Games that you love to watch, but hate to play

[laggyteabag]

I don't really watch streamers, or let's players, or whatever. I prefer to play games myself, 99% of the time, and I don't really get much enjoyment out of watching other people play games.

The only exception is Total War.

I desperately want to like Total War, but every time I try, I just bounce straight off. Im not too big on the campaigns, I don't really like playing against the AI all that much, and RTS multiplayer has never been my thing. It just is not the game for me, in reality.

But I love to watch people play it. I love people who are way more familiar with the game, explaining their army compositions. I love people who are more familiar with the controls micro their armies around, and execute the perfect plays.

It is just a very entertaining game for me to watch, because I can't really enjoy it myself.

So, does anyone else have a game that they love to watch, but don't really like to play?

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Ditto. I actually ended up buying Total War: Warhammer II because a YouTuber I follow played it, but A) I'm terrible at RTS games, B) the damn units never seem to do what I want them to do, and C) that whole "maintain your empire" bit seems tedious as hell.

Also the case for "hardcore" FPS games like Hunt: Showdown and Escape From Tarkov. Losing all my shit because of an unlucky moment isn't my "jam", but it can be enjoyable to watch others undergo the spectacle.

 

[Piscian]

I watch a bit of competitive CSGO here and there. It's not so much that I have any issues with the game it's just that my hearts not in it anymore. I went through that period as a youngster practicing and playing competitively for maybe 16 years, but the casual community just it's there anymore so it's either play like you're looking for a sponsor or don't play at all. On rare occasion I'll sub for a 5v5 or play casual, were talking a couple hours every 6 months.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Super Mario Sunshine is a broken, unfinished mess that's over-reliant on a gimmick that half the levels don't even allow you to use. Oh, and though the game says it has 120 Shine Sprites, it only has 96. And only about 50 of those even count for anything other than 100% completion, which isn't even worth going for because the non-mandatory levels aren't even fun, they're just frustrating. And that goes for a fair number of the mandatory ones too.

But speedruns of it are pretty great.

 

[SckizoBoy]

The only exception is Total War.

Ditto. I actually ended up buying Total War: Warhammer II because a YouTuber I follow played it

Who do you guys watch, out of interest?

I really enjoy most Total War games (as my contributions to the screenshot thread would suggest) and it puzzles me how people can enjoy watching it without enjoying playing it. I can totally understand plainly not liking the games as they're not for everyone, but to enjoy watching it is weird to me(!) But hey, you do you, and I'm sure my contribution to this thread may illicit a similar response! I can't seem to get into Paradox games for much the same reason @The Rogue Wolf can't get into Total War. *shrug

OT: I enjoy watching multiplayer FPS's in small doses, but it's more for the banter between the content creator and their team-mates or between the content creator and their viewers. I personally can't stand playing multiplayer FPS's myself because I have a really bad twitch reflex and am colour blind (no Valorant because Vanguard is a deal breaker and USD100+ for skins?! Yeah, no).

 

[laggyteabag]

Who do you guys watch, out of interest?

Pretty much exclusively Zerkovich. I enjoy his guides, how he breaks down armies/units into their strengths/weaknesses, and I enjoy his commentary during matches.

 

[laggyteabag]

Also the case for "hardcore" FPS games like Hunt: Showdown and Escape From Tarkov. Losing all my shit because of an unlucky moment isn't my "jam", but it can be enjoyable to watch others undergo the spectacle.

I've always found that playing these games is just unfathomably dull.

I end up spending 99% of my time walking around, scavenging for whatever, and only 1% of the time engaging in combat (which usually means that im hiding behind cover, getting suppressed by someone who knows where I am, but I don't know where they are).

I can definitely see the value of watching someone play these kind of games, where all of the slowness is edited out.

But, having never played Hunt or Tarkov, maybe these games are better at it, because the last time I played anything like them, were DayZ and PUBG.

 

[Chimpzy]

Soulborne games. The SBFP let's plays of those are some of my favorite youtube content, and I'm currently enjoying Reggarth The Backstabber bumble his way through DeS, but I really do not like playing any of them myself.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Deadly Premonition has a lot of fantastically weird and quirky characters and is genuinely very funny but damn if it doesn't play like shit.

 

[Jarrito3002]

For me I like watching people play Yakuza but actually playing it is not fun.

Another one is Metal Gear Solid watching people like Dunkey do dumbshit is great me try to move and cycle weapons and stealth bad is not a good look.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Pretty much exclusively Zerkovich. I enjoy his guides, how he breaks down armies/units into their strengths/weaknesses, and I enjoy his commentary during matches.

I'm more of a campaign player, but I know about him, he does good content. I like the fact that a fair bit of his content is explaining the nuts and bolts of the game mechanics (even though I know that may not be to everyone's liking, as it can be a bit immersion breaking at times) because pretty much no-one else has covered that side of the game(s).

 

[Worgen]

I used to really like watching total bisuits Hearthstone videos even though I have absolutely no interest in actually playing the game myself. Partially since it looks like it can be super annoying and partially since fuck blizzard.

PuBG also kinda goes into this category but for vastly different reasons. I can have fun with PuBG but battle royal games are the kinda game where I have pretty quick enjoyment falloff, like I will be having fun with them but then suddenly I'm not and I just stop playing them. But I find them pretty fun to watch, both PuBG and the COD BR games and Apex. Not Fortnight though, the building mechanic just annoys me.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

I love watching people playing Super Mario Maker levels that are either troll levels are really difficult levels. I would be annoyed playing such levels but watching others play them is great. I love Mario games but I'm not playing Super Mario Maker when the only good mode of the game is basically having to go to reddit or whatever to find the actual good levels to play.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I don't really watch streamers, or let's players, or whatever. I prefer to play games myself, 99% of the time, and I don't really get much enjoyment out of watching other people play games.

The only exception is Total War.

I desperately want to like Total War, but every time I try, I just bounce straight off. Im not too big on the campaigns, I don't really like playing against the AI all that much, and RTS multiplayer has never been my thing. It just is not the game for me, in reality.

But I love to watch people play it. I love people who are way more familiar with the game, explaining their army compositions. I love people who are more familiar with the controls micro their armies around, and execute the perfect plays.

It is just a very entertaining game for me to watch, because I can't really enjoy it myself.

So, does anyone else have a game that they love to watch, but don't really like to play?

I feel this way about ALL RTSs. I like watching them played, but you couldn't pay me to play them. I watched an entire StarCraft tournament once; had NO idea what the hell was going on or why the commentators were getting excited from moment to moment, but I somehow enjoyed it. I think it's more a fascination watching people do, at a high level, something I can't wrap my head around, much like how I like watching master chess players or extreme sports.

 

[EvilRoy]

All of those new "horror" games in that Medium, Man of Medan, Little Hope, Remothered style. Where the pause screen shows the characters face making expressions at something off screen like they're watching someone do a poor job of making a sandwich.

I think they play like shit and aren't super fun with the exception of Until Dawn which kind of codified the genre. But I do like watching them and poking holes in the crap stories - and at times there is real imagination involved which is always fun to seen

 

[Agema]

I used to play World of Tanks. It's not like it never had significant problems, but step by step it has become ever more pay to win, unbalanced, and generally stupid. Several years ago I decided to mostly stop - just played a few weeks a year, and last year after it was still a festering pile of shit, I gave up entirely and uninstalled it.

But I do still like occasionally watching other people play.

I feel this way about ALL RTSs.

As far as I'm concerned they aren't strategy games. If clicking the screen accurately 384 times a second is integral to winning, it's not a (proper) strategy game.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

I used to really like watching total bisuits Hearthstone videos even though I have absolutely no interest in actually playing the game myself. Partially since it looks like it can be super annoying and partially since fuck blizzard.

The glory of The Deck of Legendaries, will never die.

 

[Xprimentyl]

As far as I'm concerned they aren't strategy games. If clicking the screen accurately 384 times a second is integral to winning, it's not a (proper) strategy game.

The "strategy" is basically the resource collection/management and knowing which units to have and where to send them at which times; clicking even 384 times a second can't compensate for not knowing what you're doing. I've always likened it to the video of this kid juggling and solving Rubik's Cubes: immensely impressive feat, but why the hell would you???


Either way, RTSs always leads to confusing, cluster-fuckery in the end, and it amazes me that anyone can competently manage it all and for FUN nonetheless.

 

[SilentPony]

I recently found two similar in style/content Youtube channels, one called GrayStillPlays where he does crazy fun challenges on GTA5, Happy Wheels and a few other youtuber games, and they're pretty entertaining.
The other is LetsGameItOut where the host Josh absolutely wrecks a game, trying to break it in every way possible, games like Raft, Astroneer, Factorio, etc...and I find it hysterical.
My point being there are a lot of games that I would call YouTuber games, games meant to be played for the sake of YouTube to react to or do crossovers with Markiplier, that I think just by yourself in your free time would be terrible to play. Those I can watch, but I can't ever imagine playing.
Minecraft is up there, though I've heard some people actually play it outside of reaction videos, which good for them, I just would get so board in a DIY sandbox like that.

 

[laggyteabag]

Minecraft is up there, though I've heard some people actually play it outside of reaction videos, which good for them, I just would get so board in a DIY sandbox like that.

My girlfriend loves Minecraft, but I get horrifically bored after the first 10 minutes.

Once you get 4 walls, a bed, and a decent supply of food... everything else is just extraneous.

Im a bit of a hypocrite, because I normally roll my eyes when a game advertises itself with crafting and survival elements, but I wish Minecraft would lean into that, more.