This New Genre Is A Train Wreck In Slow Motion
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Twitch’s latest fad is impossibly hard games that streamers play not for fun, but because viewers love watching them suffer.
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There is a new genre of platformers on Twitch that is simultaneously captivating audiences and infuriating streamers. These games are not for the faint of heart and apparently seem to tap into a dark, sadist lust the likes of which have not been seen on the popular streaming service, until now.
What may be considered a descendant of QWOP, this trio of frustrating games: Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, Pogostuck, and Jump King, has graced the internet with an unparalleled degree of pathos on Twitch that just might validate the existence of streaming itself.
Schadenfreude-vanias: A Twitch Sensation
Schadenfreude, pronounced shahden-froid, is a German word meaning “pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.” These games are popular on Twitch precisely because they make anyone who plays them very, very upset. This is because these games all share three common mechanics:
The first game, Getting Over It, released in December 2017 with a very basic description: “A game I made for a certain kind of person. To hurt them.” Getting Over It is a game in which you use a sledgehammer to carefully make your way up a mountain. It was an immediate hit on Twitch and attracted big name streamers like SweetAnita and Shroud to test their resilience. Some screamed, some cried, all were left broken. Viewers absolutely loved it.
Developers saw an untapped market. Since then, two other “Schadenfreude-vanias”, Pogostuck and Jump King have managed to climb into the top 10 categories on Twitch. Its a budding genre that provides a unique and consistent experience for viewers, one that takes a significant toll on the people who play them.
It’s All Fun And Games Until Someone Loses Their Mind
Turn on any Jump King stream and you will witness an extremely tense person playing a game that is making them very upset. Expletives are common, as is whining, bargaining with God, and assaulting furniture. Its difficult to say these people are having any fun. And yet, there is something cathartic about watching someone fail, and fail big.
In fact, the experience of watching these streams is almost the inverse of playing the game: we begin by sharing in the player’s feelings of tension and foreboding, sitting at the edge of our seat, holding our breath, waiting for the inevitable to happen. When it finally does, and the player falls, they feel destroyed, but WE feel ELATED. It’s as if the distance they fall is proportional to the amount of joy we derive from seeing it happen. Its like watching Nascar just to see a crash.They feel pain, but we feel excitement. It’s sort of a twisted thought: watching people suffer is trending on Twitch.
The Pain-Game Arms Race
These games represent a new category on Twitch. They’re sort of the opposite of esports: rather than watching some one who is a master at the game, you want to watch someone fail over and over and feed on their misery. The rate at which these games are popping up shows that developers know rage is a hot commodity right now. Currently the genre is in it’s infancy and devs will need to ratchet up the misery if they are going to keep audiences interested. Pain, as my mistress would tell you, is like any drug; once you get hooked, it will take more and more of it to satisfy you.
Imagine an entire category of truly unpleasant games designed not for the player, but for the audience watching them play. Games that assault your sense with images and sounds. Games that take trolling to the extreme and punish you for playing them. Would it be so absurd to imagine a game shipping with a shock collar?
In the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum: Your game developers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
Eric Switzer is the Livestream News Editor for TheGamer as well as the lead for VR and Tech. He has written about comics and film for Bloody Disgusting and VFXwire. He is a graduate of University of Missouri – Columbia and Vancouver Film School. Eric loves board games, fan conventions, new technology, and his sweet sweet kitties Bruce and Babs. Favorite games include Destiny 2, Kingdom Hearts, Super Metroid, and Prey…but mostly Prey. His favorite Pokémon is Umbreon.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/new-twitch-genre-train-wreck/