Video games are almost as much fun to watch as they are to play. People participate in many forms of viewing pleasure from television, to musicals and plays, to Youtube and cinema. Video games can function as entertainment for passive viewers as well. Many potential game players may feel intimidated by the complexity of today's video games, "I can't play that, I don't know how to work it," is commonly heard amongst these people. But this complexity can be very engaging for those who sit back to watch gamers navigate the game du jour.
Some games are even designed to promote an active viewership in those not actually playing the game. Newer inventions like the Wii Remote control turn one player spectacles like Super Mario Galaxy into games that other people in the room can participate in. As one player controls the action of the game, another can participate using the second remote freezing enemies, in turn assisting the main player. Other games try to reduce the ammount of graphics displayed on the HUD (head's up display). Designing a game like this allows viewers to see the action on screen without any distractions, much like in a movie.
Games like God of War are meant to promote spectatorship. This is a game that my sister and I used to play together. We both enjoyed watching the game as much as playing it because the graphics were appealing, plus we got the chance to cheer each other on.
The difference between watching video games as opposed to other popular media is that the "main character", rather the person controlling the action on screen, is sitting in the room with the viewer. This allows for a deeper relationship with the action of the narrative. This raises another point, modern video games often lack the traditional narrative structure that is found in other sources of media, but this is an appeal for many game watchers because they too can participate in the narrative.
Being able to participate in video game narratives cultivates a vested interest for the audience in how the narrative progresses.
