214: Society of the Spectator

[Joshua Hilley]

Society of the Spectator

When it comes to videogames, you don't have to be holding the controller to enjoy the experience. Josh Hilley explains why some single-player games are best played with more than one player.

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[Kojii Doom]

I can Totally relate to this article (great article BTW) because my younger brother is ALWAYS watching me play games.

 

[Dooly95]

A good article, although missing out the finer points of backseat gaming, and how sometimes it annoys you when you know what you have to do but can't and the guy behind you is laughing at you as if to add insult to injury.

 

[Tenchan]

Am I the only who can't stand watching others play instead of playing myself? Until I read this article, I always assumed that was the more common stance.

 

[Killerbunny001]

Backseat gaming is a science.
A backseat gamer can either annoy the guy who is actually playing or improve the experience, with only a fine line between the two.

 

[Midniqht]

It's cool that you bring up Mass Effect, because that's exactly the game I was thinking of when you mention spectating aka backseat gaming. While it can be helpful and seemingly interesting to view the game from a second perspective, I avoid it with seething passion. When I'm gaming, I'm in the "zone". I get immersed and the last thing I want is whoever is sitting next to (or very creepily behind) me commenting or instructing. I don't even consider saying "here, you play for a bit". I like to keep my games "single player" if I can help it.

So now I'll go back to Mass Effect. I used to play that for long periods of time and my girlfriend would always watch. Now some people would say, "there's your problem." Wrong. She's a gamer too and can relate to the immersion one gets when playing a single player game. However, I can still hear "this is boring!" ringing in my ears. Some people just can't stand watching or being watched while playing games. It bores me to tears to watch Mass Effect, when I'm not the one holding the controller.

Ultimately, it's up to the individual. As for me, stop watching - backseat gaming is not my idea of fun.

 

[Eagle Est1986]

I often find that people are quite happy to watch me play Uncharted, my cousin actually encouraged me to continue playing when I reached to eject the disc and put in a multiplayer game.
The only other shared single player experience was GTA, playing until you died or failed a mission, then handing over the control, not quite the same experience.

 

[Proteus214]

That actually reminds me a lot of something some friends and I used to do regularly.

My roomates and I used to have game nights where we would get food and beer and project someone's computer screen on the wall and "collectively" play through a point and click adventure game like Monkey Island or one of the Sam and Max episodes. It's a ton of fun and I highly recommend it.

The first time I played through Ocarina of Time I did almost the entire play through with a friend, which made the experience so much more endearing to me.

I think that it makes the whole experience more fun if there are more people getting involved.

 

[Owlchick]

A lot of the games "I" have played over the past couple of years were done alternating spectator mode with my boyfriend. While we have a lot of similarity in gameplay styles, there are also areas where we're quite different.

If not for spectating, there are games I might not have tried out on my own.

My kids also did this when they were younger, especially in the days when I could only afford one controller

 

[GonzoGamer]

Backseat gaming is a science.
A backseat gamer can either annoy the guy who is actually playing or improve the experience, with only a fine line between the two.

Lately I've been watching my wife play Fallout 3 and she's pretty good at finding stuff but she'll sometimes send me to the vault wiki to look something up. She'll also find things I missed sometimes. I enjoyed watching her clear out Paradise Falls the other day. I try not to backseat game with her (although sometimes I have to: she just doesn't pay attention to the red blips on her compass) but I do let her know if something interesting is coming.

The only other shared single player experience was GTA, playing until you died or failed a mission, then handing over the control, not quite the same experience.

That's better than the actual multiplayer modes in most games.

You can do that with any game but it is best with GTA.

 

[Eagle Est1986]

The only other shared single player experience was GTA, playing until you died or failed a mission, then handing over the control, not quite the same experience.

That's better than the actual multiplayer modes in most games.

You can do that with any game but it is best with GTA.

Oh, without a doubt. Both players can enjoy the story and the comedy of the game. And if one player has been playing for a while, they can simply go on a rampage, which can be just as entertaining for both players, bringing about their own death

 

[RoboPenguin]

I love watching my brother play games. And he enjoys watching me play. We both have rather different tastes in gaming, he likes FPS and I like the more strategy/action games. It's gotten to the point that there are some games that we won't play unless the other is there. Halo, the new Prince of Persia and Fable2 are ones that come to mind.

 

[Same River New Water]

It's interesting that a pastor's daughter would hone in on a game called Beyond Good & Evil.

I would never bother to play Viva Pinata of my own accord. But to watch a skillful green thumb cultivate a garden that grows at rocket speed... that's very nice.

I put off playing any of the Half-Life games in the Orange Box for months after I got it because my girlfriend preferred to watch me playing Team Fortress 2. This was before she re-learnt how to play "hardcore" games after a decade in the casual gaming wilderness. Eventually her interest in watching TF2 grew into taking a few turns - always as the Pyro at first, because when a Pyro is spinning in a circle firing wildly at nothing nobody bats an eyelid - which led via baby steps to her current ability to school me at Halo 3 deathmatches. Sometimes.

 

[GonzoGamer]

The only other shared single player experience was GTA, playing until you died or failed a mission, then handing over the control, not quite the same experience.

That's better than the actual multiplayer modes in most games.

You can do that with any game but it is best with GTA.

Oh, without a doubt. Both players can enjoy the story and the comedy of the game. And if one player has been playing for a while, they can simply go on a rampage, which can be just as entertaining for both players, bringing about their own death

My friends and I don't even bother with the story missions if there's more than two of us, we just rampage (especially if it's a GTA with rampages) or as we call it "when keepin' it real goes wrong." Chapelle Show anyone?

 

[oneplus999]

Other good multiplayer-singleplayer games for my wife and I: Sims 3 and Fahrenheit.

 

[Cosplay Horatio]

I had my similar experiences when I was at my friends house for Comic-con and I was playing Madworld. As I rode the carnage train shredding through each level my friends who haven't played the game watched in awe as I made several different executions on the doomed horde of enemies to continuously feed their hungry eyes.

Then came the day most of us gamers experience. I was playing a game of Lego Batman and my wife who has only played PC games most of her life and hasn't ever played a single console game wanted to play with me. She progressed slowly as I knew she would from the beginning but had troubles with ladder climbing, jumping and a number of other control issues in the game. After passing through one level when I wanted to play more I had to stop because she wasn't having as much fun as I thought she would. I have since planned to play other simple games with her and see how she likes them.

 

[SuperChris]

I never play when my family are around, they are all backseat gamers, even my 5 year-old brother. My mum is one of those people that thinks that they are right, no matter what, which can be highly frustrating >.>

 

[salbarragan]

I remember beating Metal Gear Solid while my roommate watched me back in college. It was such an interesting phenomena. After awhile, I had more and more people start watching me beat the game. Towards the end, they insisted that I not go any further until they where all there and able to watch me beat it. With fighting games, I always find that people who dont know how to play, love to be voyeurs. I cant tell you how many epic battles occurred with almost a legion of onlookers watching. It got even more intense once people with real skill came into play. I love having people watch and sometimes, I like to have others watch. I loved this article!

 

[Anarchemitis]

Me and my brother both like video games quite a bit. I would watch him for hours playing all the way through Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, Jak & Daxter, Super Mario World and Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Looking back on those games (ignoring how pathetic their graphics are compared to a decade of development), gaming probably is one of the nexuses that permits us to be so close.

Soon enough I plan to get him onto Team Fortress 2.