A few years ago, I watched a full playthrough of the first three Phoenix Wright games on Youtube. I enjoyed the story and characters a lot, hence why I pretty much binge-watched what is a series of very story-heavy games. I know it sounds stupid, but that's what happened.
As a consequence, I had no reason to buy and play any of those games. In hindsight, I realize I pretty much pirated the games without ever even playing them. It's not like I enjoyed the games because of their epic gameplay, I enjoyed them because of the story, and since I know what's going to happen, I don't have a reason to play them myself.
I still bought them in the end out of principle (even if it's Capcom...), but how many people are seriously going to do that? I doubt very many.
Now, I'm in the middle of creating my own story-heavy game, and I'm unsure because of how popular gaming channels have become on Youtube. I fear some big youtuber will play my game, a big portion of my potential playerbase will see the story and not be bothered to buy the game themselves. I mean, why should they if they've seen the story? Sure, I get some free publicity/marketing for my game, but what good is that if nobody's going to buy the game?
Is my concern valid? Or am I too pessimistic about people?
Answer
Yes, you should care about Let's Players. In fact, you should make your game as appealing to them as possible. Reach out to them and encourage them to play your game.
Let's Players have become one of the most important marketing channels for independent game developers. They are a great way to expose your game to a large and interested audience and most of the time they don't even want any money for it. And exposure is everything in a market as crowded as today's game market. Only those people who know your game exists will consider buying it. I am sure some games like Surgeon Simulator or Octodad would have never been as successful if they weren't played into the ground on Youtube and Twitch.
Regarding your fear that "a big portion of your potential playerbase will see the story and not be bothered to buy the game": Have you calculated how large your "potential playerbase" actually is? There are hundreds of millions of people in the world who regularly buy and play video games. Your "potential playerbase" is practically endless, even if your game only targets a niche demographic. But just as countless as your customer pool is your competition. That's why exposure is so crucial for games.
However, if you are afraid that watching your game is just as good as playing your game, make sure it is not. Add multiple major branches to your story and lots of minor decisions which affect later events in the game. You want the audience to constantly wonder what would have happened if the player had done something different. And do not neglect your actual gameplay. The unique strength of games as a medium is that they are interactive. If you just want to tell your story and don't want any audience interaction to interfere with it, you can just as well write a novel.
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