# on watching twitch tv the garming narcissus oh to watch nerds at play on twitch (or youtube - same difference) - an increasing part of garming vocabulary is it like listening to the aggressive squeak of fox cubs at night in that one secretly wishes to share ir boundless organic enthusiasms? who are these intimately engaged and endlessly excited creatures - from what strange land of the electronic imagination do they all manifest from? as though voyeuristically watching people play and enjoy video garmes every day isn't ever quite enough - now they watch others watch themselves play on ir own stage show the whole idea of a 'garming professional' - so formal so tight so strictly business interesting how they set up shop online - ir little lists of rules - "no caps in chat" / "thou shalt have fun" - ir proud displays of computing hardware and software and what of these garmes they play with such beaming psychological intensity? these are superior machines - ten grand's worth of gimmicks and high price special effects ir windows leap up with a touch like frogs in a dynamite pond ir user interfaces full of esoteric lights and dials and meters shining with a delighted pointless intricacy that only the initiated may ever think they understand we willingly submit to someone else to play them for us - remote player proxies unknown digital intermediaries trusted and set up conceptually between ourselves and the merest idea and ideal of play we know longer even have to play to be part of the whole system of play - similar to canned laughter which laughs for you yet despite the heady atmosphere of healthy competition and wholesome family entertainment / corporate content streaming a form of strict consent is being manufactured here to paraphrase chomsky and set ir concerns in the present you know i remember in high school already i was pretty old. i suddenly asked myself at one point why do i care if my high school team wins the video garme championship? i mean i don't know anybody on the team you know? i mean they've nothing to do with me so why i am cheering? it just doesn't mean anything worth meaning but the point is it does make sense for someone else: it's a way of building up irrational attitudes of submission to the authority of video garming culture and group cohesion behind leadership and professionalism the in crowd. it's training in irrational ludology that's a feature of all competitive electronic sports where what's actually being competed for is consumer eyeballs. i think if you look closely at these things i think typically they do have functions and that's why such relentless energy-waste is devoted to supporting them and creating a basis for them and companies are willing to help us to pay for them and so on // republic of bob