What's the appeal of a Let's X?

[Shinken]

I really don't get what people like about a Let's Read/Let's Play/Let's Watch. I find it specially puzzling when it comes to videogames, specially. I hardly have time to play all of my games, let alone watch other people playing them.
In a few cases, it looks like a review with a few clips/excerpts from the source material. That much I can understand - it's a review, no matter how you want to call it.
In most cases, however, it just seems like it's a bunch of people trying to poke fun at more talented people. Am I missing something?

[Pronounceable]

Am I missing something?

Yep. You're missing the part where we get to cross the same river twice. Let's Whatevers of things you like are among greatest forms of entertainment.

[Macros]

Actually, it's not so much the review, and more the raw reaction to plot points or memorable moments that can be quite entertaining. It echoes with your own experience.

Damn, now I want to do one. Tssk.

[tensai_oni]

OP, your posts assumes that LPs are always about making fun of the game or its creators and makes me wonder how many Let's Plays did you actually see. Because 95% of the time, that is not the case.

Why watch Let's Plays? Because:

-The LPer can have an amusing personality and fun things to say
-LPs cut off boring bits and focus on what makes the game fun
-LPs are a much smaller investment than playing the game itself - this is the main reason. A modern day person is often busy and tired. After a hard day, you don't always even have the energy to play a game, especially a harder one. But an LP plays by itself so to speak.
-You can put the LP on and do something else in the meantime
-LPs are free, video games cost money

[Shinken]

Yep. You're missing the part where we get to cross the same river twice. Let's Whatevers of things you like are among greatest forms of entertainment.

And you fail to explain why. If I wanted to watch/read/play X again, I'd watch/read/play X again instead of watching someone else do it.

Actually, it's not so much the review, and more the raw reaction to plot points or memorable moments that can be quite entertaining. It echoes with your own experience.

Damn, now I want to do one. Tssk.

I can see how that might be entertaining. The best part of the Red Wedding was seeing the unsullied react to it.

OP, your posts assumes that LPs are always about making fun of the game or its creators and makes me wonder how many Let's Plays did you actually see. Because 95% of the time, that is not the case.

Not much, but remember that I'm not even talking exclusively about Let's Plays.

Why watch Let's Plays? Because:

-The LPer can have an amusing personality and fun things to say
-LPs cut off boring bits and focus on what makes the game fun
-LPs are a much smaller investment than playing the game itself - this is the main reason. A modern day person is often busy and tired. After a hard day, you don't always even have the energy to play a game, especially a harder one. But an LP plays by itself so to speak.
-You can put the LP on and do something else in the meantime
-LPs are free, video games cost money

I can understand the bits about money and minor investments, but other than that, I'd much rather play games with my friends (probably because they have amusing personalities and fun things to say).
Thanks, tensai_oni. I can understand the draw of a LP now, I think it's just not my thing.

[Kitten Champion]

In most of the successful cases of Let's Plays I've seen it's more about the appeal of the personality or personalities of those doing it. I've often seen it done as improv comedy using the game (usually badly designed games) as a focal point. Sometimes the games themselves are relatively passive by design - horror and adventure games for instance - that playing them personally really doesn't change the experience.

However, mostly it's just such an undemanding form of mild entertainment that you can put on a Youtube video of someone playing whatever title you happen to be interested in and using it as background noise while you do something else.

As to Let's Reads and Let's Watches, there seems to be two levels here. The first being people like to track reactions others have to things in the fiction they've read or watched, it also renews some of that delight one has for venturing into something for the first time done vicariously through another while re-familiarizing themselves with the material. I'm not really into that, nor speculating on what the Let's Read/Watcher will think when X will happen, nor engaging in the same arguments which fandoms inevitably have had anew.

What I do like is critique from someone who is just forming their opinion based on the material they've just experienced - perhaps not formal in any sense but considered, I think it's easy to become saturated in nostalgia or influenced by the echo-chambers of the fandom that you've either convinced yourself that a work can do no wrong or that everything's just terrible about it and that's the end of discussion. It's a problem for me then when the Let's Whatever isn't providing meaningful criticism but simply wants to push it over the hot coals or start licking its boots - particularly for fear of the fans disapproving - and you simply get nothing out of it since that fresh perspective never existed or is too afraid to. Having someone give me their visceral reaction to something is slightly interesting, and I'd like to hear it, but within the context of a wider engagement with the work. Someone saying they don't like something or love it thoroughly is fine, but I'd like to know why and maybe explore the broader ideas the work raises.

Someone said that Let's Whatevers work best with fiction that have plenty of twists and turns, and maybe they're right ultimately, but I'm going to be all snobbish here and suggest that's like waiting gleefully for a mousetrap to snap down on its victim and doesn't really hold my interest. I'd like to see people try to do more thoughtful works and see where the discussion leads, even if they don't have mystery box drama going on.

[Knaight]

I'd also add a special note for some games - the lets plays can often provide insight into more complicated games that you wouldn't get just by playing. I've read a few screenshot lets plays of Dominions 3, which is a ludicrously complex strategy game. These generally feature people of all or at least most nations in the game posting their turns, explaining their strategies, explaining how they were reading their opponents strategies, etc. Said people also played the game at a very high level, and because of that there was some very interesting commentary. That wouldn't come from just playing the game.

[cobaltstarfire]

Normally it's the personality of whoever is doing the Let's X, there's often someone from the yogscast playing in the background in my home, and it's just fun to listen to them and see them/hear interact with each other (if they're playing a multiplayer game). Sips in particular is quite fun to watch for solo games.

It also lets me see a game in action that I may have never considered playing, or was on the fence about. A lot of the games I watch get played through aren't games I would ever play myself, but it's fun to watch someone else play (or as is often the case with most of the yogscast fumble) their way through, and get to experience the story without having to play.

Same for things like artist streams, it's pretty interesting to watch those on occasion (I get a little more bored most of the time so I don't watch them as much) but they are pretty popular, one can pick up techniques or simply get ideas from watching others work. It's also pretty interesting to get to see the process of art going from a rough sketch up to a completed work.

[Shinken]

That wouldn't come from just playing the game.

How did those guys learn, then?

[Calemyr]

Reasons I know of to like Let's X.

1) First Time's the Charm: Some games and stories are very, very different the first time around. Replaying it yourself loses some of its appeal once you already know that Snape kills Trinity (who is a guy) with a sled. Watching a Let's X of such a story is rather reminiscent of going through the story the first time. Take the "Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood" Let's Watch Randomguy is doing. Watching it for the first time all over again is part of the charm.

2) We Could Use Some Education: Some Let's X include supplemental information that is pretty cool to see. CurlyKitGirl's watches of Doctor Who, for instance, include a lot of tidbits about directors and cultural aspects that I would not know. KotOR 2's "Jedi Jesus" Let's Play included a lot of details on cut content, mod-re-added content, and a bit of demonstration on non-standard approaches to playing the game.

3) Cuz It's Fun: Some Let's X are just simply fun to experience. Minecraft Let's Plays are a good example - it's amazing the wild hijinks that can ensue when a half dozen or so over-caffeinated guys and gals with minimal communication skills trying to work out what the goal is. Fritz's takes on old Doctor Who episodes are priceless, as well. If it's particularly bad, there's also the dark humor of watching someone else suffer for your entertainment. Watching CurlyKitGirl's typing degrade during her watch of Doctor Who's Night Terrors episode was priceless. (Sorry, Curly...)

4) Look But Don't Touch: Sometimes you can't afford a game or just don't feel like going through the frustrations and tedium you have to endure to play it. A Let's X allows you to re-experience it without having to go through the bad parts again. Like paying for it.

5) It's Art, Stupid: For my part, my favorite ones put a special level of attention on the presentation. Don't Feed The Yao Guai by Balmas portrayed the game as a narrative from the perspective of a well meaning kid who falls into violence, combat stims, and depression after being forcibly ejected from his home. Let's Read Homestuck compiles Homestuck's huge and complex archive and combines it with impressive voice acting talent to create a more enjoyable form of the story that goes down much easier than the walls of text Homestuck offers.

6) A Matter of Perspective: A lot of the Let's Xers see their topics very differently than me. They focus on things I tend to ignore, they point out things I never catch. Even when these things are matters that I frankly care nothing about, having them pointed out like that adds a little extra body to the experience.

7) Don't Look At Me, I'm Just Bored: Sometimes it's just an enjoyable way to kill time. Especially when it comes to discussing something the audience already has an interest in and the player is experiencing.

[Knaight]

How did those guys learn, then?

Let me clarify then: That wouldn't come from just playing the game without putting a lot more time into improving first, which includes the various high commitment serious multiplayer games I don't have time for.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

For me, it's all about that shared experience. It's a bunch of veterans watching a newbie go through a work they know and love, reacting to it, maybe making predictions, and otherwise doing stuff that everyone can enjoy. It's like showing a friend a TV series that you like.

Alternately, there's the MuvLuv Let's Play, which I'm following just for the random weirdness of something I'll likely never actually play.

Oh, and from the perspective of doing my own Let's Watch (the glorious Steins;Gate Let's Watch which sorta snowballed into a multi-member LW), it's incredibly fun to watch through something, reflect on what you're watching, and get cryptic reactions from the peanut gallery.

[Rodin]

For videogame Let's Plays, I consider it to be the same reason we have commentators for sports. Witty commentary describing the action can lead to a huge increase in enjoyability.

It does depend on the genre though - I don't see the appeal in watching a heavily story-centric game through a Let's Play, because not playing the game yourself removes a lot of the impact. My favorite genre to watch someone else play is the Rogue-like, because you get to groan along with the player whenever the RNG inevitably screws them.

[DigoDragon]

I particularly like the LPs where the Player is playing an older generation game that they've never touched before. I'm from the 80s era of Atari and Nintendo, so I look at modern games and compare them to what I grew up on. So to see the flip side, someone who grew up on closer to modern stuff like Playstation then going back a gen or so and making the comparison, it can be interesting when they make similar connections of how games of 'Then' inspired games of 'Now'.

[Hiro Protagonest]

There's something very important about video LPs that is being missed.

Most people don't watch YouTube videos for subject matter, they watch them for the personalities. If Crendor puts out a video that was a minute of filming and a minute of checking audio levels and brightness, and calls it non-content, it will get tens of thousands of views. If Crendor spends a long time making a full WoW machinima movie, with a higher standard of editing than his other machinimas, it'll get hundreds of thousands of views. Even if he splits it up into, say, four parts (only the first of which will get the full view count, but it will still be more views), that is much less results for the effort given. Reviews versus let's plays are less extreme, but similar.

[Nerd-o-rama]

The times I've experimented with it, I basically tried adding my own perspective (i.e. "making **** up to make the game more interesting") to an untranslated Japanese game that requires a lot of imagination to really enjoy anyway. But that's kind of a niche.

I enjoy some other peoples' Let's Whatever's for similar reasons - adding in narrative context on games that don't necessarily have it, like strategy games or games with a silent protagonist whom the LP plays like an actual character. Others I enjoy for being summaries of games, books, or TV shows I lack the time, money, or inclination to experience myself - for example, there's a nice concise overview of the million-word-long Fate/Stay Night that I find much more appealing than the original slow-as-molasses work or any of the animated adaptations, and it allowed me to enjoy the setting without getting bogged down in doorstopper details. Finally, sometimes I just like watching someone else react to something I enjoyed, like someone blind-watching a plot-twist heavy TV show.

My internet is on the fritz so no hyperlinks to these things right now.

[Shinken]

You know, I think I figured out what I dislike about Let's X. Like many have said here, it's an edited representation of the source material as seen through the eyes of some dude in the internet and many people are only familiar with this edited, shortened, shallower version. Half the times that I meet someone that hasn't really read/seen/played X but is complaining about X... it's because they've seen the ravaged Let's X version and took it as the actual piece of work.

[Legato Endless]

Let me clarify then: That wouldn't come from just playing the game without putting a lot more time into improving first, which includes the various high commitment serious multiplayer games I don't have time for.

Indeed. Seeing someone else put a particular tactic into action is often more informative than simply reading about it. You also basically have to spend time interacting with the rest of the fanbase in some way to bone up on the evolving metagame, such as forums and let's plays, because most of us mere mortals are bound to miss some subtleties or nuances playing the game alone.

[tomandtish]

I can see how that might be entertaining. The best part of the Red Wedding was seeing the unsullied react to it.

...snip

Thanks, tensai_oni. I can understand the draw of a LP now, I think it's just not my thing.

For the ones I've paid attention to, you've hit on my high point. Reading the reactions of people to things I've already seen/read can be enjoyable. Your Red Wedding comment hit home very well. I've read all the books, but my wife hasn't. We're watching the series (so a "Let's watch with me literally over her shoulder). I knew what the Red Wedding was. My wife had heard tidbits, but not enough, and assumed that the Red Wedding was Joffrey's wedding. She didn't have a clue until she saw chainmail.... (literally 5 minutes before she is saying "How are they going to fit 2 big weddings in by the end of this season?")

...and then beat me soundly for laughing. I'd been listening for the last three episodes about her theory and how much she wanted to see Joffrey get it with a lot of "yes dear", "uh huh dear", "I'm sure he deserves it dear" and laughing on the inside all the time.

I slept on the couch that night...

I really appreciate your end comment. Every thread doesn't have to be all things to all people. I myself don't really see the appeal of the X versus X threads. But I can understand that others do, and hey: That's cool. It's good to see someone else acknowledging this.

[Nerd-o-rama]

You know, I think I figured out what I dislike about Let's X. Like many have said here, it's an edited representation of the source material as seen through the eyes of some dude in the internet and many people are only familiar with this edited, shortened, shallower version. Half the times that I meet someone that hasn't really read/seen/played X but is complaining about X... it's because they've seen the ravaged Let's X version and took it as the actual piece of work.

Oh, so your problem is with idiots and/or "not real fans", not Let's whatevers.