It definitely is not “just a game”. It’s a performance! And of course you want to do a good job when you perform for your friends, and you get embarrassed when you don’t, even though they will always forgive and support you in your progress.

A hundred years ago at our social gatherings we might have not seen anything odd at all about performing a skit or a piece of music for each other. Mass media has made it so that it is normal to invite (recordings of) professionals to do this, and abnormal to do it yourself. Why would you want the amateurism of it when you could be experiencing a much more professional version? Well, for the same reasons and motivations that amateur sports remains interesting, viable and good in a world with the MLB network and on-demand streaming of every NFL game ever played. Because it’s good to do these things, not to just experience them.