really dig much deeper than that and most of my off stream knowledge about some of the streamers comes from browsing KF.
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Prodigal
Shitlord, Offender of the Universe
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Yeah I don’t get the draw of some of these steamers either. I just tell myself they’re providing content that appeals to a large enough segment to matter. Hell, look at some of the shitty content services like Amazon, Netflix and others put out, obviously somebody watches it.
Koushirou
Log Wizard
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For me, some of it is just enjoying people to react to content that I've done and was memorable to me and it's almost like experiencing it again. A lot of it, though, and I guess this comes mostly from let's plays I watch on YouTube, but is the casual shooting the shit experience of it. I've never really had a group like that to hang out with IRL, so it's kind of filling that hole for me there, which I guess is a bit sad, but it is what it is. I enjoy the banter and the goofy conversations and situations that just randomly can come up in streams or playthroughs with a group.
gauze
Molten Core Raider
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Not that you're entirely wrong, but there are a chunk of them that are either ex-professional esport players or top ranking players; which I guess doesn't make them an actual professional depending on your definition.. but relatively same vibe.. The actual competing pro's don't generally stream any of their actual "pro" stuff, just the things they do in their off-time... Quite a bit of them actually switch to full time streaming because its more money and less stress.
Somewhere between a quarter to half of top ranking streamers have either had a professional stint at some point in their career or have competed in some form of cash prized tournament/monetization outside of purely streaming/donation. People like xqc, summit1g, nickmercs, myth, tfue, ninja, shroud, tyler1... shit even technically drdisrespect and though awful, timthetatman.. also iirc offlinetv was founded by an ex-pro turned streamer.
but yeah, vapid retards.. I can't watch streamers, at best click through a youtube highlight reel or some shit. My twitch time is either looking for the stupidest possible thing, or being linked something that is stupid.
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Cybsled
Avatar of War Slayer
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A lot of this has the vibe of “I don’t understand these kids with their instatok and devil music”.
It comes down to a few main categories IMO:
1) Skill - streamers who are really good at shit. This is the closest approximation to watching sports
2) Parasocial - basically “friend in a box”. This was described earlier.
3) Obsession- this kind of branches off from parasocial, but a more extreme form. You see this happen most strongly with attractive female streamers, but happens with males too
4) entertainment- some streams are just entertaining, sort of a “live TV” vibe where you don’t know what will happen but it will probably be funny or interesting. They frequently have a cast of characters/ other streamers they interact with
5) validation / reaction streamers: People want to see how someone reacts to something they experienced . If they react in a way that aligns with the viewer, the viewer feels validated.
It comes down to a few main categories IMO:
1) Skill - streamers who are really good at shit. This is the closest approximation to watching sports
2) Parasocial - basically “friend in a box”. This was described earlier.
3) Obsession- this kind of branches off from parasocial, but a more extreme form. You see this happen most strongly with attractive female streamers, but happens with males too
4) entertainment- some streams are just entertaining, sort of a “live TV” vibe where you don’t know what will happen but it will probably be funny or interesting. They frequently have a cast of characters/ other streamers they interact with
5) validation / reaction streamers: People want to see how someone reacts to something they experienced . If they react in a way that aligns with the viewer, the viewer feels validated.
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