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Comment by thisisit | Hacker News Reader

> Garcia’s specialty is the multiplayer fantasy game World of Warcraft. While he isn’t its best player, he has a knack for talking entertainingly over his play: he is funny, brash, and filled with stories about his delinquent childhood in Newark.

Most, if not all, of the live gameplay videos nowadays mostly tend to be about screaming and raging at the screen with lesser amount of stories. And for some reason people like that a lot.

This along with the slew of Reaction videos where people watch other people watching and reacting to stuff makes me wonder - why are people really interested in someone doing some stuff? Are they so alone that they need some validation or is it more to do with increasing voyeurism nowadays?

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It's exactly the same concept as reality TV and that's nothing new. Even before that, soap operas and celebrity gossip. Screaming and yelling random stuff is simply a way of being "funny", especially when you target a younger audience.

I remember in the mid-to-late 90's when the internet was getting big I thought that would be the end of those low-effort TV shows because soon everybody could access niche content that would interest them more. Love the german baseball league? You can read, watch and discuss about it. Enjoy the Edo period of japanese history? Thousands of web pages are waiting for you. Anywhere. Any time. Who would even bother watching The Bachelor instead of pursuing their interests?

Of course in retrospect I was naive. Sometimes we just want to be entertained. Sometimes we want to watch The Bachelor. And apparently for some people "The Bachelor" is a twenty-something yelling in a microphone overlayed on top of some videogame footage.

The only streamer that I really watch is Brian Kibler, who plays Hearthstone and used to be a pro MTG player. I think the reason I watch him and no one else really is because he's older, doesn't rage, includes his wife in his stream occasionally, and provides insights into his decision making process. He's just good natured and it's the closest thing I've found to those poker tournaments that I used to watch on cable at midnight.

Different personality types appeal to different people (naturally). I'm a fan of Scott Manley, who never rages of screams, but mostly provides educational and entertaining commentary on what he's doing when he's playing a game.

But I also like Funhaus, which is effectively a podcast where a group of people plays a game in the background. (They also have an actual podcast which is literally that.)

Likewise, I watch almost exclusively Firebat (with a bit of Kibler every once and awhile).

He does a really good job of balancing being funny and interesting (as a person), and giving really good insights into his thought process in playing Hearthstone, building decks, and competing.

Check out Jason Somerville (JCarverPoker) for some great poker streaming, when he's on. He goes in spurts and it feels about time for a nice one. He has a great personality and is much less negative than a lot of the other poker streamers.

Yes, they are that alone. Kids these days don't always have such hot social lives.

> why are people really interested in someone doing some stuff? Are they so alone that they need some validation or is it more to do with increasing voyeurism nowadays?

These are called "parasocial interactions" and this is not a new thing at all. It may even be healthy and linked to empathy. There is ongoing research on this subject.

this is way less true of twitch than it is of youtube. i'd say the typical twitch channel is someone casually playing some game while participating in the chat and keeping it going by asking questions or talking about their life

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