This exactly. Though for me it equates to running it in the background somewhere without watching it while I do something else.
However, it still feels meh to me too and I completely understand the OP’s sentiment.
Exactly this. My watching videos of other people playing WoW as opposed to playing it myself is restricted to watching through a five minute raid boss guide video once per boss… and that’s because my raid leader requires it.
That said:
I think it’s not a backlash against the creators as much as it is against Blizzard for not making more items like this available in the game. People want to play the game to get them.
As for hate for streamers, if they’re steaming only themselves, then I have no problem with them. I won’t watch them because I find that boring, but I have no problem with them. The problem I have is sneakily streaming other players, which can include chat text (which identifies other players by name and server) AND can include those players’ real voices, without the consent of those players.
(gets on soapbox)
I am not your content. If you want me to be your content, you should be compensating me for my time spent being your content. Most streamers stream without telling the other players in the stream and think that’s perfectly okay. Just because nothing currently prevents you from doing that does NOT make it okay in the slightest. It’s disrespectful. Streamers who stream other players without consent should have their streams shut down. Further, at the risk of being opinionated (I know, too late), streamers who stream the voices of other players without the knowledge and consent of those players should be brought up on the same criminal charges which would apply if someone recorded you in your own house without you knowledge and then posted it online.
/soapbox
This is what I’m doing. Though, since the streamers do get some benefit from people watching (even fake-watching), I did ask friends of mine for the name of a responsible, smaller streamer they liked who they wanted to get some extra support. I went with that person’s stream. I also chose a stream by a girl, because we female gamers gotta stick together.
I admit to having watched a streamer play through the Baba Yaga stuff released for Tomb Raider some years ago because I wanted to see it so badly but am incapable of playing the game myself. I couldn’t talk my husband into playing it because he had just played the then newest Prince of Persia for me for the same reason. 
(The last console action game I was successfully able to play myself was Prince of Persia Sands of Time in 2003 and I even needed help with one of the bosses in that. Those controllers and my fingers never got along well to begin with when I was a kid and it only got worse over time. 
)
So there is one benefit of streamers!
I keep up with the cool kids just fine when what they’re doing interests me. 
In this case, I would rather be playing. 
I would love to understand how it works too. Other than I’m sure people do run into streams of games they don’t play. In that event, maybe they see a WoW streamer and think “oh that looks cool!” But I have no understanding of how streamers themselves make money.
I figured ads was a component. I don’t do anything with Twitch so I didn’t know subscribing to streamers for money was common at all. (Other than hearing about the pet for subscriptions, but I didn’t bother looking into it more than that.)
Omg. I had to spend a week at my mother in law’s house and all she wanted to watch were those damn survivor-style shows. I had no idea there were so many of them. I could feel my brain decomposing. 
I would have super happily watched any streamer at all over that. Thankfully I had my laptop with me and I could fake watching the TV while I played.
Oddly, kind of like I’m doing with the Twitch thing. Except with my mother in law I had to pay enough attention to be able to exclaim “whoa! he was so close!” or “dang, I could never do that in a million years” or “that water has got to be freezing!!” at the right times.
A friend of mine and I were wondering if it was either (A) a way to try to keep people from logging in when the servers were going to be struggling, or (B) the backup plan for keeping the masses pacified while the servers burned to the ground and the server hamsters fled the building.
Maybe I should keep this in mind during the times I start to feel down about WoW. Nothing perks you up about something like seeing someone genuinely happy with it. After all, that’s why toy commercials always show kids grinning and playing with the toys instead of just showing the toys.
I’ve been signed up with Blizzard stuff since the beta test for original vanilla. My main character is old enough to be a legal adult, if she were real. I’ve been to three Blizzcons with all that associated required information. I’ve ordered things from the gear store. I think after 18.5 years the “they’re harvesting my data behind the scenes” ship has long ago sailed for at least me.
This is extremely true. Always try to emphasize minimizing the amount of information you give to any company online. But it’s near impossible to be invisible online without being either a hacker or living under a rock. There are a couple businesses with which I’ve done business a very long time who likely have scads of my info and Blizzard happens to be one of them.
See, that doesn’t strike me as lazy or entitled, it strikes me as smart way to get the item in question. It prioritizes use of time. Like I left mine running while I went out to a bubble tea date with my husband.
