"Why do you watch a playthrough of a game? Just play the game!" I
have heard that plenty of times, here are some of the reasons why I do
not play the game that I am watching:
1)
Lack of time: This is an oxymoron, I know, but the case here is that I
work, do other stuff, I sometimes do not have the time to directly
dedicate to a game as much as I would like, the whole nine yards, while
it sounds stupid to say that I could have dedicated the 20+ hours
watching the game to actually playing the game this takes me to the next
point;
2)
It's just background noise: Yes, sometimes I am not even watching the
thing, I just have it as background noise and from time to time turn to
it, while this sounds weird to some people I rather have this as
background noise than music (yeah, sue me on that). I only alt-tab or
turn to another monitor when I hear some commentary on something that
could be potentially important (or stupid, maybe something cringe
worthy).
3)
Do not have the resources to play it: While I have several computers in
the house none of them, well maybe one of them, are built on the last
decade (2000-2009) which leaves me out of playing most of the games I
could potentially be interested in, I could surely invest on a new
machine but I also have to pay rent, utilities, a car, food, etc. So a
new computer is at the moment out of the question until I can either
find a good enough discount or manage to scrape enough money to build
something out of parts I get from flea markets (of which I already have
half to build a decent computer).
4)
Do not want to mess with emulators or old hardware: Now looking at the
other way, I have enough old hardware to mess with and play some really
old games straight from the CD or Floppy, even from 5 1/4, but going
full retrogaming means I need a CRT (which I actually have stashed and
needs to be checked by someone who knows how to fix a CRT because it
shorted out) and an old keyboard and trackball mouse (of which I have
all), did I mention you need an old PC for the whole experience to be as
close as possible to how it was back in the day? Most will not try to
figure this out, no matter how cheap the parts could be, and sometimes
figuring out an emulator can be a pain to some (and Linux doesn't make
this any easier apparently).
5)
No demo available for the game, not willing to spend money on something
I can't try out: This is probably the main reason I watch most new
games on YouTube first before buying them, while I could make a risky
decision of paying 50+ dollars for the latest whatever game or 20/30+
for the latest indie game I do not feel this is not a sane choice, this
hits harder in a time in which demos are no longer available, developers
barely give a hint of the game through their available material, piracy
becoming a more viable option before making the final choice, there are
so many more reasons that require demos to be back on the table,
urgently, so that we as players can either dismiss the game or build a
more appropriate hype around the thing that we are looking forward for
(perfect example, Alien: Colonial Marines was an obscene kick in the ass
to everyone who was looking towards the full experience of reliving
those very tense moments only to find this carcass of a game).
6) Kickstarter/Indiegogo
campaigns banish into thin air: Not so much as a playthrough but I
mostly end up finding out about games that become vaporware from
YouTube, testers and the like, sometimes I wonder what could have been
of a game had the developers not dropped the issue for whatever reason
they decided to do so or not scammed players (remember that game in
which you would become an Ant, another perfect example of what happens
when you have the wrong people in your team and then get robbed of
everything).
