Is Videogaming becoming a spectator sport for the masses?

[dunpeal2064]

I think that, because we do understand the scoring systems, that we think a lack of knowledge could be harmful there, but I've never really seen that to be the case. Most people I've shown the genre to (both irl and via streaming) have had a blast watching, because they don't realize all the subtle things happening. They just see a player moving through a ton of bullets, which is something they can understand about as quickly as Mario.

Stunfest is a great example of this, you should check it out sometime if you are interested in how the average gamer, or non-shmupper, might respond to seeing the games demonstrated.

I see where you are coming from, but I'd like to think we are moving away from the point where people just want to see "that classic game", and are moving towards being more interested in the actual games.

I brought up Cosmo (If you are into speedrunning, I'm surprised you have not heard of him) to counter the point that people are only interested in 1v1 fighters. That is clearly not true, although countering that point was not in attempt to prove that, suddenly, shmups are the craze. My point more lies in that there is a popular form of gaming that is very similar to shmups, in that it involves (usually) single player games, routing, risk/reward management, and thousands of full runs to get that perfect time. Unlike 1v1 fighters, DOTAs, RTS, and FPS, speedrunning being a thing that a lot of people watch seems closely relative to shmups possibly gaining more attention in the future.

The link here is that we can show people Mario, or Sonic, or Zelda, but with imposed rules very similar to what shmups expect from their players. Sure, the immediate interest is just going to be "oooh, I grew up with this", but the people coming into streams day in and day out are becoming familiar with speedrunning at its core, they are seeing what it is like to push a single player game to its limit, and it seems like a natural step to move towards this genre, which is structured around the rulesets that we are imposing onto games that were not designed to be played this way.

[Lord Satori]

Wow, I couldn't imagine getting through a Mario game without dying.

[Udderdude]

Wow, I couldn't imagine getting through a Mario game without dying.

Wow, I couldn't imagine getting through a Lord Satori post without seeing a 10 foot tall burning strawman argument delivered in the most obnoxious way possible.

[Lord Satori]

What? I was just saying, that there's no way I could accomplish something like that, and would very much like to see something like that. Seriously, why did you think I was arguing?