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People that watch "Let's Plays": how do you feel about facecams?

NIN90 said:
Sure it can improve the broadcast. You know, the part where conversations aren't just about the spoken words but also about visual cues like gestures and facial expressions.
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This isn't a problem with things like Skype or online gaming, why would a person need you to see them contemplate an answer to help engage with the audience? Answering questions, doing things the stream asks, back and forth joking with the stream, that's all engaging. Why is it "needed" to see the face they make when that happens?
 
Jb said:
For streams it makes sense since a lot of the appeal is the discussions and interactions between the caster and the audience.
For LPs though it's pretty dumb. I don't think I've ever watched one that had a facecam.
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I agree with this. When I'm watching a Let's Play I'm usually watching because I need help solving a certain puzzle or what have you. Or when it comes to watching speedrunners I don't really care about seeing them since most of the time they're zoned in.

With a live stream with good chat engagement a facecam is required otherwise I won't even watch.
 
Sir TapTap said:
I can only assume the younger crowd loves them, pewdiepie's audience seems to mostly be younger. Then again most of my audience is younger than me and no one begs me for a face cam
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Pretty much this. Kid love facecams so that they can laugh at peoples reactions to weird/scary games.

Comparing Pewdiepie to Let's Players from Something Awful Forums. On SA practically no one facecams, and they tend to have a more mature audience. Whilst Pewdiepie has a very young audience and facecam is one of his main tropes.
 
I was watching one the other day of some girl playing mario kart. The screen real estate was:

1/5 screen her face
1/5 screen the back of her head and monitor set up
2/5 screen was the chat
1/5 was Mario Kart

It was unbelievable. It actually took me a minute to figure out where the fuck the gameplay was. And all she was doing was taking about how some people were echoing, and how she isn't very good at this game. Stayed on the stream for about 10 minutes, but who the fuck watches this stuff for extended periods of time?
 
Maybe keep the feed going, and only overlay when it's interesting.

I would hate someone hamming it up for the camera the whole time, but capturing a genuine emotion might be interesting.
 
DigitalRicket said:
With a live stream with good chat engagement a facecam is required otherwise I won't even watch.
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See this is what I don't understand: how is a facecam a requirement if there's good chat engagement? A streamer engaging with their viewers can be done without a facecam so I don't see why it's needed or a requirement.
 
flkraven said:
I was watching one the other day of some girl playing mario kart. The screen real estate was:

1/5 screen her face
1/5 screen the back of her head and monitor set up
2/5 screen was the chat
1/5 was Mario Kart

It was unbelievable. It actually took me a minute to figure out where the fuck the gameplay was. And all she was doing was taking about how some people were echoing, and how she isn't very good at this game. Stayed on the stream for about 10 minutes, but who the fuck watches this stuff for extended periods of time?
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@BadLayouts on Twitter has some real gems. If the game isn't >50% of the stream you've screwed up. Even fighting game tournaments let the match take most of the screen during gameplay despite having a shitton of advertisers that pay them real money.There's no excuse for your background to take up most of the room while the game's in a corner.
 
HATE


HHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Nobody wants to see your big dumb face. Nobody.
 
I've started putting face cams on my stream. Imo it kind of humanizes the streamer and it's better to see their reactions. I love watching Warowl stream.
 
I generally don't like them.

But then, face cams are usually the product of people doing LP's by themselves, which unless you are incredibly interest, amazing at said game, or incredibly attractive, are generally terribly uninteresting.

LP's are generally best when you can work off someone. Groups are pretty much always superior to single person LP's. And this is coming from someone who's done quite a few single person LP's.
 
An even worse trend is people doing their let's plays live on twitch and then just uploading them to Youtube. So you not only have a facecam, but a scrolling window of twitch chat (aka the internet's toilet) taking up half the damn screen.


HATE
 
I thought it was cool when Woolie did it for his Pokemon Green stream on twitch. Matt, Pat and Cooking Mama Liam showed up at various points and did their best to talk with people in the chat. Made that 7 hour journey a lot more fun imo.

But for YouTube LPs? 9/10 it ruins the video.
 
There are some exceptions, like the livestreaming of some games, but I'm not a fan of it really. The two points in the OP are pretty much why, but I'll add that it tends to cover the gameplay too much.
Unless the facecam window is small, it can become obnoxious.
 
I like it on Gaming streams on Twitch/Hitbox. On Youtube, eh, it depends. It can definitely add to the fun in some videos.
 
Sinatar said:
An even worse trend is people doing their let's plays live on twitch and then just uploading them to Youtube. So you not only have a facecam, but a scrolling window of twitch chat (aka the internet's toilet) taking up half the damn screen.


HATE
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Never been sure what to do about this situation--I mostly record for youtube, but when doing Twitch stuff I kind of want to keep the chat, but MAN is it ugly. Been thinking of uploading a chat-full and a chat-free version. But I'd never do my actual regular let's plays live, it's different.
 
I'm finding it weird that people are accepting of it live but not it recorded. Again, I don't believe face cams add much, if any value to the "engagement" of the audience.
 
Sir TapTap said:
Never been sure what to do about this situation--I mostly record for youtube, but when doing Twitch stuff I kind of want to keep the chat, but MAN is it ugly. Been thinking of uploading a chat-full and a chat-free version. But I'd never do my actual regular let's plays live, it's different.
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People who are watching on twitch already have access to the chat, people on youtube certainly don't want to see it. There really is no reason to have the chat on your stream. I don't understand why people do this, is it for people watching in full screen? Is there some sizable group of people who both A.) actually want to read the degenerative horseshit that is twitch chat and B.) watch in full screen?
 
I started doing it recently on my videos but not for over reaction or faked expressions. I view my channel as more down to earth, so I like engaging my audience and letting them get to know me and I think a big part of that comes to seeing you as well. So while the majority probably do it for the over reacting, screaming, look at me, I do it for other reasons. Just depends on the persons content really.
 
I don't find it really adds anything to the experience and just takes up screen real-estate. That, and most of the let's players I've watched and actually continued to watch were voice-over only.
 
unnecessary, unless there is a comical situation going on want to make fun of your self of whoever is in camera, like watching a pew pew dude screaming every 2 seconds, boring as %$#%. On the other hand a 12 year old watching P.T with his older brother, that face was worth a face cam.

facecam in a zelda game.....stupid
"" in a dark souls game.......more stupid
"" facecam in a mario party game 4 coop play.....nice. salty faces everywhere that's cool
 
SlasherJPC said:
I view my channel as more down to earth, so I like engaging my audience and letting them get to know me and I think a big part of that comes to seeing you as well.
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The first two things can be achieved without them needing to see you play the game though. This is my problem with the "engagement" aspect, a person is gonna be watching you stare at the game for the majority of the playthrough and then look at the chat to start answering questions or joking with them or whatever. Seeing you play doesn't really enhance the "engagement" IMO. Look at radio, people call in and chat with the hosts and all that and they never need to see the host nod or contemplate or anything, the engagement is happening in the discussion. The difference being they have a visual element to look at while you engage them (the game). Playing the game, joking and providing info about the game, and then talking to the chat is what happens, why is your face a necessity? Not knocking your decision or what of doing it, I'm just trying to get a better understanding of it.
 
I find them mostly annoying. They're only worthwhile if someone is playing a horror game and not those cunts that scream at everything.
 
Compbros said:
The first two things can be achieved without them needing to see you play the game though. This is my problem with the "engagement" aspect, a person is gonna be watching you stare at the game for the majority of the playthrough and then look at the chat to start answering questions or joking with them or whatever. Seeing you play doesn't really enhance the "engagement" IMO. Look at radio, people call in and chat with the hosts and all that and they never need to see the host nod or contemplate or anything, the engagement is happening in the discussion. The difference being they have a visual element to look at while you engage them (the game). Playing the game, joking and providing info about the game, and then talking to the chat is what happens, why is your face a necessity? Not knocking your decision or what of doing it, I'm just trying to get a better understanding of it.
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I totally get why people don't prefer it. I just know when I used to stream, I used a face cam all the time. Then on the rare occasions I did not. People were dying to see me on camera or asking why I wasn't on camera that time. I think for as many people that really don't like it, there are those that find it adds that extra level of someone there talking to you. I can't begin to really understand it myself because whenever I watched walkthroughs or LPS I indeed don't mind either one and never felt this "feeling" but I know others do, so it's just a decision I've decided to go with. I personally don't have any gimmicks on my channel. I just do streams, reviews, skits, etc and it can just be absolutely completely random stuff at times. So the people I'm hoping watch my content know what they are getting into and if they like what I'm doing, they will stay regardless if I have a face cam or not really. That's all.
 
SlasherJPC said:
I totally get why people don't prefer it. I just know when I used to stream, I used a face cam all the time. Then on the rare occasions I did not. People were dying to see me on camera or asking why I wasn't on camera that time. I think for as many people that really don't like it, there are those that find it adds that extra level of someone there talking to you. I can't begin to really understand it myself because whenever I watched walkthroughs or LPS I indeed don't mind either one and never felt this "feeling" but I know others do, so it's just a decision I've decided to go with. I personally don't have any gimmicks on my channel. I just do streams, reviews, skits, etc and it can just be absolutely completely random stuff at times. So the people I'm hoping watch my content know what they are getting into and if they like what I'm doing, they will stay regardless if I have a face cam or not really. That's all.
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I see, maybe it'd be more understandable if I actually did facecams or streamed a lot.
 
In the vast majority of videos it's unnecessary, more still it's just done poorly. Cosmo's OOTWR wouldn't have been the same without it though.
 
Sinatar said:
People who are watching on twitch already have access to the chat, people on youtube certainly don't want to see it. There really is no reason to have the chat on your stream. I don't understand why people do this, is it for people watching in full screen? Is there some sizable group of people who both A.) actually want to read the degenerative horseshit that is twitch chat and B.) watch in full screen?
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It's because you're (presumably) reacting to what's said in chat, and unless you announce questions before answering them (more common on announcement/podcast streams) you can lose a lot of context if you talk to chat a lot.
 
Sir TapTap said:
It's because you're (presumably) reacting to what's said in chat, and unless you announce questions before answering them (more common on announcement/podcast streams) you can lose a lot of context if you talk to chat a lot.
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Wouldn't that give people more incentive to go to your Twitch channel then so they can get the full effect?
 
I like watching their reactions for Horror games. I've been watching Machinima Dark Room vids on YouTube and I don't think it'd be as enjoyable if I didn't see their faces
 
Sir TapTap said:
It's because you're (presumably) reacting to what's said in chat, and unless you announce questions before answering them (more common on announcement/podcast streams) you can lose a lot of context if you talk to chat a lot.
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So you're inflicting double chat on the people watching you live under the assumption that your youtube viewers are too stupid to suss out what you're talking about? That's silly and counter productive.
 
The only time I'm ok with a facecam is when it's a horror game. I love to see their expressions when they shit themselves.
 
I dislike them. But, then, I only watch videos of other people playing video games to decide if I want to buy said video game, so I'm probably not whom LPers are trying to appease. In fact, the whole concept bemuses me and makes me feel so very damn old.
 
Facecam? Nah, not into that. However, i love this with a passion.
tumblr_n7rn62eOFD1ru1sa9o1_1280.png

tumblr_n7rn62eOFD1ru1sa9o2_1280.png
 
Don't care for it in pre-recorded (er, not live) "let's plays."

I like them for live streaming. At that point you can be having a conversation with them through chat and putting a face to the streamer is kind of cool.
 
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