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Lets Play / Un Played A Thing

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Hey, folks, I'm Un! I do what are effectively video Let's Plays: longplays of video games with commentary. I started out using the name "I Played a Thing" due to my perception of LPs as an SA-specific phenomenon; I continue to use it because, well, I like it. But yeah, these are pretty much LPs. Enjoy...?
— Un’s description of his YouTube account

UnPlayedAThing is a pretty-much-weekly YouTube channel run by Un, an American with a soothing deep voice, patented absence of any sense of direction, and great attention to details, secrets and obscure background information. While not as popular, he nevertheless has a small but loyal group of loyal followers – mostly thanks to one of the aforementioned traits (or all of them at once).

His playthroughs (which he calls IPATs, short for I Played A Thing) are particularly notable by the amount of information about the game’s origins, development history, quirks, changes, influences and other peculiar trivia – be it an obscure game from an arcade machine or a modern PlayStation game.

As of September of 2018, he has started a weekly stream called Go With the Stream, where he focuses primarily on blind-playing indie games in his backlog.

In June of 2020, after a monthlong hiatus, Un announced that he would not be returning to I Played a Thing citing personal issues.

    List of things Un has played so far: 

This Let's Player provides examples of:

  • Berserk Button: Un is normally a good-natured friendly guy, but he has a few.
    • In his Trampoline Terror playthrough, he confesses to hate limited-visibility mazes. And teleporter mazes. And, to quote the video:
    Boss Goji: Just, Un, hold that thought in your mind: a limited-visibility teleporter maze.
    Un: Yeeeuughh.
    <...>
    Un: You know, there’s a scientific application for that sort of thing too. If we ever need to power a DVD or a game cartridge into the Sun, just put a teleporter maze with limited visibility into it and then hand it to me.
    • In his Dark Savior IPAT, he admits that he really hates minecart rides — especially the one that featured in the game.
    It’s not just that it’s difficult, which it certainly is. It’s just terrible. The upcoming segment is to “fun” as “turd” is to “delicious.”
    The video intro (headphone warning): (guttural yelling) AAARGH THE CITY– (normal friendly voice) I’m Un.
    • Exile 2's difficulty curve. While manageable for the first couple of sections, Un breaks so thoroughly trying to fight the game's second major boss he's forced to use a patch to complete the rest of the game (or else forced to level-grind until nearly the max and hope). Half his commentary for the remainder of the game is "... how did I get through this on the original!?"
  • Breather Episode: Un will often finish longform IPATs like Dark Souls games and switch to lighter, shorter-form games, like Dynamite Heady, Space Harrier(And Friends!) and J.J. Squawkers. An argument can be made that Pu Li Ru La, Aquanaut's Holiday, or THE DOG Island are this as well, as they are somewhat spaced out, and the themes in his other playthroughs can get pretty heavy.
    • Go With the Stream days are sometimes host to Apple Jam; instead of focusing on long-form or intensive games, Un focuses on old, bite-sized Apple II games and seeing what he has and what seems interesting. Jackbox sessions also tend to be lighter in tone compared to other days.
  • Gateway Series: His playthroughs of Hokuto no Ken and Hokuto no Ken 2 acted as this to the greater Fist of the North Star franchise for many viewers.
  • Genius Ditz: Primarily due to his self-admitted lack of direction, but don't be fooled; once he actually gets to wherever the game directs him to go, he's pretty competent at whatever he needs to do. Also see the amazing amount of trivia he can give for even the most obscure parts of his collection.
  • Heroes Love Dogs: Un is an open and unabashed dog lover, and if there is ever an option for Un to adopt a dog in-game, he goes for it. Best exemplified by his Death Road to Canada playthrough, where he made a point of taking a trait that made dogs appear more frequently and adopted every dog he could, which lead to a scenario where all human members of his party had died, only for Un to be amazed as the party's dog gets back in the car and drives off to continue the trip.
  • Milestone Celebration: In December of 2017, Un celebrated ten years of Playing Things by going back and playing the first game he ever did an LP of, though a different console release of it.
  • No Sense of Direction: So very, very much. As Un himself had admitted a great number of times, he could easily get lost in three doorways.
    Un: (After misreading a dungeon map for Phantasy Star I) See, I can get completely lost even if I have a map in front of me. That's how good I am at it. It's a stupid talent, but it's mine, and I will take misplaced pride in it.
    Boss Goji: Victory is here, victory is here, victory is here– NO
    Un: WHY DID I DO THAT!
    Boss Goji & GTF: *hysteric laughter*
    • His blind playthrough of The DOG Island features one of the most side-splittingly hilarious examples of this trope, all sped up to appropriately goofy music. For the context: he is trying to get a MacGuffin for one of the quests, and to do that, he needs to go up a slope and jump on an elephant’s back. Instead, Un spends nearly quarter of an hour running circles and missing the obvious way up to where the MacGuffin is located. When he finally notices the obvious, his cry of anguish is as follows:
    (dumbfounded silence) Oh my god. Could that have been any simpler. Just– go up the hill, and the elephant’s right there, and– and– and– (beat) Welcome to the Land of Sadness. Population – me.
  • Nice Guy: Un's probably one of the gentlest Youtube Let's Players out there. While he can have his moments of rage, he's usually pretty laid-back and more focused on enjoyment of the game, even with the ones he can admit the problems of; that's not his usual concern, showing off the game is.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: Explored in his Double Dragon video, where he relays the story of being a child, wondering just where that conveyor belt in Mission 2 goes...
  • Spin-Off: Un coined the I Played A Thing/ IPAT title, and a few of his friends have started their own IPATs with blessing, particularly Alicia Goranson.
  • Squick: Has this reaction to the Sewer Babies in Mystic Defender.
  • Vocal Evolution: While Un is currently known for his deep voice and it's become a staple of his channel, stuff like Exile or Below the Root has a much higher-pitched tone. One can assume years of playing games for IPA Ts has caused Un's voice to develop to where it is now.
  • Wacky Wayside Tribe: While Un does play more well-known games, both modern and arcade, he's got a few of these in his inventory. Best known cases are J.J. Squwakers and Pu Li Ru La. Interestingly enough, games that could be considered this are Un's usual fare, to the point where a relatively mainstream game like Dark Souls is this for him. Referenced in his first Trampoline Terror video:
    Un: I'm back with a another bite-sized nugget of obscurity.

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