I don’t understand why this is a thing? Who wants to watch someone nod their head to someone else’s content?
Just show the original video! How did this get popular and what is wrong with those that helped it to happen?
Its affirmation therapy for insecure people. “Somebody likes the thing I like!”
Probably the most solid reason I’ve read so far. A few others have said similar.
Another reason could be that it makes the act of watching a video feel less lonely than it actually is. Reaction videos turn it into a quasi-social thing.
Watching a video of a person nodding or laughing at dumb shit while alone is still watching video alone. So I don’t think this is it.
It’s cashing in on a video worker having to put any effort into it. Watching this shit is like eating regurgitating food- with no credit to the cook.
It’s the easiest/laziest way to get a ton of views/engagement. Why bother doing the work of creating your own content when you can just steal other people’s videos and put your face in the corner “reacting” to it, then publish it as your own? Get enough subscribers/followers and views and you can start monetizing it.
oh I have seen that!! and wondered the same. For anyone confused, it’s (what I assume to be) somebody else’s recording, with a head superimposed on it that chuckles every 10s or so
Unpopular thing to say but… I just don’t understand watching other people gaming.
Note that I did not say “people who watch twitch are idiots”.
Just that I personally don’t get it, never will. I’m fine with that too, people do loads of things that I don’t find at all appealing.
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.
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.
More power to you brother, but yeah this holds no meaning for me.
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
Amazing.
The streamers I watch are usually incredibly talented and can pull off things I wouldn’t even imagine. They also explain the game at a very high level and can show me the boundaries that I didn’t even know existed. They also experiment with different setups and beat the game in hard mode without breaking a sweat.
Not everyone can pull it off while being entertaining and pleasant, but I think those are the ones worth watching the most.
Some streamers play indie games and some are terribly boring to me. It helps me sleep.
For the same reason people watch professional sports.
Fair enough. I don’t watch
gambling adsprofessional sports either.
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
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.
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.
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.
Fully agreed that this is a dumb thing but hasn’t this been a fad since like 10 years ago?
I’ve seen people do that (or worse, watch a video of someone else playing a game) since looooong ago
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I have watched a couple of them because the only video I have found on some interesting theme has been such a reaction video.
But, I’d say that I do feel kind of comfortable “having someone around” when watching the video. I would still prefer the video without the extra commentator saying things aloud that I can see myself, but I bet there are people who really do get something out of the reaction videos. I’d imagine they are very nice things for the most intoverted among us?
Still, they are there mainly for generating revenue for their makers and for youtube, not so much for some actual need…
Billions of idiots. I have no other explanation.
I’ve seen limited evidence to suggest the audience is material. A lot of these numbers are farmed for engagement and to inflate ad revenue. A lot are just channels that auto play when people aren’t paying attention.
There’s definitely an audience of little kids who are just strapped to pads with nothing better to do. But it can’t be overstated how fudged these audience numbers can get.
YouTube claims their Shorts channel gets 200 billion views per day. There’s only 5 billion Internet users on Earth.
That’s 2.5B with 80 views a day, or 1.25 with 160 a day. Sadly those numbers aren’t that unbelievable the way people consume short media. Just average it out so some make up for others only watching a few.
Sadly those numbers aren’t that unbelievable
They’re absurdly unbelievable.
But for the “everyone is stupid except me” crowd, they provide a certain confirmation bias.
That’s pretty interesting. Thanks.
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People who actually are fun at parties are usually the ones that wouldn’t find watching some knob nodding along to someone else’s content entertaining.
I have friends. I don’t watch videos of people commenting what my friends do when I’m not there.
as I literally watch such a video
I’m there for the added layer of humor provided by the “reactor.” Like GameGrumps. I am not watching them play games to see them play games; they actually kinda suck at most games and its frustrating seeing them unable to solve easy puzzles or win easy fights. But they are funny as fuck.
Not the same type of videos I’m talking about. I mean the dipshits that just nod through the whole thing, taking up half the screen.
Gamegrumps are not a reaction channel. I don’t think you fundamentally understand what a reaction video is…
It’s a video with a silent face super imposed and nothing else. THATS IT.
It’s entire very cut and dry genre of video.
I think some of y’all need to learn how to parse a paragraph. I am not saying Game Grumps is a reaction channel, I am saying I am there for the commentary and humor, the same as with reaction channels.
It’s just a video with a silent face super-imposed over it and nothing else.
Also: You don’t even seem to understand what an actual reaction channel is if that’s what you think they are. Either that, or y’all be seeing some of the worst, bottom of the barrel “reaction” content possible.
Idk if watching someone play a game counts as a “reaction” video. In my mind a reaction video is a video that shows someone watching a YouTube video that you probably don’t even get to see unless you go watch that video on your own.
They are generally reacting to games they have not previously played for fun so you get their genuine first impressions. Not always, but a very good chunk of the time. Especially the one-offs and not the long-plays.
That’s a fair take, I’m just not sure that’s what op means. Perhaps I am wrong. My mind just files gaming videos separately from “reaction videos”, I think because the gamer is actively taking part in the game, rather than reacting to what someone else has already recorded and posted.
If the gamer is just watching someone else play a game and reacting to that, then it would fall into my idea of a reaction video.
I should start twitch streaming myself watching other twitch streamers stream. I’ll be the biggest streamer streamer I’ll be rich.
Because if you show the original video, thats copyright infringement, and pirating of content.
Show the “reaction”, and it falls within fair use. Even if the reactor doesn’t DO anything.
Show the “reaction”, and it falls within fair use
i doubt that, but it would probably depend no jurisdiction.
i think it is just really lazy way how to become a youtuber. you only need to be attractive person with no other skill.
This shit should be against ToS.
I mean that’s what these people are trying to do and claiming to do, but under most jurisdictions this doesn’t hold in court
And that’s exactly why YouTube channel H3H3productions is suing some Twitch streamers that just reposted his content with no commentary whatsoever (some of the those streamers even went to the bathroom during their “reaction”).
It’s funny how they won a lawsuit over the same thing back in the day and we were all on their side, but now they’re rabid Zionists who lie about everyone else and their critiques of them and spending the last of their money to mount lawsuits against small, often women, creators who they know don’t have money to fight back.
Fuck H3.
I agree with you. I used to love h3h3 back in the day when it was just him reacting to videos; now it despise them.
You are profoundly misrepresenting Ethan and the situation. Neither is he rabid, nor does he lie about everyone. It’s also not the last of their money. Not at all
The lawsuits were settled out of court.
Copyright circumvention is the lie YouTubers tell themselves as they shamelessly feed their ego. They’re imagining all their followers laughing because they thought something was funny. Copyright circumvention is the useful product distilled by human ingenuity out of the toxic cesspool this market created as it feeds upon the attention capacity of the youth of the world.
Laughing is a social thing that people don’t normally do by themselves (unless it’s really funny), so I’'m guessing that having a human face on screen to “enjoy the content with” ups the level of engagement. Similar to laugh tracks in shitty sitcoms.
Interesting… Never thought of that
But they don’t laugh. They just nod and look stupid.
Idk but I feel like Japan started it with their picture-in-picture on TV lol
There is some content I am curious about but can only stomach when I watch it on a reaction channel so I don’t die of second hand embarrassment. For other people I think it has a lot to do with feeling lonely. Reaction channels make you feel like you have someone to share the jokes with. I think way too many people are lonely nowadays.
Sometimes you want an idiot explaining what is going on. Other times you want a subject matter expert doing it.
That’s literally all Japanese shows. Sometimes they several reaction faces simultaneously.
