Nintendo ID Claims Youtube LPs

[Gwen]

Like I said, not even remotely the same, the companies who make the gear for sports didn't invent the sports they make gear for, they're merely supplying. The athletes make the sport happen.

Like how the players make the game happen?

Sports are basically the same game every time. The gist of most of them is like this: two teams, one ball, two goals. It's what the teams do with that ball to get to those goals that makes the game different each and every time, but that isn't enough for most audiences. There are also a pair of men on microphones commenting on and making jokes about the game as it happens.

It's the unique experience that the Let's Play is about, and each gaming experience is definitely different.

You're really stretching that. The difference, ONCE AGAIN, is that in sports, Players devote their lives to the sport, practicing day in and day out, and the fact they use gear made by other companies is irrelevant, because those companies are paid to supply the NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS and so on. Furthermore, each game is vastly different from the last, and it's certainly enough for most audiences, there are entire online channels dedicated to cutting out commentators as they're becoming increasingly annoying in most sports. The commentators are mostly their to analyze and keep those watching updated, just as an extra precaution to make sure people know what's going on. Let's Plays are a few people playing through a videogame and cracking jokes while playing it and talking about it. See the difference?
One is people devoting a large part of their lives to something, and as such it's like any other job and they deserve to be paid for their efforts, where as the other is a few friends cracking jokes over a game their playing and screenshooting. That game that they're playing took other people years to make, something that they put their stamp on, something that they playtested themselves, something that they watched unfold before their own eyes. The LP's are just playing the finished product and doing what my friends and I do when playing a game together, bullshit around.
In my mind, there's nothing remotely similar as with sports, players are given tools to play the game with, and put on their own unique performance day in and day out, where as LP's are just playing a finished product that someone else put all the effort into making it a unique experience.