Can only expert players put there footage online?

[Eric the Orange]

One thing I see when watching a streme or recorded game footage like a lets play that always seems to piss me off is when commenters post negative things because the people are not skilled enough for them.

This bothers me because not everyone can or wants to be a pro game player and I do not see why lack of skill is a bad thing.

Now I could understand if they were advertized as being a professional game player and then did bad. So the watcher was going in with different expectations.

But to say that those without skill are "not allowed" to put up there game play smacks of elitism. Like "How dare they not be good at the game, I am offended".

What are your thoughts on the subject?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

"Pro gaming" has nothing to do with it.
Pro gamer or not you're going to die and err at least a few times while first playing a game.
The people who upload their Let's Plays and killstreaks aren't necessarily THAT good. They just uploaded the one try where they didn't die. It only takes one try. Then upload.
Personally I like watching blind Let's Plays, to share the gamer's sense of wonder/cluelesness and feel a little more empathy for the bloke. I don't like speedruns, or people on their hundredth round of their favorite game, zipping along like they're bored stiff just playing.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

It's the internet. If you are a pro, you have no life. If you are not a pro, you are a loser for being a pro. People find any way they can to insult each other to feel better about themselves for some messed up reason, and what better place to do that than the internet where you can hide behind an avatar and an alias?

Just like how someone will come and say "it is their, not there".

 

[WoW Killer]

It's a nasty precedent as it encourages people to edit their footage rather than giving a more natural impression of a game. I don't really watch lets-plays though. If I'm interested in a game I sometimes like to see some gameplay footage (much better than a review), and the more natural the content the better.

But this whole culture of voting and down-voting is the real issue. If you're offended by the quality of content that's been put up for you to watch for free, then that's elitist by itself no matter your reason. If you don't like a video, you're free to not watch it. That's my view anyway.

 

[sanquin]

I personally think it's because most gameplay video's are terrible. But most people aren't able to pinpoint WHY a gameplay video is terrible/bad, so instead they complain about the cliché, obvious thing. The uploader being bad at the game. As really, just look at the people that are indeed popular. Not nearly all of them are good at the games they play...by far. But their video's are popular because they either bring something special to their gameplay video's or because their gameplay video's are of good quality.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Well if someone is LP'ing a horror game it's only worth watching when it's blind. Kinda obvious really "oh yeah there's a scare up ahead, it got me pretty good the first time lol" is not entertaining.

Also Cry is the best horror LP'er or LP'er in general.


Fuckin' Gary man. GARY!

Otherwise people can fuck off complaining about lack of super MLG swag skillz.



I like watching a load of LoL players because there's always something different. Even with the pro streams. The lower ELOs are the most interesting to watch because you see some absolutely brave tower dives and other crazy shit without having to be on that idiot's team. It is beneficial to watch a pro stream *coughWingscough* because they can actually teach you. For example there was a speech and demonstration of why Teemo should NEVER lose a lane to Singed. Now I can own Singed if I ever decide to be scummy enough to pick Teemo.

Studio does his commentaries quite well but his best ones are the two low, low ELO scrub games in the horde of pro games. Though when he goes on about "oh why isn't he starting wolves?" I say because your scrub team will fuck it up and steal them. Personal experience seeing as I main jungle.

Oh btw shameless (sort of) self promotion. I was totally not feeding.


"Oh what is wrong with Riot?!"

-Rookie 2012

 

[felbot]

well no of course non pros can put game play footage up on the web, the question is who wants to watch an idiot fool around in a game for 2 hours? or even worse a guy who try to be pro but fails miserably. no one wants to watch that guy hence they watch pro's because they think the pro's are good at the game.

 

[Eric the Orange]

well no of course non pros can put game play footage up on the web, the question is who wants to watch an idiot fool around in a game for 2 hours? or even worse a guy who try to be pro but fails miserably. no one wants to watch that guy hence they watch pro's because they think the pro's are good at the game.

So your saying people only want to watch pro players. I disagree with your assumption. Honestly I can't even follow most E-Sports guys and what they are doing I'd rather just watch people who are obviously having fun with what they are doing.

 

[felbot]

well no of course non pros can put game play footage up on the web, the question is who wants to watch an idiot fool around in a game for 2 hours? or even worse a guy who try to be pro but fails miserably. no one wants to watch that guy hence they watch pro's because they think the pro's are good at the game.

So your saying people only want to watch pro players. I disagree with your assumption. Honestly I can't even follow most E-Sports guys and what they are doing I'd rather just watch people who are obviously having fun with what they are doing.

i didn't say that at all, i said most people like to see people play at least moderately well which happens to be pro gamers job, playing good.

and when i said "no one wants to watch that guy" I meant the people who act pro but aren't.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Saying "you're not good at the game, don't upload this" is like going to a person's home movies on YouTube and saying that its not the quality of a big budget action movie so they shouldn't be allowed to post. People like to share their accomplishments, even if its very small on the grand scale of things. Saying they can't do it because they aren't the very best is banning 99.9% of everyone because they are normal and you only like the abnormal. It's belittling what the normal people can do because they aren't the best and saying that no matter how good you do yourself as compared to your own scale its not as good as the best guy and therefore you suck. That's like the anti-slogan Special Olympics, everyone loses.

 

[Kegsen]

Having somewhat recently started recording, editing and uploading gameplay/commentaries/live-comms myself, I was real hesitant about it at first. Simply because there was something that said that maybe a troll will come along, or someone will have a negative opinion about the gameplay, game of choice or my style of commentating. I mean, seeing as English is my second language, I kind of predicted that some would comment on my pronounciation, but so far, that has yet to happen. (knock on wood).
But as far as gameplay goes, I am fully aware that there are gamers/youtubers that are more skilled at the game than me. Still, that didn`t stop me from going "you know what, I`m gonna try it and just have fun with it". I already have a job, so this won`t turn into a full time thing anyway. And I personally prefer to watch those who represent the average gamer. Where there are fails (and reactions to said fails) but also the joy of blind let`s plays. Where the exitement of discovering new stuff, beating a boss etc. is heard. That to me personally is more enjoyable than seeing "pros" at work.

 

[Jadak]

If I wanted to see a game played badly, I'd play it myself.

If I'm going to watch somebody else play, I'd like them to be good.

 

[Aris Khandr]

If I wanted to see a game played badly, I'd play it myself.

If I'm going to watch somebody else play, I'd like them to be good.

Pretty much this. I love Rock Band. But I can only play on medium. No one wants to see a video on medium, even if I do hit all the notes. It isn't impressive.

This isn't a hard rule. I enjoy watching Totalbiscuit play just about anything, no matter how awful he is at it. But that is because I enjoy his commentary. And the sound of his voice. Voice is key. Squeaky-voiced thirteen year-olds won't get my attention, no matter how good they are. I could be watching the most interesting game ever played, but if the commentary is being done by Michael Cera, I'm going to find better things to do with my ears.

 

[uchytjes]

No. No. Nonononononononono. No. Hell no. No. Just no.

I honestly prefer watching people who are average at games. I watch Jesse Cox, the hilariously inept lets-player that actually can be good if he needs to be. He is, in no way, an expert. And I love to watch his lets plays. People that complain about people with no skill need to lighten up and realize its comedy.

P.S. NO.

 

[WoW Killer]

If I wanted to see a game played badly, I'd play it myself.

If I'm going to watch somebody else play, I'd like them to be good.

That's perfectly fine as a reason for deciding what you want to watch. But why does this so often become a reason to drop a down-vote, post an abusive comment or troll someones content, when it could more rationally end by clicking 'back'?

 

[Xdeser2]

Personally, I dont care if someone is Good or Bad at games when they play them, Im there more for their personality, what games they play and their opinion on gaming in general.

Let me put my opinion this way:
Someone with No personality can make a good lets play by being genuinely good (which is totally fine I might add)

Someone with personality can make a terrible lets play enjoyable enough to watch

 

[SideSmash]

I don't watch the Game Grumps for their skills.

 

[Rednog]

There's a difference between people who are bad at a game and LPers who blatantly ignore the game's instructions and are like zomg what's happening, I don't get this game at all, thus this game sucks. I think people rage more at that than people actually being "bad".

 

[Nico III]

Depends on what audience you are aiming for, and what your video is trying to do:

Some people watch Let's Play videos to research games before buying, in which case your video needs to explain a bit about the game, some of its features and your opinion on it. Your skill doesn't matter, unless you're so bad that you're unable to showcase the game beyond the first 2 minutes.

Others watch games purely for entertainment, which differs between games and viewers: Someone who watches videos of a highly competitive game, like StarCraft or League of Legends will probably want to see players who are good at the game. It's much the same as people who watch professional sports - they're unlikely to be as impressed by amateurs. On the other hand, many people watch Let's Plays for the entertainment delivered by the players, in which case skill does not matter. A good example is the Achievement Hunter Let's Plays - the players are pretty bad at a lot of the games they play, but they themselves are entertaining enough to keep the audience watching.

 

[Dracthor]

Expert player or not, people are going to make negative comments. Some people like to be negative, even if they actualy liked the video. Some people are also increadably jealous for the fame the player has so they attack the player just to feel better about themselves.

When it comes to Lets play and gaming footage, I watch them for the commentary or for the gameplay (good or bad). If the video has good commentary I realy don't care if the only gameplay is walking into a wall, so long as the voice keeps it interesting I will listen. I watch good gameplays in order to learn more about the game and better myself. Gameplay can also be entertaining if the player is bad too, sometimes it's fun to watch people do worse then you. If the commentary is great and the gameplay is entertaining then I will watch alot of your vids.