[???????]

So, I've noticed that all over the place, be it on message boards dedicated to gaming or video hosts, people have been participating in Let's Plays (abbreviated as LPs), which are basically compilations of videos of a person/people commenting on a game via microphone while playing it (or, in some cases, commenting on pre-recorded material) or with images of the game being played and text. Some people, like myself, only post videos of what they play that only really differ from LPs in that there is no commentary and hiding your mistakes is much easier to do than in live-action LPs, although, most of the time, the player has the courtesy to tell the viewers/readers when he/she is going to be cheating in any way. In some cases, LPs are also a way for one to review a game (think about the Angry Videogame Nerd except, in most cases, way less vulgar and/or angry).

What I thought would be an interesting thing for some of us to do is LP certain games in the format of our choice. I was also thinking that we could have a rule that no more than one person may LP/play through the same game at the same time unless all of them are working together. Also, if an LP is neglected long enough (for a certain amount of months), someone else may decide to take over and start all over rather than from where the last person left off, if that person chooses.

Not only would doing something like this liven the boards up a bit, but it'll give some who may have never played a specific game before some insight on what it's like and possibly make them want to play it and, if you're willing to put the effort forth without letting it get to you, you'll be having fun in the process.

So, any thoughts on this? Would anyone be willing to do something like this or am I crazy for attempting to get anybody on these boards to agree to this?

[Red]

I might do one, but my cracking teenage voice and serious case of not-funny is telling me not to. I do have the equipment, however, and have done a non-commentary play through of a game before(well, it was one part of Megaman Legends 2's Japanese demo, which had a demo-only section that was really cool), so.

[???????]

Well, you don't have to do a recording if you don't want to. Just starting a topic and posting images showing your progress along with text-based commentary would be enough. If you really want to do a recording, but think you'll suck if you talk through it, you could just give a long-ass description of what you were attempting to do in the video.

Being extremely funny isn't a prerequisite either. You just have to hold the viewer/reader's attention by keeping them interested.

["That Other Guy"]

I've been thinking about doing one for a while now. But all the games I play are really long, and I really don't feel like making 10+hours of video. Plus I don't think anyone would care enough to watch it anyway.

Also I don't have any video/audio recording software. I know about FRAPS, but the free version has limited recording time and a watermark.

[Season-Shifter]

I'd be willing to be a co-commentator using Skype or Ventrilo or something.

[HTM]

I'm like Red on this one. I have everything I need, just that I don't think I'd be particularly "catchy" with the audience.

[???????]

So, am I the only one who'd be interested in LPing in this style?

I have no microphone, so this is probably the only thing I'd be able to do. Actually, even if I had a microphone, that'd be the only thing I'd be willing to do because, to be honest, I really hate the idea of attempting to hold an audience's interest by talking to myself. What I was thinking is that some of us could do was make threads in the same fashion as the one I just linked to and, if possible, have a link at the end of a session to just a recording of us actually playing the portion of the game we just talked about. That way we can include videos with ours LPs without actually having to say anything within the video because we would've already done so in text.

When I made this thread, I had already considered the more than likely possibility that most would be either unable or unwilling to do live commentary and was really aiming for us to be doing LPs via topics, not videos. I think having to take the time to capture images and commenting on the images would be a lot easier than attempting to say something interesting on the spot. Also, LPing games that would normally take too long to long to record in text-based style instead would make things go by a lot more quickly.

I'm almost positive that every one of us should be able to take screenshots with very little effort. If you're playing on an emulator, chances are that it has the ability to take pictures of whatever's in the window and auto-save them. I'm not to sure about PC games, but I think some may have that feature. Outside of that, the only real challenge you'll actually have is determining what you want to say to your audience while being clear about what it is you're trying to tell them and keeping your images organized.

[KennEH!]

Every time I buy a mic, it breaks within less than a couple of weeks. I'm not big on replaying games though, so I've always wanted to one blind. Well unless I can get JSR working on my PC, I would buy a mic just to do that.

[NiGHTS Noob]

Hm, I don't have a mic, but I'd rather do it with the mic style. Maybe I'll get one someday since I'd be interested in running through the old school Castlevania games in a Let's Play fashion.

[HTM]

Oh, and in addition to my problems with recording stuff, my computer fucks up if it plays any kind of RAM heavy applications. Especially games.

This post has been edited by HTM: 21 July 2009 - 10:59 PM

[???????]

NiGHTS Noob, on Jul 21 2009, 05:46 PM, said:

Hm, I don't have a mic, but I'd rather do it with the mic style. Maybe I'll get one someday since I'd be interested in running through the old school Castlevania games in a Let's Play fashion.

If I ever want to do a Castlevania game, I call Alucard's playthrough of Symphony of the Night.

You know, I might decide to do Aria of Sorrow as well, except blind. I don't know how well that's gonna work out. I like to know what I'm going to be presenting since it makes it easier to plan things out. Plus, I think playing a game through before LPing it would be more fun.

For my very first LP, I was thinking of doing every last level in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest, Super Mario Bros. 3, or Mario Adventure. I was thinking about Super Metroid, but even those not interested in Metroid games know what that's like and if I do Super Metroid: Redesign, I'll be doing that LP forever due to the planet's size, changed physics, and overall difficulty.

HTM, on Jul 21 2009, 05:56 PM, said:

Oh, and in addition to my problems with recording stuff, my computer fucks up if it plays any kind of RAM heavy applications. Especially games.

How much do you mean by RAM heavy? What types of games were you thinking of playing and how much RAM does your computer have?

[HTM]

???????, on Jul 21 2009, 11:05 PM, said:

How much do you mean by RAM heavy? What types of games were you thinking of playing and how much RAM does your computer have?

Or something like that.

Anyway, if I am correct, my computer has 3GB RAM, and the game I'm usually playing Prototype, and it takes about 1 of it. From what I understand, it has nothing with RAM, or at least not what I think it is. Just happens to video games in particular. I believe it's some display driver or something.

[???????]

Yeah, with that much RAM, you shouldn't be experiencing any problems unless you have something running that's eating it all up. The problem has to be elsewhere.

[NiGHTS Noob]

???????, on Jul 21 2009, 07:05 PM, said:

If I ever want to do a Castlevania game, I call Alucard's playthrough of Symphony of the Night.

I did say Old School. I'm talking everything pre-Symphony of the Night. Actually, it would be sweet if I do a Rondo of Blood review and you pick it up with Symphony of the Night right after.

[Red]

I might try both and see which works better.

[???????]

NiGHTS Noob, on Jul 21 2009, 06:36 PM, said:

I did say Old School. I'm talking everything pre-Symphony of the Night. Actually, it would be sweet if I do a Rondo of Blood review and you pick it up with Symphony of the Night right after.

I like that idea. If you ever decide to do Rondo of Blood, let me know so I can start working on Symphony of the Night so I'll have something to present right after you finish.

A few minutes ago, I was trying to see if Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn could be possibilities for LPing, but I found that my desktop wasn't reading the disc and I just found out why. So, I either have the options of buying a TV tuner or pirating the game so I'll be able to play it on the Dolphin emulator. Chances are that I'm probably just gonna attempt to get a TV Tuner because I don't like the idea of downloading an ISO for any current generation game I wanna LP because it takes too much time and mainly because I don't wanna get into the habit of pirating new games. Plus, the games may not even run correctly if I do that.

[KJ]

Well, here's my first attempt at a Let's Play. It is a commentary-style video, so you're going to have to put up with my voice. I chose commentary style because I feel it involves the player/viewers more.

Anyways, I'm playing Final Fantasy I & II Dawn Of Souls. I'm playing FFI, and I'm letting you guys make a decision: you'll pick the party I'm playing as. Please review the video if you need more information about the characters. Hope you like the video, and hopefully we can make this series entertaining.

[???????]

Whoa, I thought you were talking about posting it in that other topic I told you about.

I'll watch it later. From the looks on my situation in the game I'm playing right now, it looks as if I'm gonna have to start all over not because I'm losing, but because I'm trying to unlock something and the enemy NPC is being a bitch right now.

[KJ]

Which topic? I figured you knew I was posting it here.

[???????]

I'm talking about that topic on the forum I tested video code on. You know, the one where I said that if I could get enough people interested, it'd evolve from a mere test message board to a full LP forum.

I guess that here was the much more logical choice, though. Only I would've seen it if it were posted there.