That's one of the arguments I don't get. It's bad to steal a video someone spent five months on and react to it, but it's ok to play a game that a whole team of people spent years of their lives and likely cost a lot of money to develop and record it so people can see it without buying it? I really fail to see the difference. Compared to the amount of work the game makers put into the game, Let's Players are putting in 0 effort, don't you think?
I'm ready to admit that I'm totally missing something if I am, but to me it just seems like YouTubers can relate more easily to other YouTuber's getting their video's ripped and reacted to, then they can to a video game developer getting his or her work ripped and broadcast over the internet for everyone to see.
I did not mention let's plays at all in my comment, but Ill give you my 2 cents on them.
I'll use myself as an example.
- I work months on a video, someone watches it on someone elses channel, I get 0 benefit at all and the viewer walks away with the entertainment.
- a team of developers spend months or years on a game, someone watches it on someone's lets play. developers get no benefit, and viewer walks away with some of the games story.
- That is all that can be taken away from a lets play. a 10 minute video playing minecraft will not give a viewer the full experience of the game. they cannot chose the actions of the lets player, they usually cannot hear the music, build the house they want etc. HOWEVER, if the viewer really enjoys the game, they are quite likely to purchase it for themselves, ... why? Why would someone buy a game if they can watch someone else play it? - of course its because 99% of games are focused on experience. Take undertale for example, i saw 2 videos on it on a lets play channel, and went straight to buy several copies of the game, the full soundtrack, and $70 worth of merchandise. the creator of the game CAN benefit from their content being shared like this.
on the other side:
once someone watches my 10 minute animation, that is it. the full experience of my content is over with. why would someone view my video again? there's nothing to buy, no 'new experience' to be had if they view the video again themselves without the reactor. the video remains constant. add to this that I do not profit from purchases, or own a large company. Add to that that lets players have to purchase the games to even play them in the first place, there has already been a benefit for the game creators!
- I will say that games that are almost 100% story and have very little gameplay or choices at all should probably be avoided.
*note* this is not meant to come across negatively at all, I am only sharing my opinion on let's plays since I was quoted, I hope this helps give you another view on the subject
