Games are expensive! New, big budget games easily range from $ 40- $ 60 a copy. Then those games have additional downloadable content( DLC) to purchase, usually $ 20 or up. Online multiplayer games frequently have monthly memberships that you need to even play the game( I’ m still salty about PS4 version of Overwatch needing a $ 50 / year Playstation Plus account). Not to
COST mention the platform you play games on. Consoles range from $ 200- $ 500, and some games are console exclusive. Alternatively, most PCs / Macs do not have the hardware specs for gaming purposes( my Macbook overheats when I play Undertale. Freaking Undertale). Upgrading your computer or getting a gaming specific one can drive that bill well over $ 1000. Consoles and gaming hardware are also frequently updated with newer, more powerful models. It’ s hard to keep up if you don’ t have the budget for it.
The aspect of“ sharing” is the largest and perhaps single most important reason Let’ s Plays exist: access. Let’ s Plays increase the accessibility of a game to a much larger audience. When a video game is made, it’ s usually marketed to a specific demographic, and beyond that there are restrictions to actually playing the game.
Though this isn’ t as big of a factor as the other two, censorship based on country does occur. Countries from Australia to Iran prevent the sale of certain games for a variety of reasons, including violence, imagery, or storylines. Just as DVDs are monitored across regions, so are video games. YouTube can help certain international fans get around that barrier( although sometimes YouTube blocks videos depending on country). There are also quite a few occasions where games may not have an official version in the viewer’ s language. YouTube and other sites hosts a wide variety of fan-translations( I regularly read a forum thread that translated Super Dangan Ronpa 2 into English back in 2013).
CENSORSHIP
There are some obnoxiously difficult games out there, and some reasonable games with obnoxiously difficult modes. One YouTube channel, aptly named NoHitRuns, devotes much of their video content to playing bullet-hell games without ever getting hit. Touhou, an extremely popular bullet-hell series, has thousands of videos that show people completing the“ Lunatic” difficulty.
DIFFICULTY