Let's Plays: Your Opinion
- Thread starter GwydeanRunix
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If it's a game I likely won't ever play, but would like to see, I like to watch them. If the "host", so to speak, is amusing and interesting, all the better.
I only like the ones that are edited down to take out the completely boring stuff, I absolutely hate those that are just hours long and make you sit through the boring stuff, or them farting around trying to figure things out.
That said I think my favorite Let's Play is Spoony's SWAT 4 or Phantasmagoria.
That said I think my favorite Let's Play is Spoony's SWAT 4 or Phantasmagoria.
I watch a lot of LP's, but there are few good ones. Key components are:
- A good speaking voice. Many LP's turn me off right off the bat because the person either sounds like an 8-year old, or mumbles incoherently.
- A decent video capture system. Pointing a webcam at the screen and then filming the screen doesn't work. Ever.
- Completed LP's. Good, bad ending, whatever, if I see the LP has, like, 8 videos in total, I don't even bother.
- The person should be commenting, not narrating. I find LP's interesting to see people's reaction to game situations and new developments, not to hear someone just narrating what I'm looking at.
- Likewise, the sound settings should be tuned properly. Many LP's suffer from simply not hearing a single word that the person is saying.
I'm sure there are more, but that's pretty much it. On YouTube, there are a couple of good LP's, namely JefMajor, who does some pretty interesting games and has an awesome sense of humour, and Kikoskia, a british guy who's also pretty damn funny, in a british-game-show-host way. PrinceOfMacedon used to do some good commentary vids, but he hasn't posted in a while.
- A good speaking voice. Many LP's turn me off right off the bat because the person either sounds like an 8-year old, or mumbles incoherently.
- A decent video capture system. Pointing a webcam at the screen and then filming the screen doesn't work. Ever.
- Completed LP's. Good, bad ending, whatever, if I see the LP has, like, 8 videos in total, I don't even bother.
- The person should be commenting, not narrating. I find LP's interesting to see people's reaction to game situations and new developments, not to hear someone just narrating what I'm looking at.
- Likewise, the sound settings should be tuned properly. Many LP's suffer from simply not hearing a single word that the person is saying.
I'm sure there are more, but that's pretty much it. On YouTube, there are a couple of good LP's, namely JefMajor, who does some pretty interesting games and has an awesome sense of humour, and Kikoskia, a british guy who's also pretty damn funny, in a british-game-show-host way. PrinceOfMacedon used to do some good commentary vids, but he hasn't posted in a while.
I think there are a very few types of game that make an effective Let's Play.
The big factor is randomness. The game has to provide an emergent situation, because there's no point watching someone play a game if you could play it yourself and have exactly the same experience.
If you do a Let's Play of Call of Duty, well, shit, it'll be the same damn game if I play it.
If you do a Let's Play of Dwarf Fortress it will be completely different from any gameplay experience I could have, even if I played it a hundred times over, due to the little features of randomness.
The only exceptions are when a game is either so shockingly bad that the reactions to it are more important to the game (check the Sonic 2006 LP on lparchive to see four grown men reduced to broken shells), or just plain shocking (if you've a strong stomach and are unlikely to be interrupted because it's NSFEyes try watching an LP of Demonophobia)
The big factor is randomness. The game has to provide an emergent situation, because there's no point watching someone play a game if you could play it yourself and have exactly the same experience.
If you do a Let's Play of Call of Duty, well, shit, it'll be the same damn game if I play it.
If you do a Let's Play of Dwarf Fortress it will be completely different from any gameplay experience I could have, even if I played it a hundred times over, due to the little features of randomness.
The only exceptions are when a game is either so shockingly bad that the reactions to it are more important to the game (check the Sonic 2006 LP on lparchive to see four grown men reduced to broken shells), or just plain shocking (if you've a strong stomach and are unlikely to be interrupted because it's NSFEyes try watching an LP of Demonophobia)
I love them try to find let's plays of all the games I just beat to get a different point of view of the game.
Since we are on the topic I thought I would post one of my favorite Let's plays of all time
His name is SlowBeef and he did a Metroid: Prime and Metroid: Prime Echoes Let's play.
[link]http://slowbeef.blip.tv/posts?view=archive&nsfw=dc[/link]
Great video and audio quality. The host is great and the Humor is top notch really is the best example of what LPs should be.
Note: the videos are all about 30 minutes long and there is A LOT. Its more of a full blown TV series rather than a LP. You also have to scroll back pretty far to find the first few episodes.
Since we are on the topic I thought I would post one of my favorite Let's plays of all time
His name is SlowBeef and he did a Metroid: Prime and Metroid: Prime Echoes Let's play.
[link]http://slowbeef.blip.tv/posts?view=archive&nsfw=dc[/link]
Great video and audio quality. The host is great and the Humor is top notch really is the best example of what LPs should be.
Note: the videos are all about 30 minutes long and there is A LOT. Its more of a full blown TV series rather than a LP. You also have to scroll back pretty far to find the first few episodes.
I love Let's Plays. As someone who 1) is really bad at most games (meaning I will never see the majority of the content) and 2) gets motion sick from a lot of games (meaning I can't just keep practicing to get better at playing) I rely on LP's to let me see games that I otherwise wouldn't be able to experience (which is most of them).
I love Slowbeef, he does the only LPs I watch.HontooNoNeko said:
I'd recommend the Metroid Prime ones to anyone, if you can get past how bad he is
The commentary makes up for it though.OT: Most LPs are terrible. I find LPs are much better when they aren't done by kids and involve more than 1 person commentating. ...more than 1 person that knows about video games anyway.
I do enjoy them from time to time, depends on who's doing the Let's Play. For instance, last one I watched (can't remember the game) was by some young tool who kept on trying to fake a British accent (badly I might add). It was pretty bad.
But yeah, some people like playing games for a challenge, sometimes I like playing them purely for the experience. If it's a game that's either hard to find, I don't have the money for, or might be a little out of my difficulty range to finish, I love Let's Plays.
Good example is those fucking Mario hacks that are tough as nails. I'm not that masochistic but I do enjoy watching other people play them.
But yeah, some people like playing games for a challenge, sometimes I like playing them purely for the experience. If it's a game that's either hard to find, I don't have the money for, or might be a little out of my difficulty range to finish, I love Let's Plays.
Good example is those fucking Mario hacks that are tough as nails. I'm not that masochistic but I do enjoy watching other people play them.
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I've only watched two (cause I have terrible internet) but they were I wanna be the guy and kaizo super mario brothers, so they were pretty good, I really enjoyed them. I really prefer the screenshot ones that are more like first person fan-fictions, like the great Pokemon Quartz one, the Alice in Wonderland one, that excellent Animal Crossing one, and the one i'm reading now, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (actually makes me want to go buy that game).
But yeah, I love Let's plays.
But yeah, I love Let's plays.
That's exactly right, no way I'd ever be able to play those games! It was really funny when proton jon was tearing his hair out about kaizo mario, I laughed my ass off.AgentNein said:
I love LP's, especially for funny witty commentary or games that have nostalgic value for me but I don't have anymore.
I love them so much I started one! xD
I love them so much I started one! xD
Let's Plays are definitely something good out there in the youtube space, but there is the whole aspect of who's playing it and for what purpose.
There have been a couple times when I checked out a Let's Play of a game where the player actually said very little and I liked it cause what I mainly wanted to see was how the game's story played out.
Then there's people who are just comedic geniuses while they play games. I seem to have found a preference in people who are so bad at games it's hilarious and frustrating, but their comments as they play are so funny it all balances out.
There have been a couple times when I checked out a Let's Play of a game where the player actually said very little and I liked it cause what I mainly wanted to see was how the game's story played out.
Then there's people who are just comedic geniuses while they play games. I seem to have found a preference in people who are so bad at games it's hilarious and frustrating, but their comments as they play are so funny it all balances out.
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I usually don't enjoy them that much, but they are a very convenient way to get caught up on a series of games that you're interested in, but don't want to buy all the iterations of them to understand the story.
I love watching LP's on youtube. Especially if they are funny. I like the youtube channels NihonHutConsortium and Tobuscus. Both are really funny.
And I found something funny too. It's not actually an LP as such, it's just small clips of the game, but the commentary is pretty funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zJDKZ_04MU
And I found something funny too. It's not actually an LP as such, it's just small clips of the game, but the commentary is pretty funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zJDKZ_04MU
I do really enjoy a god Let's Play, the problem is wading through the mountains of rubbish on youtube so I tend to stick with lparchive.org. I just find a good LP hilarious, like the Freelance Astronauts Oblivion LP with the purposely terrible mods - I still haven't found anything to match .
On the rare occasion I'll watch a non-comedy LP, it's usually a game which has aspects that really intrigue me, but for whatever reason I can't/won't play it (like the LP of The Void I recently watched). It gives me a better sense and feel for a game than just reading a review.
. On the rare occasion I'll watch a non-comedy LP, it's usually a game which has aspects that really intrigue me, but for whatever reason I can't/won't play it (like the LP of The Void I recently watched). It gives me a better sense and feel for a game than just reading a review.
I quite enjoy them myself, and an LP'er on youtube catapulted me to a small level of e-fame among his fans when he named an Oblivion character after me and did a whole LP with said character. Lord of the Dance was fun for a while but it's getting kinda old...
I'm trying my hand at them. Haven't updated in a while, and I'm not really up to snuff yet, but I'm working on it and it's fun. My YouTube channel is WaywardHaymaker, if you're interested in taking a peek.
I love watching LPs, seeing as there are a lot of games I can't play. PSP, PS3, high end PC. Can't play any of those.
As for my favorites, I LOVE davidr64 or X or whatever the kids call him these days. I also love The Spoony One's SWAT 4 LP. And pretty much anything by PushingUpRoses is pretty funny.
I love watching LPs, seeing as there are a lot of games I can't play. PSP, PS3, high end PC. Can't play any of those.
As for my favorites, I LOVE davidr64 or X or whatever the kids call him these days. I also love The Spoony One's SWAT 4 LP. And pretty much anything by PushingUpRoses is pretty funny.