Do you watch Let's Plays?

[farewell friend]

I love watching Let's plays! I usually have a Youtube video playing in the background as I do something on the PC anyway.
I like watching series of games instead of just one standalone video, so I keep watching episode after episode and it gives me something to do.
Sometimes, you get invested in watching the Let's play because you've been with it from the start, so you are compelled to finish it.

Some of my favorite Let's plays have been on Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Wild Frost, Ender Lilies, etc.

 

[toastghost]

watching lets plays is actually how i usually consume video games since i don't have any consoles and i don't really download stuff on my pc because i know it can't handle it. for lets plays, i tend to watch a lot of chuggaaconroy, manlybadasshero, and johneawesome.

 

[Herbizarre]

I don"t watch a lot of let's plays these days, but I am watching RoahmMythril's Pokémon Crystal No Evolutions run recently. It's nice

 

[Salmancer]

I used to, but I've found myself drifting away overtime. Games take a long enough time to play, so committing to watching an entire playthrough while also wanting to play games is difficult. One thing that is kind of fun is seeing how different people react to different elements of games. For instance, in Kirby: Battle Royale, there's a nasty difficulty spike right at the finale which I puzzled out a solution to. An LPer I watched found it too frustrating to surmount, which I found interesting to note.

In the past, I liked watching let's plays of older games in series that I'm a fan of but could not purchase, or newer party games that I didn't have the friends to really enjoy. (These days, I fill the knowledge gap with fan wikis)

He hasn't updated in a long time, but I have to recommend GeminiLaser's Mega Man LPs. His videos are really good, boomeranging between being funny, informative, and skilled without any one aspect becoming too overbearing. Additionally, the Mega Man games show off another neat element of LPs: seeing the different routes and decisions the game has to offer. GeminiLaser usually takes a non-standard boss order, whereas I'm only good enough to do things in somewhere close to weakness order. So he offers a different take on the game than I can see on my own. It goes up to Mega Man 7!

 

[Blanc]

i tend to watch a lot of chuggaaconroy, manlybadasshero, and johneawesome.

Yooo, I also watch Manly! Haven’t seen what chuggaaconroy is up to in years tbh. I actually don’t watch let’s plays in the most traditional sense? I watch a series of one if it’s compelling or funny enough, but most often when I do watch Let’s Plays it’s for very short indie games that I’m intrigued by but have no desire to put on my harddrive. Manly is great for those in particular because he picks up so many and also does little commentary, something I don’t care for unless comedy is the point for one like Monster Factory.

If it’s a game like Elden Ring or the like, I usually just watch my friends play.

 

[Tsumibito]

I've been watching ChipCheezum and General Ironicus since their No More Heroes Let's Play. I highly recommend them because Chip is usually very knowledgeable about the games he plays.

 

[Lyndis]

Unpopular opinion, but I honestly can't understand Let's Plays. So much about video games as a medium is about the interactive nature. Even in more linear style games like RPGs, the player is the one that progresses the story and is a catalyst for whatever events unfolding. I feel like it really takes away from the enjoyment and immersion watching someone else do what I should be doing, making choices that I probably wouldn't have made, etc. I would much rather just play the game myself.

The exception to this is games I have no interest in playing, but am curious about in general. But even then I only watch for long enough to get the gist / see the gameplay elements I was interested in.

Or! Crowdsourced Let's Plays. A couple years ago there was a social experiment in that fashion, Mitski's Twitch Plays Pokemon, that took commands from the game chat to play the game. Which as one can imagine turned into utter chaos. There was even lore and fanart created by a passionately invested community surrounding it. The collective users, however, did actually manage to beat the game this way. Super fascinating thing to behold. Even if portions of it was trying to wretch the player out of the corner of a town for a while lol

 

[Juliyet]

Not usually in full. But sometimes I skip to certain sections to see various people's reactions to certain moments

 

[Princess Viola]

Nah and honestly, I never understood the appeal of them either. Like there are some YouTubers and streamers I'll watch where they'll be playing a game and giving their thoughts on it or just gameplay highlights from their latest stream and stuff like that, but I just never understood the appeal of watching someone else play a video game in-full. (And usually the ones I watch are people just fucking around in like trash shovelware bought off Steam or like old shitty ROM hacks and fan games and stuff like that)

Video games are games, they're meant to be played, not watched. Watching someone else play through a video game would be like watching someone else play a board game.

(It should go without saying that like walkthroughs and guides are different, I'll watch those for some games because it's a lot easier to follow VS reading a text guide with screenshots)

 

[Snowy]

Video games are games, they're meant to be played, not watched. Watching someone else play through a video game would be like watching someone else play a board game.

It's less about the game, and more about the person playing the game. Their reactions, actions and commentary can make for a thrilling watching experience.

Watching people play board games can also be fun, and as i said, it's not the game but the players.

 

[Princess Viola]

It's less about the game, and more about the person playing the game. Their reactions, actions and commentary can make for a thrilling watching experience.

Watching people play board games can also be fun, and as i said, it's not the game but the players.

Yeah but here's the thing: I don't care about any of that stuff. Every time I've tried watching a Let's Play (and I have tried watching some a few times over the years, so it's not like I just went 'No I don't like this thing' as soon as I heard about them), I just find the way they act so incredibly unappealing 99% of the time.

It's just not anything I'm into. I don't want to watch someone else play video games, if there's any video game I'd remotely be interested in watching someone do a Let's Play of, it'd be a game that I'd want to play and...I'd rather just play it myself.

 

[Lyndis]

Honestly this just makes me think about how there's been a shift from the general populace worshiping celebrities, to the general populace worshiping influencers and content creators. I never cared enough either way. Most public figures have a fabricated personality, and the truly successful ones appeal to the lowest common denominator to reach such success. If I wanted to listen to someone scream and make lame jokes while playing a game I'd just keep listening to the idiots on mic in game chat.

 

[Princess Viola]

Honestly this just makes me think about how there's been a shift from the general populace worshiping celebrities, to the general populace worshiping influencers and content creators.

I don't think that's a thing that's actually happened tbh.

Like even with content creators who are huge like PewDiePie, there's still way more people who'd have no idea who the Hell they even are VS people who know them and watch their videos.

 

[Lyndis]

I don't think that's a thing that's actually happened tbh.

Like even with content creators who are huge like PewDiePie, there's still way more people who'd have no idea who the Hell they even are VS people who know them and watch their videos.

It might be a demographic thing that I'm applying too broadly. I'll specify and say this is something I've noticed more among younger gens rather than at large. Also less in the sense of renown and more in the sense of preference. So like, while there might not be well-known and famous creators on celebrity levels per se, I notice folks engaging and having a wider range of creators they regularly watch/listen to compared to interest in traditional celebs. (Ex. Almost everyone I know has a favorite podcast, overwhelmingly run by normal folks as opposed to anyone famous)

Though this might also be just from the higher prevalence of content creators now than in the days of early internet, paired with the fact you can actually make real money and it's easier to support your favorites to keep creating.

 

[Tactician Karina]

Not as much as I used to. If I do watch someone play a game, it has to be a game I've played and enjoyed and has little to no commentary to it; I especially like it if it's a game with multiple routes/variances for a replay, because sometimes I find it interesting to see what other players did/what characters they used/got a different ending/or if they used anything different to progress in general.

 

[toastghost]

Honestly this just makes me think about how there's been a shift from the general populace worshiping celebrities, to the general populace worshiping influencers and content creators.

watching people play games isn't equal to worshipping content creators?? seems like a really weird connection to make.