I don’t think you can record your play & upload or stream it now & be totally unaware of AP as a phenomenon. You might align yourself in contrast/opposition to some other APs. I would push back against what I suspect you mean about “thirst” — there’s still many, many reasons people make AP.
That's why I was asking if you found any. The broad awareness, the commercialization of APs…it makes genuine (and interesting) "I'm not playing to the camera/mic" rare.
I see occasional glimpses—or glitches, almost. Often when it’s someone outside the hobby pulled in, like Beth May in S1 of Dungeons & Daddies. She knew she was in an AP, but also didn’t, because she simply didn’t understand the space.
That’s a different issue — Beth didn’t know what AP was but she damn well knew she was on a comedy podcast from day one. And many APs are made along those lines of “ignorant of AP as a form or even TTRPGs more generally but very aware that there’s opportunities in D&D content”
I think there are tables that are able to get into flow states where they aren’t hyper-aware of an audience beyond the folks they’re playing with. One could argue (& folks have) that it’s required, but it’s tied to perception. (What folks think they know about what’s “raw” or not is… often wrong!)
Do you mind me asking how you found yourself fascinated with the topic in the first place? Nostalgia? The Schrödinger's cat-ness of it all? Curious.
I’m finishing a book defining and describing Actual Play and what we can say about how it’s produced, why folks participate, why folks watch/listen. Because of my work in/around TTRPGs I know folks who made what we’d call APs before that term had migrated to apply to recorded play for audiences.
This is the book I’d like to buy and read! ✨
I feel like trying to ignore the fact that we're recording an AP and that we have an audience would make our game much more stilted and artificial. But my podcast might fall off of one end of some bell curve. very long standing, handful of listeners. >
It’s really a question that is rooted in different game systems, play styles, other training you bring to the table, as well as the nature of how the AP is recorded. And it isn’t a steady state necessarily — folks can be aware in some moments & not in others.
but I feel strongly about the idea that performing with ttrpgs can have a special mode where we're simultaneously preforming, acknowledging that we are performing, while still playing the game. I think my main inspiration for this was friends at the table. >
I've seen very little debate about this style of AP, but I feel this is where my enthusiasm for the field lies.