Second Opinion Thread

[Blitz Walrus]

i can't stand them either. Traditional sitcoms too, Full House, Big Bang Theory, anything with a laugh track really.

[Madican]

What about this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cyx6nWdFas

[Rinoko]

While I'm not a PewDiePie fan, I do think that if you have the most subscribed channel on YouTube and get millions of views per video, you must be doing something right.

[YCobb]

I've been told that he's a really nice, friendly dude when he's not on camera. Seems like his screechy, offensive facade is just because that's what his audience likes. Keep in mind, one of his bigger demographics is tweens who think anything with a swear word is the funniest thing ever.

I don't necessarily like the strategy, but I won't pass judgement on him for knowing what people want to see.

[Vax]

I actually watched a vid of his recently where he was playing Dark Souls 2 and it was surprisingly enjoyable.

Last thing of his I saw was like 3 years ago when he was yelling and screaming about Amnesia or some such shit and it was turrible. Now I dunno what to think of him, but it's important to remember that anyone is capable of change and growth when they're producing their own content.

[Turbro]

I just don't like facecam Let's Plays in general unless the facecam actually adds to the LP. For instance, the only Mario game that needs a facecam is Mario 64. When you're playing it with your feet. Most LPs that have facecams are almost always less about the game and letting the game influence what's happening and more about the LPer. And that's all fine and good, but there's a certain... genre almost of LP that Youtube tends to breed. Loud, screamy facecams over games that are not at all enhanced by facecams.

Sort of related, take a look at most of the custom thumbnails that get slapped on youtube reccomendations and complete the following checklist:

• Person starring in the video with their mouth open
• Some kind of high saturation color background
• Channel or person name is larger or more focused on over the name of the game (typically in red, white or yellow)

And to keep myself on topic here, I'm not a fan of the Youtube Promoted genre of LP, mostly because of how Youtube popularity works and what you have to do to gain and keep it. (this is especially relevant to PDP since he's the single most subscribed to channel on the website) The style of video it lends itself to is distracting as hell.

[Syobon]

If you are talented at being an annoying twat, chances are it's because you're an annoying twat.

[The Nightman]

Or a good actor.

[Mete]

I generally don't care for LPs even though I'm subscribed to some channels that do lots of them, like TBFP. What I prefer are the 'best bits' type of videos and one-offs that condense the essence of the game along with good humor into one tight package. There's one LP I've watched from beginning to end and that was Daggerfall of all games.

Likewise, there's only one stream I occasionally watch (timezones don't help here) and that's 4Player Network's because I'm actually interested in the commentary of most of the staff on that site, not to mention that the streamed games get discussed on their podcast.

[Valbrandur]

If I enjoy any Let's plays, it'd be the ones where they aren't overreacting and have a very laid-back approach to the game.

I don't really watch Pewdiepie but from every clip I've seen about him, he just overacts too much for my taste.

At least I don't hear about him making rape jokes any longer, so he's probably better than he was when I first saw anything about him.

I recall one of my favourite let's play was Dead Rising where a group of 3-4 guys went through the game with Frank wearing that Servbot mask but it was unfortunately discontinued.

[Shad]

LP related: I think some DeceasedCrab's are fine when I wanna see something kinda funny and calming. However, nothing he'll do will top his LaMulana and Iji LPs.

[Chopstix]

@pewdiepie success thing

i remember seeing a youtube video about that and him moving a couple times in europe helped promote him via youtube more. the video is here if you guys want to watch it

[Rinoko]

I knew it was Game Theory before I even clicked the link.

[Chopstix]

proud of yoooooou

[wordNumber]

Sometimes I wonder if it's for the best that Egoraptor never wound up making those other Sequelitis videos. I really like the 2.5 that are up but with the way I've heard him talk about games and his opinions on game theory on GG has made me wonder if maybe he is ill equipped to fully criticize games that are more complicated then Castlevania and Mega Man. I just feel like hearing him just talk about games without preparing his arguments he sounds like he has sort of shallow opinions as to what classifies as "good" and "bad," particularly what classifies as hand-holding.

His piece on how MMX naturally teaches the player the controls through level design is very nice and well organized but at the same time I feel like he is unwilling to accept much less. The Demon's Souls play through is a decent example of this, where he and Jon both complain that the game just flat-out tells you how to buttons. But it's a Souls game! It's not like the game is renowned for hand-holding. Also, I personally feel like the developers couldn't have expected new players to devise the inputs for kicking, rolling, jumping, and other more complicated maneuvers on their own by just putting them in a situation where they have to learn them and nothing else. The ideal behind MMX's first stage is very noble and intrusive but it also only uses 6 buttons with only 1 function to each, and also a charge modifier to the shot which by definition is intuitive (~hold the button~).

It might just be that my perspective on Sequelitis has been poisoned by Ego's later statements. I suppose this might be unfair of me because Sequelitis was Ego at his argumentative peek and in a controlled environment. Prehapse Ego doesn't always say the things he means on GG because he isn't prepared and just saying something spur-of the moment. He does mention he does better scripted. Although looking back there are things that he said in the old videos that also hit me the wrong way (talking down about the Metroidvania Castlevanias, just off the top of my head). I'm fine with people having different opinions from me but I just feel like some of the criticisms Ego offers are superficial, and don't actually get to the root of game design and why games are made the way they are. Of course tutorials shouldn't be unenjoyable but do they need to be completely natural and elegant to achieve that, is brevity alone not enough?

Basically, I wonder if maybe I would have been more disappointed with Sequelitis had it continued and proved to be not as deep as I had wanted it to be then how it is now where Ego just talks about his opinions and I realize how specific his view of game theory are. The two (and a half) videos that are up really strong and I feel like Ego would have eventually provided a shallow episode, so at least it ended on quite a strong note, is I guess what I'm trying to say.