What Do You Look For In Let's Plays/Players

[tehroc]

Absolutely hate group LPs. Multiple dudes that aren't very witty that tend to laugh at their own jokes (brotip: it's not funny if you need to remind people to laugh).

My favorite LPer is Kikoskia. His Ultima 7 LPs are legendary (plus the british accent over the olde english script is an added bonus).

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Game Grumps is an example of what I don't like. A few dudes playing games whilst blathering on about all sorts of worldly things I don't care about, and not focusing on the game. I think they'd work a lot better as a podcast since their ongoing content seems have less and less to do with the games they are playing.

Anyway. Like many others, I look for humor, and for focus on the game. I don't mind one, two, or maybe 3 people sitting together playing a game (only if they are entertaining), and talking/joking about the game.
I think the Two Best Friends Play LP's are a fine example of what I enjoy seeing.

A nice bonus I also look for, is amusing nerdiness.

That might seem like an odd thing, but I think it's entertaining when the LP'er I'm currently watching immerses himself into the game and nerds out immensely during the process.
This sort of thing I think is inherent to lots of us, I think. When we get lost in the game and our train of thought leaves our bodies and enters the gameworld. I enjoy watching LP'ers do this because I can tell, they're having a lot of fun with the game. And that's also how I learn a lot about games I've never had the chance to play.

My favorite LPer is Kikoskia. His Ultima 7 LPs are legendary (plus the british accent over the olde english script is an added bonus).

I think Kiko really embodies what I look for in an LP'er, as he's probably my favorite too.
He's got just the right balance between being a massive nerd, but still very amusing and endearing. I also enjoy how daft he is when he plays and makes all sorts of hilarious oversights/mistakes.

I decided to get XCOM: UFO Defense and XCOM: Terror from the Deep because of his LP's. Watching him play pretty much guaranteed I knew how to play as well without needing a guide.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I look for Matt and Pat. That's all I need in a Let's Play.

Yep, me too.

It's hard to find a good comedy duo, let alone a comedy duo that plays videogames.

Not really a fan of their Funtime Adventures though.

 

[Morsomk_v1legacy]

Sometimes I can't seem to be able to keep watching some lpers after watching them play through one game. Sure I liked watching the guy and thought he was funny and such. But after he either finishes playing through the game or after a certain episode I stop watching his content for a very long time. But I sometimes return back to him after a year or a half and get really hooked on his content.

I also seem to like to watch a sort of "underdog" lets player. I know that his content isn't very good or that he isn't very experienced when it comes to commentary, but I somehow often hope that he will get a lot better at it and that he is content massively improves.

 

[Fijiman]

I like a LP that is at least somewhat funny to me, has somewhat decent commentary, and is of somewhat decent quality. One of my favorite LPers is [a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/husky?feature=g-subs-u"]this guy[/a]. I've especially enjoyed his Half-Life LPs.

 

[foxlovingfreak]

Recently I've been watching a lot of the let's plays on the yovideogames channel which is done by miles 923 and some of the guys on his show assist me they usually have some pretty funny and knowledgeable commentary about the games there playing.

 

[MetalDooley]

A good mix of knowledge,insight and humour is what I look for.My favs are

SpoilerWarning (a group that includes Escapist contributors Shamus Young and Josh Viel)
Two Best Friends/The Sw1tcher
The Runaway Guys (ProtonJon,ChuggaConroy and NintendoCapriSun who are all worth checking out solo as well)

 

[Samurai Rabbit]

Ah excellent, a wide variety of opinions and examples. Great stuff!

I obviously asked because I'm doing my own Xcom LP on my YouTube channel. But I'm not allowed to mention it because of the wrath of the banhammer!

Oh shit...

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Ah, I thought the poor dude had some sort of disability, turns out he's just Australian. I feel the need to apologize for my shameful ignorance.

Yeah, it's either got to be someone that really shows how to best approach any and all possible encounters (EpicNameBro springs to mind) or it's got to be funny, like whoever made the let's play of 50 Cent: Blood in the sand.

The first kind is something I'm looking for when I feel I missed something, or just want to see how someone more versed, or someone playing a different style handles things.

The second kind is mainly for games I do not intend on buying, ever. It's got to be hilarious.

There were some fun folks dying in Dark Souls for our amusement, but my faves among those are pretty short. Those that are (supposed to be) funny usually stretch over half a dozen or less videos until they bump into a wall, don't quite get what they're supposed to do, lose interest or otherwise just disappear. And that's not something I find easy to accept. You start something, you better finish

 

[SacremPyrobolum]

I usually look up Let's Plays so that they can act as a tutorial for complicated games, usually by Paradox.

A good let player will make make it very clear what he is doing when he is doing something for the first time but will not keep reminding us of things he already did and will not state the obvious such as how to use the freaking game setup window.

 

[TecnoMonkey]

The only LPer I watch is UberHaxorNova, he has the most unusual personality ever and he can be hilarious without going completely over the top like Pewdiepie or Game Grumps, who just manage to be annoying.

 

[Viking Incognito]

Depending on the game, I either want: Zero presence from the guy playing, no commentary, no superimposed text, nothing. OR, if they can be consistently funny like Matt and Pat from 2 Best Friends Play, then humor is okay.

 

[Amaror]

Most important:
A good voice and microphone.
I want to understand what the person says.
Other than that not very much.
I mostly watch not sooo many episodes of one let's play(er), but different stuff.
Very often games that i am currently playing myself, just to see how other people are doing it, or games that i want to play, but need some tipps and tricks to do it (For example: Paradox games)
Auzzieplayer i pretty awesome, but doesn't put up videos very frequently. Yogcast, for example, is too annoying in most cases, since they often don't talk about the game at all, but only some random shit. The Let's build videos of sjin are very good, though.
Currently i watch a bit shenryyr2. He has a good voice and knows a lot about Paradox strategie games. His Europa Universalis and crusader kings 2 videos are pretty good (EU 3 more so).
And another Let's Player called DocRattie. His Let's Plays are in german, so most likely not an option for you guys, but he's pretty good. He does a minecraft mod Let'S Play were he uses a lot of different mods. Good to find new awesome mods and see how some stuff from the mods works

 

[Ljs1121]

My favorite Let's Player of all time was Tenjinmoop. I also used to like Chuggaaconroy, but I haven't watched anything of his in a while.

I don't really like ultra-informative LPers who do nothing but present facts about the game they're playing and I also don't like people whose only goal is to be as stupid as possible in an attempt at humor.[footnote]The exception to this seems to be GameGrumps. I absolutely love them[/footnote] The best Let's Player to me is one who can blend together informative and entertaining.

Alternatively, somebody whose sense of humor lines up with mine perfectly, like Nerdcubed, is great too.

 

[waj9876]

They have to be willing to talk over cutscenes, not too much, just enough to get their reactions. And multiple people isn't required, but it can't hurt.

And they have to be genuinely funny, not just making the same jokes over and over again that everyone else has already made a millions times...That's it really. Perfect let's player in my opinion? Fraser over at Video Games Awesome. Youtube name, farfromsubtle.

Genuinely hilarious, will talk over cutscenes, but shuts up enough so everyone knows what's going on. Plays with at least two-five other people regularly, and goes the extra mile for what he plays (They regularly dress up as characters as they play.) Even has an awesome design to his streams, with both him and his crew visible, and the game at the same time using a green screen.

(Oh yeah, he pretty much records every livestream he does, so his show can be viewed on youtube like normal let's plays.)

 

[DesertHawk]

My two favorite duos:

Chipcheezum + GeneralIronicus
Slowbeef + Diabetus

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

A couple of things.

Number 1 is humility and appreciation of fans. This is the reason I abandoned DSP. He just became too cunty to like.

2 is blind LPs. It's so much more fun if I'm seeing honest first reactions.

3 is either love or hatred of what they're playing. If it's just meh, it's no fun.

And finally, a sexy British accent never hurts.

My favorite at the moment is AlChestBreach. He has all of the things except for the accent and he more than makes up for it with some of the most unique humor I've ever seen.


This is his gang. They run around New Vegas and test mods.

 

[FavouriteDream]

Obvious things like quality of recording are important. There are quite a few let's plays out there wherein the recording seldom jumps above 10 FPS.

However I'd say the main attribute I look for is personality. I can't stand the "bro" type of let's player who is always trying to crack wise and do stupid stuff in game. I like funny let's players, but they should be able to actually tone it down and play the game the way it is meant to be played. This is part of the reason why I can't stand people like Tobuscus. He is always trying way to hard to be totally hilarious and it just agitates the living daylights out of me.

 

[DJ_DEnM]

I watch RoosterTeeth's Let's Plays, and from time to time GhostRobo; the latter only to see how new Triple-A releases look and play. It's good instead of seeing devs spill their hearts over how they did all they could for a game. RoosterTeeth's are mostly for humor. I watch Game Grumps from time to time because they can be hilarious, like with their Sonic '06 run.