• Tips for commentating Let's Plays?
    63 replies, posted
Personally i think LPs are best done with a lot of edits e.g. Nerd3. Cutting out all the dead air and unentertaining stuff and straight for the funny/interesting/good stuff.
[QUOTE=MadBomber;37049919]Personally i think LPs are best done with a lot of edits e.g. Nerd3. Cutting out all the dead air and unentertaining stuff and straight for the funny/interesting/good stuff.[/QUOTE] I like Nerd3 because he takes a 20 part series with loading screens and boring ingame shit and edits it down to a hilarious 15-20 minute video Also OP, listen to your audience, if they have tips or suggestions take them, nobody wants to see you stuck in the same room for 40 minutes because you didn't read the pr0-tips
Keep it interesting. Use editing preferrably, and cut out the boring parts.
Also, a good voice helps when it comes to lets play. A nasally voice is not good for LP's.
When it comes to swearing, comedic timing is very important.
[QUOTE=Stinky;37048315]There are some things that should make you think, "Is this worth saying?" This was not worth it. [editline]2nd August 2012[/editline] On-topic, would most people watch a LP using text instead of voice commentary if you couldn't/didn't want to speak? I've seen a few use it but voice commentary is the most popular from what I've seen.[/QUOTE] I thought it was worth it.. It gave me a wee chuckle. I don't see why you felt the need to get that certain little comment in there. Purely for the sake of it, hmm? Give it a by.
[QUOTE=RainbowStalin;37043665]Make sure you've already played through the game/know loads about the game before you do a lets play. Watching a lets play where the person playing doesn't know what to do or how the game works just isnt fun.[/QUOTE] I would say it varies greatly. Obviously older games can work because people enjoy them and played them. Like Zelda, Metroid, Splinter Cell, etc. But some people can do well enough on games they haven't played before. Saying that they should have played it before is good for someone getting used to LPing games, but not a solve all point. I LP'd Mirrors Edge and it's very very popular, my whole series is something like 150k views, where as games I haven't played before aren't doing as well, but I don't know if it's simply because those don't have as much demand. Like I said it varies greatly, and something as concrete as having played the game before it good to do, but certainly not required and sometimes can hinder some surprise or reaction.
Go on somethingawful and look at the stickies in their LP section, and well, what you're describing is a playthrough, not a let's play.
[QUOTE=MadBomber;37049919]Personally i think LPs are best done with a lot of edits e.g. Nerd3. Cutting out all the dead air and unentertaining stuff and straight for the funny/interesting/good stuff.[/QUOTE] I sort of disagree, although it depends. PERSONALLY, through my experience... I think if your title is "Let's Play" it's a series of the game. if it's like "Nerd Plays" then i think it's common for that to be a montage of sorts like Criken. I think right now the definitions of those kinds of things are loose, though I tend to tell people what I just typed out. That a Let's Play is a series through a game and if you sort of called it "[My Name] Plays" then it's more of a montage. I know that's abitrary, but I feel that it works out for the majority of the playthrough content on YT. What I hate is when people say they are doing a walkthrough of a game yet have never played it. I simply include walkthrough in my tags to bring it up more often. I always try to tell people before hand that I haven't played a game and the difficulty also any quality settings I use. I don't want to plast "Let's Play Metro 2033 IN 1080P MAX QUALITY" for each video even if I am. I should temper my post by saying my channels traffic is not only from LP's, though I TRY to do them. I think I feel kind of dry, though people are used to that of me by now. I think my older LP's were better since I cared more about having fun than quality. Now though I spend plenty of time doing audio editing and levels and schtuff. It's hard not to now that I can with my software. I would recommend not recording a bunch at a time. It's very tempting but you dry yourself out when playing for 2-3 hours and trying to sound entertaining for funny. Depending on the length of your video, shoot for maybe 15-20 minutes now, then maybe go longer if you can stand it.But then only do maybe 2-3 episodes max at a time. Watch it back and see how you do. Listening and Speaking can change how things sound. So you may find something you do that is annoying or could be done better. I try to avoid redoing episodes, as it can ruin some of the experience on both ends, but sometimes you have to.
Also, OP, there's an excellent community for Let's Players getting started [url=http://voltronarmy.com/forums/forum.php]here.[/url] It would also help to look at [url=http://voltronarmy.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?11-Help-amp-Support]this section.[/url]
Wait, wait.. what is the difference between a [B]playthrough[/B] and a [B]let's play[/B]?
[QUOTE=Wave160;37053985]Wait, wait.. what is the difference between a [B]playthrough[/B] and a [B]let's play[/B]?[/QUOTE] I think they're the same but playthrough sounds more like a full playthrough (without any cuts) to me.
only do an lp if you are legitimately funny
[QUOTE=Wave160;37053985]Wait, wait.. what is the difference between a [B]playthrough[/B] and a [B]let's play[/B]?[/QUOTE] playthrough is a full play full record of the game and not cutting anything out. Most playthroughs are serious and used for guides and other things. Game Grumps is an example of this (although they do it comedy style instead of serious). Lets Plays are edited so they show the best of what they recorded and skip the boring parts. Spike and Barley Play videos are examples of this.
[QUOTE=Wave160;37053985]Wait, wait.. what is the difference between a [B]playthrough[/B] and a [B]let's play[/B]?[/QUOTE] It's personally my opinion on it but I would define it as: A Playthrough is a vague term for a full series of videos on an entire game with or without commentary. A Let's Play is a full series with commentary A walkthrough is a playthrough with commentary from a skilled player who is teach or showing a playthrough of the game not simply for entertainment alone. A [Name] Plays is someone's collection of moments from a game. Eg "Barley Plays", "Toby Plays", "Mike Plays" Again this is in general what I've seen and observed over the years. Some people in this topic think the term Let's Play is also a general series of moments from a series and that's true for many.
[QUOTE=Wave160;37053985]Wait, wait.. what is the difference between a [B]playthrough[/B] and a [B]let's play[/B]?[/QUOTE] Both of them come from something awful (Where let's playing first originated), a playthrough is just that, you playing through the game, maybe for the first time. A let's play is where you actually know shit about the game and tell people information about the enemies, the story, development, bosses, etc. Like having the stats of the boss off to the side. a good example for a let's player is like, chuggaconroy for example, he might be a bit annoying for you guys but he's a proper let's player, while some of those plebians like pewdiepie, tobygames, yogscast, omfgcata etc do playthroughs.
[QUOTE=legolover122;37055126]playthrough is a full play full record of the game and not cutting anything out. Most playthroughs are serious and used for guides and other things. Game Grumps is an example of this (although they do it comedy style instead of serious). Lets Plays are edited so they show the best of what they recorded and skip the boring parts. Spike and Barley Play videos are examples of this.[/QUOTE] Game Grumps is a bad example of a proper playthrough. Their gameplay is hideously awful(In their MM7 playthrough they've missed the rush armor, rush items, and they have no clue about the shop, and in their other games they often have no clue what they are doing, missing lots of secret stuff), but their commentary more than makes up for it. In fact, I'd say their commentary is what makes them so popular. If you're gonna have a play-through, you must have at least played the game once before and have decent knowledge of the games secrets. Speaking of which, how decent of an idea would a caption/text based LP be with you guys? I've got a decent chunk of games to play through that are less known, just no place to record since I basically have my back to a TV.
[QUOTE=Cryomundus;37061754]Game Grumps is a bad example of a proper playthrough. Their gameplay is hideously awful(In their MM7 playthrough they've missed the rush armor, rush items, and they have no clue about the shop, and in their other games they often have no clue what they are doing, missing lots of secret stuff), but their commentary more than makes up for it. In fact, I'd say their commentary is what makes them so popular. If you're gonna have a play-through, you must have at least played the game once before and have decent knowledge of the games secrets. Speaking of which, how decent of an idea would a caption/text based LP be with you guys? I've got a decent chunk of games to play through that are less known, just no place to record since I basically have my back to a TV.[/QUOTE] It was my understanding that Game Grumps was ONLY for the commentary. If you find two of the funniest game-skit-comedy people on the internet and expect them to produce videos about the strategy and best way to play something, you're going to be disappointing. Of course it's the commentary that makes them popular. And again, Playthrough is a vague term for simply a series of videos of a playthrough of a game. Which is why you title the video a walkthrough. Years ago when you got stuck on a game you looked up a WALKthrough of a game to get past something. I think the issue is we need definitions of what these terms mean for people. I posted mine and I think it makes sense. But if someone wants to post a series of videos showing the entire game, with them not necessarily playing the game before and probably average or bad but simply for the point of having fun and entertaining, what would you call that. A "Playthrough" feels like the most generic term for that and I have a hard time believing that someone labeling that kind of content in a very basic and vague way and you expecting them to have knowledge of game secrets and have played it before it being too specific for such a generic term. And this "Proper" Playthrough stuff is muddying the waters I think. It's like some mysterious phrase placed onto something making everything else seem bad. As for your suggestion, test based LP's don't get enough attention and if you made a series of those and shared them around I'd see them doing pretty well.
Another tip. Shake it up each time. Don't be repetitive.
Hmm, I'm thinking of doing a lets play of Shining Force Neo (as I love it dearly, and no one seems to have made a decent one,) but I'm fairly sure if I left all of the dialogue/cutscenes in, I would hang myself. All of them are just [I]bad[/I]. Like, scoop out my eardrums with a spoon bad.
Keep it real.
I use "MrDemonic plays ___" because it sounds slight different and a bit more unique and personal, rather than all the other hundreds of "Let's Play ____" Also I should note some of these tips down as well.
Also this guy commented on part 2 of my Mirrors Edge LP. [img]http://puu.sh/Oiwy[/img] So I have to talk nonstop for it to be good? :v:
[QUOTE=Brt5470;37068897]Also this guy commented on part 2 of my Mirrors Edge LP. [img]http://puu.sh/Oiwy[/img] So I have to talk nonstop for it to be good? :v:[/QUOTE] Be talking all the time (unless you need the audience to pay attention to the game).
[QUOTE=Brt5470;37068897]Also this guy commented on part 2 of my Mirrors Edge LP. [img]http://puu.sh/Oiwy[/img] So I have to talk nonstop for it to be good? :v:[/QUOTE] Wouldn't say that makes it bad but talking without any breaks while still being funny/entertaining is a big plus.
[QUOTE=Thlis;37043778]Watch all the retsupuraes, it should help show you what you don't want to do.[/QUOTE] Seriously OP do this. I want you to sit down for a good day or two and watch [url]http://www.youtube.com/user/retsupurae[/url] If you dont, you will probably end up on it.
[QUOTE=Meatpuppet;37068911]Be talking all the time (unless you need the audience to pay attention to the game).[/QUOTE] I don't enjoy talking all the time and people know it. I talk when I have something to say, but I don't push it and people enjoy my playthroughs
[QUOTE=Brt5470;37062293]It was my understanding that Game Grumps was ONLY for the commentary. If you find two of the funniest game-skit-comedy people on the internet and expect them to produce videos about the strategy and best way to play something, you're going to be disappointing. Of course it's the commentary that makes them popular. [/QUOTE] Gamegrumps may not be the best example, but technically they still go through the entire game and don't edit anything out AFAIK. Sure you wouldn't use it for strategy, but its still a playthrough nonetheless. [editline]3rd August 2012[/editline] I used game grumps as an example cuz I don't know anyone else that does straight playthroughs.
Never sing along to the music in the game. That's one very important tip.
watch tippingforties LPs and take notes [editline]1[/editline] if you're not funny or interesting in any way you're not going to stand out and no one is going to take the time to watch your videos
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