Let's, uh... play?

Since 2009, I've been doing the whole gaming playthrough thing just to keep not only myself and others entertained (especially it being my senior year in high school at the time.) There were a decent amount of people who were into the whole "let's play" thing and that's fine.

At the time, no one could make money off of doing an LP (god I really hate calling it that) unless you were either sponsored by some company or if you already had a channel with over a million views and decided to make a "gaming channel" and get that partnered as well.

Those who did it and weren't partners just did it to bring shits and giggles to the community on Youtube.

There are several types of these "Let's Plays" that we would all stumble upon then and even to this time. I will be describing each one in separate posts to avoid walls of texts.

Blind Let's Plays

There's the common "Blind" playthrough or "Day One Let's Plays," where people would stumble through a game with no prior knowledge as to how to do things. You mostly see this with survival horror games, because watching someone scream their tits off to a cheap jumpscare or watching said person getting chased by some guy who is hell bent on ripping your nuts off while humming "Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star" and hearing their raw reaction is entertainment. And it is if it's not overdone.

I will admit that there is also a certain comfort to these blind playthroughs when it comes to survival horror and I'll explain. When I was little, let's say around 4 or 5 years old, I was exposed to a bunch of scary shit that's to my older brothers. Growing up, I would play "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" for the N64. I'd spend hours playing it and at some point, my brother would sit by my side, making me read the dialogue (thus improving my reading skills by the end of the first grade.)

Now, back to my point. I would play it.. up until I hit the shadow temple. The graveyard alone during adult Link's time I would avoid like the plague because of this strong fear I had of ghosts and those Poe's were no different. There was something about the shadow temple that would unnerve me greatly as a child. The dark dreary environment, the chilling ambient music, and the overall feel of death and possibly worse is what instilled fear into me.

Around this point is where I would ask my second eldest brother to play through the temple for me. I watched him play it a number of times and it was comforting for me knowing that my brother is going through the "scary temple" and not me lol. Eventually, when I got older, I got over my childhood fear of the temple and breezed through it like it was nothing.

But you the point in my story. It's fun to be afraid, but it's even more fun to be afraid with another person, whether it's from playing a game together with someone or watching a video online.

However, because it's a blind playthrough, they player is bound to stumble along the way, especially when there are puzzles involved. They could either A) figure it out right of the bat and go about their merry way or B) be completely dumbfounded by the puzzle and end up running around the room looking for clues or just keep doing the same thing over and over hoping for different results. Now, the later won't be so bad depending on the player, but there has been instances where a certain player whom I won't name would spend several parts (10-15 minutes each) running around trying to figure out what to do until finally, the puzzle is done.

So yeah... there's the pros and cons to that little segment.