Anon doesn't understand streamer fans

I've no difficulty understanding lads being thirsty and attracted by a lovely lady who appears to be into gaming and hey, you can even interact and try to get her attention!

Now, explain to me lads getting super invested in some lads running around a field chasing a ball. Like, literally having their lives revolve around it, their identity entirely centered on it. Now that's a complete mystery to me.

I actually understood sports fandom for the first time because of watching streamers play video games. I was like ooooohhh, this is a very challenging skill, and I'm watching someone do it very very well, and I'm fucking hyped and I want to see more.
I never in my life had that for basketball or anything. But it made sense when I saw it for video games.
As someone who was born into the ball chasing cult, there are three things:
The social aspect. It's the one thing that brings my family together, each week, to watch the game. For away games, you have a cookout with some family friends, buy some drinks and then you watch the game. If it's in the evening, then you go out afterwards. For home games, you gather the same group, but now you're gonna meet more people in the arena, people you know because they're also in the cult. You have a drink, you have a laugh and you catch up with them. Our team is a second division side with some okay players and a great goalie, so the game is almost relegated (heh) to play second fiddle.
Oh and don't get me started on the choreos.
Hometown pride: This team has been here since the 19th century and for me, going to the games or even having just a passing interest in the team is part of being from that town.
You tag lamp posts in your town with their stickers and you do the same in the surrounding smaller cities. By looking at the stickers in any given town, you can see to which city their youth gravitates, which tickles my brain in ways I can't explain.
It's fun to watch: Arguably the weakest reason, but God damn, sometimes even second division footy just looks so good! When you see someone pull off a sick trick or make a clean tackle or catch, you get that sweet dopamine kick, it's insane.
I'd never beat someone because of their allegiance. Those people can kick rocks.
- Fair-play to you for a thoughtful answer. Much appreciated and it certainly matches my personal experience.
  As I said somewhere else : seeing my mates being all up in arms about ManU when they live in fecking Donegal was always funny to me, but I totally see the social aspect.
  So much banter at the pub! If there is a thing the Irish love, it's a good banter.
  Shame about the assholes who use it as an excuse to get into fights. Fecking idiots the lot of them.
- Hometown pride
  Do you also refer to your city’s sport team using “we”, “us”, and “our”? I’ve always found that weird, because while I’m a fan, I don’t consider myself being a part of what the team accomplishes. I’m just a spectator. I just refer to them as the team name.
- I appreciate the summary and I think i get why people like sports ball.... but I really enjoy having a sports ball free space to talk about how absurd it is the way our society obsesses over it. on the internet, you're the weirdo, not me!
- ball chasing cult
  lol yeah :D
Most of the time it's the social aspect that is infectious. It gives you something in common with other fans that would otherwise be strangers to you
- I never understood sports fans until walking around Key West with my Navy buddy who wore a hat for the Browns. Random dudes kept cracking jokes at and/or with him the whole day. Still ain't enough to get me into the cult, but I get the appeal now.
- Aye, like wearing a cool metal shirt and getting the horns from a complete stranger. We do like our tribe(s), don't we?
Each to their own pal. I’m sure there are things you do that others find a mystery.
- That is a magnificently executed thought-terminating cliché, but if I may offer a rebuttal: nuh-uh!
- Hey, no hate on people loving sports!
  My point was it's super clear why a teenager wants to thirst on a pretty woman playing vidya.
  Now, my irish mates all having their club and being all very serious about it, when they'll curse the English in the same sentence has always been hilarious to me.
  And I'm talking people from fecking Donegal, who lived through the Troubles and shit. Never understood that one.
Practicing masculinity, delighting in skilled human action, and bonding with peers.
Not my thing, but I get it.
its like joining a cult, you swap your weaker identity with the stronger cult identity
Expanding on the penis in vagina theme for a minute...
- Now that's a bit of a stretch
The male ball chase cult is not even into women's sports. I always found contradictory that the crowd that qualifies itself as the manliest and straightest, enjoys looking at sweaty males that grop each other celebrating scoring. The whole thing reeks of suppressed sexuality.
Holy fuck I wish lemmy gold was a thing i could give you. Sport fans always seemed like cultists to me.
On the contrary, I think baseball obsession is more 'grounded'. There's no illusion that the players are your personal friends, they are a team and the social part is cheering them on with fellow fans.

I've been watching streamers who I don't want to fuck and who don't really play that well, either. A lot of the time, I'm kinda too lazy to play games myself, and watching streams is a much more passive activity (if you don't participate in the chat etc.).

I watch the movie edited versions of dayz streams on YouTube while I'm working.
Meaning a dude who plays dayz records his streams, edits it into a "movie" and posts it to YouTube.
I don't play dayz.. never have. But it's nice to have some noise a narrative and easily consumable content in the background while I'm working.
I only watch top tier players so I can get better at whatever the game is. I'd rather be playing, but my obligations are such that I can watch (say, while doing laundry or dishes) when I can't play. I find it makes my play sessions more effective since I have strategies to succeed where I'd otherwise fail.
That said, I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority given that many of the chats I see on streams are like "what did I miss?" or "has streamer done X yet?" like they're watching a drama. I don't understand that aspect of streaming, yet comments like yours show that I'm likely in the minority.
I think that's really interesting and turns gaming from a hobby to a social endeavor.

I'm sure horniness is a factor, but there is also the aesthetic allure of the adorable. Like I can look at cat pics for hours. Doesn't mean cats make me hot.

Sexual attraction and frustration, sure. Also loneliness, loss of community, loss of purpose, loss of meaning.
Maybe not every guy who watches her is like that, but some definitely are. I would especially be concerned for those who watch her consistently and donate large amounts of money to her. But I feel the same way about anyone who watches a lot of streamers and donates a lot of money (relative to their own income of course).
Parasocial relationships are a deeply concerning development.
- Parasocial relationships are a deeply concerning development.
  I agree. I'm not sure how anyone who has a healthy sense of self-respect can develop this sort of relationship, tbh. Even wading into the sometimes toxic peergroup of fandoms is better, because at least you're communicating back and forth rather than just imbibing this quasi-social runoff that's not even directed towards you as a person.
but there is also the aesthetic allure of the adorable
yep
i think it's like this:
men walk around aimlessly until they find something they like (woman). that calms them down and they stop wandering around. that's the "appeal of the adorable" or sth.
- Gambling is adorable 🤗

Wait, are you implying that I'm sexually attracted to Josh from Let's game it out!?

Who wouldn't be?
- Ugh have you seen what he can do with some wood?! Swoon
As someone that works in software, what he does to turn running code inside out, is kinda sexy. The guy is like a bloodhound for bugs and poorly-built software.
Game developers: Yeah, buy our game and play it however you want. It's all for fun!
Josh: ::proceeds to out-QA the publisher's QA department, breaking the game in the most egregious ways imaginable::
Game developers: No, not like that!
Speedrunners:: ::furious note-taking sounds::

Isn't that Pokimane? She's ranked in League. Cute women can do great things. If you sexualize it maybe you're a creep. Go watch her play.

And non-cute women can do great things. Watch people play who entertain you, and if they're attractive, that's cool too.
What does 'ranked' mean? Doesn't basically every player have a rank?
- Ranked, meaning above a certain rank making you one of the top tier players.
  You can be ranked as a bronze sure. But no one goes around saying I'm ranked bronze. Means you're trash.
  According to Google she's Emerald+ (I have no idea what this means as I never played LoL. She apparently reached immortal status which makes her the top 0.5% of players.
- Not really, you can play league entirely unranked though the matchmaking will still try to put you in similar skill matches. So you will get an ELO/MMR but that's not a rank anyone sees.

I understand greentexts are misogynistic by nature, but wtf is wrong with this entire fucking website that this shit is what pops up first. The entire "joke" hinges on the idea that that woman's entire worth is tied into being pretty. This is not even casual sexism, that's ranked competitive sexism.

Also going by the comments some advanced morons here seem to unironically think that is actually how it works. Per twitch's own leaked financials pokimane did not make more money than her male counterparts (who no-one ever accused of abusing their pretty privilege). But she's a woman so of course her merit has to be scrutinized and her success has to be attributed to men. I suppose the idea that she has a large female audience has never even crossed the minds of the quadruple-chinned gremlins who upvote this garbage.

The entire “joke” hinges on the idea that that woman’s entire worth is tied into being pretty.
Uhh no, the joke is that a lot of men see women as objects and will watch her streams solely on the fact that she is a woman that they desire to bang. But yea, no matter what lens you look at it, it's patriarchy all the way down. I think watching and developing parasocial relationships with streamers, male or female, is pretty fuckin weird anyway.
- I think watching and developing parasocial relationships with streamers, male or female, is pretty fuckin weird anyway.
  It is weird in an understanble way. Homo sapiens is a pack animal. For most of our 300k years of history, we survived by forming tribes and being connected to each other. This is why rejection sucks at any context, be it romanic or employment or friendship.
  Today, we are more alone and isolated than any time in history. It's understandable some lonely people are desperate enough to hang onto some simulacrum of connection.
- That's a very charitable interpretation. Anon is a literal incel, he made a sexist joke, and I really don't think he (or you) has ever watched one of pokimane's streams because they're aggressively non-sexual. There are plenty of actual sex workers on twitch if that's your thing.
  Has pokimane had her share of weirdos over the years? Sure, but it's really not that many people in absolute numbers and spreading naked incel propaganda is really fucking icky to me. Incel jokes aren't okay even if it's "humor". It normalizes this extreme misogyny, even if you say "it's okay we're laughing at anon".
I think you're missing some cultural context where 80% of twitch streams by women are just softcore porn. It became much more diverse and acceptable now but soft sex workers were huge on Twitch without even doing much of actual sex work.
- I mean yeah but pokimane isn't one. Also I'd really hesitate to go anywhere near as high as 80%
- I have been on twitch before sex workers even got a foot in the door. If you think that's what "80%" of twitch is about then you either don't watch or are telling on yourself.
  Anyway whatever you think of sex work is literally irrelevant to the conversation. The woman pictured is not a sex worker and implying that she is for the sake of an incel joke because "she's pretty, that's close enough to sex work for me" is misogyny and you need to take a long hard look at yourself.
I think that at least 7 people didn't understand what you were trying to say.
I did. Well said. I can't see any problems with your argument.
Though, I think that maybe the green text was more about female streamers in general, not just the one that's depicted.
Whichever. Be well.
It is also wild how some people here think everything you do in life is for the soul purpose of "procreation." Like there is nothing more to life than the shallowness of sex for some people.

Maybe they’ll learn about porn one day

Unless they're 15 in Texas and don't understand VPNs or proxies.
- True but I navigated an internet with child locks out the ass when I was a kid and still could find lots of porn
- For the best. Stay in school, cowboy.

I have no sexual attraction to the many gamers I watch stream. I love John Wolfe and his gaming is just so entertaining. I will listen in the background and watch off and on. I get to experience games I have no time or energy to play still engage in the storylines and also have some background noise. It's a win win win. It's not always about bewbs.

So u never wanted to have Zero Master's Doom babies?

Shrieking into the void is my favourite pastime, I don't even watch the stream, I pause it and concentrate on the chat. I've never once been tagged or responded to after thousands of messages, and have macro keybinds for every emote available so I can post :Kappa: and :Omegalul: as fast as possible.

Well I see you at least.

I don't understand watching any video game streams. It just makes me want to play video games myself, why would I spoil video games by watching someone else play it?

The appeal isn't in the games themselves, it's in the personality playing them.
- I got pretty into watching twitch a couple years back, and yep, the streamer and community are what made my favourite streams. I mostly watched streams for one or two games I knew, but would watch others because it was one of the streamers I liked
  made for a nice change from podcasts or music
Here in Brazil, a lot of kids watch streamers because their families can't afford any gaming devices :(
I've just recently gotten into this. Gotta find someone with good commentary skills, and doesn't have an annoying voice.
Also, speedrunners aren't who I thought they'd be, was expecting a bunch of nerds cracked out on adderall. I don't seek out the genre, but the ones I've stumbled across accidentally are older, with a technical background and do well-spoken commentary. Makes it much more interesting when they can articulate what they're doing as they're doing it.
- This, for real. I love people who like think their way their way through, or add thoughtful commentary. They're the interesting people who don't even need prodding with remarks from chat; thoughtful, chatty people make good background TV for me.
  I immediately close streams where they play their own music or refuse to fix their audio issues.
I have limited time, watching certain gaming channels lets me know about games I might be interested in.
Then I can wishlist them, purchase them when they're on sale, and never find the time to play them.
I also have limited skills. Watching certain gaming channels lets me experience games I wouldn't be able to progress in if I played them myself.
Also, some are entertaining because of the way the person plays. Watching Jon forget about his damn blunderbuss cavalry until they are again slaughtered to the last man amuses me.
I don't play for an audience, so I can constantly pause and micromanage the game, and therefore don't tend to make these amusing mistakes. I'm also not as good as most professionals. Therefore watching certain professionals play certain games can be more entertaining than playing them myself.
Finally, there's also the reaction factor, same as with film or TV or music reactions. Watching someone experience that surprise or shock for the first time triggers the mirror neuron, and is the closest I can get to experiencing it myself for the first time again.
There are some games I can't "git gud" at but I enjoy seeing the gameplay, so I watch edited playthroughs.
I don't watch streams much, for a multitude of reasons.
I don’t understand watching any video game streams. It just makes me want to play video games myself, why would I spoil video games by watching someone else play it?
I don't understand watching any football streams. It just makes me want to play football myself, why would I spoil the fun of playing by watching someone else play it?
- Actually though. I can't bear football and I'd still rather kick a ball around than sit and watch it
- I don't watch sports either. That said, that's not a bad point, I suppose if I got into it I theoretically could watch and enjoy competitive games. Not the same as streamers playing singleplayer games though.
I used to hang out with friends in college, and I'd do homework in the same room while they'd play videogames (or vice-versa). Throwing a streamer on while I'm working gives the same vibe.
Nobody is watching for the game. Everyone is watching the cute girls and the bewbss.
- I'd argue that's not completely true because in that case why not just watch porn or why watch non-sexy video game streamers who also get plenty of viewers?
  I do think you are partially correct though in a way that makes it a little more depressing, I think a lot of viewers see a cute girl playing video games specifically as a combination they like so they can fantasize about specifically having a "gamer girlfriend". But if they like that, then they're also there for the gameplay or will inevitably get at least a little invested in it as they watch.
That kinda depends on the type of game and type of gameplay. Speedruns are very obviusly something you can watch and not spoil yourself. There are also games that have hard learning curve and watching someone skilled is fun and a way to learn the game ( europa universalis for example ) . Some pepole want to watch someone role playing beacuse they know they will never be able to do that in a milion years ( i for example beat mass effect 3 times always taking the same decisions beacuse i just couldnt force myself to do somdthing diffrent ) so you might wanna watch someone who will do actual evil playtrough.

They very much know what they're doing. In an era where legit anyone can do this stuff now, they gotta stand out or just have vagina. Not all streamers are baiting hormones, but incidentally I don't get being a streamer fan such that you're even paying money to someone to play a video game. Makes about as much sense to pay someone playing sports millions of dollars but hey, that's just me. Peace

Anon can't fathom being interested in people if the reason is not sexual.

1 way streamer 'relationships' feel super weird and impersonal to me. It's like there's some kind of fantasy the streamer is personally invested in, and interested in, you, too.
Like maybe I'd watch a bit out of curiosity, like watching a sports team or something. But become paying 'patron' and watch them all the time?
- To me it's just entertainment, not a relationship. But I'm starting to wonder if I'm the weird one. I often just watch the archives too, not even live.
  I find some of them consistently amusing so I keep watching. At some point I think that it's only fair to contribute monetarily to help incentivize them to keep producing the entertainment I like.

Poki definitely has fans like that, but she has plenty of other fans too. You dont get to be that popular if all you have is looks

Have you ever been on pornhub?
- You think porn is just looks?

I found out that some female streaming voices give me some asmr. And overall can be more pleasant to hear. And less prone to have "youtube accent". I take that as a win.

I don't watch Twitch but the youngin's in my family do.
Female streamers don't have that fake obnoxious rage yell/scream the guys do.
Last streamer I watched by choice was Skyrim Grandma BTW.
- The only "streaming" I can watch are Game Grumps, but I get that's not live, and it's by and for a completely different demographic.
  I've tried, but I find a lot of Twitch play-throughs to be low-stimulation, low-information, and low-entertainment. I think they're better suited to a dual-screen kind of situation, but then I'd rather be doing far more engaging things like playing games myself.
- Female streamers don’t have that fake obnoxious rage yell/scream the guys do.
  Eh, guys with the fake rage scream are about as common as the ladies who see Twitch as essentially a starter camsite/way to advertise their OF and are trading on boobs more than anything else. There absolutely are streamers on Twitch that are exactly what OP suggests, but they're far from a majority and probably not the one used in the picture.
Holy shit, is "YouTube accent" that weird, half broken English baby voice to sound like an anime girl?
Every WoW guild I've been in has one.

I used to somewhat regularly watch streams before going to sleep. I'd just have the computer set to shutdown at a given time and just be in bed, watching, listening. Even crafted me own script, to activate the shutdown popup and slowly lower the volume. Better than the computer suddenly shutting down, and allowed me to easily cancel shutdown if I wanted. Once the computer turned off, put my stuff to the side and go to sleep (not sure how often I'd end up on my phone instead)

That being said, I don't have a Twitch account, never interacted. Just sometimes watched, when certain people were on, at the end of the day. Not like I was the whole day in chat or something. And lately I've lost the habit. Back then, I lived alone, and with a job,.had a regular routine. Plus, the computer was right ahead of my bed. Now? No more. I usually end up on my phone instead (and when that happens, it usually is not limit in time… it don't shutdown.)

Edit: not interested in gaming, though. I'm more of a "Just Chatting"

What makes a man do anything now days lol

You see, the steamer depicted may not be the exact subject matter they're referring to. They might have just googled female streamers, or loaded up Twitch and looked for the first girl on camera and snapped a screen shot.

With all that being said, I understand the appeal of wanting to watch something that you think is pretty. Hell, that's the entire reason I played cyberpunk as a female character despite being very cis, and male.

For 90% of game play my gender doesn't matter. Until cutscenes where I get to watch my avatar interacting with others.

Outside of cutscenes, I'm looking first person, so what difference does it make?

Obviously women have long hair, and that can get in the way, making it harder to see. You don't want hair in your face when you got to fit that piece through the side precisely, making a last second rotation to fit lest you end up with a hole on your stack
- Oh, and don't forget that video game women tend to have worse upper body strength than video game men so if you're intending to vault, climb and break things you should be a dude /s
With all that being said, I understand the appeal of wanting to watch something that you think is pretty. Hell, that’s the entire reason I played cyberpunk as a female character despite being very cis, and male.
2077's female VA is incredible. She sounds so much more 'real' than clips of the male VA I heard, and the bit of rasp is utterly perfect for the setting.
Same with Kassandra, Femshep, and (I think) FemRyder.
Basically I've been trained into assuming the female VA is going to deliver a better performance.

Lot of para social interaction in those twitch chats. You can see how easy it would be to go from “I’m watching this because I fancy the streamer” to something unhealthy.

Male Loneliness Epidemic is mostly just broke teenagers trapped in the suburbs who haven't figured out their girl peers are just as lonely, broke, and horny as they are.

As soon as they crack the code, they're at it like jackrabbits

We been trying to go backwards ever since the first life form split. Some are more motivated than others. The hive mind explores every potential ctrl+z for mitosis... Put it back! Stop! No, go away!... Lone star the barbarian just wanna get merged n go home.

We're all just animals under the surface. Human exceptionalism is a fallacy. The hormones are just as much a part of you as any conscious thought.

The stranger thing to me is why this type of performance is a thing people watch in the first place. I do not mean that in a judgemental way at all. I am more interested in what it says about the nature of entertainment and human social behavior. This seems like a glitch in the meaning and value of tribalism. The potential benefit is very limited. The person performing has obvious returns on investment. It is the others that I question.

Monkey brain horny.
- But why not porn then?

The curse of heterosexuality.

He might have described why a chunk of guys pick up learning how to play the guitar.

Humanity on the balance seems to like to act shocked and even disgusted when anything like this and countless other similar scenarios occur. Often they ask why but they know why. Procreation. So much of our behaviour has undertones of procreation whether we acknowledge this or not. I find those who acknowledge deal with the less ethical parts of procreation much better than those constantly in denial.

You have the energy of someone who refers to women as "females".
- You “picked up” on that? Uhmm…you definitely did not.

when did pokimane get boobs?