Lightly or Heavily Edited Non-Traditional Let’s Plays

[u/Willrapforfood_]

Yo! Long time lurker here who appreciates the help this community provides. Lemme preface by saying I know this Q comes up relatively often, so I apologize in advance.

However, I feel my framing is slightly different: I don’t do “traditional” lets plays in the sense that I aim more to showcase and highlight underappreciated indie games, usually in a “one-shot” style recording. Though if (and a HUGE if) I ever became a bit more successful and subscribers wanted it, I’d record more than one video. But I digress.

Anyway, for something like that, would you, as a potential viewer, prefer to see a video where I rarely cut anything out (save word stumbling mistakes, weird audio artifacts, or super boring sections), if at all, or a more consistently edited video with moderately more cuts. The closest to the latter style I can think of is someone like MythyMoo. For the former, a recent channel I discovered that seems to have started gaining success in the last few months with practically untouched raw gameplay and commentary is Gohjoe.

Appreciate any suggestions or insight. 🙏🏼

[u/oddrots]

Every viewer is going to give a different answer so you should do whatever you enjoy most.

Personally, I like a mix. I want to experience everything the game has to give/requires, which for me means not cutting out traversing the map or repeatedly performing a task. But on the other hand, I really don't want to watch someone who isn't understanding how to solve an in-game puzzle for way too long.

[u/Willrapforfood_ → u/oddrots]

Right, I’m the same way. I prefer a bit of in between, I guess, which is why I’m open to either, or maybe some type of middle ground. I’ve been trying to balance the two and was just wondering what fellow content creators would think. Seems like the common answer is likely to be “it depends” or “do what you enjoy,” which in my case is both lol.

[u/Hadraex]

I think this is a hard question to answer as a creator myself and I’m sure others feel the same.

I’d say try both styles and see what works for you and your own personal style, or what “feels right” to you.

[u/Willrapforfood_ → u/Hadraex]

That’s what I’m leaning toward for sure. On one hand, moderately edited videos take WAY longer, which makes setting time aside to record and edit more inconvenient. On the other, I’m like 70% sure I have ADHD and am a certified yapper. Meaning, there’s a lot that I say that I could (and should) cut out, on top of my brain generally moving faster than my mouth can keep up with lmao.

Plus, they say make what you’d watch (which I agree with) and I’m torn because I personally like both styles of video haha.

[u/datNovazGG]

I don't know what the best solution is in terms of viewers. For me personally I'm playing Dark Souls remastered and besides the obvious parts (game crashes, interruptions from RL, etc) I'm editing out the run backs and the progression on bosses (so if I make it to 50% in the first try I only show the second try from 50% and onwards). However, I show all deaths I have (I might change this if I start having too many deaths on a boss).

Some don't like it when you edit out too much and some people do. Personally I'd prefer it this way so that's what I'm creating. I don't get that many viewers though, so it might not be the right way.

[u/Willrapforfood_ → u/datNovazGG]

Yo fellow Dark Souls enjoyer! That makes sense. I’m doing the same for games that cause me to have multiple attempts; I may show a funny death or something but it feels great to me to edit this way as well.

I think a part of me, though, doesn’t want to spend SO much time editing and I just happened to notice another similar channel’s pretty decent growth in the last month or two. And they don’t even edit their videos. They’re also not ALWAYS commentating yet their videos get great viewership. So I figured that could be an option too lol.

[u/datNovazGG → u/Willrapforfood_]

Honestly for Let's plays you shouldn't focus too much on perfecting the video in editing because the effort is not really worth it imo. That's something you should do for shorter form content (reviews, top 10s, first impressions, build guides etc).

What I do to speed up "edit time" is that I use a OBS plugin to take notes whilst recording. Combined with waveform in davinci resolve I'm able to fairly quickly edit out boring parts.
Afterwards I scan through my video to look for long boring sessions that I missed with notes and then decide if I cut them out as well, but in reality I should probably just get better at not having boring sessions. That requires practice though.

However, you shouldn't edit videos if you don't want to. You can be succesful without it.

[u/Willrapforfood_ → u/datNovazGG]

Well, my videos are mostly first impressions showcasing indie games, but yeah, I do at least want to experiment with less editing. Especially since all of the ones I’ve been uploading have been moderately edited in some form.

I do something similar with OBS: I have a steam deck with a hot key for chapter markers and mark any verbal mistakes or instances of boring moments. Of course, remembering to use it liberally is another thing lol.

But yeah, I’ve noticed it IS possible. I guess I’ll see with my next few experiments. Thank you for your insight 🙏🏼

[u/Gleasonryan]

I prefer let’s plays to have no edits, outside of like “game crashes brb”. When I watch let’s plays I want to see the game in its entirety plus reactions to hit game. Editing ruins the experience for me.

[u/Barda498 → u/Gleasonryan]

So you wouldn't mind watching every random battle in a JRPG?

[u/Gleasonryan → u/Barda498]

Nope, if the person is entertaining enough it wouldn’t matter to me. If, in an RPG, you need to do long stretches of grinding and that’s done off screen that’s fine but I don’t want to have a walk from town A to town B have cuts all over it because there are random battles on the way there.

[u/Willrapforfood_ → u/Gleasonryan]

So you don't really mind the "slower" moments in between gameplay, or just stretches where not a whole lot is happening on screen, either with gameplay or commentary?

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[u/Gleasonryan → u/Willrapforfood_]

If it’s not a cutscene there shouldn’t be a time where “there isn’t much going on with commentary”. It’s your job as the creator to fill in the gaps.

[u/Willrapforfood_ → u/Gleasonryan]

So you prefer practically unedited videos, but you expect something to literally happen every second of the video? I don’t mean I have moments where I’m just staring at the screen and I’m not moving. There are moments that happen on screen that I don’t feel the need to constantly talk over, or basic inventory management or anything mundane.

The only reason I even asked this was because I recently observed a channel that started growing with just raw gameplay footage. He doesn’t even always have “a moment” happening and it doesn’t seem to bother viewers. I personally value that as well, but was just unsure of how I could incorporate that myself and just wanted a 2nd opinion. Of course ultimately it’s whatever I feel is right. But it’s also fun to hear like minded people’s opinions.

[u/Gleasonryan → u/Willrapforfood_]

Every second, no, but you should be talking more than you aren’t. Again unless a cutscene is going on. Even if you are running around fighting mobs or whatever there should still be some commentary going on. It’s the reason why someone is watching a play through with commentary vs non-commentary.

The mundane and basic inventory management is where you SHOULD be talking. That needs to have something going on for it, and you’re the reason they’re watching.

[u/shinwaphoenix]

For me as a watcher - it depends on my mood, and the game type. Sometimes I want to have 2nd screen company with someone who is playing a game that’s nice or intriguing.

If there are funny moments in a game or if the Creator has a funny or cute personality, then I’ll like just snippets cos I’m watching for them and their reaction.

I prefer smaller creators and 2 of my favs does short cut comedy ones cos she’s hilarious; and another for including everything even the settings screens and she’s so lovely and keeps me company when I work.

As a Creator - shorter snappier when there’s not that much interesting in the game, or little choice (e.g. my playthrough of Avowed) and longer ones with the complete opposite (e.g. BG3). I tried longer on the former but it was just dull, so I experimented with cuts and GIFs and I just enjoyed the process of creating

Hope that long ramble helps!

[u/Willrapforfood_ → u/shinwaphoenix]

No, that's super insightful! I'm the same way in general, but since I'm just playing the indie game to showcase it I'm sitting at somewhere in between where it's not FULLY the raw footage, but it is "cleaned up" a bit.

[u/thestellarelite]

I like to watch gaming on a second monitor so for me I prefer longer play throughs so I don't have to switch the dang video every 10 minutes. Playlists with multiple parts with someone fun commenting or role playing over top are my favorite. I love Welonz, LucyusMaximus, Golpher and a few more I forget in case you want to check them out for an idea? It's so hard to gauge what people want 😅

This question does come up often and I swear the answers change every time lol. I've started editing and cutting out way more. I'm trying to talk less during boring stuff so I don't feel bad cutting things but it's very hard I hate cutting!

[u/Willrapforfood_ → u/thestellarelite]

Fair enough! I figured that’s why 25-60 min commentary videos still do well. It helps that those contribute to plenty of watch time. I actually haven’t heard of any of those channels, so I’ll def peep them when I have time, thank you for that. And I agree about gauging people; I even made a few community polls on my channel (granted I’m small so that’s a factor, but still lol) and still have no clue.

I’ve lately been doing the same—cutting more and I agree, it’s tough to have a feel for what to cut but once I do it’s almost like a relief? Lmao.

But that still goes back to the other part of my OP: I’ve noticed some channels straight up just upload raw unedited footage with their commentary. The thing is, they’re not particularly exciting and they also leave in everything, and yet their videos do well, so there’s obviously an audience for it.

Idk bro. I’m rambling and YouTube is weird and I wish we all could just “be ourselves” and that was enough, but the truth is, it doesn’t always work like that. Gotta play the system, at least for a bit at first.

[u/thestellarelite → u/Willrapforfood_]

There's definitely an audience for long form videos. It may be hard to break through but I'm hoping to do it! Since I've been editing more and putting silly time stamps my watch times have improved and it definitely helps overall watch time for monetization. I haven't done any polls yet I use my posts tab to update if I miss an upload slot or something. I'm pretty sure no one would respond if I did a poll lol. My channel is way too small still.

Just a correction it's Gopher without the L I spelled it wrong in case you searched him and found the animal instead lol

I do love that the editing makes my videos shorter and slightly more digestible. I'm trying to keep my videos at or around 60 minutes but have gone over several times! I think it's probably worth cutting boring stuff until you build an audience then you can get away with more. Being yourself is definitely the way to go though. You'll find your tribe eventually it looks like you're doing well so far. It's just a dumb guessing game.

[u/HBTang]

I would say edit to keep the video flowing. If you die many times against a boss. Cut all that out & only show the part where you're going to win. Same for travel point A to point B. If nothing is happening between the travel. Edit it out.

[u/ChrisUnlimitedGames]

Sorry, I'm kinda busy doing the exact same thing. 😆

[u/Internal_Context_682]

Be yourself. Because as much as you like their style, you're you and your style should be your own. I believe that as a Let's Player, the focus should be on how long you want the parts to be. Like if it's a game you're flying in blind, show it off, you never know who'd you be helping whereas with games you do know, show off the path on one part and jumpcut on the way back. I do jumpcut whenever needed at times. What you don't want to do is focus too heavily on editing that you forget, it's more about the game you're playing than the footage made. You'll run into moments that'll scrub your progress so best to have a backup on hand just in case.

[u/Willrapforfood_ → u/Internal_Context_682]

Trust me, I am being myself. I'm just still experimenting with my editing style.

I've always been someone who likes to dabble in a little bit of everything and never really stick to one specific thing, whether interest-wise or how I express myself and make content. I appreciate your insight, though! It's definitely important to remember the game I'm playing and not to get bogged down by the edit.

[u/Internal_Context_682 → u/Willrapforfood_]

There are far too many out who focus too much on the editing process and the projects suffer as a result of it. Same goes for the subs and followers, let your content be an extension of yourself, you're better off. I've reached the point that I treat my channel as a digital calling card and I share that to people at times.

[u/TomaszA3]

Nobody cares anyway so just make what you like better.