Am I the only one who hates commentaries in gameplays?

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There must at least a billion videos of games on YouTube where you hear the player talking about the game while playing. I don't mind when only text is used to comment during the game, in fact I like it a lot better, but when the person goes bla bla bla during the whole game I hate it so bad I usually click the mute button, even when other viewers say that it's really good. I find it distracts me from the game, and most commentators have just plain obnoxious voices. They swear too much, sniff or smack their lips, try to be funny but epically fail at it, talk over dialogue or when the music is really good, and I really hate to say this, but sometimes they have a thick accent that makes it hard for me to understand them. But even when they do a really good job I still hate it. Maybe because it reminds me I'm just watching a game and not playing it, even if I'm not really interested in ever playing? Some videos now show the person talking in a corner of the screen as well. I hate that, too.

I completely agree on this. I avoid commentary videos at all costs. Not to mention that most are really bad at it.

My favorite non commentary Youtube channel is cubex55. They have plenty of long plays of all kinds of video games without commentary.

I don't mind commentary, but only if it's done well.

I think it gives people something to listen to during boring parts of the game. Some commentators are so good they come there only for the commentary instead of the actual game. (My favorite: LagTV)

That's what a "game play" or "lets play" are. someone playing the game and commenting on it. For guides or places I am stuck I just mute but %90 of the time I like to hear other people's thoughts on games.

I only hate commentaries if:

They are too much louder than the gameplay.

The only thing I hear because the gameplay volume is 0.

The voice is unpleasant to listen to.

The microphone quality is terrible.

The language is a dialect of which I am not familiar with.

It contains the commentator making mouth sounds that aggravate my Misophonia.

So I'm very picky about commentaries.

Worst commentaries I've ever heard so far.
A Commentary on Super Mario Galaxy and the guy kept burping every now and then.
A Commentary on Dead Rising and whenever nothing important was happening the guy would start clunking (the noise you make under your tongue).
and the absolute WORST commentary I've ever heard and every bad commentator does this.

"*lip smack*Hey Guys! *lip smack* Welcome my Let's Play of (Insert whatever game title you want here). *lip smack*This is a (insert description here) walkthrough of the game."

I can't tell you how many times I see a game I wanna know about and this happens. I don't mind if people lip smack as long as it is not too frequent like lip smacking 3 times and not 30 seconds has gone by.

Sure I do commentaries on my videos but that's optional for the viewer. I keep commentaries silent in my videos. Just turn on the annotations if you want to know my almost exact thoughts as I was going through the game at the moment. I hope you don't mind cheating though.

Hate is s a strong word in my book but I do have certain things I don't like about game commentaries:

- When they constantly clear their throat
- Mouth noises
- (Sorry European people) When the person doesn't speak English that well yet and they have sharp S's and hurt my ears.
- When they sound bored
- When they have long pauses of "ummmm", "uhhhh", "Ohh.."
- When they're commenting on a game that has an extensive character creation process and never stop nit picking on their character.
- When their final verdicts on the game is based entirely off opinion instead of constructive critisizm with facts.

Other then this I enjoy watching game commentaries as it gives me a different perspective for the game. For instance, watching someone play a game like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This game is an open world meant to be played by different play styles and there are so many ways to go about doing things. I am usually rigid in how I play and watching commentaries gives me fresh new ways to accomplish things in this game I love so much.

For speed runs it can be interesting, especially ones where they use glitches. They explain how glitches work and all that jazz, I am not a big fun of ruining a game by glitching but it is interesting what people discover.

For an example here is Zelda: OOT glitched and beaten in 22 minutes.
WARNING Spoilers if you never beat the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7IINwTFVw

I know exactly what all you guys mean. Damn, and I thought I was the only one.

I actually do prefer videos without commentary but there are people out there like STAR_ (really good TF2 player and YouTube commentator) that are funny enough to not be too distracting. There's also this Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 player, Lythero, that doesn't do commentary on the vast majority of his gameplay videos but the ones that do have commentary are just little Q&A sessions he does while playing Ranked, and those actually aren't half bad to watch. On an unrelated note, anyone that is interested in keeping up with PC gaming should subscribe to TotalBiscuit and watch his daily show, Content Patch.

I enjoy the less annoying commentators on YouTube, but sometimes it's fun to hear a few random jokes during a boring part of the game they're playing.

(Or when they're playing a horror game and they freak out. )

Commentary makes fighting game streams much more hype.

It also makes Game Grumps a lot more entertaining.

Indeed.

I like watching retro game commentaries because when I actually play those games in real life, having someone making jokes (usually my sis and her bf who have a very geeky sense of humour) makes it so much more awesome. I'm usually a bit tipsy, as well. It's like watching bad B-movies and kung fu films, the actual game or film itself is only a fraction of the enjoyment.

If I was a serious gamer or movie-buff though, I'd probably find it annoying.

andras

The reason for so much commentary in gaming videos is most likely because it is one of the only ways to really get around copyright infringement. This is especially important when it comes to new, big named titles where companies will sometimes go on a warpath against those that post game content. Granted, video game content is one of the least copyright "policed" medias, it still happens from time to time. Plus it can help build a great persona that will keep fans returning for more if done correctly.

Also, love the Dungeons of Dredmor avatar Andras. I just learned of the game and picked it up about two weeks ago and haven't put it down.

Huh, a gaming video won't get copyright infringement if someone actually comments in it? How so?

Yea that's true and I think it's great that some people can actually make a living from commenting on video games. It's just not my cup of tea. When I want to see a video game, I don't want to get distracted by someone commenting. Maybe I just haven't found the right commentator for my liking yet.

Glad you like it The game itself can be quite addicting. I've been playing it on and off the past 1.5 years. I just got into it again, trying out the updated stuff. I still have to beat the game with permadeath and I think that's whats making me come back. I want to beat the game already!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Robbaz
<3

I guess without commentary it's just flat out copyright infringement but with the commentary it's a review and gets around copyright laws?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

I'm not really interested in videos of people playing games. I generally find them boring. I'd rather play them myself. I might watch briefly to see what a new game looks like or to have nostalgia about an old game I no longer have access too but that's about it. I do like phreakindee's reviews of the Sims games.