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Comment by vibrolax | Hacker News Reader

I occasionally watch "let's play" videos as a harm reduced alternative to actually playing games. A half hour spent watching someone play a game/sim totally relieves my FOMO. It also dissipates my urge to build a gaming PC. As a maker and musician, there's tons of inspiring and informative content on YT. I feel that I'm quite net positive on my use of YT to enrich my life.

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> a harm reduced alternative to actually playing games.

There's probably some merit to this statement, but I sorta laugh at the difference in harm between 'watching' and 'playing'. Maybe the most candid thing for us to do is acknowledge that the "harm" we're talking about is a lack of gratification.

I think the idea is 30 mins watching scratches the itch, 30 mins playing and you are going to play for hours more.

(At least, this is how it is for me, can’t speak for the GP.)

Yeah it's all down to the individual. I used to play all the time when younger but now I play in pretty short bursts and it works fine. I just avoid any games as a service type games.

The PS5 is really nice at this because you don't even have to exit the game. Just send it into rest mode and when you come back your game is still running ready to pick up where you left off.

For me it's a lot more satisfying than watching a YouTube video, but YMMV.

Sure. Impulse control plays a major part in both though, which is mostly why I find it funny. My ex-boyfriend had ADHD and swore off video games for the same reason, but he'd end up watching YouTube for hours if I left him unchecked. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but I feel like the difference between both addictions is smaller than it seems.

I'd argue passive consumption of content is worse then playing video games. I have no horses in this race, I admittedly spend way too much time streaming content. But at least with games you're doing something. Actively using your brain. There are studies showing games can improve dexterity and problem solving abilities. I doubt watching stuff does the same.

Depends who you're talking about. Those of us who've literally skipped work to play video games definitely find it easier to watch others play rather than dip our toes in ourselves.

I'm sure people will also have skipped work to spend all day scrolling or streaming...

One of these doesn't empty your wallet in the process. As a recent example, Stray costs $30 for 4 hours and no replay value, you bet your ass I watched that on youtube. It's even 2-3x worse in the console domain, especially for any AAA title.

I was heavily addicted to Diablo 2, playing nonstop for months on end. I watch let’s play videos and can skip through the grind while getting the endorphin hit. I’ve played the re-master for maybe 16-24 hours total in 12 months. For me it’s less about the cost of the game and more about the potential amount of time I may sink into it.

> is a lack of gratification.

Actually a really big harm is the opportunity cost and substitution for real life.

Video games feel like achievement but they're not --> so they don't get the rewards in life that come with real achievement --> so when they engage with real life it kinda sucks (from neglected chores, to neglected career and relationships) --> So they go to video games for that gratification feeling of status/achievement.

ironically enough thinking your life revolves around opportunity costs, achievements and reward cycles is a much more severe form of gamification than having a good time and playing some video games.

People putting in those 80 hours to get that one bonus and the guy trying to get all the Steam achievements are spiritually the same person, whether the source of the dopamine rushes is virtual or analog doesn't make much of a difference, including in terms of resulting misery.

Games as a form of creativity, play and connection are fantastic precisely because they're simply leisure activities, something increasingly lost on most people.

> harm reduced alternative to actually playing games.

I don't quite see your logic here. How is it "harm-reduced"? Playing a game can be quite enriching and stimulating, whereas watching a video you're just sitting completely idle. To me, it sounds like you're just irrationally worried about playing a game for some reason.

It read it as 30 minutes of LP allows him not to spend hours on gaming, which he does not want.

If you want to make that even more efficient and entertaining you can also watch speedruns, AGDQ 2023 is on right now: https://www.youtube.com/@gamesdonequick/videos

Speedruns are bad at getting the normal feeling of a game across, and encourage watching multiple versions and attempts, and throwing a hundred speedruns together encourages a lot more watching than a trickle of half hour playthroughs as particularly interesting new games come out.

I think this suggestion does the opposite of help.

Watching twitch increased my game playing and urges to play

That's surely the design intention.

However... I have a little cousin in my family, and all she does it watch twitch. I've asked before "Don't want to play the games you're watching?" and she looks at me like I asked to solve fusion.

So, there is a hand shake meme of people who play because of twitch and people who just want to watch twitch... Good for twitch. Bad for humans.

did gaming interfere with your creativity?

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