News Twitch Prime users to lose advert-free streaming benefit

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This is BS. As a Twitch prime user it's one of the main benefits of my subscription. Looks like it might be back to uBlock.

 

I'm a Twitch Prime user, 'cos I'm an Amazon Prime user. In the time I've had a Twitch Prime membership, I have: received a bunch of games I can't install 'cos the Twitch client is Windows-only; received a bunch of in-game items for games I don't own; and watched precisely zero streams. I'm annoyed on behalf of people who do actually watch streams on Twitch, but I ain't losing any sleep over it.

 

It is when you watch a wide variety of streams such as myself and I don't use Prime movies or TV. So for me it degrades my experience.

Why do people watch sports instead of playing them?

 

But I wasn't going to buy Amazon/Twitch prime until advert free streaming was implemented.

Not everyone has a good computer they can play new games on. Same logic applies.

 

Or, y'know, because watching people at peak performance in a given event is an enjoyable experience. Lots of people drive, but they still watch Formula 1; lots of people have a kick-about in the park, but they still watch the World Cup; lots of people drink heavily, but they still watch darts. Hence, lots of people play Insert Game Here, but they'll still watch someone significantly better than them play it.

That's even before you account for entertainment value: streamers that aren't actually any good at the games they play might still be fun to watch 'cos they're funny. Hell, Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and Rifftrax made an entire genre out of, effectively, watching people watch films and make funny comments; is it so hard to imagine that people might want to watch people play games and make funny comments?

 

But none of those are the main reason. Like I say, there's nothing stopping anyone with a driving licence (or anyone without one, for that matter, given it's a closed track) from booking a track day at Brands Hatch, but far more people enjoy watching an expert driver strutting his stuff on the tellybox than would enjoy completely failing to complete a Brands Hatch circuit without spinning off the track.

Watching people do a thing and doing the thing yourself are not intrinsically linked; people may well have no interest in doing the thing but still enjoy watching other people do it. I have no interest in playing Angry Man Shooter 27: This Time It's Personal, but if you told me someone was about to break a world record by completing it in three and a half minutes I might spare the time to see history being made.

 

And here, I believe, is the core misunderstanding: people aren't watching "a PC game," they're watching a particular player. Like, why pay for Sky Sports to watch I Dunno Insert Your Favourite Football Team Here Everton or Whatever FC when you could just go down the park and watch the local U16s have a match? You're watching football either way, so it's the same thing, right?

 

Exactly this. Playing my guitar is fun; watching a local band be better at guitar than I am is funner; going to see Eric Clapton be absolutely amazing on guitar is funnest (or it was, until I found out the guy was a grade-A racialist. The tit.)

Watching people Be Amazing At Something is always fun, whether that something is football, motor racing, or Call of Battlefield 1984: Big Brother's Big Gun.

Yeah, like I say, I don't watch any streams 'cos the popular personalities are... not to my taste. I did watch a few Markiplier videos on YouTube a while back: he plays jumpscare-style games and has amusing (though doubtless exaggerated) reactions, which kept me entertained for a handful of minutes while I was waiting for some software to compile. It was fun (because entertainment, not because amazing.)

 

I'd buy it.