Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:
Well, me, as well as plenty of people that I know had instances where we would have probably bought a game since we were so on the fence about it but decided to save our money and watch a "Lets Play" instead and spend that money on something else. The issue where it happens the most imo is on story driven games. Like for example, if I were to watch a "Lets Play" of Game of Thrones from Telltale games, why would I buy the game since the gameplay itself is average but the story is fantastic? Of course, you argue to "support the developers," and you aren't experiencing it properly and etc but I would much rather save my money cause I am greedy. But, if there wasn't a "Lets Play" on it but a lot of people as well as a lot of websites are talking about the game, I might get curious enough to actually buy the game. And the same logic applies to a lot of other games. Yes, games are an "interactive" experience but if the game isn't a multiplayer game, the game will essentially be almost the same experience visually as to what you are watching provided the game is a story driven game and it isn't like an esports/online centric game. Not to say that games will bomb due to having "Lets Plays" but I highly doubt "Lets Plays" help in the grand scheme of things |
This point has been argued a lot of times before, especially the "story-driven" games perspective and whether developers should strike those videos down. I think this only truly applies to a very small minority of games though, such as ones from Telltale games and maybe from David Cage such as Beyond. In other words games that are barely games.
Conventional games are different though. Even if a game has a good amount of story behind it, and I like to think of JRPGs here (because those are what I play a lot), the gameplay is still ultimately what makes you play and brings it all together. Both of the above games I mentioned have really lengthy stories, but I want to play the games and do the missions to see it unfold. MP shooters such as COD and Destiny have HUGE communities on Youtube which only gets bigger as more and more people buy the games simply due to the presence of such a large community. Bungie actively post Youtube videos of others doing awesome things in their game on a regular basis. It just makes people want to play the game even more. If they thought people would be put off from buying their game by watching it, they wouldn't post such videos. I'm sure playing Mario and watching Mario are two different things, even if everyone inthe game is getting the same experience by jumping over Goombas and capping flags. Even you would agree. If you like what you watch, it only makes you want to play it even more. At least that's how it is for me.
The other point is if you watch a game and feel like you don't want to buy it, that's a good thing because you just saved yourself some cash by not buying a game you wouldn't have enjoyed or didn't like enough to warrant a purchase. There's no need to feel bad about it. If videos of a game makes you feel like not buying it rather than making you want to run to the store and get it even more, then it is very likely you probably wouldn't have enjoyed that game in the first place. A game shouldn't be sold as a "mistake" because you went in blind, following a hype train or whatever only to hate yourself for it later.
