we can raise cities or raze them, it whispers

Hour and hours and hours of work, deliberation, link-hunting, and HTML later, I present to you:

Lucy's Big 'Lets Play' Pimp Post
Or: Let Lucy convince all of you, even the non-gamers, what awesomeness you are missing out on.

What is a 'Lets Play'?
A Lets Play is a sort of funny, creative video/screencap-driven walkthrough of a video game. They originated on the Something Awful forums. The denizens, often called "goons," pick their favorite games and play through them, documenting their process.

What's the appeal of this?
Okay, to call an LP a "walkthrough" is a huge disservice to what LPers do. There are many types of LPs. The majority attempt to be hilarious, some are informative about rare games you've probably never played, and a rare few are absolute art (see: The Story LP section below).

An LP provides a new perspective on favorites old and new. They can take that classic you played the hell out of as a kid and twist it on its head. They can show you an obscure Japanese port five people in the whole US have played.

Why are you so obsessed with these, Lucy?
It's free content, for one. It's an interesting, close-knit community. The LPers come from literally all over the world (though there are a oddly high amount of French Canadians...). The forums have a history and a odd group of people and a really strange amount on in-jokes. I've been watching LPs for about a year and a half now (maybe longer) and they've been an absolute joy. I have possibly replaced television viewing with them, but since today's TV sucks, it's understandable.

What should I know about this LP community?
The forums are the epicenter of LP activity, though a whopping 337 have been helpfully archived here.

There are three types of LPs: Video LPs (VLPs), screenshot LPs (SSLPs), and hybrids. Each format has it's strengths and weaknesses.

Games are generally played on emulators (emus). The games themselves are ROMs. Some SNES games have been remade into ROM hacks by some overzealous fans. Some hacks are good. Some are... not.

Okay, I get the picture. Where are the damn recs?
( Right under this cut! )


That's my pimp post. I hope you've enjoyed it. I've been meaning to do this for ages and have just been putting it off.

For the record, these are the LPs I'm currently following, in case you're curious: The Spyro the Dragon Trilogy, System Shock 2, the Banjo Kazooie series, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, the 3D Castlevanias (as Evil Tim is just starting the PS2 game), and the fabulous Video Game Jeopardy thread (during which I yell at the screen a lot).


WHOO. I'm DONE.

-Lucy