Let's Plays, Audience Engagement, and What to play

[Skyblade]

So, my Breath of the Wild Let's Play has met with less than resounding success, even by my standards.

I've been thinking about the utter failure of this project for a while, but there are a lot of areas I'm unclear on, partially because I just don't get people that well.

So I thought I'd lay out some of my thoughts, get some feedback, see if I can figure out what went wrong, and how I can improve future projects going forward.

First is choice of game. Was Breath of the Wild a bad choice? A lot of people who seemed interested also seem to have wanted to stay unspoiled to get the exploration and discovery on their own. So a title that features such personal elements so strongly was maybe a bad idea. Then too, even the discussion thread for the game is dead, so maybe I just picked a title people don't care much about.

The second issue I'm looking at is formatting. The most successful LPs on this forum have been written summary style. This allows more game progress per "episode", as well as being faster to read through than it is to watch a video episode. Is the video format just a bad idea for the forums?

I have a few other thoughts which I'll probably cover in a follow up once I've gotten them into clearer focus, but I thought I'd put this out and get some feedback. What do you guys most look for in an LP? What did I do right in my Pokémon LP that I have missed in Breath of the Wild (and, before both of those, in Mark of the Ninja)? What games would you like to see? What sorts of games do you think work better here?

Feedback and thoughts are appreciated. I'll probably end BotW (I have some general thoughts for formatting improvement that may help some, so if interest ever was there, I'd just restart, probably), and return to Sun/Moon once I can put down the shiny new system. But if I want to do a new project, I'll clearly need to do better than some of my old ones, and I'll need help with that.

[Spuuky]

I'm not really the target audience for any LPs but basically, I never watch any video. If a news site has video, I'll probably close it and look for a text version. If someone is posting an explanation of how to do something, I'll avoid video links and look for text explanations. If someone is trying to entertain me by telling the story of a game, I probably won't watch a video, but I might read a text synopsis. Videos just require a lot more "right circumstances" - a time when I can watch more unimpeded, with audio output, without flipping between various things, etc.

[Bubba]

I tend to avoid LP's of games I intend on playing. Breath of the Wild is definitely one I'll be picking up at some point this year. I've heard the story is pretty good this time too so I'm quite excited for it! I want to play Andromeda and then Horizon Zero Dawn first though.

The Pokemon Sun/Moon LP was perfect for me as I hadn't intended on buying this one but was still intrigued by the gameplay and the new pokemon. I've really enjoyed it!

I also think that text based LP's tend to work better as it's more flexible for people to read them as opposed to watch them. I can catch up on an LP at work if it's in text form.

I honestly think the main issue with BotW is spoilers though. It's a brand new game of a huge franchise, one that the majority of people will intend on playing. I'm sure your LP is excellent though!

[Psychotic]

If you are talking in a purely Eyes on FF sense as your audience, then yes, videos are not people's preferred method of LP around these parts. They much prefer screenshots and text.

If you prefer making videos to that then I say just make videos and don't worry about the reception you get on EoFF. YouTube itself has a potentially vast audience you can appeal to and gain a following, although it's a heavily over saturated market which is difficult to break into. You need to have good SEO on your description and video tags, appealing thumbnails and appealing video titles.

[Fox]

Yeah the thing with videos is that's not what I come onto this site for really. I'm here very much with a 'text' mindset. I'll watch a little thing embedded into a post but I'm less inclined to watch a LP series. I do like video LPs, but I have so many regular things I watch on youtube anyway it's very difficult for a new long form video series to find a slot of my time. When I'm here I can have EoFF open in a tab and I can dip in and out in bitesized moments, watching something requires a certain level of commitment. An episode of your video series may be 40 minutes long, whereas I can read an 'episode' of Bubba's Mass Effect 10 times quicker.

That brings me neatly onto the next point, which is that the video LP's are largely unedited. Which means there's a lot of walking from A to B, fighting trash mobs, navigating menus, sitting through loading screens etc. The written LPs are heavily edited to include only the highlights of play, which again makes them much easier to digest.

EDIT: Another thing I thought of. I'm much less likely to watch a LP of a new game on here. I'm probably only gonna follow one LP of any given game at a time. If it's a new game that I haven't played (like BoTW) and I wanna watch a LP, it'll probably be one of the big Youtubers covering it like Yogscast Martyn. If it's not a new game, I like LPs either of super niche games which might be interesting, or games that I have played (like ME or FFIX) that I can relate to and feel a bit of nostalgia about. Bubba's Mass Effect LP is appealing to me in part because I've played it and can laugh at all the places I see him screw up.

[Scruffington]

I tend to avoid LP's of games I intend on playing. Breath of the Wild is definitely one I'll be picking up at some point this year. I've heard the story is pretty good this time too so I'm quite excited for it!

I honestly think the main issue with BotW is spoilers though. It's a brand new game of a huge franchise, one that the majority of people will intend on playing. I'm sure your LP is excellent though!

100% this. I've even avoided watching some of my favorite streamers because they've been playing BotW.

I generally don't care too much for LPs, personally. The only exception to me is when it comes to speedrunning, or if one of my favorite streamers is playing a game that I've already beaten. Or if I don't plan on playing the game myself.

[Bubba]

Bubba's Mass Effect LP is appealing to me in part because I've played it and can laugh at all the places I see him screw up.

Everything I do is very carefully planned...

[Fox]

Bubba's Mass Effect LP is appealing to me in part because I've played it and can laugh at all the places I see him screw up.

Everything I do is very carefully planned...

How is​ Mordin doing these days?

[Bubba]

Bubba's Mass Effect LP is appealing to me in part because I've played it and can laugh at all the places I see him screw up.

Everything I do is very carefully planned...

How is​ Mordin doing these days?

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