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Are gamers in general not as interested in TV/Movies as most people are?


lost_soul

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I wonder this, because as somebody who likes to play games, I always found TV to be mostly boring. Since there are obviously a lot of game-playing folks around here, this seems like a good thing to discuss. The obvious draw to computer games is that they are dynamic. The same thing will not always happen even if you play the same game over and over again. In TV/movies of course, the experience is always the same. Do gamers in general shy away from television?

Edited by lost_soul
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Haven't watched more than an hour of TV at a time for the last 14 years.. though I'll watch the odd movie now and then, most of the time I get bored because there's no interactivity.

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I enjoy some tv. Big fan of Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, Downton Abbey, and Big Bang Theory.

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TV is good fodder for how to plot a story at least. I'll follow the ones with great stories like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad to get a feel for the pacing and driving things forward.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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I'll watch The Daily Show and occasional documentaries on PBS such as Nature, Frontline, Ken Burns stuff, recently Earth: A New Wild, etc etc. And very rarely I'll watch a series, the most recent one being True Detective (prior to that one I can't remember any others--it would've been many years ago). I did watch The X-Files when I was very young...

 

As for movies, I'm always on the lookout for good ones but I only end up watching several per year. Every now and then I'll spend 15 minutes "researching" upcoming movies and gradually widdle-away at a list of them as trailers and reviews come out.

 

 

However, I don't really like having a timeslot dedicated to television on a daily basis. For example, I'd prefer it if The Daily Show were a once a week program. For what programs I do watch I usually try to overlap them with another activity, such as eating or exercising (on e.g. a spin bike). Between television, books, comics/manga, anime (I separate it from "television" since--for me at least--it feels pretty distinct), and gaming, there is just so much media now that I find myself having to be extremely selective. "Keeping up" itself is a sort of stress for me. If I actually wanted to I could easily spend all of my free time just consuming consuming consuming media, but I know I'll quickly get depressed if I don't spend most of that free time engaging my mind in a mostly participatory/creative way.

 

This may be too much of a diversion but it relates to why I try to minimize these sort activities: When I was young I probably spent 90% of my free time just "consuming" in the aforementioned sort of way. At that time (and I can't tell you how insane this sounds to the "me of now"), it really didn't occur to me that engaging one's mind could be so much more rewarding and fulfilling, especially when "instant gratification" was always within reach. The people in my life never encouraged me to behave any differently, and in fact a great many of them discouraged me (sometimes implicitly with e.g. their visible discomfort and distance, and sometimes explicitly by criticizing me). To say the least, this may seem odd, but it can be common in more rural, less culturally diverse areas beset by deep-set insecurities, ignorance, and conservative culture. In combination with the anti-intellectualism and (in at least some senses) "hedonism" omnipresent in American culture, the result is you have these backwater places that are unknowingly stuck in their own "mini dark ages."

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I don't have a tv, but I watch movies quiet often. I also like series like Game of Thrones, Big Bang Theory and Breaking Bad. I also tend to rewatch things more or less often if I consider them entertaining. I've watched most Stargate and Simpsons episodes several times, as well as Game of Thrones, which I recently watched a second time.

 

I also read a lot of books, which share the same "downside", their non-interactivity. In the last time I read a lot of the books by Simon Scarrow, who writes about two legionaries of the roman army during the invasion in Britain around 40 A.D. . They are very entertaining (and bloody ;) ).

 

I think each medium has its legimitation. Books are the best medium for storytelling, movies and series combines this with a visual and audio part (but normally have a very compressed story, I never watched a movie that was as good as the book it is based on, if it is based on a book). Video Games give us an interactive approach, but are normally not as good in storytelling as books or movies.

 

From the visual side, games may be compareable with movies, but most games or game designers mix up visual quality with polygon count and shader usage, so they rarely reach the level of well made movies.

 

I also love to listen to music btw., which is noninteractive, too, and listen to the same tracks several houndret times if they are good, even if they sound the same all the time.

 

Oh..., and I trink coffee every morning, even though it always tastes the same :)

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I love movies, but mostly watch older ones. I am not interested in either the glossy blockbusters that dominate Hollywood, or the tortuous art movies that dominate Europe. Solid, honest entertainment, though...

 

Haven't had a TV since I moved out in 1999, not missing it yet.

 

But none of this has anything to do with things always being the same. Both interactive and non-interactive entertainment has its advantages and disadvantages.

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As an engineer researching stereo 3d, I actually have to watch 3d movies for work. :D Not that I wouldn't do so either way.

 

I also watch a lot of movies and tv shows in general. I especially watch a lot of commedy shows, because I just like to laugh and it's my way of relaxation and getting back on track, after a hard and maybe even disappointing day of work.

 

However, same as Grayman, I NEVER watch regular TV programmes, since I don't want to hear some crappy german localization of my favorite shows.

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Was never a really big TV watcher, when we had a TV I'd mostly watch documentaries, and these days I only really watch kids tv shows with my daughter. It's wierd, but I've always liked getting entertainment from pretty eclectic sources, so I enjoy reading sci-fi, but also about history and religion/philosophy, watching anime, listening to old time radio, and with the rise of Youtube watching Let's Players. Go figure :-).

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Do gamers in general shy away from television?

 

Probably yes. Time is limited. You waste time with TV or computers, and you do not have the time for both.

 

I do watch some TV shows, but I always prefer playing a good game (in good company) over watching TV.

 

I am reluctant to watch movies, because you never know if the movie is good until you have seen it. Watching is a risk of losing time, because if the movie is bad, you lost the time in poor entertainment.

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Clipper

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IMDb solves everything, Mr. Sotha! ;-) Also, I only watch movies in company, so it's almost never wasted time.

 

But it is! You could be talking something really interesting and deep stuff with the other person, or engage in other activities. But instead of spending time on each other, you just watch the movie.

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But it is! You could be talking something really interesting and deep stuff with the other person, or engage in other activities. But instead of spending time on each other, you just watch the movie.

Or you talk about the movie after it's ended. Or during the movie. Just because you have a movie on doesn't mean you can't talk.

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Not true. I enjoy movies than most of my peers. I just hate to watch series because they manipulate you into watching it to the end of the season or the entire thing.

Honestly, screw them. I will stick to my full length film.

TV is ok as long as what they show is good. Usually it's very obnoxious when it gets to some channels. Sometimes plain chess is perfect.

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Some series on TV (lately) are just too good to not have watched. (Game of Thrones / Breaking Bad)

 

I do watch some TV but only recorded because life is too short for commercials.

 

I really enjoy movies though. Intro/development/climax/epilogue/end.

 

I think the OP might more pertain to different ages (possibly). Like a bit younger generation (I'm 43) may game more and not watch movies? Like twenty-somethings?

 

I know my brother, in his early thirties, does watch some films and enjoys them but I don't think he watches nearly as many as I do.

 

It could just be down to personal preferences too.

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  • 4 months later...

Enjoy...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGxLtqMJp5U ...the Haunting of Hill House 1963 p.s. they want $2.99 usd for this. it is worth it imo.

 

along the same lines ..and no charge as yet. The Uninvited 1944 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV-B6nud75U ...dang those gals are slim.

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I don't think this is really limited to gamers. I notice a lot of my peers (gamers or not) haven't been as into "traditional" TV as they used to.

 

Nowadays they're usually using Netflix and/or similar services and if they do watch TV it's only for specific shows rather than random watching.

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I agree to that. It's just more convenient to watch a show, wehenever you want and not be bound to times, the TV stations decide and to just pause, when you want to. Also, when you stream shows you avoid a lot of ads. Even though most streaming services have thier own, it feels like less than shows on TV have. The only times I watch TV nowadays is for live events (e.g. the world cup or something similar).

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I am a generally picky television fan. You often find me watching some of the better European documentary channels I'm subscribed to. Or I watch stuff that interests me. In the recent decade or so, I've become quite weird by being mostly out of the loop when it comes to what shows are currently popular on domestic and international television.

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I've been thinking about this recently. I think some types of movies and tv shows appeal to gamers more than others.

 

One thing I notice is, I like shows that are laid out to be game-like, in the sense that the characters themselves are on some kind of long-term quest and each episode they make a little progress...

 

To take an example, The Walking Dead is definitely like this, and has elements of survival, exploration, colony building, etc, things that also make for good games. Then it adds an interpersonal element, playing the other characters, which isn't a big part of gaming since the AI isn't there (aside from social gaming, although that doesn't work so well to the extent jerks can't roleplay to save their lives), but if AI *could* handle it, it would be, and tv shows like TWD show how it might play out. Interactive Fiction is the closest we come, and it's not surprising that TWD game is pretty good on its own terms. Last of Us is also great for similar reasons.

 

Some setups, like the zombie genre, are good for games and shows.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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