Extra Punctuation: Let's Talk About Let's Play

[taltamir]

Wouldn't watching someone play take as much time or more than playing it yourself?

Unless you want to get a feel for the "end game content" of a job you pay for (aka mumorperger), I guess in that context it would be useful although I am not sure this is where you were going with it

 

[DirkRhyolite]

Anyone who likes Yahtzee must check out Evil Tim (known on YouTube as CruelestChris for some reason):
http://www.youtube.com/user/CruelestChris

Also, Halloween4545 is the coolest person on the entire Internet:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Helloween4545

 

[metal mustache]

well i know zelda wind waker wasn't merely average, even in its series. I would say that, next to majora's mask, its the best zelda game out there.

 

[Mstrswrd]

Actualy, those very reasons you mentioned are why I am very fond of NakaTeleeli's Let's Plays. He has a standing rule; If it's been LP'ed to death, he's not playing it. It's why he did an LP on the Doujin game "Bunny Must Die," (Or, rather, "Chelsea and the Seven Devils." Same game, but, well, go find it and play it). His second attribute is that he knows how to edit. It's something he's become particularly good at, and in fact, his most recent started major LP project, the .hack//GU trilogy, has already seen some excellent editing in of scenes from the anime to clarify some of what goes on, since the two (the games and the anime), are inexorably linked.

His account.
http://www.youtube.com/user/nakateleeli?blend=1&ob=4

 

[githnaur]

Whilst not a specific LP site, over the years I've enjoyed keeping an eye on http://speeddemosarchive.com/ - not all of the run throughs have commentary, however some of them are hilarious - the just over 4 minute completion of morrowind being an old fave.

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

LP's are usually really fun. The point about them showing the game as it really is is a good one. Which is why I really love the Quick Looks over at Giant Bomb [http://www.giantbomb.com/] as well. Kind of tiny LP's of just 15-60 minutes of a game, to show how it plays. They are usually making the videos before the games come out as well, so I find that to be the best way to see how new games look before buying. You will have to sit there and be annoyed when the players don't get things, or overlook things, but that happens in LP's as well.

 

[Baneling Aspect]

The only Let's Plays I've ever watched were Spoony's SWAT 4 Let's Plays. They were hilarious.

Spoony's Let's Play of Phantasmagoria 2 is my favorite video (series) on the entire internet. It's AMAZING. His SWAT 4 and Ripper LPs are pretty great too, though Phantasmagoria 2 is still my favorite of the bunch.

 

[Kegluneq]

Aw, no love for Khad yet? His LPs of Thief and Amnesia (which can be found on his website [http://letscrosby.com/]) are brilliant. I'm also a huge fan of the Deadly Premonition LP as well.

LPs are great when you want to get the full experience of the story of a game, but don't have the time to invest in the games themselves, or the money for the required console. I've actually bought a few games on the basis of LPs I've watched (and in the DP thread, I think the number of people who followed suit there is in the dozens) so they're not directly comparable to pirating.

 

[Suissant]

Although I agree the SA forums are the best place to watch LPs, there are an awful invasion of bad posters there. Apart for a few threads, generally they are full of whitenoise by new users praising the game, the author and contributing nothing to the discussion of the game. It's the worst suboforum there because of the posters.

 

[Engarde]

Let's plays do not really interest me. The only two to catch my interest are our very own Internet Kraken's Reveredtour and the Epic of Boatmurdered.

 

[blitzphoenix]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDs8vDPLSRc

this is like the greatest let's play of amnesia: the dark descent ha. actually its the only one i've ever watched but i do enjoy it very much. quite hilarious

 

[WaderiAAA]

Lately, I've been watching some let's plays on the unforgotten realms website. Since Robert Moran went off the escapist he have only posted three new UR episodes, but in the last couple of weeks he has made three new episodic LPs, one alone (minecraft), one with a friend (Super Mario World) and one with two friends (Magicka).

 

[MowDownJoe]

I've recently became a bit of an LP addict, myself. I even decided to try my hand at making a few of my own [http://www.youtube.com/user/mowdownjoe], as a hobby. I've been told I have a good voice (which is shocking, because while what I hear of my voice sounds fine, what I hear in recordings of my voices makes me sound like a retard), but I have a feeling I still need to work on the commentary a bit. But hey... if you want to tell me differently, well, the link's right there.

 

[beema]

Good article -- a worthy topic indeed.

However there's one thing I don't understand. You say you don't have time to fully play through all these games, which is perfectly understandable. But somehow you DO have time to sit and watch through Lets Play videos, which are themselves more or less a 1:1 ratio to the game's actual play time? How does that make any sense? The videos are slightly shorter due to editing out reloads/deaths and stuff, but it still takes a long time to watch the full things. Couldn't you just as well be using the time you watch these videos to more fully play the games themselves?

 

[Oztington]

One let's play i'd recommend to you Yathzee is L0rd Vega's let's play Silent Hill Blind. Its hilarious the guy is pretty funny. He doesn't make videos anymore but he also did Silent hill 2 and 3 Blind as well (never played before)
http://www.youtube.com/user/l0rdvega?blend=1&ob=4#p/c/034CD93FE1064E17/0/gohueoxltWA

Lord Blackthorne revenge which were also pretty damn funny.
http://www.youtube.com/user/l0rdvega?blend=1&ob=4#p/c/C9A6B30111FDC8B4/0/9fk_Ja7Q0Ys

Also another gem i found is RantasticProduction's Chris Redfield resident evil 1 knife run pretty funny as well.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RantasticProductions#p/u/22/Q-ym-4Lu4kE

Anyways it made me want to do let's play myself, but i wonder if i should be the chatty type or the silent type. Personnaly i prefer silent lets plays but i have heard some pretty funny guy when watching let's plays but it depends on the voice actor.

 

[k-ossuburb]

I find Rosy and Paw's LPs of old text-based adventure games are quite entertaining, but the best guys I've seen are these guys on Machinema on Youtube who do the "Two Best Friends Play" series. They're not exactly LPs since they don't play the entire game all the way through, but the short clips they show you are hilarious to watch.

Unrelated edit: My capacha read "Unexorated One". WTF? Is it calling me names now?

 

[Yoshi001]

Thank you for posting the links, the Archive site is awesome. Also great article!