Let’s play sports, let’s play Monopoly, let’s play together. But what about a “Let’s Play”, where YOU are not actually playing?
YouTube.com, everyone knows it. You have been there once, whether you watched a funny video your friend sent you, or you were looking for a tutorial of some sort. But with 48 HOURS of video uploaded every minute, there are hundreds of genres. What about a video called Let’s Play. What does that mean? How can you play?

A video that is a Let’s Play, or also known as “LP” is a video where the uploader is playing some sort of game and you are watching it. He/she might be commentating it, that is up to the uploader and his viewers to decide.

What kinds of games are we talking about? The typical LP’s are of video game, console games, portable console games, computer games. Anything that can be played and recorded in some way, shape, or form can be a LP. Just try searching Let’s Play or YouTube. Try Google for that matter, LP’s have their own sites and everything.

The biggest debate with Let’s Plays are this, who wants to watch someone else play a game? It is like going over to your friends house when he has only one gaming sytstem and you all have to take turns playing it. But that’s not the case in the LP world.

I have first hand experience, I watched Let’s Plays for years. At first it was to find out what to do next in a game, but then it turned into watching the uploader playing the entire game. For most it is the nostalgia that comes along with seeing your old favorite game, others it is the commentator himself, humorous, creative, stupid. And that brings me back to the YouTube topic. Subscribers.

A subcriber on YouTube.com is when someone creates an account and subscribes to you, it allows them to be informed in some way that you have created a video. But to the uploader, it means more than having someone view your video. See, I create these videos, I commentate them, I edit them, I upload them. And I, at 14 have fans, viewers, and watchers of my videos. When I upload one of my let’s plays, they get likes and comments. People actually watch these.

As these types of videos are sweeping YouTube, making some of the biggest YouTuber’s LP’ers. How can so many people enjoy an uploaders content? The best known Let’s Player, ChuggaaConroy, (Emile) a 22 year old male makes thousands of dollars a month from doing these videos. He does standard Let’s plays, of Nintendo Games, commentates them, and uploads about one a day. He has 500,000 subscribers and hundreds of millions video views. He makes his money from small ads placed somewhere on his channel or videos. With 20,000 views within one hour of an upload, he gets paid well.
Why doesn’t everyone do this with all these rewards? The YouTube stardom, money, and entertainment? Well that’s where I come in, with hundreds of Let’s Players starting every month, the competition is growing, fast. Everyone wants a part of the cut, but few get it.

I started January 29th, 2012. I had a higher voice which put me a bit behind the game. Many LP watchers prefer older and more mature commentators. But I kept going, I used a fifty-dollar device, a capture card, to record my gameplay. I talked over it and uploaded it to YouTube. I go by the username KingAcorn85, as that is sort of my internet name. I didn’t have any viewers really, besides family and friends for a long time. I kept making videos, over 150 now to be honest. But it wasn’t until October 2012, until I got my big break.

I started my newest series, Viva Pinata for the Xbox360. As most of my Let’s Play series went, I just played and recorded the game that I wanted to play. I didn’t have any viewers then, so why should I care. Well after I started the series, I quickly began to rise gradually in popularity. Going for 10 subscribers, to 20.

As my series began to take off, I realized my capture card device was outdated and poor quality. I stepped up my game, and got an HDPVR They’re mainly designed to record television and old VCR footage. But as Let’s Players found there high quality footage recordings, they grabbed them. At a steep price they record in the best quality possible. I from then on used this device, a Hauppuage HD PVR.

Going from rags to riches is nice, except for me I never cared about money. As I started into December I had over 50 subscribers and 10,000 overall combined video views. I was creating something of my videos. I now as of February 5, have 110 subscribers and a combined total of 21,000 video views sprung throughout my 150 videos. Some have 5 views, others 1000 views.

As my one year anniversary past, I looked back at my old moments. My voice changed, my commentary changed, and mostly, I changed. I am happier, busier, and more focused and determined on things since I started my YouTube channel. But what is ahead, I am not even sure.

At first an idea of having friends watch me on the internet, has grown to over 100 people watching my videos everyday. I get comments and questions often. For this year, all I want is to keep doing what I am doing and hopefully gain more success.