Game Mode Suggestion: Add a Spectator Mode

[Destati]

Before Fall Guys, wasn't there a spectator feature in the Feast/Fold/whatever the retired PvP mode was called? Or am I tripping?

[GartredZW]

Anyone who's tried and failed to follow video guides knows that there's a certain disconnect between seeing someone else play through the mechanic, and seeing it yourself. Even if you don't pass it. Just being able to see it on your own monitor with your own sense of game-feel is invaluable.
I think this would be a great idea assuming certain caveats. For one, I'd like to see some sort of whitelist feature. I don't like the idea of someone just not knowing that they're being watched if they don't want to be, especially if someone can use what they see against them. Not to say that it's a bad idea because of the possibility, but I think it would be wise to let players decide for themselves.
Second, and this should be common sense, there should be a hard limit on how many spectators can be there. Too many, and you risk lagging out the game, causing the raiders to not be able to play optimally. Even if the spectators aren't being rendered by the raiders, they're still stored in memory, and their data is still stored within that instance.

And this last one is something I think would be just a nice little quality of life feature that would help out in some certain situations. If the spectator opts into it, they can see a big X mark above their head when they get hit with a mechanic. This would only apply to things that don't rely on other players, meaning stacks, spreads, and tethers would all be moot, but it could still be useful to understand the snapshot timings.
I don't think this will be added any time soon because of Square's famous spaghetti code making bugs an inevitability, especially if they try to backport this to older fights.

[Hycinthus]

Such a great suggestion. Active learning is always better than passive. Which begs the question :
Has there ever been any MMO that implements such feature before? Why not?

[Jeeqbit]

Anyone who's tried and failed to follow video guides knows that there's a certain disconnect between seeing someone else play through the mechanic, and seeing it yourself. Even if you don't pass it. Just being able to see it on your own monitor with your own sense of game-feel is invaluable.

That is true but I have played long enough to know that this is primarily a timing issue and needing to see it with your own job. Fortunately, this is possible - you just search YouTube for "Content Name clear BLM PoV". This gives you an accurate sense of the timing of the mechanics (and how they last 3 seconds) whereas a guide makes it feel like a mechanic lasts 60 seconds. Seeing another BLM complete the content also gives you a good sense of how you can tackle it on that specific job.

One time I was watching the SE community team do savage on a healer and I thought "this looks braindead, I'm gonna try healing this". I watched a healer PoV video and it gave me enough confidence to replicate their movements in the game. I cleared it pretty quick.

Before Fall Guys, wasn't there a spectator feature in the Feast/Fold/whatever the retired PvP mode was called? Or am I tripping?

Yes, SE is already capable of a spectator system. It does not seem difficult for them to add for large-scale content. It may be difficult for smaller content, but they could add a row for spectators in PFs maybe.

[Rueby]

There's plenty of resources out there for people to learn, there's even a simulator (which I'm not a fan of), countless guides, POVs and so on. You can also ask your friends/FC to help you or teach you something you're struggling with. I know I did, yeah it won't click immediately for many, but that's what practice groups are for.

If the expectation of people on prog groups to go from 'yeah watch a guide' to 'watch a guide and come knowing the dance and execute it', I feel like it'll just add unnecessary pressure and another layer of really boring activity.

Would it be griefing then if you didn't come and have spectated the fight previously? What if people don't feel comfortable with being spectated?

On the up side, it might help people break the ice abit and dip their toes into content....but isn't that what FCs and friends are for? If you're interested in teaching or mentoring people, why not go further and take them along rather than have them simply watch. Let them make mistakes and learn by doing rather than mimicking.

Those are my opinions anyway, I think it could be abit double edged. I can see some benefits but I personally think it's unnecessary.

[Inputnamehere]

This is actually a good way to increase active player count. People who don't want to get online and raid might be interested in getting online and watching other peeps raid.

[Loggos]

It could also let people experience something "first-hand" that they'd never experience otherwise.
(For example, I know I'll most likely never clear an ultimate because I just don't have the time for that commitment. But being able to stand in one? That sounds pretty cool.)

So being able to enter via spectator mode could further boost people's interest in the mode itself and in different pieces of content.
(And who knows, perhaps it does inspire somebody, who was previously not gonna try, to give it a go.)