[shahidhussain]

"If a game is so boring and forgettable that watching a Youtube video is an effective replacement, a player who purchases it will not be satisfied with the game."

This I disagree with - the same goes for great games that are heavily story oriented (perhaps something like Alan Wake or Dreamfall). I'm not saying you get the full experience watching the YT video, but I think the OP's point is that you get enough value that the delta from actually playing the game isn't worth $50.

[nathanb]

I think you just made his point for him.

What makes games interesting as a storytelling medium is the degree of interactivity. If a game is heavily story-based but I can get all (or most) of the game's value just by watching a youtube video, is there really any benefit to it being a game, as opposed to a movie or TV miniseries or whatever?

Why not just use the game's engine to tell your story and release it as a made-for-youtube movie? Maybe with some clever narration a la the best let's play creators? I have no idea how the margins would be compared to a game, but if your game is going to bomb because everyone gets all the value just by watching some guy record himself playing it, you might as well be that guy.

[shahidhussain]

I hear where you're coming from, but I think different people just like different things about games, and my bias is towards games that have strong stories. Take Mass Effect an an example - for me personally, the most interesting part of the game is making decisions and seeing how the story progresses as a result. I like to pew-pew the aliens as much as the next guy, but I'm most interested in seeing how character X reacts to action A. I'm not alone - the reason so many people were annoyed about the ending was that they wanted to find out what happens to the characters that they'd grown attached to over the last three games.

Now you're right that they could absolutely release the story of Mass Effect as a (really really long) film, but I like to have choice in how the story progresses, and I don't want to watch lots of different movies with all the choices played out. Having that control makes me feel more engaged in the story than watching it passively.

Not everyone will feel that's worth the price of entry for a game - I do.

[nathanb]

I think you're missing the point of what I said. I didn't say that story-based games should be movies rather than stories. I said that if games don't utilize the interactivity of the medium, they may as well be movies.

If the interactivity is what draws you (as it does in your example of Mass Effect), watching a video of someone else playing the game is not going to be nearly as satisfying as playing the game yourself.

My point was that the only games whose sales will be materially affected by Let's Play videos are the ones which may as well be movies anyway.