D&D 5E What is up with the popularity of watching other D&D groups play the game?

twofalls · Nov 19, 2020

D&D voyeurism has gone through the roof, and it's a complete mystery to me. Now for perspective I'm 51 years old and have played D&D for over 40 years, almost exclusively as a DM, so it may be a generational or even an issue of my role in games, but I'm just not sure. I've tried to watch some of these different and inexplicably popular shows and it's quite difficult for me to think of a more insanely boring activity. Why are these so popular? What is entertaining about them? I can't help but feel as though I'm missing something interesting about this activity due to all the attention they have been getting. I LOVE running D&D games, but watching one being run that I'm not involved in is like watching a golf match. Fun to play, abysmal to watch (yet many do to my continued astonishment).

commandercrud · Nov 19, 2020

I agree with you 100%. I'm also DM 99% of the time and have been playing just under 40 years.

GlassJaw · Nov 19, 2020

Agreed, I don't get it either. I'd like to say it's a generational thing but I know a lot of ~~grognards~~ gamers my age that do like it.

I haven't analyzed it too much but I think for me it's because it's not competitive. I used to play wargames fairly competitively and I would watch other people play, similar to chess or poker.

prabe · Nov 19, 2020

While I am about as baffled by the appeal as you are, I'm maybe more reluctant to slag on them or on the people who enjoy them. A few of the players at one of my tables are playing because of the game--and if my wife hadn't wanted to know the specifics of the rules they were playing under, we wouldn't have picked up the 5E books, and I wouldn't have gotten back into TRPGs.

My own reaction is that after maybe five minutes I want to turn off the stream, get out the books, and play. I also don't think they're particularly enjoyable to watch, and they're not particularly like any gaming table I've ever been at.

OTOH, I used to watch a fair amount of golf, mostly when I was teaching myself to play bass and wanted something to watch other than my hands ...

iserith · Nov 19, 2020

I will watch or listen to actual plays of specific products I am thinking about or planning to run myself. This is okay for getting some perspective on the content and how players engage with it. But for sheer entertainment, I do not find any of the actual play podcasts, even the popular ones, to be very good at all. My criteria for an entertaining game or actual play is that it must be (1) productive or (2) funny, preferably both. No show has managed to achieve this in my view except the early days of Acquisitions Incorporated and Crit Juice (both D&D 4e games).

Morrus · Nov 19, 2020

twofalls said:
I LOVE running D&D games, but watching one being run that I'm not involved in is like watching a golf match. Fun to play, abysmal to watch (yet many do to my continued astonishment).

As you say, people watch golf matches. Different people enjoy different things, and a lot of people like watching stuff like Critical Role.

twofalls · Nov 19, 2020

If it somehow appeared as though I were dishing on those who enjoy them, let me set the record straight, I'm absolutely not. I'm hoping folks who enjoy them will speak up and tell me what they feel I'm missing.

twofalls · Nov 19, 2020

Morrus said:
As you say, people watch golf matches. Different people enjoy different things, and a lot of people like watching stuff like Critical Role.

Yes! I know! I just do not understand why.

billd91 · Nov 19, 2020

Not every means of getting your game-fix in is going to work for everyone. Nor is every stream, podcast, discussion board, or whatever.

As someone who's also 51 and has been playing 40 years, I like some streaming of D&D campaigns. It just depends on who's doing it and if they do it well. It's not that different from walking around a convention floor and observing the games people are playing. I get to observe how other people are doing it - and I find that broadens my own approaches to gaming. Playing with the same people week after week may not actually be stifling, but it is limited in the sense that it doesn't reflect how other people are doing things in the wide world around us. Watching other people can do that if you find it useful.

Oofta · Nov 19, 2020

Not that I keep up with it, but I do listen to Critical Role now and then when I'm exercising, especially when biking. I find it entertaining and it's always interesting to see how people approach the game differently than I do. I don't want to listen to anything too serious when I exercise and if I zone out for a few minutes it doesn't really matter.

Besides, whether playing or DMing, aren't you listening to other people's stories most of the time? I mean, yes, you're involved in the story, but so are a bunch of other people. Guess I don't see that much different.

So it's just cheap entertainment that I can put in my ear buds and listen without it being too distracting or requiring a lot of thought.