The perfect recipe for a Let's Play viewing

I've found that I've never really watched a Let's Player to sit and watch a game. I leave that for trailers, a few reviews, and my own hands on experience. I tend to watch 3 kinds of streamers:

-Friends streams because I get a chance to talk with them in the chat and maybe help them in a game if they're stuck.

-People who have interesting commentary about the gameplay footage, maybe some behind the scenes or making-of type of information.

-YouTubers I enjoy watching otherwise. Often times these aren't even video game centered channels, but they open up a relaxed environment where they participate in Q&A while playing games as a sort of backdrop.

The actual watching of the game is the least compelling thing for me, unless I'm feeling nostalgic or doing article research, in which case I'll find an archived Let's Play on YouTube. What do you look for in a Let's Player?

I like enthusiasm and passion. It's good to see people having fun and enjoying themselves.

Not a fan of obvious over reactions, particularly to horror games.

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

Not a fan of obvious over reactions, particularly to horror games.

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This is probably my biggest streamer pet peeve.

Grown men pretending to be scared of video games that really aren't that bad so they can hyper pander to the audience, particularly the younger audience who won't question why they're being so silly about it.

These are the people who will have the "OMG face" in their video thumbnails.

I typically enjoy things that make me laugh or whatever. There are far too many people who expect casual Let's Play channels to be just as good as the best speedrunners. If I want to watch skilled gameplay I'll watch that. I also like more casual/humor let's plays because I can also easily podcast them since they carry that vibes at times.

Of course, I am sure someone will tell me that I'm dead wrong and I should only like "pro gamerz" or whatever because everything on the internet is a dick measuring contest.

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Originally Posted by Sephex

I typically enjoy things that make me laugh or whatever. There are far too many people who expect casual Let's Play channels to be just as good as the best speedrunners. If I want to watch skilled gameplay I'll watch that. I also like more casual/humor let's plays because I can also easily podcast them since they carry that vibes at times.

Of course, I am sure someone will tell me that I'm dead wrong and I should only like "pro gamerz" or whatever because everything on the internet is a dick measuring contest.

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Ur wrong and shuld prolly B ded. U shuld only watch proz, dood. Now witness the girth of my dick!

I pretty much watch Let's Plays because I'm too lazy to play games nowadays. I like Let's Plays with two people that have a good rapport with each other. A single player with a twitch stream where they can talk to people in chat works well too.

Beard Bros. (depends, sometimes it's boring)
Super Best Friends
Game Grumps
Brutal Moose
Super Couch Fighters

Brutalmoose streams are amazing. He's so chill and relaxed and friendly. The crowd also isn't too big so he remembers a lot of the regulars. It's great for putting on in the background while I study or clean or whatever

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Originally Posted by sharkythesharkdogg

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Originally Posted by Sephex

I typically enjoy things that make me laugh or whatever. There are far too many people who expect casual Let's Play channels to be just as good as the best speedrunners. If I want to watch skilled gameplay I'll watch that. I also like more casual/humor let's plays because I can also easily podcast them since they carry that vibes at times.

Of course, I am sure someone will tell me that I'm dead wrong and I should only like "pro gamerz" or whatever because everything on the internet is a dick measuring contest.

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Ur wrong and shuld prolly B ded. U shuld only watch proz, dood. Now witness the girth of my dick!

I pretty much watch Let's Plays because I'm too lazy to play games nowadays. I like Let's Plays with two people that have a good rapport with each other. A single player with a twitch stream where they can talk to people in chat works well too.

Beard Bros. (depends, sometimes it's boring)
Super Best Friends
Game Grumps
Brutal Moose
Super Couch Fighters

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Nice, I pretty much watch all of these. Though I do like the Game Grumps the best, I will say that there are certain qualities of the Super Beard Bros. I like a lot better. I just think Jirard and Alex bounce off each other expertly.

Also, yeah, I was in a mood when I wrote my original post. I forgot I did that. I've just seen way too much toxic stuff come out of LP communities, so I am a bit cynical when discussing the subject.

I have a fondness for Super Best Friends Play, if only because their personalities and interests remind me a lot of the friends I had in High School. Their best videos are usually the ones regarding games they're passionate about and want to share, like the original Nier, or any given Resident Evil game.

I'm also quite fond of Beard Bros, I watched a ton of their early stuff, but I kinda fell off after a year. I'm enjoying both of their current Sonic playthroughs, so I enjoy them still.

There are a lot of exceptions, but my favorite Let's Players, streamers, and other gaming peoples tend to fall into three general groups:

- People I'm actually watching to watch them be invested in the game they're playing and give honest reactions and opinions, with any additional entertainment coming from their unobtrusive wit (ex: Cryaotic in his solo LPs, TheRPGMinx, Vinesauce)

- People whom I partially watch for the game but mostly watch for their personalities and entertaining conversations, observations, and reactions (ex: Super Best Friends Play, Many a True Nerd, Cryaotic in his streams, Vinesauce Joel)

- People who are just screwing around and seeing what happens, whether by modding the game to an almost unplayable state, taking on ridiculous self-imposed challenges for hilarity's sake, or even weaving their own little absurdist narratives (ex: Criken2, BedBananas, Monster Factory, some members of the Yogscast)

Monster Factory is a BLAST

Depends on what mood I'm in. Sometimes I might need help with a game I'm stuck on so I look for witty commentary from someone who knows the all the tricks and secrets of the games they play (my personal fave for this being ClementJ64 a.k.a The Great Clement, a youtube LPer who mostly does Mega Man and Sonic games) while other times I just feel like watching guys mess around in random games just for fun, like the Continue? show. And there are games like Sonic 06 that I would never touch with a ten foot pole so I enjoy watching LPers such as Game Grumps make fun of them.

If I watch a gaming stream...

- The person shouldn't be monotone, nor should they be over the top. I dislike people who get overly dramatic. I like chill streams.
- They should interact somewhat with the audience.
- The game is obviously important. I don't really watch things like Overwatch etc. unless it's a really good friend of mine.
- If it's a recording/vodcast instead of a stream, then I'll probably only watch it if I want to find something out about a specific part of the game, or if I'm checking out the game to see if I want to play it.

I prefer to watch games I've already played as I enjoy getting someone else's take on how it could/should be played. HCBailly makes my own abilities at playing any given Final Fantasy game look like a joke.