Poll: Have you bought games because of Let's Plays?

[happyninja42]

So, after seeing this article:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/165840-Sony-Attempted-to-Copyright-the-Phrase-Lets-Play-But-Its-Efforts-Were-Foiled-in-the-US

I thought I'd toss up a little poll, just to see how many people actually buy games based on Let's Play footage.

I have, multiple times, what about you? And to clarify, this doesn't mean the Let's Play was your only factor to buy, but that actually watching someone play likely was the final factor that made you go from "Eh, maybe" to "Yep, gonna buy that now."

 

[Andy Shandy]

Spelunky and The Binding Of Isaac, thanks to watching Northernlion's Let's Plays of them.

For the most part though, when I do watch LPs, they're of games that I've already played.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

scott manley's for kerbal space program for sure, I thought I might like the game but he really boosted it to an instant buy after that.

don't remember the let's play names, but also for:

tales from the borderlands (almost finished with this!)
rocket league (over 150 hours in this game)
crusader kings II (just to even understand the damn game I had to watch multiple people play it, but it did boost my purchase after watching people play it.)

 

[Kingjackl]

Yeah. The Two Best friends LP of Dark Souls 2 got me into Dark Souls 1, if that counts. And I suppose you could attribute it to my purchase of Bloodborne as well.

 

[tippy2k2]

Nope. I have zero interest in Let's Play. I've never understood the appeal of watching people play video games but if people like to do that, who am I to judge? I ran my own little XCOM Let's Play here so I suppose I'm talking out of both sides here but watching people play just bores me.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Let's play allows me to preview games without actually having to buy them. But i only watch first 15-20 or so to avoid spoilers

 

[Sassafrass]

The Binding Of Isaac, thanks to watching Northernlion's Let's Plays of them.

More or less this, but replace Nothernlion with Utorak007.

OT: I got into DayZ through a variety of Youtubers and I think that's it. I did get back into FM because of DoctorBenjy recently though, so that could count.

 

[Scarim Coral]

South Park and the Stick of Truth when Pewdiepie did a let's play on it (I stop watching South Park after a season oe 2 cos I had no access to the episodes when I was in Uni).

 

[Benpasko]

T.E.C. 3001, Lakeview Cabin Collection, Lethal League, and Lucius 2 are all games I picked up after watching LPs. It's a great way to find out about indie games.

 

[happyninja42]

Nope. I have zero interest in Let's Play. I've never understood the appeal of watching people play video games but if people like to do that, who am I to judge? I ran my own little XCOM Let's Play here so I suppose I'm talking out of both sides here but watching people play just bores me.

It depends on the person for me. The people who I watch are amusing and funny people in their own rights, and watching them play a game feels sort of like...a video game version of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in a lot of ways. They point out the silly bits of the game, provide an amusing narration and response dialogue to some of the silly things someone might ask you in game. Or point out how the NPC's don't seem to give a shit about a threat after they zone out of a door. It's funny to me, and a good form of entertainment that is gaming based. I don't personally watch the Let's Plays where they don't say anything, as I find that pretty dull. But I do watch it for the actual person doing the Let's Play.

I've never watched a Let's Play. Only short segments once in a long while. It doesn't interest me. I'd prefer no commentary.

There are Let's Players that do no commentary in their Let's Play. They usually put an indication of that fact in the video description.

 

[happyninja42]

I've never watched a Let's Play. Only short segments once in a long while. It doesn't interest me. I'd prefer no commentary.

There are Let's Players that do no commentary in their Let's Play. They usually put an indication of that fact in the video description.

Well then, the only time I've watched a Let's Play was when I was young and didn't buy my own games and my Ico disc wouldn't let me progress past the Stone Pillar save point. I watched the rest on YouTube shortly after, without commentary. Oh, and I watched Jim Sterling play a terrible shooter for the hilarity.

That's fine, I was just pointing out that if the reason you don't watch Let's Plays is you don't like commentary, there are Let's Plays out there that would work for you. If you just simply don't want to watch them, that's fine too. xD

 

[Casual Shinji]

I bought The Punisher videogame for the PS2 because of Two Best Friends Play's hilarious video, but I never actually attempted to play it.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

No. I don't even like watching Let's Play. It's incredibly frustrating to watch others play games and make decisions that I consider obviously wrong or stupid. If anything a Let's Play would probably dissuade me from purchasing.

 

[Weaver]

I have but I completely forget what games they were lol. I do, however, remember buying Prime World Defenders because TB did a video on it and it looked like something I wanted to play at the time. I ended up really loving it.

 

[Amaror]

I bought Crusader Kings 2 because of it. I initially got interested in the game by a fairly positive review on a gaming website, went to checkout the demo and tutorial. Suffered through thirty minutes of the game drowning me in text without saying anything of value and immediatly gave up on it.
Then a let's player I watch, I think it was quill18, did a short intro-let's play of the game, which showed me just how cool the game was once you understood the basics. It's not even THAT hard to explain, the tutorial is just incredibly bad at it.
Well and now i have CK2 with all dlc, EU4 with all dlc and am waiting eagerly for HOI4 and Stellaris. So quite a successfull sell I would say.

Other than that there are a lot of other times a let's play sold a game to me, but that's mostly for smaller indie-games. It usually takes quite a bit to get me to buy AAA games nowadays, when I can have just as much fun or more just playing indie games. Hell or just firing up EU4 another time. I have 500 hours into the game and I still have 70% of achievements to get, so still plenty of stuff to do.

If I am interested in a AAA game, though, I will still fire up a Let's Play or two of it, to see how the game is. Generally I found watching the game in action way more informative than reading reviews.

 

[Vigormortis]

Actually, yes. A number of titles, thanks to the Super Best Friends Play crew.

* Lethal League
* MKX
* Among the Sleep
* Neverending Nightmares
* Gang Beasts
* Albino Lullaby
* White Night

I'd been looking for some quality narrative-driven thriller or horror games, as well as some quality local co-op games. Watching the Let's Plays of the above convinced me that they were worth a purchase.[footnote]During the Steam Winter Sale, of course.[/footnote]

 

[CaitSeith]

I pretty much had no interest in Minecraft whatsoever. But then I watched a LPs series with the subtle title "Minecraft HARDCORE!". The intro alone made me change my opinion about Minecraft forever...

 

[Bad Jim]

I've never understood the appeal of watching people play video games

In the context of buying decisions, the appeal is rather obvious. You can see games being played before you buy them, so you can get some idea of whether they will be fun to play. Of course there are also reviews on Youtube, but sometimes you need to watch a game being played for twenty minutes or more to understand the gameplay, so reviews may not be sufficient.