Let's Plays - Yay or Nay?

Nay!!!!!!!

I actually quite enjoy Tobuscus's playthroughs, he's quite entertaining.

I agree with the horror game part. The commentator's reactions to scary bits are usually quite funny.

I don't care about them as long as they don't go spamming their videos everywhere thinking they're going to be the next big thing because they play Minecraft and CoD. I only watch my friend's let's play.

Mostly Nay. Too many spoilers for the games, too much forced comedy etc.
Exceptions are few and far between.

Yay, I personally don't have a console, so I like to see playtroughts in YouTube. I'm a fan of GamingLemon :)

I enjoy Let's Plays if the commentary is interesting. For that reason, I am a huge fan of Chuggaconroy. He talks about the games he plays, often offering little bits of trivia and knowledge that most people don't know, as well as trying to show you EVERYTHING in the games he plays. Like he will show you every possible bit of dialogue in a game, or all the hidden paths, secrets, treasures, etc. Even some multiplayer if the game has it. He's also a decent gamer, and generally will put dozens, if not hundreds, of hours into a game before he makes an LP for it.

For example, one of his most recent LPs was of Kid Icarus: Uprising for the 3DS. He went out of his way to collect all of the AR Cards for the game (some go in the $100-$300 range O_O), just so he could show them to his viewers. He even put them into a nice little notebook and flipped through each page so viewers could scan them into the game! I thought that was really cool of him.

Chuggaconroy was the one who inspired me to do my own LP's, but I havent finished all the preparations I need to start making decent videos ^^; So far all I've done is a few gameplay/story videos for a friend of the game Ys Origin, because she wanted to see what the game was like. I completely sold her on it and she plans to buy it when she gets the chance :) I think thats what Let's Plays are all about. I mean, Chugga was the sole reason I bought Animal Crossing: New Leaf, haha!

I can't comment on more contemporary ones, but there are a lot of older ones on the lparchive.org that are really good. Off hand, I really like the Drakengard one.

For me, the best use I get out of them is for games I've already played but don't want to play again. They're a nice refresher or show off completionist or min/max strategies I wouldn't have employed. Some of the more player built narrative driven ones are fun too, like the X-Com playthroughs.

Why on earth would I want to watch a challenged adult scream into a camera?

I usualy watch them to see the gameplay before i buy the game.

i dont see any reason to watch them in other way

Markiplier!!!

I feel neutral. Why would I be against something that brings other people enjoyment?

Im among those ppl who are doing such but mostly in hungarian. I think its fine as long as you try and do differently than others, not just tying to be corny like many LP-ers

Nay. I consider it boring and a waste of time.
If I'm interested in a game, I go play it myself.

Only exception are speedruns of games I've finished myself and want to know, how much faster it can be done.

I watch Let's Plays for three reasons:

1) I cannot play a game (due to low specs, not having proper equipment, ...)

2) I want to buy a game, but am not entirely sure if it's worth it (and I don't want to pirate)

3) Getting "recommendations" - thanks to one Let's Play I watched, I bought Starbound and I greatly enjoy it

Cryaotic. Yes that's all.

Only if the LPer is competent and entertaining, a very rare combination. I mostly follow ChipCheezum (and sometimes speedruns but that's a different category).
Scarecams are garbage, day 1 blind are garbage, blind nuzlocke or silly stuff like this is garbage, endless Slender clones or Minecraft with no content (read: survival) are garbage.

Also, didn't we have this thread already? Like, a thousand times?

I enjoy some, and hate others, but I don't care what they do as long as they don't spam on other's channels that "they r te bes knew y0utub3rz evar an u should cum chek oot ma chanell!!1!"
Markiplier, NorthernLion, Let's Play, and Game Grumps are my go-to channels, as well as a few smaller channels.
I may be bias, though, since I want to start a Let's Play channel this summer XD

I don't mind them, I kind of feel sad for them. Since the Let's play thing become popular and known (I guess mostly thanks to Pewdiepie), new Let's players keep popping out, thinking they'll get love and fame and what not. There are just too many of them. It's like the music industry, it's just overpopulated. I feel really poor for the people who come here to promote their youtube channel, mostly for the fact they're doing it for fame and views, not for fun and enjoyment.

As for me, I watch Cry, Markiplier, Nerd3, Pewdiepie and MangaMinx. Why? I cannot play horror or console games myself. And for the laughs.

Rooster Teeth FTW!

Usually, I just watch gameplay videos to see if it would be an enjoyable game or something that suits my taste.

It seems all too common that many "let's play-ers" believe viewers want to just sit there and watch them play the game. That is not really entertaining to me...

If I were to choose one, TheRadBrad is ok. There was one circumstance where, because I do not own a console, the game The Last of Us looked really interesting. It started out as just watching to see the gameplay, but the story was so awesome that I just couldn't stop watching it! Watched all the way from beginning to end! He kinda rushed through it, didn't drag it out, which I liked and made the segments a watchable length (the first episode was like 20 min then went to between 10-15 min each). Felt kinda like episodes of a TV show, and while it looked fun to play, was good enough for me not to have to go out and buy it.

My formula would be something as follows: If doing a let's play, it's gotta be a GREAT story... Really great. Other than that, just would stick to achievement hunting, finding secrets, or walkthrough style videos. Maybe even do those montage style videos for giving people a taste of the gameplay. 10 min segments would be best in my opinion. IF you do commentary, do not force it and feel you always have to be talking. Stay quiet during the movie scenes / talking bits, try not to interfere with the storyline. Sometimes it feels like the more they talk, the sillier it gets, and too often doesn't even make sense what they are saying. Also, just be natural and be yourself, if you have got personality and charisma THAT will be what makes it successful.