My first Doom let's play video! Is it any good?

I have always loved a good let's play video, so I decided to make an attempt at one for Doom.

I am afraid I suck at speaking english even though I understand it, so instead I made clever use of the annotations to add comments, text, bits of humor etc. So DON'T TURN THEM OFF!

I also used the latest version of the popular Brutal Doom mod (which I don't think anyone has done yet so far. Older Brutal Doom let's plays use much older verions of the mod).

The first part is ready and features all of episode 1 of Ultimate Doom, and its in HD as well for those who fancy that :)

I know there are lots of very good let's players out there, so I hope my own is at least serviceable. I would love to hear what you think of it!

Am I missing something here? It's an average playthrough of Brutal Doom with unfunny annotations that add zero value to the video.

So when I watch a LP video it's usually to get an overview of the game or mod being played. I think this does an OK job of that. It isn't perfect, and while I wouldn't expect you to redo it, here's some things I think you could have done differently.

I am afraid I suck at speaking english even though I understand it, so instead I made clever use of the annotations to add comments, text, bits of humor etc. So DON'T TURN THEM OFF!

I actually think this was a good move on your part. People might expect some narration but I'm fine without it. I do have annotations off by default though, and it took me until the end of E1M1 to consider turning them on. Having a text overlay directly on your video at the start telling people to make sure to leave annotations on might be a good idea. At the very least, you should put this info in the video description.

I also used the latest version of the popular Brutal Doom mod (which I don't think anyone has done yet so far. Older Brutal Doom let's plays use much older verions of the mod).

Good idea, but you didn't really capitalize on that in the part that I watched. Show people what's different in this version of BD from the last; I'm not too familiar with Brutal Doom, and just from looking at this I couldn't tell you which version it was.

Also show off what BD changes in general, even if it means playing "bad". For instance you've got a half-killed shotgun guy at the start of E1M1, you could take a few seconds to show that he can still shoot at you. It doesn't matter if you get hurt or even killed, I'm not watching this to see how good of a player you are. Maybe you do some of these things later, but with a 47-minute video, you can't expect everyone to watch the whole thing. Put stuff like that as early as you get the chance.

Meh, nothing groundbreaking

plums said:

So when I watch a LP video it's usually to get an overview of the game or mod being played.

I guess some let's plays do that, but many are also just the player having a good time. I decided to go for the later type.

GoatLord said:

Am I missing something here? It's an average playthrough of Brutal Doom with unfunny annotations that add zero value to the video.

To be fair, that seems to cover most of the LPs that I've seen. So I guess he's doing it right. ;)

Who uses annonations?
I understand katamori, he's hungarian, but he still talks.
Do you live with your parents?

joe-ilya said:

Who uses annonations?
I understand katamori, he's hungarian, but he still talks.
Do you live with your parents?

Icelandic is a VERY different.

Speaking english is like talking with a pillow in your mouth to me.

And no I live by myself.

hardcore_gamer said:

Icelandic is a VERY different.

Speaking english is like talking with a pillow in your mouth to me.

And no I live by myself.

I'd call this a gameplay rather then an LP.

Off-topic:
I

totally

like

the

way

you

text.
You should stop doing "Enter" after every sentence you say, it's just frustrating to read every sentence like that and it's tiring the eyes, I used to text like this untill "Processingcontrol" gave me the tip.

im not watching 43 minutes of someone playing a game
make your lets plays 20 minutes at max

joe-ilya said:

I'd call this a gameplay rather then an LP.

Off-topic:
I

totally

like

the

way

you

text.
You should stop doing "Enter" after every sentence you say, it's just frustrating to read every sentence like that and it's tiring the eyes, I used to text like this untill "Processingcontrol" gave me the tip.

I guess I sometimes go overboard with the enter key. I am merely trying to avoid doing what some people do, which is to write an entire page worth of text with any gaps or spaces to make it easier to read.

chesse20 said:

im not watching 43 minutes of someone playing a game
make your lets plays 20 minutes at max

I guess I could make each portion just 20 min. In the future I will probably devide each episode into 2-3 parts.

Speaking of parts, what is the point of making each part 20 min if you will just end up watching another 2-3 videos to finish the whole thing anyways? Its not like you end up saving any time.

you're not very good at doom.

Just my opinion but with Doom I think it's better to do videos level by level.

Check out Green Herring's videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGreenHerring/videos

Let's Plays are a very personality driven sub-gaming-culture thing, it's hard to have personality with no voice :P

You'd be surprised how popular people with accents are on youtube. Either way I think you should have a purpose with the videos, like showing how to complete a WAD with 100% Kills\Secrets.

No offence but the playthroughs of Brutal Doom have been done to death. If you're not going to provide an interesting commentary, you should try doing a Let's Play on something more unique.

Agreed. There's endless LPs of every game ever made anyway, and Doom is certainly no stranger. To make this sort of thing worthwhile, you should fire up an obscure wad and provide funny, engaging commentary. Problem is, the vast majority of people who do LPs are unfunny, inarticulate jerkoffs with no sense of humor or timing and grating voices.

GoatLord said:

Problem is, the vast majority of people who do LPs are unfunny, inarticulate jerkoffs with no sense of humor or timing and grating voices.

This. There is absolutely nothing worse than trying to watch a LP video that is wall-to-wall dialogue that consists of stupid meta-humor and a laissez-faire attitude towards the gameplay itself. The problem is, 90% of individuals who record LPs are either really young kids or man children with nasal whines. Same thing at it's core, really.

The mistake you made: "let's plays" are supposed to be someone playing a game while saying distracting inane shit that nobody cares about, whereas you've added distracting inane annotations that nobody cares about.

On the other hand, at least the annotations can be disabled. I prefer your approach. Keep up the good work!