I am a bit old, and never got why so many people watch “actual play”. I’ve done it once or twice to get the mechanic of a game, but found the experience more technical/boring than fun.
I get having a guest or candidate player watching an in person to see how rpg work, or whether they click with the group, but somehow watching video of strangers playing RPG doesn’t sounds fun to me. But I might miss something considering how popular these actual plays are
Now I am starting to wonder about the idea of “so boring it puts me to sleep,” if that’s actually true, and thus if you could use an actual play video/podcast to fall asleep.
I used to do that as well—playing them in bed with a timer when I couldn’t sleep. All familiar and cozy :]
Only stopped once I realized I couldn’t remember must beyond the first few minutes which was still enough to trigger “FOMO”!