Video game news oriented community. No NanoUFO is not a bot :)
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My goal is just to have a community where people can go and see what new game news is out for the day and comment on it.
Other communities:
Absolutely can't stand watching people play video games. They play wrong.
And the only videos I watch of a game are ones to see what kind of game it is when I don't know too much beyond word of mouth "this game is great" kind of thing. Sure, you've described the game as an action-packed romp with tons of weapons and semi-open world, but the video shows it's a 2d side scroller with variations of the same 5 pixel "guns" that all shoot the same ball. Not interested.
Beyond that, I have no interest in watching videos. And if companies started trying to somehow cram even more ads into their games to advertise to people watching a stream then I'm even less in than before
They play wrong.
I feel that. A few times I had to stop the stream and play the game better myself.
I have to ask if you have ever watched professional level StarCraft 2. Because those people play at an insane level of multitasking and optimization and it is actually beautiful to watch in many cases. The stuff they do is often not even achievable by the average player. I'm sure there are other examples in FPS games and other genres, but what professional RTS players do definitely pushes the level of human cognitive ability.
The obvious barrier to entry here is knowing the game, as you can't really appreciate things fully unless you've played at least a little. But I'll say that I started off watching LowkoTV and he was entertaining enough to watch until I finally decided to try out the game, and then came to appreciate it even more after that.
Obviously using in game portals to related content creators to push more ads is idiotic, just saying the recognition of the importance of gaming content creators to the games themselves isn't inherently a bad thing.
Sometimes watching someone play a game is more fun than playing the game. Markiplier shrieking his way through Subnautica was fucking hilarious. And I have a friend who doesn't play games but who watched an entire playthrough of Detroit: Become Human because they loved the story.
You don't really know it until you stop watching videos for like a week. Suddenly you want to do your favorite things again; try things yourself again.