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What good purposes outside of this still remains for GIF?

The so-called 'Let's plays'.

A lot of humour that developers put in games, especially old ones, is done with animation. Screenshot-based Let's Plays sometimes outright require an animated GIF to properly display what's happening. Trying to show it with static images alone is very difficult.

Here's one that uses GIFs to good effect: https://lparchive.org/Beavis-a...

Oh, I don't know. Some "lets play" gaming is just raw solid entertainment, where the narrative derived from or commenting on the game is greater than the game alone.

e.g. emergent narrative:
http://lparchive.org/Dwarf-For...

Or the discussion about the game being infinitely more entertaining than the game can ever promise to be:
http://www.quartertothree.com/...

Ok, they're not the video "lets plays" that you mock, but I just ignore video ones anyway.

I wouldn't think so, as Super Mario Bros. is insanely violent. Goombas were living peacefully until the Toads invaded. Goombas hired Koopa Troop to freeze the invaders in blocks and detain the princess of the Toads who has the antidote. Terrorist Mario squashes the innocent Goombas.

Nonsense. The Mushroom Kingdom has always had a native population of Toads, and they had a referendum to secede from Goomba rule. Comrade Mario, in his bright red attire, is simply coming in to offer protection to the Toads. Taking military bases and castles from the Goombas is also done for the Toads' protection.

How can you hate a guy with as awesome photo-ops as Mario? The one where he's flying through the air riding a green dinosaur wearing a cape is a personal favorite.

For nonviolent gaming, you need to look at something more similar to The Sims or Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon. Microsoft tried that under the name Viva Pinata.

Actually, Animal Crossing has a terrible secret. It's not all sunshine and rainbows.

(For those who don't know what this Let's Play thing is all about, it's where you add commentary to a playthrough of a game, either in speech or subtitles. It started on SomethingAwful several years ago. If you want a good example, check out the Jurassic Park: Tresspasser LP by ResearchIndicates, which is one of the best. Okay, helpful part's over, back to ranting.)

So a big media company discovers that people on YouTube are posting full-length video playthroughs of entire copyrighted works, but instead of immediately sending out takedowns, they decide to support it -- yes, actively *support* it:

In a statement, the firm said the move was part of an "on-going push to ensure Nintendo content is shared across social media". "We continually want our fans to enjoy sharing Nintendo content on YouTube," the company added. "That is why, unlike other entertainment companies, we have chosen not to block people using our intellectual property."

[emphasis mine]

And in exchange for totally legitimizing these flagrant acts of copyright violation (most of which are completely half-assed and not at all good advertisements for the games), all they want is the ad revenue from the videos. And you're telling us to *complain* about this?

What kind of whiny ungrateful shit-for-brains idiocy is this? Nintendo has every legal right to sue the bejeezus out of LPers, and they chose not to, using the same reasoning we've been using for the past fifteen years. *They gave us what we wanted*! Why are we not celebrating? Because all these whiners got out of making a video was fandom and ego gratification? Poor babies!

Also, "corporate gibberish"? It's three simple sentences that are logically connected to each other. Can we save the insults for where they're deserved? It's not like it's hard to find legitimate criticisms of our favorite multinational corporations.

The story that got me started in DF: http://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/

Wow. The New York Times just described a Something Awful Let's Play forum series as a fascinating saga.

I'm not denying it (and I quite enjoyed Boatmurdered, and the upgraded followups Headshoots and Syrupleaf (Syrupleaf being arguably the best of the three)), but it's saying something when a collection of forum posts from SA can get that kind of praise in a dead tree newspaper with global circulation like the New York Times. Wow.

Wow. The New York Times just described a Something Awful Let's Play forum series as a fascinating saga.

I'm not denying it (and I quite enjoyed Boatmurdered, and the upgraded followups Headshoots and Syrupleaf (Syrupleaf being arguably the best of the three)), but it's saying something when a collection of forum posts from SA can get that kind of praise in a dead tree newspaper with global circulation like the New York Times. Wow.

Wow. The New York Times just described a Something Awful Let's Play forum series as a fascinating saga.

I'm not denying it (and I quite enjoyed Boatmurdered, and the upgraded followups Headshoots and Syrupleaf (Syrupleaf being arguably the best of the three)), but it's saying something when a collection of forum posts from SA can get that kind of praise in a dead tree newspaper with global circulation like the New York Times. Wow.

Not to mention that sometimes it's nice to sit back and watch the big picture. When you're playing it's easy to get caught up on minutiae and miss important story elements, complex action sequences, or beautiful scenery.

Also, many players add a fun commentary track. A good "Let's Play" can add a lot of humor and personality to any game, and IMHO is usually more fun than playing the game itself.

lmao. seriously? no one got this?

"We have come under fire from an alien vessel we found hiding on the surface of Pluto. Captain! They killed Kowalski, Fritz, Chin, O’Donnell, Luigi, and all three of the Libermann triplets! We have returned fire, but our stunner can’t penetrate the ship’s hull armor."

http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Star%20Control%202/Update%203/

Explain to me the part where I want to get on youtube and watch videos of people playing video games. And please convince why this would be better then actually playing the video games myself?

The commentary. The humor. The insightful analysis of the story.

Personally, I prefer to read screenshot-style Let's Play's, but I usually don't read them to learn about the game or to get the enjoyment that I would have earned from playing it myself.

Instead, I read Nakar's Ultima series for his unusual take on the characters, his peanut gallery dialog, and his game exploits and knowledge of hidden secrets.
I read the Quest For Glory 1-5 Let's Play because I loved his well-fleshed-out rendition of the Hero, which is not present in the actual games.
I read the Neverwinter Nights 2 Let's Play's because Lt. Danger wrote it alongside a graduate-level Lit student's analysis of the game's themes, tie-ins, ethics, and even deconstruction of the fantasy type.
I read The Dark Id's Resident Evil series because it was simply laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Explain to me the part where I want to get on youtube and watch videos of people playing video games. And please convince why this would be better then actually playing the video games myself?

The commentary. The humor. The insightful analysis of the story.

Personally, I prefer to read screenshot-style Let's Play's, but I usually don't read them to learn about the game or to get the enjoyment that I would have earned from playing it myself.

Instead, I read Nakar's Ultima series for his unusual take on the characters, his peanut gallery dialog, and his game exploits and knowledge of hidden secrets.
I read the Quest For Glory 1-5 Let's Play because I loved his well-fleshed-out rendition of the Hero, which is not present in the actual games.
I read the Neverwinter Nights 2 Let's Play's because Lt. Danger wrote it alongside a graduate-level Lit student's analysis of the game's themes, tie-ins, ethics, and even deconstruction of the fantasy type.
I read The Dark Id's Resident Evil series because it was simply laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Explain to me the part where I want to get on youtube and watch videos of people playing video games. And please convince why this would be better then actually playing the video games myself?

The commentary. The humor. The insightful analysis of the story.

Personally, I prefer to read screenshot-style Let's Play's, but I usually don't read them to learn about the game or to get the enjoyment that I would have earned from playing it myself.

Instead, I read Nakar's Ultima series for his unusual take on the characters, his peanut gallery dialog, and his game exploits and knowledge of hidden secrets.
I read the Quest For Glory 1-5 Let's Play because I loved his well-fleshed-out rendition of the Hero, which is not present in the actual games.
I read the Neverwinter Nights 2 Let's Play's because Lt. Danger wrote it alongside a graduate-level Lit student's analysis of the game's themes, tie-ins, ethics, and even deconstruction of the fantasy type.
I read The Dark Id's Resident Evil series because it was simply laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Explain to me the part where I want to get on youtube and watch videos of people playing video games. And please convince why this would be better then actually playing the video games myself?

The commentary. The humor. The insightful analysis of the story.

Personally, I prefer to read screenshot-style Let's Play's, but I usually don't read them to learn about the game or to get the enjoyment that I would have earned from playing it myself.

Instead, I read Nakar's Ultima series for his unusual take on the characters, his peanut gallery dialog, and his game exploits and knowledge of hidden secrets.
I read the Quest For Glory 1-5 Let's Play because I loved his well-fleshed-out rendition of the Hero, which is not present in the actual games.
I read the Neverwinter Nights 2 Let's Play's because Lt. Danger wrote it alongside a graduate-level Lit student's analysis of the game's themes, tie-ins, ethics, and even deconstruction of the fantasy type.
I read The Dark Id's Resident Evil series because it was simply laugh-out-loud hilarious.

I'm a big fan but I can't play the default game.
I use the mayday tileset which makes it all good.

The interface is terrible (until you're used to it at which point you don't want it to change because it's really very fast)
The graphics are non-existent.

And yet it's an absolutely epic game.

Read boatmurdered to discover the wonders of the game- http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/
it's from an old version but it captures what's awesome about the game perfectly.

http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Final%20Fantasy%20Adventure/Images/img-8.PNG

http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Final Fantasy Adventure/Images/img-8.PNG

The deepest Roguelike ever. If you aren't sure why you might want to play it, start here.

Get the Linux 40d16 version from this page

If you prefer graphical tiles to (nearly) pure ASCII (I certainly do) get the Mike Mayday tileset from this page and use the instructions to get it working.

Then watch the 40 tutorial videos to ease the neigh vertical learning curve. You will of course supplement the videos with lots of careful reading of the wiki.

This game is a time vampire, but lots of fun if you have a little patience and an attention span.

of course it weas cooler when Origin still existed and owned it. .

Agreed. I've recently been reading up on the Ultima IV - VII "Let's Play"'s, and I am quite impressed at what Lord British (the programmer, not the NPC) was able to achieve in the late 80's and early 90's with the series. It was enough to make me forget that there ever was this EA nonsense... that is, until Serpent's Isle came out and all the NPC's walked around calling Lord British a bastard and a beast.

*Ahem* ... CURSE YOU SHAMINOOOO!

They can have a copy of Animal Crossing if they want.

Well, I dont think its a good idea.

After coming out of a 3 week bender of Dwarf Fortress http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/screens.html I can definitely say that graphics are not required for a good game. I literally had *dreams* about that damn game when I first started playing it.

Also, for anyone who doesn't know the saga of Boatmurdered, enjoy: http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/

Must secound Dwarf fort, it's a wonderfull game if horribly complex, the sheer amount of details in it are great. I think it really encourages a bit of imagination building to, sometimes lack of great graphics is actually a good thing.

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

Some of the best fun can be had making your game into a story, try reading the boatmurdered story if you have the time - http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/