Narration or no narration?

[Zevia]

Wasn't sure if this should go in the general discussion forum or here, since it's specifically related to Let's Plays.

When you're watching a Let's Play video, obviously the whole point is to hear someone else react while they're playing - but how do you feel about people reading out the dialogue? Do you prefer them to just read at their own pace quietly and otherwise catch their reactions to the overall game, or do you prefer people try to perform it like an impromptu script-reading?

 

[SLEEP]

 

[Alexander Amnell]

I don't care for narration, honestly I'll watch a let's play for one of two reasons

1. I'm curious about a game and trying to decide whether or not I should spend money to get it myself.

2. I'm feeling nostalgic and I'll pull up a let's play of a game I played and enjoyed years ago but no longer have the opportunity to replay.

In neither of these scenarios do I actually want to know the dialogue/story involved. In one case I already know and in the other I'm most interested in the gameplay, so no, don't narrate a let's play. (or do it like the video sleep provided, that's pretty funny; just don't expect people to watch more than a couple of them for cheap laughs.)

What I'd prefer, would be for the let's play not to be the let's players first run at the game, and for him/her to just skip the dialogue entirely and stick to gameplay/talking about the game itself. 

 

[kj3400]

Honestly? I can read myself just fine. Give me a couple of seconds to read it, and I'm good. Unless you're a really good voice actor, I'd rather read it myself.

 

[Milennin]

I don't mind either way. But if the LP'er has a good voice it can be fun to hear how he does the voices for all the characters.

 

[Zevia]

While it's only a few responses, I'm actually somewhat surprised to see a lack of support for narration.

Since every other LPer I'd seen on this community board narrates game dialogue, I was really under the impression that people preferred it. But I do voice acting and audiobooks for a living, and I was actually feeling stressed out trying to come up with a different voice for each character, plus trying to perform what would effectively be a cold read, such that I wasn't feeling as interested in playing other peoples' games. Not knowing the characters beforehand, having cold reads, and having to invent voices on the fly kind of left it feeling like I was just doing a half-assed job on the voices, which, since it's my passion, really frayed my nerves. Like, if I'm not going to perform up to my own standards, I really shouldn't be doing it anyway. My most recent upload, I decided not to narrate, but I was concerned that people would be less interested as a result since, as I mentioned, everyone else seems to be narrating.

To preempt the response of, "You should do what you want," the reason I asked was that I was looking to see what the community felt was more enjoyable - the LP videos aren't for me, after all, they're for other people. But it does seem reassuring that, so far, people actually don't want performances.

 

[Ksi]

As an LPer sometimes it's fun to take on the personae of the people in the game. It's fun to give them voices and ad lib in-character (or as in-character as one can get with what is given at certain points of the game) especially when you have no idea where the plot is going (and even if you do know, it helps you set up clues that might not have been done in the plot beforehand). It's great in the case of silent protagonists, too.

Sometimes I do come across games where there's too many characters or too much writing or I just don't feel like reading out the text. Then it's a case of ramble, sing and talk - which is also a lot of fun. I know when it comes to my RM LTs I tend not to do the character thing because I'm busier talking about the game in general and giving feedback about what I see, but that's mainly because it's a more critical and feed-back-heavy form of LPing.

Let's Plays, to me, are about having fun and people watching having fun. Let's Tries and Judges are more for the creator and to give feedback (though I have been known to act the characters if the game is fun enough. ^.^ ) To me there's no point in doing the videos if I don't find some enjoyment in it. I guess I'm selfish like that but why do something in your spare time that you don't enjoy? Doesn't make sense to me.

As someone who watches LPs, I like both depending on the person. For instance, NicoB's LPs are fricking hilarious. He acts as the main character, ad libs lines for the other characters (his womens' voices are funny in and of themselves sometimes) and just makes watching him play games a pleasure. Some people I can't do that with, though. Some people I watch just to hear their thoughts on the game, their explanations and just hearing them talk about whatever pops into their heads. (HCBailly, for example, or Nilesy/Sips/Sjin and Simon/Lewis from yogscast)

I'm not a fan of the no-voice LPs. If I wanted a no-voice LP I'll go play the fricking game myself. :/

That said, it's up to the LPer themselves whether they do the videos for themselves or others and how they handle said videos. The act of giving voice to an LP (even if it's not reading the story) is what makes it a transformative piece and thus, allowable by law. Not talking doesn't make sense to me but if it ticks your tock, then go for it. ;p

 

[Hahn Deathspark]

Well, as a LPer, might as well give my thoughts too. As usual, this is just my opinion and it may contradict others.

To be honest, it doesn't affect me too much actually. Here's why.

With Narration
 

Pros

- Sounds fun

- You get to hear the player's thoughts

- You get to feel the emotions of some characters in the game if the person acts that character out.

Cons

- It may get annoying sometimes.

- If you really need to listen to the game's audio, the narrator's voice may block out what you are hearing.

- Let's not forget on the let's player's perspective, he/she has to do more work by talking and such (It doesn't affect me, but to some, maybe? I don't know)

Without narration

Pros

- You get to observe gameplay and you can sort of feel how it'll be like if you really played it.

- It works almost like a walkthrough (EXCEPT if you are watching someone that stalls for like, 5 minutes at some certain point... Well the player should fastforward that scene XD )

Cons

- May get boring, a little, maybe a lot too.

- You'll think it'd be better of playing it yourself, exactly like what Ksi said. ^^;

I'm not a fan of the no-voice LPs. If I wanted a no-voice LP I'll go play the fricking game myself. :/

Just my opinion! But to be honest, once again, reiterating, my opinion! I prefer watching LPs with webcams! Why? Well, not because the person looks cool or sexy or whatnot, I don't care seriously!

The reason is because when you record yourself, it's actually more lively because you get to sort of see how the player feels instead of just, listening. When you see a player's reaction going wild and like, "WADDAFAQ?!" And whatever, it's actually more hilarious than just listening to the player without their reaction. It feels a little, well, lifeless to me? Maybe it's just me! ^^;

But of course there are cons, I know, not everyone is courageous. Not everyone has a great webcam. To be honest, I am using my laptop's webcam, which isn't truly awesome at all! It can have problems, not every time but I'd say I'd rather do it than not do it at all. And also, if you don't like exposure, then well yeah, I can understand why. It depends on the player whether he/she prefers it in what way. Not to mention that I have that dramatic attitude where I scream and go, "ARE YA SERIOUS?!" and not everyone has that kind of attitude! Even if you had a webcam and you just play like, well, poker face all the way and not commentate, it's not going to do much, unless you are acting it out.

Overall, it just depends on what the viewer wants. If the player wants to see gameplay, watch LPs that are voiceless. If the player wants something more entertaining, watch LPs that have voices. It is all up to the viewer and there is no which is better. After all, not everyone in this world is identical so there will be a clash of thoughts and opinions so no matter which way you slice it, as long as you put in effort into whatever you do, people may like it!

 

[Ksi]

For horror games webcams are really neat but personally I'm not a fan since they tend to overlap *something* at one point or another. It's also more work when editing at times. (I never use them myself because my reactions are usually either all over the place (as in I bang my head on the desk and you'd not see my face), I move around a lot since my chair is kinda **** atm and I don't have a webcam. Also, I've an aversion to cameras. >.<; I can totally understand why people would enjoy them, though.)

Again, do whatever ticks your tock~ XP

 

[Zevia]

I think there may be some confusion over what I meant by narration - I don't mean a complete lack of talking, I mean specifically reading out the text boxes that pop up. That is, LPers who pointedly act out all the characters' lines. I was rather surprised to see that pretty much every LPer on the forum does so, but I honestly just find it draining because it takes so much work trying to come up with good voices for every character and do a good job acting them out - but it may be because, as I mentioned, audiobooks and voice work are my job, so it just makes me feel frustrated to not set aside several hours to come up with an individual voice for each character, work on it, perfect it, and get all the nuances to the performance right so that it sounds good - but that's way, way more work than I want to be doing to just play a game.

Of course I'm going to talk while I'm playing, because that seems to be the entire reason people watch LPs around here - however, I actually tend to look up no commentary LPs for a lot of commercial games because I simply don't have the money or the inclination to buy them and play them. A number of games are so cinematic that you can find LPs where people have simply taken out all the gameplay bits that aren't directly related to the story (running from one destination to another, drawn-out firefights without any dialogue, what-have-you) and just show the story-important stuff and cutscenes. You end up getting a little mini-series or a movie to watch, really - The Last of Us springs to mind as a good example of that.

However, for RPG Maker games, I imagine the majority of people watching the LPs are the people who made the game or had something to do with it, since no one else tends to leave feedback. So if you're going to play their game and record it, I feel like it's really a mandatory responsibility that you at least give audible reactions while you're playing so they can see what you thought of the game at every stage. I don't personally care to sit and give detailed feedback in the middle of the game unless I can do so on the fly while I'm playing (like during boss battles, perhaps), but I'll absolutely point out that, "This is a cool feature," or call out some bit of dialogue that I thought was funny, weird, well-written, what-have-you. I like to leave the more detailed responses in a post later on so I can collect and organize my thoughts - plus, I tend to only write about the stuff that was really memorable, instead of spending 5-10 minutes talking about something that, by the next day, I would've forgotten about. That's just my personal MO, though.

I really take it for granted that people are going to be talking over the game for LPs - my original question was more about whether or not people prefer to have the characters' dialogue read out loud or not, since that seemed to be par for the course for all the other LPers.

 

[Hahn Deathspark]

-Can't quote because lag is F. Awful! I don't know why!-

In response to Zevia

Yikes! Misinterpretation I guess! ^^;

Well, if its narration, I guess why not? If you're gonna remain silent, well it'd be boring! 0_0;

If you act out as the character, it's actually kind of fun, not to mention if more than one person plays it!

It will show how other people will look at the character as

If there's no narration, well, just text reading... I'd be bored! Just my opinion.

Sorry for misinterpreting... Note to self, never do homework while going through the forums XD

 

[kj3400]

That's what I figured you meant. I like LPs with commentary. But dialogue is not necessarily something I feel someone should have to do unless it's to point out something funny or relevant.