I've been watching a few different streamers of late play various games. Mainly cute girls. Unfortunately, I'm quickly running into the same problem I always have, which is one of frustration. I play a lot of games, and have since childhood, as have many others, so I am well aware of how basic game mechanics work. What annoys the crap out of me is how many gamers, even life-long ones such as I, can be so absolutely %&*$ing retarded. Now, I admit that many of the games I watch others play are, in fact, games I am well acquainted with, and know many of the secrets and tricks. It is frustrating watching others completely miss things that I know, but I can't blame them for that. I can, however, get bad-traffic-pissed when they ignore very obvious instructions or prompts and waste large chunks of time going in circles. If you're a brand new player to games, that's another thing entirely, but nearly every single person I've watched have been gaming for years and should know how things work in the game. Especially with the newer games that very clearly highlight things for you.
If you've played any number of games made in the past decade, you should know that something glowing is usually important and/or can be interacted with. A glowing rope or ledge means they can be climbed, while an item on the ground is to be picked up. Whenever a text box pops up, particularly early on, STOP AND READ THE DAMN THING. Whenever a game gives you some new gimmick, especially one that changes visuals, such as Batman's detective vision or Horizon New Dawn's analyzer, USE IT FREQUENTLY. I just watched a bit of a HZD playthrough by a particularly captivating woman, but had to eventually rage-quit because she kept making so many dumb decisions. She is clearly rather intelligent, but the constant overlooking of very obvious on-screen prompts royally pissed me off. I realize that different people have different styles and ways of looking at the world, but when you ignore even very basic tutorial stuff while simultaneously stating that you don't want to miss anything, I rage hard. There is a difference between being a newb and a n00b.
I'm reminded of watching a former roommate play through Fallout 4 while completely ignoring crafting of any kind, other than some building. The first few hours you can get by without improving your weapons and armor, but pretty quickly you start to fall behind, and that's exactly what started happening. I told him repeatedly that he was ignoring a rather important and critical aspect of the game, but he kept insisting that it was fine. And then he kept getting slaughtered by enemies. And getting very, very angry. He would lividly rage at the screen over how cheap enemies were. I was equally pissed at the utter stupidity. I think it took several weeks before I convinced him to improve his gear, and suddenly he thought it was great. I was like, dude, they clearly meant for this to be an integral part of the game from the very the outset, and you deliberately ignored it, then got angry when the game didn't work right. It's exactly the meme where the guy riding the bike sticks a stick through the spokes of his own tires. It's the willful, stubborn ignorance that so enrages me.
To be sure, when playing a new game, there are always a few things that give me difficulty in figuring out, but not many, and not for lack of reading every bit of instruction I can get my hands on. I've known so many people who will skip the introductory tutorials for a game, and then get frustrated when they can't figure out simple tricks the game taught IN THE TUTORIAL! It's like, what is wrong with people? I have decades of experience gaming, and that makes me ever more aware of needing instructions, not less. When I watch someone stream a game I've never played, and can tell in two seconds what the player should do, and they continue to miss it for minutes or hours, I become ever so annoyed, nay, pissed. I just don't understand how so many others don't, or can't, seem to learn basic things. Needless to say, I cannot watch play streams often, which is sad.
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