Is YouTube trying to push Let's Players off the platform?

[ollie191]

Yeah, I have noticed Twitch adding very sneaky YouTube-like things recently, and fair play to them I guess. I use Twitch very, very rarely, and I'm starting to think it's possibly just my refusal to explore a new platform other than YouTube that's putting ideas in my head about "let's player oppression". I guess complacency is the word I'm looking for - can be a dangerous thing

[TheDorkyDane]

I don't think so.

I follow a couple of let's players and they seem to be doing fine, hell they seem to have a better and better time because fewer and fewer games are constantly claiming copyright strikes, lastly Nintendo blew everyones minds by allowing streaming of ALL their games.

If anything, let's player are hit by the add-pocalyps, but that is the same for EVERYONE!

Also if Youtube were trying to push away the let's players, that would be really stupid as there IS a competitive platform for let's players which they will go to and bring all their viewers, this platform is called twitch, and is starting to implement more and more stuff similar to youtubes, it's the only place on the internet remotely having the chance to one day being a competitor to youtube.

The chances of this actually happening are very slim, still... For youtube to push people away to their only competition seems really stupid.

Then again, youtube has been known for making a lot of really stupid decisions in the past so well...

[Moonlight]

Twitch pays more and doesn't require video editing except for highlights. Youtube is also trying to make their site into TV 2.0 with more focus on big corporate programs instead of the little guy content creators.

[MadMummy76]

It would sound really stupid at a board meeting:

- What's our agenda to further increase monetization of the game? You know we have to grow, we have to grow!

- Well, we're planning a huge crackdown on free advertising the players are providing us on youtube! That should do it!

[Dick]

When I want to watch gameplay, I typically want to watch a "No commentary" gameplay video, to see if I think the game looks cool/worth buying.

[xadu]

Darwin never sleeps. The only reason to censor a gameplay on youtube is because the game is trash, and companies don't want gamers to know beforehand.

It is good that badly managed companies censor their games on youtube. They will get no free publicity, and will go bankrupt.

[k4far]

Carefull on that. I've seen threads locked because people were discussing legislation surrounding video games.

shhh, THEY are reading this as we speak

[fenrif]

Copyright reform dude. If you are from Europe you will have your channel TAKEN DOWN casually for fair use and reviewing. Meantime industry is pushing to remove/limited user reviews if you saw recent The Quartering video on this. They prefere to shut us up instead of fixing their trash. We should just keep buying do not question lizard masters.


http://www.exclusivelygames.com/foru...ing-for-europe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQG6...&persist_app=1

Carefull on that. I've seen threads locked because people were discussing legislation surrounding video games.

[ollie191]

It'll never be revealed to be a "grand conspiracy", even though I worded the post as if it would be. Rather there just seem to be many factors adding up to result in this decline in viewership.

Twitch does seem to be a big culprit, but I get the appeal in livestreams. You don't get a chopped up, constantly hyper version of your favourite let's player: you get to actually see how they act in a very real, live setting, which is appealing to many.

[MadMummy76]

So it's a grand conspiracy against let's plays? I don't think so. I was never interested in such content, but I'd hazard the viewers just moved to twitch these days.

[ollie191]

Copyright issues have always plagued Let's Plays since their conception for obvious reasons, and it's yet another reason why YouTube would want channels centred around this off their platform. They really do just keep piling up.

Game companies have seemed to warm up to them over the years though - it is free advertising, after all. But it's certainly a dying medium and Let's Players aren't raking in the attention of millions like they used to. I mean look at how talked about Pewdiepie has become now that he's moved on from the let's play content.

It's a shame, because Nintendo have recently let go of the reins of what videos of their games they would allow people to upload, but now I'm thinking maybe they did it because there'd be no use in Task Force "Stop People Making Videos of Our Games" if no one is making videos of their games anymore.

[xadu]

I never searched "let's play", but "gameplay", and I noticed no difference, except that some streamers mover to twitch for reasons I don't know.

[isturbo1984]

Youtube's decent into pleasing investors and catering to copyright strikers and ignoring fair use has more than caught up with the video game community. I think its quite obvious which side a "Let's Play" falls on when it comes to that topic. So yes, given this, I would say it is accurate to say TouYube have waged a mini-crusade against Let'sPlayers.

[k4far]

Copyright reform dude. If you are from Europe you will have your channel TAKEN DOWN casually for fair use and reviewing. Meantime industry is pushing to remove/limited user reviews if you saw recent The Quartering video on this. They prefere to shut us up instead of fixing their trash. We should just keep buying do not question lizard masters.


http://www.exclusivelygames.com/foru...ing-for-europe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQG6...&persist_app=1

[ollie191]

I'm unsure about the Twitch thing. From what I've seen, a lot of LPers stream on YouTube because that's where their audience is, and that audience can donate and show their support too.

There are a number of advantages and disadvantages to livestreams themselves though, but if channels have the numbers (like Game Grumps do), they can be very profitable - and I imagine more so on Twitch as that site is made for streaming, and you can give viewers more bonuses for donating and even run ads on your streams.

There are a lot of directions this topic can go really, and I can't figure out who or what is to blame