Update:
As someone who normally makes meetup threads and not "ResetEra" threads, I found this to be an interesting experiment with some interesting observations made. I just wanted to add some input for the half dozen people who ever find this thread in the future.
Comparing watching a game and listening to a book may seem silly, but it essentially boils down to digesting media in different ways. Where as I would judge someone who consumed a single player game via watching hours on Youtube, a friend judged me for listening to an audio book. My personal take is that audio books are incredibly close to the intended means of consuming the narrative and, if purchased via Audible, etc. the author and publisher are still paid. Youtube on the other hand, denies developers money. In addition, the interaction involved in gaming as a medium is robbed when watching someone else play a game. In addition, where as one can multitask when listening to an audio book, sitting down to watch someone play Kingdom Hearts for 20 hours is no different than sitting down and playing a game for 20 hours.
Many posters seemed to only look at the thread title and not note I was asking about watching an entire single player game on Youtube and having the right to speak about whether or not the game is good. As result, a lot of people who watch tournaments or brief lets plays were flustered. Some audio book fans even felt attacked, even though my original post referenced me to listening to an audio book, and felt the need to defend audio books.
This lead to an interesting dynamic where 78 posters actually engaged the discussion, while 35 defended audio books, 8 defended watching a game's story entirely on youtube, 20 said watching games didn't make sense and the rest were either joke posts, complaints about the thread or personal attacks on me (a stranger).
This turnout was much different than the poll, where 492 people said watching games was worse, 73 said audiobooks were worse (eh??) and 248 opted for the joke than In-N-Out is terrible compared to Shake Shack. So it leaves one to wonder, are people more receptive to polls? Do people just not have the time to comment? Or are people who watch a single player game entirely on Youtube more likely to comment in a thread?
My takeaway: I honestly found it interesting that there are more than a handful of people who will watch an entire game's campaign on Youtube and feel that it's okay to then use that experience to partake in discussions about whether or not a game is good. While they still weren't the majority, it makes me wary of any recommendations I get from strangers. Also, there are some really angry people on the internet.
Original OP below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A person in a group chat I'm part of had very strong opinions about Kingdom Hearts 3, saying it's complete garbage. Someone asked what system he got it for and he revealed he saw a play through of the game on Youtube.
My first response naturally was, "what is wrong with the world".
But it reminded me of a time I told a friend I had listened to the audio book of a novel she recommended and she was appalled. "It's not the same!"
So what do you consider to be worse? Watching a Youtube play through of a video game or listening to an audio book?
As someone who normally makes meetup threads and not "ResetEra" threads, I found this to be an interesting experiment with some interesting observations made. I just wanted to add some input for the half dozen people who ever find this thread in the future.
Comparing watching a game and listening to a book may seem silly, but it essentially boils down to digesting media in different ways. Where as I would judge someone who consumed a single player game via watching hours on Youtube, a friend judged me for listening to an audio book. My personal take is that audio books are incredibly close to the intended means of consuming the narrative and, if purchased via Audible, etc. the author and publisher are still paid. Youtube on the other hand, denies developers money. In addition, the interaction involved in gaming as a medium is robbed when watching someone else play a game. In addition, where as one can multitask when listening to an audio book, sitting down to watch someone play Kingdom Hearts for 20 hours is no different than sitting down and playing a game for 20 hours.
Many posters seemed to only look at the thread title and not note I was asking about watching an entire single player game on Youtube and having the right to speak about whether or not the game is good. As result, a lot of people who watch tournaments or brief lets plays were flustered. Some audio book fans even felt attacked, even though my original post referenced me to listening to an audio book, and felt the need to defend audio books.
This lead to an interesting dynamic where 78 posters actually engaged the discussion, while 35 defended audio books, 8 defended watching a game's story entirely on youtube, 20 said watching games didn't make sense and the rest were either joke posts, complaints about the thread or personal attacks on me (a stranger).
This turnout was much different than the poll, where 492 people said watching games was worse, 73 said audiobooks were worse (eh??) and 248 opted for the joke than In-N-Out is terrible compared to Shake Shack. So it leaves one to wonder, are people more receptive to polls? Do people just not have the time to comment? Or are people who watch a single player game entirely on Youtube more likely to comment in a thread?
My takeaway: I honestly found it interesting that there are more than a handful of people who will watch an entire game's campaign on Youtube and feel that it's okay to then use that experience to partake in discussions about whether or not a game is good. While they still weren't the majority, it makes me wary of any recommendations I get from strangers. Also, there are some really angry people on the internet.
Original OP below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A person in a group chat I'm part of had very strong opinions about Kingdom Hearts 3, saying it's complete garbage. Someone asked what system he got it for and he revealed he saw a play through of the game on Youtube.
My first response naturally was, "what is wrong with the world".
But it reminded me of a time I told a friend I had listened to the audio book of a novel she recommended and she was appalled. "It's not the same!"
So what do you consider to be worse? Watching a Youtube play through of a video game or listening to an audio book?
Last edited:
