Slashdot Mirror
Video Game Movies "Not Creative Expression"
GamePolitics is one of many that is reporting on the impending removal of video game movies from the video hosting site Vimeo. While they have agreed to leave machinima alone, all walk-throughs, strategy videos, pvp battles, raids, etc, will be deleted on September 1st. "The Vimeo staff does not feel that videos which are direct captures of video game play truly constitute 'creative expression.' Further, such videos may expose Vimeo to liability from the game creator(s), as we have already seen action from popular video game companies against videos such as these... Gaming videos are by nature significantly larger and longer than any other genre on Vimeo ..."
Wonder how many companies actually care about video clips of their games being posted online? Seems like great publicity for them, and a good way to see how a game plays for someone who hasn't bought it yet. DNRTFA
Because if gamers saw the actualy game play from the absolute garbage developers are putting out, they'd never buy games.
Vimeo owns the site; they can do what they want with it. What's the big deal?
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Never heard of them. Wake me up when significant sites like YouTube start doing things like this...
It's called a takedown notice. That should shield you from any liability -- if the creators care, they send you a notice, and you make the video go away. Problem solved.
Of course, the real reason is:
Gaming videos are by nature significantly larger and longer than any other genre on Vimeo ...
Really? Have they not seen Wormtooth Nation?
But there you go -- they're not really afraid of litigation. They're afraid of file size...
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Video capture of gameplay for the sake of the gameplay is about as creative as live capture of a sports event for the sake of the sports event.
The linked article doesn't mention anybody specific, and my care level is far too low to do any research on my own. I would be curious to see what companies really care. Certainly some companies, likes Games Workshop, have a pretty draconian policy toward fan created materials on-line...but I haven't heard of Blizzard throwing a fit about raid videos.
The "not creative" part doesn't jibe for me, either. I've seen some raid videos set to music that are at least as creative as the latest spewage on TV.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
With better resolutions, less BS moderation, and a 'better' community.
So far I really haven't seen anything more than the potential of better resolutions. They are just as free as Flikr or Youtube in "Eww, I don't like that, delete" button useage, and frankly I haven't really seen anything being hosted by them that wasn't already everywhere else. Other than a few 'name' players like Improve Everywhere using it to host their videos, there hasn't been much of a drive for me to visit it.
I wish them luck, but I have a feeling they are going to suddenly discover starting out tough on content really isn't going to help them gain market share.
What about Red vs. Blue?
Also, I'm thinking of personal feats like speedrunning. I mean, sure, it's creative expression see how you ride your bike and do a sommersault etc., but it's not when you do an amazing feat in your favorite videogame (specially modded games, like Mario Frustration)?
These guys just gotta be kidding.
Walkthroughs don't constitute creative expression? Watch the series of videos linked from this thread. It's the best look at a terrible game you'll ever see. Sometimes funny, often insightful, and very informative about a interesting and influential chunk of game history.
Remember, there were no nuclear weapons before women were allowed to vote.
Blockbuster should institute something where if you rent a game and like it, you can apply the rental price to the purchase price, although I don't know if that would cut too much into their margins. It would make me much more likely to rent a game from Blockbuster though before purchasing it.
My thoughts exactly. I read the summary and here's what I got:
"Irrelevant 2-bit video hosting site decides to become even more irrelevant by removing some of their small collection of videos."
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
How can you be on slashdot and not know about fair use. I'm going to go put my head in the oven now.
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
Server admin: We're running our of disk space.
PHB: Just delete a bunch of videos.
1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual.
They're shooting themselves in the foot here. I imagine it's hard enough to compete with YouTube as it is, excluding a very popular and growing genre is just suicide. I imagine they'll about-face in the not too distant future when they realize how stupid this was.
They're not shooting themselves in the foot if this avoids lawsuits. It'd take an awful lot of ad views to make up for the costs of litigation.
I know I have regularly looked for youtube vids of real in game play of games I'm considering buying.
--
Freedoms Forums - Libertarian leaning political discussion forum
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
Vimeo is the only video service on the web that can do HD video worth a damn. I tried Veoh and other related sites, and they flagged my video as containing copyrighted material (ironic because all of it was material I had worked ~3 months to create from scratch), had problems with uploads not appearing or processing, or were grainy low-resolution trash like YouTube. I know a lot of people are using it for game mod videos, for example.
They're hardly irrelevant.
There's too many people complaining to target anyone in particular, but Vimeo has made three claims:
1: direct capture videos of games (that aren't Machinima) aren't particularly creative.
2: Hosting such videos constitutes a possible legal liability.
3: Such videos tend to be longer and take up more space than average.
#3 is almost certainly true. #2 is apparently true, i'm willing to take their word that they've had to deal with legal action already, and that regardless of how it would turn out in court they don't feel like dealing with the hassle. And you know what? In my experience #1 is true too. I've seen a lot of direct capture videos, and although there are some exceptions for the most part they are often interesting and often informative, but they are very rarely creative. "That's cool" does not automatically equate to "that's creative."
If you've taken a direct capture video but you've also added your own content on top to make some kind of social commentary or make a joke or tell a story, or used the engine in unusual ways to do the same, then congratulations, your video is creative and you can probably get it in as Machinima or a music video or some other category. But if all you've got is a capture of some people playing a game as it's meant to be played then that's not very creative at all.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank