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Comment by Joof | Hacker News Reader

How do you combat this? Realistically speaking.

Here's how: Ask major let's-play channels to explain how it's meant to be experienced firsthand and they should come watch after they've played. Not for money, but for the experience.

Toby fox did this with Undertale on game grumps and it was noted that there is a significant lag time in number of viewers that picked up later which indicates that people actually followed this advice. They trust the let's players' opinion.

In reality it probably still helps sales. I routinely buy games that are high up on twitch that I hadn't heard of before.

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Don't make games that can be easily watched and not played. A game with tons of replayability can be played by let's players endlessly yet people will still want to play it themselves.

Huh? The gaming community has spent the last 10 years or so fighting to get games recognized as an art form and now you think that limiting expressive freedoms is a good idea just so copyright infringement doesn't happen?

One of the most impactful games I've ever played was a PS3 exclusive called "Heavy Rain"[0]. That game, while having several branching storylines that create vastly different endings, was basically an 8-hour long interactive movie. It is one of the best games I've ever played but I doubt I'll ever play it again. I'm certain that I would make most of the same choices and reach the exact same outcome.

Another recent game that I really enjoyed is called Firewatch[1]. It's basically a three-hour movie. I don't even think it has different outcomes. You experience the story they give you.

That game was excellent (though really short for being $15). That sort of game would not exist in your worldview.

I watch Let's Plays almost exclusively as my digital content of choice. I first discovered Firewatch through an early pre-release copy that Marbozir played[2]. Luckily his pre-release copy only took you through the first 45 minutes or so and I was able to enjoy the full game on my own. Despite enjoying the game, the first 45 minutes of my game was incredibly dull because I'd already seen it played. Had I watched a full Marbozir playthrough, I would have probably never purchased the game. Without giving away any spoilers, once you've seen the whole game, there's really nothing left to experience.

I'm really torn about this article. I'm a game developer myself, so I definitely want to encourage people to buy games and support developers, but I have a family and rarely find enough time to actually play games. I get all of my enjoyment in late-night Let's Play sessions. This is a really tricky problem to solve, and I think being dismissive of a genre is dangerous ground to tread.

Thanks for your comment, though.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Rain

[1]: http://www.firewatchgame.com/

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_gwFDm21zA

>and now you think that limiting expressive freedoms is a good idea just so copyright infringement doesn't happen?

I don't know why you think I said this. What I said is that games with little replayability will be easily watched instead of played. And when games are easily watched instead of played they will not make as much money for the obvious reason. As such, if you want to make a successful game and have a successful business making games, you either figure out a way to work with Let's Players so that you make money from views (or ban Let's Players from playing your game), or you make a game that provides additional value when it is played on top of being watched, such as a game with high replayability like roguelites, for instance.

I'm not saying that those games shouldn't exist, I'm just saying that you have market disadvantages if you choose to go that way, both because a lot of people don't think those games are actually games and because of the Let's Player effect. And yes, you can point to Firewatch or Gone Home but in my opinion those games are outliers boosted/distorted by media outlets that like those types of games or by studios that spend a lot of money on marketing. If you're not willing to do the homework (i.e. spend a lot of money on marketing) then you shouldn't expect a game like this to be a success because I don't think the market is there at all. Whereas for a game more focused on gameplay the market is obviously there.

Don't market it as a game? AFAIK people don't post "let's watch" videos of movies.

Sure they do;

• MST3K-izations of movies are plentiful. But there's a higher bar to them; viewers expect the commentator to be enhancing a movie that might otherwise be unwatchable, not just adding their thoughts.

• "Directors' commentary" (and "actors' commentary", etc.) audio streams are also plentiful. If someone's opinion on the movie as it progresses would be specifically interesting, then people will want to combine the two.

> AFAIK people don't post "let's watch" videos of movies.

Many people do post "blind reaction" videos for various series. They're quite popular; many "reaction" channels have tens of thousands of subscribers.

In those, the reaction is the valuable contribution; it can be fun to watch something you've previously enjoyed and see how others react to it.

You may be on to something; although I think having an actual let's player may be necessary.

Now I'm going to get a bit artsy. Games are typically about the interaction between the player and the game and how that player reacts is a significant part of the experience. Let's plays sort of mediate this experience by allowing the audience to see the reactions of the let's player. This is much less powerful, but sometimes the audience actually prefers the less powerful experience. Horrer games are popular to watch because people don't always like being scared (but watching other people getting scared is pretty entertaining). That Dragon, Cancer likely suffers because it's not a game that makes you feel good, it's an intense experience; it's easy to prefer the less-intense, mediated experience. As a result, the sales overall may suffer (and the artists might be frustrated that people aren't playing it 'properly').

It almost needs a new business model. I think we can agree that more games like this is a good thing.

In the past year I've only watched a couple of movies, but I've watched all movie related videos of Red Letter Media, "Half in the Bag" and others.

I'm not a movie guy but for some stupid weird reason I love watching what they think about some movies.

I just saw a "Let's Watch Quantum Break" video while browsing YouTube. Still game related though.

The Achievement Hunter guys call it "let's watch" when one of them plays the game and the others watch them play the game, and they all comment on it.

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