‘Let’s Play’ videos and how the internet has driven gamers out of the living room

Let’s Play

There was a time when children would play video games together. I remember many long afternoons spent gathered around old TVs in various basements across my neighborhood. Even if I didn’t have a controller of my own, I’d watch as my friends sought desperately to complete the hero’s quest or solve the puzzle or collect the last banana. Even if I didn’t get a turn, I was engrossed in my companions’ progress. We played until our hands hurt from the bulky airplane-shaped controller or we were called for dinner.

It’s hard to believe that those simple days are mostly foreign to kids now. My youngest cousins are now in elementary school, and they play games like Minecraft online with their friends each night rather than gathering at one another’s houses. Arcades across the country have been shutting down as more gamers opt to stay home to play. Beyond the drastic technological changes occurring in gaming over the past decade, the social dynamic of video games has changed as well.

In some ways, it’s understandable. Heck, the ability to play many games together online has reduced the need for people of all ages to play together and for one person to “backseat game” until his or her friend gets tired of slaying monsters. Now both of you can play online from the comfort of your own homes without any actual contact!

However, if the popularity of Web celebrities like PewDiePie and Markiplier is any indication, this decline in cooperative play is about more than simply playing together.

YouTubers create Let’s Play videos that feature players showing off their skills (or lack thereof) at a variety of video games. Often a small portion of the screen shows a webcam view of the player, while the rest of the screen is a capture of the game. The player reacts to the game in real time, often giving witty or frantic commentary as he or she plays.

These videos have become wildly popular; there are now quite a few Let’s Play stars who command as much or more attention than the games themselves. At gaming conventions across the country, fans line up for hours to get a chance to meet their heroes beyond the screen. One of the most popular panels at MAGFest in National Harbor in January was spearheaded by Arin Hanson and Dan Avidan, known as Game Grumps. These video game personalities have changed the conversations about gaming through their celebration of games both popular and obscure.

But what does this mean for the nature of gaming itself?

The last season finale of South Park addressed the concept of Let’s Plays with a fatalist attitude. In the episode “#REHASH,” Kyle is distraught that Ike, his younger brother, rejected him when he offered to play a new video game with him. Instead, Ike and all his kindergarten-aged friends prefer to bury their faces in tablets and smartphones and watch strangers like PewDiePie play the same games.

The two-part season finale explored Kyle’s attempts to bring families back together and “save the living room,” a place where families used to play games together and provide their own comments about what was happening on screen. The episode took a biased stance against Let’s Plays, raising many of the downsides their critics frequently mention.

One of the most cherished parts of gaming’s first several decades has been the shared experience of playing with a friend or, at the very least, an audience. Lately, this experience has been increasingly more difficult to recreate, as fewer games are developed with multiplayer modes that allow for split-screen competitive or cooperative play. While it’s undoubtedly sad that this is trickling away as the industry shifts to make better use of the many benefits of Internet connectivity, it is unfair to consider Let’s Plays as the death of gaming as many of us knew it.

Let’s Plays not only provide entertainment for lazy gamers; they also adopt the function of the expired G4 television video game review show X-Play. Though few Let’s Play videos are shot exclusively with the purpose of reviewing games, they provide an advantage South Park overlooked: They allow gamers to experience a wide variety of games before even spending a dime.

Let’s Plays are especially important for college students who are strapped for both cash and time. Let’s Plays allow gamers to preview and sort through the countless mainstream and indie releases before committing to purchase any of them.

The industry is constantly in flux, and while Let’s Plays aren’t for everyone, at least they create new subcommunities and allow gamers new insights into the medium.