"Are those Let’s Play Videos bad for the gaming industry?"

[Infinitron]

http://indiegamr.com/are-those-lets-play-videos-bad-for-the-gaming-industry/

Are those “Let’s Play …Videos” bad for the gaming industry?

Posted on August 8, 2012 by olsn

I know this is a very vague thesis that I’m drawing up here, and I can only speak from my own point of view and from those of a couple people I talked to about it. My statement is, that video-series like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi0WSKZzyls are potentially harming the video game indutry.

*Edit: This article is NOT intended to be against Let’s Play Videos – I love them! – It should more question the quality of (some) video games.

Let me start off by stating that I used to be but ain’t any more a hardcore gamer. There had been quite a few titles I kind of wanted to play and I was really interested in buying them, but here is why I didn’t buy those titles:

You usually don’t want to buy a pig in a poke. So I went to browse for ingame gameplay videos of those games on youtube and stumbled across a “Let’s play… Video” (I’m talking about on of these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi0WSKZzyls), basically a screencapture of someone playing through the game together with commentary of the player. So I started by watching the first part, however at the end of the first part I thought “Well, this was fun – how does it continue?” – so I watched the next part and the next part… more and more losing the desire to buy the game and play it myself. After I was done watching all parts(not all in one session

) I had completely lost the desire to play the game myself since I already had seen everything and knew how it ended, however I did NOT feel less satisfied like finishing a game myself. And this happened with not only one title, but several that I considered buying.

Meanwhile I’m at the point where I pretty much only watch Let’s Play Videos, instead of playing a game and here are my points why:

• I don’t have to pay $50 for a youtube-video
• I get to see everything in HD, no matter how bad my system is(even on mobile)
• I don’t have to go through the hassle of installing a 10GB+ game
• I can fast forward boring parts or skip parts
• I can relax after work and don’t have to think while watching or I can choose to figure out the next steps myself and then say “Yes, I would have done it the same way”
• It’s just as rewarding as figuring out something by playing myself

I know that there is of course a big group of people, who won’t agree with me, who would put nothing over playing a game themselves and I do get their point.
However by looking at channel-statistics of accounts like this one: http://youtube.com/user/Toegoff or this one: http://youtube.com/user/RealistReviewer you can clearly observe quite a trend towards watching games instead of playing them and this thesis was also backed by quite a few people I was talking to who told me that they didn’t buy a game because they did watch it on youtube even though they did like it.
So at this point I would be interested how many people there are, who have done this, because I think there is quite a bit of money lost by industry because of peoply like me.

Another question is: Who is to blame? – Is it because games are still the same as many years ago just with slightly different content and a better graphics? Or is it because my habits as a gamer have changed, that I prefer watching a game instead of playing it?

Discussion continues here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4355212

 

[taxalot]

Books suck, because you can read the last page at the very beginning. I can't help it. Books are very bad for the book industry.

 

[BaconAndEggs]

I thought it was just the natural evolution of the vidya game industry. So many interactive movies are published, why not take it one step further and "play" them on Youtube with your trusty play/pause button?

 

[hoverdog]

I thought it was just the natural evolution of the vidya game industry. So many interactive movies are published, why not take it one step further and "play" them on Youtube with your trusty awesome! buttons?

fixed for greater accuracy

 

[Infinitron]

I thought it was just the natural evolution of the vidya game industry. So many interactive movies are published, why not take it one step further and "play" them on Youtube with your trusty play/pause button?

Heck, if you take a video of all possible branches, you can actually reimplement the game on Youtube using clickable annotations.

 

[BaconAndEggs]

I thought it was just the natural evolution of the vidya game industry. So many interactive movies are published, why not take it one step further and "play" them on Youtube with your trusty awesome! buttons?

fixed for greater accuracy

 

[Palikka]

And thus it begins. I predict that in the next six months some corporate exec will compare streaming to piracy. We will see major gaming sites with articles asking 'shouldn't the publishers get some of the streamer money since they made the game?' and the lawsuits against the major streaming sites will follow. It will end up in a huge clusterfuck where everyone loses.

 

[Infinitron]

And thus it begins. I predict that in the next six months some corporate exec will compare streaming to piracy. We will see major gaming sites with articles asking 'shouldn't the publishers get some of the streamer money since they made the game?' and the lawsuits against the major streaming sites will follow. It will end up in a huge clusterfuck where everyone loses.

Uh, relax. Videos of gameplay are hardly the only thing being "pirated" on Youtube. No clusterfuck yet.

 

[JarlFrank]

If watching the playthrough of a game on youtube is almost the same as playing through the game, then there's probably not enough game in your game.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Yeah. If the game is good enough, you'll want to play it too. Buying on impulse because of marketing / buying shit games is what is harmful to the industry.

LPs are enjoyable in part because it's like playing with someone else (even if you're the little brother who's just watching), which makes any game more enjoyable. If anything, you may end up playing an average game because the LPer made it look more awesome than it actually is.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

The way the game industry is shifting to interactive movies more and more is excellent. Now I can complain about the latest triple A shit that comes from some random studio like Infinity Ward without coffing up 60 bucks.

 

[Jasede]

I bought so many games just because of Let's Plays.
"indiegamr.com", really?

So at this point I would be interested how many people there are, who have done this, because I think there is quite a bit of money lost by industry because of peoply like me.

Someone punch this limp-wristed subhuman in the dick.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Everytime your grandma makes you a sweater, the industry kills a chinese slave.

 

[Average Manatee]

How insanely stupid. Compare this to any other industry. Can you imagine Ferrari trying to ban showing their car in movies? Or banning the depiction of people drinking Coke in ads? If seeing your product doesn't make people want to buy it then you have a very large fundamental problem with your business.

 

[20 Eyes]

What kind of degenerate even watches these things? I've never felt bored enough to feel like watching someone else play a video game.

Beyond that, if it is hurting the 'industry' somehow, it's because AAA games are basically movies these days (except they're 5 hours long, you occasionally press buttons, have worse visuals, and with even poorer writing).

 

[felipepepe]

And that's why so many like-minded retards people just watch TV instead of having a life...

 

[SCO]

Books suck, because you can read the last page at the very beginning. I can't help it. Books are very bad for the book industry.

I do that occasionaly when the book is utterly predictable*. I read the first few chapters, one or two at the middle and the end. Guess the analogy fits for bioware 'narratives'.


*last one was the last book of the galactic milieu series. Could be nice books if the pacing wasn't so fucked up that most of what happens in the last book is revealed on the first and second, and the whole thing wasn't a fucking christian allegory (part of what made it predictable, minus the diary flashback format that wasn't shy about referring to subsequent events)

I thought it was just the natural evolution of the vidya game industry. So many interactive movies are published, why not take it one step further and "play" them on Youtube with your trusty play/pause button?

Heck, if you take a video of all possible branches, you can actually reimplement the game on Youtube using clickable annotations.

if only bioware had 1/25 of the talent of the guys that did alter ego.

 

[Micmu]

LPs are maybe bad for these newer AAA shite titles (like all that crap from biowarez) because those are just retarded cutscenefests and basically interactive slash fiction and any LP would be a major "spoiler".
LPs are definitely not bad for games, though.

 

[ironyuri]

How insanely stupid. Compare this to any other industry. Can you imagine Ferrari trying to ban showing their car in movies? Or banning the depiction of people drinking Coke in ads? If seeing your product doesn't make people want to buy it then you have a very large fundamental problem with your business.

False logic.

Ferrari and Coca-Cola can control brand image projection through contractual obligation. If a film studio or marketing agency wants to place a product, the company that owns that product will have some say in how it is used.

A game development house cannot control brand image in Let's Play videos on the internet made by independent, unaffiliated persons.

EA is relaunching Ultima, Spoony does an Ultima retrospective showcasing the mind-numbing idiocy that was Ultima IX post-EA. Brand image is affected.

Bro Team Pill runs a video making Spec Ops the Line look like a piece of shit with no enemies to be seen, and 1000 cutscenes (and it was a piece of shit), company cannot control their image.

The saying no publicilty is bad publicity doesn't hold true in an era of focus group marketing, unfortunately.







Ps: I like Let's Plays, and think this indiegamr dude is a faggot douche who should swallow his own dick into his body and shit it out of his mangina.

 

[Whisky]

I thought it was just the natural evolution of the vidya game industry. So many interactive movies are published, why not take it one step further and "play" them on Youtube with your trusty play/pause button?

Heck, if you take a video of all possible branches, you can actually reimplement the game on Youtube using clickable annotations.

Yep. That's how I "Played" Plumbers Don't Wear Ties!

 

[waywardOne]

I don't give a fuck what's good for the "industry". LPs are great for the consumer (me).

 

[Cassidy]

The only good thing for the "industry" is for it to crash and for the "AAA = C-Movie disguised as Game" retarded model to become a failure. But that won't happen, unfortunately.

Too bad the sector was infested by so many hollywood rejects. Rejects from an industry that pays grand for people like Michael Bay.

 

[ironyuri]

Alternatively, to my post above:

There was the "Bros Icing Bros" phenomenon, whichif any of you remember, involved douchefaggots giving Smirnoff Ice (usually Black, pre-mixed drinks) to other douchefaggots and making them down it in one (not sure how you say this in your cultures, in Australia we'd say skull it). The whole point was Smirnoff Ice was perceived as a "chick drink" so giving it to a bro by surprise was like humiliating him and making him suck a dick or something.

Anyway, Smirnof got on board because they saw the grassroots marketing opportunity (to me this was a chicken/egg scenario. Did Smirnoff plant the seed of the campaign through viral marketing, or was the campaign a grassroots bit of fun gone viral and adopted by the corporation. If anyone ever proved it one way or the other I don't really give a fuck so don't post links at me).

The "games industry", which is a stupid terminology anyway, given that the "games industry" is not exclusive of other multi-media multinationals. Vivendi owns a whole bunch of "games studios", by proxy. Warner Bros has licensing on games, etc. Anyway, the games industry has two choices: to treat let's plays, and grassroots shit like BRO TEAM as a threat to their business model and corporate branding, or encourage consumer participation in their business model, which would probably be the smarter, 21st Century new media way to go--consumers are more likely to believe other consumers saying a product is awesome, than a game developer, although I've got a feeling that consumers in the "games industry" are not the most mature, rational decision makers since every word from Todd Howard or Jay Wilson's mouth seems to be lapped up like pigs at a slop convention, but regardless, if companies got on board and either made a public show of supporting people streaming their games and making commentary "LET THE CONSUMER DECIDE IF THE GAME IS GOOD", then they'll more than likely attract the broader audience they crave for their games, at the cost of brand integrity.

 

[sea]

• I don’t have to pay $50 for a youtube-video
• I get to see everything in HD, no matter how bad my system is(even on mobile)
• I don’t have to go through the hassle of installing a 10GB+ game
• I can fast forward boring parts or skip parts
• I can relax after work and don’t have to think while watching or I can choose to figure out the next steps myself and then say “Yes, I would have done it the same way”
• It’s just as rewarding as figuring out something by playing myself

I guess this means we have now reached the apex of the "I like videogames, but don't actually like playing them" phenomenon. Watch, don't do - that's what society is all about these days, isn't it? How fucking pathetic an attitude that is - the ultimate in apathy and inaction.

Then again, I don't see what the problem is - if people stop buying all those interactive movies, maybe we'll start to see titles with real gameplay reappear.

 

[Tolknaz]

I don't watch let's play videos. Why would i want to watch some random annoying dork or equally as annoying "videogame person" play a game instead of playing one myself? Reading well done Let's Plays is completely different matter though as long as the authors are witty.