Surprisingly enough, the problem I'm going to discuss is not how bad some let's players are because of some ridiculous stuff they've said. This critique can be applied across all media and we all know it brings in more money and popularity than harm for the person. It's an obvious problem that doesn't really need discussing.
The problem, or potential problem, I want to discuss deals with the videogame market. A question, or concern, I see time and time again is, why would people buy a game when they can see the whole thing played through online? Now I watch a handful of let's play channels and I've seen them play through entire games, normally games I personally wouldn't have wanted to spend my money on in the first place. If they play a game I'm really interested in, however, I only allow myself to watch the first hour of gameplay before avoiding the series because I plan on buying and playing through the game myself. Sometimes, I'll become interested in a game they play and become encouraged to buy it when they drop it by the wayside just so I can see where it goes. Even though I watch let's players, I'm still spending money on games and I can imagine others are as well, so is there a problem?
I can go two ways on this topic. On the one hand, I think let's plays are great, especially for those that don't have $60 to spend on every single game that's popular or piqued an interest. Before, if you lost out on a game, you lost out on being a part of the conversation around it or the community. Your economic inability forced you to be an outcast in yet another way. Now, even though games are still insanely pricey, computers and the internet really aren't in the long run. You can even use them at the library for free. Let's plays allow for these people to still be a part of the conversation and community surrounding games even when they cant buy them for themselves. They also allow us kind of feel out a game before buying it. We are all aware that trailers are made to hype us up and show the best they can offer. But not every game ends up offering everything they promise. With let's plays, we allow one person to spend money to show us that we shouldn't.
On the other hand, we are a generation that relied on LimeWire, shamelessly uses other people's streaming services, and are dedicated to our best site for getting free movies. These kinds of things hurt the people behind the media, so it's not crazy to think let's plays are hurting those that made the game. We no longer buy games hoping their worth the money; we can thoroughly vet the games first. And while Nintendo and Sony aren't exactly hurting as a corporation, the people we know are behind the scenes that had to work 100 hour work weeks who may have family or are in need of a well-earned vacation are hurting. It could be argued that they can't be hurting by much, but can you honestly say, you've never been one to do this before? I would love to hear your opinions on this.