What is [Lets Play] Anyway?

MeepZero

I see it on here every now and again, is it like just a thing people do to get multiplayer games going? But then, many of the Lets Play things are SP games...so is it like...multi single player?

Reading through them it sounds like its the player asking for directions or something as to how he should play?

ArcSyn

A [Game On] is a multiplayer get together of people playing the same game.

A [Let's Play] is a person who has decided to chronicle his playthrough of a particular game and share it with the forum, either through screenshots or video. He may also make it interactive in that people may make choices regarding how he plays through the game (what upgrades to take, or weapons, or what to name a person) or just play through it and post it up as they go. Occasionally, some of the people watching the let's play, will also play through the game at the same time, and compare their experience of playing to the person running the [Let's Play].

psycojester

Basically they're read along with the guy as he's playing the game. The entertainment factor largely depends on the quality of the players personality/writing style.

ArcSyn

Yes, the person's personality/humor/writing or speaking style can make or break a [Let's Play]. Halloween, for example, is EXCELLENT at his videos through the horror survival genres. Others are better at writing out with screenshots, like the Jurassic Park and System Shock 2 LPs. And then there are people like me who are probably not very good at them, but try to do it anyway.

MeepZero

Wouldn't it make sense to have this kinda info in a sticky or something somewhere? Might promote fun times or...comrodary or something?

Drool

If someone wants to do a decent [Lets Play] they probably should read a few and figure out what it is first.

Khavall

Not really, it's pretty much accepted as common knowledge. I think you may be the first person who I've seen have a question about what they are... though I have seen some started Let's Plays where they didn't understand what it was.



It seems wasteful to have a sticky for information which 99% of us already know and .9% of us infer well enough.

EDIT: To Meep.

Steev

Also, I believe mod approval is required to make a Let's Play.

Teriferin

If you'd like to see a large selection of Let's Plays, the Something Awful LP Archive is a great place to start, though some of the LPs are significantly better than others.

Helloween's signature contains links to his LPs, which are also highly enjoyable.

ArcSyn

SteevL wrote: »

Also, I believe mod approval is required to make a Let's Play.

Apotheos in Rules Thread wrote:

I'd like to remind you that nowhere in this thread does it say "Contact a Moderator for permission to make a Let's Play thread!"

Do you want to make one? If so, ask yourself, can I make it actually funny? Evidence submitted to this forum strongly suggests that no, you can't.

But if you want to brave the odds, take the bull by the horns, and drive forward into the garden of madness, be my guest.

apotheos

SteevL wrote: »

Also, I believe mod approval is required to make a Let's Play.

This is untrue.

What is required is that your LP not suck. The community tends to deal with this, and one that does suck will fall off quickly. This relates to why we don't have a sticky.

Also, other forums have a track record of being MUCH BETTER at LP's than we do, so its not something we want to encourage as a specialty thread or community feature.

DietarySupplement

My uh, favorite, let's play was the one in the Left 4 Dead thread. I'm paraphrasing, but:

"I don't play mutli that much because wah wah people are mean and they yelled at me once and people suck."

That and the framerate was terrible.

That's a good example of how not to do one.

That said, I tried to do one for Clive Barker's Undying... and I just sound like a giant toolbag. So I gave up.

Khavall

Also, from now personal experience, doing an LP, even when you know people are watching/reading it and some people are actually interested, is goddamn exhausting, and discouraging if you don't have a lot of replies. Part of my problem is that I'm doing a 4x LP in SE++, and a very analytical one at that, which was a mistake, but still... if someone wants to do an LP, they should know what they're doing, what it is, and how much goes into it.


Actually, Apo, if it's not too much trouble, would you be able to move my LP to G+T? I'd change the OP, I think it would have a better audience here.

joshofalltrades

Khavall wrote: »

Also, from now personal experience, doing an LP, even when you know people are watching/reading it and some people are actually interested, is goddamn exhausting

This. Especially if you want to edit out the crap that nobody is interested in seeing, you can sometimes have hours of footage to go through and sort out.

DietarySupplement

joshofalltrades wrote: »

Khavall wrote: »

Also, from now personal experience, doing an LP, even when you know people are watching/reading it and some people are actually interested, is goddamn exhausting

This. Especially if you want to edit out the crap that nobody is interested in seeing, you can sometimes have hours of footage to go through and sort out.

Yeah but yours were awesome. You should do a seminar on proper LP's.

Khavall

joshofalltrades wrote: »

Khavall wrote: »

Also, from now personal experience, doing an LP, even when you know people are watching/reading it and some people are actually interested, is goddamn exhausting

This. Especially if you want to edit out the crap that nobody is interested in seeing, you can sometimes have hours of footage to go through and sort out.

Oh lord. I've posted maybe 50-60 screenshots total from mine, and I've got something like 140 on my hard drive. Plus the first three updates or so of mine were all when nothing was happening, and it took somewhere around 10 hours for maybe 5 minutes of reading.

Endomatic

Let's Plays are great. I watched the entire series of "I wanna be the guy, the game" Let's play and laughed my ass off the whole way.

Some of them are really well done.
Doesn't hurt if your voice is easy to listen to.

joshofalltrades

DietarySupplement wrote: »

Yeah but yours were awesome. You should do a seminar on proper LP's.

Play the hardest game you can think of and then get really ripshit pissed and swear when you die a lot?

Really, if the idea for a LP is good enough it shouldn't have to be scripted. Just let the fuckin' juices flow.

h8b1llg8ts

Whatever it's called let the next one be Crimson Skies!!!!

ArcSyn

Khavall wrote: »

joshofalltrades wrote: »

Khavall wrote: »

Also, from now personal experience, doing an LP, even when you know people are watching/reading it and some people are actually interested, is goddamn exhausting

This. Especially if you want to edit out the crap that nobody is interested in seeing, you can sometimes have hours of footage to go through and sort out.

Oh lord. I've posted maybe 50-60 screenshots total from mine, and I've got something like 140 on my hard drive. Plus the first three updates or so of mine were all when nothing was happening, and it took somewhere around 10 hours for maybe 5 minutes of reading.

Yeah. I want to clean up my photobucket account from doing the Half-Life LP, and I know probably no one ever is going to go back and read it, but I really don't want to redo all of those image links...

Utsanomiko

I think it helps if the game really lends itself to creating your own narrative, usually through open-endedness or emergent gameplay. Of course a clever player will inject his own characterization and invent unique arcs, but he can also write something truly memorable with a simulation/sandbox game and show it under a whole new light. It's not about the game's story, it's the story you tell with it; you have to be *really* entertaining if you just run through it straight, especially if it's a video LP.

They can also enable reader interraction with room to hand out roles and descision-making to participants, or even add to a larger narrative such as readers fleshing out agents' brief careers in X-COM.

I've toyed around with running a forum LP with Sim City 4 where the readers participate as residents of a small town with a tight annual budget (a couple hundred to a thousand bucks). About once a week one city year passes with seasonal updates, highlighted locations, and news reports. In the meantime residents pick places to live, tell about their lives and petition the mayor with concerns and desires. Best part is everything in SC4 can be custom-named, so there's room for personalization (sorry forumer X but your house will have to be bulldozed for the new park forumer Y is donating.)

Khavall

Utsanomiko wrote: »

I think it helps if the game really lends itself to creating your own narrative, usually through open-endedness or emergent gameplay. Of course a clever player will inject his own characterization and invent unique arcs, but he can also write something truly memorable with a simulation/sandbox game and show it under a whole new light. It's not about the game's story, it's the story you tell with it; you have to be *really* entertaining if you just run through it straight, especially if it's a video LP.

They can also enable reader interraction with room to hand out roles and descision-making to participants, or even add to a larger narrative such as readers fleshing out agents' brief careers in X-COM.

I've toyed around with running a forum LP with Sim City 4 where the readers participate as residents of a small town with a tight annual budget (a couple hundred to a thousand bucks). About once a week one city year passes with seasonal updates, highlighted locations, and news reports. In the meantime residents pick places to live, tell about their lives and petition the mayor with concerns and desires. Best part is everything in SC4 can be custom-named, so there's room for personalization (sorry forumer X but your house will have to be bulldozed for the new park forumer Y is donating.)

I don't know, the best LP in the world is Scorchy's KOTOR II Let's Play.

Granted, after that is S-Os Princess maker 2 and then the Animal Crossing Survival Horror LP, but still, it's very possible to have linear let's plays be good.

Dr Snofeld

Khavall wrote: »

Utsanomiko wrote: »

I think it helps if the game really lends itself to creating your own narrative, usually through open-endedness or emergent gameplay. Of course a clever player will inject his own characterization and invent unique arcs, but he can also write something truly memorable with a simulation/sandbox game and show it under a whole new light. It's not about the game's story, it's the story you tell with it; you have to be *really* entertaining if you just run through it straight, especially if it's a video LP.

They can also enable reader interraction with room to hand out roles and descision-making to participants, or even add to a larger narrative such as readers fleshing out agents' brief careers in X-COM.

I've toyed around with running a forum LP with Sim City 4 where the readers participate as residents of a small town with a tight annual budget (a couple hundred to a thousand bucks). About once a week one city year passes with seasonal updates, highlighted locations, and news reports. In the meantime residents pick places to live, tell about their lives and petition the mayor with concerns and desires. Best part is everything in SC4 can be custom-named, so there's room for personalization (sorry forumer X but your house will have to be bulldozed for the new park forumer Y is donating.)

I don't know, the best LP in the world is Scorchy's KOTOR II Let's Play.

Granted, after that is S-Os Princess maker 2 and then the Animal Crossing Survival Horror LP, but still, it's very possible to have linear let's plays be good.

And what about Research Indicates' Jurassic Park: Trespasser LP? That was totally linear but so good. Like, the most professional LP I've seen, insofar as an LP can be professional.

Okay, the guy just sounds good, but still.

(I'm agreeing with you Khavall, even if it looks like I'm not)

citizen059

The Daikatana Demo LP turned out to be awesome due to irony.

DietarySupplement

Utsanomiko wrote: »

I've toyed around with running a forum LP with Sim City 4

Sign me up. In fact, we should do what they did with dwarf (dorf) fortress, and pass the city around every 10 years.

Utsanomiko

Holding elections could be a fun way to do it. Play for four weeks, candidates are picked and start campaigning on week three, voted and sworn in on week 4, and can be later impeached if they prove to be inactive.

DietarySupplement

Utsanomiko wrote: »

Holding elections could be a fun way to do it. Play for four weeks, candidates are picked and start campaigning on week three, voted and sworn in on week 4, and can be later impeached if they prove to be inactive.

I really think you and I need to go talk about this, because it just keeps sounding better and better...

cj iwakura

My favorite here was Aistan's of Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, because he maintained the personality of a BS loco Malkavian the whole way through.

And screenshot LPs are more time-consuming to maintain than video ones IMO, so people who pull those off always get my admiration.
Still on the fence about finishing mine.

PikaPuff

I've never seen a LP, but I've always wanted to make one. :whistle:

Also, I've had urges to edit game footage into a movie, or series of episodes. I don't know how that'd work out, and it seems like LPs are the thing to do instead.

citizen059

In the spirit of the Daikatana LP, I thought about doing an LP on a game that I absolutely hate and that I was never able to play for extended periods of time...Two Worlds.

I feel like my undisguised loathing for it could be turned into good entertainment for an LP.

Finding the time, though...finding the time.

PikaPuff

and since no one did it

What is [Lets Play] Anyway?

A miserable pile of commentaries.

joshofalltrades

PikaPuff wrote: »

and since no one did it

What is [Lets Play] Anyway?

A miserable pile of commentaries.

But enough talk... have at you!

I'm looking for the Animal Crossing LP now since I've never seen it.

You know what I'd like to see? A video Let's Play of Dwarf Fortress with the usual PA LP suspects. It might even make me actually learn how to play DF. I enjoyed the epic saga of Boatmurdered, but it's a really hard game to get started with.

ArcSyn

joshofalltrades wrote: »

PikaPuff wrote: »

and since no one did it

What is [Lets Play] Anyway?

A miserable pile of commentaries.

But enough talk... have at you!

I'm looking for the Animal Crossing LP now since I've never seen it.

You know what I'd like to see? A video Let's Play of Dwarf Fortress with the usual PA LP suspects. It might even make me actually learn how to play DF. I enjoyed the epic saga of Boatmurdered, but it's a really hard game to get started with.

It's GLORIOUS

The funny part is, when I got a DS for my birthday this year, I had read this LP. A friend of mine got me AC and I told him that I had read this LP about Animal Crossing and it sounds awesome, and then started to describe the LP version of AC. He started busting out laughing because I had actually thought that this was what Animal Crossing really was.

Italax

The Civilisation 4 LP from Something Awful is fucking ridiculous. Dude wrote a really detailed alternate history for it, it was insane. There was a lot of effort put into that and it shows.

The Sonic 2006 LP is brilliant for entirely different reasons. It's like watching the real-time death of people's souls. You don't notice they're slipping into madness, because in the end, so are you.

Dr Snofeld

Italax wrote: »

The Civilisation 4 LP from Something Awful is fucking ridiculous. Dude wrote a really detailed alternate history for it, it was insane. There was a lot of effort put into that and it shows.

The Sonic 2006 LP is brilliant for entirely different reasons. It's like watching the real-time death of people's souls. You don't notice they're slipping into madness, because in the end, so are you.

THE TRAIN...THE FUCKING TRAIN...THOSE POOR SOULS...

Also one of the guys doing the LP sounds a lot like Ross from Friends and it's kinda distracting.

SniperLogic

For longer than I would like to admit, I did not know what the hell "ITT" or "LTTP" stood for. I kept seeing "ITT" as "IIT" (Illinois Institute of Technology) or "ITT Technical Institute".

I associated "LTTP" with "Link to the Past", which I think is fairly reasonable.

Italax

Dr Snofeld wrote: »

Italax wrote: »

The Civilisation 4 LP from Something Awful is fucking ridiculous. Dude wrote a really detailed alternate history for it, it was insane. There was a lot of effort put into that and it shows.

The Sonic 2006 LP is brilliant for entirely different reasons. It's like watching the real-time death of people's souls. You don't notice they're slipping into madness, because in the end, so are you.

THE TRAIN...THE FUCKING TRAIN...THOSE POOR SOULS...

Also one of the guys doing the LP sounds a lot like Ross from Friends and it's kinda distracting.

That entire end section, you feel for the guy playing it. So bad.

My favourite part is when they freak out about Eggman's goggles with the computer in them, that was great.

Arcus

SniperLogic wrote: »

For longer than I would like to admit, I did not know what the hell "ITT" or "LTTP" stood for. I kept seeing "ITT" as "IIT" (Illinois Institute of Technology) or "ITT Technical Institute".

I associated "LTTP" with "Link to the Past", which I think is fairly reasonable.

I could understand how that could happen. Even though I know what LTTP is, I still think of Link to the Past. Honestly, I figure out these acronyms mainly by reading the threads themselves and then putting 2 + 2 together. Hence the reason why I lurk so much I guess.

rayofash

MeepZero wrote: »

I see it on here every now and again, is it like just a thing people do to get multiplayer games going? But then, many of the Lets Play things are SP games...so is it like...multi single player?

Reading through them it sounds like its the player asking for directions or something as to how he should play?

Watch this:

Let's Play La-Mulana 068: Welcome! Entrance To Hell!

Fig-D

Doing my video LP taught me a lot of things. Which is why I haven't done another one. Finding enough things to talk about in a game that requires very little commentary while filming the entire video in basically one cut dealing with technical issues that pop up during the first time ever doing an LP is rather difficult. It was fun, but embarrassing to realize just how lame you can sound during the filming. But like I said, I learned a TON from my first LP. I plan on doing another one someday, but it will have a much different format and if I decide on video again I will look into different recording methods. My second LP will be VASTLY improved. That and I'll do at least three installments before even posting the first one to a) give myself a head start and b) make sure I can keep it interesting past the first part. Well that and c) make sure its something I enjoy because if I'm having fun will it and get a kick out of my own material then I can be much more confident that others will enjoy it too.

But yeah, anyone making an LP for the first time; be prepared to take some criticism because it probably won't be as good as some of your favorites.

For the record, my favorite LP is Princess Maker 2 by SynthOrange from SA. That and The Terrible Secret of Animal Crossing by Chewbot are the best. THE BEST. Best PA LP I've seen so far has been Aistan's VtM: Bloodlines LP. It started off good, but then it got GREAT. He really got into the character and it was fun watching the inner dialogues get more and more out there as his Malk progressed.

Toxin01

I've thought about doing an interactive LP's for Fallout 3, but I dont have a great voice and I dont think screenshots would work to well.