What is entertaining about watching someone else play a video game? It doesn’t really compare to any other form of media, but we’re still addicted to watching. What aspects of these videos make them entertaining?
One could look at different reasons, and then perhaps analyse further. One example might be the interactivity of games and our attraction to power and the unknown. How have games changed to become more interactive over time, and how has this impacted our ability to focus on things that aren't, such as TV shows with commercials, youtube ads, or movies in the theatre? – kathleensumpton9 years ago
It would also be worth exploring the diversity among Let's Play-ers. How do their techniques vary and how does this effect their popularity? What are some doing that other aren't? What are the results of this new genre of entertainment and is it on the rise? How did it come about? What platforms do they utilize? (i.e. streaming on Twitch, YouTube, etc.) Are they being paid/sponsored? What is that like? --much of this may go towards background info for those readers unaware of this branch of entertainment. – eadewaard9 years ago
This topic was covered in a rather controversial manner with Jimmy Kimmel about a month ago, and how he didn't understand it. There was lots of backlash from the gamer community, but he eventually met up with some well-known Let's Players, and discussed it civilly with them. There are also different types of Let's Play, the Twitch Plays series is rather unique in it's approach of having multiple players choose the actions for one character in a game. It's an interesting topic to be sure, and there are many different avenues to go forward with, it might be good to focus on one singular aspect of the Let's Play phenomenon by itself, whether it be for a style of Let's Play, a game that has seen lots of Let's Play videos done on it, a really well-known Let's Player, or even the history of this relatively recent fad on the internet. The possibilities are endless. – SilentProtagonist9 years ago
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