Let's Play, the bane of Youtube's video storage space - Let's make video games non-interactive

[Forsaken Wanderer]

"...have you ever seen a DVD, you know, how they do director's commentary and stuff? Well, imagine if some jackass who was not involved with the creation of the movie at all decided to just comment on what he thought watching the movie would be like. Well, that's kinda like what we are here now."
-Slowbeef, guy obsessed in telling you he invented recording yourself playing video games​

If you were to contemplate the most retarded garbage ever uploaded to the Internet then the "Let's Play" must rank up there as some of the most worthless trash that mankind has ever created. There are likely at least a million Let's Plays filling up space on Google's servers and most of them are unwatchable.

But, that is not to say that there aren't any without merit. Back in the late 00s the ethos of the Let's Play was different, people attempted to provide entertaining commentary over the top of game play and sometimes they had success, I also think the 10 minute time limited helped as well. Nowadays with it being so easy to record and upload footage many people just capture their regular gaming sessions with no thought towards making it interesting to watch, it's a slop farm.

As Bewitched once said "I'll show you mine if you show me yours", I'll throw a couple of what I think are the best LPs ever made at you and I'd recommend giving them a look if this is your cup of tea. Despite making this thread I don't watch regular LPs, I like the "post commentary informative LP" and the "riff LP", and if you are as retarded as I am then you might know what those terms mean.

Post Commentary Informative LPs

Riff LPs

Walkthrough LPs

And of course speaking of riffing back in the day you had Retsupurae which milk the numerous poor quality LPs for laughs, but I'm sure everyone knows of them. This is a couple of my favs -

Fellow autist, what do you have to say about ze humble let's play? Are you yourself a LP master? Do you know of any truly shit LPs or LPers?

Tranny tax -
Tranny with a tattoo that absolutely nobody in the general public will ever understand even if it wasn't an incredibly out of date meme.


Watching LPs is more important than losing your virginity

 

[Whatevermancer]

Let's plays? What is this, early 10's? I thought that everyone who plays games while commenting them just streams now.

 

[TheArtilleryman]

I used to love watching horror game let's plays because I was too pussy to play them but I was still interested in their stories so watching someone else play was a compromise. They're usually linear enough that you don't miss much when watching someone else play, and if you found someone genuine and entertaining who doesn't ham it up for views it could be a great watch.

My personal favourite LPer was one of the last ones I discovered before I mostly stopped watching LPs: Sabconth.

He's disappeared for a while now except for some social media activity I think, I haven't followed that closely. His Resi 7 LP is a personal favourite of mine:

I find him very entertaining. He's also got some great MGS LPs, he's somewhat of a fanboy and a Kojima worshipper but I don't mind, he's made good content.

Manlybadasshero is another great one who is still active, he does smaller indie horror games:

Whereas Sabconth is more goofing and having fun, Manlybadasshero is very chill and leaves a lot of breathing room in his commentary,which is primarily just observations on the gameplay and the story.

I watched plenty of others before them, all the way back to when the whole trend took off with Amnesia and Pewdiepie, but I had a habit of seeking out small channels that were more hobbyist than grifter as they always made for a better watch. As such I sadly don't remember most of them.

 

[Colon capital V]

Nobody "Let's Plays" anymore, they all make 12+ Hour long deep dive analysis video essays over why this commonly praised game is a masterpiece while inserting their political opinions no one gives a fuck about (they're trans btw, not sure if that matters).

 

[Ducks Sorted in a Row]

Nobody "Let's Plays" anymore, they all make 12+ Hour long deep dive analysis video essays over why this commonly praised game is a masterpiece while inserting their political opinions no one gives a fuck about (they're trans btw, not sure if that matters).

And anyone who disagrees with them is just lacking in heckin media literacy

 

[Chad Holdenford]

Let's Plays are so passé.
If anything is clogging Youtube's storage space are repetitive data charts and reaction videos.

 

[HyperboreanRightsActivist]

imagine if some jackass who was not involved with the creation of the movie at all decided to just comment on what he thought watching the movie would be like

So every cinephile ever

 

[LazyLizard]

the lets players i used to watch have either quit or like roosterteeth gone bankrupt.

 

[Judge Dredd]

There was an informative let's play/documentry series about Alone in the Dark I can't find. It was multiple videos, covered Frederick Raynals career, played all his games, and even had a choose-your-own-adventure play through of the game using YouTubes annotations and unlisted videos features, but was gutted when annotations were removed and unlisted videos over a certain age were made private.

Edit: CarcinogenSDA does informative/walkthrough style lets plays of Resident Evil games. Good stuff if you're into that. There's even a This-Is-How-You-Don't-Play series by a different person called "teach Phil to play" which is similar.

 

[Riftrunner]

Fellow autist, what do you have to say about ze humble let's play? Are you yourself a LP master? Do you know of any truly shit LPs or LPers?

Yahtzee did some Let's Plays with his friend Gabriel which I personally liked. The series has been dead for a long time but it's all still up on his channel.

One video that stands out was the Dreamweb Let's Play. An otherwise unremarkable point and click adventure game that's only remembered for being one of the first video games to be refused classification in Australia.

>Uploaded 12 years ago

Fuck I feel old now.

-Slowbeef, guy obsessed in telling you he invented recording yourself playing video games

This is probably the best video Slowbeef ever made and it's not even an LP.

 

[Beautiful Border]

Let's Plays as a format/concept are perfectly fine. It's 100% about the personality of the LPer. If they're funny and entertaining to listen to, it's great. If they're dim-witted and can't actually play the game properly, an obnoxious retard who thinks it's funny to shout constantly, or just a boring bastard who's dull to listen to, not so much.

 

[TATE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODE!!]

Not only the best lets player, but the real creator of lets plays.

Suck it, Slowbeef.

 

[The Spoils of War]

OneyPlays is the best Let's Play channel when Chris, Zach, and Tomar are in the videos:

 

[*Grunts Softly*]

ChristopherOdd is all I need

 

[VF-1S Valkyrie]

I still throw on Vash12349's Metal Gear Solid playthroughs sometimes.

 

[BradeRunna]

Watching people play video games is boring as fuck. Unless you are doing it to learn something about the game it's better to just play it yourself. I don't know who these people are that just sit around mindless staring at someone playing a game like a zombie.

 

[quisquiliae]

I used to watch this dude a lot back in the YouTube stone age. I will also still stand by chuggaaconroy's original Earthbound Let's Play, I haven't watch him since but I can't imagine he has aged well.

Let's Plays to me were a moment in time that will never be the same as they were 10+ years ago, it might be nostalgia, but I think Internet "culture" changing drastically is the real reason. The market Let's Plays used to occupy seems to have branched in two directions: the lower effort slop streamer/long player and the higher effort speed runner/challenge runner or video essayist.

I think the majority of people used to seek out Let's Plays for games they have played, so the new content styles probably fit them better.

 

[Paradox Mystic]

Yahtzee did some Let's Plays with his friend Gabriel which I personally liked. The series has been dead for a long time but it's all still up on his channel.

I used to watch a lot of let's plays, before my favorite people either vanished or dropped in popularity enough it's sad. Yahtzee's let's plays with Gabriel are some of the best in my opinion, except the one where they got derailed over whether Game of the Year means highest quality, or what the Industry will overrate to win the most gaming awards and the bomb defusal one.

One of the things to look for in a let's play I think is someone entertaining in combo with a game you care about. There is a lot of let's players who have declined in quality and they've moved onto a formula of "I'll play whatever someone pays me 20$ - 50$ to play."

 

[PonderosaPete]

I think I stopped watching Retsupurae the moment his girlfriend started making appearances. Diabetus was the funny one.

 

[The handsome tard]

This is probably the best video Slowbeef ever made and it's not even an LP.

I think I stopped watching Retsupurae the moment his girlfriend started making appearances. Diabetus was the funny one.

The best thing he and Diabeetus made were their videos on Micheal Gibson's Negociation games from the Flash era.
I legit recommend it, not only their commentary is at their finest but games are so living in their own little world while trying to pretend they are realistic is a god damn clown show.

They even make for great background sound while playing video games.

There is also their videos on Darkseed 1 and 2 and a few others are also really good.

"...have you ever seen a DVD, you know, how they do director's commentary and stuff? Well, imagine if some jackass who was not involved with the creation of the movie at all decided to just comment on what he thought watching the movie would be like. Well, that's kinda like what we are here now."
-Slowbeef, guy obsessed in telling you he invented recording yourself playing video games

We all know Chris Chan was the OG L.P