Let Us Play

It's funny how much work you really don't expect when you start out Let's Playing. You think, "Hey! I can talk about this VIDEO GAME while playing it for people on the Internet and maybe entertain them in some way!" I think all of us who become Let's Players tend to underestimate really how much work it can be to create a quality LP that keeps people either entertained or informed (some people are good enough to do both).

I only post about this because some people really don't know what we LPers go through in order to release our videos. First of all, you have to make sure your video is running at a consistent frame rate with at least decent quality. Then there's the audio, where you have to decide whether to mix both game audio and commentary into the same track and risk having a terrible audio balance or split the two and then worry about syncing it all up manually. And believe me, audio syncing is one gigantic clusterfuck, especially when editing footage caught from a capture card. I typically do a countdown on my audio track before starting the video so I know where the audio track comes in for the beginning of the video - this way, I can manually sync it up together.

But then you have all these compounding issues that tend to come out of left field and kick your ass to the point where you aren't sure if you're be able to edit and render today's video in time. Your video recording fucks up and skips every time a fade into a black screen occurs, meaning you have to salvage the video and manually sync it back to its correct position WITHOUT ANY INDICATION OF WHERE TO PUT IT BESIDES YOUR FRIGGIN' MEMORY (yeah, i've been annoyed at this problem lately). You stupidly forget that you were recording just footage so you had turned your mic audio off the previous day and failed to remember to turn that feature of your recording software back on. The game audio ITSELF desyncs from the video footage, meaning you also have to sync that back into place... And these are just problems you need to be wary about to make the video "okay" to watch. This is without adding all the pretty text effects, transitions, animations, and basically preliminary graphic art skills needed to make actually GOOD looking material like walkthrough commentaries. Overall, the initial recording session of good spirited fun that only lasted 15-20 minutes turns into an ugly editing session of sometimes even multiple hours, depending on how much you want to put into your videos. There's no "play" in the editing aspect of LPing, yet we have to do it anyway to make ourselves look presentable and to draw other people in to being entertained.

This isn't even half of it though. Even the fun part - the recording itself - takes active effort on your part. It becomes an issue of style. What do you say? What approach do you take? How do you handle reacting to certain events in the game? What do you even CHOOSE to LP? It's okay not to know what you're going for at first. Every LPer was an awkward sonuva bitch at some point with no idea on how to approach commentary. I sure as hell know I was! Ultimately though, you're left with a question in the back of your mind - is everyone suited to LP? Is Let's Playing really a democratic field of entertainment within gaming? Can anyone just pick it up and hope to be a good Let's Player?

My answer is... no. It's impossible. Sorry to say, but it's the harsh truth. Some of us aren't cut out for Let's Playing on a solo level. It's legitimately difficult to come up with commentary when you're the only head in charge and directly involved in the unfolding of a project. On the level of LPing, game skills matter little in comparison to your commentary that bounces and evolves from the gameplay. If you can't create interesting commentary or a flow that interests people, then you won't succeed. That's bare minimum. And people are shallow fucks - aesthetically pleasing elements also play their own role. Your voice will be judged. But even having a great voice doesn't mean you'll be entertaining right off the bat. It's because to Let's Play, you have to become an entertainer yourself. And that can be really hard. I struggled with it myself for months until the middle of my second Let's Play.

You have to ask yourself why you're LPing. Is it for yourself? Is it for others? Is it to share your favorite games and your own perspective on them? All of these questions center around one central tenet... Are you having fun? That's where the "Play" part really comes in... Despite all the work and crap you'll be slogging through - fickle viewers, outrageous editing issues, synthesizing decent and consistent commentary in a quality approach - you still have to have fun. And if you can have fun despite these things, well, you're tenacious and at least have the potential to become a pretty damn good LPer if you keep at it. And after all, you're just playing a video game for the Internet, so despite the effort, your main goal and worry is whether or not you're going to enjoy the journey. And if you do, it becomes an amazing hobby that will change your entire outlook on life even though it seems so trivial.

I'm almost done with my first year. I've actually gained a lot of knowledge in video editing, met some really kind people, had awesome times commentating with my friends, and have developed a style I feel confident in that sets me apart from others. I've been having some of the most fun I've ever had in my life. Why do I bring others to co-commentate on my solo LPs sometimes? Why do I contribute to collaborative projects on both the CounterClaimCrew channel and even my own in the future with Co-Ops and other ideas that I've been broiling over?

Because I want them to experience all the fun times I have. I want to show my amazing friends and my interactions with them to others so that they can have hope that this world has a lot of good and joy to be had in it. I want to show my memories of the games that have touching stories and enriching gameplay, or rather, games as our generation's artistic medium. Most of all, I want to build community within Let's Playing. It's time we stop just merely looking at the popular LPers as if they're the only ones out there worth circling around - some do plenty to help out the little guy, some don't, that's just how it is. Let's Playing is an opportunity to use our hobbies as a way to connect to others and find meaningful friendships and community while having fun in the process. That's why I won't be stopping anytime soon.