Let's Plays Save Lives

It's a fact of life that sometimes, it can be hard, stressful and depressing. We all go through rough patches at some point or another, some of which are rougher than others. It's at times like this that we attempt to cope with the tough times by finding as escape. Some listen to music full blast, some paint or draw and some play video games. We all have different coping mechanisms that allow us to get through the tough times and move to a better place. For some, Let's Plays do exactly that; providing comfort and hope for those in need.

As I've said many times in past posts, Let's Plays are essentially improv comedy shows, The hosts need to think on their feet to be able to provide solid laughs from their audience. And laughing is good. They say laughter is the best medicine and quite frankly it's true. Laughter can indeed help cure depression. When you laugh, your body releases endorphins which are natural pain killers. They also help lower anxiety and give you a more positive outlook on your problems. A lot of comedic mediums such as stand up, sitcoms and films have been credited with this fact so why not Let's Play shows? After all, Pewdipie has over 30 million subscribers, Markiplier just broke 4 million and the Game Grumps are near 2 million so you can't say they don't have an audience. The sheer numbers represented by these channels alone can speak volumes for the lives they've affected.

But it's not just the numbers that tell the tale. The content creators themselves realize the impact of their work everyday. Game Grumps are well known for how they help people with depression. In fact, at one point on the show, Danny shared a story that really hit home for a lot of people. He discussed his personal struggle with depression, and how he fought against OCD without even knowing it. He decided to tell the story because many people receive comfort from Game Grumps and wanted to share his own experience so the audience had something to relate to. The episode garnered a very positive response and is still beloved by many fans today. Even if you look at the comments section below the video, people are still being inspired by this episode and even come back to it whenever they feel helpless. Though it must be said, his decisions during that time weren't perfect, as throwing away your prescribed medication without consulting your Doctor is definitely a very risky thing to do and doesn't work out as cleanly as it did for him. In another video in the series, he acknowledges this and also thanks the fans for all of the support and thank you emails he received after the episode aired. That alone proves how the Game Grumps are always watching, listening and interacting with their fans.

Markiplier too is well aware of the impact he has on people and in fact thanks his audience on a constant basis. One thing that makes me enjoy Markiplier so much personally is how humble he is. He's very relatable and he has shared his own story as well. He too has dealt with tough times and depression and has been in situations that were seemingly hopeless. After his Father died his life took a downward spiral and at one pint while in the hospital, he felt trapped and angry. He managed to summon the strength and willpower to get through it, but for some they aren't so strong willed. And that's why videos like this are important because they inspire people to do better and to let them know that it gets better. I myself turn to his thank you video from time to time when I feel like things are hopeless and I instantly feel not as bad, where I feel like the bad situation I was in is escapable and lo and behold I've made it this far.

Aside from helping people kick depression, these channels have also donated a lot of money to charity over the course of their existence. Markiplier especially does a lot of charity live streams. I can't even begin to list how many streams for charity he's done. And as stated in the thank you video, he's always encouraging his viewers to donate and do better for the World. Game Grumps has done some charity work as well and raised seven thousand dollars during that one event. The ex-Grump JonTron did did a livestream charity recently and raised over twenty-five thousand dollars during the stream.

Whether you find Let's Play channels funny to watch or not, there's no denying that they do make a difference. They touch so many peoples lives and inspire them to do great things. They not only bring people up when they're down but they inspire them as well to make art of their own. I for one got the inspiration to do my Let's Play channel straight from Game Grumps because they have brought joy to so many people and I really want do the same when my show eventually launches. (It is coming soon, I promise.) This something not just all comedians but artists in general should do. They should aim to make happiness and love from the talents they posses. They should inspire those with a dream and encourage them to spread that inspiration to others who want to create something meaningful and so on. Over the course of this blog so far, I've attempted to convey how Let's Play channels are not some stupid internet fad that just consist of people playing over video games while talking but are something much deeper and worthwhile. To me, this is the core reason why these shows and YouTube as a creative platform for that matter, is something legitimate and robust that should be taken seriously. Of course for some, their perception will never change and while unfortunate, I can accept it because it doesn't change the fact that Let's Plays save lives.

Tips for Beginners! Episode 1

If you may recall, when I first made this blog, I mentioned how I would like to give tips to fellow beginner Let's Players, so that they could improve and become better. Unfortunately, I've had a tough time writing these tips into the main blog topics I've been posting so, to alleviate that, I'm going to make them separate individual posts from now on!

For this first week, my tip to you is to just relax. Sounds cliche, I know, but really work on this. Let's Play channels are supposed to be casual commentary shows and they're supposed to entertain their viewers with a casual, laid back approach. If you spend all your time worrying over everything you say, or about how well you're playing the game, you're going to flop comedically. If you're tense, it's not going to allow for much humor and your game play can possibly suffer because you're you're over thinking it. For example, with public speaking, nervousness will lead to stuttering, If you're too frazzled, you will end up forgetting your words, your place in your speech and the quality of it will dip dramatically. Naturally, you fix this by just taking a breather and relaxing. Same goes with Let's Plays. Back in our first few Let's Plays, I tried to watch everything I was doing when recording so that I didn't sound stupid but it came off as forced and not genuine at all. So the best tip I can give for those just starting out is to just relax and try your best. If your first effort flops, it's okay. There's always room for improvement.

Does Game Choice Matter?

As I mentioned in my post "Old vs. New", recent Let's Plays channels, especially with Pewdipie and Dan & Phil Plays, the show becomes less abut the game and more about the people playing the game. The audience is more thrilled about seeing the person playing the game rather than the game itself. So the question relevance here is, does game choice matter? If the person is popular enough, who cares what they play, right? Well, allow me to answer the question with a question of my own: Say you're a lover of rock music. Would you like to go a Van Halen concert to see them cover Nicki Minaj songs? Same concept applies here.

Of course game choice matters. Despite the games themselves fading into the background in recent years, they are still the core of what makes up Let's Plays. People come to watch their favorite content creators play games, they don't come to watch them view a movie or eat lunch. They still come for the games, but just in a different way. They want to see the person they love beat their favorite game because they want to share that love with them and all of the people watching. It's essentially what Let's Play channels are about.

Secondly, for some people, the type of game being played can affect whether they actually watch the videos or not. I was having a conversation the other day with a friend about Markiplier, and how we love his videos. He mentioned to me how hesitant he was to watch his Let's Plays of Five Night's at Freddy's because he's easily scared by horror games.  This conversation is what essentially inspired me to write this blog entry because I too have let games affect my viewership of some of my favorite Let's Play Channels. I have skipped quite a bit of Game Grumps because I just simply wasnt interested in what they were playing. For instance, I skipped their entire Sims 4 series because I'm just not engaged in what's going on screen. Sims is a game I love playing, not watching and I find it boring to look at. Another angle I can take from this is watching them play a game that doesn't quite fit their comedic strengths. I found one of their recent series, Pac Man, very boring for two reasons. Firstly, Pac Man is a game that just consists of one continuous screen. The layout never changes and there's not much to say other than it's classic, and "darn the Ghost got me again!". This in my opinion. led to a very bland commentary as they didn't really talk about the game but more so about their daily lives. Which, don't get me wrong, is very endearing and interesting but, I enjoy Game Grumps because of its wacky improv based off the games, not a discussion about what they had for lunch the other day. And to reiterate, this is a Let's Play channel about the people playing, not the game being played. If game choice didn't matter, then I wouldn't have turned off the episode.

Lastly, you should never pick a game you're not passionate about or don't enjoy. Randomly picked games can be hit or miss, it really depends on the games content that determines whether or not the episode will be funny so it's quite a risk. I know this fact from experience. On my own project, my friend and I attempted to play Ghostbusters the video game. I never really got far in it so I really didn't know what it had in store. Additionally, my friend has never seen the Ghostbusters movie so he didn't get any of the inside jokes I was laughing at. We were mostly talking about things on screen but nothing was clicking humor. In the end, we decided to stop within the first three levels and just cut the the series altogether. We don't regret it one bit and we both feel it led to some good quality episodes after.

The rule of thumb is, if you''re not invested in what you're playing, the audience won't be either. If you choose to cut a series because it's not turning out as good as you hoped, that's perfectly fine. Artists, musicians and comedians cut their own work all the time because they want to give their audience the very best. If you're starting out, you're allowed to make mistakes because it's necessary to learn from them in order to progress and become better. So when you go to choose your first game, keep all of this in mind  but also don't over think it. Just choose what you love, and quality will follow.

Why is Rage Funny?

When I first established this blog, I insisted that Let's Plays are a form of comedy and can be compared to the likes of stand up and other famous genres of comedy. Of course, like I said, comedy is an objective art form and what one can find funny about a certain joke, may not be what another thinks. Though one aspect that fans of Let's Plays can universally agree on is rage gaming. I mentioned in my last post with the iconic Game Grumps moment how rage can be funny because in this particular instance, it's so over the top and dramatic that it's gut bustingly hilarious. But how else rage be funny? And why is it funny as a whole?

Well to dive into that, let's talk about gamers and the gaming community. Gamers as a whole, are a family of sorts. We play games because we get pleasure and joy out of them. They're fun and they take us out of the World and put us into another whenever we turn on the power button. Most of the time anyway. With good movies and good stand up comedy, there is an equal and opposite bad. Routines that just aren't funny no matter how you look at it and are universally panned by critics. The Room here, is considered one of the worst films of all time, and has a distinct cult following because of its poor acting, poor production, and generally weird plot. Same with video games, as there are bad games out there that are considered universally bad. Games like Sonic '06, Drake and the 99 Dragons and E.T on Atari are notorious for there terribleness. These are flawed games that suffer from poor design choices which hold the game back from being enjoyable. Imagine you're a kid in the 90's, with no internet, and only know about video games through word of mouth. Imagine you get say, Bubsy 3D as a birthday gift for your Playstation One and curiously try to play it to see what its like only to discover that the controls are terrible, the puns are too painful and the graphics look like windows 95 barfed on your television screen. Wouldn't that anger you? Wouldn't it piss you off that the game is so poorly designed ? Wouldn't you be seething with jealousy knowing that your friends got to play Super Mario 64, an infinitely superior 3D exploration game? That's the rage that kids in the 90's and even before then, felt when they stumbled upon a terrible video game.

Fast forward to over a decade later, where the internet is firmly established and a website called YouTube was just born. Browsing through the videos, you see a guy called JonTron reviewing this very game. He makes fun of the poor controls, the terrible graphics the puns and just the ridiculousness of the entire game, even pointing out how Super Mario 64 came out a little before it. This is what you call being relatable. People find pleasure in pain by finding others that they can identify with. In the video, Jontron is essentially reacting to the game as anybody else would and its funny because you know exactly what its like. You take pleasure in his pain because you felt it too. This is why The Angry Video Game Nerd is so popular, because gamers identify with his pain of playing terrible games. He's working your nostalgia and representing your emotions.

Let's Players do the exact same thing, though in a natural and unscripted environment. Game Grumps here illustrates this concept perfectly. As a kid, I dreaded this specific level in Super Mario Sunshine every time I played it. If you've ever played it, you'll know that there's this invisible wall that follows you as you move right across the board, preventing you from going backwards, even if the slot is inches away from you. On top of that, the slope detection, (or the angles that dictate whether Mario can walk on or slide down because it's too steep) is terrible in this game and you will slip and slide even on the most flattest of inclines. This level has it BAD and as you cans see, both contributed to the Game Grump's death in the clip. Seeing this moment made me bust my gut laughing because I've experienced it so I relate to their misfortune. Sure some people can laugh at something over the top, but isn't the moment that much funnier when you know exactly what it's like? The answer is a resounding yes of course.

Now you might be asking yourself, how is this humor in the same field as say Jim Carreys stand up? Or how is it as funny as say the sitcom, Friends? Well, allow me to answer that question with a question of my own. Don't both Jim Carrey and Friends use the same technique? Don't they present something that people can relate to, albeit in a more humorous fashion? Comedians, actors and television shows alike use relatable situations to their advantage when creating their routines or episodes. The only difference here is that one of these forms uses everyday life as humor while the other uses video games. Just because the medium changes doesn't mean the impact is any less effective. Both Let's Play Channels such as Game Grumps and Markiplier and review shows such as The Angry Video Game Nerd and JonTron for that matter reach out to a specific niche audience and have gathered the success they have because they represent them. Fans live vicariously through these internet celebrities and have satisfaction in being represented in a medium that both reminds them why they're gamers and why they love video games. When you plug in that disk or cartridge into your system for the first time, you never know what to truly expect, good or bad. The experience you have with it is something that stays with you for the rest of your life and to have those feelings represented in humor, is something that I think certainly deserves some respect.

To Facecam or Not to Facecam?

In my last post, I mentioned the advent of Facecam and how controversial it was and how it still heavily polarizes many fans of Let's Plays. But why though? Why would the inclusion of such a minute feature cause such a heated debate? After all, it is is just showing your physical reactions to your gameplay, why would that be considered bad? Well, there are two sides to every argument and I'm going to try and portray them equally as best I can, both from an outside perspective as well as giving my own two cents.

It's a thing of beauty quite honestly.

To reiterate, Facecam is when the Let's Player uses a webcam to show their face as they play. When this new feature started to spread, it kind of broke new grounds. it was essentially a doorway into the "Modern era" of Let's Plays. A lot of people really enjoyed this new feature because seeing the person, immediately felt more personal ad audience friendly. It was like you were in the same room, hanging out with them as buddies, watching them play your favorite game. It gave a feeling that Facecam-less Let's Plays couldn't. It felt like the audience was involved in the whole process rather than just being along for the ride. Facecam also brought a more immediate humor because seeing the physical reactions of the people was a much quicker way of getting laughs rather than waiting to hear the audio cues in their voice. It's not that long of a difference but it is noticeable when you compare the two. Another strength Facecam has is that it benefits from the type of genre of game being played. Horror games for instance is one of the most popular genres to use facecam for because seeing peoples panicked reactions is a lot funnier than hearing it. Let's Plays of horror games without facecam just seem empty in comparison. Sometimes their facial expressions does a lot more justice to the situation such as in the picture above of Markiplier playing the critically acclaimed indie horror game Five Nights at Freddy's. Imagine if Markiplier didn't use facecam at all. You would never even see his reaction to Freddy screaming in his ear. It's humor you just can't get from audio alone.

Don't knock off strict audio that easily though, because the logic works both ways. Having strictly audio can certainly give benefits that facecam can actually ruin. With facecam, some audio jokes and tricks can just seem silly or make a situation look over the top because seeing it isn't as funny as hearing it. Take one of the most iconic moments from the show Game Grumps for example. In the clip, Arin gets up, leaves the room and slams the door behind him. He then proceeds to rant and scream, his reaction is way over the top and it is absolute gold. If we actually saw it happen, it might have come off differently as seeing anger is a lot more scary and uncomfortable than hearing it. One of the most famous moments from Game Grumps might have been ruined if the Game Grumps utilized facecam. Another common argument is that facecam takes away from the game itself. The original principle that Let's Plays were founded on was showing off the game as an experience. To show it off as more than a game, as something that emotionally connected with you as a player and to share that experience with others so that they can feel it too. And to be honest, I can really agree with this statement. Facecam DOES take away from the game because it becomes a distraction. For instance, I've noticed that whenever I watch Markipliers videos, there's a sense of disconnection that I feel from the game because it's not about the game, it's about him and his reactions to it. That's not necessarily a bad thing per say because his reactions are hilarious and he's really fun to watch but the immersion from the game is completely broken because of a weird, awkward square that is meant to show the game is being blocked by his face.

Now, it might sound like I'm favoring the naysayers but quite honestly, I don't stand by either sentiment. I personally believe that there's a right way and a wrong way to do facecam and that all depends on the style of your show. What are you, the content creator going for? Do you want to hae the viewers feel like they're hanging out with you? Are you better with visual humor? Then use facecam. Or do you want an informative, immersive tone or utilize the advantage of blind audio to make jokes? Then don't use Facecam. It's that simple. The usage of facecam should not be dependent on what's "cool" and "hip" but what suits you the best. Some people just aren't comfortable in front of the camera. They can come off as awkward and shy because a recording camera puts a pressure on you. A pressure to perform and to "not look stupid" in front of your audience. Take Chuggaaconroy here for example. He has a stone faced expression, little emotion in his voice and he rarely blinks. As a person who is about strictly showing off games, you can clearly see he's not in his element recording himself like this. Yet, he's one of the most well known and beloved Let's Players on YouTube. It all depends on what you want to do with you show, what purpose you're making videos for. So is facecam this huge, narcissistic aspect that ruins Let's Plays? Well no, but it's also certainly not a hindrance if you choose to forgo it either. It all comes down to what you want.