If you watch a full Let's Play of a video game, are YOU less likely to buy the game?

[TelperionST]

Sandbox-game: No, actually the opposite.

Story-driven game: Yes, definitely, which is why I usually stop after just a few episodes into a Let's Play, if I'm at all interested.

[Necromancerx69]

I watched multiple play throughs of visual novel games, I still end up buying them to see the story again or I just simply loved it.
One quick example: 'Analogue: A hate story', sure the story ain't that great but I still enjoyed it so I bought it and replay it.

[TelperionST]

There are only a handful of story-driven games that I have ever played through more than once. From recent history the only that comes to mind is Dishonored and that was helped along by having some of the best DLC I remember ever seeing. Keeping that game relevant to me far longer than I had expected. Once I'm through a story-driven game I have trouble remaining interested, so even if I start a second playthrough I very rarely finish it.

[NorthernNikki]

Pretty much this. There are a bunch of sandbox games that I've ended up buying because I saw a let's play that got my interest. I still watch the ones that I play often like They Are Billions or The Long Dark - it's interesting to see different play styles.

[Necromancerx69]

I watched multiple seasons (yep, that's right, seasons) of let's play Lobotomy Corporation from multiple Youtubers.
I got sooo hooked up with the videos, as soon payday came I bought the game. Now I am still trying to kill White Night (2 op plz nerf).

So no, watching play throughs doesn't make you no longer want to buy a game. Doki Doki was simply not for you.
But Lobotomy Corporation was sure made for me and I LOVE it.

[gbullock32]

Many of the Let's Plays I watch are games I am interested in seeing, but are not games I'd personally enjoy playing myself. Many Tell Tale games for example, I just am not that big into adventure games anymore, but I like to watch them.

I also do watch some on games I am interested in, to tell if they are something I want to buy, but seeing the game played does not make me want it less or more in and of itself.

[Astraea]

Yeah I only watch those for games I don't plan on buying or have already beat.

[Sylentmoogle]

Depends on the game, but I may be more likely to buy the game to play it for myself.

[Merlin]

I only watch lets plays of games I am interested in, but know I won't ever play. For me that would be scary games. I like spooky games but I don't have enough nerve to progress through the game myself, I would just hide in a corner, close my eyes and scream when the monsters get me. So it depends I think. On the other hand I hate watching games I have played or want to play because its boring to me. I guess it has no bearing on my opinion of playing a game.

[Trout]

When I was working overnight security, I watched a lot of the channel "Previously Recorded". It was a good way to kill a few hours in your shift and turned me onto some games I later bought. They played a lot of indie game so they were nice cheap thrill games you pay 5 dollars and get 10 hours or so of enjoyment.

[OverdriveActive]

Absolutely. I have watched many games being played and then just decided that replaying that exact same game wasn't worth the hassle. I think there's a lot of single player games that provide so little experience beyond what I get as a viewer that it turns me off of buying them. It's why I only really seriously play online games. Going through, usually, quite limited dialogue options and hitting QTEs isn't satisfying enough as a playing experience that I get what want from viewing it.

Meanwhile, watching dozens of hours of Elder Scrolls Online made me play it - it pulled me in much more than it pushed. Same with PUBG, Quake Champions and Soul Calibur VI. All games where you can tell that the playing experience is so fun that being a viewer doesn't cover the same ground.

[xadu]

I love also to watch speedruns on games which cannot be easily broken, or bugs cannot be easily exploited.

The last one I was trapped on speedruns was Alien Isolation. It took years until the speedrunners found how to clip across closed doors, so they were forced to, mostly, respect the game rules and use his creativity.

Alien Isolation speedrunning died in 2018 after they found how to cross those doors, and skip most of the game, but meanwhile, it was a joy.

I also loved to watch the people which was genuinely scared but didn't spent a day in a locker.

I wish developers had speedrunning on mind when they create the games. They should give some reward to players which achieve impossible stunts, but also code something to avoid clipping exploits.

[KABOOMKSE]

I normally watch tell tale games n stuff like that because I can't see myself buying them.

[Merlin]

I love also to watch speedruns on games which cannot be easily broken, or bugs cannot be easily exploited.

The last one I was trapped on speedruns was Alien Isolation. It took years until the speedrunners found how to clip across closed doors, so they were forced to, mostly, respect the game rules and use his creativity.

Alien Isolation speedrunning died in 2018 after they found how to cross those doors, and skip most of the game, but meanwhile, it was a joy.

I also loved to watch the people which was genuinely scared but didn't spent a day in a locker.

I wish developers had speedrunning on mind when they create the games. They should give some reward to players which achieve impossible stunts, but also code something to avoid clipping exploits.

I think internal game time would be nice in more games down to the tenth of a second and such. But you do realize devs don't intend people to clip through geometry right?....

[xadu]

I think internal game time would be nice in more games down to the tenth of a second and such. But you do realize devs don't intend people to clip through geometry right?....

What is the point of your question? Most game's speedruns end being clipped by exploiting bugs. It is not so hard to code something like "kill the player if he is out of bounds", or detecting clipping violations instead of trusting that the code doesn't allow clipping.

[Merlin]

I'm pretty sure that "kill player because we messed up" wouldn't be seen very nicely when you accidently break geometry and lose all your progress as a normal player. But I see what you are getting at. The best solution is always just better QC to find these issues, and to patch them when found. Besides, these exploits aren't always so bad that it ruins speed running, as usually certain exploits are forbidden if they are too insane to keep the scene alive. For example Zelda ALTTP has one where you can beat the game in just a couple minutes, and that exploit isn't considered a speed run for the people who play that game because its just boring and too easy. On the otherhand mario kart 64 has an exploit that also makes finishing one track potentially extremely fast but because it is so hard to pull off and can be done for every lap potentially, it is accepted by the speed runners. Its hard to say what to do, its never so easy. In any event, the point of my question was I wasn't sure if you thought that devs put exploits in their games on purpose so that people could find them. You phrased it in such a way to lead me to that or similar conclusions. Thank you for your discussion.

[xadu]

"exploits aren't always so bad that it ruins speed running"

Yes, they are that bad. Entire levels are skipped by going out bounds. That's the norm.

The next atrocity after escaping the map by clipping (or flying the entire map like in Crysis) is when the enemies aren't even fought, but just ignored by running to the exit.

[xadu]

I absolutely don't buy a game if I can't watch how does it play on youtube. I also mistrust game trailers which does not show the gameplay.

I once spent 60 U$S on a star wars game which turned to be absolute garbage. I felt totally ripped off. Now I don't spend a cent without being sure that the game is worth it. I don't waste money on pre-orders from AAA developers.

The last time I spent any money on a game I didn't knew, was as mentoring for "Sir, you are being hunted", because I wanted to promote the idea. The actual game was disappointing, but I knew beforehand that it could happen.

[haafie]

I buy games after watching someone play. I find it quite useful to see if it's a game I'd like to play myself. Or vice versa, if I can tell that I won't be enjoying it at all.
I bought Rimworld, Kingdom Come Deliverance, Yakuza 0, Subnautica because I saw someone play on Twitch or on Youtube. Also works for games I was uncertain about at first, watching a let's play tells me (usually) enough to make up my mind not to buy.

[ryvrdrgn14]

I don't need to watch a full Let's Play to see if a game is interesting or not, but I have absolutely zero trust in any company claims on how great their game is. They lie. Trailers lie. Influencers lie. They are too scared to release demos.

Let's Plays are just the new demo for me to see if a game is worth the time and money to put into it or not. It's usually great because there are a lot of people who can do a playthrough and you get a lot of different opinions about the game in addition to customer reviews prior to purchase. Written customer reviews on Steam are nice, but they really don't show you the actual game.

I think it's fine if a Let's Play makes you decide that the game is not for you. It doesn't mean that Let's Plays are bad for business or that you shouldn't watch them.