JoshWoodzy wrote:

LeshLush wrote: I've never understood the appeal of watching someone else narrate their game playing, but this thread makes it seem like a pretty well-loved genre of video. Guys and ladies who are into LP's, what is the appeal? This is a serious question borne of serious curiosity. I've thought the same thing in the past, and I honestly have probably watched very, very few, excluding Fernin and a few others. But once I look at it like "it's like watching Mystery Science Theater 3000, but video games" then it can be entertaining, though I prefer ones where the person just tells about the history of the game, the company, etc.. as opposed to forcing humor. I like to put them into two categories. The ones who are trying to make you laugh, and the ones who are just showing the game and offering insight into the game, history, etc.. And then of course, the ones who for some reason, think we want to see their face at all. Stop that.

Yeah, and sometimes they're a great game history catch-up as well. I suck at old PC RPGs, but I find them fascinating. I like using LPs to learn about them and see what can be done about them.

A few of my favorites LPers:

Chip and Ironicus: It took me a while to get into these guys, but I really love their stuff. It's usually Chip playing a game that Ironicus has never played, then Chip playing the game to full completion and showing off little extra quirks or Easter Eggs. This way, you kind of get the blind run aspect from Ironicus' reactions, while getting Chip's expert playthrough to keep it from slogging. Watching Chip doing lots of cool stuff in MGS that I'd never be able to think of really started to make me appreciate the series a lot more.

Research Indicates' Jurassic Park: Trespasser LP is easily the best I've ever seen, but the rest of his stuff is mostly unscripted, and not as good. His Crimson Skies (PC) one comes close sometimes.

Supergreatfriend's Illbleed LP is probably Trespasser's contender for my favorite, but Super got kind of boring with the rest of his LPs. He tends to pick games that are kind of boring to watch, and his monotone voice dumping out facts every second gets kind of dull.

Slowbeef's stuff is good for the most part. His Metroid videos are always a little painful to watch in some spots, but his Dead to Rights LPs are great. I guess I could always recommend Retsupurae, since they're doing more game-related videos lately. Sometimes it's fun to just see them lay into one of the shrieking Youtube idiots for fun as well. They're also doing a podcast now, and while their game talk is insipid, it's kind of interesting to hear them talk about the community and stuff.

Runbutton (19letterslong, Somethingdumb) are one of the few talkytalkytalky LPers I can watch. They have good voices, and pick interesting things to talk about. I guess you'd have to go that route when you're doing nothing but Silent Hill and Sonic videos. It's sort of like a podcast where the game gives them something to talk about.

The Freelance Astronauts are a decent comedy gaming group. Maxwell plays like a goddamned robot, so the games move at a good clip, and Ferr and Pipes are genuinely funny with creative humor. Their F-Zero GX playthrough is probably their most recommendable.

Voidburger is funny and informative, and she adds great little extra editing touches to her videos. Her Shattered Memories LP where she does a runthrough of each possible path is very good, but don't watch her blind run of it. Probably also has the only decent webcam video where she sneaks a camera into a Japanese arcade to play the Silent Hill arcade game.

Niggurath is boring to me, but I should plug him as being one of the most informative players with lots of really good production quality. He's like one of those late '70s corporate rock bands where you acknowledge how good they are, but they're just flawless enough to not be interesting.

I fucking seriously don't like fucking like fucking get the like fucking appeal of like Game Grumps and like fucking Two Best Friends Like Fucking Like Play. That whole last sentence sums up what they both sound like to me. The only super-mega-popular LPer I've seen that I like is Proton Jon, but it's easy to get sick of watching him play shitty romhacks all of the time.