The older I get, the more malleable my definition of ‘gaming’ becomes. When I was young, I had a whole heap of time and not all that many games, so each was studied and dissected until I was a master of its charms. As I got older, with less time and more money, mastering a title became secondary to just finishing the games I had sat on the shelf. As thirty (eek – Ed) rapidly approaches, I no longer feel I need to have a joypad in hand to game. The circumstances of this surprising realization are recent…

My fiancé picked up Uncharted 2 on UK launch day here on Friday. By late Saturday night she had finished Nathan Drake’s latest jaunt with me watching on from the comfort of the sofa. What an absolute blast it was to sit and watch some of the best storytelling ever seen in a video game without the pressure normally associated with a tough group of enemies or a tricky platforming section. Simply being allowed to appreciate all that Naughty Dog had put on the disc without being distracted was an experience I wasn’t prepared for.

Uncharted 2’s cinematic presentation makes it enjoyable to watch

Anyone who has played video games for a long time has likely been wired into thinking that the main reason we engage in this past-time is to play the games themselves. After all, what control do you have watching someone else man oeuvre around a stage? We have no direct influence over the exploration or the evolution of the onscreen avatar. Surely games are meant to be a solely interactive experience?

This does not need to be the case. Indeed, sometimes much more can be extracted simply by being a back seat driver. Watching someone else allows us the distance necessary to pick the correct path through a section or work out the right strategy to get past a boss. It also provides the opportunity to consider if the game is achieving all that it should in terms of story, level design, character evolution or the myriad of other things which make a great game great.

Beyond all of this, as I alluded to earlier, gaming is stressful. Sure, we choose to play in the first place and, yes, it’s a fun kind of stressful in the same vein as a good horror movie, but it still ends up an anxious experience. Just ask anyone who has ever broken a controller in anger. I have found that observing someone else play makes for an entirely more relaxing affair which is sometimes much more necessary after a stressful day.