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

[Idocreating]

On topic: Phoenix Wright LP's without commentary seem like piracy in a way. I got to see the stories without paying, I could pause the video to theorise my own solutions and what should be presented. The video always picking the right thing just saved me endlessly picking the wrong options in the trials, so i'm thankfully for that timesaver.

Best LP I read was a Simcity 3000 one from Something Awful, where the whole game was done as if the player (the mayor) was kidnapped and forced to build this city from the ground up, eventually residing to the fact that there was no escape, no way back home and would be forced to do it again once the city was done. Even the advisors were in on it. Added a nice. if depressing, story to a narrativeless game.#

Oh and add The Terrible Secret Of Animal Crossing to that list. Narrative added to a game via a Let's Play. And a really damn good one to boot.

 

[ckam]

I recently watched a Let's Play of System Shock 2. It had a pretty bad microphone for the first few episodes but it got better later on.

 

[VampiresDontSparkle]

Tobuscus (or TobyGames) is the most hilarious "Lets Play" creator ever.

david64ryt is also really good. I love his Minecraft series.

And... well... Seananners? XD

 

[Echo136]

I love Lets Plays. I usually watch Helloween on Youtube (he does his lets plays for Penny Arcade forums). He does a lot of scary games, like Amnesia and Dead Space, although whenever he did the silent hill games none of them seemed frightening at all.

 

[Omgsarge]

I'm gonna throw my 2 Euro cents in there and name drop one of my favourite let's players: OverTheGun
He is a British guy with a cockney accent and is just hilarious to listen too. Always swearing and always failing in some way (his let's plays are not called Let's successfully fail for no reason) he swears his way through the game. It's deeper then that, but he is just one of the funniest guys I have ever heard.
Here is one of my favourite let's plays of him playing the obscure game Xain'd Sleena from his youth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOtv6XZQiHY&feature=related

 

[RvLeshrac]

You too can LP. All you need is a camcorder. Screw a tripod, just try to steady it on the pile of pizza boxes in the corner pointed vaguely in the direction of your 30 year old TV. Don't bother with a headset, either, as the mic in the $20 Canon you found at Goodwill should be enough to pick up the audio and your commentary.

Don't forget to crank the brightness up and turn on a nearby AC window unit as ambience.

And screw editing, just take whatever you've recorded and slap it up on YouTube.

 

[Lord_Seth]

From the post:

But I think the problem with YouTube LPs is that most of them seem to think LP should be about the person commentating rather than the game. They all seem to play the same titles (honestly, how many times can anyone watch Super Mario World being played), have little editing and effect desperate attempts at hilarious personas in order to attract more subscribers, the most valuable currency of YouTube. SA, I find, encourages its users to see LP more as a hobbyist's roundtable discussion about the games themselves.

Hrm, I don't know, I kinda like some of the LPs where the main attraction is the commentator's personality, like SirRonLionHeart [youtube.com/user/SirRonLionHeart]. Of course maybe the reason I object is I've done a certain amount of that sort of thing myself...

 

[daftalchemist]

My boyfriend and I watch either other play games all the time as a way of experiencing a game without actually having to play it ourselves. For instance, I can't do horror games, but damned if I don't find them fascinating in their own way. So while I'll never be able to sleep again if I played something like Amnesia, he can play it and tell me all about the story. I also don't like retardedly hard games, so I'm happy to just watch him play Super Meat Boy or Devil May Cry.

The games he gets to watch me play probably aren't as cool. Recently it's been a mix of Muramasa, Kirby's Epic Yarn, and Lego Batman. I've heard no complaints though.

 

[Christer]

There are two let's plays that are actually good fun. Here they are:

Two dudes with an infectious enthusiasm for explosives play a game with lots of explosions. Creative, edited and just generally well crafted: http://v.lp.prinny.co.uk/mercenaries-2

Just good writing, and a neat premise taken very very far: http://lparchive.org/Animal-Crossing/

Everything else I've seen can quite safely be ignored if you're just a lurker looking for quality :\

 

[Kios Raigeki]

Very interesting, although I did wince at the comment about the Youtube LP community. I myself do LPs on there, but I treat it in a similar fashion to SA. I do it as a hobby, and because it's fun. If someone watches, hooray. If not, oh well.

 

[TheIr0nMike]

I'm not a fan of LPs, but I absolutely love retsupuraes.

That's all I really wanted to say.

 

[rddj623]

Very Cool indeed...I shall have to check out this new sub-genre of gaming enthusiasm. Thanks for the links and exposing this to me.

 

[rawrnosaurous]

My favorite LP is by far the deadly premonition endurance run by vinny caravella and Jeff gerstmann on giantbomb.

 

[Zolem]

Not sure if anyone posted it yet, but here is one of the most famous Lets Play series on the Internet. It gave us the 'Singing Nija Tank' song a few parts later. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bnaGXY0FIY

 

[The Cake Is Annoying]

[giant big snip]

As respected authorities on gaming as a culture (shut up, we are) we have to play all the games, I myself only being able to devote a week to each one, and even then only a few hours in the afternoon and evening, less if I want to follow the advice they keep giving in game manuals to take a fifteen minute break every hour (which nobody does.)

[emphasis is mine]

I've wondered about this for years.

For all the effort and attention that goes into games, there has to be some BIG detrimental impact to the makers of games because this isn't factored in.

- Repeated music becomes annoying faster
- Intricated woven story gets less attention...
- ...as do absurdly detailed environments
- Players simply reacting *less* biologically because they're "vegging" (a horror game doesn't make your heart races as fast, uncomfortable ass groove means you empathise less with the tragedy unfolding)

So maybe the Wiimote (& equivalents) get people up and stretching and some tiny amount of cardio and maybe thats a step forward. But for all the milestones that have been achieve and rulebooks ripped up, how is it that there has never been an attempt at pacing a game so that it follows the advice of medical professionals?

Or is that 15 minute break stuff straight from a lawyer or exec with no medical data basis and it is simply the company's way of covering their arses from lawsuits of square-eyed players. ("What do you mean you played for hours on end? Didn't you read the warnings in the manual before you playing your new game?")

In a time when horror games are laughably lacking in horror, isn't a mechanic that keeps you waiting FOR 15 MINUTES (C64 loading times! Rise from your grave!) a blunt way of building suspence? Crazier mechanisms have been done to gaming (LOSE/LOSE? Super Columbine Massacre RPG? Even Counterstrike respawn at end of the round gameplay).

 

[KilloZapit]

I can see both sides of the game-centered/commentator-centered arguement, but it really depends on the person and the game. For example I enjoy a LPer who used to go to SA but now primarily is on youtube called Raocow even though he usualy only plays Super Mario World hacks, because he is hilarious. Then again, I am very active in the Super Mario World hacking community so that part doesn't turn me off too much either.

Also I have to say the thing I notice about LPs is, some games you see someone play and I think "dude, I just HAVE to play this!" and some games, even good ones, just watching is really all the experience I feel I will ever need. Mostly sandbox and more simulation-style style games, or ones with interesting gameplay are the former, and very story heavy games and RPGs are the later.

And I have to wonder, is it really a good idea to make a game primarily as a way of telling a story? Is there really a difference between watching and playing in most of these games? Even when the game play enforces the story in some way, does it matter if you play it or watch someone play it?

 

[SHBird]

This has probably been mentioned a thousand times in this thread already, but Yahtzee did a Let's Play himself quite a while ago [http://lparchive.org/Flashback/].

 

[SHBird]

This has probably been mentioned a thousand times in this thread already, but Yahtzee did a Let's Play himself quite a while ago [http://lparchive.org/Flashback/].

 

[The Electro Gypsy]

I personally quite like IskatuMesk's Youtube channel, he does Let's Plays and some other stuff as well, like vids of his modding work or Starcraft 2 commentaries.

He's quite shouty at times but can be genuinely funny whilst also giving the game an opinion from a play perspective and a quality perspective, so I found him quite entertaining to watch.

 

[danchez]

the most epic LPer is Necroscope86
he is now uploading great moded Fallout 3 LP
and his interactive X-Com streams are hillarious