Let's Play preferences?

[robothero]

What sort of things do you all look for in "Let's Play"s?

Do you watch more Lets Plays of games you haven't played, as a review of what you should get? Or do you watch more Lets Plays of games you have already played? Do certain genres of games get your interest more? Do you like to learn how to play better, like you might learn new strategies from seeing other people play? Or do you like to see the reaction of someone playing a game for the first time?

[Kapol]

I watch Let's Plays for the people playing them. I watch LRL most of the time to either have some interesting background 'noise' (something to listen to while doing other stuff), or because I think it'll be funny. I used to watch a lot of Game Grumps until LRL started for a similar reason. The comedy value. They don't always have to talk about the game to be interesting.

[Antitonic]

Am I an outsider for thinking Let's Plays don't have to be just video? It's weird; every time this gets brought up, it seems like video is seen as the only way. Some of my favourite LPs have been screenshot.

On topic though, similarly to Kapol, I'll watch (or read!) an LP because I find the creator funny or interesting. After the first one, I mean. There's not a great indicator of someone's style if they've never done anything before. I find it helps if the person playing has at least some idea of what's happening, which gives it a slightly more analytical perspective. It's kind of like how Graham and Paul will do a couple runs of an Unskippable before getting a final product; you get your timing down and you can see what works where. On the other hand, it can be more entertaining seeing someone play blind, which also works MUCH better on video than on screenshot or text.

Depends on the game, and the LPer, I think.

[Bebop Man]

I stick to games I haven't played and probably will never play, because I don't wanna spoil the fun for myself. The genre isn't as important as who's doing the LP.

[Kapol]

I stick to games I haven't played and probably will never play, because I don't wanna spoil the fun for myself. The genre isn't as important as who's doing the LP.

I do this a bit. I only watch things I'm confident I won't play or games I've already played through. That way I can avoid spoilers. It's the reason I never ended up watching Kathleen play through Stick of Truth.

[korvys]

Exactly the same reason I *did* watch Kathleen play Stick of Truth. I was never going to buy it.

[robothero]

So if you avoid ones about games you want to play, what about games you hadn't heard of? Do you stop the video if you decide you do want to play this game?


And there are some games like Minecraft and Kerbal Space Program, they aren't very narrative driven and are sandbox enough that what one person does with the game could be completely different from what I've been doing. So you wouldn't worry that a video could spoil those games for you.


I have watched a bit of the LRR crew's Twitch channel, but never really got into it, so I am kind of approaching this as the guy who is realizing that he doesn't understand Kids Today™.


But also there's a lot of things that it's easy to lump together, but I think there's a bunch of different genres of Let's Plays. If you're watching because you think it's funny when So-and-So gets really scared by Slenderman or whatever, that's different from watching them play Starcraft and considering their strategy, or watching them play Bubsy 3D and make fun of how terrible it is. They are very different takes on the same basic idea of "watch someone play a video game."

[Kapol]

For games I haven't heard of, I normally will watch them unless it seems like I'm going to play it after watching. I'll also watch stuff that can't really be 'spoiled' sometimes. Though I avoid some series like this too (I tried to avoid watching Dark Souls, for example, until 3/8 shows were playing it and it became hard to avoid).

[magicpokey]

So, I know im responding to a (probably dead) thread, but I have a question. Is there an active Lets Play group here on LRR? I want to make some Let's Play's, I tried youtube videos and streaming, but my improv skills are nowhere near as entertaining as when I can take time to polish and write stuff. But I'm interested in doing a LP or two, especially for older, more interesting games that next to nobody has really played before.

Would anyone be interested in reading an LP thread here on LRR? Something close to what they do on the Something Awful forums, but their community is nowhere NEAR as awesome as this one. Let me know and I may throw up the start to a thread.

(Edit: Sweet! Look for the first update this weekend then!)

[Jamfalcon]

I'd definitely give read it a try.

[Antitonic]

I think my previous post in this thread suggests I'd be receptive to reading an LP.