Here's why people like watching StarCraft

May 17th, 2011

Video games are meant to be played. StarCraft, however, is unique in that it can be as much fun to watch as it is to click.

The reason. Dramatic irony, according to University of Washington researchers Gifford Cheung and Jeff Huang. "The spectator and players each have different slices of game information," Cheung and Huang found. During play, "one party is privy to some information and the other is not."

In other words, the players know things that the audience doesn't. Likewise, the audience can view the action from a macro perspective, appreciating things that the player might not catch.

Now that's entertainment!