Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

Getting featured by a famous Let's Play youtuber can do wonders for indie game developers trying to get noticed. So it's absolutely worth its weight in gold. For bigger studios, who've already spent large amounts of money getting the game out there, that's less the case.

If you've spent years making a narrative based game, only to have people watch it on youtube rather than buying and playing it to find out the story, then I think you have a bit more justification for not wanting someone else to pick up the revenue for that work.

Hmm, you have a point here. Interesting perspective.

It's still quite a shady area though, as LPers don't own the material that they base their commentary on. Like you said, it is similar to pirating a movie, and distributors and labels are starting to get savvy to its affect on the industry. Example, Game of Thrones is one of the most pirated pieces of entertainment of all time, but HBO doesn't particularly care, even with copyright laws on their side. Why? Because it drives DVD/BD sales through the roof. Many people who don't have a subscription to HBO will pirate the episodes as they come out, and then drop $50 on the box set. In the same way, many people are willing to go out and drop $50 on a game after watching a LP.

HBO is a weird one. There is only 5000 people or something worldwide who watch Game of Thrones live on HBO.

The way it is must be better for them or they wouldn't be doing it.

I would pay £50 a month or £5 an episode PPV off them if I had the option. (And remove all none streaming paid TV I have which could be the reason. But I am in the UK so don't see how it really affects them. I do see the way they are set up in the USA where you can only get them with everything else.)

Totally agree. It's such a murky area of copyright law. A sor t of unspoken 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' situation is going on. What may change the game is if a LP can be proven to have hurt sales of a game.

It'll only hurt sales if the game isn't fun to play.

Not every game is meant to be "fun" to play. Would you feel the need to buy King's Quest if you just watched a video where someone solved all the puzzles? What would you gain from watching that? I know I had to take Space Quest off my wishlist agft watching someone stream the supposed best entry in the series. I watched it for the commentary and because I had nothing better to do at the time, but once I was done, there was nothing left I had to experience. Same with RPGs. I don't watch streams of those because the games are long and usually boring to watch, but if I did it'd probably ruin the game for me because RPGs are only fun in figuring out what do, with the story being the reward. It's like having your cake and eating it, too.

I think skill-based games are the only ones where that applies, and even then, I personally find that the need to see what's beyond the next point is what motivates me to keep playing those kinds of games. I certaintly didn't need to play Gargoyle's Quest anymore after the Backloggery streamed it, since I got to see everything without having to put in the enormous amount of effort that game requires (thankfully I made sure not to watch the Backloggery Stream of Demon's Crest or I'd really be up a creek). I don't know if that's just me, but if its not, I could see more people not wanting to play the game just because it was available online at no cost to them and with no effort required on their part.

The only thing I ever use any gameplay videos for is when there are collectables (Which I really don't like in games - requires playing the game in a way I never find fun i.e slowly) that are mandatory to unlock an extra set of levels. I would prefer it if I could find just screenshots of the part of the level that I need to look out for but people seem to want to make these videos. (Its even worse if the part of the video needed is not listed with a time).

I don't like tutorials for anything even (Much rather just read a normal none digital manual or try and work it out). Even worse is games that are basically one long tutorial.

Well it can also be seen as a violation of copyright law. Someone is essentially profiting off your work without your permission, which is illegal. However, the holder in question has the authority to express their rights. Now it seems that the companies have backed off on Youtube

Let's Plays are overrated. Also, I'm going to have to agree with people like @Unca_Lz and @CaviarMeths regarding making money from Lets Plays.

Super Mario 3D World is overrated. Good game, but I thought it was a bit underwhelming.

Watching the grass grow is more entertaining than playing those games.

I didn't know talking about random $#!+ while playing a game was hard work. Maybe my brother should get paid since he does that every freakin' day.

more unpopular opinions:
I'm not interested in LPs. >.>
POKÉMON IS ALIVE!!!!!(or something, just wanted to say Pokémon)

I've never understood the appeal of Pokemon.

Let's plays of Portal 2 are what got me into the Portal games. Haven't heard of King's Quest so the same doesn't apply, but I'd guess from your post they're both puzzle games. I'll stop arguing with all you guys since this is supposed to be a safe-r place for people with less popular opinions. (Unless you guys would rather argue over this, I'm good for whatever lol.)

King's Quest is a Point & Click game. The fun is supposed to be figuring out the puzzles for yourself, so watching a video where they solve the puzzles for you sucks out all the fun.

...but maybe that's for the best since I just remembered how stupidly hard King's Quest is. Maybe I should've used Myst as an example instead.

If it sucks all the fun out why would you watch them?

Video games are an interactive medium. If I want to passively experience something, I'll watch a movie or read a book. Watching someone else play a video game sucks all the fun out of it for me.

The only LPs i'd watch are ones with high comedic value or mastery of a game i have played.

Gay marriage is a human right and deserves to be put in a life-simulation game.

Excuse me? They "work" hard? Oh right, commenting on a video game is hard work.

Let's plays are overrated and pointless. I'm not saying this to troll you. I absolutely believe this

I wouldn't. I don't watch Lets Plays. I don't understand why anybody does. I watch the Backloggery Stream sometimes, but only because it's live and I don't really have to dedicate my time to it, making it a decent time waster when I have nothing better to do. Most of the time I just wind up minimizing it and using it as backround noise while I do other stuff.

However, for whatever reason people watch Lets Plays, to the point where people feel they're entitled to some monetary reward for what they do. I don't agree whatsoever, but I've said my piece there. I just don't think it always works as free advertising and can feasibly hurt sales of even a good game depending on their draw.