When Trying to Find Gaming/LP Channels, What Do...

[Orange]

You Like and Dislike? Ran out of space.

It seems like there's an estimated 600 million gaming channels on YouTube. If you're trying to find a new one, or stumble across one somehow, what are your main likes and dislikes?

I'm mainly asking because I know someone who wants to start a gaming channel (not me, by the way, my gaming habits are far too sporadic to get YouTube involved. ), and, given the large gaming community here, I'm just curious as to your guys' opinions on Let's Play/Gaming channels and personalities.

[Yami Daimao]

What I dislike: 20 minute incoherent yelling/shouting sessions, trying too hard to be funny, and crappy audio and choppy framerates.

What I like: LPers to just be themselves, try to be entertaining without trying too hard with forced jokes and quips, and just have fun. Everything else, it really depends on the LPer(s).

I too am planning on starting my own gaming channel sometime in the future with 1 or 2 of my friends. One of my friends is more of an active gamer than I am, but I love watching other people play games and talk about stuff while they play, so we thought we could work that into a channel and have fun with it.

[Deleted]

Feb 6, 2013 23:43:00 GMT -5 Yami Daimao said:

What I dislike: 20 minute incoherent yelling/shouting sessions, trying too hard to be funny, and crappy audio and choppy framerates.

What I like: LPers to just be themselves, try to be entertaining without trying too hard with forced jokes and quips, and just have fun. Everything else, it really depends on the LPer(s).

So much all of this.

Unfortunately the only ones I like are Minecrafters. Which is fine, because there are umpteen mods for MC out there but I wanna find some variety at least.

[Red Impact]

I typically look up LPArchive and try to find one off of there, because they're usually better than just searching randomly. Freelance Astronauts are good, there was also someone who did one that really impressed me. It was RE2, and he knew the game completely. He did a playthrough with each character, edited them together so they combined to give the whole story, and edited out all the transitional scenes, which made it a really compact one. Pity, I can't remember the name of guy who did it.

Basically, if I'm going to spend time watching an LP, there are two deal breakers

1: Someone who's played the game before and knows what they're doing. I hate blind SP's where they spend a ton of time just mucking around because they can't figure out what to do next, or even non-blind where they fumble around because they haven't mastered a platforming section

2: Someone who knows how to edit and isn't afraid to do so liberally. There's really no reason to include your screwups unless they're really entertaining, or if it's a game like Skyward Sword, all the tedious travel time. You can typically cut all that out and lose nothing.

Those are the two most important things. A few other things I like that aren't deal breakers

- I prefer it when they don't talk over cutscenes and story points
- Don't try to be meme'y. The funniest ones tend to be people just shooting the shit, not those trying to be the AVGN (who really isn't terribly funny to begin with most of the time)
- Pick a game that isn't awful, just because no one can make a boring game interesting. Also, as much as I'm fine with playing them, watching RPG's really isn't my cup of tea

[Mozenrath]

I dislike:
1. Too much filler
2. Unoriginal game choices if they cannot do anything new with it
3. Constant rape jokes
4. Bad production qualities (No Unregistered Hypercam 2)
5. Grating voices and personalities

What I do like:
1. Unique game choices
2. Natural humor
3. Enthusiasm for what they do
4. Steady updates
5. If multiple people, chemistry and the knack for not trying to talk over each other.

[The Freakin' Deacon]

The biggest thing for me is that they have to seem, I guess comfortable is the word. Whenever somebody is trying too hard to be funny, it really shows. So if someone is comfortable with themselves and have a natural sense of humor, I have a lot of fun watching them.

[El Cokehead del Knife Fight]

What do I like?

1) People clearly having fun
2) People acting like normal people
3) People that are, at the very least, decent at the game
4) a casual, natural sense of humor


What don't I like?

1) PewDiePie
2) Screaming like a moron
3) Acting like a manchild
4) Making rape jokes
5) PewDiePie


So I enjoy guys like Northernlion and STAR* while I hate guys like PewDiePie and UberHaxorNova.

[Orange]

Feb 7, 2013 0:59:51 GMT -5 El Cokehead del Knife Fight said:

What do I like?

1) People clearly having fun
2) People acting like normal people
3) People that are, at the very least, decent at the game
4) a casual, natural sense of humor


What don't I like?

1) PewDiePie
2) Screaming like a moron
3) Acting like a manchild
4) Making rape jokes
5) PewDiePie


So I enjoy guys like Northernlion and STAR* while I hate guys like PewDiePie and UberHaxorNova.

Definitely agree with you on PewDiePie. I actually like Nova in small doses, but PewDiePie can eat a bag of dicks. I don't think I've ever seen a more unfunny person in my life.

Yet, he's made a shit-ton of money and has a ton of subscribers - so he's appealing to somebody, it just ain't me.

[The Freakin' Deacon]

Feb 7, 2013 1:46:20 GMT -5 Orange said:

Feb 7, 2013 0:59:51 GMT -5 El Cokehead del Knife Fight said:

What do I like?

1) People clearly having fun
2) People acting like normal people
3) People that are, at the very least, decent at the game
4) a casual, natural sense of humor


What don't I like?

1) PewDiePie
2) Screaming like a moron
3) Acting like a manchild
4) Making rape jokes
5) PewDiePie


So I enjoy guys like Northernlion and STAR* while I hate guys like PewDiePie and UberHaxorNova.

Definitely agree with you on PewDiePie. I actually like Nova in small doses, but PewDiePie can eat a bag of dicks. I don't think I've ever seen a more unfunny person in my life.

Yet, he's made a s***-ton of money and has a ton of subscribers - so he's appealing to somebody, it just ain't me.

What's weird to me is that I've never met an LP fan who likes him. Where the hell are all of his "bro's" hiding at?!

[El Cokehead del Knife Fight]

Feb 7, 2013 1:46:20 GMT -5 Orange said:

Feb 7, 2013 0:59:51 GMT -5 El Cokehead del Knife Fight said:

What do I like?

1) People clearly having fun
2) People acting like normal people
3) People that are, at the very least, decent at the game
4) a casual, natural sense of humor


What don't I like?

1) PewDiePie
2) Screaming like a moron
3) Acting like a manchild
4) Making rape jokes
5) PewDiePie


So I enjoy guys like Northernlion and STAR* while I hate guys like PewDiePie and UberHaxorNova.

Definitely agree with you on PewDiePie. I actually like Nova in small doses, but PewDiePie can eat a bag of dicks. I don't think I've ever seen a more unfunny person in my life.

Yet, he's made a s***-ton of money and has a ton of subscribers - so he's appealing to somebody, it just ain't me.

He appeals to 12 year olds. They think that randomly yelling s*** equals humor. Even better is when a fan of his posted on Something Awful that PDP was a better Let's Player than the Retsuprae guys because he put out multiple videos a day.

Never mind the fact that SlowBeef invented let's play as we know them today, no he doesn't know a damn thing about them apparently.

[El Cokehead del Knife Fight]

Sorry to double post but I found the email that Diabetus got (also a fantastic Let's Player) that he posted on Something Awful

It's long and loses the little point that it had because it's rambly but it's just hilarious to think that someone out there actually talked down to them concerning Let's Plays.


WARNING LONG AS SHIT

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Regarding your recent videos.

Hello, I am a long-time subscriber of your account and I have, for the most part, find your let's play videos to be very good in quality and very interesting.

However, I am quite surprised that your recent addition of videos has been an attack on another fellow youtuber and personally I seriously disapprove your tactics of doing this.

Before you believe that this is from a fanboy of Pewdiepie and that my response has no merits because of my subscription of him, I want you to consider this: I have watched your videos and subscribed to a lot of other let's players in the past, and so perhaps my viewer experience can help you accept of what little credibility I have.

You will have to pardon me on this because my reasoning will be quite long-winded. But I'm going to do this analysis to be as rigorous as possible.

From my personal experience, let's play has been an extremely niche form of entertainment that relies heavily on not only just the game play of good games, but the charisma of the host. The range of topic that the host talks about may captivate the audience and give the audiences the rewards for paying attention. In fact, many let's plays I have subscribed failed on the fact that the hosts had been absolutely dreadful in terms of communicating and their dedication to the fan base.

Target demographic has also been an extremely important part of all forms of entertainment. In fact, in many commercial ventures, the first goal of product development should be the target demographic: What sort of audience are you trying to communicate with? How are you going to reach the audience? What sort of dedication are you going to give to your audience with respect to how much they paid attention to your product? How about the visual quality of the product and the back-and-forth interaction between you and the fan base?

Now, let us consider this, what is your target demographic? For what I noticed in your video and the degree of conversation between the hosts, your video is more oriented towards adults (21-35 years old). The language, the wit, the emotional connection you have towards your audience is at the level of adults. Now you have to consider this: How much time does these people have to devote on watching your videos? For the most part, these people have other scheduling commitments: They have to make a living, they have friends, families and other commitments to make their livelihood work, they are responsible for many real-life situations that many of the younger, teenage audiences don't have. These responsibilities leaves very little room for entertainment, and what you have is that you have a lot less accessible audiences to watch your channel, in fact, having 50k + subscribers is quite a lot for your channel considering that your demographic is so narrow, and the fact that these fans are so devoted to your cause of complaint is absolutely phenomenal. Pewdiepie's demographic is on a much younger scale: teenagers to young adults. Since these people have more accessibility to free time and the internet, they can watch more and henceforth, more subscribers on his end. So in terms of scale, there is a reason why Pewdiepie has more subscribers than you.

Let's look at your dedication to your fan base: What's on your video list? How much content are you producing on a daily basis? You're producing videos on a weekly, if not monthly basis. In fact, in your last month (an estimate), you produced about 11 videos, yes, that is including your videos attacking Pewdiepie. How much videos does Pewdiepie produces? 2-3 videos on a daily basis. This means he's producing about seven times more video content than you on a monthly basis. You may say that it lack intellectual stimulation or it isn't the type of humor that people want. I digress, because the amount of video production that Pewdiepie does is far more than you, this shows his work ethic, he's doing this not just for fun, but for his fans. Despite how much you loath their intellectual capacity of the fans and the content, Pewdiepie has more dedication to his work than you.

Comparatively, you have created a much smaller content and showed very little dedication to your fan base, giving them very little incentives to checkup on your channel on a daily basis. So why would most people subscribe to you when there are channels that give entertainment on a daily basis? Sure, some people see past that concept, but then again, it is only "some." To say the least, Helloween4545 and HCBailly both have about equal or even less subscribers than you, and they have way more devotion to their fan base with their uploaded content, imagine what you could accomplish if you're more diligent.

Now, let's take a look at your contents, what I see the difference between you and Pewdiepie is the audience involvement with the let's player. The strategy that Pewdiepie deploys is to include his face in the videos while playing. While this detail seems insignificant, it's actually quite interesting, in a sense, it gives people emotional investment to see how the player reacts. If the player can pull off their emotions colourfully whilst playing, it is also a sort of entertainment in itself. People watch movies not just because of how witty or good the effects and the story lines are, but also to experience the emotion of actors, to become involved with the actors in this imaginary adventure called digital entertainment. Your videos lack the sort of emotional involvement that Pewdiepie presents. While for most of your videos, the most part of your lets plays have one let's player communicate to another, Pewdiepie addresses and communicates in such a way that he is actually talking to the audience. This is a very subtle difference between addressing the audience, but the feeling of letting audience be involved despite being a recording is something very special to the audience. In fact, Pewdiepie constantly communicates with the audience, he shares the same emotion that viewers have when encountering something shocking or interesting in the video game. If you get past all the politically incorrect jokes that Pewdiepie's video has and analyze it carefully, you will see that he does make the audiences feel involved.

Now, I'm going to get into something a bit different: advertising and outreach. Take a look at your website, it's absolute shit, where's the accessibility? Where's the content? Where's the part where I can learn more about your group and more about your updated content? How active you are in promoting your product? Advertising is actually a combination of all of what I mentioned above plus more. Sure Pewdiepie "sold out" to to his old fan base by advertising himself to a broader audience, but he's has a bigger audience due to the the amount of self-promotion he has in his videos. The content of the videos, the target viewers, and the diligence of how new stuff is presented on a daily basis gives him an edge in broadcasting himself to even more people. People constantly see new videos uploaded on his subscribed channels, and they will be more dedicated fans.

There are more that I want to say, but I due to time and reading constraints, I will not do that. So here's what I have to say, you should feel good about the amount of subscribers, you have a dedicated fan base and you are an extremely intelligent person. If you think that what you're doing is the absolute correct path to do and my explanations are bullshit, then good on you, you have your ideas and visions, and there's no stopping you. I am writing to you because I see the potential in you to grow and see things at a completely different perspective, from a more rigorous marketing perspective, and trying to be objective is difficult for me, even I don't know if I'm being completely objective. I want you to think about the differences, open your mind. I cannot help but feel that you're bitter and jealous about it. But there are reasons for his success, and by learning from the experience rather than bitching and giving self-pity to yourself and having your ego supported by your fan base, you can produce better content and become a more successful channel.

Bear in mind, your fans love you, but what I'm seeing you right now is absolutely childish and unnecessary. You are actually closing yourself off from outsiders and potential viewers, you come off as being hateful and jealous in the video, and your attitude and response feels like you're absolutely close-minded and having an ego-trip. Don't do that, it will do no good in the long run.

In the end, it is you who have to decide for yourself, do you want growth from analyzing the situations more carefully? Or are you going to have the same attitude you have, and the same business mindset that you have as before. It is up to you to decide. Consider this my time wasted in writing to you about this if I can't let you reconsider your position.

Best of luck for the future.

[Bobeddy]

Feb 7, 2013 4:56:27 GMT -5 El Cokehead del Knife Fight said:

Feb 7, 2013 1:46:20 GMT -5 Orange said:

Definitely agree with you on PewDiePie. I actually like Nova in small doses, but PewDiePie can eat a bag of dicks. I don't think I've ever seen a more unfunny person in my life.

Yet, he's made a s***-ton of money and has a ton of subscribers - so he's appealing to somebody, it just ain't me.

He appeals to 12 year olds. They think that randomly yelling s*** equals humor.

Pretty much. The only people I've encountered who like PewDiePie are my younger cousins who are all aged between 11 and 13.

He's basically the Smosh or Fred of LP.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

I like my LPs to be informative. The more trivia you can give, the most easter eggs you can show, the more secrets and tricks you can reveal, the better. For example, i really like ProtonJon's LP of Superman 64 as he gives A TON of info on the game's development, the company who made it, the developers, etc... which is surprisingly fascinating.

Which is quite paradoxical considering I also do enjoy blind LPs, though I prefer them to be of short games or one-offs just to show what the game is like (kind of like what the Game Grumps do with some of the games they play). Blind LPs get boring real quick for the reasons others have mentioned so keeping them short and sweet is the way to go.

Other than that, I prefer LPers to do games that aren't too obvious, preferably some or their favorites as it's usually games they know well and therefore something they can talk about in detail and beat fairly easily, thus avoiding falling into a tedium.

[Yami Daimao]

Feb 7, 2013 4:56:27 GMT -5 El Cokehead del Knife Fight said:

Feb 7, 2013 1:46:20 GMT -5 Orange said:

Definitely agree with you on PewDiePie. I actually like Nova in small doses, but PewDiePie can eat a bag of dicks. I don't think I've ever seen a more unfunny person in my life.

Yet, he's made a s***-ton of money and has a ton of subscribers - so he's appealing to somebody, it just ain't me.

He appeals to 12 year olds. They think that randomly yelling s*** equals humor. Even better is when a fan of his posted on Something Awful that PDP was a better Let's Player than the Retsuprae guys because he put out multiple videos a day.

Never mind the fact that SlowBeef invented let's play as we know them today, no he doesn't know a damn thing about them apparently.

Not to mention he doesn't know how to take criticism and acts like a dick in the progress.




This is from the "Adults React To PewDiePie" video. I had to screencap it for times like these.

His fans are the worst. They constantly comment in other LPers' videos claiming they're copying PDP because he played the game they're playing first. F*** off.

[Deleted]

Feb 7, 2013 12:52:31 GMT -5 Yami Daimao said:

Feb 7, 2013 4:56:27 GMT -5 El Cokehead del Knife Fight said:

He appeals to 12 year olds. They think that randomly yelling s*** equals humor. Even better is when a fan of his posted on Something Awful that PDP was a better Let's Player than the Retsuprae guys because he put out multiple videos a day.

Never mind the fact that SlowBeef invented let's play as we know them today, no he doesn't know a damn thing about them apparently.

Not to mention he doesn't know how to take criticism and acts like a dick in the progress.




This is from the "Adults React To PewDiePie" video. I had to screencap it for times like these.

His fans are the worst. They constantly comment in other LPers' videos claiming they're copying PDP because he played the game they're playing first. F*** off.

This. I only have watched one of his videos and after seeing how awful he is I wont watch again. Right now my favorite is Nerd3. He has a natural humor and most if not all his videos I have liked

[Fundertaker]

I quite like the LPs that kNIGHTWING01 does. He and KWife (yeah, her wife plays with him, she even has her own LPs) are awesome together. It's bonus if you like Batman, because K-Wing loves Batman and will bring that up any time he can. He's also into the easter eggs/completion part of things so you usually get a very detailed walkthrough with him.

[xCompackx]

I don't often watch LP videos unless it's on retsupurae, but if you're just acting normal and not constantly shouting (Doug Walker) and put some energy/life into what you're doing, I'll usually give it a try. Also about that email that was posted, I really have no problem with what retsupurae does. If someone posts a video that they didn't put any effort into beyond putting up a camcorder or don't know how to play the game that they're supposed to be showing off, they kinda ask for criticism, imo.

[Deleted]

There are some I can deal with and some I just can't. Those that get all gimmicky and weird (ElectricalBeast having Mario "teleport" and (only once) "time travel") give me trouble.

I also hate how so many of them feel like they have to read or voice-act text. I'd rather you skip it if that's what you're going to do. I LOVE the Videogames Awesome vids but even they do it. SOMETIMES it's actually funny, and with their video set-up it's impossible to read it yourself, but usually it isn't.

I also hate the constant memes and reference callouts. Someone I used to watch, Cloud8745, used to think EVERYTHING was a reference to something else. I also hated how he'd quote ancient internet memes then throw a fit in his livestreams when people in the chats did too.

The big one I hate that almost never gets mentioned is when the people playing the game, doing the video, act like the viewer has never seen/played/heard of the game before and they have to explain everything. Going back to Cloud (though a LOT of others do this too), he makes a Super Mario Bros. 2 video defeating all the bosses and then at the end acts like he's uncovered some insane illuminati secret when the scene with Mario dreaming begins. "Guess what? Heh, yep...Super Mario Bros. 2 is all a dream!" Pretty sure anyone watching people play videogames on Youtube know that. If this is the year 2030 and Super Mario Bros. 2 becomes some sort of lost relic that is as tough to obtain as Earthbound then yeah, okay. But COME ON! Besides, for the vast majority of LPers they're watching for the game and not the person playing. They probably know the game they're watching.

I also recall a vid of his where he would play fan-made games then ask "I bet you're wondering what happens when I jump into these spikes/fall into this pit/plant a bomb and not move". No...my brain naturally assumes you're gonna take damage or die. Then of course, that's what happens and he acts like it's just insane. I can see him cooking..."Wanna guess what happens when I put the pasta in the boiling water?" Guy made a killing in views and revenue on his "I Wanna Be The Guy" videos and can't realize his time's been up for far too long.

I love it when people are just naturally funny. One of my favs is GeoffTheHero aka DarkSydeGeoff (made as a mockery of DarkSydePhil). He's a total troll in many games, but he doesn't spit out memes or regurgitate stuff he heard on Family Guy or drop a million references a minute.

I'm also one of those that hate seeing videos where people have watermarking recording programs or the video stutters a whole lot. I assumed when I first got into watching anything on Youtube that 95% of people actually watched what they were posting before they posted it. Now, I'm pretty sure that number is around 20%. And if they really do, I gotta wonder how they can see how much a video is stuttering and how bad the quality is and say "...yep! That's fit to show!"

Really, I only follow a very small number of LPers anymore. Videogames Awesome (they don't consider themselves LPers since they have a certain format to their setup and they also will clip and cut footage), GeoffTheHero (though he'd probably not consider himself one either), Game Grumps, and that's about it. Once you watch any of them you'd consider good, it's impossible to watch the Cloud8745s and the BillyMCs and ElectricalBeasts and so on.