Probably the most solid reason I’ve read so far. A few others have said similar.

That’s the “better” reaction channels. There are channels that record singer generic reactions (no commentary) and put them over hundreds of videos despite the reactions not making sense at all

It’s ridiculous. I can’t even figure out a stupid reason to do it.

That’s not what I’m talking about. And I love her too. She’s a trained artist listening to comment on her art.

I’m talking about some idiot that just sits there nodding looking like a clown.

The last time someone made a similar complaint about reaction videos, I responded with a comment similar to yours regarding El Estepario Siberiano reacting to a Danny Carey performance and someone else responded to me explaining that an analysis video is much different than a reaction video and I tend to agree. I appreciate analysis videos where the person provides insight and context to what they’re showing me that I might not understand on my own.

often the first time hearing them

If there’s a bigger lie told by react videos than this, I’d like to hear it.

I’ll do it but it’s just me sitting stony-faced before going “load of wank” and turning it off halfway through.

Its literally being done now. Its excruciating.

Awhh brehh he was like brehhh

So. You’d be the one to ask… seriously, why do you make these videos?

That’s fair. I don’t watch streamers as a rule, but let’s plays can be enjoyable. I’ll watch them if the commentators are funny, or of it’s a game I’m interested in knowing about but not interested enough to play through myself, or if it’s on a platform I don’t have, The Metal Gear Solid series for example.

For the same reason people watch professional sports.

When i was a kid me and my 4 siblings would often have to take it in turns to play single or 2 player games. In the mean time if you weren’t playing you would watch the others play. It was exciting rooting for one player or another, it was great when something funny happened, or when someone did something amazing, whether on purpose or by accident whilst button mashing. Even single player adventure or rpg games were fun to watch. It was kind of like watching a movie. You were there for the fun bits, the exciting bits, the sad bits, the shocking bits. Even watching, you are part of it.

Admittedly, despite this, i initially didn’t find this sort of content appealing as i thought there would be something different with me not being in the room and it not being my siblings. But after watching a streamer who makes other, non-game content do a few multiplayer games with other people that appear on his stream i found that they can be just as fun to watch. You still get a bit of that feeling and its still enjoyable. Especially if you are watching live and can take part in the chat. The rest of chat are substitutes for my siblings and the streamer and his buddies are all funny and the camaraderie is very familiar.

All in all i would say, you might be suprised if you gave it a go.

The streamer might do some funny (or insightful) comments about the game while playing, or do a playthrough with some weird conditions (e.g. he can’t do certain actions like healing, …) that you wouldn’t in your right mind apply to yourself

Some streamers play indie games and some are terribly boring to me. It helps me sleep.

i watch it for the commentary. Its also kind of like pseudoshared experience. There are also bunch of games that are not necessarily bad but which i dont want to buy, so watching someone else play it is nice way to experience the game and also see if it would be worth getting afterall.

I’m not into sports neither and when my father explained why he watches sports, I suggested you might just as well watch people playing video games.

I thought that was ridiculous at the time but it actually became a thing

I’ve watched let’s plays of strategy games that I want to be better at, in order to see people who don’t fucking suck like I do. But after I get a better idea on how to suck less, I stop.

Sometimes I find it fun to watch a game I will never play, but I also get to chat with the streamer so theres that too.

Yeah this. I never really cared for them, and tbh a lot of those reaction videos are very over the top or fake. But I kinda latched onto the more grounded ones this year. It allows me to rewatch some of my favorite content “with others”. Obviously it’s not as good as doing so with friends, but getting friends to watch all this content is kinda hard. If they care, they’ve probably already seen it or it’s just very hard to plan something like this. And if they don’t care then watching together won’t be fun anyway.

Last year has been quite stressful and sometimes I just need some “mental fastfood”. Reaction content is that. There’s no stress, I know exactly what will happen when. There’s just the joy of seeing someone else watch or play something awesome for the first time. It kinda makes it feel like I’m seeing it for the first time with them. And some of these people actually see or know things that I wasn’t aware of when watching. Or they come up with interesting theories about what’s gonna happen next.

Not always. I’ve seen clips of reaction videos where people are shown older media that’s typically unfamiliar to young people. In that case, it’s a way to reassure older people of the continued appeal of the pop culture of their youth. Something like a modern high schooler listening to Led Zeppelin for the first time.

I get so irritated seeing that bottom panel of uselessness. And it’s always so exaggerated… first couple of times I thought it might be some commentary or a conversation. Now I wish there was a thumbs up, thumbs down, and punch in the face. I’d chose the later.

There’s a clause in most countries’ copyright laws that allow you to use material for the purposes of “commentary”.

Do you count debunking videos as stealing, because I don’t. Some of the best videos is people debunking misinformation posted by assholes like Rogan.

Same. I do the ‘show less of this shit’ also.