I can't understand how they put a bunch of people on a field with a ball, and people watch.

EDIT: actually, that's a snarky comment... I'll try to add something constructive: I absolutely LOVE watching people code - it's fascinating to see how others approach problems (it's rarely exactly how I'd do it). But at the same time, I'm not interested at all in watching a graphics guy creating amazing images - spending an hour to correctly shade some backdrop. I'm all like, "errgh, who cares about this? Get back to they guy troubleshooting his perlin noise implementation!" ;)

Watching Notch code and create art for Ludum Dare was quite interesting and informative. I didn't watch the whole thing because the first 12 hours or so was the most informative, and I skipped through anything boring.

Watching him code that day, I could see how his mental processes work. It was fairly obvious why he was doing things. I think it's a great experience for anyone who isn't already an expert.

In my case, I'm a professional developer, but not a game developer, so there was still plenty to learn even from the basics.

I'd watch experts programming. Games are definitely one of the most interesting areas, but if I wanted to learn some new technology, or just pick up new tricks I think other projects would be interesting too.

I would absolutely love to see a website/community that aggregates livestreams of coders at work. I would watch all the time.

The PeepCode PlayByPlay series do this for development (kinda, it's not live) - very entertaining and informative.

https://peepcode.com/screencasts/play-by-play

Programming is fundamentally a creative process. Watching someone code (especially someone good code) is a lot like watching your favorite painter paint or favorite tennis player play.

You are watching an expert dance and swing his way through something you enjoy and you might learn how to do it a bit better from them.

It's interesting to see how other people code. Too see how they come up with ideas etc.