has made a decision that all articles in the Let's Play namespace (list of pages in that namespace) should be moved to other namespaces.
Since let's plays are usually video-based, the target namespace is usually WebVideo/. However, some are text-based, and the consensus was to handle the namspacing of those on a case-by-case basis, with Blog/, Fanfic/, and Literature/ brought up as potential targets.
Before any given article is transplanted, we should confirm that it meets the standards for being a TV Tropes work article. Note that these often serve as hybrid articles for their creators in much the same way as the Music namespace. If there is insufficient content, the articles end up becoming about the creators, violating our "no troping real people" policy.
The crucial question is whether the article has any tropable, creative content. This means that it's more than just "Alisha plays games and makes faces." What counts as tropable, creative content? Here are some examples.
- Creating a fictional/roleplaying narrative that is distinct from the game being played or the real person doing the LP.
- Using the game as a medium to craft original content: songs, videos, machinima, and so on.
- "MST'ing" or creatively riffing on the game's content, as long as it's sufficiently transformative.
What are not criteria for a tropable Let's Play by themselves?
- Adopting a quirky personality, cracking jokes, making funny faces, or overreacting to jump scares.
- Cosplaying, playing with toys, unboxing merchandise, etc.
- Having a "gimmick" that makes them stand out, such as a repeated Catchphrase, eating loudly on microphone, or calling their viewers "Doggo fam".
- Playing games in a particular way (speedrunning, evil runs, no-kill runs, etc.) that fall within what it is possible to do in the game itself, with or without mods.
- Modding the game.
- Being very popular.
- Having lots of memes arise in their fandom.
Note that the same general principles apply to any Web Video creator, especially those whose main work is in news, reviews, vlogging, and/or reaction videos.
There are a few outliers that will need to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
- After-Action Report: I would move it to literature, although it could be considered fanfic.
- Liveblogs, which are probably not tropable.
Web Video cleanup sandbox
This project has several purposes related to all things Web Video:
- Cleaning up the WebVideo index
- Cleaning up the WebVideo/ namespace to move pages that belong elsewhere
- Cleaning up individual Web Video pages that have massive issues
Overview
The easy-seeming part when I started on Web Video (the index) was just removing things not even located in the namespace— found in Creator, Film, Web Animation, etc. Then I started noticing there were many things put in Web Video (the namespace) that were basically Creator pages, lots of Let's Play, other video game streaming that doesn't currently have an index, other misuses in index and/or namespace placement...
- original live action, meaning not animated or reusing existing footage;
- narrative/creative, a bit unclear, but it's not someone simply reviewing another work/reacting to other works/playing through another work;
- a work, which is... a work, not a creator.
) is much more broad:
"Live-action videos and video-based Lets Plays originally or only released online. Covers both YouTube videos and web-exclusive series, but does not include those that belong in the WebAnimation/ namespace. For big-budget series exclusive to streaming services such as Netflix, use Series/ or the appropriate animation namespace instead." — Not limited to original or live action footage, narrative works, etc. However, people have mistakenly created Web Animation pages in this namespace, made what are essentially creator pages, typed it as "Webvideo", etc.
:
Reaction channels tend to straddle a line here, but are not generally tropable unless they create some sort of distinct creative endeavor rather than stare at a video and laugh a bit. Also it helps if they are reacting to fiction, not to real life. The latter may be entertaining but falls into the same general category as gossip. We can trope these only for their use of production and artistic tropes, not for their topics.
-
No Analysis Channel index— corrected! - No index for non-Let's Play video game streaming unless they're on Twitch. If they don't fall into the Let's Play format and aren't on Twitch, where do they go?
- No
Gag Dub orGag Sub index - Where should we put channels based on prank calls, scam-baiting, other audio-based things where the video is incidental?
Pages identified for cleanup:
- A Dose of Buckley — see this ATT for more info
- The Mysterious Mr. Enter and subpages — issues include troping the creator and not the works
- The Nostalgia Critic and subpages — see this project thread
- Smosh and subpages — Smosh is a channel, and the pages have multiple works (may need a hard split)
- Thomas Sanders — Creator, lots of biographical details, previously hard split for Sanders Sides but may need another
See also:
- Cleanup: Review/Let's Play YMMV Tropes
- TLP: Actual Play genre/index
Just the index cleanup itself is a considerable project, figuring out what stays and what needs a different index, but there are also many pages with significant issues to clean. This is a very big project, but I've seen other people notice these issues, too. I hope we can at least get the index under control.
(![[nja]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/user_ninja_2074.png "[nja]"){kind=small}
For clarity and re: review stuff. Continue to edit as things occur that are useful to keep at the top of the thread.)
Edited by GastonRabbit on Dec 2nd 2023 at 9:02:00 AM
Professor Gigachad
The page from what I can tell is mostly talking about his persona and what he does while playing the games. I guess I will start moving tomorrow then.
CM Sandboxes, MB Sandboxes
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
just from quickly looking through the page, I think it could use a second opinion or at the very least a page clean up given examples like:
- Anachronism Stew:
- During Gray's Wildlife Park 3 playthrough, he's able to drop a Tyrannosaurus rex into the same enclosure as modern-day animals. It even gets killed by a lion.
- His Grand Theft Auto V episodes also see his bringing megalodon sharks into Los Santos. He even recreates the infamous "Helicopter Shark" hoax photo.
- Easily Forgiven: In his Subway Simulator playthrough, Gray crashes a subway train into another one. He gets let off the hook by writing a one-line explanatory letter. Even better, his letter is literally just "I'm a dumbass, sorry." Justified!
...don't really showcase him playing games in a specific role or character. Not saying that he doesn't, but that the page seems to have a lot of general gameplay examples that were fine before the new policy was created.
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
Question: how tropable is Terrible Writing Advice? I know it's technically Web Animation, but most of it is Discussed Troping with I think some plot and I'm requesting help with this as I don't watch the channel enough to really decipher.
I'm saying this because I started watching his video on leader characters and I was going to add a Discussed Trope example to Commander Contrarian, but I don't think it's tropable in that way and I want to check first.
Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Aug 20th 2022 at 7:37:39 AM
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
It's satire, which I'm extremely sure is tropable.
Angry babby
I also firmly believe that a series that dedicates extensive discussion to tropes and explans their relevance in pop culture is worth noting on a site about tropes.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
I was just checking. Thanks for the feedback everyone.
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
It's either real or it's a dream
Just to add my two cents: I'm not really a fan of his style or some of his advice, but I absolutely think he's tropable.
Aquablade 11 and Merg are cut listed.
- The Ace: Marluxia from the Fire Red Nuzlocke, among all the starter Pokemon from Aquablade's main lets plays; she is the only one to see the end of the game. Real life troping
- Quetzal and Rupee from the Alpha Sapphire Insanity Nuzlocke count. Real life troping
- Berserk Button: It's probably for the best not to mention Minecraft in his streams. Real life troping
- Catchphrase: "Rock on." Real life troping
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Part 14 of Ruby(?) has him being on the receiving end of one. No transformative content
- The ending to his Black nuzlocke has him on the giving end, where he pretty much obliterates Ghetsis's team with his Crustle. No transformative content
- Department of Redundancy Department: In the Fanmail videos he used to do, his sprite would rush outside to the mailbox, have a text bubble, that he would narrate the words from. He says this in the very first episode:
"Wait... Why do I need to narrate something that has typed words on it?! Or better yet, why did I need to type words on something i'm narrating!?"
- Digital Piracy Is Evil: He cannot stand Roms or the use of roms, and sometimes even calls people out on using roms. Real life troping
- Hero Killer: Tate and Liza, and Steven in Ruby(?), Lucian and Cynthia in Platinum. No transformative content
- History Repeats: Both the Black Nuzlocke and Platinum Insanity Nuzlocke have him losing his starter to a critical hit from the second Gym Leader. But in the Black Nuzlocke, it was on the very first attack, while in Platinum it was after attempting to attack while near half health. No transformative content
- Hope Spot: Part 14 of Ruby(?). The battle against Tate and Liza have him losing Annette the FlareHawk, who he had from before he even got his first badge, due to Calm Mind, low-end damage survival, and Poison Point. He sees possible hope for Sophia the SkyRipper, the very first Pokémon he obtained, despite her being only Level 35. But as soon as Fireflower uses Flamethrower, from there on he's subjected to one big Curb-Stomp Battle. No transformative content
- Killed Off for Real: Every Pokemon that faints is dead and can never be used again. No transformative content
- Running Gag: Once during a playthough of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue Rescue Team AB had a Gligar nicknamed Sting on his team. During the battle with Zapdos Sting stood around doing nothing. From that point on Sting has been mentioned normally every stream; much to Aquablade's chagrin. Real life troping
- Yank the Dog's Chain: The finale of the Ruby(?) Nuzlocke, which has him losing Kaa the Rocksnake and Andrew the Flarehawk to Steven's Featherchamp (his ace Pokémon, also the very last one), the latter while he's at 1 HP. Before that, he was so close to not losing anyone. No transformative content
- Bilingual Bonus: His viewers have begged him to speak German in a video since he mentioned he knows it. He has in a handful of videos, such as Overtime. Real life troping
- Catchphrase: Real life troping
- "What is up, guys, and welcome (back) to (video series)." (His intro.) Real life troping
- "What is up, fellow gamers..." (Former intro.) Real life troping
- "EW!!!" (When he sees something disturbing or creepy; unsurprisingly, it shows up often in Doki Doki Literature Club!) Real life troping
- "Bam!" (When he's excited or being emphatic.) Real life troping
- Deadpan Snarker: Some of his answers in the 10k Q&A special: Real life troping
Merg: [reading question] "Am I gay?" I am, I am very gay and happy right now. 10,000 subscribers; now, even 11,000 is such a huge deal, so I'm very happy about that! [screen text reads: "Serious answer later"] Real life tropingMerg: [reading question] "What's your bank account password? And am I gay?" What are these questions? If you give me your bank account password, I will think about the first question. How's that? Real life tropingMerg: [reading question] "Voice reveal?" ... I'm very shy when it comes to my voice, so that will probably have to take a very long time until I reveal that. Real life troping
- Department of Redundancy Department: Happens frequently in his 10k Q&A special because of him scrolling through and answering all of the comments, many of which asked some variation of his real name, age, nationality, and favourite game. He doesn't lose his patience at any point, but the video description of the third part (which alone is an hour long) acknowledges this with: Real life troping
Video Description: To summarize: My name is Max, I am 18 years old and live in Austria. Real life troping
- Determinator: He had to be this to get through all of his Undertale no-hit runs. Real life troping
- Dissonant Serenity: He's not prone to raging, even when playing games like Geometry Dash, and Getting Over It. He stays remarkably calm for much longer than many other YouTubers. (Not that he never gets frustrated...) Real life troping
- Fandom Nod: As one of the most prolific Undertale YouTubers, many Undertale fan games include Easter Eggs related to him (usually involving special dialogue if one names their character "Merg"). trivia
- Fun with Acronyms: His former YouTube name, MyEveryRottenGiggles, spells out "Merg". Real life troping
- Luck-Based Mission: Mentions that the no-hit run for Omega Flowey in Undertale was partially this. No transformative content
Video Description: To clarify: The cut is at 5:58. The part that begins here is much harder than the 6 souls combined and doing the entire fight in one go requires an ungodly amount of luck... Once you know how to dodge all the attacks it's just a matter of hoping no impossible situations show up. The final phase on the other hand is mostly RNG. Being few hits away from beating it was one of the most nervous I've ever been.
- Mistaken Nationality: A few people have mistaken him for American, and several have mistaken him for German. (His native language is German on account of him being from Austria, but all of his videos are in English, which he also speaks fluently.) Real life troping
- Nice Guy: Friendly, relaxed, open, positive, and rarely gets (too) mad on camera. Real life troping
- Rage Quit: Even though he's a Determinator of the highest caliber, he did give up on a small number of absurdly hard Undertale fangames out of frustration. No transformative content
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Quite a lot of these in Getting Over It. No transformative content
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Not usually, but half of the comments under this video are about his "manly scream". To be fair, he was playing Baldi's Basics and had just gotten jumpscared by the principal... No transformative content
- Self-Imposed Challenge: His No-Damage Run of Undertale (both Pacifist and Genocide routes), where he has to reload a save every time he takes damage. And yes, he pulled it off, including the ridiculously hard fights against Undyne the Undying and Sans.
- Sensory Abuse: Very frequently in his Undertale Corrupted videos. No transformative content
Merg: Ahhh-kay, before my ears get violated even further with this... (Beat) ... background music... No transformative content
- Signing Off Catchphrase: "Thanks for watching, and until next time, take care!" No transformative content
- Squee: Often, over awesome Geometry Dash fan levels, awesome music, cute characters, etc., etc... No transformative content
- Surprisingly Good English: Shouldn't actually be that surprising, considering his entire channel is in English and he's had a lot of practice, but more than one person has expressed surprise upon finding out that English is not his first language, since he barely has an accent. Real life troping
Edited by Tabs on Aug 21st 2022 at 3:32:59 AM
Quackity HQ seems to just be troping him rather than his content.
I'd like to apologize for all this.
I agree, but also wow that Wham Episode textwall...
Anyways, found Uno: The Movie which might be tropeable, but as it stands reads like its troping the players and also has many ZCEs.
CSP Cleanup Thread | All that I ask for ... is diamonds and dance floors
Sorry to DP, but while cleaning up Corpsing I found WebVideo.Kusogrande which has a section that tropes the games they play which I'm fairly certain is incorrect and should be moved to the actual games' trope pages. Problem is, all the examples are general.
CSP Cleanup Thread | All that I ask for ... is diamonds and dance floors
the Retromancer
The page doesn't look to be keep-worthy to me.
TroperWall / WikiMagic CleanupFrame Perfection and Hellfire Commentaries are both huge messes, and they don't seem to be tropable either.
I'd like to apologize for all this.
the "Risky Click Pub" asshole
why do we have a page about Low Tier God? i found it wicked on Mandela Catalogue of all things, and from what little i know about him, he's basically the same type of "not tropable" that got The King Of Hate cut from this site (which even links to this thread as the cut reason). unsurprisingly, LTG's page is also largely just bashing him (for completely justified reasons, but it's still only bashing).
literally the only differences between the two is that LTG is black and didn't quit playing fighting games.
weaponizing Dungeon Fighter Online elitism since 2018
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
We have the page because someone made one. Whether or not it should stay up is a different question.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Re: RT Game's cutting, sorry for potentially bringing up old arguments, but I'd like some related clarifications on the extent of what is tropable. (I was pointed here by Ask The Tropers).
It's been noted (I apologize if I am misunderstanding) that the reason reality TV (people sit on chairs: the genre) is tropable while internet streamers are not is largely because reality TV is edited after the fact: I.E. there is in theory someone specifically selecting and curating segments of video in order to craft a narrative instead of the viewer being provided a raw uncurated content dump. Some of RT Game's content seems pretty reality-TV like in that regard. Mainly those "I put X players in minecraft and told them to do Y" type videos where he mixes and edits footage of strangers playing the game to create something that is definitely not a traditional let's play. Would that be tropable? And would it require a dedicated page like "RT Game Minecraft series" (though not all such videos are in Minecraft) or such?
And more generally, does reality TV's tropability come merely from the amount of editing, or is it specifically because the person doing the editing is someone other than the filmed participants?
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
I've been saying for a while that RT Game might be totally tropeable... the problem was that the page just focused on his random actions in a game, not any creative content or unique narratives his videos create. If such content exists then someone can make a new page for him with that content.
We just want to make sure that what's being troped isn't "person plays game", but "person has creative content while playing a game"
Edited by WarJay77 on Sep 10th 2022 at 7:15:18 AM
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Lost in Space
This is accurate.
The problem is that many, if not most Let's Play articles are clearly troping the people doing the LP, not their creative content. If there is actually creative content, someone with an interest in them needs to fix the articles or they get cut.
I'm not going to dedicate the next year of my life to binge-watching YouTube to verify this stuff. I watch enough LP's already to know that 95 percent of them, if not more, are "person plays game" and thus not tropable.
There are exactly two options on the table for most Let's Play articles that are tropeworthy enough to keep:
- Transplant them to a Web Video article about the channel/creator and remove all examples that are troping real people, stating trivia about them, or restating tropes in the game itself.
- Make an article in the Let's Play namespace about the specific LP of the specific game by the specific creator and index it as a fanwork of the game. Example: LetsPlay.Rocket League Markiplier 2015, custom titled "Let's Play Rocket League (Markiplier, 2015)".
Edited by Fighteer on Sep 10th 2022 at 7:29:35 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
If the Lets Play section is being cut would it be worth moving Call Me Kevin to Web Video? He does have a lot of tropable elements since he has a lot of characters in his videos and I don't think the page tropes him as a person.
Edited by SkylaNoivern on Sep 10th 2022 at 1:51:24 PM
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
I support moving Kevin's page, yeah. I might clean it up to remove bad examples, but he also has so much creative content the page should be kept in the correct namespace.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Lost in Space
Please link to articles when bringing them up for discussion.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
On a related note I'm not sure if I'd even call Call Me Kevin a Lets Player, since his content has moved beyond that I believe.
Lost in Space
That sounds like a solid move to Web Video.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
If Grey has a transformative element and the tropes on the page are focused solely on that transformative element it's fine and can be moved over to Web Video.
Edited by amathieu13 on Aug 17th 2022 at 2:09:31 PM