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Comment by moretai | Hacker News Reader

Are these not people who are just deluding themselves that they are doing it out of love, when all they want to do is be famous?

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I can only speak for myself, but as someone who streams off and on (mostly off, since I've got other things going on right now that I need to focus on), I have no particular desire to be famous. I'd rather not be famous. But it's really enjoyable to be able to share my experiences with other people. For a lot of games (most?), there's a significant amount of organic content that comes out of you, a specific person, going through a game's content and seeing it for the first time (or the second, or third, ... for games that have that kind of replay value). Having even one other person engaged with your journey, and reacting alongside you -- that's fun.

It's not the same as having friends over. You play with your friends. They're having their own experience, and you're having yours. Streamers get to have other people share that experience.

(To `moretai's downvoters: Yes, we can read their comment as an insensitive, unimaginative put-down of this group of people. But why should we? I think there's an interesting point to be discussed here, and I'm more than willing to read `moretai's comment as a genuine question.)

It was a genuine question. I understand where you are coming from. But I wonder how far you have rationalized away from the point that it is you that are the source of the fun, and the other people are in for the ride. Your ride. You are not playing with these people. These people are watching YOU.

I think I made that point clear in my comment. As I said, it's a very different experience from playing with friends.

Depends. I’d say for example that the primitive technology channel does it out of love. So there are people like that, even if the wast majority does it because let’s be honest a career in video gaming sounds great. But the thing is those are also the least likely to attract viewers.

Top spots nowadays are claimed by sponsored players anyway and making it as an amateur is nightmarish difficult. Fame grows exponentially because once a talent emerges companies are quick to sign it up and after that they provide most of the promotion for their talent to grow.

The primitive technology guy doesn't stream, though, as far as I know. He just makes videos.

But there is a way for the primitive technology channel to be monetized. For him to gain recognition, as opposed to him just building his wooden houses in isolation. Without anyone knowing. It is not as if he's unaware of people making millions off of youtube(or being famous, whatever), or the internet. We can't separate youtube no matter how "primitive" the action being filmed is. He may be doing it out of pure love, but if it was true love, why does he feel the need to film it? To help others? Why do any of us need to know how to do this, and how does a video help? He most likely got good at building a log house from building hundreds of shitty log houses from before.

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