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