For what it's worth, Tron? You didn't ruin anything. It was the idiot copy-cats that ruined everything. Everyone wants to be the next [insert popular Let's Player here], but 90% of the time, they're just some idiotic loudmouth with HyperCam 2 and too much free time on their hands.
Thank god for Retsupurae. 
Honestly I agree with this, and you have my condolences Tron.
Let's Playing should never be about being popular or competing, it should be about having fun and sharing you're experiences with people. People sometimes send me their LP's because they see me comment on videos, and usually the videos aren't something I'm interested in or very good for that matter. I got one with a Super Mario Sunshine LP and the dude wouldn't shut up and was talking literally a mile a minute.
I mean look at this crazy thing! I couldn't even last 3 mins with this guy before I had enough, and people still send me videos. I mean not all of them are bad, but are they really that desperate? Do they really need to stoop so low to get subscribers and send random people messages to get them to watch?
Whenever I get around to doing Let's Plays I won't go that low. I'll probably make a thread here but that's because I want the people I care about to see what I'm doing, not someone I don't know who's just a number in my subscriber box. I want to share this with you guys because you're awesome and honestly I really wanted to contribute to the fan creations thread.
I really respect the LPer's I watch, they really just want to have fun and share their experiences with people. It's why I like Chuggaaconroy so much, and he has my deepest respect especially with this post he made today on Facebook.
[spoiler]I've been hearing a lot of talk about this, and I think it's only right if I throw in my two cents about it. Being positive here and not attacking anybody-- I'd really, really like it if we all started acting like a community again. Is there any reason not to? I've been a part of some community streams, such as CrystalStarStudio's or MasaeAnela's in the past months and it was seriously fun. I intend on doing more things like it too. It seems like so few group efforts or projects centered around simple fun exist now. Stuff's always more fun with friends, so why not work with them on videos or streams? Get together for a weekend over Skype, broadcast on stream, and maybe raise money for charity?
Wanting to work with friends was how TheRunawayGuys was started, and it's why we have tons of people, big and small, in our tournaments. Cross-promo works, it pays to work together. Can we stop treating making game commentary like a competition? I'm not saying you have to be friends with everyone or even like everyone, but I'm sure you'll find it more enjoyable to make videos when it's about fun and working together, not about getting attention. "It's the only way to get attention" isn't a good reason for cutting off from others, nor is it a good core to shape your content around. Heck, if I was hungry for as much attention as possible, I wouldn't have Let's Played Okamiden. There's people in the community who have met with success that didn't rely on that mindset to get where they are. It isn't the only way, and this doesn't have to be a competition, unless you want it to be.
This community is one of the greatest things I've had in my life. I've made more friends than I can count from it, and I feel like the core values to it may be fading. I don't want that to happen. Even if you don't like me or don't want to link to this post, you can still speak about the core statement if you agree with it. Don't attack people with words, speak through actions. Positive actions. Reach out to old friends who make videos or want to make videos, you know, the ones you've been meaning to talk to again. Nothing's stopping you. Collaborate. Be constructive. Have fun. Smile, since that never hurts. Is that too much to ask?[/spoiler]
This guy started as a minor LPer and became one of the most popular on Youtube, sure at first he would say to subscribe to his videos at the end of ever video for the first 5 or 6 LPs but that was it. He was never attention grabbing, heck if you went to his first LPs and compare it to his later ones he was a shy quiet guy at first. But eventually in the course of 4 years he got 400,000 subscribers. He didn't do it by LPing the most popular games, like FF7, GTA, Orcarina of Time or etc. No he LPed things like Okami, the Mother series, Majora's Mask, and freaking Pikmin! You know why, because he loves those games and wanted to share them with other people and most enjoy the games he played because he shared his honest opinions about them.
I would never watch a person who would do a LP to make them popular, I watch them to see how they play their games and how they enjoy them. That's what I want to do, having a fan base would be cool but I would mainly do it to have fun.