There's nothing inherently wrong with them, and I am probably going to be spending the 30th of June in a vegetative state watching streams of a new game coming out that day.

My only concern is LPs that lack in the quality that "big YouTubers" can achieve. FGTeeV and several Minecrafters come to mind. Symptoms include pathetically low standards such as bragging about how much money you spend and churning out "roleplays" daily with low effort (these have actually happened; those responsible also have a MASSIVE following, disturbingly enough.)

What good is the internet if there is so little information about the subjects I like?

Usually for discoverring and learning more about a game before buying, sometimes for watching someone play (although I get irationally irritated if the LPer does a mistake which may seem obvious at first glance.)

I also enjoy some LPs for the humor, like Persona 4 Endurance Run, and My Life Is A Goddamn Mess. I also enjoy some french LPers like Bob Lennon and Fantasio974, Minecraft PvP, and sometimes watching raids and instances for some MMOs.

I did immensely enjoy TheSilverKetchup's Let's Play Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone PC. It reminds a lot of an MST, though he does some pretty funny edits (Flipendo block Tetris, anyone?) and the storyline ends up being something along the lines of "Harry tries to escape from Hogwarts while Professors Dumbledore and Sprout try to kill him with milk-drinking plants, naked babies run rampant, and Mini-Santa hands out autographs". Yeah, some of the humor is pretty juvenile, but it's never crude, which I can appreciate. (And being a fan of juvenile humor myself, I'm not complaining.)

Other than that, though, I don't really watch LPs; just a bunch of raid guids by Fatboss. That's pretty much it in terms of watching gaming videos.

Nothing against let's plays as a whole, of course, I watched Game Grumps at one point, and I'm sure there are high quality let's plays out there.
My problem is, is that there are so many LPers who are just so bloody boring, y'know?
Like they're trying to start a bloody franchise, or some nonsense like that.
You know the people I'm on about.
The ones who jump wildly at the chance to make the most stunningly unoriginal jokes they can possibly make.
When they're attacking the lower front of a gargoyle or something, they screech 'OH, IM ATTACKEN HIS PENIS HAHAHA'
Those people.
And there are so many, too.

I agree on the game not being a primary draw, definitely, and there are LPers I do like, assuming they can still technically be considered LPers.
Especially Star_ and Jerma.
The two of them are so bloody glorious together, I based parts of my agent's relationship on theirs.
And they don't make brainless dick jokes, even when given the perfect opportunity for them.

And also, eventually, because I like the LPer's personality and humor. I'm a bit less of a fan of streaming, if only because I miss livestreams a lot and my Internet connection is a bit fiddly when it comes to videos. :/

It depends, but I tend to enjoy the written ones quite a lot. For example the Let's Play Princess Maker 2 was entertaining, but the best one I've ever seen was a Let's Play/After Action Report for Crusader Kings, Knut Knytling. Have a link

I like the screenshot ones that are as much about the collab end with letting people make ridiculous choices as they are about making a story out of it, especially when they use it as a tutorial or explain aspects of the game as they go about it-like why this choice they went with due to audience input is Completely Terrible or Unexpectedly Good.

I watch a lot of people stream Magic: The Gathering Online. I watch for a number of reasons; foremost being I want to know how other people value cards, make decisions, and play the game. It has helped make me a much better player.

I have to find some value to myself in what the streamer is saying. I stopped watching a number of channels when it became clear that they judge the worth of a card based entirely on its financial value. That won't help me get better, and that type of player is not who I am going to be competing against in tournaments. I also stopped watching a youtuber who actively hates the company who makes the game because they won't produce exactly the things he wants. Again, not worth my time.

The people I still watch offer information that I can't get on my own, or a viewpoint that is very different from my own. For instance, I watch a guy who plays a very aggressive game. I don't play that way often (i'm a control and combo player), so it is good to know how he values cards for his style. This way, if I am in a draft in a tournament and the packs are telling me to be aggressive, then I have a baseline to work from.

So, I watch more for information than entertainment.

-Phobos

Not for me the ones where someone just plays through the story mode of a single-player game and comments on it, generally in the shrill and meme-slathered manner one might find on the Facebook page of a particularly irritating fourteen-year-old boy. I much prefer the ones where the game is different every time and the narrative is generated by the commentator themselves, if indeed they even bother.

My favourite LPer is probably Marbozir, a Polish Civ specialist and strategy game fan. He goes through a hell of a lot of Civ 5 content, shining a spotlight on interesting mods and generally being really damn good at the game. He also doesn't put a lot of effort into building a narrative; due to the nature of a game like Civilization, he doesn't really need to. It happens entirely organically, and I enjoy that very much.

However, I totally get why people watch LPs of the shriekers in a single-player horror campaign. Watching people make jokes is funny, and it does depend on the YouTuber. I find PewDiePie to be about as tolerable as the entire discography of Yes played by fingernails on a blackboard, for instance, but he must be doing something right. =]