I actually understood sports fandom for the first time because of watching streamers play video games. I was like ooooohhh, this is a very challenging skill, and I’m watching someone do it very very well, and I’m fucking hyped and I want to see more.

I never in my life had that for basketball or anything. But it made sense when I saw it for video games.

Most of the time it’s the social aspect that is infectious. It gives you something in common with other fans that would otherwise be strangers to you

Each to their own pal. I’m sure there are things you do that others find a mystery.

Practicing masculinity, delighting in skilled human action, and bonding with peers.

Not my thing, but I get it.

its like joining a cult, you swap your weaker identity with the stronger cult identity

Expanding on the penis in vagina theme for a minute…

The male ball chase cult is not even into women’s sports. I always found contradictory that the crowd that qualifies itself as the manliest and straightest, enjoys looking at sweaty males that grop each other celebrating scoring. The whole thing reeks of suppressed sexuality.

On the contrary, I think baseball obsession is more ‘grounded’. There’s no illusion that the players are your personal friends, they are a team and the social part is cheering them on with fellow fans.

Holy fuck I wish lemmy gold was a thing i could give you. Sport fans always seemed like cultists to me.

Sexual attraction and frustration, sure. Also loneliness, loss of community, loss of purpose, loss of meaning.

Maybe not every guy who watches her is like that, but some definitely are. I would especially be concerned for those who watch her consistently and donate large amounts of money to her. But I feel the same way about anyone who watches a lot of streamers and donates a lot of money (relative to their own income of course).

Parasocial relationships are a deeply concerning development.

but there is also the aesthetic allure of the adorable

yep

i think it’s like this:

men walk around aimlessly until they find something they like (woman). that calms them down and they stop wandering around. that’s the “appeal of the adorable” or sth.

Wait you can do that?

Gross, no.

With the exception of some c-section babies, every penis has been in a vagina, even if only in passing. It’s the “but I didn’t inhale” of peepee in the vajee.

Uh… no?

Have you?

Who wouldn’t be?

As someone that works in software, what he does to turn running code inside out, is kinda sexy. The guy is like a bloodhound for bugs and poorly-built software.

Game developers: Yeah, buy our game and play it however you want. It’s all for fun!

Josh: ::proceeds to out-QA the publisher’s QA department, breaking the game in the most egregious ways imaginable::

Game developers: No, not like that!

Speedrunners:: ::furious note-taking sounds::

so is estrogen

And non-cute women can do great things. Watch people play who entertain you, and if they’re attractive, that’s cool too.

What does ‘ranked’ mean? Doesn’t basically every player have a rank?

I loved watching her play Among Us because she was so damn good at it.

Unless they’re 15 in Texas and don’t understand VPNs or proxies.

The entire “joke” hinges on the idea that that woman’s entire worth is tied into being pretty.

Uhh no, the joke is that a lot of men see women as objects and will watch her streams solely on the fact that she is a woman that they desire to bang. But yea, no matter what lens you look at it, it’s patriarchy all the way down. I think watching and developing parasocial relationships with streamers, male or female, is pretty fuckin weird anyway.

You realize that’s how the world works?

Men or women, people are primarily judged for their physical attraction.

I think that at least 7 people didn’t understand what you were trying to say.

I did. Well said. I can’t see any problems with your argument.

Though, I think that maybe the green text was more about female streamers in general, not just the one that’s depicted.

Whichever. Be well.

It is also wild how some people here think everything you do in life is for the soul purpose of “procreation.” Like there is nothing more to life than the shallowness of sex for some people.

I think you’re missing some cultural context where 80% of twitch streams by women are just softcore porn. It became much more diverse and acceptable now but soft sex workers were huge on Twitch without even doing much of actual sex work.

So u never wanted to have Zero Master’s Doom babies?

Well I see you at least.

The appeal isn’t in the games themselves, it’s in the personality playing them.

Here in Brazil, a lot of kids watch streamers because their families can’t afford any gaming devices :(

I’ve just recently gotten into this. Gotta find someone with good commentary skills, and doesn’t have an annoying voice.

Also, speedrunners aren’t who I thought they’d be, was expecting a bunch of nerds cracked out on adderall. I don’t seek out the genre, but the ones I’ve stumbled across accidentally are older, with a technical background and do well-spoken commentary. Makes it much more interesting when they can articulate what they’re doing as they’re doing it.

There are some games I can’t “git gud” at but I enjoy seeing the gameplay, so I watch edited playthroughs.

I don’t watch streams much, for a multitude of reasons.

background noise.

i put it on while i work for games i’ve already played or would never play

I don’t understand watching any video game streams. It just makes me want to play video games myself, why would I spoil video games by watching someone else play it?

I don’t understand watching any football streams. It just makes me want to play football myself, why would I spoil the fun of playing by watching someone else play it?

I used to hang out with friends in college, and I’d do homework in the same room while they’d play videogames (or vice-versa). Throwing a streamer on while I’m working gives the same vibe.

It’s literally just reality TV. Nothing strange about it. It’s nice to watch someone play a game I like while I’m eating or something.

I will say I don’t like watching female streamers because through no fault of their own (sometimes it is their fault) they are non stop sexualized and either make it their personality to be toxic towards men or don’t get into the content because men are constantly bothering them. Also thirst trap streamers are the worst.

I like to watch high level gameplay to see what others are doing. There are streamers who talk through their decision making and you get really valuable insight. YouTube just isnt as good because the games and lessons are cherrypicked instead of being able to see how they play winning and losing.

Nobody is watching for the game. Everyone is watching the cute girls and the bewbss.

That kinda depends on the type of game and type of gameplay. Speedruns are very obviusly something you can watch and not spoil yourself. There are also games that have hard learning curve and watching someone skilled is fun and a way to learn the game ( europa universalis for example ) . Some pepole want to watch someone role playing beacuse they know they will never be able to do that in a milion years ( i for example beat mass effect 3 times always taking the same decisions beacuse i just couldnt force myself to do somdthing diffrent ) so you might wanna watch someone who will do actual evil playtrough.