I feel like a bit of an outlier here. But I just don’t care for them. I much prefer playing video games.
I like all sorts of escapism. TV, Movies, Games, Books are all doorways to me.
I can’t stand most television anymore. Especially now that most streaming services have brought back ads.
You can’t prove anything!
Truthfully it’s my wife who really likes to watch TV. I mostly prefer reading or gaming haha.
Does YouTube count as TV?
Yes
I would say it does not. Well, I guess it depends on what you watch. The stuff I subscribe is nothing like TV.
I avoid passive video media almost entirely. I too prefer interactive media best.
Don’t watch it passively then!
Nope, I just watch Youtube now, specifically things that interest me.
I go through phases, cycling though comics, books, games, movies, TV, etc depending where my interest and curiosity takes me. I tend to watch more TV and movies when playing/practicing music or playing slower or turn based games.
I’m the same, it makes it even harder for me to socialise with other people though, “Have you seen the new (Blank) show?”…
Don’t you worry about blank, let me worry about blank.
You are not alone. I have a handful of movies and shows I like to watch, but my excess time is usually spent reading books, browsing thrift stores and library shops for books, or reading articles about books. I also splash a little World of Warcraft, gardening, and house chores in there too.
Hmm that’s interesting. I always find videos games take too much energy. Also requires good hardware to play good games, meanwhile you can play video content on any cheap tablet in 1080p.
(I also can’t really read books, unless the story really interests me, its hard to visualize scenes. (aphantasia, maybe?) Again, takes too much energy.)
I find the quality of Movies to be usually higher than TV Shows. Movies are consistent throught, but TV shows sometime gets rushed in some parts, especiallt if its a different season. (Infamous GoT debacle, remember?) But its usually TV shows that tells more interesting stories, but you are also at the mercy of big media companies of just cancelling your favorite show and fucking you over.
I recently find animated content, especially (Japanese) Anime, to be an interesting medium. Some concepts can be expressed in animated, but would look very silly when acted out / live-action (like Death Note adaptations, or Avatar: The Last Airbender, I mean, shinigamis and bending elements in live-acting is just cringe, and they have young adults playing kid roles which is just ridiculous), and because you don’t have actor restraints or need filming locations, its much less likely to get “cancelled” like Netflix does.
Tldr: Movie > Anime > TV > Manga > Books
Video games is an energy vampire
I think around here you’re more likely to find folk who play video games rather than watch TV or movies, but I might be wrong.
I personally never play video games. I have nothing against them, just never got into it beyond old Atari ST games in my early teens.
From what I hear from friends and colleagues at work I know I’m missing out, so I’m planning to make an effort to get into some sort of game when I have the time, probably when the sprogs are older. It is sort of intimidating and I don’t really know where to begin, but I’m sure it’ll be interesting.
Triple AAA games are pretty mediocre, imo, but if you liked the Atari ST/Amiga era, there’s plenty of stuff like that that’s amazing coming out. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound and Shinobi: Art of Vengeance are a couple of highlights I’ve played recently. Also, a Steamdeck is a great thing for limited time gaming. Just turn it off mid-session, and it’ll be right there at the same place in the game when you turn it back on.
I’m interested in how gaming has become immersive to the extent that the narrative is so deep they make decent TV shows after them.
I’m aware of the like of The Last of Us, purely from watching the show. It’s fascinating to me that you can have an interactive experience of that quality, so I’m told, so that’s something to look forward to.
I should add that I have played a handful of PC games over the last 30 years, such as Alien Vs Predator, Duke Nuke 'em and Portal. But that’s where my experience ends.
There are a fair few games out there with world building that is on par or even exceeds most films and novels. With films and TV shows you only get a limited time to experience the world in which they reside and so many details about the world or context don’t make the cut. With novels you get more capacity for background information but often fewer descriptions of the smaller things in the world. With games you get the best of both where everything down to the smaller details are displayed visually but with a runtime that can sometimes go into hundreds of hours allowing for plenty of time for backstory/lore.
It’s been a fucking meme for the last decade at this point but the Witcher 3 is one of the more memorable ones. I’ve played the game, read the books and watched the Netflix series, and the game is the best of the three.
Another example is Red Dead Redemption 2. It’s set in the wild west so you get all the iconic visuals and action of the best cowboy movies but the amount of detail included also beats many novels. The story of the game goes into a level of gritty detail and complexity that could easily be a book, but you can also bunk off and go hunting, fishing and camping and just live in the world in a way that you can’t experience in any other medium aside from actually being in 1800’s America yourself.
Hell, if you just wanted a video game version of a Tarantino film then GTA 5 (and upcoming GTA 6)has you covered.
I generally prefer movies, books, or video games over a TV show. There are exceptions, but there’s just a lot of filler on TV shows; even good ones.
I “watch” history documentaries on YouTube while I do chores but that’s about it. We don’t even have a TV in the downstairs of our house, though my husband has one in his office for gaming. I’m a book worm and prefer books and podcasts. I do love playing some Skyrim or COD Zombies etc., mostly in the winter though, nice weather=yard work or gardening projects.
For any fellow history nerds out there, People’s Profiles on YouTube is one of my favorites. Long form, contains imagery but no reenactments, it is essentially a podcast with decoration, and they even group together biographies into massive 4 hour+ videos for those “omg, this is gonna take me forever” cleaning/house projects.
I never really watched a lot of movies growing up but then at some point realised there was so much that I was missing. Now I view the history of cinema as a smorgasbord and I am really enjoying jumping all over it.
I’m guessing you’re a good bit younger than me, but this is encouraging to hear. Find your favorite genres, watch what inspired them and you have so much amazing artwork and storytelling to explore.
For everyone that grew up with 10 marvel movies a year its not surprising that modern films don’t speak to them.
Challenge yourself and you’ll find your own rewards. I love video games and watching youtube too, but it’s not the same thing as turning off the lights and watching something like Apocalypse Now, Chinatown or a Kubrick movie without distractions.
Good luck on your cinematic journey!
To me it’s more of a boycott of ads, and I am not paying for a service to make that happen, so turning it off is my main option. I am especially perturbed about the ability of companies to advertise and push drugs that require a prescription to obtain. I do have a list of movies to watch from a large dvd collection I have, but I am not in a rush to go through that at the moment.
Yep me too… not many shows or movies that float my boat any more…video games are much more entertaining .
