The fundamental difference is That you don't have to field a team, practice, meet up, etc. to play baulders gate.

You definitely do that for competitive/ranked gaming or esports.

Yeah duh that's why it's called eSPORTS I'm not really talking about 1 genre of videogames I'm talking the medium in general so we should limit this to concepts that can be applied universally here.

it was built from the ground up to be experienced by a person the same way you might read a book.

Conveniently, you chose a genre that is literally based off of books. Regardless, games like that aren't even played like "reading a book", they go completely differently every playthrough. I don't see the point you're trying to make here.

Okay halo 1, the last of us, God of war. Happy now? Not based on a book.

Watching someone else play it isn't the same as that same person watching football because a writer, or game developer doesnt write a sport. You aren't defeating the purpose of a sport when you watch someone else play it, you're just watching people participate in a framework of rules, not experience a narrative.

You aren't defeating the purpose of a game when you play it.

What?

.Unless it's a visual novel or something, it's not like you're reading a book. Not only are you pretending that all games are primarily narratives with a path that it's predetermined you'll take within a short number of playthroughs, but the narratives you are talking about still don't fit your description.

What do you mean? Yes they do. It was an experience that was built by a developer for a player. Experiencing it second hand is a diminished way to experience it. Just because it can be played more than once doesn't make my point invalid.

People aren't all the same and they play games completely differently, unless you have thousands of hours to put into literally every game you're not gonna experience every unique experience from a game like Baldur's Gate man.

It was just 1 example. Holy shit.

You are defeating the point of the media when you watch someone else play it through YouTube or twitch.

Not at all. You're not going through a predetermined experience when you play Rainbow Six Siege (ew) or Baldur's Gate 3 any more than when you play soccer or golf. Chess is technically "predetermined" in a sense that it has a finite number of moves you can take and a finite number of possible outcomes, you can technically "solve" chess, but we're not gonna pretend like that means watching it defeats the purpose of playing chess.

Watching 2 people engage with a framework of rules isn't the same thing as experiencing an artist's art, be it chess or football.

Watching other people use the tools the game gives them along with their own creativity is what makes both sports and games fun.

Correct. However if someone is watching someone else play a game on twitch that's a second hand experience. It isn't how the game is designed to be interfaced with, at least it hasn't been. That was kind of my last musing in my first post is that that may be changing.

I'm not going to think of everything the same as someone else; and I certainly don't want to play a few million matches of soccer until I experience every new soccer experience, so why should I be expected to do that with games?

Why are you insisting that experiencing a narrative must consist of exploring every branching path of the flow chart of possibility for the game? That's never what I said.

Watching someone use some advanced technique to improve their play shouldn't defeat the purpose of basketball for me, I just try to incorporate that into my play or think "oh that's neat" or something and continue playing. Watching someone do something creative or something I didn't know about in a game just improves the experience while also being entertaining.

Okay. That's to be expected lol

That being said, I don't play games much nor watch games anymore, so maybe the gaming YouTubers have compromised by enjoyment of gaming. But I also don't watch or play sports anymore so it's probably just the neccessity to have a job keeping me from using my free time on entertainment...

The comparison should be "you like movies why don't you watch movies?" But of course, the dad probably does watch movies.

Not sure what you're getting at here.

Clearly.