I heard that Nintendo is now copyrighting all of their games so that people can't post Let's Plays and stuff like that on the internet. If you do you can either get sued OR if they like it and you get a lot of views they'll take the money from it. Has anyone heard this yet? If so, can you post a link (if you have one) please?
They are not taking down videos, just putting ads on them. (And they are earning money from the ads.) People are
angry about this. I've spent almost all morning reading comments from both sides of the argument. Honestly, this is just one big fat flame war right now, and I'm just waiting for it to die down.
http://www.gamefront.com/nintendo-flexin...-channels/
(05-20-2013, 01:13 PM)Lightmatt Wrote: [ -> ]They are not taking down videos, just putting ads on them. (And they are earning money from the ads.) People are angry about this. I've spent almost all morning reading comments from both sides of the argument. Honestly, this is just one big fat flame war right now, and I'm just waiting for it to die down.
http://www.gamefront.com/nintendo-flexin...-channels/
So it's not as bad as I thought, just more of a pain in the ass.
Thanks for the link! It cleared up a lot of what I had heard.
I was on a few places reading and arguing about this last week. Nintendo, right now, reminds me of this:
...circa 2000.
They're just greedy, Disney-like in their approach to icon cutivation, still don't understand the internet (as demonstrated by their systems), and half of the arguing body for the issue don't comprehend or value modern video game commentary, broadcasting, and performance as a product.
If I sing your song, you don't own my voice, my night club, or all the alcohol in the store room. You can't just come and charge people $10 to come in and I get $0.
Yes, Nintendo's entitled to their share, but youtube's facilitating a %100/%0 split without question. They're within their legal rights, but not ethical in doing so, and this is like if current regulations for vehicles and roads were being applied to flying cars and airways.
I have ad blocker, so nothing changes for me.
So, lets say I upload a lets play of Pokemon Emerald Version right now, what would happen?
(05-20-2013, 06:38 PM)Ghost Nappa Wrote: [ -> ]So, lets say I upload a lets play of Pokemon Emerald Version right now, what would happen?
I think they would make all the money that you would otherwise get from the ads.
I'm still confused on why Nintendo did this.
(05-20-2013, 06:38 PM)Ghost Nappa Wrote: [ -> ]So, lets say I upload a lets play of Pokemon Emerald Version right now, what would happen?
Actually for some reason, Pokemon doesn't fell under Nintendo's thing. Strange I know but yeah.
I stand by Something Awful let's play sub-forum's opinion and think that Let's plays should have been treated as a hobby first and a job second. If you were making money from let's playing Nintendo titles only, sorry but you should have thought of a plan B because you should have seen this coming. Even if the big-name Youtube LPers stop lping Nintendo titles I am 100% certain there will be someone who will LP them anyway on SA. (And that's my 2-cents and I'm now leaving this thread, because this topic is giving me a headache.)
In all honesty though, it isn't smart to make a job out of this. The gameplay may be unique but the game itself is still theirs and making a lot of money using a product that you didn't make... eventually legal issues would be coming. Yes, there are some Let's Players that do put work into their videos like editing, scripting, reviewing the game before heading in... but a lot of videos just have somebody playing a game and talking over it. When you see those kind of videos, which are recorded poorly and have commentary that doesn't relate to the game, you can see why Nintendo might be cracking down on them. Nintendo may have the wrong notion that there are people that make a lot of money over their content and all they do is slap their voice on it and call it day, letting the money roll in by ad revenue. And to me, personally, I find those types of LPers reprehensible and I don't feel sorry for them one bit.
Don't get me wrong, what I think Nintendo is doing is not a good move as it'll only give them a small amount of profit with bad PR looming over them for a while. The company may have the rights, but the true argument comes from it being the smart thing to do or not. We can't deny that a move like this is alienating for these people and it would cause them to trust the company less. If they could come down on them over LPs, then what else could they get them over? What would finally draw the line? Moreover, I'm vehemently against the ContentID system since it has caused thousands of videos to be indiscriminately removed. There's no human factor in that system and Youtube has never bothered to add one. It's a terrible system and it should not be supported.
In terms of the law, I think Nintendo does have the right to do this. But the real question is this: is it the smart thing to do? Personally, I don't think so and this is going to bite them badly later.
I watched an entire playthough of Bioshock 2 the other day instead of buying it because I don't care for its gameplay. (I have also done this with Strong Bad's CGFAP series) I don't think it was the worst decision. I agree that these videos should be hobbies first. They could upload these videos WITHOUT ANY ADS still. Why are you defending the guys who are making a living talking about games all day? Why aren't you all as spitefully jealous as me?
The one thing I'm thinking of is if that a company like Nintendo is doing this, then other companies will start to do the same with their series. It's a way to make extra cash, and since Nintendo took the first bite, why not jump on it?
As for Lets Players, I'd really think that most of them would have some sort of other job for cash and as much as I hate to say it, they really should have thought up of something else like Matt said. That, and I may have a bias since I think a Let's Play should be done for fun and not solely for a profit.
All my YouTube money. Noooooooo
(05-21-2013, 08:44 AM)MexicanAnime Wrote: [ -> ]The one thing I'm thinking of is if that a company like Nintendo is doing this, then other companies will start to do the same with their series. It's a way to make extra cash, and since Nintendo took the first bite, why not jump on it?
Actually, companies have been doing this months before Nintendo did. This is just bringing up the most attention because, hey, it's Nintendo. Gotta put a sensationalist spin on it somehow!
I'd have to side with Nintendo on this one.
Let's Plays are considered copyright infringement, so while Nintendo could have sent Google on a Let's Play witch hunt (like certain record companies would have done) they opted for putting ads on them instead. I doubt they expected the LP community to have such a negative reaction considering the legal sketchiness of LP videos in general, let alone monetizing them.
Then there's my own opinion: if you want to make money off of your "gaming skills" you have to do your part in the creative process. Neither DYKG nor VGFacts show entire playthroughs of a game; think of a creative way to comment on the game. Maybe you want rattle off trivia about the game, maybe you'd like to make an animated Flash skit exaggerating aspects of the game or maybe you're good at thinking up lyrics and can make review parodies of soundtrack songs. There are a ton of possibilities!