If you have young kids, do they do this at your house?

[Axeman33]

I have a couple of kids and my youngest just turned 13. She will sit there with her Ipod in her face for hours watching videos of other people playing video games. My son, who is 15, will do it through youtube as well.

What is the fascination with watching these videos? I don't understand why they watch videos of these games instead of actually playing the games themselves.

I ask my kids why they do it and they say they just like watching them.

I don't get it.

Do your kids do the same thing? Even worse, do you do this yourself? If so, why do you do it?

[havanablast21]

Bahaha. this exact same questions came up among parental peers the other day.

My guys is 10 and he's been watching this English guy play Minecraft and now Roblox and Agario or Slither-ario ( may have the names wrong) for literally hours on end. Now don't get me wrong, he's required to finish his homework first before he earns screen time, but the time he COULD spend playing these games himself he chooses to watch these other guys play.

My hunch is that these YouTube vlogers are entertaining to them to listen too which provides over half of the entertainment.

Beyond that, All I can equate this to is a bunch of 20 - 50 year olds playing virtual arm chair GM's and playing/watching Fantasy Hockey (sports) rather than playing them personally! LOL.

Sure many of us play the sports that we participate in fantasy, but if we equate the time spent on managing fantasy sports vs playing real sports, I bet for most, there is a drastic imbalance.

But I hear you Chris and can identify with you observations very closely!

Funny how technology has changed the way we spend out time over the years. Imagine what our Grandchildren will be doing. (Scratch that... I'd rather not look that far into the future)

lol

[Axeman33]

Minecraft is my daughters vice. I cant remember what games my son watches but I know for sure that minecraft is the crap my daughter is glued to.

[Loch]

Same reason we Dobberites watch hockey games instead of playing... there is a certain enjoyment that comes from watching something done well.

[Rodgort]

Southpark had an episode on this exact subject ahaha.



It is a weird new form of entertainment, I have watched a couple that made me laugh. This guy they talk about (pewdiepie) made $17 million last year, let's just saw we all missed the boat on an easy money making tool that is now extremely over-saturated. Twitch tv has people play games and people support them with money! it is crazy but fascinating

[Axeman33]

LOL! I dont watch South Park but that nails it.

[BillyD.]

My daughter is only 4 so she does'nt watch others play video games, but she likes videos of other kids unwrapping gifts, toys or kinder surprise.

I can understand why she likes it (shes only 4), but the thing I dont get is: WHY do people put these videos on Youtube ???

[iwinthings]

My daughter is only 4 so she does'nt watch others play video games, but she likes videos of other kids unwrapping gifts, toys or kinder surprise.

I can understand why she likes it (shes only 4), but the thing I dont get is: WHY do people put these videos on Youtube ???

Money. Creative outlet. Something to do. All sorts of reasons.

I'm actually pretty surprised that people who spend a large amount of their free time discussing the strategy behind pretend hockey players in pretend leagues, would find this surprising at all. It's pretty much the exact same thing as watching pro sports, except the sports are the games that a certain demographic find interesting. It's likely they play them a lot themselves, though not always (identical to pro sports and how some play the sport and some don't).

To me this is like someone questioning why someone spends all of their free time playing video games and then proceeds to sit down and read a book all night, or watch some tv show. There is almost zero difference between these activities.

These people do this because it's fun. Why do they find it fun? I dunno, why does anyone find anything fun. Answer that one and you probably win some sort of prize I suppose.

[havanablast21]

My daughter is only 4 so she does'nt watch others play video games, but she likes videos of other kids unwrapping gifts, toys or kinder surprise.

I can understand why she likes it (shes only 4), but the thing I dont get is: WHY do people put these videos on Youtube ???

I've heard all about this stuff (videos of unwrapping stuff). Lol. I don't get it either but it's the golden egg aswell I'm to understand.

[burnsy00]

My 12 year old boy does that exact same thing...the british guy doing stuff on youtube on his phone or watching videos of WWE and trying to replicate those matches on WWE on his xbox...

[iwinthings]

My 12 year old boy does that exact same thing...the british guy doing stuff on youtube on his phone or watching videos of WWE and trying to replicate those matches on WWE on his xbox...

Yeah, sort of like how we used to watch a hockey game and then pretend to be Mario Lemieux while playing mini-sticks in the basement. Or maybe that was only me and my friends!

[Bass56]

Yeah, sort of like how we used to watch a hockey game and then pretend to be Mario Lemieux while playing mini-sticks in the basement. Or maybe that was only me and my friends!

How could you have been Mario Lemieux if I was Mario Lemieux while playing mini-sticks in my basement as a kid??
I think most of us did that at one point or another in our childhood.

As for Axe's question, well I'm 33 and I do exactly that! I watch a ton of Modern Warfare 2 online game footage and look at walkthroughs and reviews for other games just to get a feel of how they play out. It's not exactly like playing it, but you do still get to experience certain thrills that come from playing the games without actually playing them!

To be fair though, my gf is annoyed by it

[islefan31]

Yes, not only does my 13 year old watch them, because he's not allowed to "play" games during the school week, but he also videos and captures his game play to post his own videos.

Edit: Just a side note, some of those people posting their game play are millionaires with huge followings. There's a lot of money to be made there. It might be the British guy, he's like 22 and and a millionaire already, driving Lambos and all that.

[evans334]

[Thunder]

Sometimes I think my kids watch the dumbest things on Youtube.

Then I think back and consider how I spent thousands upon thousands of hours watching mediocre sitcoms ("Alf", anyone?) and then watched their reruns over and over again at that age. And suddenly I feel less judgy.