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

[Cette]

Can't remember which ones but let's plays have sold me on quite a lot of games as if I'm unsure I'll often look them up as a tie breaker.

Then again they've made me not buy just as many so it's a net neutral for the games industry on me.

 

[Something Amyss]

Aww, you're cruel.

He didn't do anything really exciting, but I'm glad he didn't because there were some surprises at the start that I found very effective.

Not so much cruel as willing to admit that I sometimes buy bad games because they look bad. Jim's had a couple where it's like, "I have to play this!!!!!"

I don't always do it, but when I do, it's probably because of a Squirty Play.

 

[Luminous_Umbra]

Countless. Binding of Issac, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Chivalry, Xenoblade, Kid Icarus Uprising, Okami, and several others. And still more I simply haven't been able to get my hands on for one reason or another.

That said, it's not just Let's Plays that have contributed. Twitch streams and just general "goofing off in a game with friends" type videos have also done it.

 

[Nazulu]

Aww, you're cruel.

He didn't do anything really exciting, but I'm glad he didn't because there were some surprises at the start that I found very effective.

Not so much cruel as willing to admit that I sometimes buy bad games because they look bad. Jim's had a couple where it's like, "I have to play this!!!!!"

I don't always do it, but when I do, it's probably because of a Squirty Play.

I didn't mean it of course.

Which bad games are you talking by the way? Any first person shooter horror games with tiny small time flash lights and blinding darkness throughout? lol

 

[vare]

CiV5, EU4 and MiniMetro thanks to Quill18 and J?tun due to Lucahjin, so 4 games...
Wait...
Is that 1-3 or 5+ ?
although I don't think the last two count as real let's plays, but rather more along the lines of let's trys or something like that...
And, well, I guess ShadyPenguins playthrough of Undertale influenced me to buy it during the winter sale.
Let's say it's 5 games.

 

[distortedreality]

No, never. I don't think that i've ever watched one....

Actually, I lie, kind of. The only times i've watched stuff like that is for new releases where i'm not sure of the potential bugginess (i.e any Bethesda game). Any potential purchase was only based on how the game ran, so not sure if that really counts.

I normally prefer to read user reviews if i'm on the fence about a game.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Nope. I use open betas and sites like the Escapist to track the progress of games I'm interested in while they're still in production and so I generally decide whether or not I'm going to buy a game before it's been released (and thus found its way into the hands of 'Let's Play'ers).

 

[Xerosch]

There are quite a few indie games that are mentioned on websites I go to regularly that I check out in let's plays. Though I almost always turn off the sound and don't stick to specific longplayers. And I also skip through the first 20 minutes to see if it's a game I'd enjoy playing.

This may look like a superficial use of Let's Plays but it saved me a bit of money on games that I just wouldn't enjoy (mostly Rouguelikes, MOBAs and multiplayer focused titles).

...

Oh, I almost forgot the Let's Plays of Pawdugan on YouTube. I've seen all his takes on 'King's Quest' and 'Quest of Glory'. He's about the only guy I can stand because he seems to be a nice person to hang out with and also shares interesting facts about the games.
For me it's kind of nice to let him talk on my laptop while I play something else.

 

[Ishigami]

Let's play? No, never I do not watch lets play videos.
Gameplay videos in general, yes.

What's the significant difference in those two terms for you?

A Let's Play video for me is someone playing the game in chronical order and comments on his live play mostly to jest. May include an image section of a webcam to visualize his reaction.
Let's play therefore is more about the player's reaction to the game than the game itself.

A gameplay video may consist of randomly cut together gameplay sections or a specific short segment. Mostly not commented at all but if it is commented then the comments revolve around specific gameplay impressions and are not for fun.
The video is therefore about demonstrating or judging the gameplay and not about the player's reaction to it.

If it wasn't clear I picked: [x] No: I don't use Let's Plays to decide what to buy.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Well, a LP contributed to my dislike of Undertale. Papyrus gets on my nerves.

 

[Qizx]

Yep, only once. It was watching MaximusBlack play SouthPark Stick of Truth. I originally had no intention of buying it but after he played it I realized it was actually a pretty solid RPG. Unfortunately it was extremely short so that left me disappointed :/

 

[happyninja42]

Let's play? No, never I do not watch lets play videos.
Gameplay videos in general, yes.

What's the significant difference in those two terms for you?

Not speaking for him but it's obvious isn't it?
Let's Plays have people wittering on about pointless shit over them, gameplay videos are just videos of the game with no talking.

Well considering I've seen videos classified as "Let's Plays" that had no commentary, no it's not obvious. And considering the Let's Plays I watch don't really involve "pointless wittering about shit", I still want to know what he/she meant with their comment, which they answered later.

 

[babinro]

Voted 1-3 games.

The truth is that Let's Plays do the opposite of generating sales for me. They allow me to SAVE money by not purchasing interesting games that I might have bought on a price drop but no longer need to thanks to the lets play access.

Some examples of games I was planning on buying but no longer picked up because of Let's Plays:
- Every God of War game after the first one
- Stanley Parable
- Life is Strange
- Wolf Among Us
- Until Dawn
- Five Nights at Freddy's 2, 3 and 4
- Any Fighting game I'd buy for the story mode (MK9 and 10)
- Gone Home

To memory the only games I actually bought due to Lets Plays were:
- Rogue Legacy
- Don't Starve

 

[Erttheking]

I FEEL like I did at one point, but I can't remember the exact game.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

I've definitely bought a few games because of Let's Plays. TheDarkId's wonderful LPs of titles like Drakengard, Drakengard 2 and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII inspired me to pick them up to see if they were all as truly abhorrent as they were made out to be in the LPs (spoiler: all three of them are as terrible as they seemed). Sometimes I get good games after reading LPs though - Jerusalem's Medieval II: Total War - A Scotsman in Egypt and Porkness' Rome Total Realism: An Egyptian in Scotland both made me get into the Total War franchise, atching Jim Sterling get all excited about The Binding of Isaac made me get that, I picked up Undertale after catching a tiny bit of slowbeef's stream of that and Yahtzee's Drown Out of his game The Consuming Shadow did its job as an advert for that game because I bought that after watching that LP. So yeah, I like LPs and sometimes they definitely do inspire me to go and buy the games I see in them.

 

[antidonkey]

The 2BF Dark Souls 2 let's play got me into the the souls games. While I already had Dark souls 1 on PC, I had yet to play it. Watching their play through got me to purchase Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 2 while also getting me to play Dark Souls 1. This also led to the inevitable purchase of Bloodborne.