Let's Plays are nothing new. They do, however, seem to be becoming more and more "mainstream" in the gaming community in general. My knowledge on the latest generation of consoles is limited, but it seems like the PS4/Xbox One are making it easier and easier for people to record themselves playing whatever it is they're currently working on. In my lurking about the forums, I see references made to them more frequently, the latest issue of Game Informer that showed up on my doorstep seems to have a whole spread dedicated to the LP craze.
I never found LPs terribly interesting before I began to develop better friendships with some of the regulars here. Then I found that I immensely enjoyed watching them play through games. When you already know the person doing the recording, it's less like watching an LP and more like sitting in someone's living room watching them play through a game. You can recapture that feeling of going to a friend's house to see that new game you haven't been able to get your hands on, or that is just a little too difficult for you to manage on your own. With strangers, that more intimate level of excitement is gone, and I lose interest.
On top of that, everyone seems to record everything. I suppose that it's the internet and there's an audience available for just about anything, but in most cases one of my favorite quotes from Planes, Trains and Automobiles comes to mind: "Y'know, not everything is an anecdote, you have to discriminate! You choose things are funny or mildly amusing! You're a miracle! Your stories have none of that! They're not even amusing accidentally!"
So what do you guys think? Do you have any LPers outside of EP that you enjoy following? And if you record your own, what is it about the process that you enjoy?