Also, for people who are unable or unwilling to play a certain game, yet wish to know and experience its story, a longplay can be viewed simply as a long digitally animated movie.
Dull moments may be ultimately edited out of the final video, and sidequests may be ignored, but in general every task necessary to reach the end is to be recorded, including cutscenes.
[2] Games may be recorded in several ways: using screencast software, a feature built into an emulator, or via a video capture device connected to a console or another computer.
Advances in consumer recording equipment, codecs, hard drive space, and internet services were necessary before complete games could reasonably be saved and shared.
[4] These so-called "Longplays" can be considered early printed versions of let's plays, a later form of live commenting while videorecording a video game.