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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 ..."
Because if gamers saw the actualy game play from the absolute garbage developers are putting out, they'd never buy games.
Never heard of them. Wake me up when significant sites like YouTube start doing things like this...
I can't be the only one who read the title and expected a story about Uwe Boll...
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!
I feel sorry for whomever they put on the task of discerning which videos fit these categories. Boring.
Vimeo owns the site; they can do what they want with it.
And they can also be criticized if they make decisions that their users don't like.
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.