Well good golly gee! A source!

Alright. Having read some of this, I strongly disagree with a couple things. Firstly, he says that most videos have the person discussing the game, like giving hints or analyzing them. Not from what I've seen. Most of the Let's Players I've seen spend that time usually just making bad jokes and not even paying that much attention to the game. Or in the case of someone like DSP, his critiques of games usually are just "Dood, the game's bugged man! The game didn't explain anything! Freakin' Kojima!!"

Second, while there are Let's Plays that don't profit off the game, there are more that do than don't. So he's not exactly right that most Let's Plays don't profit.

Third, while there are Let's Players who do only post a single video of a game. Kr1tikal for instance. Sorry if I spelled his name wrong. He's also one of the only Let's Players I actually find funny. He only posts one video of a game and it's usually not that long. In the case of someone like DSP, Game Grumps, or Pewdiepie though, they normally post the entirety of their playthroughs. This can actually be a bad thing if the game is say, more story heavy. If someone is going to watch the entire playthrough of a story heavy game, they may see fit not to buy it since they've already experienced the story. In some ways, this can even be true for more gameplay oriented games like Mario.

Now before you say that their experience may not be the same as the person's they just watched, that doesn't matter. If they've already seen the story and the gameplay, they could see fit not to by the game. True, this won't be the case for everybody but there will always be exceptions. And what if those people were planning on buying the game but then watched a Let's Play of it and decided that was good enough? That's one less sale the game's getting.

Going slightly off topic from the article, one rebuttal I've heard about Let's Plays is that they're "free advertising". That doesn't work. When you advertise something, games included, you only show a little bit of that product. You don't show it in its entirety. Again, there are Let's Players who do show only tidbits of a game, like Kr1tikal. His videos I'd say could be a stronger case for that than say the three I mentioned two paragraphs ago.

And I'm willing to contradict myself a bit here and say this: while Let's Plays can help certain games. Indie games like say, Minecraft, Five Nights At Freddy's, or Stanley Parable, bigger name games like Mario, Call of Duty, GTA, Assassin's Creed, and Zelda don't need help selling. These games are well known even outside of the gaming community. Games like Mario and GTA have sold well long before Let's Plays were even a concept and will continue to sell long after the fad ends.

That was quite a lot to type in all seriousness. Strangely enough, I actually feel a bit better having debated on this. I do have some more I'd like to share but it's getting late where I am and I have to be up in a few hours. So I'll leave it at this for now.

How do you compare someone's copyrighted material to a garage sale? Apples and oranges.

Simply put, like I said before, Let's Players shouldn't be making money off these games because they didn't make them. It's not their property. Those aren't their characters, settings, stories, etc. When you buy a video game, you're just buying the right to use a copy of said game. That doesn't mean you get the copyright to it.

Let's say I started a spinoff of Let's Plays called Let's Watch where I watch a movie and commentate over it. And of course I make it so I get money from my Let's Watches. Should that be allowed? Do you think directors like say, Christopher Nolan would be cool with me profiting off something they created? Or do you think they'd try to put a stop to it? But why should they? I already paid for the movie. Why shouldn't I be allowed to use it as I see fit?

Because even though I own a copy of the movie, I don't own the copyright to it.

You compare this to someone buying/selling a house. I'm sorry but that's really stretching. You can't copyright a house so when someone purchases a house, they can do whatever they want with it. That becomes their property. Gaming is not anywhere close to being the same. You don't get the rights to those characters or anything else on the disc.

Let me ask you something, DarkHououmon: if you made something, not necessarily a video game, and you found out that someone was profiting off of it, how would you feel? Be honest with me. Would you feel good knowing someone was making money off of your work? Do you think other forms of entertainment should allow people to do whatever they want with their works?

Well I do understand that but what I meant was after Dashie had accepted that Tank needed to hibernate. Perhaps Fluttershy could have given her something to keep Tank in so that Tank could still hibernate and RD wouldn't have to let him go for awhile.

Well that was an interesting episode. I loved the references to Game of Thrones(Which I admit I've never seen, I just know that from the meme), Abbot and Costello's Who's on First, and the Grinch. The song was also pretty good too.

Even though Rainbow Dash is my favorite character, I think she was seriously being a bit ridiculous with this whole thing. Risking upsetting the balance of nature because you don't want your pet to sleep? Really? She acted as though Tank was going to die. He was only going to sleep for three or four months. It's not that bad. It was surprising to see Rainbow Dash break down into tears. It could have been a great scene but what killed it for me is that Rarity and Pinkie end up crying not for Rainbow Dash but because Fluttershy's crying! Rainbow's the one with the problem and they pretty much forget that she was even there. I guessed it was supposed to be a reference to the Bronies who only care about how Fluttershy's feeling and forget the other characters?

Before I end this, there's just one thing I noticed: at the beginning, RD tells Tank that this is going to be the first winter they've ever had together. She's had him for three seasons(show seasons) and this is their first winter? Time must move extremely slowly in Equestria.

You're funny. The hell are you even talking about that I'm being lazy?

And by the way, plenty of people I know know I like the show. This includes people who I've known from work and school. They've all been pretty cool with it. So yeah, you're wrong in that regard. You also still haven't proved me wrong why it's okay to debate and analyze a children's movie series about cartoon dinosaurs but not about ponies.

Pot, kettle, black.

Almost a month ago, I discovered that one of my TF stories called The Dragon Virus was shared in the Dragons Facebook group. The date it was uploaded was August of 2013 but I only discovered this rather recently(I'm kind of slow on discovering this kind of stuff).

The story is about an eleven year old boy who is diagnosed with a disease/virus that is changing him into a dragon. The doctors inform his parents that once his transformation is complete, he won't have any memory of who he was or who his friends and family were. Faced with this inevitability, the boy and his family try to enjoy their precious few moments together before his transformation concludes.

I wrote this story late at night back when I was seventeen. Back then, I had no idea this was going to become such a hit. With over 325 comments, 24,755 views,  15 groups having requested it, and 340 faves on Deviantart, this story is by far my most popular work and is one of my favorite works next to my Dragon's World series and my comic. I've actually been thinking of including it as a bonus story once I publish my Dragon's World books.

The Facebook group it was submitted to https://www.facebook.com/dragonarereal150/p...=nf&pnref=story
https://www.facebook.com/dragonarereal150/p...=nf&pnref=story

The original story
http://animeboye.deviantart.com/art/The-Dr...-Virus-95733985

I guess hearing the "N" word spoken so often in the game can make you feel that way. I dunno, it never really bothered me that much.

Going slightly off topic but I think I'm starting to get more into the Saints Row games than I am GTA. I've been doing an SR marathon leading up to the latest game, Gat Out of Hell and I've been having a lot more fun with those games. I think it's because GTA just became so restrictive and tried too hard to be realistic. Not saying the GTA games aren't good. I'd just rather get paid to cause destruction around a city than play virtual tennis with my virtual wife.

If these Let's Players are using this as their only source of income, then I still have no pity for them. The job market is tough and fickle. I understand that 100%. But that's still no excuse to profit off someone else's creations. If I tried to make a living off of going to the theater, recording a movie on my phone, and then adding commentary to it, should that be allowed? I mean, I took the effort of buying the ticket and sitting down in my seat for an hour and a half then I had to go home and edit the video so why shouldn't I get that money I so richly deserve?

I wonder if any of these Let's Players have thought about what they're going to do once the Let's Play fad ends. Because let's face it: Let's Plays won't last forever. They're going to have to get actual jobs or find some other way of making money on the Internet. And say they did go for the former. It would take a lot of convincing to get a potential employer to even consider looking at their resumes. An employer isn't going to look at playing video games on Youtube as an actual job no matter how much they protest that it is.

They never did bring that portrait back, did they? I hope it will reappear in later episodes 'cause it's really sweet.

Just finished watching the episode. This was perhaps the most touching episode MLP's ever done. It's incredible just how much effort Twilight's friends put in to make her feel more welcome in her castle. Of course in their first attempt they were missing the point but at least their hearts were in the right place. The scene at the end where they dig up the remains of the library and turning it into a collection of memories brought tears to my eyes.

I actually thought it would be more depressing. Not saying that's a bad thing that it wasn't. I just remember the trailer for season five making this episode look really sad.

Great episode. Hopefully Twilight will be more comfortable in her new home.

EDIT: 1,000th post!! WHOO!!!