Let's Let Me Play

I love YouTube and all the content made for gaming, but I can't stand most “Let's Play” style videos.

I'm not gonna say that watching people play video games is bad — I like watching a game while my friends play. In this scenario, things are live and you're interacting with your buddies. It's usually fun and even more fun if it's a game where you can pass around the controller.

Let's Play videos are dominating YouTube for some reason and I just don't get what people get out of them. It's not live like Twitch, and you only get to comment on the video. Basically, any redeeming qualities about watching someone play a video game are lost. Sure, some people on YouTube are funny — I'm not denying that — but I feel like they churn out videos simply to try and make quick money.

There's a good video made by Game Theory that explains how Let's Play videos potentially make the most money because of their length and viewer retention. I find this makes YouTubers exploit the system just to churn out easy money. Moreover, making a Let's Play video needs little video editing in comparison to, say, a JonTron episode.

Walkthrough videos on YouTube are similar to Let’s Play videos given the fact that both are basically video captures of video games; however these videos serve as a tool to inform and help people playing the same game. The value alone in watching these kinds of videos greatly surpasses the value of Let’s Play videos.

Continue? is sort of a "Let's Play" YouTube channel but at the same time, it's not. The cast of Continue? basically plays a game (mostly retro games) for 10-15 minutes, and skips any boring bits. They add commentary and decide if they would continue playing the game or not. I feel like they have a great idea going because they altered the template of a Let's Play enough to make it something unique and entertaining. The videos are generally short and to the point, so it's much more accessible to viewers and their personalities shine through. It’s almost as if I were sitting down and playing with them, which is why I love their videos so much.

I understand how making videos on YouTube is a job for some people, but Let’s Play videos hurt other content creators, who put 10 times the effort to make a video 1/10^th as long. These content creators not only make shorter videos, but better ones.  I guess it’s similar to comparing mainstream music versus underground music, or quantity versus quality, but I never thought I would be able to make this comparison.

Here’s one of my favorite episodes of Continue?

Also, no disrespect to Rooster Teeth, they’re good people.