What makes a Lets Play good, and what makes a Lets Play bad? Opininons
60 replies, posted
Basically
1: Is the game overdone? Is it something everyone is clogging youtube with? (I.E. Mario games in general) if so, then unless you have something super unique then just don't do it.
2: Did you buy the game and run home from gamestop to do day 1 lol i jus got home heres pikmin 3 footage? If so then fuck right off.
3: Do you use scarecams/facecams? If so get the fuck out.
4: Do you read the text boxes out loud? Stop. Especially if you do it in "wacky" or "zany" voices.
5: Do you promote yourself over the game? As in, you're playing Sonic: Lost World and at the end "Heh so just leave a comment and a thumbs up it really helps me out!!! Also check out my SKYRIM LP *annotation pops up with "thums up for epic sonic flip!!" If so, I hope you get banned from youtube or Nintendo or something claims your video.
The rest is fairly obvious like volume checks, do you have a guest for slow parts? Do you have something interesting to actually say and not just a vlog, do you date yourself etc.
Restupraue made this handy guide for such a question
[img]http://i.imgur.com/YYfEw.png[/img]
Improvisation I think, these two guys were playing Euro Truck Sim live on stream and it eventually turned into this.
[video=youtube;EOuobSctPYQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOuobSctPYQ[/video]
The accents too, they go so well together.
I personally love watching Sips from the yogscast (and no i am not a yogscast fanboy, tbh their main channel is shit) - he plays the games for fun but he also takes it seriously most of the time. Has a great voice and he's funny af.
What makes a bad Let's Play:
-darksydephil
A good lets play will have the person know what the hell they are doing. I like lets play that are informative. You don't have to go over the top and have seperate videos detailing almost every objective in the game (cough [B]chugaaconroy[/B] cough). A let's player should have a good voice to listen to.
Example of a bad lets play:
-12 year old
-Playing a game that is overused (Minecraft is a prime example, unless you do cool little maps that also haven't been overused [COUGH skyblock COUGH])
-Nothing really to say that is funny.
-Horrible video quality (I know not everyone can get an elgato or whatever, but get somthing DECENT)
-take forever to do anything (Hey guys! Lets play SM64! We're going to get one star an episode! Yes I've seen that before, don't have any links sadly)
An important part in Let's Play is (at least to me) to be entertaining, but serious at once. As in, feel free to joke around a bit, but don't let some kind of 12 year old humor take over your videos.
I also prefer it when people are informed about the games they let's play.
The best LPs such as [URL="http://chipandironicus.com/"]Chip and Ironicus's[/URL] are generally found in the [URL="http://forums.somethingawful.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=191"]Let's Play sub-forum of Something Awful[/URL] (completed LPs are available at [url]http://lparchive.org/[/url]). There is a thread called the 'LP Sandcastle' where people can do test posts for their Let's Plays and get feedback.
Also the community actively try to LP a variety and not just the same games. [url]http://lparchive.org/lpmaster/[/url]
If a lets play entertains you then its good for you.
Good
• Slight comedy is always good, however it shouldn't become the prime focus, comedy should evolve organically and should avoid screaming, image splicing or whatever.
• A nice intro is something to welcome people to the show, if going by a Season format, do it once per season, try to use some sort of transition rather than just "blipping" video about, to make it more pleasurable to people's eyes.
• A nicely decorated Youtube channel is important, nothing too bright or dim, avoid using autoplay because that's just adding unnecessary load for your viewers in fact artificially bloating their viewcount which is bad...
• Sort your videos into either Genre or Season from oldest to newest.
• Videos shouldn't be blind, it's slightly bad taste to milk view count by stretching segments over numbers of YouTube videos before getting Partners, or however people gets extended time.
• Maintain some sort of schedule, if possible, try to inform people watching the channel for breaks sometime, or if possible try to have some sort of buffer backlog of videos, to give them something to look forward to in their afternoons.
• Aspect ratio is important, older console's footage might not look at great on modern connections, thus it may be wise to use things from their period in time for creating footage though having a converter that attaches straight to the PC could be nice for capturing footage, if aspect is thinner, add some boarders to fill it out, preferable a mid-tone colour rather than something overly dark or bright.
Bad
• Screaming and whining.
• Fart jokes, obvious rude jokes and whatever, obscure references might be shrugged off...
• Using extremely long introduction sequences.
• Not marking a video as a longplay.
• Using Autoplay in profiles.
• Using excessive amounts of tags+the description to tagspam, seriously it's just scrubbing for views.
• Pandering to the base, then having the cheek to constantly mention to "like and subscribe".
• Asking for people to send in games, because that just seems a bit milky on their pseudo-celebrityship within YT's community.
• Don't alienate your original fans; it's wise not to overstep your genres too fast, grow a familiar audience before expanding.
• Selling out, don't try to lay emphasis on merchandise, sure there's a fanbase of sorts, but not many people are going to run about wearing shirts.
• Ads, can people choose what sort of ads they have, or is it down to the developers?
Side effects and other wise things.
• If really popular, try to avoid the extremely mainstream titles such as Mario and try to play relatively unnoticed yet slightly revered titles. if Retro, try to aim for campiness instead of playing genuinely great but obscure games from inadvertently fuelling online market places, generating a hatebase from other Retro collectors.
• Also, try to avoid Minecraft or what other Prize Plums other channels are latching on, there's just too much competition there, plus the nature of mods mean that anyone could make videos, try to stand out on your own merit by playing games you like and not by what's grossly popular.
• However, if you're in a region that has a game's release in a major Territory before others then it may be advantageous to go in blind, even if it's Mario.
• Make sure the game you're playing is a game you actually like, if you're a comedy series it would be a shame if you stopped midway since it might be likely they went though a bad game just because of the comedy.
• If something special is happening, try to use it to stir up viewerbase, nothing campy such as "the 12 days of Xmas" but something weird and unusual, like the Xth birthday of LucasArts or something.
• You're a troupe? Have a rotation of friends/relatives, let them form their own personality, just make sure they're gamers.
Ugh, just read a bit more closer, just Let Plays only? typed up tons of general YT viewer/channel tips...
There's only two reasons for a let's play to be good - if the person is entertaining or if they're really impressively good at the game. If it's not either of those why would anybody want to watch it?
A bad lets play
-having a face cam even though you have nothing to show, its simply there for their big fat head to eat up a corner of the screen; unless you are actually showing something there is 0 use for a face cam
-they don't like the game, not as in "this game is a piece of shit but it will be funny" but more "I'm forcing myself to play this and I hate every moment" it just results in bitching and moaning
-a fake or forced persona, pretty much everything pewdiepie does
A good lets player really comes down to what you prefer, your humour style and similar game taste
Masterrace channel [url]http://www.youtube.com/user/LetsPlay[/url]
Weeeell there's also the matter of knowing their stuff being a positive factor, like what chuggaaconroy does with his LPs, showing pretty much everything there is in the game and whatnot.
Production value is also an important factor, such as proper editing to minimize the showing of backtracking unless the time can be filled with something important, like talking about aspects of the game that they were unable to talk about due to concentrating during some of the more difficult sequences that required their focus.
I haven't watched many LPers, but the ones I keep watching are the ones who do it right, who keep me entertained and engaged whilst talking about the game and being awesome. A balance between a charming personality and being learned is important for a good Let's Player.
This is a very VERY good let's play. He knows a ton about the game, and the game he's playing is very interesting to hear about and watch.
[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oepl6lL6kK0[/MEDIA]
Don't make [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlcCKDqvVCY"]this[/URL] and you'll be fine.
A SPECTACULAR example of a bad Let's Play to counteract the good one above.
Yeah, and don't scream about rape when your audience is mostly 12 year olds.
Oh yeah; even though the guy's part of one of my favourite networks, the Polaris network (formerly known as The Game Station), PewDiePie can go to hell. Also he sounds like he's some sort of pony, which is never a good thing. In my view Jesse Cox is better, even if Jesse tends to "bumble about" in blind playthroughs.
obviously a let's play video lives or dies based on the commentary
don't talk too much, don't talk too little, have a knowledge of the game and its context, be decent enough at the game that you're not replaying whole sections, know when something's funny and when it isn't
and fucking EDIT - don't leave in parts where you have to replay whole levels just because 'it's content'
[editline]24th July 2013[/editline]
oh yeah and uh don't joke about raping clementine from the walking dead with a crowbar. i know this seems basic but even the highest profile LPers seem to forget this simple rule from time to time
A good Let's Play is when they actually let the viewer hear the game and only chime in with commentary when necessary.
good lps can be a lot of different things to different people.
bad lps are the kinds that have shitty quality, bad jokes, overly obnoxious people, so and on so forth.
ie PewDiePie or that one guy who plays xbox
[QUOTE=DudeGuyKT;41577894]Don't make [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlcCKDqvVCY"]this[/URL] and you'll be fine.
A SPECTACULAR example of a bad Let's Play to counteract the good one above.[/QUOTE]
"hello..hellooo guys, well.."
*camera falls down*
That was one of the funniest things I have ever seen
10/10 lets play everybody should be making this
[QUOTE=Plucky;41577601]WORDS[/QUOTE]
Thread over.
[QUOTE=Nemisis116;41578199]"hello..hellooo guys, well.."
*camera falls down*
That was one of the funniest things I have ever seen
10/10 lets play everybody should be making this[/QUOTE]
You should watch his other video
He sings a song about popping a squat and his dad comes in and asks, "Why are you recording a video of you singing about poppin a squat" and the kid's like "Because you let me have the camera" and the dad just fuckin leaves
[QUOTE=DudeGuyKT;41578264]You should watch his other video
He sings a song about popping a squat and his dad comes in and asks, "Why are you recording a video of you singing about poppin a squat" and the kid's like "Because you let me have the camera" and the dad just fuckin leaves[/QUOTE]
He's now talking to his sister or something, they are just having a full conversation
How did you even find this
[QUOTE=Nemisis116;41578293]He's now talking to his sister or something, they are just having a full conversation
How did you even find this[/QUOTE]
I was watching a Two Best Friends video on machinima and he commented saying "hi machininima please make me an animated intro for my series thanks"
a good lp is funny, interesting, and the commentator knows what he is doing.
a bad lp is boring, recorded with something low quality, and pretty much annoying and dumb as fuck.
also, related to bad lp's:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwN_87EMunM&feature=youtu.be[/url]
[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay9ibG0aysI[/MEDIA]
Don't eat while making your videos.
[QUOTE=Erasus;41564560]What do you think makes a Lets Play video good and or bad? I don't really understand Facepunch's hate towards them as generally they're not actually that bad, or is it because there is so many people who do them?[/QUOTE]
Entertaining and informing is what people should go for. I don't mind if it doesn't really inform about a lot more than the necessary, and entertainment is almost always more important.
What I DON'T like in Let's Play videos:
-people who do the exact same thing a hundred other people have done (Minecraft ofc)
-shit editing, such as not cutting out the menu parts unless you're explaining something important
-people who take a long time to explain about themselves (their new rig, their new gadgets or why they weren't posting videos because of stuff) BEFORE explaining about the game. if you're gonna talk about stuff like that, do it while playing at least.
-people who clearly have no clue what they're doing, and not because of entertainment
-people who pause way too often to explain stuff about the game. again, do it while playing
They should enjoy the game and not force their humor, like Pewdiepie or Tobuscus, they never stop, they never take a pause, it's just constantly every thought in their mind being pushed out of their mouths constantly
[QUOTE=CBastard;41585801][video=youtube;6YUt_wmvMxo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YUt_wmvMxo[/video][/QUOTE]
Dear god, my eyes, im not sure if that video is supposed to be satirical or what, but im guessing it's bad on purpose just because of Crazybus, that video probably just nauseated 4 of my 5 senses.
But hey, at least there's no annoying Freecam thing in the corner, the whole wobbling thing just looks sickly and atrocious, this is a sign that video editing after recording is [I]really[/I] wise, only deterrent might be processing power whilst running games if you have an older computer.
But you could possibly substitute recording voice and gameplay on the fly by recording it on something such as a DVD player, if you don't have a capture card of some sort but mysteriously rewritable DVDs, but then it turns into a developers commentary where everything seems scripted, it loses a bit of edge if it isn't speaking as you're playing.
EDIT: If i wanted to make a Let's Play, the first game i'd probably do would be Boktai 2 or something, yes the whole issue about the solar sensor might be problematic, but miniature UV lights could solve that, could even use it on the Gameboy Player if people feel it's alright, or possibly Wario Land.
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