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"On Let's Plays" - Dev expresses plight over how LP's have impacted his game's sales
Yea, it's definitely something that's been a thing and will probably be a thing for a while.
We're in a rough spot when it comes to people getting paid for the things they put time and effort into, and I feel like there should be focus on an agreement and good will between the creators and the let's players, instead of a fierce paranoia.
EDIT: I think it's an assumption that Let's Plays are always good advertising for good games, the same way that it's an assumption that Let's Plays always hurt sales. I wish we had some good data on that, but I imagine that's kinda hard to track the way things are set up now.
We're in a rough spot when it comes to people getting paid for the things they put time and effort into, and I feel like there should be focus on an agreement and good will between the creators and the let's players, instead of a fierce paranoia.
EDIT: I think it's an assumption that Let's Plays are always good advertising for good games, the same way that it's an assumption that Let's Plays always hurt sales. I wish we had some good data on that, but I imagine that's kinda hard to track the way things are set up now.
"On Let's Plays" - Dev expresses plight over how LP's have impacted his game's sales
author=Craze
Also, I don't agree on the basis that many, many albums are now available for streaming! They're put up by the labels/bands! And yet people like me still buy the music so that I can listen to it while walking or on my lunch break without having to use up my data streaming. With music, you're paying for convenience, not the ability to listen to te track.
Yea, but the labels & bands make the money off those videos. Same with Pandora stations, etc. The developer doesn't directly see a dime for a Let's Play - only unmeasurable increased sales. The Let's Player is the one getting paid.
And again, the original article by the dev was a request to help them with ongoing support for the game by encouraging people to support the devs by linking to them and asking for donations. It wasn't a vicious attack on Let's Players, it was a plea.
author=Craze
I think that saying "you shouldn't be able to stream games" is like saying "we know we made something that isn't an engaging interactive experience." You can stream a physically linear game like Firewatch and still have people want to buy it and play it, because your personal choices directly influence the game. With That Dragon, Cancer? It's just kind of a shit product with some artistic merit as an evocative piece, but not as like... a game. If you're selling it as a game and are unimpressed with how it's selling and that people would rather just watch it, maybe you didn't do a good job. Movies are protected for a reason. Games aren't.
I disagree with this. While I personally agree that the most interesting part of the game medium is the interactivity, it can still be used to make controller-less experiences, or even games with minor but relevant interactivity. You could argue that these are bad games, but them being bad doesn't mean you're suddenly in the clear to do what you like with them. It strikes me as bad faith to simply say "if your game is more fun to watch than stream, then it's your fault you're not making any money off it" while Let's Players walk away with more profit than the dev.
It's fun enough to make somebody money! Just not you.
"On Let's Plays" - Dev expresses plight over how LP's have impacted his game's sales
The argument I always see is that "Let's Plays are nothing but good for developers" but like, what if the developers don't agree with that..? It doesn't really feel right to say "This is good for you, I know best" and be done with it.
Anyway, even the writer of that article said his biggest problem was that LPers would simply play his game with several links to their own channels, but without any links to the game, anything about the developers, etc., no encouragement to support the original creator, etc. which is kind of a real shame. It kind of blows my mind that any LP would do that for a relatively small indie game.
Let's Plays - like people who make unlicensed Undertale merch - are somewhere in the gray area between "original creative work" and "profiting off someone else's creative work". And you could probably argue the ethics of this all day - personally, I feel a lot less bad when the creator has already seen their due (people LPing Minecraft, Mario, etc.) but someone who's sold 14,000 copies of a game isn't really in that place yet.
EDIT: The argument that linear games, story-based games, non-mechanical games, etc. are the ones that probably suffer most from being LPed makes sense a lot of sense. It seems like kind of a bummer - I can see people trying to survive off of indie dev avoiding creating anything "too linear", especially since a lot of players already undervalue the cost of games.
Anyway, even the writer of that article said his biggest problem was that LPers would simply play his game with several links to their own channels, but without any links to the game, anything about the developers, etc., no encouragement to support the original creator, etc. which is kind of a real shame. It kind of blows my mind that any LP would do that for a relatively small indie game.
Let's Plays - like people who make unlicensed Undertale merch - are somewhere in the gray area between "original creative work" and "profiting off someone else's creative work". And you could probably argue the ethics of this all day - personally, I feel a lot less bad when the creator has already seen their due (people LPing Minecraft, Mario, etc.) but someone who's sold 14,000 copies of a game isn't really in that place yet.
EDIT: The argument that linear games, story-based games, non-mechanical games, etc. are the ones that probably suffer most from being LPed makes sense a lot of sense. It seems like kind of a bummer - I can see people trying to survive off of indie dev avoiding creating anything "too linear", especially since a lot of players already undervalue the cost of games.
preview.png
This is some really beautiful pixel work :D The repeated patterns and the lighting works really well! The title's a little hard to read, though.
What are you thinking about right now?
i always kind of assumed it was just like microsoft but just for dudes
like, backwards baseball cap dudes
like, backwards baseball cap dudes
What Is Love
What is ramen even GOOD for?
Yup yup yup.
I usually keep one big cup of instant ramen around just in case I feel like being lazy, but I can't eat it like I could a few years ago. Really nice ramen from a good restaurant is amazing though. I used to live next to a place named the Sushi Bakery that made big bowls of ramen full of seafood, tofu, ginger... mmm. Also, they had Playstations with Soul Calibur 2.
I usually keep one big cup of instant ramen around just in case I feel like being lazy, but I can't eat it like I could a few years ago. Really nice ramen from a good restaurant is amazing though. I used to live next to a place named the Sushi Bakery that made big bowls of ramen full of seafood, tofu, ginger... mmm. Also, they had Playstations with Soul Calibur 2.
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