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Playing games Vs. Watching a Let's Play

this is the place where lps are being talked about. it's important to talk about games being played on the internet.
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LatexHydra
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Playing games Vs. Watching a Let's Play

Post by LatexHydra »

I'm not sure if this belongs here since it's not a let's play, but rather a discussion about lets plays. But anyways, do any of you guys find yourself prefering to watch an LP of a game rather than actually playing it? Video games are just a small thing for me, and not at all related to my main goals, and since they're an active medium, its hard for me to justify spending time on them, with what I get out of them not being much. But with LPs, I can experience the game somewhat, and just have it on in the background while doing other things like practicing drawing. I just find them super convienient for me, which is why I've recently getting back into watching raocow's videos. I'm not saying playing games is a waste of time for everyone, but just that for me personally and with what my goals are, the time spent on them isn't really worth the reward I get out of it. that's all I have to say about that
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Bean
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Re: Playing games Vs. Watching a Let's Play

Post by Bean »

Depends on the game, really. I've played through around 20-40 games a year the last decade or so now after nearly being done with them back in the day. The hardest thing is when there are multiple games you're thinking about starting up and don't start a one of them. I've had that happen a couple of times.

That said, I want to get back to making playthroughs again. It's one of my favorite creative outlets.
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alleightbits
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Re: Playing games Vs. Watching a Let's Play

Post by alleightbits »

I think that, for most people, the choice to play a game vs. watching an LP depends on the game in question.
For me, if the game is easy to obtain and a genre I'm interested in, I choose to wait to buy it and stray away from gameplay footage. If it isn't, I'm inclined to watch someone else play it instead.
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lolyoshi
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Re: Playing games Vs. Watching a Let's Play

Post by lolyoshi »

I don't usually watch a let's play unless I've played the game myself.
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Alice
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Re: Playing games Vs. Watching a Let's Play

Post by Alice »

Depends entirely on the game for me. Some games I have no interest in playing but I'm willing to watch an lp of them, some I'm interested in playing and watching an lp of, and sometimes I'll watch an lp of a game I previously wasn't interested in and buy it afterwards. Typically though I don't mind watching an lp of a game I've already played at all.
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Re: Playing games Vs. Watching a Let's Play

Post by Leet »

I'll watch it if I don't ever plan on playing it and it's an LPer I like
Well it is a decent hack but sometime its just too repetitif there no level that actually pop in your face and your like oh yeah that level they all ressemble themselves and just monster along the way.
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Re: Playing games Vs. Watching a Let's Play

Post by YelseyKing »

When it comes to raocow, specifically, I'll watch LPs of games that fit a few criteria. Namely, "will raocow do well at this game?" and "is it a game I've either already played, or don't care about?"

In general, though... LPs have made me actually *want* to play games before. I had little interest in the Silent Hill series until I watched Roahm Mythril's LPs of them, but afterwards, I decided to seek them out and give them a try myself. Frankly, I feel like, if you can replicate the entire experience of playing a game by watching someone else do so, that's a problem with the game, not any external things... and the type of games I enjoy (RPGs and platformers, primarily) aren't ones whose entire experience can be replicated in that manner.
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warpio
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Re: Playing games Vs. Watching a Let's Play

Post by warpio »

For story-driven games where the story looks interesting, but the gameplay and everything else doesn't really excite me enough to make me want to play it, I'd much rather experience the game through an LPer or a streamer that I enjoy watching.

For any game that looks like something I'd want to play, then I'll hold off on watching any LP of it no matter what until after I've played it myself.

In some cases there might be a game that raocow starts playing that I don't think I'd want to play at first, so I'll start watching it, but then maybe a few videos in I'll be like "okay now I want to play this" and I'll stop watching until I play it and catch up on the videos later.

With raocow's SMW romhack videos, while I do still enjoy playing them, I feel like I've played enough of the SMW engine for my lifetime at this point, so I figure I may as well just casually watch them from now on and spend my gaming time on other games instead.
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ano0maly
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Re: Playing games Vs. Watching a Let's Play

Post by ano0maly »

This thread brings me to a question I've been pondering about for a while: do you tend to be more interested in streams/playthroughs of games that you know, or of games that are new to you?

It's not as much of the case with streamers that I really like (perhaps because their focus isn't always on games), but for someone like raocow, I tend to be more of the former. I get quite excited about upcoming LPs of games like Megaman Zero, Rosenkreuzstilette, Superstar Saga, Crash Bandicoot and Donkey Kong Country because there's much participation I can have in the discussion for a game I played. Some people may be drawn more to seeing new games introduced by let's players (and maybe play them themselves) instead of games they're already familiar with, but for me that doesn't happen often nowadays, and I generally find it hard to watch when the game is brand new to me. At times when this is not the case, I usually get to like the said game separately or beforehand instead of finding out through the LP alone.

And I don't know whether this is a "right" attitude - I've been concerned that I may be looking a bit too much at the same old usuals or things I already like instead of trying new stuff.
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Re: Playing games Vs. Watching a Let's Play

Post by Awoo »

I like watching raocow play video games on the internet, and I don't have a computer good enough to run much other than 16-bit emulators right now. It's pretty fun to play games like that and I do sometimes, but it's enjoyable to watch his LP's if for nothing else than his commentary and insights.
Used to watch some Minecraft stuff like Pahimar and DireWolf20 but I don't have a good enough computer to even play that any more, and I'd rather play Minecraft than watch someone else play it.
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