Welcome back! Today, I am very excited to write blogs beyond reading reflections and responses. To make my candy house more lovely, after a long time of thinking, I finally choose a topic about video games.
I love video games. I started to play video games since I was six (around 2005). It’s quite an early time and I continue to play games until now. In the college, I spend most of my spare time on playing video games (don’t let my mom know that….). Besides myself, video games are popular all over the world. There are all kinds of game styles, play forms, players to talk about. But for me, I am very interested in a kind of special game players about video games.
Actually, I can not find an English word online to define or represent that group of game players. So, I just directly translate the words in Chinese, which are known as “Cloud Player”. It is different from cloud gaming or cloud games that means using cloud storage as a game platform. “Cloud Player” means that some people enjoy the game without playing it on their own. Those people play with games without actually playing those games. Instead of playing the game, most of the cloud players watch game videos or streamer at some websites such as Youtube. They like the game and also communicate with the “real” game players about the game. Some cloud players are as same as other game players. They know well about the game, analyze how to play the game, evaluate the game, and even introduce the game to other people who do not play this game. The cloud players look like other game players except that they never play that game.
It sounds like a bit ridiculous, but as I realize, there are a bunch of cloud players now. With the internet and video websites growth, more and more people are becoming cloud players. According to my personal experience, more than half of my friends have the experience of becoming cloud players. It does not mean that we never play games, but for some of the games, we watch other peoples playing these games and do not play these on our own. Also, when I become a cloud player of games, it is not because I do not like these games as much as other games which I actually have played. Most of the time for I becoming a cloud player, I am really deep in these game. I even buy peripheral products of these games (such as T-shirts), but I hardly ever want to try these games by myself.
For me, the phenomenon of cloud players is quite interesting. Although sometimes I am a member of cloud players, I do not think deeply about cloud players. Why people become cloud players instead of directly playing games? How people feel about becoming cloud players? What games have most cloud players? I have many questions about cloud players. In the next few weeks, I am going to become some games that are famous for plenty of cloud players. Also, I am going to memorize some games that I “cloud played” and really liked. I plan to share my experience of becoming a cloud player of those games and find the reasons for people becoming cloud players of those games.
That is the end of today. I hope I will explore and understand cloud players well at the end of this quarter. Have a nice weekend and do not forget to enjoy the picnic day! I am going to “cloud playing” games after posting.
Little Candy House 